d Tangiers was given to Mr. (afterwards Sir) W. Kirby Green.
[537] The Burtons were back in Trieste at the end of March.

The success of The Arabian Nights, which was owing entirely to its
anthropological and pornographic notes, was for Sir Richard Burton both
good and bad. It was good because it removed for the remainder of his
life all pecuniary anxieties; it was bad because it led him to devote
himself exclusively to subjects which certainly should not occupy
exclusively the attention of any man. Henceforth every translation was
to be annotated from a certain point of view. [538] One can but
regret this perversity, for the old Roman and other authors have
unpleasantnesses enough without accentuating them. Thus in reading some
sweet poem of Catullus, spoilt by perhaps a single objectionable
line, we do not want our attention drawn particularly to the blemish.
Unfortunately, Sir Richard now made this kind of work his speciality,
and it would be idle--or rather it would be untrue--to deny that he now
chose certain books for translation, not on account of their beautiful
poetry and noble thoughts, but because they lent themselves to pungent
annotation. Indeed, his passion for this sort of literature had become
a monomania. [539] He insisted, however, and he certainly believed, that
he was advancing the interests of science; nor could any argument turn
him. We wish we could say that it was chiefly for their beauties that he
now set himself to translate Catullus, Ausonius, [540] and Apuleius. He
did appreciate their beauties; the poets and the classic prose writers
were to him as the milk of paradise; and some of his annotations would
have illuminated the best passages, but the majority of them were
avowedly to be consecrate to the worst. Having in The Arabian Nights
given the world the fruits of his enquiries in Eastern lands, and said
his say, he might with advantage have let the subject rest. He had
certainly nothing new to tell us about the manners and customs of the
Romans. Then again, for the translating of so delicate, so musical
and so gracious a poet as Catullus he was absolutely and entirely
unqualified. However, to Catullus he now turned. Sirmio and Rome
succeeded to Baghdad and Damascus; jinni and ghoul fled before hoofed
satyrs and old Silenus shaking his green stick of lilies. As we shall
see, however, he did not begin the translation in earnest till January
1890. [541]

149. Mr. A. G. Ellis and Profes