‘You see his royal highness is more loom than he used to be.’
‘Upon the whole,’ answered I, ‘his spirits are less depressed than I was led to imagine: my friends the Priors seem to have regaled him with many a good story about convents, for he laughed several times at my Lord Almoner’s charities of all kinds beginning so comfortably at home.’
‘Ah!’ replied Anjeja, ‘you little think, notwithstanding this apparent levity, what an accumulated weight of sorrows press him down: he is the most affectionate of sons, the most devoted, and being such, feels for his mother’s sufferings with the acutest poignancy. Those sufferings are frightfully severe, more heart-rending than any words of mine can express. This very evening he knelt by the Queen’s couch above two hours, whilst, in a paroxysm of mental agony, she kept crying out for mercy, imagining that, in the midst of a raging flame which enveloped the whole chamber, she beheld her father’s image a calcined mass of cinder – a statue in form like that in the Terreiro do Paço,1 but in colour black and horrible, – erected on a pedestal of molten iron, which a crowd of ghastly phantoms – she named them, I shall not – were in the act of dragging down. This vision haunts her by night and by day; and should she continue to describe it in all its horrible details again and again to my royal master, I fear his brain will catch fire too.’ There is a remedy – my relation, her confessor, knows it well – there is a medicine, and of the highest and most salutary kind – such might be administered – restitutions might be made – infernal acts revoked, and justice rendered. But hitherto the powers of evil – certain demons in the shape of some of Pombal’s ancient counsellors, and others equally culpable, though not so old in iniquity, have impeded measures which would conciliate the disaffected, and although they might excite the gibes and murmurs of the disciples of new doctrines, would attach all us, the ancient nobles of the realm, to the House of Braganza2 more closely than ever. May I ask, has the Princes ever touched upon this subject to you? I think Marialva told me he had, and once in his presence.’
I answered, ‘If he did, it was ambiguously, and with so much slightness that it passed like a fleeting cloud After a long pause, during which Anjeja appeared lost in thought, he said to me with the greatest earnestness, ‘If, at the next audience the Prince may give you, he should pour forth his sorrows for his mother’s malady into your bosom – which I have reason to conjecture he shortly may, for I know that he feels himself towards you affectionately well inclined’ (sumamente affeiçoado), ‘remember the kind regard you entertain for our family.’ (he meant the Noronhas in general, from which great house all the Marialvas are paternally descended,) ‘remember to let it suggest such observations as may further a great and interesting cause. I wish also you would dwell particularly on what the late Archbishop,1 your devoted friend, may probably have said to you upon this subject. Whatever that may have been, give it the turn we wish and do not let it lose an charm in the narration.’
I could hardly repress a smile at this urgent request to launch forth beyond the exact limits of truth, if not of probability; for I perfectly recollected the good Archbishop’s opinions were everything but favourable to the reversal of those attainders. However, I preserved a decorous gravity. I said nothing; but I contrived that my looks should express a disposition to second his wishes the first opportunity of doing so that might present itself.
.At this moment, the most terrible, the most agonizing shrieks – shrieks such as I hardly conceived possible – shrieks more piercing than those which rung through the Castle of Berkeley, when Edward the Second was put to the most cruel and torturing death2 – inflicted upon me a sensation of horror such as I never felt before. The Queen herself, whose apartment was only two rooms off from the chamber in which we were sitting, uttered those dreadful sounds: ‘Ai Jesous! Ai Jesous!’ did she exclaim again and again in the bitterness of agony.
I believe I turned pale; for Anjeja said to me, ‘I see how deeply you are affected: think what the sufferings must be that prompt such cries; think what a son must feel, and such a son as our royal master.’
I undoubtedly thought all this, and a great deal more: not only the tears in my eyes, but the faltering of my voice, expressed the intensity of my feelings. The Marquis, far from displeased at the effect produced upon me, embraced me with redoubled kindness. Notwithstanding my entreaties for him to remain in his apartment, he was determined, after I had taken leave, to conduct me to the outward door of the palace; nor did he cease gazing, I was afterwards told, upon the carriage which bore me away, till the sound of the wheels grew fainter and fainter, and even the torches which were borne before it became invisible.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
I PRIMARY SOURCES: WORKS OF WILLIAM BECKFORD
1. Manuscripts
Beckford Papers. Bodleian Library, Oxford.
2. Published Works
A Dialogue in the Shades & Rare Doings at Roxburghe Hall (1819).*
Azemia, A Descriptive or Sentimental Novel (1797)
Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters (1780).
Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents (1783).†
Italy, with Sketches of Spain and Portugal (1834
Modern Novel Writing or the Elegant Enthusiast (1796).
Popular Tales of the Germans (1791).*
Recollections of an Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha (1835).
The Story of Al Raoui (1799).*
Vathek, An Arabian Tale (1786)
3. Modern Editions Consulted or Used*
Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters, ed. R. Gemmett (Cranbury, New Jersey, 1971).
Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters, intro. P. Ward (New York, 1977).
Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents, ed. R. Gemmett (Cranbury, New Jersey, 1969).
Excursion à Alcobaça et Batalha ed. A. Parreaux, preface, G. Chapman (Lisbon, 1956).
Life at Fonthill, 1807–22, ed. Boyd Alexander (London, 1957).
Recollections of an Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha, ed. Boyd Alexander (Sussex, 1972).
Suite de Contes Arabes, ed. Didier Girard (Paris 1992).
The Episodes of Vathek, trans. Sir Frank T. Marzials, ed. M. Jack (London, 1994).
The Journal of William Beckford in Portugal and Spain (1787–1788), ed Boyd Alexander (London, 1954).
The Transient Gleam. A Bouquet of Beckford’s Poesy, ed. D. Varma (Cheshire, 1991).
The Travel Diaries of William Beckford of Fonthill, ed. G. Chapman, 2 Vols (London 1928).
The Vision?? Liber Veritatis, ed. G. Chapman (London, 1930).
Vathek, ed. R. Lonsdale (Oxford 1983)
Vathek, Conte Arabe, foreword, E. Bressy, preface, S. Mallarmé (Paris, 1984)
Vathek, Conte Arabe, ed. M. Lévy (Paris, 1981).
William Beckford’s Vathek, A Critical Edition, K. W. Graham, 2 Vols, Unpublished PhD Thesis (London, 1971).
II SELECTED BOOKS AND AUTHORS REFERRED TO BY BECKFORD*
Arabian Nights Entertainments… (trans. from the Arabian), by M. Galland, 4 Vols (London 1783).
Ariosto, L., Orlando Furioso.
Bailly, J. S., Histoire de l’ Astronomie Moderne depuis la fondation de l’ecole d’ Alexandre, 3 Vols (Paris, 1779–82).
Bocage M. M. de, Sonnets.
Boiardo, M.M., Orlando Innamorato.
Brucker, J., Historia Critica Philosophiae A Mundi, 2nd Edn, 6 Vols (Leipzig,1767).
Camoens, L. de, The Lusiads.
Cardonne, D., A Miscellany of Eastern Learning, 2 Vols, (1771).
Catullus, Poems.
Chardin, J., Astrologie Judiciaire, Voyages…en Perse… (Amsterdam, 1711).
Claudian, De Raptu Proserpinae.
Cook, Captain James, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, 1776–80, 3 Vols (London 1784).
Cook, John, Voyages and Travels Through the Russian Empire, Tartary and Part of the Kingdom of Persia, 2 Vols (Edinburgh, 1770).
Cullen, C., trans, The History
of Mexico by D. F. S. Clavigero, (1787
Dante, A., The Divine Comedy.
Descamps, J. B., La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois… Vols (Paris 1753–64).
Dow, A., Tales Translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, 2 Vols (1768).
Ghiga, A., The Present State of the Ottoman Empire… Translated from the French manuscript of Elias Habesci (1784).
Gibbon, Edward, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,6 Vols (London, 1774–8).
Gray, Thomas, The progress of poesy, (1757).
Harmer, T., Observations on Divers Passages of Scripture, 2nd Edn, 4 Vols (1776).
Hasselquist, F., Voyages and Travels in the Levant (Stockholm, 1766)
Jones, Sir William, ‘A Persian Song of Hafiz’ and ‘A Turkish Ode of Mesihi’, from Poems Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatic Languages (Oxford, 1772).
––, Poeseos Asiaticae Commentariorum Libri Sex (1774).
––, trans. The Moallakat, Or Seven Arabian Poems Which Were Suspended on the Temple at Mecca (1783).
Lucian, On Funerals
Marsden, W., The History of Sumatra, (London, 1783).
Milton, Paradise Lost
Molainville, B. d ’Herbelot de, Bibliotheque Orientale… (Paris, 1697).
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, Letters… Written during her Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, 4 Vols (London, 1763).
