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Home > Poems > Kubla Khan > Sources > Samuel Purchas > 4. Damsels in Paradise |
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Samuel Purchas
4. Damsels in Paradise
The finale of the poem seems to have taken some inspiration from Purchas's
description of the way the Old Man of the Mountains set up a sensual
paradise, then drugged young men with a drink, making them think they had
really been to paradise, with women singing, playing instruments, and giving
pleasure for four or five days.
Then the men were drugged again, and returned to their regular life.
The old man told them that they could have this paradise, with its milk and
honey, and its singing damsels, if they followed his orders. The men were
willing to give up their lives to return to this fools' paradise. Named for
the drug hashish, they became assassins.
Coleridge envisions a damsel with a dulcimer, playing and singing, winning
him to deep delight, but when others hear, they would cry, Beware,
Beware…because this man has fed on honeydew and drunk the milk of Paradise.
The paradise that is delightful and frightening, charming and potentially
deadly, needs to be surrounded with a magic circle, to contain its power.
Text
There by divers Pipes answering divers parts of those Palaces were seene to
runne Wine, Milke, Honey, and cleere Water. In them hee had placed goodly
Damosels skilfull in Songs and Instruments of Musicke and Dancing, and to
make Sports and Delights unto men whatsoever they could imagine. They were
also fairely attired in Gold and Silke, and were seene to goe continually
sporting in the Garden and Palaces. He made this Palace, because Mahomet had
promised such a sensuall Paradise to his devout followers…
Aloadine had certaine Youthes from twelve to twentie yeares of age, such as
seemed of a bold and undoubted disposition, whom hee instructed daily
touching Mahomets Paradise, and how hee could bring men thither. And when he
thought good, he caused a certaine Drinke to bee given unto ten or twelve of
them, which cast them in a dead sleepe: and then hee caused them to be
carried into divers Chambers of the said Palaces, where they saw the things
aforesaid as soone as they awaked: each of them having those Damosels to
minister Meates and excellent Drinkes, and all varieties of pleasures to
them; insomuch that the Fooles thought themselves in Paradise indeed. When
they had enjoyed those pleasures foure or five dayes, they were againe cast
in a sleepe, and carried forth againe. After which, he…questioned where they
had beene, which answered, by your Grace, in paradise….Then the old
man
answered, This is the commandement of our Prophet, that whosoever defends is
Lord, he make him enter Paradise: and if thou wilt bee obedient to mee, thou
shalt have this grace. And having thus animated them, hee was thought happie
whom the old man would command, though it cost him his life: so that other
Lords and his Enemies were slaine by these his Assasines, which exposed
themselves to all dangers, and contemned their lives.
--Purchas his Pilgrimes, Book XI, pp. 208-209. |
Other sources
William Bartram
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