

Transcribed from the 1887 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

                        CASSELL'S NATIONAL LIBRARY

                                * * * * *





                               THE HISTORY
                                  OF THE
                              CALIPH VATHEK


                                    BY
                            WILLIAM BECKFORD.

                        [Picture: Printer's mark]

                       CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
                _LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_.
                                  1887.




INTRODUCTION


William Beckford, born in 1759, the year before the accession of King
George the Third, was the son of an Alderman who became twice Lord Mayor
of London.  His family, originally of Gloucestershire, had thriven by the
plantations in Jamaica; and his father, sent to school in England, and
forming a school friendship at Westminster with Lord Mansfield, began the
world in this country as a merchant, with inheritance of an enormous West
India fortune.  William Beckford the elder became Magistrate, Member of
Parliament, Alderman.  Four years before the birth of William Beckford
the younger he became one of the Sheriffs of London, and three years
after his son's birth he was Lord Mayor.  As Mayor he gave very sumptuous
dinners that made epochs in the lives of feeding men.  His son's famous
"History of the Caliph Vathek" looks as if it had been planned for an
Alderman's dream after a very heavy dinner at the Mansion House.  There
is devotion in it to the senses, emphasis on heavy dining.  Vathek piqued
himself on being the greatest eater alive; but when the Indian dined with
him, though the tables were thirty times covered, there was still want of
more food for the voracious guest.  There is thirst: for at one part of
the dream, when Vathek's mother, his wives, and some eunuchs "assiduously
employed themselves in filling bowls of rock crystal, and emulously
presented them to him, it frequently happened that his avidity exceeded
their zeal, insomuch that he would prostrate himself upon the ground to
lap up the water, of which he could never have enough."  And the
nightmare incidents of the Arabian tale all culminate in a most terrible
heartburn.  Could the conception of Vathek have first come to the son
after a City dinner?

Though a magnificent host, the elder Beckford was no glutton.  In the
year of his first Mayoralty, 1763, Beckford, stood by the side of
Alderman Wilkes, attacked for his No. 45 of _The North Briton_.  As
champion of the popular cause, when he had been again elected to the
Mayoralty, Beckford, on the 23rd of May, 1770, went up to King George the
Third at the head of the Aldermen and Livery with an address which the
king snubbed with a short answer.  Beckford asked leave to reply, and
before His Majesty recovered breath from his astonishment, proceeded to
reply in words that remain graven in gold upon his monument in Guildhall.
Young Beckford, the author of "Vathek," was then a boy not quite eleven
years old, an only son; and he was left three years afterwards, by his
father's death, heir to an income of a hundred thousand a year, with a
million of cash in hand.

During his minority young Beckford's mother, who was a granddaughter of
the sixth Earl of Abercorn, placed him under a private tutor.  He was
taught music by Mozart; and the Earl of Chatham, who had been his
father's friend, thought him so fanciful a boy--"all air and fire"--that
he advised his mother to keep the Arabian Nights out of his way.  Happily
she could not, for Vathek adds the thousand and second to the thousand
and one tales, with the difference that it joins to wild inventions in
the spirit of the East touches of playful extravagance that could come
only from an English humourist who sometimes laughed at his own tale, and
did not mind turning its comic side to the reader.  The younger William
Beckford had been born at his father's seat in Wiltshire, Fonthill Abbey;
and at seventeen amused himself with a caricature "History of
Extraordinary Painters," encouraging the house-keeper of Fonthill to show
the pictures to visitors as works of Og of Basan and other worthies in
her usual edifying manner.

Young Beckford's education was continued for a year and a half at Geneva.
He then travelled in Italy and the Low Countries, and it was at this time
that he amused himself by writing, at the age of about twenty-two,
"Vathek" in French, at a single sitting; but he gave his mind to it and
the sitting lasted three days and two nights.  An English version of it
was made by a stranger, and published without permission in 1784.
Beckford himself published his tale at Paris and Lausanne in 1787, one
year after the death of a wife to whom he had been three years married,
and who left him with two daughters.

Beckford went to Portugal and Spain; returned to France, and was present
at the storming of the Bastille.  He was often abroad; he bought Gibbon's
library at Lausanne, and shut himself up with it for a time, having a
notion of reading it through.  He was occasionally in Parliament, but did
not care for that kind of amusement.  He wrote pieces of less enduring
interest than "Vathek," including two burlesques upon the sentimental
novel of his time.  In 1796 he settled down at Fonthill, and began to
spend there abundantly on building and rebuilding.  Perhaps he thought of
Vathek's tower when he employed workmen day and night to build a tower
for himself three hundred feet high, and set them to begin it again when
it fell down.  He is said to have spent upon Fonthill a quarter of a
million, living there in much seclusion during the last twenty years of
his life.  He died in 1844.

