diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:54:42 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:54:42 -0700 |
| commit | aab5dc3ad1cd9b9d60906b8a0017b9500e7e40de (patch) | |
| tree | f7d0b1ced904e33d26a89408b9445d1414d18487 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 30887-0.txt | 817 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 30887-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 19866 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 30887-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 21096 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 30887-h/30887-h.htm | 958 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 30887.txt | 817 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 30887.zip | bin | 0 -> 19768 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
9 files changed, 2608 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30887-0.txt b/30887-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..665e133 --- /dev/null +++ b/30887-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,817 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, George Borrow, by Thomas Seccombe, Edited by +James Thursfield + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: George Borrow + Times Literary Supplement, 10th July 1903 + + +Author: Thomas Seccombe + +Editor: James Thursfield + +Release Date: January 7, 2010 [eBook #30887] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE BORROW*** + + +Transcribed from the July 10th, 1903, Times Literary Supplement by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + + GEORGE BORROW. {213a} + + +It is a singular coincidence, perhaps, that during one and the same +summer we should be celebrating centenaries of Samuel Pepys and George +Borrow. Pepys died in the early summer of 1703; Borrow was born in July, +1803. Unlike each other in almost every respect, they are _dui palor_, +{213b} as Borrow would say, in one very material point. The reputation +of each of them has risen to such a point that, except for injudicious +and exaggerated praise, it can have little to fear in the future; and in +each case this reputation is based primarily upon autobiography. Among +the world’s autobiographers the author of “Lavengro” is entitled, we feel +sure, to rank with St. Augustine, Cellini, Pepys, Rousseau, Franklin; +and, for truthfulness, it is very probable, if we could only estimate it +properly, that he would have to be put at the top of the class. His +nearest competitor in this respect would undoubtedly be Pepys, and the +veracity in both cases not the result of a double share of innate +truthfulness, but very largely an accident, due to lack of invention and +an absence of that powerful literary style which in the case of a Leigh +Hunt or a Stevenson distorts everything that passes through it. In Pepys +the malignity of the literary fairy is more than compensated by the +worthy secretary’s insatiable appetite for life; in Borrow by the +_wanderlust_ or extraordinary passion and faculty for adventure, which +makes his best books such an ambrosial hash of sorcery, Jews, Gentiles, +gipsies, prisons, half-in-halves, _cosas de España_—what you will. + +George Henry Borrow, to give him for once his full baptismal name, was +born at East Dereham, “a beautiful little town in the western division of +Norfolk,” on July 5, 1803. His father, who came of an old Cornish +family, was in his forty-fifth year when Borrow was born, having married +ten years previously Anne Perfrement, of a family which had migrated from +Dauphiné in the days of Dutch William. The father was captain in a +marching regiment, the West Norfolk Militia. Like Sterne’s therefore, +Borrow’s early life was nomadic, and his school-life was broken between +Edinburgh, Clonmel, and Norwich. But his real mentors were found in this +last city, where he came in contact with a French _emigré_ named +d’Éterville. Here, too, he fell under the influence of “godless Billy” +Taylor, and dreamt of writing plays and poems and abusing religion. +Here, too, while he ought to have been studying law, he was claiming +acquaintance with gipsies, bruisers, and shady characters, such as the +notorious Thurtell. A more dangerous influence to Borrow than any, +perhaps, was that of Sir John Bowring, a plausible polyglot, who +deliberately used his facility in acquiring and translating tongues as a +ladder to an administrative post abroad. Borrow, as was perhaps natural, +put a wrong construction upon his sympathy, and his apparently +disinterested ambition to leave no poetic fragment in Russian, Swedish, +Polish, Servian, Bohemian, or