26 Life and Writings 
confidence, as, should the specimens, in their 
present form, not discover the merit which 
they appear to him to possess in their native 
dress, he still hopes that, as a literary curio- 
sity, they may not prove altogether unworthy 
of attention. 
Of a poem many times longer than the 
Iliad, and soirregular in its plan as the Shah- 
nameh, it would be impossible within the pro- 
per limits of asketch, to give a full analysis, 
and the task of selection becomes difficult. 
It would have given the translator greater 
scope, to have chosen indifferently, from 
various parts of his works, examples of . the 
several styles in which Ferdoosee has excel- 
led; but, he wished to. give to his specimens 
the additional interest of connexion, and, at 
the, same time, to afford an opportunity of 
judging of the manner in which the poet con- 
ducts his fable: hehas thought it therefore bet- 
ter, on the whole, to take them from the same 
story, and he has selected for the purpose the 
Episode of Zaul and Roodabah, acknow, 
ledged.to be one of the most beautiful portions 
of the Shah-nameh. Other parts of the poem 
might perhaps furnish us with passages of 
greater sublimity, but few or none are marked 
by more. tenderness and feeling, or a deeper 
