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LIFE OF FIRDOUSEE, THE PERSIAN POET, AUTHOR OF SOOHRAB. From Mr. Atkinson's Translation. Oriental munificence is not seldom boasted of by Asiatic writers and historians, whose anecdotes are echoed by translators and romancers, who place the scene of fairy land in the beautiful regions of the East: certain it is, that, the warm feelings of natives of that climate have, occasionally, led them to actions of benevolence which colder natures find some difficulty in believing, however they may admire them. The same ardour has led to

conduct directly opposite; and has produced scenes of tyranny and oppression, of barbarity and bloodshed, at which the sympathies of humanity revolt. The ups and downs of life, the freaks of Fortune, acting by human passions, are no where more surprizing than amid the half civi

lized Monarchies of the East, where letters triumph to-day, and capricious tyranny

banishes them from the court to-morrow.

In this munificence the Poets of Asia have shared; under this fickleness, also they have suffered, of which instances are not unknown, and a very prominent oue is now before us. It were extending our researches too far, perhaps, though the enquiry is not without its curiosity, to interrogate the pages of history for records of rewards bestowed on Poets, which appear to modern calculators enormous.Virgil received ten thousand sesterces for each verse, in a well known passage of his works and a much inferior poet to Virgil, received from Antony, at once, two

intrepid independence of the Poet, are so many marks of a nobleness of mind not to be mistaken. It must, at the same time, be confessed, that the industry of the writer distinguishes him as a Hero of the pen : sixty thousand couplets composed with poetic fire, and polished with poetic skill, are labours not to be viewed without a startling sense of inferiority by the most voluminous of our modern Bards.

We naturally desire to know something of the life of such a man. His adventures depict at once the spirit of the individual, and the taste of the times. More happy than Homer, for the honour of whose birth seven cities contended; yet who wandered from province to province without a home, repeating his verses memoriter, when no longer able to read from his blindness ;yet more than equally unhappy if the sufferings inflicted by ingratitude and malevolence, are to be estimated by intensity rather than by number. The Bard of Greece might complain very truly of neglect; but we read nothing of any orders for trampling him under the feet of an elephant. And this, at least, is one comfort on which British Bards may reckon : if the public will not honour them, neither will it molest them; if the inspirations of the muse they so highly value, excite but feeble wishes among the world at large, yet are they safe from the misery of the man who hangs on the favours of the great-and if in spite of prudence, ambition tempt them to strive for what fortune refuses, let them villify the blind goddess in good set terms; and reflect on the dan gers and the fate of Homer and Firdousee.

thousand acres of land in one of the best provinces in Italy. Others might be Of Abool Qasim Firdousee, the author of this celebrated work, little is satisfactorily named; but our present business is with a later age, and a more distant country. The known. He was born at Toos, a city of Khorasan, about the year 950. The folanxiety of the Sovereign to obtain mate-lowing circumstances respecting the origin rials for the history of the country he governed is characteristic: his desire for eminent talent to ensure popularity and perpetuity to his design; the liberal acquiescence of ingenious rivals, with the VOL. II. Lit. Pan. New Series, Sept. 1.|

of the Poem and the life of the Poet, are chiefly derived from the Preface to the copy of the Shahuamu which was collated in the year of the Hijree 829, nearly 400 years ago, by order of Bayisunghur Buhadoor Khan. It appears from that 2 M

Preface that Yuzdjird, the last King of the Sassanian race, took considerable pains in collecting all the chronicles, histories, and traditions, connected with Persia and the Sovereigns of that country, from the time of Kuyomoors to the accession of the Koosroos, which by his direction were digested and brought into one view, and formed the book known by the name of Siyurool Moolook, or the Bastan-namu. When the followers of Moohummud overturned the Persian monarchy, this work was found in the plundered library of Yuzdjırd. The preface above alluded to minutely traces its progress, through different hands in Arabia, Ethiopia, and Hindoostan.

The chronicle was after wards continued to the time of Yuzdjird. In the tenth century, one of the Kings of the Samanian dynasty directed Duqeeqee to versify that extensive work, but the Poet only lived to finish a thousand distichs, having been assassinated by his own slave. Nothing further was done till the reign of Sooltan Mahmood Subooktugeen, in the beginning of the eleventh century. That illustrious conqueror with the intention of augmenting the glories of his reign, projected a history of the Kings of Persia, and ordered the literary characters of his court conjointly to prepare one from all accessible records. While they were engaged upon this laborious undertaking, a romantic accident, which it is unnecessary to describe, furnished the Sooltan with a copy of the Bastan-namu, the existence of which was till then unknown to him. From this work Mahmood selected seven stories or romances, which he delivered to seven Poets to be composed in verse, that he might be able to ascertain the merits of each competitor. The Poet Unsuree, to whom the story of Roostum and Soohrab was given, gained the palm, and he was accordingly engaged to arrange the whole in verse.

He

the Sooltan, who immediately invited him to his court.

