Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 108 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 108: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is a running prose page (page 82) from what appears to be a poetic narrative titled "Salaman and Absal." The visible text consists of quoted dialogue about fallen lust and paradise, followed by philosophical reflection on love's sorrows—specifically how harsh friendship and excessive counsel can embitter love and cause inner turmoil. The passage describes how the character Salaman heard these words, became confused rather than reproached, and lost his joy. A footnote queries Islamic law regarding the Cock as a symbol of caution for polygamy. The work appears to be a literary/allegorical poem rather than typical penny dreadful sensation fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
82 SALAMAN AND ABSAL. ‘* Lust to this uneleanly living “ With my sorry mates about me “ Thus am fallen. Otherwise, “ I were prophesying Dawn “ Before the gates of Paradise.” Or all the Lover’s sorrows, next to that Of Love by Love forbidden, is the voice Of Friendship turning harsh in Love’s reproof, And overmuch of Counsel—whereby Love Grows stubborn, and recoiling unsupprest Within, devours the heart within the breast. SaLAMAN heard ; his Soul came to his lips; Reproaches struck not ABSAL out of him, But drove Confusion in; bitter became The drinking of the sweet draught of Delight, And wan’d the splendour of his Moon of Beauty. His breath was Indignation, and his heart 1 Jami, as, may be, other Saintly Doctors, kept soberly to one Wife. But wherefore, under the Law of Muhammad, should the | Cock be selected (as I suppose he is) for a “ Caution,” because of his indulgence in Polygamy, however unusual among Birds ? } (C(O) MIGDoOo KS _iCO ann