This work, sometimes called 'The New Arabian Nights,' is an imitation
of Galland's marvellous production, and may be considered a sort of
continuation of it. Dom Chavis brought the manuscripts to France, and
agreed with Mr. Cazotte to collaborate, the former translating the
Arabic into French, and the latter metamorphosing the manner and
matter to the style and taste of the day. The work first appeared in
1788-89, and was translated into English in 1792.

Burton, in his Foreword to this volume, gives a full account of these
stories, as translated and edited by Chavis and Cazotte. He himself
gives a translation of eight of them, one of which, The Linguist, the
Duenna, and the King's Son, is interesting, as it contains a series of
conundrums, questions and answers, which may remind the reader of the
story of Abu Al-Husn and his slave-girl Tawaddud, in the 'Nights'
proper, and of the history of Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf and the young
Sayyid, from the Wortley Montague MS. In addition to the eight
translated stories, the sixth volume contains a great deal of matter
in the shape of appendices, such as--Notes on Zotenberg's work on
Aladdin and on various manuscripts of the 'Nights'; Biography of the
work and its Reviewers Reviewed; Opinions of the Press, etc.; but
though well worthy of perusal by the curious, space does not allow of
further allusions to them here.

To sum up, then, shortly, Payne's thirteen volumes contain 193
principal, and 159 subordinate stories, or 352 in all, while Burton's
sixteen volumes contain 231 principal, and 195 subordinate stories, or
426 altogether. These numerous stories, translated from the Calcutta
(1814-18), Calcutta Macnaghten (1839-42), Boulak (Cairo, 1835-36),
Breslau (Tunis), Wortley Montague, Galland and Chavis texts may be
considered to form what is commonly called 'The Arabian Nights
Entertainment.' They date from A.D. 750, which may be considered as
the year of their commencement and that of the Abbaside dynasty, and
go on, continually added to, up to A.D. 1600, or even later. Many
authors have had a hand in the work, the stories themselves having
been derived from Indian, Persian, Arabian, Egyptian, Syrian and
Grecian sources, and adapted, more or less, for Arab readers and
hearers. And as the manuscripts in some of these stories in different
countries do not in any way tally, it must be supposed that no such
work as an original copy of the 'Thousand and One Nights' has ever
been in e