" ’— — Un dessein si funeste,
S’il n’est digne d’Atrée, est digne
de Thyeste.
They are to be found in Crebillon’s ‘Atrée.’
"
~~~ End of Text ~~~
======
Truth is stranger
than fiction.
Old saying.
Having had occasion, lately, in the course of some
Oriental investigations, to consult the Tellmenow
Isitsoornot, a work which (like the Zohar of Simeon
Jochaides) is scarcely known at all, even in Europe;
and which has never been quoted, to my knowledge, by
any American — if we except, perhaps, the
author of the “Curiosities of American Literature”;
— having had occasion, I say, to turn over
some pages of the first — mentioned very
remarkable work, I was not a little astonished to
discover that the literary world has hitherto been
strangely in error respecting the fate of the vizier’s
daughter, Scheherazade, as that fate is depicted in
the “Arabian Nights”; and that the denouement
there given, if not altogether inaccurate, as far
as it goes, is at least to blame in not having gone
very much farther.
For full information on this interesting topic, I
must refer the inquisitive reader to the “Isitsoornot”
itself, but in the meantime, I shall be pardoned for
giving a summary of what I there discovered.
It will be remembered, that, in the usual version
of the tales, a certain monarch having good cause
to be jealous of his queen, not only puts her to death,
but makes a vow, by his beard and the prophet, to
espouse each night the most beautiful maiden in his
dominions, and the next morning to deliver her up to
the executioner.
Having fulfilled this vow for many years to the letter,
and with a religious punctuality and method that conferred
great credit upon him as a man of devout feeling and
excellent sense, he was interrupted one afternoon
(no doubt at his prayers) by a visit from his grand
vizier, to whose daughter, it appears, there had occurred
an idea.
Her name was Scheherazade, and her idea was, that
she would either redeem the land from the depopulating
tax upon its beauty, or perish, after the approved
fashion of all heroines, in the attempt.
Accordingly, and although we do not find it to be
leap-year (which makes the sacrifice more meritorious),
she deputes her father, the grand vizier, to make
an offer to the king of her hand. This hand the
king eagerly accepts — (he had intended
to take it at all events, and had put off the matter
from day to day, only through fear of the vizier),
— but, in accepting it now, he gives all
parties very distinctly to understand, that, grand
vizier or no grand vizier, he has not the slightest
design of giving up one iota of his vow or of his
privileges. When, therefore, the fair Scheherazade
insisted upon marrying the king, and did actually
marry him despite her father’s excellent advice
not to do any thing of the kind — when she
would and did marry him, I say, will I, nill I, it
was with her beautiful black eyes as thoroughly open
as the nature of the case would allow.
