That drop descends, contagion dies, And health reanimates earth and skies!Oh, is it not taus, thou man of sin, The precious tears of repentance fall? Though foul thy fiery plagues within, One heavenly drop hath dispell'd them all.' And now--behold him kneeling there And hymns of joy proclaim through heaven "Joy, joy for ever! my task is done-- To thee, sweet Eden! how dark and sad In my fairy wreath, so bright and brief,- growth of poetry in our times. If some check were not given to this lawless facility, we should soon be overrun by a race of bards as numerous and as shallow as the hundred and twenty thousand streams of Basra. They who succeeded in this style deserved chastisement for their very success;-as warriors have been punished, even after gaining a victory, because they had taken the liberty of gaining it in an irregular or unestablished manner. What, then, was to be said to those who failed? to those who presumed, as in the present lamentable instance, to imitate the license and ease of the bolder sons of song, without any of that grace or vigour which gave a dignity even to negligence-who, like them, flung the jereed carelessly, but not, like them, to the mark ;— "and who," said he, raising his voice to excite a proper degree of wakefulness in his hearers, "contrive to appear heavy and constrained in the midst of all the latitude they have allowed themselves, like one of those young pagans that dance before the Princess, who has the ingenuity to move as if her limbs were fettered in a pair of the lightest and loosest drawers of Masulipatam." It was but little suitable, he continued, to the grave march of criticism, to follow this fantastical Peri, of whom they had just heard through all her flights and adventures between earth and heaven; but he could not help adverting to the puerile conceitedness of the Three Gifts which she is supposed to carry to the skies,-a drop of blood, forsooth, a sigh, and a tear! How the first of these articles was delivered into the Angel's "radiant hand," he professed himself at a loss to discover; and as to the safe carriage of the sigh and the tear, such Peris and such poets were beings by far too incomprehensible for him even to guess how they managed such matters. "But, in short," said he, "it is a waste of time and patience to dwell longer upon a thing so incurably frivolous, -puny even among its own puny race, and such as only the Banyan Hospital for Sick Insects' should undertake." In vain did LALLA ROOKH try to soften this inexorable critic; in vain did she resort to her most eloquent common-places,-reminding him that poets were a timid and sensitive race, whose sweetness "AND this," said the Great Chamberlain, "is poetry! was not to be drawn forth, like that of the fragrant this flimsy manufacture of the brain, which, in com- grass near the Ganges, by crushing and trampling parison with the lofty and durable monuments of upon them;-that severity often destroyed every genius, is as the gold filigree-work of Zamara beside chance of the perfection which it demanded; and the eternal architecture of Egypt!" After this gor- that, after all, perfection was like the Mountain of geous sentence, which, with a few more of the same the Talisman,-no one had ever yet reached its sumkind, FADLADEEN kept by him for rare and important mit. Neither these gentle axioms, nor the still gentler occasions, he proceeded to the anatomy of the short looks with which they were inculcated, could lower poem just recited. The lax and easy kind of metre for one instant the elevation of FADLADEEN's eyein which it was written ought to be denounced, he brows, or charm him into any thing like encouragesaid, as one of the leading causes of the alarming ment, or even toleration, of her poet. Toleration, 1 The Country of Delight-the name of a Province in the kingdom of Jinnistan, or Fairy Land, the capital of which is called the City of Jewels. Amberabad is another of the cities of Jinnistan. 2"The tree Tooba, that stands in Paradise, in the palace) of Mahomet."-Sule's Prelim. Disc. "Touba," says D' Herbelot, "signifies beatitude, or eternal happiness." 3 Mahomet is described, in the 53d chapter of the Koran, as having seen the Angel Gabriel, "by the lote-tree, beyond which there is no passing; near it is the Garden of Eternal Abode." This tree, say the commentators, stands in the seventh Heaven on the right hand of the throne of God. 1 "It is said, that the rivers or streams of Basra were reckoned in the time of Belal ben Abi Bordeh, and amounted to the number of one hundred and twenty thousand streams.” -Ebn Haukal. 2 The name of the javelin with which the Easterns exercise.-See Castellan, Marus des Othomans, tom. iii. p. 161. 3 For a description of this Hospital of the Banyans, see Parson's Travels, p. 262. 