All the gypsies in the country are not upon the roads. Many of them live
in houses, and that very respectably, nay, even aristocratically. Yea,
and it may be, O reader, that thou hast met them and knowest them not,
any more than thou knowest many other deep secrets of the hearts and
lives of those who live around thee. Dark are the ways of the Romany,
strange his paths, even when reclaimed from the tent and the van. It is,
however, intelligible enough that the Rom converted to the true faith of
broadcloth garments by Poole, or dresses by Worth, as well as to the holy
gospel of daily baths and _savon au violet_, should say as little as
possible of his origin. For the majority of the world being snobs, they
continually insist that all blood unlike their own is base, and the child
of the _kalorat_, knowing this, sayeth naught, and ever carefully keeps
the lid of silence on the pot of his birth. And as no being that ever
was, is, or will be ever enjoyed holding a secret, playing a part, or
otherwise entering into the deepest mystery of life--which is to make a
joke of it--so thoroughly as a gypsy, it follows that the being
respectable has to him a raciness and drollery and pungency and point
which passeth faith. It has often occurred to me, and the older I grow
the more I find it true, that the _real_ pleasure which bank presidents,
moral politicians, not a few clergymen, and most other highly
representative good men take in having a high character is the exquisite
secret consciousness of its being utterly undeserved. They love acting.
Let no man say that the love of the drama is founded on the artificial or
sham. I have heard the Reverend Histriomastix war and batter this on the
pulpit; but the utterance _per se_ was an actual, living lie. He was
acting while he preached. Love or hunger is not more an innate passion
than acting. The child in the nursery, the savage by the Nyanza or in
Alaska, the multitude of great cities, all love to bemask and seem what
they are not. Crush out carnivals and masked balls and theatres, and lo,
you! the disguising and acting and masking show themselves in the whole
community. Mawworm and Aminidab Sleek then play a role in every
household, and every child becomes a wretched little Roscius. Verily I
say unto you, the fewer actors the more acting; the fewer theatres the
more stages, and the worse. Lay it to heart, study it deeply, you who
believe that the stage is an open door to hell, for the chances are
ninety and nine to one that if this be true _you_ will end by consciously
or unconsciously keeping a private little gate thereunto. Beloved, put
this in thy pipe and fumigate it, that acting in some form is a human
instinct which cannot be extinguished, which never has been and never
will be; and this being so, is it not better, with Dr. Bellows, to try to
put it into proper form than to crush it? Truly it has been proved that
with this, as with a certain other unquenchable penchant of humanity,
when you suppress a score of professionals you create a thousand zealous
amateurs. There was never in this world a stage on which mere acting was
more skillfully carried out than in all England under Cromwell, or in
Philadelphia under the Quakers. Eccentric dresses, artificial forms of
language, separate and "peculiar" expressions of character unlike those
of "the world," were all only giving a form to that craving for being odd
and queer which forms the soul of masking and acting. Of course people
who act all the time object to the stage. _Le diable ne veut pas de
miroir_.
The gypsy of society not always, but yet frequently, retains a keen
interest in his wild ancestry. He keeps up the language; it is a
delightful secret; he loves now and then to take a look at "the old
thing." Closely allied to the converted sinners are the _aficionados_,
or the ladies and gentlemen born with unconquerable Bohemian tastes,
which may be accounted for by their having been themselves gypsies in
preexistent lives. No one can explain how or why it is that the
_aficion_ comes upon them. It is _in_ them. I know a very learned man
in England, a gentleman of high position, one whose name is familiar to
my readers. He could never explain or understand why from early
childhood he had felt himself drawn towards the wanderers. When he was
only ten years old he saved up all his little store of pence wherewith to
pay a tinker to give him lessons in Romany, in which tongue he is now a
Past Grand. I know ladies in England and in America, both of the blood
and otherwise, who would give up a ball of the highest flight in society,
to sit an hour in a gypsy tent, and on whom a whispered word of Romany
acts like wild-fire. Great as my experience has been I can really no
more explain the intensity of this yearning, this _rapport_, than I can
fly. My own fancy for gypsydom is faint and feeble compared to what I
have found in many others. It is in them like the love for opium, for
music, for love itself, or for acting. I confess that there is to me a
nameless charm in the strangely, softly flowing language, which gives a
sweeter sound to every foreign word which it adopts, just as the melody
of a forest stream is said to make more musical the songs of the birds
who dwell beside it. Thus Wentzel becomes Wenselo and Anselo; Arthur,
Artaros; London, Lundra; Sylvester, Westaros. Such a phrase as "_Dordi_!
