He heeds them not—one smile of hers Is worth a world of worshippers. 297 Fill’d with the cool, inspiring smell, The Enchantress now begins her spell. 302 No sooner was the flowery crown Plac’d on her head, than sleep came down. 305 That all stood hush’d and wondering, And turn’d and look’d into the air. 315 She whispers him with laughing eyes, “Remember, love, the Feast of Roses!” 320 They had now begun to ascend those barren mountains. 321 The marriage was fixed for the morning after her arrival. 329 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE. (WRITTEN ORIGINALLY FOR “LALLA ROOKH” IN THE COLLECTED EDITION OF MOORE’S WORKS.) -------------- The Poem, or Romance, of LALLA ROOKH, having now reached, I understand, its twentieth edition, a short account of the origin and progress of a work which has been hitherto so very fortunate in its course, may not be deemed, perhaps, superfluous or misplaced. It was about the year 1812, that, far more through the encouraging suggestions of friends than from any confident promptings of my own ambition, I conceived the design of writing a Poem upon some Oriental subject, and of those quarto dimensions which Scott’s successful publications in that form had then rendered the regular poetical standard. A negotiation on the subject was opened with the Messrs. Longman in the same year; but, from some causes which I cannot now recollect, led to no decisive result; nor was it till a year or two after, that any further steps were taken in the matter,—their house being the only one, it is right to add, with which, from first to last, I held any communication upon the subject. On this last occasion, Mr. Perry kindly offered himself as my representative in the treaty; and, what with the friendly zeal of my negotiator on the one side, and the prompt and liberal spirit with which he was met on the other, there has seldom, I think, occurred any transaction in which Trade and Poesy have shone out so advantageously in each other’s eyes. The short discussion that then took place, between the two parties, may be comprised in a very few sentences. “I am of opinion,” said Mr. Perry,—enforcing his view of the case by arguments which it is not for me to cite,—“that Mr. Moore ought to receive for his Poem the largest price that has been given, in our day, for such a work.” “That was,” answered the Messrs. Longman, “three thousand guineas.” “Exactly so,” replied Mr. Perry, “and no less a sum ought he to receive.”