When Firdousee arrived at Ghuzneen, the success of Unsuree in giving a poetical dress to the Romance of Roostum and Soohrab, was the subject of general observation and praise.* Animated by this proof of literary taste, he commenced upon the story of the battles of Isfundiyar and Roostum, and having completed it, he embraced the earliest opportunity of getting that poem presented to the Sooltan, who had already seen abundant evidence of the transcendant talents of the author. Mahmood regarded the production with admiration and delight. He, without hesitating a moment, appointed him to complete the Shahnamu, and ordered his chief Minister† to pay him a thousand misqals for every thousand distichs, and at the same time honoured him with the surname of Firdousee, because that he had diffused over his court the delights of paradise. Unsuree liberally acknowledged the superiority of Firdousee's genius, and relinquished the undertaking without apparent regret. The Minister, in compliance with the

A singular anecdote is also related in the same preface. When our author reached the capital, he happened to pass near a garden where Unsuree, Usjudee, and Furrokhee were seated. The Poets observed him approach, and at once agreed that if the stranger chanced to have any taste for poetry, which they intended to put to the test, he should be admitted to their friendship. Firdousee joined them and hearing their proposal, promised to Unsuree commenced exert his powers.

with an extemporaneous verse: The light of the moon to thy splendor is weak,

Usjudee rejoined:

The rose is eclipsed by the bloom of thy cheek;

Then Furrokhee:

Thy eye-lashes dart thro' the folds of the joshun. [armour.]

And Firdousee;

Like the javelin of Gu in the battle

with Poshun.

Firdousee was at this time at Toos, his native city, where he cultivated his poetical talents with assiduity and success. had heard of the attempts of Duqeeqee to versify the history of the Kings of Persia, and of the determination of the reigning King, Mahmood, to patronise an undertaking which promised to add lustre The Poets were astonished at the readiness to the age in which he lived. Having forof the stranger, and ashamed of being totunately succeeded in procuring a copy of tally ignorant of the story of Gu and the Bastan-namu, he pursued his studies Poshun, which Firdousee related as dewith unremitting zeal, and soon produced scribed in the Bastan-namu. They imthat part of the Poem in which the bat-mediately treated him with the greatest tles of Zohak and Fureedoon are de- kindness and respect. scribed. The performance was universally read and admired, and it was not long before his fame reached the cars of

Uhmud Mymundee. +Firdous signifies paradise.

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injunctions of Mahmood, offered to pay the sums as the work went on; but Firdousee preferred waiting till he had completed his engagement, and receiving the whole at once, as he had long indulged the hope of being able to do something of importance for the benefit of his native city.

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It appears that Firdousee was of an independent spirit, and not of that pliant disposition which was necessary to satisfy the expectations and demands of proud Wuzeer, who offended at his unthe bending manners, did every thing in his power to ruin his interest with the King, Several passages in his poems were extracted and invidiously commented upon, as containing sentiments contrary to the principles of the true faith! It was alleged that they proved him to be an impious philosopher, a schismatic, and follower of Ulee. But in spite of all that artifice and malignity could frame, the poet rose in the esteem of the public. Admiration followed him in the progress of the work, and presents were showered upon him from every quarter. The Poems were at length completed. The composition of sixty thousand couplets* appears to have cost him the labour of thirty years. The Sooltan was fully sensible of the value and excellence of that splendid monument of genius and talents, and proud of being the patronizer of a work which promised to perpetuate his name, he ordered an elephant-load of gold to be given to the author. But the malignity of the Minister was unappeased, and he was still bent upon the degradation and ruin of the Poet. Instead of the elephant-load of gold, he sent him 60,000 silver dirhums!§ Firdousee was in the public bath at the time, and when he found that the bags contained only silver, he was so enraged at the insult offered him, that on the spot he gave 20,000 to the keeper of the bath,

In a dissertation called Yaminee, it is said that the ancient Poet Rodukee, who flourished half a century before Firdousee, had written one million and three hundred verses!!!

§ This conduct is more than paralleled by the Cardinal Farnese. Annibale Caracci devoted eight years of study and labour in painting the series of pictures in the Farnese Gallery at Rome, which do honour to his name and country, and when he expected to be rewarded with the munifi cence which they merited, he received little more than £200, and to add to the indignity, the amount is said to have been sent to him in copper money!

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20,000 to the slave who brought them. 20,000 to the seller of refreshments, and I did not bestow the labour of thirty years "The Sooltan shall know," he said "that When this circumstance on a work, to be rewarded with dirhums!" | knowledge of the King, he was exceedingcame to the of the Minister; who had, however, artily exasperated at the disgraceful conduct fice and ingenuity enough to exculpate himself, and to cast all the blame upon the spectful and insulting behaviour to his Poet. Firdousee was charged with disreSovereign; and Mahmood, thus stimulated to resentment, and not questioning the veracity of the Minister, passed an order that the next morning he should be trampled to death under the feet of an elephant. The unfortunate Poet, panicstruck and in the greatest consternation diately hurried to the presence, and falling heard the will of the Sooltan. He immeat the feet of the King, begged for mercy, at the same time pronouncing an elegant eulogium on the glories of his reign, and the innate generosity of his heart. The King, touched by his agitation, and respecting the brilliancy of his talents, at length condescended to revoke the order.