Ockley, S., The History of the Saracens, 3rd Edn, 2 Vols (Cambridge, 1757)
Olearius, Α., Voyages faits en Moscovie, Tartarie et Perse… 2 Vols (Leiden,1718).
Ovid, Amores.
–, Metamorphoses.
Pauw, J. C. de, Récherches Philosophiques sur les Américains, 2 Vols (Berlin, 1768–9).
Phaedrus, Fables.
Pitts, J., A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans (Exeter, 1704).
Pliny, Natural History.
Plutarch, Lives.
Pococke, R., A Description of the East and Some Other Countries, 2 Vols (London 1743–45).
Propertius, Elegies.
Richardson, J., A Dictionary, Persian, Arabic and English, 2 Vols (Oxford, 1777–80).
–, A Dissertation on the Languages, Literature and Manners of the Eastern Nations (Oxford, 1777).
Robertson, W., History of America, 3 Vols (Dublin, 1777).
Sale, G., The Koran, Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mohammed, Translated into English… (1734), 2nd ed., 4 Vols (1764).
Sherley, Sir Anthony, His Relation of His Travels into Persia… (London, 1613).
Solis, A. de, Historia de la Conquista de Mexico (Madrid, 1684).
Thales, Fragments.
Thevenot, J. de, Travels… into the Levant, in three Parts, trans. A. Lovell (1687).
Virgil, Aeneid.
–, Georgic.
White, J., Sermons Preached before the University of Oxford…, 2nd Edn (1785).
III SECONDARY SOURCES
1. Eighteenth-Century and Pre-Eighteenth-Century Sources
Addison, J. & Steele, R., The Spectator, 8 Vols (London, 1726).
–, The Tatler; The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, 5 Vols (London, 1720).
Beckford, Peter, Thoughts on Hunting (London, 1781).
Boswell, J., An Account of Corsica (Glasgow, 1768).
Brydone, P., Tour Through Sicily and Malta (London, 1778).
Coxe, W., Sketches of the Natural, Civil and Political State of Switzerland, 3 Vols (London, 1789).
Defoe, Daniel, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (London, 1724–6).
Gilpin, William, Observations on the Mountains and Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, 3 Vols (London, 1786).
Hamilton, A., Histoire de Fleur d’Epine, 2 Vols (Paris, 1749).
–, Mémoires du Comte de Gramont (Paris, 1713).
Hawkesworth, John, Almoran and Hamet, 2 Vols (London, 1761).
Johnson, Dr S., Lives of the Poets, 2 Vols (Oxford, 1952).
–, Rasselas, Prince of Abysinnia (London, 1759).
Middleton, C., Letter from Rome (London, 1729)
Montaigne, Michel de, Oeuvres Completes, ed. du Seuil (Paris, 1969).
Montesquieu, C. de S., Lettres Persanes (Paris, 1721).
Piozzi, H., Observations and Reflections made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy and Germany (London, 1789).
Purchas, S., Purchas his Pilgrimage (London, 1614).
Smollet, T. G., Travels Through France and Italy (London, 1766)
Voltaire, F-M Arouet, Histoire d’un Bon Bramin (1761)
–, Histoire Orientale, Zadig ou la Destinée (Paris, 1749).
–, Mahomet (Bruxelles, 1742).
Walpole, Horace, Castle of Otranto (London, 1764).
–, Three Princes of Serendip (1754).
Young, A., A Six Weeks Tour Through the Southern Counties of England and Wales (London, 1768).
2. Nineteenth Century and Modern Sources
Acton, H., Three Extraordinary Ambassadors (London, 1983).
Adamson, J., Memoirs of the Life and Writing of Luis de Camoens, 2 Vols (London, 1820).
Alexander, B., England’s Wealthiest Son (London, 1962).
–, Unpublished manuscripts, MS. Eng. lett. c. 687–95 etc. Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Brito, C de, ‘A Musica Em Portugal No Tempo de William Beckford’, William Beckford’, Portugal, Catalogue of an Exhibition at Queluz (Lisbon, 1987).
Brockman, H. A. N., The Caliph of Fonthill (London, 1956).
Butt, J. & Carnall, G., eds, The Oxford History of English Literature: The Mid-Eighteenth Century, 13 Vols (Oxford, 1979).
Cary, H. F., trans. The Vision; or Hell, Purgatory and Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1814). 2nd ed., 3 Vols (London, 1819).
Chapman, G., Beckford (London, 1952)
Chapman, G. & Hodgkin, J., A Bibliography of William Beckford of Font-hill (London, 1930).
