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race, in his Odes, is the only author, who has shown the compass of the Latin language, in all the variety of composi tion. This renders it a task of considerable difficulty to imitate him, with any degree of ease or elegance. He has a

dom; that nothing but virtue deserves our admiration, and that, without it, there can be no true or rational freedom. He has proved himself a master in the most diflicult part of himman conduct, that of advising others, which he always does with great sincerity, but without the ap-mode of expression peculiar to himself, pearance of premeditation. By this inethod, the advice had a better effect upon the person who received it, because there was no affectation of superiority in bin who gave it. Had this been vi sible, it would only have offended that inherent pride in our nature, which makes every man so unwilling to acknow ledge, or be told of, his faults. For instance, when writing in praise of moderation, he addresses himself to an ambitious man, shows him the danger of his darling passion, and the charms of contentment. Thus, without touching his foible, by descending to particulars, he demonstrates, to the person addressed the danger of the measures he pursues. The 10th Ode of lib. 2, to Licinius Muræna, is a fine example of this. Muræna was brother-in-law to Mecenas, and, through his interest, could have little doubt of being promoted. But this would. not satisfy his restless ambition; nor could the seasonable advice of Horace prevent him from entering into a conspiracy with Fannius and others, which cost him his life-In the 15th of lib. 1, where he represents Nercus as declaring to Paris the deplorable fate of Troy, which will attend his rape of Helen, he warns Antony not to give himself up to, the charms of Cleopatra, which must inevitably end in his ruin; and in the preceding Ode, he, by a beautiful alle gory, exhibits to the Romans all the calamities of their civil wars, and exhorts them to peace. Having inclined, as we observed at the close of our last Number, to the Stoic philosophy, towards the latter part of his life, he consequently armed himself with their principles against the fear of death. Thus he describes his wise man as braving adversity, and expecting mortality to put an end to any misfortunes that may befal bim. This is done allegorically, under the characters of Pentheus and Bacchus; that is, the wise man will then display the same courage which Bacchus did in his answer to Pentheus, in a tragedy of Euripides.

which sometimes baffles every attempt to convey his meaning into the idiom of any modern language. There are few poets of whom versions have been more frequently attempted: no one, perhaps, has had less justice done to him; and it is the more extraordinary, that his lesser Odes, I mean those that treat of humbler subjects, have been uniformly found the most difficult: witness the 9th of lib. 3, the favourite Ode of Scaliger. Those who will be at the pains to examine it, will find its peculiar merit to consist in the delicacy, brevity, and sim-* plicity, of the expressions; the beautiful order of the words, and the harmonious sweetness of the numbers. This little One, though of all others, perhaps, the most laboured at, has been the worst executed. Its beautiful and unaffected brevity sets translation at defiance; and is a model of that perfection of style, which La Bruyere admired, the art of using the one proper expression, which can alone be right.

We shall close this general account by a few remarks upon the difficulty of translating this interesting poet. Ho

Creech, who had done ample justice to the philosophic verse of Lucretius,. lost all his laurels by his attempt upon Horace. He has also been fatal to the reputation of some others. The version of Francis is, upon the whole, the best executed in some parts of the Odes, he' is highly Horatian; moral, without being dull; gay and spirited, with propriety; and tender, without being languid. Some of the imitations of Duncombe are spirited and elegant; but, in general, he is inferior to Francis.

Quinctilian has said, indeed, that he' would not have the whole of Horace interpreted; and he alludes to the Odes, rather than to the Satires. This caution will appear singular, and would, at least,' have seemed to be equally applicable to the rest of his works. Crecchi gives this reason ;' "which," he says, "6 must be taken from the design and subject matter of the poems. To describe and reform a vicious man, necessarily requires some expressions which an ode cannot want. The paint which an artist uses must be agreeable to the piece which he designs. Satire is to instruct, and that supposes a knowledge and discovery of the crime

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while Odes are made only to instruct and to please, and therefore every thing that offends in them is unpardonable."