The happy thought of this William Beckford's life was "Vathek."  It is a
story that paints neither man nor outward nature as they are, but
reproduces with happy vivacity the luxuriant imagery and wild incidents
of an Arabian tale.  There is a ghost of a moral in the story of a
sensual Caliph going to the bad, as represented by his final introduction
to the Halls of Eblis.  But the enjoyment given by the book reflects the
real enjoyment that the author had in writing it--enjoyment great enough
to cause it to be written at a heat, in one long sitting, without
flagging power.  Young and lively, he delivered himself up to a free run
of fancy, revelled in the piled-up enormities of the Wicked Mother, who
had not brought up Vathek properly, and certainly wrote some parts of his
nightmare tale as merrily as if he were designing matter for a pantomime.

Whoever, in reading "Vathek," takes it altogether seriously, does not
read it as it was written.  We must have an eye for the vein of
caricature that now and then comes to the surface, and invites a laugh
without disturbing the sense of Eastern extravagance bent seriously upon
the elaboration of a tale crowded with incident and action.  Taken
altogether seriously, the book has faults of construction.  But the
faults turn into beauties when we catch the twinkle in the writer's eye.

                                                                     H. M.




THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEK


Vathek, ninth Caliph of the race of the Abassides, was the son of
Motassem, and the grandson of Haroun Al Raschid.  From an early accession
to the throne, and the talents he possessed to adorn it, his subjects
were induced to expect that his reign would be long and happy.  His
figure was pleasing and majestic; but when he was angry one of his eyes
became so terrible that no person could bear to behold it, and the wretch
upon whom it was fixed instantly fell backward, and sometimes expired.
For fear, however, of depopulating his dominions and making his palace
desolate he but rarely gave way to his anger.

Being much addicted to women and the pleasures of the table, he sought by
his affability to procure agreeable companions; and he succeeded the
better as his generosity was unbounded, and his indulgences unrestrained,
for he was by no means scrupulous, nor did he think with the Caliph Omar
Ben Abdalaziz that it was necessary to make a hell of this world to enjoy
Paradise in the next.

He surpassed in magnificence all his predecessors.  The palace of
Alkoremmi, which his father Motassem had erected on the hill of Pied
Horses, and which commanded the whole city of Samarah, was in his idea
far too scanty; he added therefore five wings, or rather other palaces,
which he destined for the particular gratification of each of his senses.

In the first of these were tables continually covered with the most
exquisite dainties, which were supplied both by night and by day,
according to their constant consumption, whilst the most delicious wines
and the choicest cordials flowed forth from a hundred fountains that were
never exhausted.  This palace was called "The Eternal or Unsatiating
Banquet."

The second was styled "The Temple of Melody, or the Nectar of the Soul."
It was inhabited by the most skilful musicians and admired poets of the
time, who not only displayed their talents within, but, dispersing in
bands without, caused every surrounding scene to reverberate their songs,
which were continually varied in the most delightful succession.

The palace named "The Delight of the Eyes, or the Support of Memory," was
one entire enchantment.  Rarities collected from every corner of the
earth were there found in such profusion as to dazzle and confound, but
for the order in which they were arranged.  One gallery exhibited the
pictures of the celebrated Mani, and statues that seemed to be alive.
Here a well-managed perspective attracted the sight; there the magic of
optics agreeably deceived it; whilst the naturalist on his part
exhibited, in their several classes, the various gifts that Heaven had
bestowed on our globe.  In a word, Vathek omitted nothing in this palace
that might gratify the curiosity of those who resorted to it, although he
was not able to satisfy his own, for he was of all men the most curious.

"The Palace of Perfumes," which was termed likewise "The Incentive to
Pleasure," consisted of various halls, where the different perfumes which
the earth produces were kept perpetually burning in censers of gold.
Flambeaux and aromatic lamps were here lighted in open day.  But the too
powerful effects of this agreeable delirium might be avoided by
descending into an immense garden, where an assemblage of every fragrant
flower diffused through the air the purest odours.

The fifth palace, denominated "The Retreat of Joy, or the Dangerous," was
frequented by troops of young females beautiful as the houris, and not
less seducing, who never failed to receive with caresses all whom the
Caliph allowed to approach them; for he was by no means disposed to be
jealous, as his own women were secluded within the palace he inhabited
himself.

Notwithstanding the sensuality in which Vathek indulged, he experienced
no abatement in the love of his people, who thought that a sovereign
immersed in pleasure was not less tolerable to his subjects than one that
employed himself in creating them foes.  But the unquiet and impetuous
disposition of the Caliph would not allow him to rest there; he had
studied so much for his amusement in the life-time of his father as to
acquire a great deal of knowledge, though not a sufficiency to satisfy
himself; for he wished to know everything, even sciences that did not
exist.  He was fond of engaging in disputes with the learned, but liked
them not to push their opposition with warmth; he stopped the mouths of
those with presents whose mouths could be stopped, whilst others, whom
his liberality was unable to subdue, he sent to prison to cool their
blood: a remedy that often succeeded.

