John Payne: Oriental Tales, ed. Leonard C. Smithers (15 vols: 1901)
•
John Payne (1904)
John Payne: Oriental Tales (15 vols: 1901)
[Books from the Crypt, AbeBooks - ordered: May 11 / received: June 24, 2021]:
Payne, John, trans. Oriental Tales: The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night [and other tales]. 1882-97. 15 vols. Herat edition; limited to 500 copies; No. 141. London: Printed for Subscribers Only, 1901.
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night; Now First Completely Done into English Prose and Verse, from the Original Arabic. 9 vols (London: Villon Society, 1882-84)
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (vol. 2)
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (vol. 3)
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (vol. 4)
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (vol. 5)
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (vol. 6)
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (vol. 7)
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (vol. 8)
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (vol. 9)
- Tales from the Arabic of the Breslau and Calcutta (1814-’18) Editions of the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Not Occurring in the Other Printed Texts of the Work; Now First Done into English. 3 vols. (London: Villon Society, 1884)
- Tales from the Arabic (vol. 2)
- Tales from the Arabic (vol. 3)
- Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp; Zein ul Asnam and the King of the Jinn: Two Stories Done into English from the Recently Discovered Arabic Text (London: Villon Society, 1889)
- The Persian letters, with introduction and notes, done into English from the original by Montesquieu (London, 1897)
- A Thousand and One Quarters of an Hour and Tartarian Tales, by Thomas Simon Gueulette (London, 1897)
It may seem rather hard to believe, but it's alleged that John Payne translated most of his version of the Thousand and One Nights from the Arabic whilst riding around on top of a London bus. Apparently he found the motion - the constant starts and stops, and the ever-changing street scene - conducive to such concentrated work.
I've often wondered how he managed to manipulate so many disparate materials - dictionaries, notebooks, texts - in so narrow a space, but I suppose he took along the requisite volumes one by one, and waited till he got home to collate the variants.
It's a bit of a toss-up whether he or his fellow-translator Richard F. Burton wrote in more contorted and archaic English. Here's the opening of the first of the 1001 Nights in Payne's translation (1882):
And the Vizier carried Shehrzad to the King, who took her to his bed and fell to toying with her. But she wept, and he said to her, “Why dost thou weep?” “O king of the age,” answered she, “I have a young sister and I desire to take leave of her this night and that she may take leave of me before the morning.” So he sent for Dunyazad, and she waited till the Sultan had done his desire of her sister and they were all three awake, when she coughed and said, “O my sister, an thou be not asleep, tell us one of thy pleasant stories, to beguile the watches of our night, and I will take leave of thee before the morning.” “With all my heart,” answered Shehrzad, “if the good king give me leave.” The King being wakeful, was pleased to hear a story and said, “Tell on.” Whereat she rejoiced greatly and said, “It is related, O august king, that ... [The Merchant and the Genie]And here's the equivalent passage in Burton's:
So when it was night their father the Wazir carried Shahrazad to the King who was gladdened at the sight and asked, "Hast thou brought me my need?" and he answered, "I have." But when the King took her to his bed and fell to toying with her and wished to go in to her she wept; which made him ask, "What aileth thee?" She replied, "O King of the age, I have a younger sister and lief would I take leave of her this night before I see the dawn." So he sent at once for Dunyazad and she came and kissed the ground between his hands, when he permitted her to take her seat near the foot of the couch. Then the King arose and did away with his bride's maidenhead and the three fell asleep. But when it was midnight Shahrazad awoke and signalled to her sister Dunyazad who sat up and said, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, recite to us some new story, delightsome and delectable, wherewith to while away the waking hours of our latter night." "With joy and goodly gree," answered Shahrazad, "if this pious and auspicious King permit me." "Tell on," quoth the King who chanced to be sleepless and restless and therefore was pleased with the prospect of hearing her story. So Shahrazad rejoiced; and thus, on the first night of the Thousand Nights and a Night, she began with the ... [Tale of the Trader and the Jinni]Both would have to be described as devotees of Wardour Street English, though to do them justice there were few translators who didn't affect this kind of "What aileth thee?" tushery at the time, the 1880s. Queen Victoria was approaching her golden jubilee, and it seemed pretty daring then even to allow such dubious fare to appear in scholarly Latin, let alone vernacular English.
