Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 25 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This is a **running prose page** (specifically, an introductory or editorial note) rather than fiction text itself. The visible text discusses the formal structure and translation choices behind selections from the *Rubaiyat* (spelled here "Rubáiyát"), a Persian poetic work. The author explains the alphabetic rhyme scheme of the original, notes that the selected verses have been arranged into an "Eclogue," and comments critically on the poem's philosophical tone—suggesting it movingly expresses human sorrow about mortality and fate rather than genuine merriment, despite the "drink and make-merry" theme that recurs in the original. The page appears to preface a poetic selection rather than being part of the penny dreadful's sensation fiction narrative itself.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE ASTRONOMER-POET OF PERSIA. rhyming, but oftener (as here imitated) the third line a blank. Sometimes as in the Greek Alcaic, where the penultimate line seems to lift and suspend the Wave that falls over in the last. As usual with such kind of Oriental Verse, the Rubdaiyét follow one another according to Alphabetic Rhyme—a strange succession of Grave and Gay. Those here selected are strung into something of an Eclogue, with perhaps a less than equal proportion of the “Drink and make-merry,” which (genuine or not) recurs over-frequently in the Original. Either way, the Result is sad enough: saddest perhaps when most ostentatiously merry: more apt to move Sorrow than Anger toward the old Tentmaker, who, after vainly endeavouring to unshackle his Steps from Destiny, and to catch some authentic Glimpse of To-morrow, fell back upon To-pay (which has out- lasted so many To-morrows !) as the only Ground he got to stand upon, however mgmentarilyslipp from-undexbisleets Conn iG DOO Se (C@)