Conant, M., The Oriental Tale in England in the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1966).
Drabble, M., ed. Companion to English Literature (London, 1985).
Fothergill, B., Beckford of Fonthill (London, 1979).
Gemmett, R. J., William Beckford (Boston, 1977).
Girard, D., ‘Beckford’s Juvenilia?’ Beckford Tower Trust Newsletter, (Bath, Spring, 1992).
Gosse, E., Gray (London, 1930).
Graham, K. W., ‘Beckford’s Adaptation of the Oriental Tale in Vathek’, Enlightenment Essays, 5 No. 1 (1974): 24–33.
–, ‘Vathek in English and French’, Studies in Bibliography, 28 (1975): 153–66.
–. ed. Vathek and The Escape from Time: Bicentenary Revaluations (New York, 1990).
Hibbert, C., The Grand Tour (London, 1987).
Jack, M., ‘How Wealthy was England’s Wealthiest Son?’ Beckford Tower Trust Newsletter (Bath, Spring, 1987).
–, William Beckford: An English Fidalgo (New York, 1995).
Langford, P., A Polite and Commercial People, England 1727–83 (Oxford, 1989).
Lansdown, H. V., Recollections of the late William Beckford of Fonthill, Wilts and Lansdown (Bath, 1893).
Lees-Milne, J., William Beckford (Wiltshire, 1976).
Macaulay, R., They Went to Portugal (London, 1985).
Mahmoud, F. M., ed. William Beckford of Fonthill, 1760–1844. Bicentenary Essays (Cairo, 1960).
Marques, A. H. de Oliveira, Historia de Portugal, 3 Vols (Lisbon, 1984). Melville, L. The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill (London, 1910).
Oliver, J. W., The Life of William Beckford (London, 1932).
Parreaux, A., William Beckford. Auteur de Vathek (Paris, 1960).
Pires, M. L. B., William Beckford e Portugal (Lisbon, 1987).
Price, M., ed. The Oxford Anthology of English Literature (Oxford, 1973).
Redding, C., Memoirs of William Beckford of Fonthill, 2 Vols (London, 1859).
Redding, C., ‘Recollections of the Author of Vathek’ New Monthly Magazine, LXXI (June, 1844): 151–2.
&nbs
p; Sage, V., ed., The Gothick Novel (London 1990).
Sitwell, S., Beckford and Beckfordism (London, 1930).
Thacker, C., The History of Gardens (London, 1985).
Willey, B., The Eighteenth-Century Background, (London, 1962).
INDEX
Only Beckford’s works are referred to under his entry
Abassides,29, 100
Abbade (Xavier) 225, 225n, 235, 246, 251, 252
Abdalaziz, Caliph, 29, 98
Abdolmalek, Caliph, 100, 110
Abercorn, Earl of, ix
Abin, 101
Aboyne, Earl of, xiii
Abraham, 277
Abysinnia, xix
Acciaoli, Monsenhor, 235, 235n, 236, 237, 239, 242
Adam, 64n, 99,107, 119, 145, 158, 159
Adamson, J., 259n
Addison, Joseph, xix
Aeneas, 209, 210
Aesop’s Fables, 138, 138n
Afonso I, King of Portugal, 264, 264n, 277, 277n
Afonso VI, King of Portugal, 241, 241n
Africa, 275
Aguilar e Menezes, H. de, 225, 225n, 235, 240
Aherman, 93, 107, 119
Aix-la-Chapelle, 238
Ajuda Palace, 265,265n, 279
Alcacer Quibir, battle of, 275n
Alcántara, Peter of, 159n
Alcobaça, Lord High Almoner of, 277, 279, 280, 281, 286, 295
Alcobaça Monastery, xv, xxx, xxi, 243, 243n, 273, 273n, 274, 280, 286, 291
Alentejo, 263, 263n
Alexander, Boyd, xxx, xxxn, xxxiii, xxxiv, 288n
Alexander The Great, 102, 102n, 115, 115n, 131, 131n
Alhambra, 241
Ali Chelebi al Moufti, 110
Ali Noureddin, 114
Aljubarrota, battle of, xxxi, xxxin, 273n, 277, 277n, 281, 282, 283
Alkoremi Palace 29
Alpine, Alps, xxix, 5, 26, 197, 249
Ambreabad, 67, 114
America, xxxv, 105, 225
Amiens, 287
Ammon, 56
Amrou, 110
Amsterdam, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 207
Andalucia, 292
Vathek and Other Stories Page 46