Hungarian unrendered into English. He +determined to emulate a purpose so lofty in its detachment, and the +mistake cost him dear, for it led him for long years into a veritable +_cul de sac_ of literature; it led also to the accentuation of that +pseudo-philological mania which played such havoc with the ordinary +development of rational ideas in a man in many respects so sane as +Borrow. + +An entirely erroneous belief in the marketable value of Danish ballads, +Welsh triads, Russian folk-songs, and the like in rococo English +translations after the Bowring pattern led Borrow to exchange an +attorney’s office for a garret in Grub-street. His immediate ambition +was something between Goldsmith’s and Chatterton’s ballads, Homeric odes, +epics, plays; he was, at all hazards, to write something grand—“to be +stared at, lifted on peoples’ shoulders.” He found his Griffiths in Sir +Richard Phillips, the radical alderman and philanthropic sweater, under +whose tender mercies he rapidly developed a suicidal tendency, until in +May, 1825, a windfall of £20 enabled him to break his chain and escape to +the highway and the dingle and the picturesque group of moochers and +gipsies enshrined for ever in the pages of “Lavengro.” The central +portion of this marvellous composition is occupied by the Dingle episode, +in which Lavengro (the “word-master,” Borrow’s gipsy name for himself) is +revealed to us in conflict with “the flaming Tinman” and in colloquy with +his Romany friend, Jasper Petulengro, with a subtle papistical +propagandist, “the man in black,” with the typical gipsy chi, Ursula, and +with the peerless Isopel Berners. His account of his relations with her +we take to be strictly and almost literally accurate. He was powerfully +attracted by the magnanimity of spirit no less than by the physical charm +of this Brynhildic damsel, tall, straight, and blonde, with loose-flowing +flaxen hair, and with a carriage, especially of the neck and shoulders, +which reminded the postilion of a certain marchioness of his +acquaintance. But Borrow was of a cold temperament, a despiser and +mistruster of young women, whom he regarded primarily as invaluable +repositories of nursery lore, folk-song, tradition, and similar toys, +about which his male friends were apt to be reticent. The attraction was +so strong that he had serious thoughts of emigrating with “the beauteous +Queen of the Dingle,” but he dallied with the idea with characteristic +waywardness until it was too late. He sought to postpone awkward +decisions, to divert himself and amuse Isopel by making his charmer learn +Armenian—the language which he happened at the time to be studying. +Isopel bore with it for some time, but the imposition of the verb “to +love” in Armenian convinced her that the word-master was not only insane, +but also inhuman. Love-making and Armenian do not go well together, and +Belle could not feel that the man who proposed to conjugate the verb “to +love” in Armenian was master of his intentions in plain English. It was +even so. The man of tongues lacked speech wherewith to make manifest his +passion; the vocabulary of the word-master was insufficient to convince +the workhouse girl of one of the plainest meanings a man can well have. +When the distracted Borrow had reached the decision that it was high time +to give over his “mocking and scoffing,” and returned with this resolve +to the dingle, Isopel Berners had quitted it, never to return. She ran +away to the nearest sea-port, and took shipping to America. Lavengro +with some anguish steeled his heart against following her. The scene of +these transactions was a wooded glen or dingle a few miles from +Willenhall, in Staffordshire, where Lavengro and Isopel were encamped in +their respective tents, having as their neighbours the gipsy clan of +which Jasper was the chief. Upon the whole the Dingle chapters are +perhaps the most brilliant and the most enduring that Borrow ever +achieved. Their interest is greatly enhanced by the fact that they are +probably a naked transcript from actual fact, for Borrow was a poor hand +at invention. He rarely, if ever, invented a character. His surest +source of inspiration was the unadorned truth. + +After the experience of a summer in the open, Borrow, who was now +twenty-two, relapsed into the indifferent versification of Danish ballads +and Welsh bards, was severely fleeced in obscure journeyings in Southern +Europe, and so gained some experience for future use, vainly sought a +post, on the strength of his linguistic attainments, as an assistant in +the British Museum