"To stop my ears so hard with cotton, answered the princess, that I may not hear the voices, and by that means prevent the impression they may make upon my mind, and that I may not lose the use of my reason."
The Story of Two Sisters, Who Envied Their Younger Sister [from Arabian Nights' Entertainments]
81 entries in ESTC (1706, 1712, 1713, 1715, 1717, 1718, 1721, 1722, 1725, 1726, 1728, 1730, 1736, 1744, 1745, 1748, 1753, 1754, 1763, 1767, 1772, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1781, 1783, 1785, 1789, 1790, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1800).<br>
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See Antoine Galland's <u>Mille et une Nuit</u> (1704-1717); translated into English from 1706 to 1721 (six volumes published in French and translated into English by 1706; 1717 vols. xi and xii published and translated).<br>
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Some text from <u>Tales of the East: Comprising the Most Popular Romances of Oriental Origin</u>, ed. Henry Weber, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1812). &lt;<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=EwEyAQAAMAAJ">Link to Google Books</a>&gt;<br>
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Reading <u>Arabian Nights Entertainments</u>, ed. Robert L. Mack (Oxford: OUP, 1995). [Mack bases his text on Weber's <u>Tales of the East</u>]<br>
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This text confirmed in <a href="http://find.galegroup.com/ecco/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=ECCO&userGroupName=viva_uva&tabID=T001&docId=CW3309104225&type=multipage&contentSet=ECCOArticles&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE">ECCO</a>.