of the school fashionable between 1790 and 1800.

He

was above the middle height, well-formed, and slender rather than stout. His features indicated intellectual power. He had small, remarkably piercing grey eyes, and, at eighty-four, had no need of spectacles. He generally wore a green coat with cloth buttons, a buffcoloured striped waistcoat, breeches of the same kind of cloth as the coat, and brown-topped boots, the fine cotton stocking appearing over them. His voice was agreeable, and his enunciation rapid; and when he ceased talking he would frequently place his freckled fingers over his lips. His bodily activity at eighty was equal to that of a man of sixty: his face alone bore signs of age, though not more than a hale man of seventy would carry."

He was so passionately fond of old and rare books, that it was a greater treat to him to be in their company than in the society of the noblest men and women in England. In his last illness he was still faithful to his books, and pertinaciously read till he could read no longer, when he quietly died after a short and comparatively painless illness at Bath, in 1844, at the advanced age of eightyfour.

The present edition, which is, we believe, the fifth, is printed verbatim from the first English edition. The first was published, as Beckford tells us in his preface, which we subjoin, in Paris, from a translation made for the author. He would have us believe that this was by a mistake; the probability is that it was merely the result of a knowing calculation on the part of the author, and copies of the French work having been circulated in England, before the appearance of the original, there was no doubt much talk about the book, since those who were happy enough to get a glimpse at it, magnified its

beauties and its merits. Thus Lord Byron, who too often wrote for effect, praises it as a work of genius, and draws a comparison, where, indeed, none exists, between the happy valley of Rasselas and the Hall of Eblis of Vathek.

Truly that is the crowning scene, and in its prosaic grandeur will bear reading even after the astounding and sublime gloom of Milton and Dante, from the latter of whom the image of the hearts for ever devoured by flames is no doubt taken. As a work of imagination, full of a gloomy colouring, which is not, and an aimless tyranny which is, truly Eastern, and as the last of a long line of a class of stories, formerly so popular that Pope says of Phillips, that he

"Turned a Persian tale for half-a-crown."

Vathek is deserving the popularity it has gained, while the fervour of its composition, and the verve of its too careless style, will always preserve it. To make our volume as complete as possible, we add the characteristic preface to the third French edition by the author, and for the same reason we have added the exhaustive though somewhat pedantic notes to the first edition by Dr. Henley.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD FRENCH

E

EDITION.

ES editions de Paris et de Lausanne, etant devenu extrêmement rares, j'ai consenti enfin a ce que l'on republîat à Londres ce petit ouvrage tel que je l'ai composé.

La traduction, comme on sçait, a paru avant l'original; il est fort aisé de croire que ce n'etoit pas mon intention-des circonstances, peu intéressantes pour le public, en ont été la cause.

J'ai preparé quelques Episodes; ils sont indiqués à la page 200,* comme faisant suite à Vathek-peut-être paraitront-ils un jour.

1 Juin, 1815.

W. BECKFORD.

* These are the History of the two friendly Princes Alasi and Firouz, shut up in the Palace of Subterranean Fire.

History of Prince Backiarohk, imprisoned in the Palace of Subterranean Fire.

History of Prince Kahlah, and of the Princess Zulkais, shut up in the Palace of Subterranean Fire.

с

PREFACE TO THE FIRST ENGLISH

EDITION.

HE original of the following story, with some others of a similar kind, collected in the East by a man of letters, was communicated to the Editor above three years ago. The pleasure he received from the perusal of it induced him at that time to translate it. How far the copy may be a just representation, it becomes not him to determine. He presumes, however, to hope that, if the difficulty of accommodating our English idioms to the Arabic, preserving the correspondent tones of a diversified narration, and discriminating the nicer touches of character through the shades of foreign manners, be duly considered, a failure in some points will not preclude him from all claim to indulgence, especially if those images, sentiments, and passions, which, being independent of local peculiarities, may be expressed in every language, shall be found to retain their native energy in our own.

ATHEK, ninth Caliph of the race of the Abassides, was the son of Motassem, and the grandson of Haroun Al Raschid. From an early accession to the throne, and the talents he possessed to adorn it, his subjects were induced to expect that his reign would be long and happy. His figure was pleasing and majestic; but when he was angry one of his eyes became so terrible, that no person could bear to behold it, and the wretch upon whom it was fixed instantly fell backward, and sometimes expired. For fear, however, of depopulating his dominions and making his palace desolate, he but rarely gave way to his anger.

Being much addicted to women and the pleasures of the table, he sought by his affability to procure agreeable companions; and he succeeded the better as his generosity was unbounded, and his indulgences unrestrained, for he was by no means scrupulous, nor did he think with the Caliph Omar Ben Abdalaziz, that it was neces46

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