_dovelo adoi_?" (See! what is that there?) could not be surpassed for
mere beauty of sound.
It is apropos of living double lives, and playing parts, and the charm of
stealing away unseen, like naughty children, to romp with the tabooed
offspring of outlawed neighbors, that I write this, to introduce a letter
from a lady, who has kindly permitted me to publish it. It tells its own
story of two existences, two souls in one. I give it as it was written,
first in Romany, and then in English:--
_Febmunti_ 1_st_.
MIRO KAMLO PAL,--Tu tevel mishto ta shun te latcherdum me akovo
kurikus tacho Romany tan akai adre o gav. Buti kamaben lis sas ta
dikk mori foki apopli; buti kushti ta shun moro jib. Mi-duvel atch
apa mande, si ne shomas pash naflo o Gorginess, vonk' akovo vias. O
waver divvus sa me viom fon a swell saleskro haben, dikdom me dui
Romani chia beshin alay apre a longo skamin adre --- Square. Kalor
yakkor, kalor balyor, lullo diklas apre i sherria, te lender trushnia
aglal lender piria. Mi-duvel, shomas pash divio sar kamaben ta dikav
lender! Avo! kairdum o wardomengro hatch i graia te sheldom avri,
"_Come here_!" Yon penden te me sos a rani ta dukker te vian sig
adosta. Awer me saldom te pendom adre Romanis: "Sarishan miri
dearis! Tute don't jin mandy's a Romany!" Yon nastis patser lende
kania nera yakkor. "Mi-duvel! Sa se tiro nav? putchde yeck. "Miro
nav se Britannia Lee." Kenna-sig yon diktas te me sos tachi, te
penden amengi lender navia shanas M. te D. Lis sos duro pa lende ta
jin sa a Romani rani astis jiv amen Gorgios, te dikk sa Gorgious,
awer te vel kushti Romani aja, te tevel buoino lakis kaloratt. Buti
rakkerdem apre mori foki, buti nevvi, buti savo sos rumado, te beeno,
te puredo, savo sos vino fon o puro tem, te butikumi aja kekkeno sos
rakkerben sa gudli. M. pende amengi, "Mandy don't jin how tute can
jiv among dem Gorgies." Pukerdom anpali: "Mandy dont jiv, mandy mers
kairin amen lender." Yon mangades mande ta well ta dikk a len, adre
lendes ker apre o chumba kai atchena pa o wen. Pende M., "Av miri
pen ta ha a bitti sar mendi. Tute jins the chais are only kerri
aratti te Kurrkus."
Sunday sala miri pen te me ghion adoi te latchedon o ker. O tan sos
bitto, awer sa i Romanis pende, dikde boro adosta paller jivin adre o
wardo. M. sos adoi te lakis roms dye, a kushti puri chai. A. sar
shtor chavia. M. kerde haben sa mendui viom adoi. I puri dye sos
mishto ta dikk mande, yoi kamde ta jin sar trustal mande. Rakkerdem
buti aja, te yoi pende te yoi ne kekker latchde a Romani rani denna
mande. Pendom me ke laki shan adre society kumi Romani rania, awer i
galderli Gorgios ne jinena lis.
Yoi pende sa miri pen dikde simlo Lusha Cooper, te siggerde lakis
kaloratt butider denna me. "Tute don't favor the Coopers, miri
dearie! Tute pens tiri dye rummerd a mush navvered Smith. Was adovo
the Smith as lelled kellin te kurin booths pasher Lundra Bridge? Sos
tute beeno adre Anglaterra?" Pukkerdom me ke puri dye sar jinav me
trustal miri kokeri te simensi. Tu jinsa shan kek Gorgies sa
longi-bavoli apre genealogies, sa i puri Romani dyia. Vonka foki
nastis chin lende adre lilia, rikkerena lende aduro adre lendros
sherria. _Que la main droit perd recueille la gauche_.