4 "Near this is a curious hill, called Koh Talism, the Mountain of the Talisman, because, according to the traditions of the country, no person ever succeeded in gaining its summit."-Kinneir. indeed, was not among the weaknesses of FADLA-] with tinsel and flying streamers, exhibited the badges DEEN -he carried the same spirit into matters of of their respective trades through the streets. Such poetry and of religion, and, though little versed in the brilliant displays of life and pageantry among the beauties or sublimities of either, was a perfect master of the art of persecution in both. His zeal, too, was the same in either pursuit; whether the game before him was pagans or poetasters,--worshippers of cows, or writers of epics. palaces, and domes, and gilded minarets of Lahore. made the city altogether like a place of enchantment; particularly on the day when LALLA ROOKH set out again upon her journey, when she was accompanied to the gate by all the fairest and richest of the They had now arrived at the splendid city of La-nobility, and rode along between ranks of beautiful hore, whose mausoleums and shrines, magnificent boys and girls, who waved plates of gold and silver and numberless, where Death seemed to share equal flowers over their heads' as they went, and then honours with Heaven, would have powerfully affected threw them to be gathered by the populace. the heart and imagination of LALLA ROOKH, if feel- For many days after their departure from Lahore alley of trees,' at least as far as the mountains of Cashmere ;-while the ladies, who had nothing now to do all day but to be fanned by peacocks' feathers and listen to FADLADEEN, seemed heartily weary of the life they led, and, in spite of all the Great Cham the poet again. One evening, as they were proceeding to their place of rest for the night, the Princess, who, for the freer enjoyment of the air, had mounted her favourite Arabian palfrey, in passing by a small grove, heard the notes of a lute from within its leaves, and a voice, which she but too well knew, singing the following words : ings more of this earth had not taken entire posses- a considerable degree of gloom hung over the whole sion of her already. She was here met by messen- party. LALLA ROOKH, who had intended to make gers despatched from Cashmere, who informed her illness her excuse for not admitting the young minthat the King had arrived in the Valley, and was him- strel, as usual, to the pavilion, soon found that to self superintending the sumptuous preparations that feign indisposition was unnecessary;-FADLADEEN were making in the Saloons of the Shalimar for her felt the loss of the good road they had hitherto travelreception. The chill she felt on receiving this intel- led, and was very near cursing Jehan-Guire (of blessed ligence, which to a bride whose heart was free and memory!) for not having continued his delectable light would have brought only images of affection and pleasure, convinced her that her peace was gone for ever, and that she was in love, irretrievably in love, with young FERAMORZ. The veil, which this passion wears at first, had fallen off, and to know that she loved was now as painful, as to love without knowing berlain's criticism, were tasteless enough to wish for it, had been delicious. FERAMORZ too,-what misery would be his, if the sweet hours of intercourse so imprudently allowed them should have stolen into his heart the same fatal fascination as into hers;-if, notwithstanding her rank, and the modest homage he always paid to it, even he should have yielded to the influence of those long and happy interviews, where music, poetry, the delightful scenes of nature,-all tended to bring their hearts close together, and to waken by every means that too ready passion, which often, like the young of the desert-bird, is warmed into life by the eyes alone!! She saw but one way to preserve herself from being culpable as well as unhappy; and this, however painful, she was resolved to adopt. FERAMORZ must no more be admitted to her presence. To have strayed so far into the dangerous labyrinth was wrong, but to linger in it while the clew was yet in her hand, would be criminal. Though the heart she had to offer to the King of Bucharia might be cold and broken, it should at least be pure; and she must only try to forget the short vision of happiness she had enjoyed,-like that Arabian shepherd, who, in wandering into the wilderness, caught a glimpse of the Gardens of Irim, and then lost them again for ever!2 TELL me not of joys above, If that world can give no bliss, Which enslaves our souls in this! Far from me their dangerous glow All its falsehood-all its pain- Sees the waters fade away, Streams again as false as