Note 232 — ALAEDDIN; OR, THE WONDERFUL LAMP. (continued 3)

Mr. Morier in “The Mirza” (vol. i. 87) says, “Had the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, with all their singular fertility of invention and never-ending variety, appeared as a new book in the present day, translated literally and not adapted to European taste in the manner attempted in M. Galland’s translation, I doubt whether they would have been tolerated, certainly not read with the avidity they are, even in the dress with which he has clothed them, however imperfect that dress may be.” But in Morier’s day the literal translation was so despised that an Eastern book was robbed of half its charms, both of style and idea. My version is here followed by the popular English version from Galland, so that my readers may compare the old with the new.