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Not only was The Kasidah written in emulation of FitzGerald's Omar, but Burton made no secret that such was the case. To further this end Mr. Schutz Wilson, who had done so much for the Rubaiyat, was approached by one of Burton's friends; and the following letter written to Burton after the interview will be read with some amusement. "Dear Richard," it runs, "'Wox' made me shudder!
"Deeply, because she's my first client in a cause celebre." "Have you forgotten her book again?" "Her book? 'The Kasidah'? I've got it here." He tapped the capacious side pocket of his coat. "You saw it then?" he added. "Beattie had it when I went upstairs." "I wonder what she made of it," Daventry said, with softness in his voice. "Don't ever let Rosamund see it, by the way.
"To seek the true, to glad the heart, such is of life the Higher Law." Neglecting the four really brilliant lines, the principal attraction of The Kasidah is its redolence of the saffron, immeasurable desert. We snuff at every turn its invigorating air; and the tinkle of the camel's bell is its sole and perpetual music.
There was a brown combination writing desk and book-shelf which was arrayed with some of the most curious volumes Pater's "Marius the Epicurean," Daudet's "Wives of Men of Genius," Richard Jefferies' "Story of My Heart," Stevenson's "Aes Triplex," "The Kasidah" of Richard Burton, "The House of Life" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Camoens, 6 vols. 1 and 2, the Lusiads. 1880. 3 and 4, Life of Camoens and Commentary. 1882. 5 and 6, The Lyrics. 1884. 61. The Kasidah. 1880. 62. Visit to Lissa and Pelagoza. 1880. 63. A Glance at the Passion Play. 1881. 64. How to deal with the Slave Trade in Egypt. 1881. 65. Thermae of Montfalcone. 1881. The Lusiads.
Still again, it is better to have loved in vain than never to have loved at all, and fine and bold and brave as was Richard Francis Burton, his wife, with her "strong power called weakness," was the greater of the two. She wrote no "Kasidah" of complaint, but suffered and was strong. St. Louis, August 16th, 1897.
She had frankly acknowledged that she wished to rouse him out of his inertia; she was a very mental woman; a book was a weapon that such a woman would be likely to employ. At any rate, Dion felt her influence in "The Kasidah." The book took possession of him; it burnt him like a flame; even it made him for a short time forget. That was incredible, yet it was the fact.
His simple confession appealed to her. He was like a breath of fresh air. Richard Wheeler, who had brought him in, made no objection to being neglected. He wanted her to enjoy his find. "You know," said Eugene, looking up from Burton's "Kasidah" and into her brown eyes, "New York gets me dizzy. It's so wonderful!" "Just how?" she asked. "It's so compact of wonderful things.
The state of his mind in 1880 is revealed by his Kasidah. From that time to his death he was half Mohammedan and half Agnostic.
On one of the coffee-tables he found lying a small thin book bound in white vellum. He took it up and read the name in gold letters: "The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi." It was the book he had found Beattie reading on the night when Robin was born, on the night when Bruce Evelin and Guy had discussed Mrs. Clarke's divorce case and Mrs. Clarke. He shuddered in the warmth of the pavilion.
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