they? The tone of melancholy defiance in which these words were uttered, went to LALLA ROOKн's heart, and, as she reluctantly rode on, she could not help feeling it as a sad but sweet certainty, that FERAMORZ was to the full as enamoured and miserable as her The arrival of the young Bride at Lahore was celebrated in the most enthusiastic manner. The Rajas and Omras in her train, who had kept at a certain distance during the journey, and never encamped nearer to the Princess than was strictly necessary for her safeguard, here rode in splendid cavalcade through self. the city, and distributed the most costly presents to The place where they encamped that evening was the crowd. Engines were erected in all the squares, the first delightful spot they had come to since they which cast forth showers of confectionary among left Lahore. On one side of them was a grove ful! the people; while the artisans, in chariots adorned of small Hindoo temples, and planted with the most 1 "The Arabians believe that the ostriches hatch their young by only looking at them."-P. Vanslebe, Relat. d' Egypte. 28 e bale's Koran, note, vol. ii. P. 484. 1 Ferishta. 2 The fine road made by the Emperor Jehan-Guire from Agra to Lahore, planted with trees on each side. nected with the events of one of those brave struggles of the Fire-worshippers of Persia against their Arab masters, which, if the evening was not too far advanced, he should have much pleasure in being allowed to relate to the Princess. It was impossible for LALLA ROOKH to refuse ;-he had never before looked half so animated, and when he spoke of the Holy Valley his eyes had sparkled, she thought, like the talismanic characters on the scimitar of Solomon. Her consent was therefore readily granted, and while FADLADEEN sat in unspeakable dismay, expecting treason and, abomination in every line, the poet thus graceful trees of the East; where the tamarind, the almost speechless horror of the Chamberlain, procassia, and the silken plantains of Ceylon were min-ceeded to say that he knew a melancholy story, congled in rich contrast with the high fan-like foliage of the palmyra,--that favourite tree of the luxurious bird that lights up the chambers of its nest with fire-flies.' In the middle of the lawn, where the pavilion stood, there was a tank surrounded by small mangoe trees, on the clear cold waters of which floated multitudes of the beautiful red lotus; while at a distance stood the ruins of a strange and awful-looking tower, which seemed old enough to have been the temple of some religion no longer known, and which spoke the voice of desolation in the midst of all that bloom and loveliness. This singular ruin excited the wonder and conjectures of all. LALLA ROOKн guessed in vain, began his story ofand the all-pretending FADLADEEN, who had never till this journey been beyond the precincts of Delhi, was proceeding most learnedly to show that he knew nothing whatever about the matter, when one of the 'Tis moonlight over OMAN's Sea;1 ladies suggested, that perhaps FERAMORZ could Her banks of pearl and palmy isles THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. satisfy their curiosity. They were now approaching Bask in the night-beam beauteously, The music of the bulbul's nest, To sing him to his golden rest! Nor leaf is stirr'd nor wave is driven;- That venerable tower, he told them, was the remains of an ancient Fire-Temple, built by those Ghebers or Persians of the old religion, who, many Can hardly win a breath from heaven. hundred years since, had fled hither from their Arab E'en he, that tyrant Arab, sleeps conquerors, preferring liberty and their altars in a Calm, while a nation round him weeps; foreign land to the alternative of apostacy or persecuWhile curses load the air he breathes, tion in their own. It was impossible, he added, not And falchions from unnumber'd sheaths to feel interested in the many glorious but unsuccess-Are starting to avenge the shame ful struggles, which had been made by these original His race had brought on IRAN's name. natives of Persia to cast off the yoke of their bigoted Hard, heartless Chief, unmov'd alike conquerors. Like their own Fire in the Burning Field at Bakou, when suppressed in one place, they had but broken out with fresh flame in another; and, as a native of Cashmere, of that fair and Holy Valley, which had in the same manner become the prey of strangers, and seen her ancient shrines and native princes swept away before the march of her intolerant invaders, he felt a sympathy, he owned, with the sufferings of the persecuted Ghebers, which every monument like this before them but tended more powerfully to awaken. It was the first time that FERAMORZ had ever ventured upon so much prose before FADLADEEN, and it may easily be conceived what effect such prose as this must have produced upon that most orthodox and most pagan-hating personage. He sat for some minutes aghast, ejaculating only at intervals," Bigoted conquerors!