"England is now ruled by irresponsible clerks, mostly snobs"
10 autograph letters signed and one autograph postcard signed ("R.F. Burton", "Rich. F. Burton", "R.F.B.", and "Abdullah").
(Oblong) 8vo and 12mo. Altogether 32 pp. on 8 bifolia, 2 single sheets, and one postcard. 2 letters on Athenaeum stationery. With 10 autograph envelopes.
€ 45,000.00
Exceptional collection of correspondence on the "Arabian Nights". Burton advises the poet John Payne on his translation of the Arabic classic, published just before Burton's pre-eminent edition. He offers assistance to Payne in preparing his edition, for which he refuses any royalty payment ("I cannot accept them"), often asking for Payne's latest proofs or volumes of the Nights: "Kindly send me at once vol. I and I will go through it with the text. When do you want to get no. 2 out? And when should ms. go to print?" (5 August 1882).
At other times, Burton makes textual and linguistic comments on Payne's translation: "How is it that you have no references marginal or top-page to the number of the Nights? Surely this is one of the first things for students? Also a notice of the Edit. from which you take the Nights. In your place too I should have strictly kept to the formula of the Original 'And when it came to be the 10th night' etc. This would have broken those long & heavy-looking Paras. English readers would have only skipped them - as they ought" (1 September 1882).
He criticises the Arabic inherited from earlier editions, including the transliteration of certain words by Lane in his 1847 edition, and mentions his own struggle with Arabic calligraphy: "As regards the calligraphy it has been ryling me up from the beginning and at last came to a head" (12 May 1884). Also, he mentions that a friend of his greatly enjoyed Payne's "Nights" but lacks a number of volumes: "Will you kindly tell your publisher to send me [...] the vols. after vol. III. The latter being the last I received. A friend here is reading them [...] with huge delight. He would be much disappointed to break off [...]" (19 January 1884).
Burton makes occasional reference to his position as consul in Trieste, including the 1882 Grand International Exhibition, where his friend Alexander von Dorn (1838-1919), editor of the Triester Zeitung, was wounded at a bomb attack, causing fear among exhibition visitors including himself: "I expect more to come and dare not leave my post" (5 August 1882). Despite his position as consul he longed to go further East, as expressed in a lengthier complaint on 19 January 1884: "I am suffering from only one thing, a want to be in Upper Egypt. And of course they won't employ me. I have the reputation of being 'independent' [...] Chinese Gordon has been sacked for being 'Eccentric' which Society abominates. England is now ruled by irresponsible clerks mostly snobs. My misfortunes in life began with not being a Frenchman".
The "Arabian Nights" had been an important part of Burton's life for decades. In 1882 he began translating the work in earnest; at the same time, the poet John Payne wrote to Burton to ask for his assistance in preparing his own translation (published in nine volumes between 1882 and 1884 as "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night"). Burton's version was published almost immediately afterwards, under the title "The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments" (1885-88, 16 volumes); it was distinguished by his retention of the sexual content of the original Arabic versions, while his extensive footnotes drew on a lifetime of travel and research. Both Payne and Burton's translations - unabridged and unexpurgated - were printed as private subscribers' editions, partly owing to strict Victorian laws on obscene material. Despite its deliberately archaic style, Burton's has become the pre-eminent English translation of this Middle Eastern classic, and the keystone of Burton's literary reputation.
Includes: an autograph letter signed by Bernard Quaritch (1819-99) to Burton, London, 28 August 1882. 1 page. Informing him that he has not a copy of Macnaghten's Arabian Nights in stock, sending a copy of the Bulaq edition instead, annotated by Burton ("useless to me") and Payne ("Sept 1/ Just received this. What shall we do?").
A very well preserved ensemble, and a unique survival.
