With the recent death of Elizabeth Taylor, I have been thinking about the other Mrs Richard Burton - Isabel - and those Burton's life together. One of the great love stories of the 19th century, this seemingly impossible couple met and Isabel fell in love, defying her upper-class family to become the devoted wife and traveling companion of Richard as he lived his "wild, roving, vagabond life". She was his editor, collaborator and most vehement advocate. She defended his oft-besmirched reputation, promoted his writing and successfully campaigned to have him knighted.
During his lifetime, Burton was considered to be an expert horseman and the best swordsman in Europe. Expelled from Trinity College, Burton went on to become an explorer, translator, soldier, poet, spy, diplomat, author, and ethnologist. He spoke 29 European and African languages. Burton was one of the most brilliant men in an era of brilliant men, and he wrote and Isabel edited 43 volumes of his adventures. Best remembered today for his translations and publication of The Arabian Nights, The Kama Sutra and The Perfumed Garden, Burton was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika in his search to discover the source of the Nile. He was also the first European Non-Muslim to enter Mecca (in disguise), was a member of the Royal Geographical Society, was knighted (Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George), and at Isabel's urging and advocacy went on to become an ambassador in Brazil and the Middle East.
His wife Isabel fell instantly in love with this dashing explorer and intellectual at first sight and they married 10 years later. She was a staunch Catholic and did not approve of his translation of the erotic works and is best remembered for her infamous burning of forbidden chapters of the Perfumed Garden, but her support and undying love continued well after his death. The
film "Mountains of the Moon" is based on William Harrison's book of Burton and Speke's journeys, and has a memorable and almost haunting scene where Richard and Isabel make love under the glow of candlelight.
The Burtons' burial place is rather unusual and was constructed as a concrete tomb in the shape of a bedouin tent which survives today at Mortlake Cemetery near Heathrow airport. Isabel chose the design to fulfill Burton's wishes, expressed shortly before his death, that they “lie side by side in a tent” for eternity. Complete with tinkling arab bells, there is a ladder at the rear to a
small viewing window where you can see the couple at rest together. There have been
recent biographies with the centenary of Richard's death and I urge anyone to see Bob Rafelson's 1990 movie "Mountains of the Moon" if they can.
Burn brightly, Pete
