Of Course, Like All Minstrels, He Was An Absurd
Flatterer, And, Having Gathered A Few Facts For His Theme, He
Wandered Slightly From The Truth In His Poetical Description Of
My Deeds.
He sang of me as though I had been Richard Coeur de Lion, and
recounted, before an admiring throng
Of listeners, how "I had
wandered with a young wife from my own distant country to fight
the terrible Base; how I had slain them in single combat; and how
elephants and lions were struck down like lambs and kids by my
hands; that during my absence in the hunt, my wife had been
carried off by the Base; that I had, on my return to my pillaged
camp, galloped off in chase, and, overtaking the enemy, hundreds
had fallen by my rifle and sword, and I had liberated and
recovered the lady, who now had arrived safe with her lord in the
country of the great Mek Nimmur," &c. &c. &c.
This was all very pretty, no doubt, and as true as most poetical
and musical descriptions, but I felt certain that there must be
something to pay for this flattering entertainment; if you are
considered to be a great man, a present is invariably expected in
proportion to your importance. I suggested to Taher Noor that I
must give him a couple of dollars. "What!" said Taher Noor, "a
couple of dollars! Impossible! a musician of his standing it
accustomed to receive thirty and forty dollars from great people
for so beautiful and honourable a song."
This was somewhat startling; I began to reflect upon the price of
a box at Her Majesty's Theatre in London; but there I was not the
hero of the opera; this minstrel combined the whole affair in a
most simple manner; he was Verdi, Costa, and orchestra all in
one; he was a thorough Macaulay as historian, therefore I had to
pay the composer as well as the fiddler.
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