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AN ARABIAN TALE,
BY
WILLIAM BECKFORD, ESQ.
WITH
NOTES, CRITICAL ANDEXPLANATORY.
LONDON:
GEORGE SLATER, 252, STRAND.
1849.
William Beckford, the author of thefollowing celebrated Eastern tale, was born in 1760, and died inthe spring of 1844, at the advanced age of eighty-fouryears. It is to be regretted, that a man of so remarkable acharacter, did not leave the world some record of a life offeringpoints of interest different from that of any of hiscontemporaries, from the peculiarly studious retirement andeccentric avocations in which it was chiefly passed. Such amemoir would have formed a curious contrast with that of the lateM. de Chateaubriand, who, born nearly at the same period, p. iioutlived butby a few years, the strange Englishman, whose famous romanceforms a brilliant ornament to French literature, which even Atalais unlikely to outlive in the memory of Chateaubriand’scountrymen. All men of genius should writeautobiographies. Such works are inestimable lessons toposterity. As it is, there are few men, of whom it is moredifficult to compose an elaborate and detailed history than theauthor of “Vathek.” From such scanty sources asare open to us, the reader must be content with a few strikingfacts and illustrations, which may serve to convey some idea ofthe idiosyncrasy of a man, whose whole life was a sort ofmystery, even to his personal acquaintances.
His great-great-grandfather was lieutenant-governor andcommander of the forces in Jamaica; and his grandfather presidentof the council in the same island. His father, though not amerchant, as has been represented, but a large landed proprietor,both in England and the West Indies, was p. iiilord mayorof London, and distinguished himself in presenting an address tothe king, George the Third,—by a spirited retort to hismajesty,—who had the ill-breeding to treat discourteously adeputation which the lord mayor headed. The portraits ofAlderman Beckford, and his more celebrated son, were painted bySir Joshua Reynolds. The former died in 1770, leaving thesubject of this memoir the wealthiest commoner in England.
No pains were spared on the education of the youngCroesus—the lords Chatham and Camden being consulted by hisfather on that subject. Besides Latin and Greek, he spokefive modern languages, and wrote three with facility andelegance. He read Persian and Arabic, designed with greatskill, and studied the science of music under the greatMozart.
At the age of eighteen he visited Paris, and was introduced toVoltaire. “On taking leave of me,” saidBeckford, “he placed his hand on my head, p. ivsaying,‘There, young Englishman, I give you the blessing of a veryold man.’ Voltaire was a mere skeleton—a bonyanatomy. His countenance I shall never forget.”
His first literary production, “Memoirs of ExtraordinaryPainters,” was written at the early age of seventeen. It would appear, that the old housekeeper at Fonthill, was in thehabit of edifying visitors to its picture gallery by adescription of the paintings, mainly derived from her own