Chapter I: Front Matter

THE WEIRD OF THE WANDERER

THE WEIRD OF
THE WANDERER

BEING THE PAPYRUS RECORDS
OF SOME INCIDENTS IN ONE
OF THE PREVIOUS LIVES OF
MR. NICHOLAS CRABBE
HERE PRODUCED BY
PROSPERO & CALIBAN

LONDON
WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED
CATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1912

_First Published in 1912_

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

TO THE MAGNIFICENT MAN

DOMENICO COMPARETTI

ROMAN OF ROME,
SENATOR OF THE KINGDOM,
KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF CIVIL MERIT OF SAVOY,
OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF ST. MAURICE AND ST. LAZARUS,
COMMANDER OF THE ORDER OF THE CROWN OF ITALY,
D.C.L. (_honoris causâ_) in the Universities of Oxford, Athens,
Cracow; Professor Emeritus in the University of Pisa and the Royal
Higher Institute of Florence; National-Member of the Royal Academy
of the Lincei, and of the Royal Academies of Sciences of Naples and
Turin; Academic-Correspondent of the Royal Academy della Crusca;
Correspondent-Member of the Royal Institute of Lombardy and the Veneto,
of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Bologna, of the Royal Academies
of Munich and Copenhagen, of the Imperial Academies of Vienna and
Petersburgh; Foreign Member of the Institute of France; Ordinary Member
of the German Archæological Institute of Rome, of the Archæological
Society of Athens, of the Syllogos Filol. of Constantinople, of the
Ugro-Finn Society of Helsingfors, of the Estone Society of Dorpat, etc.
etc. etc.

THIS LITTLE BOOK,

WITH OBSERVANCE AND WITH REVERENCE,

IS DEDICATED,

TO DIVERT HIS LEISURE.

[_Misce stultitiam conciliis brevem
Dulce est desipere in loco._

HORACE TO VERGIL, _Od._ 13, _Lib._ iv.]

PROSPERO _loq._ . . . . . I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou didst not (savage)
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I informed thy purposes
With words.

CALIBAN _loq._ . . . . . Remember,
First, to possess his books: for, without them,
He’s but a sot, as I am.

_Shakespeare’s_ TEMPEST.