The Life of Sir Richard Burton | Page 5

years of his life), and
many other ladies and gentlemen.
(3) From letters received from Major St. George Burton (to whom I
have the pleasure of dedicating this work), Lady Bancroft, Mr. D.
MacRitchie, Mr. E. S. Mostyn Pryce (representative of Miss Stisted),
Gunley Hall, Staffordshire, M. Charles Carrington, of Paris, who sent
me various notes, including an account of Burton's unfinished
translation of Apuleius's Golden Ass, the MS. of which is in his
possession, the Very Rev. J. P. Canon McCarthy, of Ilkeston, for
particulars of "The Shrine of our Lady of Dale," Mr. Segrave (son of
Burton's "dear Louisa"), Mrs. Agg (Burton's cousin), and Mr. P. P.
Cautley (Burton's colleague at Trieste). Nor must I omit reference to a
kind letter received from Mrs. Van Zeller, Lady Burton's only surviving
sister.[FN#4]

(4) From the Burton collections in the Free Libraries of Camberwell
and Kensington.
(5) From unpublished manuscripts written by Burton's friends.
(6) From the church registers of Elstree. By examination of these and
other documents I have been able to correct many mistakes.
(7) From the manuscripts of F. F. Arbuthnot and the Oriental scholar,
Edward Rehatsek. These are now in the possession of the Royal Asiatic
Society.
(8) From Mr. Arbuthnot's typewritten and unpublished Life of Balzac
now in my possession. This contains many notes throwing light on the
Burton and Arbuthnot friendship.
(9) From the Genealogical Table of the Burtons of Shap, very kindly
sent me by Mr. E. S. Mostyn Pryce.
(10) From various persons interviewed during many journeys. One of
these journeys (June 1905) took me, of course, to the Tomb of
Mortlake, and I was gratified to find that, owing to the watchfulness of
the Arundell family, it is kept in perfect repair. [FN#5]
Let me first speak of the unpublished letters. These were lent me by Mr.
John Payne (40 letters), Mr. W. F. Kirby (50 letters), Major St. George
Burton, Mrs. E. J. Burton, Mrs. Agg, Mr. Mostyn Pryce, Dr. Tuckey,
Mr. D. MacRitchie, and Mr. A. G. Ellis. Many of the letters reveal
Burton in quite a new light. His patriotism and his courage were known
of all men, but the womanly tenderness of his nature and his intense
love for his friends will come to many as a surprise. His distress, for
example, on hearing of the death of Drake,[FN#6] is particularly
affecting.
Of the friends of Sir Richard Burton who have been interviewed I must
mention first of all Mr. John Payne. But for Mr. Payne's generous
assistance, this work I must frankly admit, could not have been written.
He, and he alone, held the keys to whole chambers of mystery. Mr.

Payne was at first extremely reluctant to give me the material required.
Indeed, in his first letter of reply to my request for information (7th
August 1904) he declined positively either to enter the lists against
Burton, with whom, he said, he had been on terms of intimate
friendship, or to discuss the matter at all. "As for what," he said, "it
pleases the public to think (save the mark!) of the relative merits of my
own and Burton's translations, I have long ceased to care a straw." But
this led me to write even more pressingly. I assured Mr. Payne that the
public had been unjust to him simply because nobody had hitherto set
himself the great task of comparing the two translations, and because
the true history of the case had never been laid before them. I assured
him that I yielded to nobody in admiration of Sir Richard Burton--that
is, on account of what he (Sir Richard) did do, not on account of what
he did not do; and I gave it as my opinion that Mr. Payne owed it both
to the public and to himself to lay bare the whole story. After several
letters and interviews I at last induced him to give way; and I think the
public will thank me for my persistency.
My revelations, which form an astonishing story, will no doubt come as
a complete surprise to almost everybody. I can imagine them, indeed,
dropping like a bombshell into some circles; but they are founded, not
only upon conversations with Mr. Payne, but upon Burton's own letters
to Mr. Payne, all of which have been in my hands, and careful study of
the two translations. The public, however, cannot possibly be more
surprised than I myself was when I compared the two translations page
by page, I could scarcely believe my own eyes; and only one
conclusion was possible. Burton, indeed, has taken from Payne at least
three-quarters of the entire work. He has transferred many hundreds of
sentences and clauses bodily. Sometimes we come upon a whole page
with only a word or two altered.[FN#7] In short,