Library, and was reduced to writing reactionary +political leaders for a Norwich paper; he was, in fact, waiting, like Mr. +Micawber, for something to turn up, or, in his own graphic phrase, +“digging holes in the sand and filling them up again.” + +His deliverance was effected in rather a singular manner. About 1833 he +became acquainted with the Skeppers of Oulton Hall, in that pleasant +stretch of country which borders on the river Waveney. By Mrs. Clarke +(afterwards Mrs. Borrow), the widowed sister of the owner of the Hall, he +was introduced to the Rev. Francis Cunningham, rector of Pakefield, a +fine type of the Evangelical clergyman of a past generation, who had +married the sister of Joseph John Gurney. It seemed to this good man +that Borrow’s gift of tongues might well be employed in the service of +the Bible Society, of which the famous Norfolk Quaker was an influential +member. The hour of the former would-be martyr to infidelity had now +come; he was taken into the regular service of the society upon an +average salary of about £250, in addition to expenses, and was employed +as editor, translator, and colporteur of Bibles in strange lands. The +labours of the next eight years of his life were as fruitful and +honourable as those of the preceding eight had been desultory and +obscure. His first commission was to go to St. Petersburg and there edit +and superintend the setting up and printing of Lipóftsof’s version of the +New Testament into Manchu. Borrow acquired the language and performed +his task with an almost incredible expedition. He also learned Russian, +and in the summer of 1835 proposed to the society that he should himself +distribute the work which he had seen through the press upon the confines +of the Far East. This scheme was scotched by the refusal of the Russian +Government to grant him the necessary authorization and passports. But +Borrow’s energies were transferred to a project which scarcely, if at +all, less deserves the epithet Quixotic. It was to disseminate a +Castilian translation of the Vulgate (made by Father Scio at Valencia +between 1790 and 1793) in Spain and Portugal. To disperse Bibles in +Papua or in Park-lane were, it might be argued, an enterprise fully as +hopeful as to scatter them in Galicia or La Mancha; but this is neither +here nor there, and the stimulus that was lacking in other directions was +abundantly supplied to the society and their emissary by the fact that, +according to the _regla quinta_ of the old Index, all Spanish versions of +the Bible or of any part of it were absolutely forbidden, and that as a +necessary consequence the Bible was a book as unfamiliar in Spain as it +was held to be dangerous and revolutionary. Spain was to Borrow what the +Harley Ministry was to Swift. It seemed to develop in him an almost +superhuman activity and power; and, fond of cant as Borrow’s employers +too often were, it is infinitely to their credit that they not only +tolerated but even applauded the unconventional epistles which he wrote +to them of his exploits during his three long journeys in Spain, which +with two brief intervals occupied him from November, 1835, down to April, +1840. These letters with the addition of a few chapters and a number of +insignificant changes made up “The Bible in Spain,” which was published +by John Murray on December 10, 1812, when “El Gitano,” as the +enthusiastic Ford dubbed the author, literally woke up to find himself +famous. His experience for a season was that of “the man Sterne”; he +dined with peers, Ambassadors, and Bishops, and, like Major Pendennis, +was particularly complacent with Bishops. We might here for a moment +compare his position to that of Johnson in 1763. He had gone down into +the arena and fought his wild beasts, and had come up triumphant, as +Johnson had done after the Dictionary. He still had difficulties to meet +and debts to face, for he had gradually become estranged from “the +sub-committee,” and the Bible Society suddenly found that “no sphere +remained open in which his services could be utilized.” Fortunately, he +had provided for his future, not by obtaining a pension, but by marrying, +in April, 1840, an old ally of his, Mary Clarke, a widow with a good +jointure (over £400 a year), a skilful hand at dumplings and treacle +posset, and “an excellent woman of business.” He was now fifteen years +older than when he had “lost” Isopel. The motives which prompted this +scorner of matrimony to marry a woman seven or eight years his senior +were similar, it may be surmised, to those which actuated Disraeli on his +marriage. The compact was