Transcribed from the 1914 Richard Clay and Sons edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

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.

p. ixPREFACE

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.

p. xIn 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!”?

p. xiIn 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 1s., to Non-Subscribers £1 4s.,
THE SONGS OF SCANDINAVIA,
translated by
Dr. BOWRING and Mr. BORROW.

dedicated to the king of denmark, by permission of his majesty.

p. xiiThen 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 Kœmpe Viser nor Songs of Europe ever saw the light. [0b]

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 p. xvdocuments 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 p. xvior 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:

p. xviiTHE 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.

p. xviiiAnd 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.

p. xixCONTENTS

p. 3PART I.
EDITIONES PRINCIPES, etc.

(1)  [Celebrated Trials: 1825]

Celebrated Trials, / and / Remarkable Cases / of / Criminal Jurisprudence, / from / The Earliest Records / to / The Year 1825. / [Thirteen-line quotation from Burke] / In Six Volumes. / Vol. I.  [Vol. II, &c.] / London: / Printed for Knight and Lacey, / Paternoster-Row. / 1825. / Price £3. 12s. in Boards.

Collation:—Demy octavo.

Vol. I.  Pp. xiii + v + 550, with nine engraved Plates.

Vol. II. „ vi + 574, with seven engraved Plates.

[P. 574 is misnumbered 140.]

Vol. III. „ vi + 572, with three engraved Plates.

Vol. IV. „ vi + 600, with five engraved Plates.

Vol. V. „ vi + 684, with five engraved Plates.

Vol. VI. „ viii + 576 + an Index of 8 pages, together with six engraved Plates.

Issued in drab paper boards, with white paper back-labels.  The leaves measure 8⅝ × 5 inches.

p. 4It is evident that no fewer than five different printing houses were employed simultaneously in the production of this work.

The preliminary matter of all six volumes was printed together, and the reverse of each title-page carries at foot the following imprint: “London: / Shackell and Arrowsmith, Johnson’s-Court, Fleet-Street.”

The same firm also worked the whole of the Second Volume, and their imprint is repeated at the foot of p. 574 [misnumbered 140].

Vol. I bears, at the foot of p. 550, the following imprint: “Printed by W. Lewis, 21, Finch-Lane, Cornhill.”

Vol. III bears, at the foot of p. 572, the following imprint: “J. and C. Adlard, Printers, / Bartholomew Close.”

Vols. IV and VI bear, at the foot of pages 600 and 576 respectively, the following imprint: “D. Sidney & Co., Printers / Northumberland-street, Strand.”

Vol. V bears, at the foot of p. 684, the following imprint: “Whiting and Branston, / Beaufort House, Strand.”

Both Dr. Knapp and Mr. Clement Shorter have recorded full particulars of the genesis of the Celebrated Trials.  Mr. Shorter devotes a considerable portion of Chapter xi of George Borrow and his Circle to the subject, and furnishes an analysis of the contents of each of the six volumes.  Celebrated Trials is, of course, the Newgate Lives and Trials of Lavengro, in which book Borrow contrived to make a considerable amount of entertaining narrative out of his early struggles and failures.

There is a Copy of the First Edition of Celebrated Trials in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 518.g.6.

(2)  [Faustus: 1825]

Faustus: / His / Life, Death, / and / Descent into Hell. / Translated from the German. / Speed thee, speed thee, / Liberty lead thee, / Many this night shall harken and heed thee. / Far abroad, / Demi-god, / Who shall appal thee! / Javal, or devil, or what else we call thee. / Hymn to the Devil. / London: / W. Simpkin and R. Marshall. / 1825.

Collation:—Foolscap octavo, pp. xii + 251; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “Printed by / J. and C. Adlard, Bartholomew Close” at the foot of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. iii–iv; Preface (headed The Translator to the Public) pp. v–viii; Table of Contents pp. ix–xii; and Text pp. 1–251.  The reverse of p. 251 is occupied by Advertisements of Horace Welby’s Signs before Death, and John Timbs’s Picturesque Promenade round Dorking.  The headline is Faustus throughout, upon both sides of the page.  At the foot of the reverse of p. 251 the imprint is repeated thus, “J. and C. Adlard, Bartholomew Close.”  The signatures are A (6 leaves), B to Q (15 sheets, each 8 leaves), plus R (6 leaves).

Issued (in April, 1825) in bright claret-coloured linen boards, with white paper back-label.  The leaves measure 6¾ × 4¼ inches.  The published price was 7s. 6d.

The volume has as Frontispiece a coloured plate, engraved upon copper, representing the supper of the sheep-headed Magistrates, described on pp. 64–66.  The incident selected for illustration is the moment when the wine ‘issued in blue flames from the flasks,’ and ‘the whole assembly sat like so many ridiculous characters in a mad masquerade.’  This illustration was not new to Borrow’s book.  It had appeared both in the German original, p. 8and in the French translation of 1798.  In the original work the persons so bitterly satirized were the individuals composing the Corporation of Frankfort.

In 1840 ‘remainder’ copies of the First Edition of Faustus were issued with a new title-page, pasted upon a stub, carrying at foot the following publishers’ imprint, “London: / Simpkin, Marshall & Co. / 1840.”  They were made up in bright claret-coloured linen boards, uniform with the original issue, with a white paper back-label.  The published price was again 7s. 6d.

Faustus was translated by Borrow from the German of Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger.  Mr. Shorter suggests, with much reason, that Borrow did not make his translation from the original German edition of 1791, but from a French translation published in Amsterdam in 1798.

The reception accorded to Faustus was the reverse of favourable.  The Literary Gazette said (July 16th, 1825):—

“This is another work to which no respectable publisher ought to have allowed his name to be put.  The political allusion and metaphysics, which may have made it popular among a low class in Germany, do not sufficiently season its lewd scenes and coarse descriptions for British palates.  We have occasionally publications for the fireside,—these are only fit for the fire.”

Borrow’s translation of Klinger’s novel was reprinted in 1864, without any acknowledgment of the name of the translator.  Only a few stray words in the text were altered.  But five passages were deleted from the Preface, which, not being otherwise modified or supplemented, gave—as was no doubt the intention of the publishers—the work the appearance of a new translation specially prepared.  This unhallowed edition bears the following title-page:

Faustus: / His / Life, Death, and Doom. / A Romance in Prose. / Translated from the German. / [Quotation as in the original edition, followed by a Printer’s ornament.] / London: / W. Kent and Co., Paternoster Row. / 1864.—Crown 8vo, pp. viii + 302.

p. 11“There is no reason to suppose,” remarks Mr. Shorter (George Borrow and his Circle, p. 104) “that the individual, whoever he may have been, who prepared the 1864 edition of Faustus for the Press, had ever seen either the German original or the French translation of Klinger’s book.”

There is a copy of the First Edition of Faustus in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is N.351.

(3)  [Romantic Ballads: 1826]

Romantic Ballads, / Translated from the Danish; / and / Miscellaneous Pieces; / By / George Borrow. / Through gloomy paths unknown— / Paths which untrodden be, / From rock to rock I roam / Along the dashing sea. / Bowring. / Norwich: / Printed and Published by S. Wilkin, Upper Haymarket. / 1826.

Collation:—Demy octavo, pp. xii + 187; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “Norwich: / Printed by S. Wilkin, Upper Haymarket” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. iii–iv; Table of Contents (with blank reverse) pp. v–vi; Preface pp. vii–viii; Prefatory Poem From Allan Cunningham to George Borrow pp. ix–xi, p. xii is blank; Text of the Ballads pp. 1–184; and List of Subscribers pp. 185–187.  The reverse of p. 187 is blank.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the Ballad occupying it.  p. 12The imprint is repeated at the foot of p. 184.  The signatures are a (a half-sheet of 4 leaves), b (a quarter-sheet of 2 leaves), B to M (eleven sheets, each 8 leaves), and N (a half-sheet of 4 leaves), followed by an unsigned quarter-sheet of 2 leaves carrying the List of Subscribers. [12]  Sigs.  G 5 and H 2 (pp. 89–90 and 99–100) are cancel-leaves, mounted on stubs, in every copy I have met with.

Issued (in May 1826) in dark greenish-grey paper boards, with white paper back-label, lettered “Romantic / Ballads / From the / Danish By / G. Borrow / Price 10/6 net.”  The leaves measure 9 × 5½ inches.

The volume of Romantic Ballads was printed at Norwich during the early months of 1826.  The edition consisted of Five Hundred Copies, but only Two Hundred of these were furnished with the Title-page transcribed above.  These were duly distributed to the subscribers.  The remaining Three Hundred copies were forwarded to London, where they were supplied with the two successive title-pages described below, and published in the ordinary manner.

“I had an idea that, provided I could persuade any spirited publisher to give these translations to the world, I should acquire both considerable fame and profit; not perhaps a world-embracing fame such as Byron’s, but a fame not to be sneered at, which would last me a considerable time, and would keep my heart from breaking;—profit, not equal to that which Scott had made by his wondrous novels, but which would prevent me from starving, and enable me to achieve some other literary enterprise.  I read and re-read my ballads, and the more I read them the more I was convinced that the public, in the event of their being published, would freely purchase, and hail them with merited applause”—[“George Borrow and his Circle,” 1913, p. 102.]

Allan Cunningham’s appreciation of the manner in which p. 15Borrow had succeeded in his effort to introduce the Danish Ballads to English readers is well expressed in the following letter:

27, Lower Belgrave Place,
London.
16th May, 1826.

My dear Sir,

I like your Danish Ballads much, and though Oehlenslæger seems a capital poet, I love the old rhymes best.  There is more truth and simplicity in them; and certainly we have nothing in our language to compare with them. . . . ‘Sir John’ is a capital fellow, and reminds one of Burns’ ‘Findlay.’  ‘Sir Middel’ is very natural and affecting, and exceedingly well rendered,—so is ‘The Spectre of Hydebee.’  In this you have kept up the true tone of the Northern Ballad.  ‘Svend Vonved’ is wild and poetical, and it is my favourite.  You must not think me insensible to the merits of the incomparable ‘Skimming.’  I think I hear his neigh, and see him crush the ribs of the Jute.  Get out of bed, therefore, George Borrow, and be sick or sleepy no longer.  A fellow who can give us such exquisite Danish Ballads has no right to repose. . . .

I remain,
Your very faithful friend,
Allan Cunningham.

Contents.

Note.—Each poem to which no reference is attached, appeared for the first time in this volume.

There is at present no copy of the First Issue of the First Edition of Romantic Ballads, with the original Title-page, in the Library of the British Museum.

Second Issue: 1826

Romantic Ballads, / Translated from the Danish; / and / Miscellaneous Pieces; / By / George Borrow. / Through gloomy paths unknown—/ Paths which untrodden be, / From rock to rock I roam / Along the dashing sea. / Bowring. / London: / John Taylor, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, / 1826.

Collation:—Demy octavo, pp. xii + 187.  The details of the collation follow those of the First Issue described above in every particular, save that, naturally, the volume lacks the two concluding leaves carrying the List of Subscribers.

Issued in drab paper boards, with white paper back-label.  The published price was Seven Shillings.

“Taylor will undertake to publish the remaining copies.  His advice is to make the price seven shillings, and to print a new title-page, and then he will be able to sell some for you I advise the same,” etc.—[Allan Cunningham to George Borrow.]

There is a copy of the Second Issue of the First Edition of Romantic Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 11565. cc. 8.

p. 47Third Issue: 1826

Romantic Ballads, / Translated from the Danish; / and / Miscellaneous Pieces; / By / George Borrow. / Through gloomy paths unknown—/ Paths which untrodden be, / From rock to rock I roam / Along the dashing sea. / Bowring. / London: / Published by Wightman and Cramp, / 24 Paternoster Row. / 1826.

Collation:—Demy octavo, pp. xii + 187.  The details of the collation follow those of the Second Issue described above in every particular.

Issued in drab paper boards, with white paper back-label.  The price was again Seven Shillings.

In 1913 a type-facsimile reprint of the Original Edition of Romantic Ballads was published by Messrs. Jarrold and Sons of Norwich.  Three hundred Copies were printed.

(4)  [Targum: 1835]

Targum. / Or / Metrical Translations / From Thirty Languages / and / Dialects. / By / George Borrow. / “The raven has ascended to the nest of the nightingale.” / Persian Poem. / St. Petersburg. / Printed by Schulz and Beneze. / 1835.

Collation:—Demy octavo, printed in half-sheets, pp. viii + 106; consisting of: Title-page, as above (with p. 48a Russian quotation upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Preface pp. iii–v; Table of Contents pp. vi–viii, with a single Erratum at the foot of p. viii; and Text of the Translations pp. 1–106.  There are no head-lines, the pages being numbered centrally in Arabic numerals.  Beyond that upon the foot of the title-page, there is no imprint.  The signatures are given in large Arabic numerals, each pair of half-sheets dividing one number between them; thus the first half-sheet is signed 1, the second 1*, the third 2, the fourth 2*, &c.  The Register is therefore 1 to 7 (thirteen half-sheets, each 4 leaves), followed by a single unsigned leaf (pp. 105–106), the whole preceded by an unsigned half-sheet carrying the Title-page, Preface, and Table of Contents.  The book was issued without any half-title.

Issued in plain paper wrappers of a bright green colour, lined with white, and without either lettering or label.  The leaves measure 8 11/16 × 5½ inches.

Borrow was happy in the title he selected for his book.  Targum, as Mr. Gosse has pointed out, is a Chaldee word meaning an interpretation.  The word is said to be the root of ‘dragoman.’

Targum was written by Borrow during his two years’ residence at St. Petersburg (August, 1833, to August, 1835), and was published in June of the latter year.  One hundred copies only were printed.  As might naturally be expected the book has now become of very considerable rarity, but a small proportion of the original hundred copies being traceable to-day.

A reduced facsimile of the Title-page is given herewith.

“Just before completing this great work, the Manchu New Testament, Mr. Borrow published a small volume in the English p. 49language, entitled Targum, or Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects.  The exquisite delicacy with which he has caught and rendered the beauties of his well-chosen originals, is a proof of his learning and genius.  The work is a pearl in literature, and, like pearls, it derives value from its scarcity, for the whole edition was limited to about a hundred copies.”—[John P. Hasfeld, in The Athenæum, March 5th, 1836.]

“Some days ago I was at Kirtof’s bookshop on the Gaternaya Ulitza.  I wanted to buy a Bible in Spain to send to Simbirsk (on the Volga), where they torment me for it every post-day.  The stock was all sold out in a few days after its arrival last autumn.  The bookseller asked me if I knew a book by Borrow called Targum, which was understood to have been written by him and printed at St. Petersburg, but he had never been able to light upon it; and the surprising thing was that the trade abroad and even in England did him the honour to order it.  I consoled him by saying that he could hardly hope to see a copy in his shop or to get a peep at it.  ‘I have a copy,’ continued I, ‘but if you will offer me a thousand roubles for the bare reading of it I cannot do you the favour.’  The man opened his eyes in astonishment.  ‘It must be a wonderful book,’ said he.  ‘Yes, in that you are right, my good friend,’ I replied.”—[John P. Hasfeld.]

“After he became famous the Russian Government was desirous of procuring a copy of this rare book, Targum, for the Imperial Library, and sent an Envoy to England for the purpose.  But the Envoy was refused what he sought, and told that as the book was not worth notice when the author’s name was obscure and they had the opportunity of obtaining it themselves, they should not have it now.”—[A. Egmont Hake, in The Athenæum, August 13th, 1881.]

Contents.

Note.—Each poem to which no reference is attached, appeared for the first time in this volume.

In 1892 Targum was reprinted, together with The Talisman, by Messrs. Jarrold & Sons, of Norwich, in an edition of 250 copies.

There is a copy of the First Edition of Targum in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C.57.i.6.

 (5)  [The Talisman: 1835]

The / Talisman. / From the Russian / of / Alexander Pushkin. / With other Pieces. / St. Petersburg. / Printed by Schulz and Beneze, / 1835.

Collation:—Royal octavo, pp. 14; consisting of: Title-page, as above (with a Russian quotation upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 1–2; and Text of The Talisman and other Poems pp. 3–14.  There are no head-lines, the pages being numbered centrally in Arabic numerals.  Beyond that upon the title-page there is no imprint.  There are also no signatures, the pamphlet being composed of a single sheet, folded to form sixteen pages.  The last leaf is a blank.  The book was issued without any half-title.

Issued stitched, and without wrappers.  The leaves measure 9¾ × 6¼ inches.

One Hundred Copies only were printed.

p. 61A reduced facsimile of the Title-page of The Talisman is given herewith.  It will be observed that the heavy letterpress upon the reverse of the title shows through the paper, and is reproduced in the photograph.

Contents.

Note.—The whole of the poems printed in The Talisman appeared there for the first time.

In 1892 Messrs. Jarrold & Sons published page for page reprints of Targum and The Talisman.  They were issued together in one volume, bound in light drab-coloured paper boards, with white paper back-label, and were accompanied by the following collective title-page:

Targum: / or, / Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages / and Dialects. / And / The Talisman, / from the Russian of Alexander Pushkin. / With Other Pieces. / By / George Borrow. / Author of “The Bible in Spain” &c. / London: / Jarrold & Sons, 3, Paternoster Buildings.

In 1912 a small ‘remainder’ of The Talisman came to light.  The ‘find’ consisted of about Five Copies, which were sold in the first instance for an equal number of Pence.  The buyer appears to have resold them at progressive prices, commencing at Four Pounds and concluding at Ten Guineas.

There is a copy of the First Edition of The Talisman in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C.57.e.33.

p. 62(6)  [The Gospel of St. Luke: 1837]

Embéo / e Majaró Lucas. / Brotoboro / randado andré la chipe griega, acána / chibado andré o Romanó, ó chipe es / Zincales de Sesé. / El Evangelio segun S. Lucas, / traducido al Romaní, / ó dialecto de los Gitanos de España. / 1837.

Collation:—Foolscap octavo, pp. 177, consisting of: Title-page, as above (with Borrow’s Colophon upon the reverse, followed by a quotation from the Epistle to the Romans, Chap. XV. v. XXIV.) pp. 1–2; and Text of the Gospel pp. 3–177.  The reverse of p. 177 is blank.  There are no head-lines, the pages being numbered centrally in Arabic numerals.  There is no printer’s imprint.  The signatures are A to L (11 sheets, each 8 leaves), plus L repeated (two leaves, the second a blank).  The book was issued without any half-title.

I have never seen a copy of the First Edition of Borrow’s translation into the dialect of the Spanish Gypsies of the Gospel of St. Luke in the original binding.  No doubt the book (which was printed in Madrid) was put up in paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, in accordance with the usual Continental custom.

Most of the copies now extant are either in a modern binding, or in contemporary brown calf, with marbled edges and endpapers.  The latter are doubtless the copies sent home by Borrow, and bound in leather for that purpose.  The leaves of these measure 6 × 4 inches.

p. 65As will be seen from the following extracts, it is probable that the First Edition consisted of 250 copies, and that 50 of these were forwarded to London:

“In response to Borrow’s letter of February 27th, the Committee resolved ‘to authorise Mr. Borrow to print 250 copies of the Gospel of St. Luke, without the Vocabulary, in the Rummanee dialect, and to engage the services of a competent person to translate the Gospel of St. Luke by way of trial in the dialect of the Spanish Basque.’”—[Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1911, pp. 205–206.]

“A small impression of the Gospel of St. Luke, in the Rommany, or Gitano, or Gipsy language, has been printed at Madrid, under the superintendence of this same gentleman, who himself made the translation for the benefit of the interesting, singular, degraded race of people whose name it bears, and who are very numerous in some parts of Spain.  He has likewise taken charge of the printing of the Gospel of St. Luke, in the Cantabrian, or Spanish Basque language, a translation of which had fallen into his hands.”—[Thirty-Fourth Annual Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1838, p. xliii.]

“All the Testaments were stopped at the custom house, they were contained in two large chests. . . .  The chests, therefore, with the hundred Gospels in Gitano and Basque [probably 50 copies of each] for the Library of the Bible Society are at present at San Lucar in the custom house, from which I expect to receive to-morrow the receipt which the authorities here demand.”—[Borrow’s letter to the Rev. A. Brandram, Seville, May 2nd, 1839.]

A Second Edition of the Gospel was printed in London in 1871.  The collation is Duodecimo, pp. 117.  This was followed by a Third Edition, London, 1872, the collation of which is also Duodecimo, pp. 117.  Both bear the same imprint: “London: / Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street, / and Charing Cross.”

For these London Editions the text was considerably revised.

The Gospel of St. Luke in the Basque dialect, referred to in the above paragraphs, is a small octavo volume bearing the following title-page:

p. 66Evangelioa / San Lucasen Guissan / El Evangelio segun S. Lucas. / Traducido al vascuence. / Madrid: / Imprenta de la Campañia Tipografica / 1838.

The translation was the work of a Basque physician named Oteiza, and Borrow did little more than see it through the press.  The book has, therefore, no claim to rank as a Borrow princeps.

The measure of success which attended his efforts to reproduce the Gospel of St. Luke in these two dialects is best told in Borrow’s own words:

“I subsequently published the Gospel of St. Luke in the Rommany and Biscayan languages.  With respect to the first, I beg leave to observe that no work printed in Spain ever caused so great and so general a sensation, not so much amongst the Gypsies, for whom it was intended, as amongst the Spaniards themselves, who, though they look upon the Roma with some degree of contempt, nevertheless take a strange interest in all that concerns them. . . .  Respecting the Gospel in Basque I have less to say.  It was originally translated into the dialect of Guipuscoa by Dr. Oteiza, and subsequently received corrections and alterations from myself.  It can scarcely be said to have been published, it having been prohibited and copies of it seized on the second day of its appearance.  But it is in my power to state that it is anxiously expected in the Basque provinces, where books in the aboriginal tongue are both scarce and dear.”—[Borrow’s Survey of his last two years in Spain, printed in his Letters to the Bible Society, 1911, pp. 360–361.]

There is a copy of the First Edition of The Gospel of St. Luke in the dialect of the Spanish Gypsies in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C.51.aa.12.  The Museum also possesses a copy of the Gospel in the Basque dialect; the Pressmark is C.51.aa.13.

(7)  [The Zincali: 1841]

The Zincali; / Or, / An Account / of the / Gypsies of Spain. / With / An Original Collection of their / p. 67Songs and Poetry, / and / A Copious Dictionary of their Language. / By / George Borrow, / Late Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society / in Spain. / “For that, which is unclean by nature, thou canst entertain no hope: no / washing will turn the Gypsy white.”—Ferdousi. / In Two Volumes. / Vol. I.  [Vol. II] / London: / John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1841.

Vol. I.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. xvi + 362; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “G. Woodfall and Son, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. iii–iv; Dedication To the Right Honourable the Earl of Clarendon, G.C.B. (with blank reverse) pp. v–vi; Preface pp. vii–xii; Table of Contents pp. xiii–xvi; and Text pp. 1–362, including a separate Fly-title (with blank reverse) to The Zincali, Part II.  There are headlines throughout, each verso being headed The Zincali, whilst each recto carries at its head a note of the particular subject occupying it.  The imprint is repeated at the foot of p. 362.  The signatures are a (six leaves), b (two leaves), B to Q (15 sheets, each 12 leaves), plus R (two leaves).  Sig. R 2 is a blank.

Vol. II.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. vi + 156 + vi + *135; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “G. Woodfall and Son, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London” upon p. 68the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. iii–iv; Table of Contents pp. v–vi; Fly-title to The Zincali, Part III (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Text of Part III (including separate Fly-titles, each with blank reverse, to The Praise of Buddh, On the Language of the Gitanos, and Robber Language) pp. 3–156; Fly-title (with blank reverse) to The Zincali.  Vocabulary of their Language pp. i–ii; Advertisement to the Vocabulary pp. iii–v; p. vi is blank; Text of the Vocabulary pp. *1–*113; p. *114 is blank; Fly-title (with blank reverse) to Miscellanies in the Gitano Language pp. *115–*116; Advertisement to the Miscellanies p. *117; and Text of the Miscellanies pp. *118–*135.  The reverse of p. *135 is blank.  There are head-lines throughout, each verso being headed The Zincali, whilst each recto carries at its head a note of the particular subject occupying it.  The imprint is repeated at the foot of p. *135.  The signatures are a (2 leaves), b (one leaf), B to G (6 sheets, each 12 leaves), H (6 leaves), a (3 leaves), b to e (4 sheets, each 12 leaves), f (9 leaves), and g (12 leaves).  b 6, b 8, and b 12 are cancel-leaves.  The last leaf of Sig. g is occupied by a series of Advertisements of Works just Published by John Murray.

Issued (in April, 1841) in dark blue cloth boards, with white paper back-label, lettered “Borrow’s / Gypsies / of / Spain. / Two Volumes. / Vol. I. [Vol. II.].”  The leaves measure 7⅞ × 4¾ inches.  The published price was 18s.

Of the First Edition of The Zincali Seven Hundred and Fifty Copies only were printed.  A Second Edition, to which a new p. 69Preface was added, was published in March, 1843, and a Third in September, 1843, each of which was restricted to the same number of copies.  The Fourth Edition appeared in 1846, the Fifth in 1870, the Sixth in 1882, the Seventh in 1888, and the Eighth in 1893.  The book has since been included in various popular editions, and translated into several foreign languages.

Examples of The Zincali may sometimes be met with bearing dates other than those noted above.  These are merely copies of the editions specified, furnished with new title-pages.

Included in the second volume of The Zincali is a considerable amount of verse, as follows:

There is a copy of the First Edition of The Zincali in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 1429.g.14.

(8)  [The Bible in Spain: 1843.]

The / Bible in Spain; / Or, the / Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments / Of an Englishman, / in / An Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures / in / The Peninsula. / By George Borrow, / Author of “The Gypsies of Spain.” / In three volumes. / p. 70Vol. I.  [Vol. II, etc.] / London: / John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1843.

Vol. I.

Collation:—Large duodecimo pp. xxiv + 370; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “G. Woodfall and Son, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. iii–iv; Contents of Vol. i pp. v–viii; Preface pp. ix–xxiv; and Text pp. 1–370.  There are head-lines throughout, each verso being headed The Bible in Spain together with the number of the Chapter, whilst each recto carries at its head a note of the particular subject occupying it, with the Chapter number repeated.  The imprint is repeated at the foot of p. 370.  The signatures are A to Q (sixteen sheets, each 12 leaves), plus R (a half-sheet of 6 leaves).  The last leaf of sig. R carries a series of Advertisements of books published by John Murray.

Vol. II.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. viii + 398; consisting of Half-title (with imprint “G. Woodfall and Son, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. iii–iv; Contents of Vol. ii. pp. v–viii; and Text pp. 1–398.  There are headlines throughout, as in the first volume.  The imprint is repeated at the foot of p. 398.  The signatures are A (four leaves), B to R (sixteen sheets, each 12 leaves), plus S (8 leaves).  The last leaf of Sig. R carries a series of Advertisements of books published by John Murray.

p. 71Vol. III.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. viii + 391; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “G. Woodfall and Son, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. iii–iv; Contents of Vol iii pp. v–viii; and Text pp. 1–391.  There are headlines throughout, as in the two preceding volumes.  The reverse of p. 391 is occupied by Advertisements of Romantic Ballads, Targum, and The Zincali.  The imprint is repeated at the foot of p. 391.  The signatures are a (2 leaves), b (2 leaves), B to R (sixteen sheets, each 12 leaves), plus S (4 leaves).

Issued (in December, 1842) in deep claret-coloured cloth boards, with white paper back-label, lettered “The | Bible | in | Spain | Vol. I.  [Vol. II, &c.].”  The leaves measure 7¾ × 4¾ inches.  The published price was 27s.

Although the title page of the First Edition of The Bible in Spain is dated 1843, there can be no doubt that the book was ready early in the preceding December.  I have in my own library a copy, still in the original cloth boards, with the following inscription in Borrow’s handwriting upon the flyleaf:

Autographed presentation copies of Borrow’s books are remarkably few in number, I only know of four, in addition to the above.  One of these is preserved in the Borrow Museum, at Norwich.

p. 72Of the First Edition of The Bible in Spain One Thousand Copies were printed.  The Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Editions were all published in 1843.  By 1896 eighteen authorised editions had made their appearance.  Since that date the book has been re-issued in numberless popular editions, and has been translated into various foreign languages.

The following verses made their first appearance in The Bible in Spain:

There is a copy of the First Edition of The Bible in Spain in the Library of the British Museum.  The press-mark is 1369.f 23.

(9)  [Review of Ford’s “Hand-book for Travellers in Spain”: 1845]

Art.—Hand-book for Travellers in Spain.  London: 2 Vols. / post 8vo. 1845.

p. 77Collation:—Folio, pp. 12.  There is no Title-page proper, the title, as above, being imposed upon the upper portion of the first page, after the manner of a ‘dropped head.’  The head-line is Spanish Hand-book throughout, upon both sides of the page.  There is no printer’s imprint.  There are also no signatures; but the pamphlet is composed of three sheets, each two leaves, making twelve pages in all.

Issued stitched, and without wrappers.  The leaves measure 13½ × 8½ inches.  The pamphlet is undated.  It was printed in 1845.

This Review is unquestionably the rarest of the First Editions of Borrow’s Works.  No more than two copies would appear to have been struck off, and both are fortunately extant to-day.  One of these was formerly in the possession of Dr. William I. Knapp, and is now the property of the Hispanic Society, of New York.  The second example is in my own library.  This was Borrow’s own copy, and is freely corrected in his characteristic handwriting.  A greatly reduced facsimile of the last page of the pamphlet is given herewith.

In 1845 Richard Ford published his Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain and Readers at Home [2 Vols. 8vo.], a work, the compilation of which is said to have occupied its author for more than sixteen years.  In conformity with the wish of Ford (who had himself favourably reviewed The Bible in Spain) Borrow undertook to produce a study of the Hand-Book for The Quarterly Review.  The above Essay was the result.

But the Essay, brilliant though it is, was not a ‘Review.’  Not until page 6 is the Hand-Book even mentioned, and but little concerning it appears thereafter.  Lockhart, then editing the Quarterly, proposed to render it more suitable for the purpose for which it had been intended by himself interpolating a series p. 78of extracts from Ford’s volumes.  But Borrow would tolerate no interference with his work, and promptly withdrew the Essay, which had meanwhile been set up in type.  The following letter, addressed by Lockhart to Ford, sufficiently explains the position:

London,
June 13th, 1845.

Dear Ford,

‘El Gitano’ sent me a paper on the “Hand-Book” which I read with delight.  It seemed just another capital chapter of his “Bible in Spain” and I thought, as there was hardly a word of ‘review,’ and no extract giving the least notion of the peculiar merits and style of the “Hand-Book,” that I could easily (as is my constant custom) supply the humbler part myself, and so present at once a fair review of the work, and a lively specimen of our friend’s vein of eloquence in exordio.

But, behold! he will not allow any tampering . . . .  I now write to condole with you; for I am very sensible, after all, that you run a great risk in having your book committed to hands far less competent for treating it or any other book of Spanish interest than Borrow’s would have been . . . and I consider that, after all, in the case of a new author, it is the first duty of the “Quarterly Review” to introduce that author fully and fairly to the public.

Ever Yours Truly,
J. G. Lockhart.

“Our author pictures Gibraltar as a human entity thus addressing Spain:

Accursed land!  I hate thee, and far from being a defence, will invariably prove a thorn in thy side.

And so on through many sentences of excited rhetoric.  Borrow forgot while he wrote that he had a book to review—a book, moreover, issued by the publishing house which issued the periodical in which his review was to appear.”—[George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, p. 257].

p. 81In 1913 Borrow’s Review was reprinted in the following Pamphlet:

A / Supplementary Chapter / to / The Bible in Spain / Inspired by / Ford’s “Handbook for Travellers in Spain.” / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.—Square demy 8vo, pp. 46.  [See post, No. 10.]

(10)  [A Supplementary Chapter to “The Bible in Spain”: 1913]

A / Supplementary Chapter / to / The Bible in Spain / Inspired by / Ford’s “Handbook for Travellers in Spain.” / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 46; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Frontispiece (with blank recto) pp. 3–4; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 5–6; Prefatory Note (signed ‘T. J. W.’) pp. 7–10; and text of the Chapter pp. 11–46.  There are head-lines throughout, each verso being headed A Supplementary Chapter, and each recto To the Bible in Spain.  Following p. 46 is a leaf, with blank recto, and with the following imprint upon the reverse, “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N. W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A to C (3 sheets, each 8 leaves), inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed p. 82edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8¾ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

The Frontispiece consists of a greatly reduced facsimile of the last page, bearing Borrow’s corrections, of the original edition of his Review of Ford’s ‘Hand-Book.’

This Supplementary Chapter to “The Bible in Spain” is a reprint of the Review of Ford’s Hand-book for Travellers in Spain written by Borrow in 1845 for insertion in The Quarterly Review, but withdrawn by him in consequence of the proposal made by the Editor, John Gibson Lockhart, that he should himself introduce into Borrow’s Essay a series of extracts from the Handbook.  [See ante, No. 9.]

Included in the Prefatory Note is the following amusing squib, written by Borrow in 1845, but never printed by him.  I chanced to light upon the Manuscript in a packet of his still unpublished verse:

Would it not be more dignified
To run up debts on every side,
And then to pay your debts refuse,
Than write for rascally Reviews?
And lectures give to great and small,
In pot-house, theatre, and town-hall,
Wearing your brains by night and day
To win the means to pay your way?
I vow by him who reigns in [hell],
It would be more respectable!

There is a copy of A Supplementary Chapter to “The Bible in Spain” in the Library of the British Museum.  The press-mark is C. 57. d. 19 (2).

p. 83

p. 85(11)  [Lavengro: 1851]

Lavengro; / The Scholar—The Gypsy—The Priest. / By George Borrow, / Author of “The Bible in Spain,” and “The Gypsies of Spain” / In Three Volumes.—Vol. I.  [Vol. II., &c.] / London: / John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1851.

Vol. I.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. xviii [85] + 360; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “London: / George Woodfall and Son, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” upon the centre of the reverse).  Pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with Advertisements of The Bible in Spain and The Zincali upon the reverse) pp. iii–iv; Preface pp. v–xii; and Text pp. 1–360.  At the foot of p. 360 the imprint is repeated thus, “G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.”  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the number of the chapter, together with the title of the individual subject occupying it.  The signatures are A (nine leaves, a single leaf being inserted between A 6 and A 7), and B to Q (fifteen sheets, each 12 leaves).

  A Portrait of Borrow, engraved by W. Holl from a painting by H. W. Phillips, serves as Frontispiece.

Vol. II.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. xii + 366; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “London: / George Woodfall and Son, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” upon the p. 86centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with Advertisements of The Bible in Spain and The Zincali upon the reverse) pp. iii–iv; Contents of Vol. II pp. v–xi; p. xii is blank; and Text pp. 1–366.  At the foot of p. 366 the imprint is repeated thus, “G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.”  There are head-lines throughout, as in the first volume.  The signatures are a (2 leaves), b (4 leaves), B to Q (fifteen sheets, each 12 leaves), plus R (3 leaves).

Vol. III.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. xii + 426; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “London: / George Woodfall and Son, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with Advertisements of The Bible in Spain and The Zincali upon the reverse) pp. iii–iv; Contents of Vol. III pp. v–xi; p. xii is blank; and Text pp. 1–426.  At the foot of p. 426 the imprint is repeated thus, “G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.”  There are head-lines throughout, as in the first volume.  The signatures are a (2 leaves), b (4 leaves), B to S (seventeen sheets, each 12 leaves), T (6 leaves), and U (3 leaves).

Issued in dark blue cloth boards, with white paper back-labels, lettered “Lavengro; / the / Scholar, / the Gypsy, / and / the Priest. / By George Borrow / Vol. i. [Vol. ii., &c.]”  The leaves measure 7¾ × 4⅞ inches.  The edition consisted of 3,000 Copies.  The published price was 30s.

A Second Edition (miscalled Third Edition) was issued in 1872; a Third (miscalled Fourth) in 1888; and a Fourth (miscalled Fifth) in 1896.  To the edition of 1872 was prefixed a new p. 87Preface, in which Borrow replied to his critics in a somewhat angry and irritable manner.  Copies of the First Edition of Lavengro are to be met with, the three volumes bound in one, in original publishers’ cloth, bearing the name of the firm of Chapman and Hall upon the back.  These copies are ‘remainders.’  They were made up in 1870.  It is by no means unlikely that in 1872 some confusion prevailed as to the nature of this subsidiary issue, and that it was mistaken for a Second Edition of the book.  If so the incorrect numbering of the edition of that date, the actual Second Edition, may be readily accounted for.

An important edition of Lavengro is:

Lavengro / By George Borrow / A New Edition / Containing the unaltered Text of the Original Issue; / some Suppressed Passages now printed for the / first time; MS. Variorum, Vocabulary and Notes / By the Author of / The Life of George Borrow / London / John Murray, Albemarle Street / 1900.—Crown 8vo, pp. xxviii + 569.

The book was reprinted in 1911.  The Editor was Dr. William Knapp.

An edition of Lavengro, with a valuable Introduction by Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton, was published by Messrs. Ward, Lock & Co., in 1893.  The work is also included in Everyman’s Library, and in other series of popular reprints.

When put to press in February, 1849, the first volume of Lavengro was set up with the title-page reading as follows:—

Life, A Drama. / By / George Borrow, Esq., / Author of “The Bible in Spain,” etc. / In Three Volumes. / Vol. i. / London: / John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1849.

Only two examples of the volume with this interesting early title-page are known to have survived.  One of these is now in the possession of the Hispanic Society, of New York.  The other is the property of Mr. Otto Kyllmann.

Later in the same year Murray advertised the work under the following title:—

p. 88Lavengro, An Autobiography.  By George Borrow, Esq., &c.

The same title was employed in the advertisements of 1850.

Mr. Clement Shorter possesses the original draft of the first portion of Lavengro.  In this draft the title-page appears in its earliest form, and describes the book as Some Account of the Life, Pursuits, and Adventures of a Norfolk Man.  A facsimile of this tentative title was given by Mr. Shorter in George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, p. 280.

“Borrow took many years to write Lavengro.  ‘I am writing the work,’ he told Dawson Turner, ‘in precisely the same manner as The Bible in Spain, viz. on blank sheets of old account-books, backs of letters,’ &c., and he recalls Mahomet writing the Koran on mutton bones as an analogy to his own ‘slovenliness of manuscript.’  I have had plenty of opportunity of testing this slovenliness in the collection of manuscripts of portions of Lavengro that have come into my possession.  These are written upon pieces of paper of all shapes and sizes, although at least a third of the book in Borrow’s very neat handwriting is contained in a leather notebook.  The title-page demonstrates the earliest form of Borrow’s conception.  Not only did he then contemplate an undisguised autobiography, but even described himself as ‘a Norfolk man.’  Before the book was finished, however, he repudiated the autobiographical note, and we find him fiercely denouncing his critics for coming to such a conclusion.  ‘The writer,’ he declares, ‘never said it was an autobiography; never authorised any person to say it was one.’  Which was doubtless true, in a measure.”—[George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, pp. 279–281].

There is a copy of the First Edition of Lavengro in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 12622. f. 7.

(12.)  [The Romany Rye: 1857]

The / Romany Rye; / A Sequel to “Lavengro.” / By George Borrow, / Author of / “The Bible in p. 89Spain,” “The Gypsies of Spain,” etc. / “Fear God, and take your own part.” / In Two Volumes.—Vol. I. [Vol. II.] / London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1857. / [The Right of Translation is reserved.]

Vol. I.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. xii + 372; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with imprint “London: Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” at the foot of the reverse) pp. iii–iv; Preface (styled Advertisement) pp. v–vi; Table of Contents pp. vii–xi; Extract from Pleasantries of the Cogia Nasr Eddin Efendi p. xii; and Text pp. 1–372.  The head-line is The Romany Rye throughout, upon both sides of the page; each page also bears at its head the number of the particular Chapter occupying it.  At the foot of p. 372 the imprint is repeated thus, “Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.”  The signatures are A (a half-sheet of 6 leaves), B to Q (15 sheets, each 12 leaves), plus R (a half-sheet of 6 leaves).

Vol. II.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. viii + 375 + ix; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with imprint “London: Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” at the foot of the reverse) pp. iii–iv; Table of Contents pp. v–vii; p. viii is p. 90blank; and Text pp. 1–375.  The reverse of p. 375 is blank.  The volume is completed by eight unnumbered pages of Advertisements of Works by the Author of “The Bible in Spain” ready for the Press.  There are head-lines throughout; up to, and including, p. 244 the head-line is The Romany Rye, together with the numbers of the Chapters, pp. 245–375 are headed Appendix, accompanied by the numbers of the Chapters.  At the foot of the last of the eight unnumbered pages carrying the Advertisements (Sig. R 12 verso) the imprint is repeated thus, “Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.”  The signatures are A (four leaves), plus B to R (16 sheets, each 12 leaves).

Issued (on April 30th, 1857) in dark blue cloth boards, with white paper back-labels, lettered “The / Romany Rye. / By / George Borrow. / Vol. I. [Vol. II.]”  The leaves measure 7⅞ × 5 inches.

Of the First Edition of The Romany Rye One Thousand Copies were printed.  The published price was 21s.  A Second Edition was published in 1858, a Third in 1872, a Fourth in 1888, and a Fifth in 1896.  The book is included in Everyman’s Library, and in other series of popular reprints.

The series of Advertisements of Works by Borrow, announced as “Ready for the Press,” which occupy the last eight pages of the second volume of The Romany Rye are of especial interest.  No less than twelve distinct works are included in these advertisements.  Of these twelve The Bible in Spain was already in the hands of the public, Wild Wales duly appeared in 1862, and The Sleeping Bard in 1860.  These three were all that Borrow lived to see in print.  Two others, The Turkish Jester and The Death of p. 91Balder, were published posthumously in 1884 and 1889 respectively; but the remaining seven, Celtic Bards, Chiefs, and Kings, Songs of Europe, Kœmpe Viser, Penquite and Pentyre, Russian Popular Tales, Northern Skalds, Kings, and Earls, and Bayr Jairgey and Glion Doo: The Red Path and the Black Valley, were never destined to see the light.  However, practically the whole of the verse prepared for them was included in the series of Pamphlets which have been printed for private circulation during the past twelve months.

As was the case with Lavengro, Borrow delayed the completion of The Romany Rye to an extent that much disconcerted his publisher, John Murray.  The correspondence which passed between author and publisher is given at some length by Dr. Knapp, in whose pages the whole question is fully discussed.

Mr. Shorter presents the matter clearly and fairly in the paragraphs he devotes to the subject:

“The most distinctly English book—at least in a certain absence of cosmopolitanism—that Victorian literature produced was to a great extent written on scraps of paper during a prolonged Continental tour which included Constantinople and Budapest.  In Lavengro we have only half a book, the whole work, which included what came to be published as The Romany Rye, having been intended to appear in four volumes.  The first volume was written in 1843, the second in 1845, and the third volume in the years between 1845 and 1848.  Then in 1852 Borrow wrote out an advertisement of a fourth volume, which runs as follows:

Shortly will be published in one volume.  Price 10s.  The Rommany Rye, Being the fourth volume of Lavengro.  By George Borrow, author of The Bible in Spain.

But this volume did not make an appearance ‘shortly.’  Its author was far too much offended with the critics, too disheartened it may be, to care to offer himself again for their gibes.  The years rolled on, and not until 1857 did The Romany Rye appear.  The book was now in two volumes, and we see that the word Romany had dropped an m. . . .

The incidents of Lavengro are supposed to have taken place p. 92between the 24th of May 1825, and the 18th of July of that year.  In The Romany Rye the incidents apparently occur between the 19th of July and the 3rd of August 1825.  In the opinion of Mr. John Sampson, the whole of the episodes in the five volumes occurred in seventy-two days.”—[George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, pp. 341–343.]

A useful edition of The Romany Rye is:

The Romany Rye / A Sequel to “Lavengro” / By George Borrow / A New Edition / Containing the unaltered text of the Original / Issue, with Notes, etc., by the Author of / “The Life of George Borrow” / London / John Murray, Albemarle Street / 1900.—Crown 8vo. pp. xvi + 403.

The book was edited by Dr. William Knapp.

There is a copy of the First Edition of The Romany Rye in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 12622. f. 8.

(13)  [The Sleeping Bard: 1860]

The Sleeping Bard; / Or / Visions of the World, Death, and Hell, / By / Elis Wyn. / Translated from the Cambrian British / By / George Borrow, / Author of/ “The Bible in Spain,” “The Gypsies of Spain,” etc. / London: / John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1860.

Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. x + 128; consisting of: Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. i–ii; Preface pp. iii–vii; p. viii is blank; Fly-title to A Vision of the Course of the World (with blank reverse) pp. ix-x; and Text of the three Visions pp. p. 931–128.  There are head-lines throughout, each double-page being headed with the title of the particular Vision occupying it.  A Vision of Hell is preceded by a separate Fly-title (pp. 67–68) with blank reverse.  At the foot of p. 128 is the following imprint, “James M. Denew, Printer, 72, Hall Plain, Great Yarmouth.”  The sheets carry no register.  The book was issued without any Half-title.  In some copies the Christian name of the printer is misprinted Jamms.

Issued (in June, 1860) in magenta coloured cloth boards, lettered in gold along the back, “The Sleeping Bard,” and “London / John Murray” across the foot.  The published price was 5s.; 250 copies were printed.  Murray’s connection with the work was nominal.  The book was actually issued at Yarmouth by J. M. Denew, the printer by whom it was produced.  The cost was borne by the author himself, to whom the majority of the copies were ultimately delivered.

Some few copies of The Sleeping Bard would appear to have been put up in yellowish-brown plain paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges.  One such example is in the possession of Mr. Paul Lemperley, of Cleveland, Ohio; a second is in the library of Mr. Clement Shorter.  The leaves of both these copies measure 8¾ × 5¾ inches.  The leaves of ordinary copies in cloth measure 7½ × 4¾ inches.  The translation was made in 1830.

The text of The Sleeping Bard is divided into three sections.  Each of these sections closes with a poem of some length, as follows:—

There is a copy of the First Edition of The Sleeping Bard in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 12355. c. 17.

(14)  [Wild Wales: 1862]

Wild Wales: / Its People, Language, and Scenery. / By George Borrow, / Author of “The Bible in Spain,” etc. / “Their Lord they shall praise, / Their language they shall keep, / Their land they shall lose, / Except Wild Wales.” / Taliesin: Destiny of the Britons. / In Three Volumes.—Vol. I. [Vol. II, &c.] / London: / John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1862. / The right of Translation is reserved.

Vol. I.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. xii + 410; consisting of: Half-title (with advertisements of five of p. 95Borrow’s Works upon the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with imprint “London: / Printed by Woodfall and Kinder, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. iii–iv; Notice regarding the previous appearance of a portion of the work in The Quarterly Review (with blank reverse) pp. v–vi; Contents of Vol. I pp. vii–xi; p. xii is blank; and Text pp. 1–410.  There are head-lines throughout, each verso being headed Wild Wales, whilst each recto is headed with the title of the particular subject occupying it.  At the foot of p. 410 the imprint is repeated thus: “Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.”  The signatures are A (a half-sheet of 6 leaves), B to S (17 sheets, each 12 leaves), plus T (2 leaves).  The second leaf of Sig. T is a blank.

Vol. II.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. viii + 413; consisting of: Title-page, as above (with imprint “London: / Printed by Woodfall and Kinder, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Contents of Vol. II pp. v–vii; p. viii is blank; and Text pp. 1–413.  The reverse of p. 413 is blank.  There are head-lines throughout, as in the first volume.  At the foot of p. 413 the imprint is repeated thus, “Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.”  The signatures are A (4 leaves), B to S (17 sheets, each 12 leaves), plus T (4 leaves).  The last leaf of Sig. T is a blank.  The volume was issued without any Half-title.

p. 96Vol. III.

Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. viii + 474; consisting of: Title-page, as above (with imprint “London: / Printed by Woodfall and Kinder, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Contents of Vol. III pp. iii–viii; and Text pp. 1–474.  There are head-lines throughout, as in the first volume.  At the foot of p. 474 the imprint is repeated thus, “Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.”  The signatures are A (8 leaves), B to U (18 sheets, each 12 leaves), plus X (10 leaves).  The last leaf of Sig. H is a blank.  The volume was issued without any Half-title.

Issued (in December, 1862) in dark green cloth boards, with white paper back-label, lettered “Wild Wales. / By / George Borrow. / Vol. I [Vol. ii, &c.].”  The leaves measure 7⅝ × 4⅞ inches.  The published price was 30s.; 1,000 copies were printed.

A Second Edition of Wild Wales was issued in 1865, a Third Edition in 1888, and a Fourth Edition in 1896.  The book has since been included in divers series of non-copyright works.

The following Poems made their first appearance in the pages of Wild Wales:

There is a copy of the First Edition of Wild Wales in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 10369. e. 12.

(15)  [Romano Lavo-Lil: 1874]

Romano Lavo-Lil: / Word-Book of the Romany; / or, / English Gypsy Language. / With many pieces p. 104in Gypsy, illustrative of the way of / Speaking and Thinking of the English Gypsies; / with Specimens of their Poetry, and an account of certain Gypsyries / or Places Inhabited by them, and of various things / relating to Gypsy Life in England. / By George Borrow, / Author of “Lavengro,” “The Romany Rye,” “The Gypsies of Spain,” / “The Bible in Spain,” etc. / “Can you rokra Romany? / Can you play the bosh? / Can you jal adrey the staripen? / Can you chin the cost?” / “Can you speak the Roman tongue? / Can you play the fiddle? / Can you eat the prison-loaf? / Can you cut and whittle? / London: / John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1874.

Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. viii + 331; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with imprint “London: / Printed by William Clowes and Sons, / Stamford Street and Charing Cross” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. iii–iv; Prefatory Note regarding the Vocabulary p. v; Advertisements of five Works of George Borrow p. vi; Table of Contents pp. vii–viii; and Text pp. 1–331, including Fly-titles (each with blank reverse) to each section of the book.  The reverse of p. 331 is blank.  At the foot of p. 331 the imprint is repeated thus, “London: Printed by Wm. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street / and Charing Cross.”  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular subject occupying it.  The signatures, p. 105are A (a half-sheet of 4 leaves), B to X (20 sheets, each 8 leaves), Y (a half-sheet of 4 leaves), and Z (a quarter-sheet of 2 leaves).

Issued in dark blue cloth boards, with white paper back-label, lettered “Romano Lavo-Lil; / Word-Book / of / The Romany. / By / George Borrow.”  The leaves measure 7¾ × 4⅞ inches.  The published price was 10s. 6d.

One Thousand Copies were printed.

The book was set up in type towards the end of 1873, and published early in 1874.  Proof-sheets still exist bearing the earlier date upon the title-page.

A considerable amount of Verse by Borrow made its first appearance in the pages of Romano Lavo-Lil, as detailed in the following list:

Contents

Upon page 122 of Romano Lavo-Lil, is printed a version of The Lord’s Prayer cast into Romany by Borrow.  The original Manuscript of this translation has survived, and its text presents some curious variations from the published version.  A reduced facsimile of this Manuscript serves as Frontispiece to the present Bibliography.

Accompanying the Manuscript of The Lord’s Prayer in Romany, is the Manuscript of a translation made by Borrow into the dialect of the English Gypsies.  This translation has never, so far as I am aware, appeared in print.  It is an interesting document, and well worthy of preservation.  A reduced facsimile of it will be found facing the present page.

p. 110A Second Edition of Romano Lavo-Lil was issued by the same publisher, John Murray, in 1888, and a Third in 1905.

There is a copy of the First Edition of Romano Lavo-Lil in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 2278. c. 15.

(16)  [The Turkish Jester: 1884]

The Turkish Jester; / Or, / The Pleasantries / of / Cogia Nasr Eddin Effendi. / Translated from the Turkish / By / George Borrow. / Ipswich: / W. Webber, Dial Lane. / 1884.

Collation:—Crown octavo, printed in half-sheets, pp. ii + 52; consisting of: Title-page, as above (with Certificate of Issue upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; and Text pp. 1–52.  There are no head-lines, the pages being numbered centrally.  The book is made up in a somewhat unusual manner, each half-sheet having a separately printed quarter-sheet of two leaves imposed within it.  The register is therefore B to E (four sections, each 6 leaves), plus F (2 leaves), the whole preceded by two leaves, one of which is blank, whilst the other carries the Title-page.  There is no printer’s imprint.  The book was issued without any Half-title.  The title is enclosed within a single rectangular ruled frame.

Issued in cream-coloured paper wrappers, with the title-page reproduced upon the front, but reset in types of different character, and without the ruled frame, and with the imprint reading High Street in place of Dial Lane.  p. 111Inside the front cover the Certificate of Issue is repeated.  The leaves measure 7¾ × 5 inches.  The edition consisted of One Hundred and Fifty Copies.  The published price was 7s. 6d.

The Manuscript of The Turkish Jester was formerly owned by Dr. Knapp, and is now the property of the Hispanic Society, of New York.  It extends to 71 pages 4to.  The translation was probably made about 1854, at the time when Borrow was at work upon his Songs of Europe.  In 1857, the book was included among the Advertisements appended to the second volume of The Romany Rye.

There is a copy of the First Edition of The Turkish Jester in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 758. b. 16.

(17)  [The Death of Balder: 1889]

The / Death of Balder / From the Danish / of / Johannes Ewald / (1773) / Translated by / George Borrow / Author of “Bible in Spain,” “Lavengro,” “Wild Wales,” etc. / London / Jarrold & Sons, 3 Paternoster Buildings, E.C. / 1889 / All Rights Reserved.

Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. viii + 77; consisting of: Half-title (with Certificate of Issue upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. iii–iv; Preface and List of The Persons (each with blank reverse) pp. v–viii; and Text pp. 1–77.  The reverse of p. 77 is blank.  The head-line is Death of Balder throughout, upon both sides of the page.  At the foot of p. 77 is the following p. 112imprint, “Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. / London and Edinburgh.”  The signatures are A (4 leaves), and B to F (5 sheets, each 8 leaves).  Sig. F 8 is a blank.

Issued in dark brown ‘diced’ cloth boards, with white paper back-label.  The leaves measure 7¾ × 5 inches.  Two Hundred and Fifty Copies were printed.  The published price was 7s. 6d.

The Death of Balder was written in 1829, the year during which Borrow produced so many of his ballad translations, the year in which he made his fruitless effort to obtain subscribers for his Songs of Scandinavia.  On December 6th of that year he wrote to Dr. [afterwards Sir] John Bowring:

“I wish to shew you my translation of The Death of Balder, Ewald’s most celebrated production, which, if you approve of, you will perhaps render me some assistance in bringing forth, for I don’t know many publishers.  I think this will be a proper time to introduce it to the British public, as your account of Danish literature will doubtless cause a sensation.”

Evidently no publisher was forthcoming, for the work remained in manuscript until 1889, when, eight years after Borrow’s death, Messrs. Jarrold & Sons gave it to the world.  In 1857 Borrow included the Tragedy among the series of Works advertised as “ready for the Press” at the end of the second volume of The Romany Rye.  It was there described as “A Heroic Play.”

Although published only in 1889, The Death of Balder was actually set up in type three years earlier.  It had been intended that the book should have been issued in London by Messrs. Reeves & Turner, and proof-sheets exist carrying upon the title-page the name of that firm as publishers, and bearing the date 1886.  It would appear that Mr. W. Webber, a bookseller of Ipswich, who then owned the Manuscript, had at first contemplated issuing the book through Messrs. Reeves & Turner.  But at this p. 113juncture he entered into the employment of Messrs. Jarrold & Sons, and consequently the books was finally brought out by that firm.  The types were not reset, but were kept standing during the interval.

Another version of the song of The Three Valkyrier, which appears in The Death of Balder, pp. 53–54, was printed in Marsk Stig’s Daughters and Other Songs and Ballads, 1913, pp. 19–20.  The text of the two versions differs entirely, in addition to which the 1913 version forms one complete single song, whilst in that of 1889 the lines are divided up between the several characters.

The Manuscript of The Death of Balder, referred to above, passed into the hands of Dr. Knapp, and is now in the possession of the Hispanic Society, of New York.  It consists of 97 pages 4to.  A transcript in the handwriting of Mrs. Borrow is also the property of the Society.

There is a copy of the First Edition of The Death of Balder in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 11755. f 9.

(18)  [Letters to the Bible Society: 1911]

Letters of / George Borrow / To the British and Foreign / Bible Society / Published by Direction of the Committee / Edited by / T. H. Darlow / Hodder and Stoughton / London New York Toronto / 1911.

Collation:—Octavo, pp. xviii + 471; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. iii–iv; Dedication To Williamson Lamplough (with blank reverse) pp. v–vi; Preface vii–xi; Note regarding “the officials of the Bible Society with whom Borrow came into close p. 114relationship” pp. xi–xii; List of Borrow’s Letters, etc., printed in this Volume pp. xiii–xvii; chronological Outline of Borrow’s career p. xviii; and Text of the Letters, &c., pp. 1–471.  There are head-lines throughout, each verso being headed George Borrow’s Letters, and each recto To the Bible Society.  Upon the reverse of p. 471 is the following imprint “Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty / at the Edinburgh University Press.”  The signatures are a (one sheet of 8 leaves), b (a quarter-sheet of 2 leaves), A to 2 F (29 sheets, each 8 leaves) plus 2 G (a half-sheet of 4 leaves).  Sig. a 1 is a blank.  A facsimile of one of the Letters included in the volume is inserted as Frontispiece.

Issued in dark crimson buckram, with paper sides, lettered in gold across the back, “Letters of / George / Borrow / To the / Bible Society / Edited by / T. H. Darlow / Hodder & / Stoughton.”  The leaves measure 8⅜ × 5⅞ inches.  The published price was 7s. 6d.

“When Borrow set about preparing The Bible in Spain, he obtained from the Committee of the Bible Society the loan of the letters which are here published, and introduced considerable portions of them into that most picturesque and popular of his works.  Perhaps one-third of the contents of the present volume was utilised in this way, being more or less altered and edited by Borrow for the purpose.”—[Preface, pp. ix-x].

The holographs of the complete series of Letters included in this volume are preserved in the archives of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

There is a copy of Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is 010902.e.10.

p. 115(19)  [Letters to Mary Borrow: 1913]

Letters / To his Wife / Mary Borrow / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. 38; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse), pp. 3–4; and Text of the Letters pp. 5–38.  The head-line is Letters to His Wife throughout, upon both sides of the page.  Following p. 38 is a leaf, with blank reverse, and with the following imprint upon its recto, “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a half sheet of 4 leaves), plus B and C (2 sheets, each 8 leaves), inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 7½ × 5 inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Holograph Letters by Borrow are extremely uncommon, the number known to be extant being far less than one might have supposed would be the case, considering the good age to which Borrow attained.  His correspondents were few, and, save to the officials of the Bible Society, he was not a diligent letter-writer.  The holographs of this series of letters addressed to his wife are in my own collection of Borroviana.

The majority of the letters included in this volume were reprinted p. 116in George Borrow and his Circle.  By Clement King Shorter, 8vo, 1913.

There is a copy of Letters to his Wife, Mary Borrow, in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 32.

(20)  [Marsk Stig: 1913]

Marsk Stig / A Ballad / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. 40; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballad pp. 5–40.  The head-line is Marsk Stig throughout, upon both sides of the page.  At the foot of p. 40 is the following imprint, “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a half-sheet of 4 leaves), plus B and C (2 sheets, each 8 leaves), inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 7½ × 5 inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Marsk Stig consists of four separate Ballads, or Songs as Borrow styled them, the whole forming one complete and connected story.  The plot is an old Danish legend of the same character as the history of David and Bathsheba, Marsk Stig himself being the counterpart of Uriah the Hittite.

p. 121The four Songs commence as follows:—

Marsk Stig was one of the ballads prepared by Borrow for The Songs of Scandinavia in 1829, and revised for the Kœmpe Viser in 1854.  Both Manuscripts are extant, and I give reproductions of a page of each.  It will be observed that upon the margins of the earlier Manuscript Borrow wrote his revisions, so that this Manuscript practically carries in itself both versions of the ballad.  The Manuscript of 1829 is in the possession of Mr. J. H. Spoor, of Chicago.  The Manuscript of 1854 is in my own library.  As a specimen of Marsk Stig I quote the following stanzas:

It was the young and bold Marsk Stig
   Came riding into the Castle yard,
Abroad did stand the King of the land
   So fair array’d in sable and mard.

“Now lend an ear, young Marshal Stig,
   I have for thee a fair emprise,
Ride thou this year to the war and bear
   My flag amongst my enemies.”

“And if I shall fare to the war this year,
   And risk my life among thy foes,
Do thou take care of my Lady dear,
   Of Ingeborg, that beauteous rose.”

p. 122Then answer’d Erik, the youthful King,
   With a laugh in his sleeve thus answered he:
“No more I swear has thy lady to fear
   Than if my sister dear were she.”

It was then the bold Sir Marshal Stig,
   From out of the country he did depart,
In her castle sate his lonely mate,
   Fair Ingeborg, with grief at heart.

“Now saddle my steed,” cried Eric the King,
   “Now saddle my steed,” King Eric cried,
“To visit the Dame of beauteous fame
   Your King will into the country ride.”

* * * * *

“Now list, now list, Dame Ingeborg,
   Thou art, I swear, a beauteous star,
Live thou with me in love and glee,
   Whilst Marshal Stig is engag’d in war.”

Then up and spake Dame Ingeborg,
   For nought was she but a virtuous wife:
“Rather, I say, than Stig betray,
   Sir King, I’d gladly lose my life.”

“Give ear, thou proud Dame Ingeborg,
   If thou my leman and love will be,
Each finger fair of thy hand shall bear
   A ring of gold so red of blee.”

“Marsk Stig has given gold rings to me,
   And pearls around my neck to string;
By the Saints above I never will prove
   Untrue to the Marshal’s couch, Sir King.”

* * * * *

p. 127It was Erik the Danish King,
   A damnable deed the King he wrought;
He forc’d with might that Lady bright,
   Whilst her good Lord his battles fought.

* * * * *

It was the young Sir Marshal Stig
   Stepp’d proudly in at the lofty door;
And bold knights then, and bold knight’s men,
   Stood up the Marshal Stig before.

So up to the King of the land he goes,
   And straight to make his plaint began;
Then murmured loud the assembled crowd,
   And clench’d his fist each honest man.

“Ye good men hear a tale of fear,
   A tale of horror, a tale of hell—

&c., &c.

There is a copy of Marsk Stig A Ballad in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(21)  [The Serpent Knight: 1913]

The Serpent Knight / and / Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 35; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; Table of Contents (with blank reverse) pp. 5–6; and Text of the Ballads pp. 7–35.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 35 is the following imprint: “London: / p. 128Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to thirty copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of two leaves), plus B & C (two sheets, each eight leaves), inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

The complete Manuscript of The Serpent Knight and Other Ballads is in my own collection of Borroviana.

There is a copy of The Serpent Knight and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(22)  [The King’s Wake: 1913]

The King’s Wake / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 23; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–23.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 23 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a half-sheet of four leaves), with B (a full sheet of eight leaves) inset within it.

p. 132Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

There is a copy of The King’s Wake and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(23)  [The Dalby Bear: 1913]

The Dalby Bear / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 20; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–20.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of p. 140the particular Ballad occupying it.  At the foot of p. 20 is the following imprint: “London / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of two leaves), with B (a full sheet of 8 leaves) inset within it.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

The complete Manuscript of The Dalby Bear and Other Ballads is in the library of Mr. Clement Shorter.

There is a copy of The Dalby Bear and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(24.)  [The Mermaid’s Prophecy: 1913]

The / Mermaid’s Prophecy / and other / Songs relating to Queen Dagmar / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

p. 143Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 30; consisting of Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Songs pp. 5–30.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Song occupying it.  Following p. 30 is a leaf, with a notice regarding the American copyright upon the reverse, and with the following imprint upon its recto: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A and B (two sheets, each eight leaves), the one inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8¾ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

Of The Mermaid’s Prophecy there are two Manuscripts extant.  In the earlier of these, written in 1829, the Poem is entitled The Mermaid’s Prophecy.  In the later Manuscript, written apparently p. 144about the year 1854, it is entitled The Mermaid only.  From this later Manuscript the Poem was printed in the present volume.

Unlike the majority of Borrow’s Manuscripts, which usually exhibit extreme differences of text when two holographs exist of the same Poem, the texts of the two versions of The Mermaid’s Prophecy are practically identical, the opening stanza alone presenting any important variation.  Here are the two versions of this stanza:

1829

The Dane King had the Mermaiden caught by his swains,
   The mermaid dances the floor upon—
And her in the tower had loaded with chains,
   Because his will she had not done.

1854

The King he has caught the fair mermaid, and deep
   (The mermaid dances the floor upon)
In the dungeon has placed her, to pine and to weep,
   Because his will she had not done.

There is a copy of The Mermaid’s Prophecy and other Songs relating to Queen Dagmar in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(25.)  [Hafbur and Signe: 1913]

Hafbur and Signe / A Ballad / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 23; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text p. 147of the Ballad pp. 5–23.  The head-line is Hafbur and Signe throughout, upon both sides of the page.  Upon the reverse of p. 23 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a half-sheet of four leaves), with B (a full sheet of eight leaves) inset within it.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

Of Hafbur and Signe two Manuscripts are extant.  The first of these was doubtless written in the early summer of 1830, for on June 1st of that year Borrow wrote to Dr. Bowring:

I send you “Hafbur and Signe” to deposit in the Scandinavian Treasury [i.e. among the Songs of Scandinavia].

The later Manuscript was written in or about the year 1854.

The earlier of these two Manuscripts is in the collection of Mr. Herbert T. Butler.  The later Manuscript is in my own library.

As is usually the case when two Manuscripts of one of Borrow’s ballads are available, the difference in poetical value of the two versions of Hafbur and Signe is considerably.  Few examples could exhibit more distinctly the advance made by Borrow in the art of poetical composition during the interval.  Here are some stanzas from the version of 1854.

p. 148So late it was at nightly tide,
   Down fell the dew o’er hill and mead;
Then lists it her proud Signild fair
   With all the rest to bed to speed.

“O where shall I a bed procure?”
   Said Hafbur then, the King’s good son.
“O thou shalt rest in chamber best
   With me the bolsters blue upon.”

Proud Signild foremost went, and stepped
   The threshold of her chamber o’er;
With secret glee came Hafbur, he
   Had never been so glad before.

Then lighted they the waxen lights,
   So fairly twisted were the same.
Behind, behind, with ill at mind,
   The wicked servant maiden came

The following are the parallel stanzas from the version of 1830

So late it was in the nightly tide,
   Dew fell o’er hill and mead;
Then listed her proud Signild fair
   With the rest to bed to speed.

“O where shall I a bed procure?”
   Said Hafbour the King’s good son.
“In the chamber best with me thou shalt rest,
   The bolsters blue upon.”

Proud Signild foremost went and stepp’d
   The high chamber’s threshold o’er,
Prince Hafbour came after with secret laughter,
   He’d ne’er been delighted more

p. 153Then lighted they the waxen lights,
   Fair twisted were the same.
Behind, behind with ill in her mind
   The wicked servant came.

I give herewith a reduced facsimile of the last page of each Manuscript.

There is a copy of Hafbur and Signe A Ballad in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(26)  [The Story of Yvashka: 1913]

The Story / of / Yvashka with the Bear’s Ear / Translated from the Russian / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 23; consisting of: Half title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Frontispiece (with blank recto) pp. 3–4; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 5–6; Introduction (by Borrow) pp. 7–10; and Text of the Story pp. 11–23.  The head-line is Yvashka with the Bears Ear throughout, upon both sides of the page.  Upon the reverse of p. 23 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N. W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a half sheet of 4 leaves), and B (a full sheet of 8 leaves), the one inset within the other.  p. 154The Frontispiece consists of a reduced facsimile of the first page of the original Manuscript in Borrow’s handwriting.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

The Story of Yvashka was the second of three Russian Popular Tales, which were contributed by Borrow to the pages of Once a Week during 1862.  The Story of Yvashka appeared in the number for May 17th, 1862, Vol. vi, pp. 572–574.

The Story was reprinted in The Sphere, Feb. 1st, 1913, p. 136.

The Text of Yvashka as printed in Once a Week differs appreciably from that printed in The Sphere, and in the private pamphlet of 1913, both of which are identical.  The Manuscript from which the two latter versions were taken was the original translation.  The version which appeared in Once a Week was printed from a fresh Manuscript (which fills 11 quarto pages) prepared in 1862.  A reduced facsimile of the first page of the earlier Manuscript (which extends to 5⅛ quarto pages) will be found reproduced upon the opposite page.  In this Manuscript the story is entitled The History of Jack with the Bear’s Ear.

Judging from the appearance of this MS., both paper and handwriting, together with that of fragments which remain of the original MSS. of the other two published Tales, it seems probable that the whole were produced by Borrow during his residence in St. Petersburg.  Should such surmise be correct, the Tales are contemporary with Targum.

The Once a Week version of The Story of Yvashka was reprinted in The Avon Booklet, Vol. ii, 1904, pp. 199–210.

There is a copy of The Story of Yvashka in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 37.

p. 155

p. 157(27)  [The Verner Raven: 1913]

The Verner Raven / The Count of Vendel’s / Daughter / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a note regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 3–4, and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–27.  There are headlines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint: “London / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of 2 leaves), B (a half sheet of 4 leaves), and C (a full sheet of 8 leaves), all inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

Note.—Each poem to which no reference is attached, appeared for the first time in this volume.

The Manuscript of The Count of Vendel’s Daughter is included in the extensive collection of Borroviana belonging to Mr. F. J. Farrell, of Great Yarmouth.

There is a copy of The Verner Raven, The Count of Vendel’s Daughter, and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(28)  [The Return of the Dead: 1913]

The / Return of the Dead / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 22; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–22.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Following p. 22 is a leaf, with blank reverse, and with the following imprint upon its recto: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty copies.”  The signatures are A (a half-sheet of four leaves), with B (a full sheet of eight leaves), inset within it.

p. 161Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

As a further example of Borrow’s shorter Ballads, I give Ingeborg’s Disguise in full.  The entire series included in The Return of the Dead and Other Ballads ranks among the most uniformly successful of Borrow’s achievements in this particular branch of literature:—

INGEBORG’S DISGUISE [161]

Such handsome court clothes the proud Ingeborg buys,
Says she, “I’ll myself as a courtier disguise.”

Proud Ingeborg hastens her steed to bestride,
Says she, “I’ll away with the King to reside.”

“Thou gallant young King to my speech lend an ear,
Hast thou any need of my services here?”

“O yes, my sweet lad, of a horseboy I’ve need,
If there were but stable room here for his steed.

p. 162“But thy steed in the stall with my own can be tied,
And thou ’neath the linen shalt sleep by my side.”

Three years in the palate good service she wrought
That she was a woman no one ever thought.

She filled for three years of a horse-boy the place,
And the steeds of the monarch she drove out to graze.

She led for three years the King’s steeds to the brook,
For else than a youth no one Ingeborg took.

Proud Ingeborg knows how to make the dames gay,
She also can sing in such ravishing way.

The hair on her head is like yellow spun gold,
To her beauty the heart of the prince was not cold.

But at length up and down in the palace she strayed,
Her colour and hair began swiftly to fade.

What eye has seen ever so wondrous a case?
The boy his own spurs to his heel cannot brace.

The horse-boy is brought to so wondrous a plight,
To draw his own weapon he has not the might.

The son of the King to five damsels now sends,
And Ingeborg fair to their care he commends.

Proud Ingeborg took they and wrapped in their weed,
And to the stone chamber with her they proceed.

Upon the blue cushions they Ingeborg laid,
Where light of two beautiful sons she is made.

Then in came the prince, smiled the babies to view:
“’Tis not every horse-boy can bear such a two.”

p. 165He patted her soft on her cheek sleek and fair:
“Forget my heart’s dearest all sorrow and care.”

He placed the gold crown on her temples I ween:
“With me shalt thou live as my wife and my Queen.”

The complete Manuscript of The Return of the Dead and Other Ballads is in my own library.

There is a copy of The Return of the Dead and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C.44.d.38.

(29)  [Axel Thordson: 1913]

Axel Thordson / and Fair Valborg / A Ballad / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 45; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a notice regarding the American copyright upon the reverse) pp. 3–4; and text of the Ballad pp. 5–45.  The head-line is Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg throughout, upon both sides of the page.  Upon the reverse of p. 45 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A to C (Three sheets, each eight leaves) inset within each other.  The last leaf of Sig. C is a blank.

p. 166Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

In some respects Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg is the most ambitious of Borrow’s Ballads.  It is considerably the longest, unless we regard the four “Songs” of which Marsk Stig is comprised as forming one complete poem.  But it is by no means the most successful; indeed it is invariably in his shorter Ballads that we find Borrow obtaining the happiest result.

Two Manuscripts of Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg are available.  The first was prepared in 1829 for the Songs of Scandinavia.  The second was revised in 1854 for the Kœmpe Viser.  This later Manuscript is in my own possession.  I give herewith a reduced facsimile of one of its pages.

There is a copy of Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C.44.d.38.

(30)  [King Hacon’s Death: 1913]

King Hacon’s Death / and / Bran and the Black Dog / Two Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. 14; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as p. 169above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Two Ballads pp. 5–14.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Following p. 14 is a leaf, with blank reverse, and with the following imprint upon its recto, “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  There are no signatures, the pamphlet being composed of a single sheet, folded to form sixteen pages.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 7½ × 5 inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

There is a copy of King Hacon’s Death and Bran and the Black Dog in the Library of the British Museum.  The Pressmark is C. 44. d. 38.

(31)  [Marsk Stig’s Daughters: 1913]

Marsk Stig’s / Daughters / and other / Songs and Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. 21; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse), pp. 1–2; Title-page, as p. 173above (with blank reverse), pp. 3–4; Table of Contents, pp. 5–6; and Text of the Songs and Ballads, pp. 7–21.  The reverse of p. 21 is blank.  The head-line is Songs and Ballads throughout, upon both sides of the page.  The pamphlet concludes with a leaf, with blank reverse, and with the following imprint upon its recto: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  There are no signatures, but the pamphlet consists of a half-sheet (of four leaves), with a full sheet (of eight leaves) inset within it.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 7½ × 5 inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

Note.—Each poem to which no reference is attached appeared for the first time in this volume.

There is a copy of Marsk Stig’s Daughters and other Songs and Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(32)  [The Tale of Brynild: 1913]

The Tale of Brynild / and / King Valdemar and his Sister / Two Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

p. 178Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 35; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page as above (with a notice regarding the American copyright upon the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–35.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 35 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of two leaves), and B and C (two sheets, each eight leaves), each inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

There can be little doubt that the series of poems included in this volume present Borrow at his best as a writer of Ballads.

There is a copy of The Tale of Brynild and King Valdemar and his Sister in the Library of the British Museum.  The Pressmark is C. 44. d. 38.

p. 179

p. 181(33)  [Proud Signild: 1913]

Proud Signild / and / Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation: Square demy octavo, pp. 28; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a notice regarding the American copyright upon the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–28.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  At the foot of p. 28 is the following imprint: “London: Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W.  Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (six leaves), and B (a full sheet of eight leaves), the one inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

There is a copy of Proud Signild and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(34)  [Ulf Van Yern: 1913]

Ulf Van Yern / and / Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page (with notice regarding the American copyright upon the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–27.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for p. 187Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of two leaves), B (a half-sheet of four leaves), and C (a full sheet of eight leaves), all inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

There is a copy of Ulf Van Yern and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

p. 188(35)  [Ellen of Villenskov: 1913]

Ellen of Villenskov / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 22; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–22.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Following p. 22 is a leaf, with blank reverse, and with the following imprint upon its recto: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a half-sheet of four leaves), with B (a full sheet of eight leaves) inset within it.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

Note.—Each poem to which no reference is attached, appeared for the first time in this volume.

The Manuscripts of the poems included in Ellen of Villenskov and Other Ballads are in the Library of Mr. Clement K. Shorter.

There is a copy of Ellen of Villenskov and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(36)  [The Songs of Ranild: 1913]

The Songs of Ranild / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 26; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Poems pp. 5–26.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular poem occupying it.  Following p. 26 is a leaf, with a notice regarding the American copyright upon the reverse, and with the following imprint upon its recto: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (six leaves), and B (a full sheet of eight leaves), the one inset within the other.

p. 192Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

There is a copy of The Songs of Ranild in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(37)  [Niels Ebbesen: 1913]

Niels Ebbesen / and / Germand Gladenswayne / Two Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 32; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page as above (with notice regarding the American copyright upon the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–32.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  At the foot of p. 32 p. 195is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A and B (two sheets, each eight leaves), the one inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

There is a copy of Niels Ebbesen and Germand Gladenswayne in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(38)  [Child Maidelvold: 1913]

Child Maidelvold / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a notice regarding the American copyright upon the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of p. 196the Ballads pp. 5–27.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of two leaves), B (a half-sheet of four leaves), and C (a full sheet of eight leaves), each inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

As a further example of these Ballads I give Ingefred and Gudrune in full.

p. 199INGEFRED AND GUDRUNE [199]

Ingefred and Gudrune they sate in their bower,
Each bloomed a beauteous fragrant flower—
   So sweet it is in summer tide!

A working the gold fair Ingefred kept,
Still sate Gudrune, and bitterly wept.

“Dear sister Gudrune so fain I’d know
Why down thy cheek the salt tears flow?”

“Cause enough have I to be thus forlorn,
With a load of sorrow my heart is worn.

“Hear, Ingefred, hear what I say to thee,
Wilt thou to-night stand bride for me?

“If bride for me thou wilt stand to-night,
I’ll give thee my bridal clothes thee to requite.

“And more, much more to thee I’ll give,
All my bride jewels thou shalt receive.”

“O, I will not stand for bride in thy room,
Save I also obtain thy merry bridegroom.”

“Betide me whatever the Lord ordain,
From me my bridegroom thou never shalt gain.”

In silks so costly the bride they arrayed,
And unto the kirk the bride they conveyed.

In golden cloth weed the holy priest stands,
He joins of Gudrune and Samsing the hands.

O’er the downs and green grass meadows they sped,
Where the herdsman watched his herd as it fed.

p. 200“Of thy beauteous self, dear Damsel, take heed,
Ne’er enter the house of Sir Samsing, I rede.

“Sir Samsing possesses two nightingales
Who tell of the Ladies such wondrous tales.

“With their voices of harmony they can declare
Whether maiden or none has fallen to his share.”

The chariot they stopped in the green wood shade,
An exchange ’twixt them of their clothes they made.

They change of their dress whatever they please,
Their faces they cannot exchange with ease.

To Sir Samsung’s house the bride they conveyed,
Of the ruddy gold no spare was made.

On the bridal throne the bride they plac’d,
They skinked the mead for the bride to taste.

Then said from his place the court buffoon:
“Methinks thou art Ingefred, not Gudrune.”

From off her hand a gold ring she took,
Which she gave the buffoon with entreating look.

Said he: “I’m an oaf, and have drunk too hard,
To words of mine pay no regard.”

’Twas deep at night, and down fell the mist,
To her bed the young bride they assist.

Sir Samsing spoke to his nightingales twain:
“Before my young bride sing now a strain.

“A song now sing which shall avouch
Whether I’ve a maiden or none in my couch.”

“A maid’s in the bed, that’s certain and sure,
Gudrune is standing yet on the floor.”

p. 203“Proud Ingefred, straight from my couch retire!
Gudrune come hither, or dread my ire!

“Now tell me, Gudrune, with open heart,
What made thee from thy bed depart?”

“My father, alas! dwelt near the strand,
When war and bloodshed filled the land.

“Full eight there were broke into my bower,
One only ravished my virgin flower.”

Upon her fair cheek he gave a kiss:
“My dearest, my dearest, all sorrow dismiss;

“My swains they were that broke into thy bower,
’Twas I that gathered thy virgin flower.”

Fair Ingefred gained, because bride she had been,
One of the King’s knights of handsome mien.

There is a copy of Child Maidelvold and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(39)  [Ermeline: 1913]

Ermeline / A Ballad / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 23; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Poems pp. 5–23.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular poem occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 204p. 23 is the following imprint: “London / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a half-sheet of four leaves), and B (a full sheet of eight leaves), the one inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

There is a copy of Ermeline A Ballad in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

p. 206

p. 207(40)  [The Giant of Bern: 1913]

The Giant of Bern / and Orm Ungerswayne / A Ballad / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. 15; consisting of Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballad pp. 5–15.  The head-line is The Giant of Bern throughout, upon both sides of the page.  Upon the reverse of p. 15 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  There are no signatures, the pamphlet being composed of a single sheet, folded to form sixteen pages.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 7½ × 5 inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

There is a copy of The Giant of Bern and Orm Ungerswayne in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(41)  [Little Engel: 1913]

Little Engel / A Ballad / With a Series of / Epigrams from the Persian / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, p. 211as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballad and Epigrams pp. 5–27.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Poem occupying it—save for pp. 23–27, which are headed Epigrams.  Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (six leaves), and B (a full sheet of eight leaves), the one inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

The original Manuscript of Little Engel, written in 1829, is in the library of Mr. Edmund Gosse.  The Manuscript of 1854, from which the ballad was printed, is in my own library.

There is a copy of Little Engel, A Ballad, &c., in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(42)  [Alf the Freebooter: 1913]

Alf the Freebooter / Little Danneved and / Swayne Trost / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a note regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–27.  There are headlines throughout, each page being headed with the p. 215title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint, “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of 2 leaves), B (a half-sheet of 4 leaves), and C (a full sheet of 8 leaves), all inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

There is a copy of Alf the Freebooter and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(43)  [King Diderik: 1913]

King Diderik / and the Fight between the / Lion and Dragon / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

p. 216Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a note regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–27.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint, “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of 2 leaves), B (a half-sheet of 4 leaves), and C (a full sheet of 8 leaves), all inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

The complete Manuscript of King Diderik, &c., and Other Ballads, as prepared for the Songs of Scandinavia of 1829, is preserved in the British Museum.

p. 219There is a copy of King Diderik and the Fight between the Lion and Dragon, &c. in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(44)  [The Nightingale: 1913]

The Nightingale / The Valkyrie and Raven / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a note regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–27.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N. W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of 2 leaves), B (a half-sheet of 4 leaves), and C (a full sheet of 8 leaves), all inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

Note.—Each poem to which no reference is attached, appeared for the first time in this volume.

p. 223There is a copy of The Nightingale, The Valkyrie and Raven, and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(45)  [Grimmer and Kamper: 1913]

Grimmer and Kamper / The End of Sivard Snarenswayne / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 28; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a note regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–28.  There are headlines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  At the foot of p. 28 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N. W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of 2 leaves), B (a half-sheet of 4 leaves), and C (a full-sheet of 8 leaves), all inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

p. 224Contents.

There is a copy of Grimmer and Kamper, The End of Sivard Snarenswayne, and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

p. 225

p. 227(46)  [The Fountain of Maribo: 1913]

The / Fountain of Maribo / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Frontispiece (with blank recto) pp. 3–4; Title-page (with notice regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 5–6; and Text of the Ballads pp. 7–27.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of two leaves), B (a half-sheet of four leaves), and C (a full sheet of eight leaves), each inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

The Frontispiece is a reduced facsimile of the first page of the original Manuscript of Ramund.

p. 228Contents.

There is a copy of The Fountain of Maribo and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(47)  [Queen Berngerd: 1913]

Queen Berngerd / The Bard and the Dreams / and / Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 31; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Frontispiece (with blank recto) pp. 3–4; Title-page, as above (with a note regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 5–6; and Text of the Ballads pp. 7–31.  There are headlines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 31 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A and B (two sheets each eight leaves), the one inset within the other.

p. 232Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ x6¾ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

The Frontispiece consists of a reduced facsimile of the original Manuscript, in Borrow’s handwriting, of The Bard and the Dreams.

Contents.

Note.—Each poem, to which no reference is attached, appeared for the first time in this volume.

There is a copy of Queen Berngerd, The Bard and the Dreams, and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

p. 233

p. 236

p. 237(48)  [Finnish Arts: 1913]

Finnish Arts / Or / Sir Thor and Damsel Thure / A Ballad / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Frontispiece (with blank recto), pp. 3–4; Title-page, as above (with notice regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 5–6; and Text of the Ballads pp. 7–27.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of two leaves), B (a half-sheet of four leaves), and C (a full sheet of eight leaves), each inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

The Frontispiece is a reduced facsimile of the first page of the original Manuscript of Finnish Arts, or Sir Thor and Damsel Thure.

p. 238Contents.

There is a copy of Finnish Arts, Or Sir Thor and Damsel Thure in the Library of the British Museum.  The Pressmark is C. 44. d. 38.

(49)  [Brown William: 1913]

Brown William / The Power of the Harp / and / Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 31; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with notice regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–31.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  Upon the reverse of p. 31 is the following imprint: p. 243“London / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A and B (two sheets, each eight leaves), the one inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

Note.—Each poem to which no reference is attached, appeared for the first time in this volume.

There is a copy of Brown William, The Power of the Harp, and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

p. 244(50)  [The Song Of Deirdra: 1913]

The Song of Deirdra / King Byrge and his Brothers / and / Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 28; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a note regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–28.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  At the foot of p. 28 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of two leaves), B (a half-sheet of four leaves), and C (a full sheet of eight leaves), all inset within each other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6¾ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

Note.—Each poem to which no reference is attached appeared for the first time in this volume.

There is a copy of The Song of Deirdra, King Byrge and his Brothers, and Other Ballads in the Library of the British Museum.  The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.

(51)  [Signelil: 1913]

Signelil / A Tale from the Cornish / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.

Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 28; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page (with notice regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–28.  There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it.  At the foot of p. 28 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.”  The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of two leaves), B (a half-sheet of four leaves), and C (a full sheet of eight leaves), all inset within each other.

p. 248Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front.  The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.