endured without a murmur. But the wound was deep and not to be home and wrote a Satire against MahHe went mood, with all the bitterness of reproach which insulted merit could devise, and instantly fled from the court. He passed took refuge at Bagdad, where he was in some time at Mazinduran and afterwards high favour with the Caliph Ul Qadur Billah, in whose praise he added a thousand couplets to the Shabnamu, and for which he received a robe of honour, and 60,000 deenars. He also wrote a poem called Joseph during his stay in that city.

with the falsehood and treachery of the Mahmood at length became acquainted Wuzeer, whose cruel persecution of the ter and reputation of his Court in dis unoffending Poet had involved the characgrace. His indignation was extreme, and the Minister was banished for ever from

his

presence. Anxious to make all the had been guilty of, he immediately disreparation in his power for the injustice he patched to Bagdad, a present of 60,000 deenars, and a robe of state, with many apologies for what had happened. But Firdousee did not live to be gratified by returned to his friends at Toos, where he this consoling acknowledgement. He had rived. His family however scrupulously died before the present from the King ardevoted it to the benevolent purposes which the poet had originally intended,

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viz. the erection of public buildings, and the general improvement of his native city.

This brief biographical notice is the sum of all that is known of the great Firdousee. The Poet seems to have lived to a considerable age. When he wrote the satire against Mahmood, according to his own account, he was more than seventy: When Charity demands a bounteous dole, Close is thy hand, contracted as thy soul; Now seventy years have marked my long

career,

Nay more :-but age has no protection here! | Probably about ten years elapsed during his sojourn at Mazinduran and Bagdad, after he quitted the Court of Ghuzneen, so that he must have been at least eighty when he died.

EXPERIMENTS

AND OBSERVATIONS ON
THE COLOURS OF THE ANCIENTS,
BY SIR HUMPHREY DAVY.
[Concluded from page 814.]
VII. Of the Blacks and Browns of the
Ancients.

There is one chamber in the baths of Titus of which the ground work is black. 1 have found several fragments of stucco painted black both in the baths of Titus and in the vineyard above mentioned, and also in some ruins near the Porta del Popolo. I scraped off some of these colours and submitted them to experiments: they were not acted on by acids or alkalies, they deflagrated with nitre, and had all the properties of pure carbonaceous mat

ter.

I found no blacks, but three different shades of brown in the vase of mixed colours; one was snuff-colour, one deep red brown, and the third a dark olive brown. The two first proved to be ochres which had been probably partially caleined; the third contained oxide of manganese, as well as oxide of iron, and afforded chlorine when acted on by muriatic acid.

body mixed with gelatine. Pliny speaks of ivory-black as invented by Apelles; he says likewise that there is a natural fossil black, and another black prepared from an earth of the colour of sulphur. Probably both these substances are ores of iron and manganese.

That the ancients were acquainted with the ores of manganese is evident from the use made of it in colouring glass. I have examined two specimens of ancient Rotinged with oxide of manganese.—Pliny man purple glass, both of which were speaks of different brown ochres, and particularly of one from Africa, which he names Cicerculum, which probably contained manganese and Theophrastus mentions a fossil † which inflamed when oil was poured upon it, a property belonging to no other fossil substance now known but the black wad, an ore of manganese, and which is now found in Derbyshire.

The Browns in the paintings in the baths of Livia, and in the Aldobrandini picture, are all produced by mixtures of ochres with blacks. Those in the Aldobrandiui picture yield oxide of iron to muriatic acid, but the darker shades were not touched by that acid, nor by solution of alkalies.

VIII. Of the Whites of the Ancients.

The white colours in the Aldobrandini picture are soluble in acids with effervescence, and have the characters of carbonate of lime.

colours appears to be a very fine chalk. The principal white in the vase of mixed There is another white with a tint of cream colour, which is a fine aluminous clay.

The whites that I have examined from the baths of Titus, and those from other ruins, are all of the same kind.

I have not met with ceruse amongst the ancient colours, though we know from Theophrastus, Vitruvius, and Pliny, that it was a common colour: and Vitruvius describes it as made by the action of lead upon vinegar.

All the ancient authors describe the ar- Pliny as employed in painting, of which Several white clays are mentioned by tificial Greek and Roman blacks as car- the Paratonium was considered as affordbonaceous, and made either from the pow-ing the finest colour. der of charcoal or the decomposition of

applied their Colours.

resin, (a species of lamp black,) or from IX. Of the Manner in which the Ancients the lees of wine, or from the common soot of wood fires. Pliny mentions the ink of the cuttle fish, but says, "ex his non fit*." Some years ago I examined this substance, and found it a carbonaceous

i. c. the atramentum.

It appears from Vitruvius that the colours used in fresco painting were applied

+ Theophratus says it is like decornposed wood.

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