Note 66 — ALAEDDIN; OR, THE WONDERFUL LAMP.

i.e. the “Height or Glory (’Alá) of the Faith (al-Dín)” pron. Aláaddeen; which is fairly represented by the old form “Aladdin;” and better by De Sacy’s “Ala-eddin.” The name has occurred in The Nights, vol. iv. 29–33; it is a household word in England and who has not heard of Thomas Hood’s “A-lad-in?” Easterns write it in five different ways and in the Paris MS. it is invariably “’Alí al-dín,” which is a palpable mistake. The others are (1) ’Alá al-Dín, (2) ’Alá yadín, (3) ’Alah Dín in the H. V., and (4) ’Aláa al-Din (with the Hamzah), the last only being grammatical. In Galland the Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse is preceded by the Histoire du Dormeur Eveillé which, being “The Story of Abú al-Hasan the Wag, or the Sleeper awakened,” of the Bresl. Edit. (Nights cclxxi-ccxc), is here omitted. The Alaeddin Story exists in germ in Tale ii. of the “Dravidian Nights Entertainments,” (Madana Kamara-Sankádái), by Pandit S. M. Natisa Shastri (Madras, 1868, and London, Trübner.) We are told by Mr. Coote that it is well represented in Italy. The Messina version is by Pitrè, “La Lanterna Magica,” also the Palermitan “Lanterne;” it is “Il Matrimonio di Cajussi” of Rome (R. H. Busk’s Folk-lore); “Il Gallo e il Mago,” of Visentini’s “Fiabe Mantovane,” and the “Pesciolino,” and “Il Contadino che aveva tre Figli,” of Imbriana. In “La Fanciulla e il Mago,” of De Gubernatis (“Novelline di Santo Stefano de Calcenaja,” p. 47), occurs the popular incident of the original. “The Magician was not a magician for nothing. He feigned to be a hawker and fared through the streets, crying out, ‘Donne, donne, chi baratta anelli di ferro contra anelli di argento?’”

Alaeddin has ever been a favourite with the stage. Early in the present century it was introduced to the Parisian opera by M. Etienne, to the Feydeau by Théaulon’s La Clochette; to the Gymnase by La Petite-Lampe of MM. Scribe and Melesville, and to the Panorama Dramatique by MM. Merle, Cartouche and Saintine (Gauttier, vii. 380.)