based upon convenience and mutual esteem, and +there is no reason to doubt that it conduced not only to Borrow’s comfort +and security, but also to his happiness. There were no children. The +“daughter” whose accomplishments Borrow celebrated in the exordium to +“Wild Wales” was his stepdaughter, Henrietta Clarke. He seemed now in an +enviable position, with a small but agreeable freehold on the banks of +Oulton Broad, able to indulge in “idleness and the pride of literature” +to his heart’s content. If he had had a “club” or a Boswell about him, +he might still have been tolerably happy. But he was not a clubbable +man, Borrow! Nevertheless it was during the years that followed that, +like Johnson, he achieved his best title to fame, the wondrous five +volumes of autobiography so capriciously planned and so strangely +entitled “Lavengro—Romany Rye.” The stimulus in his case was largely, we +believe, if not mainly, pecuniary. “Money is our best friend” he wrote +to his wife in 1844. He wanted a purse of his own to travel and give +dinners with, for the edge of episcopal hospitality was already wearing +off. He desired too, no doubt, to put a coping stone to his fame. +Already in January, 1843, he wrote to his publisher that he had begun +upon a Robinson Borrow, and Murray, Ford, and other friends threw up +their caps. The publisher may have well seen a veritable gold mine in +prospect. One has only to imagine the fervent curiosity which the +personal element in “The Bible in Spain,” so suggestive of mystery and +romance, must have exalted in the reading public of 1843, to perceive +that any such anticipation was fully warranted by the facts of the case. +Here was a book which bore upon its title-page its passport to Sunday +reading as a good, serious, missionary work, but for which it was +manifest, as the surprised and delighted reader proceeded, that not +Bishop Heber or the good Schwartz, but Mendoza and Lesage had been taken +as models. May not people well have wondered (the good, pious English +folk, to whom “luck” was a scandal, as the Bible Society’s secretary +wrote to Borrow) what manner of man this muleteer-missionary might be? +The incongruity was only heightened by familiarity with Borrow’s +Pharaoh-like visage, abundant grey hair, and tall blonde Scandinavian +figure, which reminded those who came under his spell of those roving +Northmen of the days of simple medieval devotion, who were wont to +signalize their conversion from heathen darkness by a Mediterranean +venture, combining the characters of a piratical cruise and a pious +pilgrimage. But if publisher and client were justified in believing that +they had discovered an autobiographical El Dorado, they were, none the +less, to be sadly undeceived. + +To whatever cause the disappointment may be attributed, it was certainly +not due to any lack of pains on the part of Don Jorge. The labour which +he bestowed upon his Life was immense, quite disproportionate to his +previous efforts. “The Gypsies in Spain,” for instance, was built up +upon already existing jottings, extracts, and notes, very loosely thrown +together; while “The Bible in Spain” itself was, in regard to its +composition, nothing more than an _olla podrida_ of journalized letters. +But he wrote “Lavengro,” as it were, with his life’s blood. It cost him +the same agony that parts of “David Copperfield” cost Dickens, while he +had none of Dickens’s trained fluency or descriptive power. His lack of +ease in writing often gives a wrong impression of insincerity or +artificiality. Most of his apostrophes, even the most strained, are +expressions of genuine feeling, which he was simply incapable of +assimilating to the prevailing tone of the book, that of a _novéla +picaresca_. His determination to be original and to tell the truth, to +avoid all padding and second-hand ideas, kept him on the rack; yet he +persevered, working hard at the Life with intervals of discouragement for +no less than six years. “Lavengro” eventually appeared, in three +volumes, in February, 1851, and was received not merely with coldness and +unconcern, but with hostile carping and even derision. The critics and +Borrow pronounced themselves mutually disillusioned. It was natural that +a man like Borrow should magnify and should misinterpret this unexpected +blow. + +The attitude of his critics was due to a very complex system of causes. +The English have always been the most self-complacent of peoples, and +1851 was perhaps the one year in the whole of our history when this +little weakness reached its climax. The Oxford Movement, with Newman and +Ward as its