"Does tute jin any of the ---'s?" pende M. "Tute dikks sim ta ---'s
juva." "Ne kekker, yois too pauno,' pens A. "It's chomani adre the
look of her," pende M.
Dikkpali miro pal. Tu jinsa te --- sos i chi savo dudikabinde
manush, navdo --- buti wongur. Vanka yoi sos lino apre, o
Beshomengro pende ta ker laki chiv apre a shuba sims Gorgios te
adenne lelled laki adre a tan sar desh te dui gorgi chaia. ---
astissa pen i chai savo chorde lestis lovvo. Vanka yoi vias adre o
tan, yoi ghias sig keti laki, te pende: "Jinava me laki talla lakis
longi vangusti, te rinkeni mui. Yoi sos stardi dui beshya, awer o
Gorgio kekker las leski vongur pali."
Savo-chirus mendi rakkerden o wuder pirido, te trin manushia vian
adre. . . . Pali lenders sarishans, M. shelde avri: "Av ta misali,
rikker yer skammins longo tute! Mrs. Lee, why didn't tute bring yer
rom?" "Adenna me shom kek rumadi." "Mi-duvel, Britannia!" pende ---
"M. pende amengy te tu sos rumado." "M. didn't dukker tacho vonka
yoi dukkerd adovo. Yois a dinneli," pendom me. Te adenne sar mendi
saden atut M. Haben sos kushto, loim a kani, ballovas te puvengros,
te kushto curro levina. Liom mendi kushto paiass dre moro puro
Romany dromus. Rinkenodiro sos, kerde mande pash ta ruv, shomas sa
kushto-bakno ta atch yecker apopli men mori foki. Sos "Britannia!"
akai, te "Britannia!" doi, te sar sa adre o puro cheirus, vonka chavi
shomas. Ne patserava me ta Dante chinde:--
"Nessun maggior dolore
Che ricordarsi dei tempi felici."
Talla me shomas kushto-bakno ta pen apre o puro chirus. Sar lende
piden miro kamaben Romaneskaes, sar gudlo; talla H. Yov pende nastis
ker lis, pa yuv kenna lias tabuti. Kushto dikin Romnichal yuv. Tu
tevel jin lesti sarakai pa Romani, yuv se sa kalo. Te _avec l'air
indefinnissable du vrai Bohemien_. Yuv patserde me ta piav miro
sastopen wavescro chirus. Kana shomas pa misali, geero vias keti
ian; dukkeriben kamde yov. Hunali sos i puri dye te pendes amergi,
"Beng lel o puro jukel for wellin vanka mendi shom hain, te kenna tu
shan akai, miri Britannia Yov ne tevel lel kek kushto bak. Mandy'll
pen leste a wafedo dukkerin." Adoi A. putcherde mengy, "Does tute
dukker or sa does tute ker." "Miri pen, mandy'll pen tute tacho.
Mandy dukkers te dudikabins te kers buti covvas. Shom a tachi Romani
chovihani." "Tacho! tacho!" saden butider. Miri pen te me rikkerdem
a boro matto-morricley pa i chavis. Yon beshden alay apre o purj,
hais lis. Rinkeno _picture_ sas, pendom dikkav mande te miri penia
te pralia kenna shomas bitti. Latcherdom me a tani kali chavi of
panj besh chorin levina avri miro curro. Dikde, sar lakis bori kali
yakka te kali balia simno tikno Bacchante, sa yoi prasterde adrom.
Pendom parako pa moro kushto-bakeno chirus--"kushto bak" te "kushto
divvus." Mendi diom moro tachopen ta well apopli, te kan viom kerri.
Patserava dikk tute akai talla o prasterin o ye graia. Kushto bak te
kushto ratti.
Sarja tiro pen,