JOHN SEALLY

John Seally (1741/2-1795) was an English writer and a clergyman. He was born in Somerset and educated in Bristol, but he had to break off his studies. Later he was ordained to priesthood, founded a school and became a vicar. His oevre includes novels, poems and didactic books, including The loves of Calista and Emira (London 1776); A complete geographical dictionary (2 vols., London 1787); and The lady’s encyclopedia (3 vols., London 1788).

The fragments:

The collection Moral tales after the Eastern manner (1780?) is introduced by the author as being neither like novels ‘so stupid as to disgust the readers,’ nor ‘so luxuriously written as to inflame their passions’. This is a ‘virtuous work’ which appeals to reason rather than to the senses, and which is an ‘antidote against the poison of immorality, too much prevailing in these days of dissipation and folly.’ The two volumes contain one long story and twelve shorter tales. In spite of the subtitle ‘Moral tales of the Arabian’, most of them are set in Persia, Turkey or Tartary, under rulers such as Othman, Amurath, Abbas the Magnificent, and Genghis Khan. Most stories are about tyrannical monarchs lusting after young maidens about to be married to their humble beloveds. They are not particularly moralistic and not always end happily. The two selected tales are in an ‘Arabic’ setting: In ‘Harazan and Selima the intrigue resembles Almoran and Hamet by Hawkesworth: the beloved of Harazan is captured by the caliph, but a geni gives him an magic bracelet with which he can change into the caliph and vice versa. The story ‘Corisman the peasant’ stages Haroun al-Rashid and his vizier Giafar and is about a poor peasant who is appointed a vizier because of his piety.

‘Harazan and Selima,’ in: Moral tales after the Eastern manner, 2 vols., W. Goldsmith, London s.d. [Eighteenth Century Collections Online; Print Editions], vol. 1, pp. 172-204.

‘Corisman the peasant,’ in: id., vol. 2, pp. 42-55.