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Text: Edgar Allan Poe, "[Prefatory Material to 'Al Aaraaf']," Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems, 1829, pp. 3-9 and 23






[page 2, back of title page, unnumbered:]









[COPY RIGHT SECURED.]







                                                 [Matchett & Woods,  printers.]        
 










[page 3, unnumbered:]










Entiendes, Fabio, lo que voi deciendo?
Toma, si, lo entendio: — Mientes, Fabio.







        
 


[page 4, the back of the page, is blank]






[page 5, unnumbered:]









AL AARAAF.









[page 6, the back of the page, unnumbered:]










What has night to do with sleep?
                                                    COMUS.







        
 










[page 7, unnumbered:]










DEDICATION.
 
Who drinks the deepest' — here's to him.
 
                                                          CLEVELAND







        
 


[page 8, the back of the page, is blank]






[page 9, unnumbered:]










    "A star was discovered by Tycho Brahe which burst forth, in a moment, with a splendor surpassing that of Jupiter — then gradually faded away and became invisible to the naked eye."







        
 


[page 10, the back of the page, is blank]








Notes:

The quotation on page 3 ("Entiendes, Fabio, lo que . . .") is presumably from a Spanish play, now forgotten. The translation reads: "Fabio, do you understand what I tell you? / Yes, Thomas, I understand it: — Fabio, you lie."

The quotation on page 6 ("What has night to do with sleep") is from line 22 of John Milton's (1608-1674) morality play, "Comus," written about 1634.

This quotation on page 7 is from line 36 of "A Song of Sack," collected in The Works of John Cleveland, 1687. The attribution to John Cleveland (1613-1658) is no longer certain, but Poe would have had no reason to doubt it in 1829.
 
In the original, these quotations are on individual pages, as noted above.

The facsimile printed in 1929 has an error in the order of front matter. It gives these unnumbered pages as 1/4, 5/2, 3/6, 7/8, 9/10. One of these erroneous copies was used for the 1973 reprint by Folcroft Library Editions.





 
[S:1 - ATMP, 1829 (fac, 1933)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Prefatory Material to Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems