bers* or ancient Fire-Worshippers of Persia, and their haughty Moslem masters. From that moment, a new and deep interest in my whole task took possession of me. The cause of tolerance was again my inspiring theme; and the spirit that had spoken in the melodies of Ireland soon found itself at home in the East.

Having thus laid open the secrets of the workshop to account for the time expended in writing this work, I must also, in justice to my own industry, notice the pains I took in long and laboriously reading for it. To form a storehouse, as it were, of illustration purely Oriental, and so familiarize myself with its various treasures, that, as quick as Fancy required the aid of fact, in her spiritings, the memory was ready, like another Ariel, at her "strong bidding," to furnish materials for the spell-work,—such was, for a long while, the sole object of my studies; and whatever time and trouble this preparatory process may have cost me, the effects resulting from it, as far as the humble merit of truthfulness is concerned, have been such as to repay me more than sufficiently for my pains. I have not forgotten how great was my pleasure, when told by the late Sir James Mackintosh that he was once asked by Colonel W- -s, the historian of British India, "whether it was true that Moore had never been in the East?" Never," answered Mackintosh. Well, that shows me,” replied Colonel W. -s, "that reading over D'Herbelot is as good as riding on the back of a camel.”

66

66

* Voltaire, in his tragedy of "Les Guèbres," written with a similar under-current of meaning, was accused of having transformed his Fire-Worshippers into Jansenists. "Quelques figuristes," he says, "prétendent que les Guèbres sont les Jansenistes."

I need hardly subjoin to this lively speech, that, although D'Herbelot's valuable work was, of course, one of my manuals, I took the whole range of all such Oriental reading as was accessible to me; and became, for the time, indeed, far more conversant with all relating to that distant region, than I have ever been with the scenery, productions, or modes of life of any of those countries lying most within my reach. We know that D'Anville, though never in his life out of Paris, was able to correct a number of errors in a plan of the Troad taken by De Choiseul, on the spot; and for my own very different, as well as far inferior, purposes, the knowledge I had thus acquired of distant localities, seen only by me in my day-dreams, was no less ready and useful.

An ample reward for all this painstaking has been found in such welcome tributes as I have just now cited; nor can I deny myself the gratification of citing a few more of the same description. From another distinguished authority on Eastern subjects, the late Sir John Malcolm, I had myself the pleasure of hearing a similar opinion publicly expressed; —that eminent person, in a speech spoken by him at a Literary Fund Dinner, having remarked, that, together with those qualities of a poet which he much too partially assigned to me, was combined also "the truth of the historian."

Sir William Ouseley, another high authority, in giving his testimony to the same effect, thus notices an exception to the general accuracy for which he gives me credit: "Dazzled by the beauties of this composition ["The Fire-Worshippers"], few readers can perceive, and none surely can regret, that the poet, in his magnificent catastrophe, has forgotten, or boldly and most happily violated, the precept of Zoroaster, above

noticed, which held it impious to consume any portion of a human body by fire, especially by that which glowed upon their altars." Having long lost, I fear, most of my Eastern learning, I can only cite, in defence of my catastrophe, an old Oriental tradition, which relates that Nimrod, when Abraham refused, at his command, to worship the fire, ordered him to be thrown into the midst of the flames.* A precedent so ancient for this sort of use of the worshipped element would appear, for all purposes at least of poetry, fully sufficient.

In addition to these agreeable testimonies, I have also heard, and need hardly add, with some pride and pleasure, that parts of this work have been rendered into Persian, and have found their way to Ispahan. To this fact, as I am willing to think it, allusion is made in some lively verses, written many years since, by my friend Mr. Luttrell:

'I'm told, dear Moore, your lays are sung,

(Can it be true, you lucky man ?)

By moonlight, in the Persian tongue,
Along the streets of Ispahan.'

That some knowledge of the work may have really reached that region appears not improbable from a passage in the "Travels" of Mr. Frazer, who says, that

66

being delayed for some time at a town on the shores of the Caspian, he was lucky enough to be able to amuse himself with a copy of Lalla Rookh,' which a Persian had lent him.”

Of the description of Balbec, in "Paradise and the

***Tradunt autem Hebræi hanc fabulam, quod Abraham in ignem missus sit, quia ignem adorare noluit."-ST. HIERON, in Quæst in Genesim.

Peri," Mr. Carne, in his "Letters from the East," thus speaks: "The description in Lalla Rookh' of the plain and its ruins is exquisitely faithful. The minaret is on the declivity near at hand, and there wanted only the muezzin's cry to break the silence."

I shall now tax my reader's patience with but one more of these generous vouchers. Whatever of vanity there may be in citing such tributes, they show, at least, of what great value, even in poetry, is that prosaic quality, industry; since, as the reader of the foregoing pages is now fully apprised, it was in a slow and laborious collection of small facts, that the first foundations of this fanciful Romance were laid.

The friendly testimony I have just referred to appeared, some years since, in the form in which I now give it, and, if I recollect right, in the "Athenæum” :

6

"I embrace this opportunity of bearing my individual testimony (if it be of any value) to the extraordinary accuracy of Mr. Moore, in his topographical, antiquarian, and characteristic details, whether of costume, manners, or less changing monuments, both in his Lalla Rookh' and in The Epicurean.' It has been my fortune to read his Atlantic, Bermudean, and American Odes and Epistles, in the countries and among the people to which and to whom they related; I enjoyed also the exquisite delight of reading his Lalla Rookh' in Persia itself; and I have perused The Epicurean' while all my recollections of Egypt and its still existing wonders are as fresh as when I quitted the banks of the Nile for Arabia:-I owe it, therefore, as a debt of gratitude (though the payment is most inadequate), for the great pleasure I have derived from his productions, to bear my humble testimony to their local fidelity.-J. S. B."

Among the incidents connected with this work, I must not omit to notice the splendid Divertissement, 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 those only who represented the principal characters, and whom I find thus enumerated in the published account of the Divertissement. *

Fadladin, Grand-Nasir.
Aliris, Roi de Bucharie.
Lalla Roûkh

S. A. I. la Grande-Duchesse.

Aurungzeb, le Grand Mogol S. A. R. le Prince Guillaume,

Abdallah, Père d'Aliris

La Reine, son épouse

frère du Roi.

S. A. R. le Duc de Cumberland.

S. A. R. la Princesse Louise
Radzivill.

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 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

*"Lalla Roûkh, Divertissement mêlé de Chants et de Danses." Berlin, 1822. The work contains a series of coloured engravings, representing groups, processions, etc., in different Oriental costumes.