years in examining and publishing documents. The defect of the work is, that notices of so many insignificant artists are introduced, as to confuse the reader and obscure the names of historic importance. The German portion is a work of great research, especially as it relates to early times.—R. N. W.
FIRDUSI, the Takhalùs, or poetical title of Abul Kasim Mansur, one of the most illustrious of the poets of Persia. The time of his birth has been variously stated. M. Mohl, from internal evidence in the "Shah Nameh," fixes upon the 329th year of the hegira, while Sir Gore Ouseley gives a year earlier, corresponding to 937 of our era. The place of his nativity was Schadab, in the neighbourhood of Tus, in the province of Khorassan. Is'hak Ibn Sherif Shah, his father, was a person of some position, possessing a property, and being gardener to the governor of the district. It is recorded that on the birth of his son he had a dream, which was interpreted to signify that the child "should be a great scholar, whose fame would reach all the four quarters of the earth." He was carefully educated from his sixth year, and his proficiency was rapid, so that he soon acquired the utmost perfection in science and literature, both in Persian and Arabic, and attained to great purity of language and poetical style. There are no authentic accounts of Firdusi from this period to his departure from Tus, except that his love of poetry induced him to attempt the continuation of "The Book of the Persian Kings," which Dakiki had begun, and was occupied in until his untimely death. Having by good fortune obtained a copy of the Ancient History of Persia, he commenced with the war between Feridun and Zohak, the versification of which delighted all to whom he showed it. Firdusi's fame had reached Ghazni, and the Sultan Mahmud, who had previously committed to seven poets the translation of the History, directed that Firdusi should be sent to him. The bard departed reluctantly, and, notwithstanding an attempt to obstruct him, ultimately arrived at Ghazni at the close of evening, and entered a garden, where it happened the great poet Ansari, with some brother poets and friends, were enjoying themselves. Firdusi saluted them, and they, not knowing who he was, determined to rid themselves of him by proposing to extemporize three verses of a quatrain, to which he was to supply the fourth. This he did in a manner to excite their admiration. Firdusi now composed the episode of Rustan and Isfendiar, which was shown to the sultan, and not only astonished and captivated him, but caused a general delight amongst those who heard it. The author was immediately summoned to the presence, and was at once pronounced to be superior to all the poets of the court. The sultan committed to Firdusi the entire work of versifying "The Book of the Kings," directing his vizier to pay him a thousand drachms of gold for every thousand couplets he should produce, and ordered a house to be built for him, that he might not be interrupted in his work. Firdusi thereupon devoted his whole energies to the composition, and on completing the first thousand couplets received the amount stipulated for it. However, he failed to pay his court to the vizier, Hasan Meimandi, who became his bitter enemy, and refused him whatever he required, so that he wanted almost his daily bread while labouring at his great work. When the work was completed, after a labour of thirty years, the vizier persuaded the sultan to offer the poet sixty thousand drachms of silver instead of gold. Firdusi, indignant at this treatment, distributed the money between the person who brought it, the owner of a bath where he happened to be at the time, and a vender of a beverage called fikaa. This insult, together with the representation of the vizier that he was an infidel, enraged the sultan so much, that he condemned the poet to be trampled to death under the feet of elephants, a fate that was averted by the supplication of Firdusi, who was ordered instantly to leave the kingdom. Before doing so, he sought the apartment of Ayaz, the favourite slave of the sultan, and having written a bitter invective against the sultan, he delivered it sealed to Ayaz, requesting him to give it at a proper time to the sultan. Firdusi then fled from Ghazni by night, and was received by Muhteshim, prince of Kohistan, with great respect, who gave him forty thousand drachms and forwarded him on his journey. The poet at length reached Bagdad, where he hoped to pass the remainder of his days in obscurity, occupied with the correction and improvement of the "Shah Nameh," the great object and solace of his life. In the meantime Ayaz had given Mahmud the satire of Firdusi. In the midst of the monarch's rage, he received a letter from the