prophets, had been succeeded by the Manchester Movement, upon +which Cobden and Macaulay had long been busily engaged in shedding the +most brilliant rays of the prevailing Whig optimism; factories, railways, +penny postage, free trade, commercial expansion, universal peace and +plenty, industrial exhibitions, religious toleration, general +education—these were the watchwords of the day, and all these things +alike were repulsive in the highest degree to George Borrow. He was as +conservative as a gipsy or a tramp, while his hatred of novelty was +worthy of the race among whom _Vaya usted con Dios_, _y que no haya +Novedad_! is a common form of valediction. His hatred of æsthetic +culture, of sentimental toleration, and of the modern woman amounted to a +positive mania. Of the great writers of his own century he never spoke +unless it were to condemn, as in the case of Scott, Wordsworth, +Thackeray, and Keats, of whom he once asked, “Have they not been trying +to resuscitate him?” In his conversations with Agnes Strickland and Miss +Cobbe, as recorded by the latter, he appears to have behaved like an +escaped lunatic, while, upon the occasion of his meeting with Anna +Gurney, we know that he literally took to flight and ran without stopping +from Sheringham to the Old Tucker’s Inn at Cromer. An interview with +Mrs. Browning or George Eliot would have probably driven him stark +staring mad. Another stumbling block to the critics of 1851 was the +peculiar dryness, if we may so describe it, of Borrow’s style. He could +respond to the thrill of natural beauty. He could enjoy and find +utterance for his mood when it came upon him, just as he could enjoy a +tankard of old ale or linger to gaze upon a sympathetic face; but he +refused to pamper such feelings, still more to simulate them; he refused +to allow himself to become the creature of literary or poetic ecstasy; he +refused to indulge in the fashionable debauch of _dilettante_ melancholy. +His life was in many ways the reverse of normal, but he insisted in +writing about it quite naturally, “as if there were nothing in it.” It +is perfectly true, then; Borrow is dry. What needs to be appreciated is +that his dryness is not that of dry rot, but the dryness of high +elevation, of a somewhat solitary and craggy humour—the dryness of +“Robinson Crusoe,” of “Gil Blas,” of “Hadji Baba,” and, we might add, of +“Don Quixote.” There is an absence of verdure. You will not find much +sentiment in Borrow. As to word-painting, picturesque glamour and +deference to the prejudices of earnest people, a quality so dearly prized +by Englishmen of every rank and period, Borrow would have none of them. +You will find none of them in his works; but you will find “part of the +secret, brother,” especially in the Dingle. For there Borrow is at his +best, in the open air, among the gipsies—with Jasper, Pakomovna, Tawno, +Ursula, the Man in Black, and Belle Berners, interlocutors in dialogues +of the greenwood unrivalled since the heyday of the forest of Arden. +Once more “Lavengro” badly belied the expectations of those who were +looking out for another “Eothen”; and finally, apart the author’s +objectionable and reactionary prejudices, there were other and obvious +faults about the book (mainly of literary detail, style, and arrangement) +which were abundantly manifest to the strenuous critics of 1851. What +these gentry did not perceive was the unique character of the book—its +truth, its reality, its open-air quality, its distinctive humour, its +dramatic power, the genius which revealed to Borrow instinctively the +literary form and the picaresque manner which formed the right, nay the +inevitable, setting of the particular story that he had to tell. + +Borrow’s previous success only served to emphasize the bitterness of his +defeat, for so he regarded the failure of his originality to carry his +darling “Lavengro” through the breakers. He complained that he had “had +the honour” of being rancorously abused by every unmanly scoundrel, every +sycophantic lackey, and every political and religious renegade in the +kingdom. His fury was that of an angry bull tormented by gnats. His +worst passions were aroused, his most violent prejudices confirmed. But +the abuse did not divert him by a hairbreadth from his preconceived plan. +He proceeded with deliberation to carry on in “The Romany Rye” the story +so abruptly suspended at the close of the hundredth chapter of +“Lavengro.” The first chapters of “The Romany Rye” (which was not +actually published until May, 1857) are quite equal to anything that +Borrow ever wrote. The book falls