Transcribed from the 1914 Richard Clay and Sons edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org
[Picture: Manuscript of Lord's Prayer in Romany]
A
BIBLIOGRAPHY
OF
THE WRITINGS IN PROSE AND VERSE
OF
GEORGE HENRY BORROW
BY
THOMAS J. WISE
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY
BY RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LTD.
1914
OF THIS BOOK
ONE HUNDRED COPIES ONLY
HAVE BEEN PRINTED.
PREFACE
The object of the present Bibliography is to give a concise account,
accompanied by accurate collations, of the original editions of the Books
and Pamphlets of George Borrow, together with a list of his many
contributions to Magazines and other Publications. It will doubtless be
observed that no inconsiderable portion of the Bibliography deals with
the attractive series of Pamphlets containing Ballads, Poems, and other
works by Borrow which were printed for Private Circulation during the
course of last year. Some account of the origin of these pamphlets, and
some information regarding the material of which they are composed, may
not be considered as inopportune or inappropriate.
As a writer of English Prose Borrow long since achieved the position
which was his due; as a writer of English Verse he has yet to come by his
own.
The neglect from which Borrow's poetical compositions (by far the larger
proportion of which are translations from the Danish and other tongues)
have suffered has arisen from one cause, and from one cause alone,--the
fact that up to the present moment only his earliest and, in the majority
of cases, his least successful efforts have been available to students of
his work.
In 1826, when Borrow passed his _Romantic Ballads_ through the Press, he
had already acquired a working knowledge of numerous languages and
dialects, but of his native tongue he had still to become a master. In
1826 his appreciation of the requirements of English Prosody was of a
vague description, his sense of the rhythm of verse was crude, and the
attention he paid to the exigencies of rhyme was inadequate. Hence the
majority of his Ballads, beyond the fact that they were faithful
reproductions of the originals from which they had been laboriously
translated, were of no particular value.
But to Borrow himself they were objects of a regard which amounted to
affection, and there can be no question that throughout a considerable
portion of his adventurous life he looked to his Ballads to win for him
whatever measure of literary fame it might eventually be his fortune to
gain. In _Lavengro_, and other of his prose works, he repeatedly
referred to his "bundle of Ballads"; and I doubt whether he ever really
relinquished all hope of placing them before the public until the last
decade of his life had well advanced.
That the Ballad Poetry of the old Northern Races should have held a
strong attraction for Borrow is not to be wondered at. His restless
nature and his roving habits were well in tune with the spirit of the old
Heroic Ballads; whilst his taste for all that was mythical or vagabond
(vagabond in the literal, and not in the conventional, sense of the word)
would prompt him to welcome with no common eagerness the old Poems
dealing with matters supernatural and legendary. Has he not himself
recorded how, when fatigued upon a tiring march, he roused his flagging
spirits by shouting the refrain "_Look out_, _look out_, _Svend
Vonved_!"?
In 1829, three years after the _Romantic Ballads_ had struggled into
existence, Borrow made an effort to place them before a larger public in
a more complete and imposing form. In collaboration with Dr. (afterwards
Sir John) Bowring he projected a work which should contain the best of
his old Ballads, together with many new ones, the whole to be supported
by the addition of others from the pen of Dr. Bowring. {0a} A Prospectus
was drawn up and issued in December, 1829, and at least two examples of
this Prospectus have survived. The brochure consists of two octavo pages
of letterpress, with the following heading:--
PROSPECTUS.
_It is proposed to publish_, _in Two Volumes Octavo_,
Price to Subscribers 1 pound 1_s._, to Non-Subscribers 1 pound 4_s._,
THE SONGS OF SCANDINAVIA,
TRANSLATED BY
DR. BOWRING AND MR. BORROW.
DEDICATED TO THE KING OF DENMARK, BY PERMISSION OF HIS MAJESTY.
Then came a brief synopsis of the contents of the volumes, followed by a
short address on "the debt of justice due from England to Scandinavia."
Two additional pages were headed _List of Subscribers_, and were left
blank for the reception of names which, alas! were recorded in no
sufficient number. The scheme lapsed, Borrow found his mission in other
fields of labour, and not until 1854 did he again attempt to revive it.
