Uarda | Page 2

forms the foundation of
the story.
The treason of the Regent related by the Father of history is referable
perhaps to the reign of the third and not of the second Rameses. But it
is by no means certain that the Halicarnassian writer was in this case
misinformed; and in this fiction no history will be inculcated, only as a
background shall I offer a sketch of the time of Sesostris, from a
picturesque point of view, but with the nearest possible approach to
truth. It is true that to this end nothing has been neglected that could be

learnt from the monuments or the papyri; still the book is only a
romance, a poetic fiction, in which I wish all the facts derived from
history and all the costume drawn from the monuments to be regarded
as incidental, and the emotions of the actors in the story as what I
attach importance to.
But I must be allowed to make one observation. From studying the
conventional mode of execution of ancient Egyptian art--which was
strictly subject to the hieratic laws of type and proportion--we have
accustomed ourselves to imagine the inhabitants of the Nile-valley in
the time of the Pharaohs as tall and haggard men with little distinction
of individual physiognomy, and recently a great painter has sought to
represent them under this aspect in a modern picture. This is an error;
the Egyptians, in spite of their aversion to foreigners and their strong
attachment to their native soil, were one of the most intellectual and
active people of antiquity; and he who would represent them as they
lived, and to that end copies the forms which remain painted on the
walls of the temples and sepulchres, is the accomplice of those priestly
corrupters of art who compelled the painters and sculptors of the
Pharaonic era to abandon truth to nature in favor of their sacred laws of
proportion.
He who desires to paint the ancient Egyptians with truth and fidelity,
must regard it in some sort as an act of enfranchisement; that is to say,
he must release the conventional forms from those fetters which were
peculiar to their art and altogether foreign to their real life. Indeed,
works of sculpture remain to us of the time of the first pyramid, which
represent men with the truth of nature, unfettered by the sacred canon.
We can recall the so-called "Village Judge" of Bulaq, the "Scribe" now
in Paris, and a few figures in bronze in different museums, as well as
the noble and characteristic busts of all epochs, which amply prove
how great the variety of individual physiognomy, and, with that, of
individual character was among the Egyptians. Alma Tadelna in
London and Gustav Richter in Berlin have, as painters, treated
Egyptian subjects in a manner which the poet recognizes and accepts
with delight.
Many earlier witnesses than the late writer Flavius Vopiscus might be
referred to who show us the Egyptians as an industrious and peaceful
people, passionately devoted it is true to all that pertains to the other

world, but also enjoying the gifts of life to the fullest extent, nay
sometimes to excess.
Real men, such as we see around us in actual life, not silhouettes
constructed to the old priestly scale such as the monuments show
us--real living men dwelt by the old Nile-stream; and the poet who
would represent them must courageously seize on types out of the daily
life of modern men that surround him, without fear of deviating too far
from reality, and, placing them in their own long past time, color them
only and clothe them to correspond with it.
I have discussed the authorities for the conception of love which I have
ascribed to the ancients in the preface to the second edition of "An
Egyptian Princess."
With these lines I send Uarda into the world; and in them I add my
thanks to those dear friends in whose beautiful home, embowered in
green, bird- haunted woods, I have so often refreshed my spirit and
recovered my strength, where I now write the last words of this book.
Rheinbollerhutte, September 22, 1876. GEORG EBERS.

PREFACE
TO THE FIFTH GERMAN EDITION.
The earlier editions of "Uarda" were published in such rapid succession,
that no extensive changes in the stereotyped text could be made; but
from the first issue, I have not ceased to correct it, and can now present
to the public this new fifth edition as a "revised" one.
Having felt a constantly increasing affection for "Uarda" during the
time I was writing, the friendly and comprehensive attention bestowed
upon it by our greatest critics and the favorable reception it met with in
the various classes of society, afforded me the utmost pleasure.
I owe the most sincere gratitude to