To enumerate the various editions of Horace would more than fill the columns we have already occupied. We can therefore select only a few even of the

best.

Horatius, 4to. Editio Princefs, sine anno, loco, vel typographi indicio. 8vo. Ferrar. 1474.

fol. Mediol. ditto.

fol. Venet. 1478, 1483, 1490. 12mo. - apud Ald 1501. fol. illustrated by 80 commentators. Basil, 1580. Of this edit. Dr. Harwood says, "that it contains the observations and remarks on Horace, which were made by the great scholars of that illustrious age-the glorious age of the revival of literature; as well as the criticisms of the old commentators, Acron, Porphyrion, &c." 4to. Cruquii. L. Bat. 1593. quius is considered one of the best

Cru

commentators on Horace Horatii Opera, a Dan. Heinsio, 12mo. Elz, L. Bar. 1629.

in usum Delphini, 4to. Paris,

.1691.

Horatius, cum notis variorum, 8vo. Lug.

Bat. 1653, 1658, 63, 8, 70.-
The first of these is the best.
à Bentley, 4to. Cantab. 1711.-
Amster. 1713, 1728.
Baxter, 8vo. Lond. 1701, 1725.
Gesneri, Lips. 1752, 1772.

Oservationibus Zewnii, 8vo. Lips. 1788-1802. Horatii Opera, 12mo. Glasg. 1744, called the immaculate edition.

Horace, by Watson, Lat. and Eng. 2

8vo. Lond.

vol.

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the discovery, of which these pages treat, is not by any means so ancient as many have imagined. However numerous the admirers of this fragrant Ottur may be in Europe, as in Asia, I wish to pay it thus my public homage.-A verse from. Hafis, the Persian Anacreon, will not be here misplaced:

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"Hafiz! wesal-i-gul tulbee bemcku bullulan, Jan Kun fedaï Kbak i-rab-i-baghban i-gul. "O! Hafiz, thou desirest like the Nightingale the presence of the rose ! let-thy very soul be a ransom for the earth, where the keeper of the Rose-garden walk› !"

In this couplet, he alludes to the loves of the Nightingale and the Rose, which have been celebrated by so many poets of Arabia, Persia, and Turkey.

(.קטר vocem

The word Ottar, or A'thr, used by the Asiatics, to express the essence of roses, is originally Arabic; and signifies an aromatic odour, or perfume in general; it is derived from Attara, or Athara, (to perfume one's-seif,) &c. and it seems to have some affinity with another Arabic work, Katara, (to drop, or distil by drops, &c.) and to the Hebrew Ketr, (he has perfumed, &c.) The Chaldaic word Katura expressed eleven kinds of aromatics, which the Jews burned in their sacrifices. (See Schultens's Clavis Dialect: ling Hebr. et Arab; page 296: and Castelli Lexicon Heptaglott, ad As to the resemblance which Mr. Weston, (in a work which [ shali hereafter quote) imagines he has found between the Arabic word Ottar, and the European odour, I leave it for my readers to determine on the etymology. 1 must here remark, that flowers in general, and roses from their peculiar excellence, are termed in Arabic, ward; and in Persian, gul; but the oltar is not to be confounded with the gulab, or rose-water, which is simply the product of roses, distilled with water, according to a process well known to all pertumers, both of Europe and Asia; this, indeed, is the previous and indispensable preparation for obtaining the essence, or ottar; for after a certain quantity of roses has been so distilled, (as Colonel Polier indicates in the first volume of Asiatic Researches,) the rose-water is left exposed to the cool air of the night; and on the next day, a very inconsiderable portion of ottar is found cong 'ed on the surface of the rose water. It may be casily supposed, that the quantity of essence depends much on the quality of