But in 1854 Borrow made one more very serious effort to give his Ballads
life. In that year he again took them in hand, subjected many of them to
revision of the most drastic nature, and proceeded to prepare them
finally for press. Advertisements which he drew up are still extant in
his handwriting, and reduced facsimiles of two of these may be seen upon
the opposite page. But again Fate was against him, and neither _Koempe
Viser_ nor _Songs of Europe_ ever saw the light. {0b}
[Picture: Manuscript of the Koempe Viser And Songs of Europe
advertisement]
After the death of Borrow his manuscripts passed into the possession of
his step-daughter, Mrs. MacOubrey, from whom the greater part were
purchased by Mr. Webber, a bookseller of Ipswich, who resold them to Dr.
William Knapp. These Manuscripts are now in the hands of the Hispanic
Society, of New York, and will doubtless remain for ever the property of
the American people. Fortunately, when disposing of the bulk of her
step-father's books and papers to Mr. Webber, Mrs. MacOubrey retained the
Manuscripts of the Ballads, together with certain other documents of
interest and importance. It was from these Manuscripts that I was
afforded the opportunity of preparing the series of Pamphlets printed
last year.
The Manuscripts themselves are of four descriptions. Firstly, the
Manuscripts of certain of the new Ballads prepared for the _Songs of
Scandinavia_ in 1829, untouched, and as originally written; {0c}
secondly, other of these new Ballads, heavily corrected by Borrow in a
later handwriting; thirdly, fresh transcripts, with the revised texts,
made in or about 1854, of Ballads written in 1829; and lastly some of the
more important Ballads originally published in 1826, entirely re-written
in 1854, and the text thoroughly revised.
As will be seen from the few examples I have given in the following
pages, or better still from a perusal of the pamphlets, the value as
literature of Borrow's Ballads as we now know them is immeasurably higher
than that hitherto placed upon them by critics who had no material upon
which to form their judgment beyond the _Romantic Ballads_, _Targum_, and
_The Talisman_, together with the sets of minor verses included in his
other books. Borrow himself regarded his work in this field as superior
to that of Lockhart, and indeed seems to have believed that one cause at
least of his inability to obtain a hearing was Lockhart's jealousy for
his own _Spanish Ballads_. Be that as it may--and Lockhart was certainly
sufficiently small-minded to render such a suspicion by no means
ridiculous or absurd--I feel assured that Borrow's metrical work will in
future receive a far more cordial welcome from his readers, and will meet
with a fuller appreciation from his critics, than that which until now it
has been its fortune to secure.
Despite the unctuous phrases which, in obedience to the promptings of the
Secretaries of the British and Foreign Bible Society {0d} whose interests
he forwarded with so much enterprise and vigor, he was at times
constrained to introduce into his official letters, Borrow was at heart a
Pagan. The memory of his father that he cherished most warmly was that
of the latter's fight, actual or mythical, with 'Big Ben Brain,' the
bruiser; whilst the sword his father had used in action was one of his
best-regarded possessions. To that sword he addressed the following
youthful stanzas, which until now have remained un-printed:
THE SWORD
_Full twenty fights my father saw_,
_And died with twenty red wounds gored_;
_I heir'd what he so loved to draw_,
_His ancient silver-handled sword_.
_It is a sword of weight and length_,
_Of jags and blood-specks nobly full_;
_Well wielded by his Cornish strength_
_It clove the Gaulman's helm and scull_.
_Hurrah_! _thou silver-handled blade_,
_Though thou'st but little of the air_
_Of swords by Cornets worn on p'rade_,
_To battle thee I vow to bear_.
_Thou'st decked old chiefs of Cornwall's land_,
_To face the fiend with thee they dared_;
_Thou prov'dst a Tirfing in their hand_
_Which victory gave whene'er_ '_twas bared_.
_Though Cornwall's moors_ '_twas ne'er my lot_
_To view_, _in Eastern Anglia born_,
_Yet I her son's rude strength have got_,
_And feel of death their fearless scorn_.
_And when the foe we have in ken_,
_And with my troop I seek the fray_,
_Thou'lt find the youth who wields thee then_
_Will ne'er the part of Horace play_.
_Meanwhile above my bed's head hang_,
_May no vile rust thy sides bestain_;
_And soon_, _full soon_, _the war-trump's clang_
_Call me and thee to glory's plain_.
These stanzas are interesting in a way which compels one to welcome them,
despite the poverty of the verse. The little poem is a fragment of
autobiographical _juvenilia_, and moreover it is an original composition,
and not a translation, as is the greater part of Borrow's poetical work.
Up to the present date no Complete Collected Edition of Borrow's Works
has been published, either in this country or in America. There is,
however, good reason for hoping that this omission will soon be remedied,
for such an edition is now in contemplation, to be produced under the
agreeable editorship of Mr. Clement Shorter.