-sympathy with Fire-worshippers!"while FERAMORZ, happy to take advantage of this 1 The Baya, or Indian Gross-beak.-Sir W. Jones. 2 The "Agar ardens" described by Kempfer, Amanitat. Exot. Mid eyes that weep and swords that strike ;- To carnage and the Koran given, Lies their directest path to heaven: In the warm blood his hand hath pour'd, Engraven on his reeking sword ;— 1 The Persian Gulf, sometimes so called, which separates the shores of Persia and Arabia. 2 The present Gombaroon, a town on the Persian side of the Gulf. 3 A Moorish instrument of music. 4"At Gombaroon and other places in Persia, they have towers for the purpose of catching the wind, and cooling the houses."-Le Bruyn. 5 "Iran is the true general name of the empire of Persia." -Asiat. Res. Disc. 5. 6" On the blades of their scimitars some verse from the Koran is usually inscribed."--Russel. Just ALLA! what must be thy look, When such a wretch before thee stands Unblushing, with thy Sacred Book, Turning the leaves with blood-stain'd hands, Which, from the sunniest hours that glad Draw venom forth that drives men mad!' Never did fierce ARABIA send : A satrap forth more direly great; Never was IRAN doom'd to bend Beneath a yoke of deadlier weight. Her throne had fall'n-her pride was crush'd- Becalm'd in Heaven's approving ray! By the white moonbeam's dazzling power: Should be awake at this sweet hour. Is beauty, curtain'd from the sight Of the gross world, illumining One only mansion with her light! Unseen by man's disturbing eye, The flower, that blooms beneath the sea Too deep for sunbeams, doth not lie 1 "There is a kind of Rhododendros about Trebizond, whose flowers the bee feeds upon, and the honey thence drives people mad."-Tournefort. 2 "Their kings wear plumes of black heron's feathers upon the right side, as a badge of sovereignty."-Hanway. 3 The Fountain of Youth, by a Mahometan tradition, Jtuated in some dark region of the East."-Richardson. H Hid in more chaste obscurity! To lift the veil that shades them o'er!- On summer-cves, through YEMEN's' dales; Who, lull'd in cool kiosk or bower, Light as the angel shapes that bless Where, through some shades of earthly feeling. Religion's soften'd glories shine, Like light through summer foliage stealing, Hath risen from her restless sleep, Watching the still and shining deep. Too rough the rocks, too bold the steep, 1 Arabia Felix. 2"They say that if a snake or serpent fix his eyes on the lustre of those stones (emeralds,) he immediately becomes blind."—Ahmed ben Abdalari, Treatise on Jewels. 3" At Gombaroon and the Isle of Ormus it is sometimes He built her bower of freshness there, And had it deck'd with costliest skill, And fondly thought it safe as fair:Think, reverend dreamer! think so still, Nor wake to learn what Love can dare- For pearls, but when the sea's at rest, Hath ever held that pearl the best Of ARARAT's tremendous peak,' The hero ZAL in that fond hour, Than wings the youth, who, fleet and bold The rock-goats of ARABIA clamber.' And now is in the maiden's chamber. She loves--but knows not whom she loves, so hot, that the people are obliged to lie all day in the wa ter."-Marco Polo. Alone, at this same watching hour, To listen to her lonely lay! This fancy ne'er hath left her mind : And though, when terror's swoon had past, She saw a youth, of mortal kind, Before her in obeisance cast, Yet often since, when he hath spoken Strange, awful words, and gleams have broken From his dark eyes, too bright to bear, Oh! she hath fear'd her soul was given Some erring Spirit, cast from Heaven, As warm in love, as fierce in ire, But quench'd to-night that ardour seems, Had she beheld him pale as now: But sadden every waking scene, All wither'd where they once have been! Oft, in my fancy's wanderings, Were wafted off to seas unknown, Where the bright eyes of angels only A paradise so pure and lonely! The passing smile her cheek put on; 1 This mountain is generally supposed to be inaccessible. 2 In one of the books of the Shah Nameh, when Zal (a celebrated hero of Persia, remarkable for his white hair) comes to the terrace of his mistress Rodahver at night, she lets down her long tresses to assist him in his ascent-he, however, manages it in a less romantic way, by fixing his crook in a projecting beam.-See Champion's Ferdosi. 3 "On the lofty hills of Arabia Petra are rock-goats."-les dames en touchent dans le serrail, avec des décailles Miebuhr. armées de pointes de coco."-Toderini, translated by De 4 "Canun, espèce de psalterion, avec des cordes de boyaux; Cournan. |