off a little towards the close, which +is, if possible, even more abrupt and inconclusive than that of +“Lavengro” itself. In the appendix, the bigotries, hatreds, and +centrifugal propensities which made up the George Borrow of 1850–57 were +emphasized and underlined for the benefit of the flunkeys, vipers, and +“yahoos” who had dared to asperse his autobiography. He never carried +his story on from 1825 to 1832 or wrote the once projected “Bible in +Russia”; perhaps he never meant to do so; but, even if he had, we more +than doubt whether they would have approached in value the first 116 +chapters of his immortal autobiography. His remaining work was the +detailed journal of a vacation tour in “Wild Wales,” which was in no way +inferior to its predecessors in literary value, though it is considerably +below them in general interest. Wild people and old word-music, in its +“native wood-notes wild,” were a passion with Borrow to the last, and +helped to save him from himself. He suffered terribly from horror of +death, religious gloom (“the horrors”), solitariness, and disappointment. +He experienced a series of rebuffs, failing in succession to obtain a +Consulship, a seat on the quorum, employment in China, and a +manuscript-hunting mission from the British Museum. His unrivalled +qualifications as a linguist failed to obtain for him posts for which he +was eminently fitted, but to which he saw inferior men preferred. If a +roving commission or an administrative post could have been found for him +abroad, by preference in the East as he himself desired, hard work might +have gone far to exorcise his melancholy, and we might have had from his +pen contributions to the study of Eastern life that would have added +lustre to a group of writers already represented in England by Curzon and +Kinglake, Lane and Morier, Palgrave and Burton. With Burton’s love of +roving adventure, of strange tongues, and of anthropology in its widest +sense, the author of “The Bible in Spain” had many points in common. As +it was, with brief intervals of solitary excursion in the “Celtic fringe” +or the Near East, Borrow remained glooming at home, working himself up +into a state of nervous excitement bordering upon dementia about a +neighbour’s dog or a railway bisecting his wife’s land. The gloom, of +course, was not chronic. There were days upon which he was himself +again, the old George Borrow. Generally speaking, his days and years +were passed in a moody inactivity, now at Oulton, then at Yarmouth, next +in London, finally at Oulton again, where he “died, as he had lived, +alone” on July 26, 1881. It seemed for the time as if he had outlived +his reputation. Appearances are proverbially deceptive. + +George Borrow’s life and works are one and the same thing. Few great +writers have been more persistently autobiographical than Borrow was. +Boswell, said Johnson once, had only two subjects, Dr. Johnson and James +Boswell, and he, the Doctor, was heartily sick of both; but Borrow had +only one subject—himself, from which he practically never wandered. The +merry gests and marvellous exploits of the incomparable George +Borrow—these form the unique theme of our Gitano Crusoe. But it is not +enough to say that Borrow’s autobiographical methods are unique. His +life is presented to us in four panels, each as unlike the others as it +is possible to be in size, shape, texture, and surface. The scale varies +as much as that of an ordnance map, sometimes 25 inches to the mile, at +others five miles to the inch. The colours upon the palette are artfully +changed, details are sometimes obtruded, at others significantly hidden. +A casual glance obscures rather than reveals the fact that, whether he is +writing of his early life and struggles (“Lavengro,” i.–lviii.), of one +vivid Bohemian episode of his early manhood (“Lavengro”—“Romany Rye”), of +the crowning triumph of his maturity (“Bible in Spain”), or of a vacation +tour during the autumn of a disappointed life (“Wild Wales”), Borrow was +always working upon the same model, with the same desperate and +conscientious zeal, with the same extraordinary gust and vigour, with the +same genius, the same bias, the same limitations. + +As a man of letters he must be judged primarily as a biographer, and, if +this be done, it will be found that Borrow has achieved the great object +of biography; he has transmitted a great personality. The blemishes in +his work are not particularly hard to find. Inadvertently we may have +been betrayed into indicating one or two of them. But it is not by any +means safe ground. With the exception of Jane