Bodleian Library,
August 5th, 1888.
CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME.
| PAGE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | THE HISTORY OF THE KING’S SON OF SIND AND THE LADY FATIMAH | [1] | |
| 2. | HISTORY OF THE LOVERS OF SYRIA | [19] | |
| 3. | HISTORY OF AL-HAJJAJ BIN YUSUF AND THE YOUNG SAYYID | [37] | |
| 4. | NIGHT ADVENTURE OF HARUN AL-RASHID AND THE YOUTH MANJAB | [61] | |
| The Loves of the Lovers of Bassorah | [65] | ||
| Story of the Darwaysh and the Barber’s Boy and the Greedy Sultan | [105] | ||
| Tale of the Simpleton Husband | [116] | ||
| Note concerning the “Tirrea Bede,” Night 655 | [119] | ||
| 5. | THE LOVES OF AL-HAYFA AND YUSUF | [121] | |
| 6. | THE THREE PRINCES OF CHINA | [211] | |
| 7. | THE RIGHTEOUS WAZIR WRONGFULLY GAOLED | [229] | |
| 8. | THE CAIRENE YOUTH, THE BARBER AND THE CAPTAIN | [241] | |
| 9. | THE GOODWIFE OF CAIRO AND HER FOUR GALLANTS | [251] | |
| 10. | THE TAILOR AND THE LADY AND THE CAPTAIN | [261] | |
| 11. | THE SYRIAN AND THE THREE WOMEN OF CAIRO | [271] | |
| 12. | THE LADY WITH TWO COYNTES | [279] | |
| 13. | THE WHORISH WIFE WHO VAUNTED HER VIRTUE | [287] | |
| 14. | CŒLEBS THE DROLL AND HIS WIFE AND HER FOUR LOVERS | [295] | |
| 15. | THE GATE-KEEPER OF CAIRO AND THE CUNNING SHE-THIEF | [307] | |
| 16. | TALE OF MOHSIN AND MUSA | [319] | |
| 17. | MOHAMMED THE SHALABI AND HIS MISTRESS AND HIS WIFE | [333] | |
| 18. | THE FELLAH AND HIS WICKED WIFE | [345] | |
| 19. | THE WOMAN WHO HUMOURED HER LOVER AT HER HUSBAND’S EXPENSE | [355] | |
| 20. | THE KAZI SCHOOLED BY HIS WIFE | [361] | |
| 21. | THE MERCHANT’S DAUGHTER AND THE PRINCE OF AL-IRAK | [371] | |
| 22. | STORY OF THE YOUTH WHO WOULD FUTTER HIS FATHER’S WIVES | [439] | |
| 23. | STORY OF THE TWO LACK-TACTS OF CAIRO AND DAMASCUS | [453] | |
| 24. | TALE OF HIMSELF TOLD BY THE KING | [463] | |
| Appendix I. | |||
| CATALOGUE OF WORTLEY MONTAGUE MANUSCRIPT CONTENTS | [497] | ||
| Appendix II. | |||
| By W. F. KIRBY. | |||
| I. | —NOTES ON THE STORIES CONTAINED IN VOL. IV. OF “SUPPLEMENTAL NIGHTS” | [505] | |
| II. | —NOTES ON THE STORIES CONTAINED IN VOL. V. OF “SUPPLEMENTAL NIGHTS” | [513] | |
THE TRANSLATOR’S FOREWORD
This volume contains the last of my versions from the Wortley Montague Codex, and this is the place to offer a short account of that much bewritten MS.
In the “Annals of the Bodleian Library,” etc., by the Reverend William Dunn Macray, M.A. (London, Oxford and Cambridge, 1868: 8vo. p. 206), we find the following official notice:—
“A.D. 1803.”
“An Arabic MS. in seven volumes, written in 1764–5, and containing what is rarely met with, a complete collection of the Thousand and one Tales (N.B. an error for “Nights”) of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, was bought from Captain Jonathan Scott for £50. Mr. Scott published, in 1811, an edition of the Tales in six volumes (N.B. He reprinted the wretched English version of Prof. Galland’s admirable French, and his “revisions” and “occasional corrections” are purely imaginative,) in which this MS. is described, (N.B. after the mos majorum). He obtained it from Dr. (Joseph) White, the Professor of Hebrew and Arabic at Oxford, who had bought it at the sale of the library of Edward Wortley Montague, by whom it had been brought from the East. (N.B. Dr. White at one time intended to translate it literally, and thereby eclipse the Anglo-French version.) It is noticed in Ouseley’s Oriental Collections (Cadell and Davies), vol. ii. p. 25.”
The Jonathan Scott above alluded to appears under various titles as Mr. Scott, Captain Scott and Doctor Scott. He was an officer in the Bengal Army about the end of the last century, and was made Persian Secretary by “Warren Hastings, Esq.,” to whom he dedicated his “Tales, Anecdotes and Letters, translated from the Arabic and Persian” (Cadell and Davies, London, 1800), and he englished the “Bahár-i-Dánish” (A.D. 1799) and “Firishtah’s History of the Dakkhan (Deccan) and of the reigns of the later Emperors of Hindostan.” He became Dr. Scott because made an LL.D. at Oxford as meet for a “Professor (of Oriental languages) at the Royal Military and East India Colleges”; and finally he settled at Netley, in Shropshire, where he died.