The

the roses; those of Shiraz, Kirman, and Cashmere, are particularly celebrated, as the following quotations will prove. The learned Kampfer, (in his Amani tates Exotice, page 374,) informs us, that "the roses of Shiraz yield on distillation, a thick substance, resembling butter, called attar gul; and this oil is purchased for its weight in gold, and is unequalled in sweetness and fragrance; which shows, that the roses of the territory of Persepolis, are of the hottest nature." The same traveller adds, "that sandal-wood gives additional strength to the perfume," and this observation is confirmed by Colonel Póher, who remarks, however, at the same time, that this addition reduces the value of the essence. The use of sandal-wood succeeds better in the composition of simple rosewater, which according to the ingenious Anquetil du Perron (see his Zendavesta, vol. i. 525, &c.) is styled Sandali gulub, or, if we may so translate it, rose-water of sandal. In the first volume of Linschoten's Voyages, (pp. 125-126) we read, that the sandal-wood itself produces an odoriferous oil.

The roses of Kirman are described, by Olearius, and other travellers, as wonderfully abundant, and a very delightful water is said to be distilled from them, which forms a considerable branch of commerce in that country; but those writers have not made any mention of the essence.

The most exquisite roses of Asia, appear to be those of Cashmere; and Mr. Forster, (in Journey from India to Petersburgh, vol. ii. page 15, quarto edition,) says, "I may venture to class in the first rank of vegetable produce, the rose of Cashmere, which, for its brilliancy and delicacy of odour, has long been proverbial in the East; and its essential oil, or ottar, is held in universal estima tion." Indeed, long before the publication of Mr. Forster's Travels, we had learned from Monsieur Anquetil du Perron, that the best species of rose was produced in Cashmere.

Roses are found in great abundance also in Syria, Faiume, and the different provinces of the Barbary states; and an essence is extracted from them, but much inferior to that of Persia, and of Cashmere. One would scarcely imagine that a process, at once so simple, and so universally known throughout the East, and even on the coasts of Western Africa, and which is the result of another process in use, from time immemorial,

cannot be traced back two hundred years.

In this opinion, I dissent very much from many ingenious men; and amongst others from Mr. Weston, who, (in his Specimen of the Conformity of Languages &c. page 113,) expresses his belief that the ottar, or essence of roses, is the oil with which the Psalmist desires to be anointed, because he styles the oil green.-Psalm xcii. 10.

בלתי בשמן רענן

Delibutus sum in oleo viridi. Nothing can be more vague than this epithet; since many kinds of oil are of that colour, and since the oftar is not always green: besides, it is not certain that the Hebrew epithet should be understood as expressing any particular colour; and the Septuagint have rendered it by the Greek word ion, fat; (the English version says, "I shall be anointed with fresh oil.") I shall not here detain my readers by a long digression, in which it might be proved that the Hebrews, as well as the Christians, employed only common oil, and not perfumes, in the consecration of their kings.

But, in support of my opinion on the recent discovery of the ottar, I shall adduce both negative and positive proofs; and I hope to demonstrate, that it was not known before the year 1021 of the Mohamedan, or 1612 of the Christian, æra; my negative proofs are derived from the silence of Eastern, and of European writers, prior to the epochs abovementioned.

In the works of Hafiz, and of Sadi, we find frequent mention of the gulub, or rose-water; none of the oltár, or essence. Sherifaddin Ali Yezdi, who wrote a His tory of Tamerlane, often describes the perfumes lavishly expended in the entertainments given by that Tartar con queror, and his children; but the historian is silent on the subject of the ottar.

The Ayeen Akbery, or Commentary of the Grand Mogul Akber, translated by Mr. Gladwin, of Calcutta, contains a chapter on the regulation of the Imperial Perfumery, in which various preparations of roses are noticed, without any mention of the essence. This work, the dysen Akbery, was composed in the year of our æra, 1569; and consequently, forty-two years before the date that I have assigned to the discovery of the ottar.

As to European travellers, I can venture to affirm, that of those who visited Persia and Hindoostan, and whose narratives prior to the seventeenth century.