In fact, any publisher who had dared to issue such material would have been prosecuted immediately and had their stock burnt by the public hangman, so Payne's books were privately printed, for subscribers only, by the so-called 'Villon Society' - a tried-and-true way of getting around such obstacles. Burton followed suit by having his issued similarly by the 'Kamashastra Society', with a fictitious address in Benares, India.
Would that the situation were as simple as the page above implies! Certainly it's true that nothing was heard of this accusation during Burton's lifetime (he died in 1891, whereas Payne lived on until 1916). But the former made no secret of having used Payne's ground-breaking work as a kind of crib in (at least) the latter stages of his immense task.
The fact that Burton's translation - unlike Payne's - is extensively annotated, and that many would regard the annotations as the most useful and characteristic part of his work, makes the matter probably of little concern to anyone except copyright lawyers. Both translators used the same Arabic texts, and while there are certainly coincidences in phrasing, the two passages above should make it clear that the differences are just as striking. Payne's translations of the poems scattered through the text are certainly more mellifluous than Burton's, but his conventions for transcribing Arabic names are every bit as jaw-breaking.
Burton, admittedly, had a habit of falling out with formerly close friends. The Burton-Speke feud is legendary, and his relations with the heirs of Edward W. Lane, author of the first substantive translation of the Nights into English, were also far from cordial. Payne, too, was no stranger to controversy. He was a famously irascible man, and certainly - in old age, at any rate - had a tendency to see others as having stolen his limelight.
The fact of the matter is that Burton was a fascinating and charismatic figure in his own right quite apart from any of the multitudinous products of his pen. But, as he himself wrote of the financial success of his Nights translation:
I struggled for forty-seven years. I distinguished myself honourably in every way I possibly could. I never had a compliment nor a thank you, nor a single farthing. I translated a doubtful book in my old age, and immediately made sixteen thousand guineas. Now that I know the tastes of England, we need never be without money.
All this is largely by the by, however. The point is that it was John Payne who made the first complete translation of the standard Egyptian text of the Arabian Nights into English (or into any European language, for that matter).
It was a magnificent feat of scholarship, made even more impressive by the fact that he accomplished it in London, without the help of the local Sheikhs and experts employed so extensively by Lane in Cairo, and also by Burton in his extensive travels through Africa and the Middle East.
He was the first to appreciate the vital significance of Macnaghten's 4-volume Calcutta edition of the complete Arabic text as a complement to the earlier 2-volume edition printed in Bulaq, a suburb of Cairo:
Between them, these two early nineteenth century editions of the Arabic text remain the most reliable witnesses to its final form: though admittedly the immense scope of these Egyptian texts - referred to in the scholarly literature as Z.E.R. (for 'Zotenberg's Egyptian Recension') - was to a large degree prompted by the thirst of European travellers to obtain a 'complete' version of all 1001 Nights ...
Both Payne's and Burton's were private, limited editions, available only to a select list of subscribers. So great was the demand for Payne's, that Burton found it easy to snap up many of his disappointed customers a couple of years later. However, pledged as both writers were were never to reissue their work in the same complete form, sets of their translations almost immediately became very valuable commodities.
Hence the immense number of pirated and (semi-)authorised editions which have flooded the market ever since. And hence the difficulty of locating 'genuine' copies of the original publications. But the end result has been that neither author's work is now particularly difficult to access and - so long as your interest is in the text rather than its exact provenance - a complete set of Payne or Burton remains within most collectors' budgets.
The publication of Payne's 15-volume Oriental Tales in 1901 was meant, presumably, as a way of getting around his earlier promise never to reissue his work in exactly the same form. 13 volumes of the set are devoted to the various instalments of his Arabian Nights, but the whole has been rather incongruously rounded out with a translation of Montesquieu's forged Lettres persanes [Persian Letters] (1721), together with Thomas Gueullette's pastiche Les Mille et Un Quarts d’heure: Contes Tartares [The Thousand and One Quarters of an Hour: Tartar Tales] (1785).
