cannot, without great straining, be drawn to fit the
Egyptian Princess. He then proceeds, 'seeing we have so good reason to
conclude that it was not Pharaoh's daughter, we will next endeavour to
shew who she was: and here we are destitute of all manner of light, but
what is afforded us by that little Arabian manuscript, mentioned in the
Philosophical Transactions of Amsterdam, 1558, said to be found in a
marble chest among the ruins of Palmyra, and presented to the university
of Leyden by Dr. Hermanus Hoffman. The contents of which are something
in the nature of Memoirs of the Court of Solomon; giving a sufficient
account of the chief offices and posts in his houshold; of the several
funds of the royal revenue; of the distinct apartments of his palace
there; of the different Seraglios, being fifty two in number in that one
city. Then there is an account given of the Sultanas; their manner of
treatment and living; their birth and country, with some touches of
their personal endowments, how long they continued in favour, and what
the result was of the King's fondness for each of them. Among these,
there is particular mention made of a slave of more exceeding beauty
than had ever been known before; at whose appearance the charms of all
the rest vanished like stars before the morning sun; that the King
cleaved to her with the strongest affection, and was not seen out of the
Seraglio, where she was kept, for about a month. That she was taken
captive, together with her mother, out of a vineyard, on the Coast of
Circassia, by a Corsair of Hiram King of Tyre, and brought to Jerusalem.
It is said, she was placed in the ninth Seraglio, to the east of
Palmyra, which, in the Hebrew tongue, is called Tadmor; which, without
farther particulars, are sufficient to convince us that this was the
charming person, sung with so much rapture by the Royal poet, and in the
recital of whose amour he seems so transported. For she speaks of
herself as one that kept a vineyard, and her mother's introducing her in
one of the gardens of pleasure (as it seems she did at her first
presenting her to the King) is here distinctly mentioned. The manuscript
further takes notice, that she was called Saphira, from the heavenly
blue of her eyes.'

Notwithstanding the caution with which Mr. Croxall published the Fair
Circassian, yet it was some years after known to be his. The success it
met with, which was not indeed above its desert, was perhaps too much
fo