Vathek discovered also a predilection for theological controversy, but it
was not with the orthodox that he usually held.  By this means he induced
the zealots to oppose him, and then persecuted them in return; for he
resolved at any rate to have reason on his side.

The great prophet Mahomet, whose vicars the caliphs are, beheld with
indignation from his abode in the seventh heaven the irreligious conduct
of such a vicegerent.  "Let us leave him to himself," said he to the
genii, who are always ready to receive his commands; "let us see to what
lengths his folly and impiety will carry him; if he run into excess we
shall know how to chastise him.  Assist him, therefore, to complete the
tower which, in imitation of Nimrod, he hath begun, not, like that great
warrior, to escape being drowned, but from the insolent curiosity of
penetrating the secrets of Heaven; he will not divine the fate that
awaits him."

The genii obeyed, and when the workmen had raised their structure a cubit
in the day-time, two cubits more were added in the night.  The expedition
with which the fabric arose was not a little flattering to the vanity of
Vathek.  He fancied that even insensible matter showed a forwardness to
subserve his designs, not considering that the successes of the foolish
and wicked form the first rod of their chastisement.

His pride arrived at its height when, having ascended for the first time
the eleven thousand stairs of his tower, he cast his eyes below, and
beheld men not larger than pismires, mountains than shells, and cities
than bee-hives.  The idea which such an elevation inspired of his own
grandeur completely bewildered him; he was almost ready to adore himself,
till, lifting his eyes upward, he saw the stars as high above him as they
appeared when he stood on the surface of the earth.  He consoled himself,
however, for this transient perception of his littleness with the thought
of being great in the eyes of others, and flattered himself that the
light of his mind would extend beyond the reach of his sight, and
transfer to the stars the decrees of his destiny.

With this view the inquisitive prince passed most of his nights on the
summit of his tower, till he became an adept in the mysteries of
astrology, and imagined that the planets had disclosed to him the most
marvellous adventures, which were to be accomplished by an extraordinary
personage from a country altogether unknown.  Prompted by motives of
curiosity, he had always been courteous to strangers, but from this
instant he redoubled his attention, and ordered it to be announced by
sound of trumpet, through all the streets of Samarah, that no one of his
subjects, on peril of displeasure, should either lodge or detain a
traveller, but forthwith bring him to the palace.

Not long after this proclamation there arrived in his metropolis a man so
hideous that the very guards who arrested him were forced to shut their
eyes as they led him along.  The Caliph himself appeared startled at so
horrible a visage, but joy succeeded to this emotion of terror when the
stranger displayed to his view such rarities as he had never before seen,
and of which he had no conception.

In reality, nothing was ever so extraordinary as the merchandise this
stranger produced; most of his curiosities, which were not less admirable
for their workmanship than splendour, had, besides, their several virtues
described on a parchment fastened to each.  There were slippers which
enabled the feet to walk; knives that cut without the motion of a hand;
sabres which dealt the blow at the person they were wished to strike; and
the whole enriched with gems that were hitherto unknown.

The sabres, whose blades emitted a dazzling radiance, fixed more than all
the Caliph's attention, who promised himself to decipher at his leisure
the uncouth characters engraven on their sides.  Without, therefore,
demanding their price, he ordered all the coined gold to be brought from
his treasury, and commanded the merchant to take what he pleased; the
stranger complied with modesty and silence.

Vathek, imagining that the merchant's taciturnity was occasioned by the
awe which his presence inspired, encouraged him to advance, and asked
him, with an air of condescension, "Who he was? whence he came? and where
he obtained such beautiful commodities?"  The man, or rather monster,
instead of making a reply, thrice rubbed his forehead, which, as well as
his body, was blacker than ebony, four times clapped his paunch, the
projection of which was enormous, opened wide his huge eyes, which glowed
like firebrands, began to laugh with a hideous noise, and discovered his
long amber- teeth bestreaked with green.

The Caliph, though a little startled, renewed his inquiries, but without
being able to procure a reply; at which, beginning to be ruffled, he
exclaimed: "Knowest thou, varlet, who I am? and at whom thou art aiming
thy gibes?"  Then, addressing his guards, "Have ye heard him speak? is he
dumb?"

"He hath spoken," they replied, "though but little."

"Let him speak again, then," said Vathek, "and tell me who he is, from
whence he came, and where he procured these singular curiosities, or I
swear by the ass of Balaam that I will make him rue his pertinacity."

The menace was accompanied by the Caliph with one of his angry and
perilous glances, which the stranger sustained without the slightest
emotion, although his eyes were fixed on the terrible eye of the prince.

No words can describe the amazement of the courtiers when they beheld
this rude merchant withstand the encounter unshocked. 