Edward Powys Mathers, trans. The Anthology of Eastern Love. Engravings by Hester Sainsbury. 12 vols in 4. London: John Rodker, 1927-30.Vol. I:
- The Lessons of a Bawd: English Version of the Kuttanimatam of Dāmodaragupta (1927)
- The Harlot’s Breviary: English Version of the Samayamātrikā of Kshemendra (1927)
- The Book of Women & Education of Wives: English Versions of the Zenan-Nameh of Fazil-Bey & Ta’dīb ul-Nisvān (1927)
Vol. II:- The Young Wives’ Tale & Tales of Fez: English Versions of the Kissat al-‘Arā’is Al-Sabīya of Amor ben Amar & Tales of Fez from the Arabic (1927)
- The Loves of Rādhā and Krishna & Amores: English Versions from the Bengali of Chandīdāsa & from the Sanskrit of Amaru and Mayūra (1928)
- Love Stories and Gallant Tales from the Chinese: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1928)
Vol. III:- Comrade Loves of the Samurai by Saīkaku Ihara & Songs of the Geishas: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1928)
- Ninety Short Tales of Love and Women from the Arabic: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1928)
- The Loves of Dāsīn and Musag-ag-Amāstān from the Tamashek & Camel-boy Rhythms from the Arabic: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1929)
Vol. IV:- Love Tales of Cambodia & Songs of the Love Nights of Lao: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1929)
- Anthology of Eastern Love I: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1929)
- Anthology of Eastern Love II: English Versions & Terminal Essays by E. Powys Mathers (1930)
The whole enterprise is rather reminiscent of a later work in a similar vein, by another Arabian Nights translator, Edward Powys Mathers (1892-1939). Perhaps it inspired it, in fact.
An even more obvious exemplar is the classic collection of Tales of the East compiled by German scholar Henry Weber (1783-1816) in the early nineteenth century.
Henry Weber, ed. Tales of the East: Comprising the Most Popular Romances of Oriental Origin, and the Best Imitations by European Authors: with New Translations, and Additional Tales, Never Before Published: to which is prefixed an introductory dissertation, containing the account of each work, and of its author, or translator. 3 vols. Edinburgh: James Ballantyne, 1812.Here's an itemised list of the contents of this magisterial work (the numbering is Weber's own):
- Vol. I – The Arabian Nights [Galland (1704-17)]; New Arabian Nights' Entertainments [Chavis & Cazotte (1788-89)]
- Vol. II – The New Arabian Nights, cont. [Chavis & Cazotte (1788-89)]; Persian Tales [Pétis de la Croix (1710)]; Persian tales of Inatulla [Alexander Dow (1768)]; Oriental Tales [A. C. P., Comte de Caylus (1749)]; Nourjahad [Frances Sheridan (1767)], & 4 Additional Tales from the Arabian Nights [Caussin de Perceval (1806)]
- Vol. III – The Mogul Tales [Thomas-Simon Gueullette (1723)]; Turkish Tales [Pétis de la Croix (1710)]; Tartarian Tales [Thomas-Simon Gueullette (1723)]; Chinese Tales [Thomas-Simon Gueullette (1723)]; Tales of the Genii [James Ridley (1764)]; History of Abdalla the Son of Hanif [Jean Paul Bignon (1713)]
- I. – The Arabian Nights [Galland (1704-17)]
- II. – New Arabian Nights' Entertainments [Chavis & Cazotte (1788-89)]
- III. – Persian Tales [Pétis de la Croix (1710)]
- IV. – Persian Tales of Inatulla [Alexander Dow (1768)]
- V. – Oriental Tales [A. C. P., Comte de Caylus (1749)]
- VI. – Nourjahad [Frances Sheridan (1767)]
- "Four Additional Tales from the Arabian Nights" [Caussin de Perceval (1806)]
- VII. – Turkish Tales [Pétis de la Croix (1710)]
- VIII. – The Mogul Tales [Thomas-Simon Gueullette (1723)]
- IX. – Tartarian Tales [Thomas-Simon Gueullette (1723)]
- X. – Chinese Tales [Thomas-Simon Gueullette (1723)]
- XI. – Tales of the Genii [James Ridley (1764)]
- XII. – History of Abdalla the Son of Hanif [Jean Paul Bignon (1713)]
Weber was a fascinating character who worked for many years as a literary assistant to Sir Walter Scott:
After Christmas 1813 a fit of madness seized Weber at dusk, at the close of a day's work in the same room with his employer. He produced a pair of pistols, and challenged Scott to mortal combat. A parley ensued, and Weber dined with the Scotts; next day he was put under restraint. His friends, with some assistance from Scott, supported him, "a hopeless lunatic," in an asylum at York. There he died in June 1818.
