founded upon it, which was acted at the Château Royal of Berlin, during the visit of the Grand Duke Nicholas to that capital, in the year 1822. The different stories composing the work were represented in Tableaux Vivans and songs; and among the crowd of royal and noble personages engaged in the performances, I shall mention only those who represented the principal characters, and whom I find thus enumerated in the published account of the Divertissement : 1

.

Fadladin, Grand-Nasir, Comte Haack (Maréchal de Cour).
Aliris, Roi de Bucharie, S. A. I. le Grand-Duc.
Lalla Roûkh . . S. A. I, la Grande-Duchesse.
Aurungzeb, le Grand S. A. R. le Prince Guillaume,
Mogol .

frère du Roi. Abdallah, Père d'Aliris, S. A. R. le Duc de Cumberland.

S, A. R. la Princesse Louise RadLa Reine, son épouse

zivill.

{

.

{

Besides these and other leading personages, there were also brought into action, under the various denominations of Seigneurs et Dames de Bucharie, Dames de Cachemire, Seigneurs et Dames dansans à la Fête des Roses, etc., nearly 150 persons.

Of the manner and style in which the Tableaux of the different stories are described in the work from which I cite, the following account of the

1 Lalla Roûkh, Divertissement mêlé de Chants et de Danses, Berlin, 1822. The work contains a series of colored engravings, representing groups, processions, etc., in different Oriental costunes.

performance of Paradise and the Peri will afford some specimen :

“ La décoration représentoit les portes brillantes du Paradis, entourées de nuages. Dans le premier tableau on voyoit la Péri, triste et désolée, couchée sur le seuil des portes fermées, et l'Ange de lumière qui lui adresse des consolations et des conseils. Le second représente le moment où la Péri, dans l'espoir que ce don lui ouvrira l'entrée du Paradis, recueille la dernière goutte de sang que vient de verser le jeune guerrier indien. .

“ La Péri et l'Ange de lumière répondoient pleinement à l'image et à l'idée qu'on est tenté de se faire de ces deux individus, et l'impression qu'a faite généralement la suite des tableaux de cet épisode délicat et intéressant est loin de s'effacer de notre souvenir."

In this grand Fête, it appears, originated the translation of Lalla Rookh into German 1 verse, by the Baron de la Motte Fouqué; and the circumstances which led him to undertake the task, are described by himself in a Dedicatory Poem to the Empress of Russia, which he has prefixed to his translation. As soon as the performance, he tells us, had ended, Lalla Rookh (the Empress herself) exclaimed, with a sigh, “Is it, then, all over? Are we now at the close of all that has given us so much delight? and lives there no poet who will impart to others, and to

1 Since this was written, another translation of Lalla Rookh into German verse has been made by Theodor Oelckers (Leipzig, Tauchnitz).

future times, some notion of the happiness we have enjoyed this evening?” On hearing this appeal a Knight of Cashmere (who is no other than the poetical Baron himself) comes forward and promises to attempt to present to the world “the Poem itself in the measure of the original:" — whereupon

: – Lalla Rookh, it is added, approvingly smiled.

LALLA ROOKH.

In the eleventh year of the reign of Aurungzebe, Abdalla, King of the Lesser Bucharia, a lineal descendant from the Great Zingis, having abdicated the throne in favor of his son, set out on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Prophet; and, passing into India through the delightful valley of Cashmere, rested for a short time at Delhi on his way. He was entertained by Aurungzebe in a style of magnificent hospitality, worthy alike of the visitor and the host, and was afterward escorted with the same splendor to Surat, where he embarked for Arabia. During the stay of the Royal Pilgrim at Delhi, a marriage was agreed upon

between the Prince, his son, and the youngest daughter of the Emperor, Lalla Rookh ; 2 — a princess described by the poets of her time, as more beautiful than Leila, Shirine, Dewildé,3 or any of those hero

1 These particulars of the visit of the King of Bucharia to Aurungzebe are found in Dow's History of Hindostan, vol. iii., p. 392.

2 Tulip-cheek.

3 Leila. — The mistress of Mejnoun, upon whose story so many romances, in all the languages of the East, are founded. Shirine. — For the loves of this celebrated beauty

21

ines whose names and loves embellish the songs of Persia and Hindostan. It was intended that the nuptials should be celebrated at Cashmere; where the young King, as soon as the cares of empire would permit, was to meet, for the first time, his lovely bride, and, after a few months' repose in that enchanting valley, conduct her over the snowy hills into Bucharia.

The day of Lalla Rookh's departure from Delhi was as splendid as sunshine and pageantry could make it. The bazaars and baths were all covered with the richest tapestry; hundreds of gilded barges upon the Jumna floated with their banners shining in the water; while through the streets troops of beautiful children went strewing the most delicious flowers around, as in that Persian festival called the Scattering of the Roses ; 1 till every part of the city was as fragrant as if a caravan of musk from Khoten had passed through it. The Princess, having taken leave of her kind father, who at parting hung a cornelian of Yemen round her neck, on which was inscribed a verse from the Koran, and having sent a considerable present to the Fakirs, who kept up the Perpetual Lamp in her sister's tomb, meekly ascended the palankeen prepared for her; and, while Aurungzebe stood to take a last