prince of Kohistan, reproaching him for his treatment of the poet. The sultan, though regretting that he had driven from his court the greatest poet of his age, could not forgive the indignity inflicted on himself by Firdusi, for whose apprehension he offered a large reward. A casual recognition by a merchant at Bagdad, led to the introduction of Firdusi to the vizier of the kalif, and through him to the kalif himself, who loaded him with honours and presents, and promised to protect him. The sultan wrote an insolent letter to the kalif demanding that Firdusi should be sent to him, threatening to lay waste Bagdad in case of noncompliance. The kalif returned the missive with a contemptuous and sarcastic witticism, and the sultan did not dare to proceed further in the matter. Time and circumstances gradually wrought a change in the mind of the sultan; he remembered the delight which the social charms, the wit, and the genius of the poet had yielded him for so many years, and the glory his learning had shed through his court; and he found, too, how grossly Firdusi had been calumniated to him. At last the monarch conveyed to the poet his full forgiveness. Upon this he returned to his native Tus, broken down in health and aged, yet still occupying himself with the darling object of his existence. The sultan followed up his pardon by despatching to the bard the sixty thousand drachms of gold, with many costly presents. But the act of reparation came too late. Passing through the streets, the old man heard a child singing a verse from one of his own compositions, which recalled to his mind with such painful intensity his wrongs and sufferings, that he was seized with sudden faintness, and being carried into his house expired, in the eighty-third year of his age, in 1020. As the bier with the remains of the immortal poet passed through one gate to the cemetery without the city, the envoy of the sultan on the laden camels entered by another. The money and the gifts were offered to his daughter, who refused them with the bitter disdain of one who felt her father's wrongs. But the money was expended in the erection of a work which the poet had ever wished to accomplish—a bridge and caravansera in Tus. Thus perished—poor, infirm, and unhappy—the most ingenious, the most erudite, and the most industrious poet of his age and nation; the author of an epic which Sir William Jones calls "a glorious monument of eastern genius and learning, which, if it ever should be generally understood in its original language, will contest the merit of invention with Homer himself." Numerous copies of the "Shah Nameh" exist, but the text has been so corrupted and deteriorated by ignorant transcribers, and the discrepancies in them are so numerous and important, and the lengths so different, ranging from 46,982 couplets to 56,588, that it is difficult to pronounce upon the true version. Translations of the whole or parts of the work have been made in our own language, and into French and German, by several able scholars. Above all must be placed the magnificent translation and commentary, as well as the laboriously collated and rectified text, by M. Mohl, four folio volumes of which are already published, and the completion of which shall have exhausted the subject. To the biographical notice in this most learned work, as well as to that by Sir Gore Ouseley, we have to acknowledge our great obligations in preparing this notice.—J. F. W.
FIRENZUOLA, Angelo, was born at Florence on the 28th of September, 1493. He studied at Siena, and at Perugia, where he became acquainted with the famous Aretino. Having adopted the legal profession, he went to Rome in the hope of finding employment; but his intimacy with Aretino, who had preceded him thither, and the dissipation of his life, no doubt injured his prospects. Tiraboschi most emphatically contradicts the statement advanced by many of his biographers, that he entered the church and became a member of the order of Vallombrosa; and certainly neither the habits nor the writings of Firenzuola gave any countenance to the idea of his ever having been a monk. There exists, however, a letter of Aretino, in which he tells Firenzuola—"I have known you a student at Perugia, a citizen of Florence, and a prelate at Rome." Moreover, there are documents extant in which he is styled abbot, and in which a meeting of prelates is mentioned, amongst whom we find Firenzuola's name. After the death of Pope Clement VII., he left Rome and went to Florence, then to Prato, where he wrote some of his poetry, and eight novels, not less licentious than those of his predecessor Boccaccio, whose style and manners he seems to have imitated. Against Trissino's attempt to introduce into the Italian language seven new letters, Firenzuola