One can only hope that it wasn't the effort of compiling Tales of the East, and other similarly laborious tasks laid on him by his employer, that drove him to it.
Even Scott himself eventually broke down under the strain of all the multifarious literary projects he had committed himself to in a vain attempt to pay off his crippling mountain of debt. The succession of strokes that he suffered after the 1825 financial collapse of the printing firm he co-owned, Ballantyne's, carried him off at the comparatively early age of 61.
Books I own are marked in bold:
-
Poetry:
- The Masque of Shadows and other poems (1870)
- Intaglios: Sonnets (1871)
- Songs of Life and Death (1872)
- Lautrec: A Poem (1878)
- New Poems (1880)
- The Descent of the Dove and other poems (1902)
- Poetical Works. 2 vols (1902)
- Vigil and Vision: New Sonnets (1903)
- Hamid the Luckless and other tales in verse (1904)
- Songs of Consolation: New Poems (1904)
- Sir Winfrith and other poems (1905)
- Selections from the Poetry of John Payne. Ed. Tracy & Lucy Robinson (1906)
- The Way of the Winepress (1920)
- Nature and Her Lover (1922)
- The Poems of François Villon (1878)
- Lepper, John Heron, trans. The Testaments of François Villon: Including the Texts of John Payne and Others. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1924.
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. 9 vols (1882–4)
- [Payne, John, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night; Now First Completely Done into English Prose and Verse, from the Original Arabic. 9 vols. London: Villon Society, 1882-84.
- Vol. 1: Title-page; Contents (pp. i-xii, 1-17).
- Vol. 2: Contents. (pp. iv-v).
- Vol. 3: Contents. (pp. vi-viii, 1).
- Vol. 4: Contents. (pp. iv-viii, 1).
- Vol. 5: Contents. (pp. iv-vii).
- Vol. 6: Contents. (pp. vi-viii, 1).
- Vol. 7: Contents (pp. iv-v, 308-9).
- Vol. 8: Contents (pp. vi-viii, 1).
- Vol. 9: Title-page; Contents, Index, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night: Its History and Character (pp. i-vii, 238-392)]
- [Payne, John, trans. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night; Now First Completely Done into English Prose and Verse, from the Original Arabic. 9 vols. London: Villon Society, 1882-84.
Translation:
- Notes from Payne, John, trans. Tales from the Arabic of the Breslau and Calcutta (1814-’18) Editions of the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Not Occurring in the Other Printed Texts of the Work; Now First Done into English. 3 vols. London: Villon Society, 1884.
- Notes from Payne, John, trans. Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp; Zein ul Asnam and the King of the Jinn: Two Stories Done into English from the Recently Discovered Arabic Text. London: Villon Society, 1889. pp. iii-vi.
Memoir:
- [Notes from The Autobiography of John Payne of Villon Society Fame, Poet and Scholar. Ed. Thomas Wright. Olney: Thomas Wright, {1926}.]
Secondary:
•
- category - Eastern Literatures: The Thousand and One Nights
•
#/media/File:John_payne_poet_1904.jpg){kind=link}