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Dissidence 179“he himself would needs represent Mahomet; and one of themistresses whom he loved best […] Cadiga, the favourite wife ofthe great prophet,” for which “wild and profane idea” he sleepsforty years (ibid.:705); finally, when his “appetites palled withabundance,” he begins to delight in “cruelty” and brutally killsCadiga, thereafter sleeping twenty years (ibid.:710). Upon wakingNourjahad reforms and embarks on a vast program ofphilanthropy, so profoundly regretting his wealth and immortalitythat his guardian genius reappears to take them away. It issubsequently revealed that Nourjahad’s “adventure […] was all adeception” (ibid.:719), he did not actually kill Cadiga, he was neverwealthy or immortal, and only fourteen months have passed, notmore than sixty years. Schemzeddin had invented everything tobring about his favorite’s moral reformation.Shelley’s allusion to Sheridan’s tale puts into play several themesdense with ideological significance. Nourjahad appears “happy” toWinzy, most obviously, because the burden of his immortality waseased by long periods of sleep and finally removed. Yet givenWinzy’s relationship to Bertha, Nourjahad would also be enviablebecause he was finally reunited and married to his belovedMandana, “a young maid, so exquisitely charming andaccomplished, that he gave her the entire possession of his heart”(Weber 1812:698), but was later deceived that she died in childbirth.What distinguished Nourjahad’s relationship to Mandana was thathe chose her as his confidant—“longing to unbosom himself to oneon whose tenderness and fidelity he could rely, to her he disclosedthe marvellous story of his destiny” (ibid.)—thereby exemplifyingthe eighteenth-century rise of companionate marriage, whichstressed domestic friendship, a sharing of affection and interestsbetween the spouses, while maintaining the husband’s authority(Stone 1977). It was no doubt this antecedent of Shelley’s ownconcept of egalitarian marriage, in addition to the fantastic premiseof immortality, that attracted her to Sheridan’s tale, especially sinceit occurs within a narrative that can be read as a critique ofpatriarchy. For The History of Nourjahad, like “The Mortal Immortal,”questions a patriarchal gender image: Nourjahad represents malephysical superiority pushed to destructive extremes of violenceagainst women. Hence, when Winzy compares himself toNourjahad, Shelley’s text signals that it will address genderdifferences and offers any reader of The Keepsake who could make thecomparison and shared Wollstonecraft’s thinking a feminist joke at