Austen (and temporarily +speaking, perhaps Charles Dickens) there is hardly any literary character +whom it is so dangerous to approach without passports and periphrases +(securing retreat, if necessary) and plentiful kow-tows as George Borrow. +Among all literary clansmen you shall hardly find one more implacable, +more fierce, or more blindly fanatical than your Borrovian. Charles Lamb +is almost the only author we can think of (out of Scotland) who is +worshipped by his admirers with quite the same canine sort of affection. +But the cult of Lamb is restricted largely to briefless Templars, to +University men and “Oxford M.A.’s”; the Borrovian is drawn from a lower +social stratum, from printers, librarians, booksellers, and others who +seldom read books, from indexers, dictionary makers, and such harmless +drudges of literature. To men of such close and restricted horizons the +breath of the Romany Rye is as that of “the wind on the heath, brother.” +Hence the stern and unbending jealousy of their cult. Real literary +enthusiasts of advanced years are almost as rare in our streets as +elderly naval men of the peculiar type discovered by Mr. Gilbert. Yet a +chance word in a London thoroughfare has before now elicited this +ingenuous confession of faith: “I’d walk any distance to see anything +belonging to George Borrow or to read anything fresh of his. Lord bless +you, I almost worship that man!” + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{213a} It was not the policy of the Times Literary Supplement to give +the name of the author. For completeness the author is Thomas Seccombe, +and the editor of the TLS. at the time was James Thursfield.—DP. + +{213b} Two brothers. See “Gypsies in Spain,” Preface to Second Edition. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE BORROW*** + + +******* This file should be named 30887-0.txt or 30887-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/8/8/30887 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/30887-0.zip b/30887-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..383a96b --- /dev/null +++ b/30887-0.zip diff --git a/30887-h.zip b/30887-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..357b1db --- /dev/null +++ b/30887-h.zip diff --git a/30887-h/30887-h.htm b/30887-h/30887-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a14af8b --- /dev/null +++ b/30887-h/30887-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,958 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>George Borrow, by Thomas Seccombe</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 30%; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, George Borrow, by Thomas Seccombe, Edited by +James Thursfield + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: George Borrow + Times Literary Supplement, 10th July 1903 + + +Author: Thomas Seccombe + +Editor: James Thursfield + +Release Date: January 7, 2010 [eBook #30887] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE BORROW*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the July 10th, 1903, Times Literary +Supplement by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1><!-- page 213--><a name="page213"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 213</span>GEORGE BORROW. <a +name="citation213a"></a><a href="#footnote213a" +class="citation">[213a]</a></h1> +<p>It is a singular coincidence, perhaps, that during one and the +same summer we should be celebrating centenaries of Samuel Pepys +and George Borrow. Pepys died in the early summer of 1703; +Borrow was born in July, 1803. Unlike each other in almost +every respect, they are <i>dui palor</i>, <a +name="citation213b"></a><a href="#footnote213b" +class="citation">[213b]</a> as Borrow would say, in one very +material point. The reputation of each of them has risen to +such a point that, except for injudicious and exaggerated praise, +it can have little to fear in the future; and in each case this +reputation is based primarily upon autobiography. Among the +world’s autobiographers the author of +“Lavengro” is entitled, we feel sure, to rank with +St. Augustine, Cellini, Pepys, Rousseau, Franklin; and, for +truthfulness, it is very probable, if we could only estimate it +properly, that he would have to be put at the top of the +class. His nearest competitor in this respect would +undoubtedly be Pepys, and the veracity in both cases not the +result of a double share of innate truthfulness, but very largely +an accident, due to lack of invention and an absence of that +powerful literary style which in the case of a Leigh Hunt or a +Stevenson distorts everything that passes through it. In +Pepys the malignity of the literary fairy is more than +compensated by the worthy secretary’s insatiable appetite +for life; in Borrow by the <i>wanderlust</i> or extraordinary +passion and faculty for adventure, which makes his best books +such an ambrosial hash of sorcery, Jews, Gentiles, gipsies, +prisons, half-in-halves, <i>cosas de España</i>—what +you will.