The rose garden of Persia . ie of eyery poet. Scarcelyone of tlie miglity masters of Persian lite-rature but has adopted and added celebrityto those beautiful and interesting legends,which can never be too often repeated to anoriental ear. They sre,— ofKhosrii and Shireen; the IJioves of Tus-suf and Zuleika; and, the Misfortiines ofMejnoun and Leila. So poVerful is thecharm attached to these stories, that itappears to have been considered almost animperative duty on the poets to compose anew version of the old, familiar, and belovedtraditions. Even down to a modern date,the
The rose garden of Persia . ie of eyery poet. Scarcelyone of tlie miglity masters of Persian lite-rature but has adopted and added celebrityto those beautiful and interesting legends,which can never be too often repeated to anoriental ear. They sre,— ofKhosrii and Shireen; the IJioves of Tus-suf and Zuleika; and, the Misfortiines ofMejnoun and Leila. So poVerful is thecharm attached to these stories, that itappears to have been considered almost animperative duty on the poets to compose anew version of the old, familiar, and belovedtraditions. Even down to a modern date,the Persians have not deserted their favour-ites, aijd these celebrated themes of versere-appear, from time to time, under newauspices. Each of these poems is ezpl-essive of apeculiar character: that of Khosru andShireen may be considered exclusively thePersian romance; that of Mejnoun, theArabian; and that of Yussuf-and Zuleika,the Sacred. The first presents a picture ofhappy love and female excellence in Shireen. ii mI i i. m:^. :+>gf> m^ + i^n: THBIE CHARAOTERISTIO INTENTION. 11 Mejnoun is a represenfeition of unfortunateattaolmient, carried to madness. The thirdromance contains tli,e idefd of perfection inYussuf ( Joseph), andthemost passion-ate and imprudent love in Zuleika (the wifeof Potiphar); arid exhibits in strong reliefthe power of love and beauty,, the masteryof miud, the weakness of overwhelmingpassion, aiid the victorious spirit of holinessand triumph of prophecy—-for it is said thatYussufs beauty was foreshown to Adam asa type of his prophetic power. The namesof three great poets are identified with these_ subjects; and each has peculiairly succeededin one: to Nizami is accorded the palm, forthe best poeim on the Loves of Khosrli andShireen;>to Jami, for those of Yussufand Zuleika; and to Hatifi, for the mostmusical, most melancholy version of the sadtale of Mejnoun and LeUa, the Eomepand Juliet of the East. These are generallycalled the Eomantic P
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdeca, booksubjectenglishpoetry, bookyear1887
