"After the princess had passed by Aladdin, and got into the baths, he remained some time astonished and confounded, and in a kind of extacy, in reflecting and imprinting the idea of so charming an object deeply in his mind."

— Anonymous


Author
Date
1712, 1721 [1706-21]
Metaphor
"After the princess had passed by Aladdin, and got into the baths, he remained some time astonished and confounded, and in a kind of extacy, in reflecting and imprinting the idea of so charming an object deeply in his mind."
Metaphor in Context
After the princess had passed by Aladdin, and got into the baths, he remained some time astonished and confounded, and in a kind of extacy, in reflecting and imprinting the idea of so charming an object deeply in his mind: But at last considering that the princess was gone past him, and that when she returned from the bath her back would be towards him, and she veiled, he resolved to quit his post, and go home. But when he came there, he could not conceal his uneasiness so well, but that his mother perceived it, and was very much surprised to see him so much more thoughtful and melancholy than usual, and asked him what had happened to him to make him so ? Aladdin returned no answer, but sat carelessly down on the sofa, and remained in the same condition, full of the image of the charming Badroulbadour. His mother, who was dressing supper, pressed him no more; but when it was ready, set it on the table before him; but perceiving that he gave no attention to it, bade him eat, which she had much ado to persuade him to; and when he did, it was with great indifference, and all the time cast down his eyes, and observed so great a silence, that she could not possibly get the least word out of him, to know the reason of so extraordinary an alteration. (I, p. 350; pp. 668-9 in Mack's ed.)
Provenance
Searching in Google Books
Citation
81 entries in ESTC (1706, 1712, 1713, 1715, 1717, 1718, 1721, 1722, 1725, 1726, 1728, 1730, 1736, 1744, 1745, 1748, 1753, 1754, 1763, 1767, 1772, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1781, 1783, 1785, 1789, 1790, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1800).

See Antoine Galland's Mille et une Nuit (1704-1717); translated into English from 1706 to 1721 (six volumes published in French and translated into English by 1706; 1717 vols. xi and xii published and translated).

Some text from Tales of the East: Comprising the Most Popular Romances of Oriental Origin, ed. Henry Weber, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1812). <Link to Google Books>

Reading Arabian Nights Entertainments, ed. Robert L. Mack (Oxford: OUP, 1995). [Mack bases his text on Weber's Tales of the East]
Date of Entry
06/20/2014

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.