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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 3, unnumbered:]











AL AARAAF.



















[page 4, unnumbered:]











[COPY RIGHT SECURED.]







                                                 [Matchett & Woods,  printers.]        
 











[page 5, unnumbered:]












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







        
 











[page 6, unnumbered:]












What has night to do with sleep?
                                                    COMUS.







        
 











[page 7, unnumbered:]












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







        
 











[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."







        
 













Notes:

The quotation on page 5 ("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.







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