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bave been collected by Hackluit, Purchas, De Bry, Melchisedec Thevenot, Bergeron, Churchill, Harris, &c. not one has spoken of the essence of roses; many of them describe the rose-water as a most pleasing perfume, and in terms which prove their ignorance of the other preparation.

But a positive proof of what I have asserted, is derived from the annals of the Moghul Empire, of which the authors were perhaps witnesses of the facts that they relate.

We shall begin by consulting a History of the Grand Moghuis, written in the Persian language by Mohammed Hashem; an important work, entitled,

"Tarikh Montekheb lubab, or The au-
thentic Abridgment of Chronicles."
This, which is preserved among the ma-
nuscripts of the National Library, in
Paris, passes rapidly over the reigns of
Timur, and his descendants; and in
fact, commences with the account of
Baber, who in the year 1526, conquered
Hindoostan; and it ends with the year
1677; when Mohammed Shah was on
the throne. The discovery of the ottar
of roses is twice noticed in this History,
and in the most unequivocal manner:
first, in a chapter entitled, Marriage of
the Princess Nour Jehan, with the In-
habitant of Paradise, (that is, the lately
deceased) Jehangir, the Inventions and
Discoveries of the Queen of the World,
c. This Princess, Nour Ichan, (a title
signifying, Light of the Universe,) was the
celebrated beauty called also ihr al
Nesa, (or the Bright Sun of Women.)
She inspired the Emperor Jehangir with
so violent a passion, that to possess her
charms he contrived the assassination of
her husband; she even exercised the
sovereign power, during the space of six
mouths; and money was coined in her
name: but we are not authorized in at-
tributing to her (as is generally done)
those rupees which bear the signs of the
zodiac; for although struck under the
reign of Jehangir, they have quite a dif-
ferent origin. This fascinating woman,
who employed every art to secure her
influence over the monarch of Hin-
doostan, introduced many innovations in
the female dress, and we may say, in-
vented fashions, a circumstance before
unknown in Asia; on this subject, the
chapter above quoted, contains many
curious details: but it will be sufficient
to extract one passage, relating to the
object which engages our attention.
The Essence of Rose water which the

Princess Nour-jehan first called the Ot. tar of Jehangir, (in compliment to the Emperor) and other perfumes of a more moderate value, and within the attainment of persons of small fortune, are of her and her mother's invention." The succeeding chapter, entitled, History of the Seventh Year of Jehangir's Reign, and of the Festival of the New Year, &c. begins with some particulars more precise and satisfactory than the passage above given." At the coinmencement of this festival, the mother of Princess Nourjehan, having presented some essence of roses which she had extracted, and the Emperor having approved of it, he thought proper to bestow on the discovery his own august name, and it was called Ottar Jehangiri; and to the princess he gave a necklace of pearl, worth thirty thousand rupees; it is indeed a wonderful discovery, for no perfume can equal it; and its vivifying odour is grateful to angels, genii, and men. The author of this work recollects, that the price of good Ottar Jehangiri, until the beginning of the reign of Aulumgir, (who now resides in Paradise) was eighty rupees for a tolah; whilst, in our time, this same essence has fallen in price to eight or nine ropees per tolah.”

Those two quotations agree perfectly with the following passage, from the History of Hindostan, compiled in English by Mr. Gladwin, from numerous materials collected with much labour and expense, during a residence of twenty-three years in India. "The manner of inaking the ottar," says this ingenious writer,

was at this time discovered by the mother of Nourjehan. The ottar is an essential oil of roses, which floats in a very small quantity on the surface of distilled rose-water, whilst yet warmu; and it is collected by means of a little bit of cotton fastened to the end of a stick; it is the most delightful of all perfumes, and in fragrance equals the new-blown rose. The Emperor, as a reward for the invention, bestowed on the lady a necklace of most precious pearls; and the Princess Selima Sultana, (one of the widows of Akbar,) gave it the name of Ottar Jehangiri."

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Thus have the Eastern authors, in my opinion, cleared up every doubt as to the epoch, and the author of this discovery; but none of them have indicated the manner in which the discovery was made: this, however, we learn from an European traveller. Manucci, a phys sician of Venice, during a residence in

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India of forty years, enquired much into the annals of that empire; and composed an historical work of considerable magnitude, adorned with well-executed miniatures. This work, of which the authenticity cannot be disputed, was translated and abridged by Cutrou, under the title of a "General Histor. of the Mogul Empire, from its Foundation to the present Time;" and among the curious anecdotes collected by Manucci, is one which throws great light on the subject of this essay. It is natural to imagine, that the adulterous amours of Jehangir with Nourjehan form an interesting portion of the Emperor's bistory; it was at a least given by the ambitious female to her illustrious lover, that the essence of roses was discovered. Amidst the varieties of luxury displayed on that occasion, the princess liad contrived that rose-water should flow in a small canal throughout the gardens; whilst the Emperor walked with her along the borders of the canal, they perceived a kind of scum, floating on the surface of the water; and when it approached the brink, they gathered and examined it; and this was a substance produced by the sun, from the rose-water. All the court agreed in acknowledging, that this oily substance was the most exquisite perfume known in India; and in course of time, art endeavoured to imitate what had been at first the offspring of accident, and of nature."(Histoire Generale des Mogols ; tom. 1. 326.)

These particulars are by no means un worthy of credit; for Manucci arrived in India, during the reign of Shah jehan, son and successor of Jehangir, whilst the recollection of these circumstances was, no doubt, still fresh in the memory of se verai persons. The essence had been, for a long time, observed to swim on the surface of distilled rose-water; but in so smail a quantity, that no one had thought of collecting it; a fortunate accident inspired the idea; the discovery being once made, (like most others) appeared so sim. ple, that we are astonished that the ottar was not found by the first chemist who applied his alembic to experiments on roses,

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

STR,

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ded at Wisbech, in Cambridgeshire. It is to be regretted that few memorials remain of her; but two ancient and respectable inhabitants, now deceased, have related to the writer of this the following incidents:-When she first came, she sought employment by standjug (as is usual with labourers at this day who want work) on or near the foot of the bridge, where, in hay-time and harvest, the farmers resort every morning to hire. She selected for her abode, a cellar in a part of the town called the Old Market, where she spun worsted; to dispose of which, she regularly had a stall on the marketday. Being once thus employed, she reCognised by the arms and livery, a coach and attendants going to the principal inu, (the Rose and Crown,) near to which her stall stood, upon which, she immediately packed up her worsted, retired to her cell, and carefully concealed herself. The owner, who was said to be the Duke of Argyle, endeavoured to find her, but without effect. The house under which she lived has been since rebuilt, and part of it is now occupied by the Lady Mary Knollis, aunt to the present Earl of Banbury, She constantly attended, when in health, the meeting of the Society of Friends in Wisbech; was humble and exemplary in her conduct, well esteemed by her neighbours, invariably avoided all conversation relative to her family connexions; and when in the freedom of intercourse, any expression inadvertently escaped, leading to an enquiry, she stopped short, secmed to regret having disclosed so much, and silenced further research. She read the New Testament in Greek; but even this circumstance was discovered accidentally by an unexpected call: was fond of birds, which were fre quently allowed to leave their cages, and fly about in her apartment. eighty, she had a new set of teeth. died (according to the Friends' Register) "the 12th of 7th mo. 1742, aged 88," and was buried in the Society's grave-yard at Wisbech, where, out of respect to her memory, box has been planted round her grave, with her initials, age, and date, which still remain to mark the spot of her interment. Your's, &c.

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For the Monthly Magazine. LETTERS descriptive of CHELTENHAM,

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und its VICINITY.

LETTER HI

Cheltenham, July 27, 1808.

HANKS to the favourable state of the weather, this place is now ra

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