Part 32 (2/2)
149 Mr A G Ellis and Professor Blumhardt 5th June 1886-5th April 1887
On June 5th the Burtons and their ”Magpie Trunk” again left Trieste and travelled via Innsbruck, Zurich, Bale and Boulogne to England After a short stay at Folkestone with Lady Stisted and her daughter, they went on to London, whence Burton memorialized the vice-chancellor and the curators of the Bodleian Library for the loan of the Wortley Montagu hts Not a private loan, but a tee of Dr R Rost On Novereat inconvenience to hio to Oxford ”The Bodleian,” he says, ”is thelibrary should not be, and the contrast of its treasures with their s is a scandal” He did not knohich he suffered most, the Bodleian, the Radcliffe or the Rotunda Finally, however, the difficulty was got over by having the required pages photographed
He norote to the Governe of sixty-six, to retire on full pension His great services to the country and to learning were set down, but though fifty persons of importance in the political and literary world supported the application, it was refused It is, however, only just to the Government to say that henceforward Burton was allowed ”leave” whenever he wanted it An easier post than that at Trieste it would have been iine, still, he was in a measure tied, and the Governraceful act to one of its uished servants, and to one of the lishmen
Then followed a holiday in Scotland, where the Burtons were the guests of Mr (now Sir) Alexander Baird of Urie Back in London, they lunched at different times with F F Arbuthnot, G A Sala, A C Swinburne, and ”dear old Larkin”--now 85--in whose house at Alexandria, Burton had stayed just before his Mecca journey It was apparently during this visit that Burton gave to his cousin St George Burton a seal showing on one side the Burton crest, on another the Burton Arms, and on the third a ers spread out ”Use it,” said Burton, ”when you write to a d-----d snob” And he conveyed the belief that it would be used pretty often
On 16th Septe to Mr Kirby [542] from ”United Service Club,” Pall Mall, Burton says, ”We here have been enjoying splendid weather, and a really fine day in England (I have seen only two since May) is worth a week anywhere else You will find your volu sensation A wonderful leader about it in Standard (Mrs Gamp, of all people!) followed by abuse in Pall Mall I have co it in open drawing-rooainst it, she answered: 'Very well, Billy [her husband] has a copy, and I shall read it at once'”
Later Burton's curiosity was aroused by the news that Mr A G Ellis, of the British Museum, had shown Mr Kirby an edition of Alaeddin in Malay [544] ”Let o to see Mr Ellis I especially want to accoet that Malay version of Alaeddin Lord Stanley of Alderley could translate it”
It was about this time that Burton decided to make a new and lavishly annotated translation of The Scented Garden To the Kama Shastra edition of 1886 we have already referred, and we shall deal fully with the whole subject in a later chapter
On October 6th the Burtons heard Mr Heron Allen lecture on palain by his old eneout, but Lord Stanley of Alderley, F F Arbuthnot, and other friends went and sat with him, so the illness had its compensations A visit to Mr John Payne, made, as usual, at tea time, is next recorded, and there was to have been another visit, but Burton, as anxious to get to Folkestone to see his sister, had to omit it
On January 10th 1887, he writes to Mr Payne as follows:
”That last cup of tea ca a hippishness gradually creep over ht of the sun and so forth We shall cross over next Thursday (if the weather prove decent) and rush up to Paris, where I shall have some few days' work in the Bibliotheque Nationale Thence to Cannes, the Riviera, &c At the end of h] Review [545]I hope you like Vol x and its notices of your work I always speak of it in the same terms, alith the same appreciation and admiration”
On January 13th 1887, the Burtons reached Paris, where Sir Richard had the pleasure of inals of Alaeddin and Zayn al Asnam; and thence they proceeded to Cannes, where the state of Burton's health gave his wife great uneasiness She says, ”I saw hi his pen anywhere except into the ink When he tried to say so he did not find his words” An awful fit of ”epileptiforout, followed, and the local doctors ere called in caht it better, however, that their opinion should be conveyed to hier, so they deputed Dr Grenfell Baker, a youngat Cannes, to perform the painful duty
Dr Baker entered the sick room and broke the news to Burton as best he could
”Then you suppose I a to die?” said Burton
”Thea consultation are of that opinion”
Shrugging his shoulders, Burton said, ”Ah, well!--sit down,” and then he told Dr Baker a story out of The Arabian Nights Dr Baker reht, and then Sir Richard, who decided to have a travelling land for Dr Ralph Leslie, who a little later joined him at Trieste
To his circle of friends Burton now added Mr A G Ellis, already referred to, Professor James F Blumhardt, of the British Museue, London [546] His first communication with Mr Ellis seems to have been a post-card dated Trieste, 8th May 1887 He says ”The Perfumed Garden is not yet out nor will it be for six months My old version is to be had at ---'s, Coventry Street, Hayent, -----, Farleigh Road, Stoke Newington”
As we have seen, Burton's first and second supplehts correspond with Mr Payne's three volumes of Tales froht famous Galland Tales:--”Zayn Al-Asnaht Adventure,” ”Ali Baba,” ”Ali Khwajah and the Merchant of Baghdad,”
”Prince Ahmad and the Fairy Peri-Banu,” and ”The Two Sisters who Envied their Cadette;” but the only Oriental text he could find was a Hindustani version of Galland's tales ”Orientalised and divested of their inordinate Gallicism” As Burton was at this time prostrated by illness, Professor Blulish the Hindustani for hi, of Paris, discovered a MS copy of The Nights containing the Arabic originals of 'Zayn Al-Asnam' and 'Alaeddin,' and Burton, thanks to the courtesy of Zotenberg, was able to make use of it”
150 Dr Leslie and Dr Baker: Anecdotes April 1887