16 Life and Writings 
of Caiumeras, the first king, and ending 
with that of Yesdejerd, the monarch who 
governed Persia, when that country was 
invaded and subjugated by the Arabs. Reign 
follows reign with undeviating exactness: the 
natural order of events is rarely disturbed ; 
nor are the incidents of the poem made con- 
ducive to the developement of one great 
action, or to the inculcation of any grand 
moral truth. Sometimes indeed we may per- 
ceive a kind of action complete within itself, 
but we may generally trace it rather to the 
unity of some great’ historical event than to 
the design of the poet. As a work of art 
therefore the Shah-nameh is certainly defec- 
tive; and it is unjust, in endeavouring to 
estimate its merits, to bring it into comparison 
with the more regular and classical models of 
European invention. We might indeed liken 
it to the Orlando Furioso, to which it bears 
a considerable resemblance in several res- 
pects, particularly in the irregularity of its 
structure, and the wildness of its incidents ; 
and, still more, in that constant predomi- 
nance of imagination over judgment, which 
characterizes the muse of Ariosto. Nor ought 
we to be so unreasonable as to condemn a 
performance, because it is not written pre- 
cisely on the plan which we should most have 
desired. It is sufficient to establish the ex- 