It is, I presume, hardly necessary to note that every Book, Pamphlet, and
Magazine dealt with in the following pages has been described _de visu_.
T. J. W.
CONTENTS
PART I.--EDITIONES PRINCIPES PAGE
_PREFACE_ ix
CELEBRATED TRIALS, 1825 3
FAUSTUS, 1825 4
ROMANTIC BALLADS, 1826:
_First issue_ 11
_Second issue_ 44
_Third issue_ 47
TARGUM, 1835 47
THE TALISMAN, 1835 58
THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, 1837 62
THE ZINCALI, 1841 66
THE BIBLE IN SPAIN, 1843 69
REVIEW OF FORD'S "HAND-BOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN SPAIN," 72
1845
A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER TO "THE BIBLE IN SPAIN," 1913 81
LAVENGRO, 1851 85
THE ROMANY RYE, 1857 88
THE SLEEPING BARD, 1860 92
WILD WALES, 1862 94
ROMANO LAVO-LIL, 1874 103
THE TURKISH JESTER, 1884 110
THE DEATH OF BALDER, 1889 111
LETTERS TO THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, 1911 113
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE, MARY BORROW, 1913 115
MARSK STIG, A BALLAD, 1913 116
THE SERPENT KNIGHT, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 127
THE KING'S WAKE, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 131
THE DALBY BEAR, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 139
THE MERMAID'S PROPHECY, AND OTHER SONGS RELATING TO QUEEN 140
DAGMAR, 1913
HAFBUR AND SIGNE, A BALLAD, 1913 144
THE STORY OF YVASHKA WITH THE BEAR'S EAR, 1913 153
THE VERNER RAVEN, THE COUNT OF VENDEL'S DAUGHTER, AND 157
OTHER BALLADS, 1913
THE RETURN OF THE DEAD, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 158
AXEL THORDSON AND FAIR VALBORG, 1913 165
KING HACON'S DEATH, AND BRAN AND THE BLACK DOG, 1913 166
MARSK STIG'S DAUGHTERS, AND OTHER SONGS AND BALLADS, 1913 170
THE TALE OF BRYNILD, AND KING VALDEMAR AND HIS SISTER, 177
1913
PROUD SIGNILD, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 181
ULF VAN YERN, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 182
ELLEN OF VILLENSKOV, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 188
THE SONGS OF RANILD, 1913 191
NIELS EBBESEN AND GERMAND GLADENSWAYNE, 1913 192
CHILD MAIDELVOLD, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 195
ERMELINE, A BALLAD, 1913 203
THE GIANT OF BERN AND ORM UNGERSWAYNE, 1913 207
LITTLE ENGEL, A BALLAD, 1913 208
ALF THE FREEBOOTER, LITTLE DANNEVED AND SWAYNE TROST, AND 212
OTHER BALLADS, 1913
KING DIDERIK AND THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE LION AND DRAGON, 215
AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913
THE NIGHTINGALE, THE VALKYRIE AND RAVEN, AND OTHER 219
BALLADS, 1913
GRIMMER AND KAMPER, THE END OF SIVARD SNARENSWAYNE, AND 223
OTHER BALLADS, 1913
THE FOUNTAIN OF MARIBO, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 227
QUEEN BERNGERD, THE BARD AND THE DREAMS, AND OTHER 231
BALLADS, 1913
FINNISH ARTS, OR, SIR THOR AND DAMSEL THURE, 1913 237
BROWN WILLIAM, THE POWER OF THE HARP, AND OTHER BALLADS, 238
1913
THE SONG OF DEIRDRA, KING BYRGE AND HIS BROTHERS, AND 244
OTHER BALLADS, 1913
SIGNELIL, A TALE FROM THE CORNISH, AND OTHER BALLADS, 247
1913
YOUNG SWAIGDER OR THE FORCE OF RUNES, AND OTHER BALLADS, 251
1913
EMELIAN THE FOOL, 1913 253
THE STORY OF TIM, 1913 254
MOLLIE CHARANE, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 257
GRIMHILD'S VENGEANCE, THREE BALLADS, 1913 262
LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER, ANN BORROW, 1913 266
THE BROTHER AVENGED, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1913 267
THE GOLD HORNS, 1913 271
TORD OF HAFSBOROUGH, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1914 273
THE EXPEDITION TO BIRTING'S LAND, AND OTHER BALLADS, 1914 275