</p> +<p>George Henry Borrow, to give him for once his full baptismal +name, was born at East Dereham, “a beautiful little town in +the western division of Norfolk,” on July 5, 1803. +His father, who came of an old Cornish family, was in his +forty-fifth year when Borrow was born, having married ten years +previously Anne Perfrement, of a family which had migrated from +Dauphiné in the days of Dutch William. The father +was captain in a marching regiment, the West Norfolk +Militia. Like Sterne’s therefore, Borrow’s +early life was nomadic, and his school-life was broken between +Edinburgh, Clonmel, and Norwich. But his real mentors were +found in this last city, where he came in contact with a French +<i>emigré</i> named d’Éterville. Here, +too, he fell under the influence of “godless Billy” +Taylor, and dreamt of writing plays and poems and abusing +religion. Here, too, while he ought to have been studying +law, he was claiming acquaintance with gipsies, bruisers, and +shady characters, such as the notorious Thurtell. A more +dangerous influence to Borrow than any, perhaps, was that of Sir +John Bowring, a plausible polyglot, who deliberately used his +facility in acquiring and translating tongues as a ladder to an +administrative post abroad. Borrow, as was perhaps natural, +put a wrong construction upon his sympathy, and his apparently +disinterested ambition to leave no poetic fragment in Russian, +Swedish, Polish, Servian, Bohemian, or Hungarian unrendered into +English. He determined to emulate a purpose so lofty in its +detachment, and the mistake cost him dear, for it led him for +long years into a veritable <i>cul de sac</i> of literature; it +led also to the accentuation of that pseudo-philological mania +which played such havoc with the ordinary development of rational +ideas in a man in many respects so sane as Borrow.</p> +<p>An entirely erroneous belief in the marketable value of Danish +ballads, Welsh triads, Russian folk-songs, and the like in rococo +English translations after the Bowring pattern led Borrow to +exchange an attorney’s office for a garret in +Grub-street. His immediate ambition was something between +Goldsmith’s and Chatterton’s ballads, Homeric odes, +epics, plays; he was, at all hazards, to write something +grand—“to be stared at, lifted on peoples’ +shoulders.” He found his Griffiths in Sir Richard +Phillips, the radical alderman and philanthropic sweater, under +whose tender mercies he rapidly developed a suicidal tendency, +until in May, 1825, a windfall of £20 enabled him to break +his chain and escape to the highway and the dingle and the +picturesque group of moochers and gipsies enshrined for ever in +the pages of “Lavengro.” The central portion of +this marvellous composition is occupied by the Dingle episode, in +which Lavengro (the “word-master,” Borrow’s +gipsy name for himself) is revealed to us in conflict with +“the flaming Tinman” and in colloquy with his Romany +friend, Jasper Petulengro, with a subtle papistical propagandist, +“the man in black,” with the typical gipsy chi, +Ursula, and with the peerless Isopel Berners. His account +of his relations with her we take to be strictly and almost +literally accurate. He was powerfully attracted by the +magnanimity of spirit no less than by the physical charm of this +Brynhildic damsel, tall, straight, and blonde, with loose-flowing +flaxen hair, and with a carriage, especially of the neck and +shoulders, which reminded the postilion of a certain marchioness +of his acquaintance. But Borrow was of a cold temperament, +a despiser and mistruster of young women, whom he regarded +primarily as invaluable repositories of nursery lore, folk-song, +tradition, and similar toys, about which his male friends were +apt to be reticent. The attraction was so strong that he +had serious thoughts of emigrating with “the beauteous +Queen of the Dingle,” but he dallied with the idea with +characteristic waywardness until it was too late. He sought +to postpone awkward decisions, to divert himself and amuse Isopel +by making his charmer learn Armenian—the language which he +happened at the time to be studying. Isopel bore with it +for some time, but the imposition of the verb “to +love” in Armenian convinced her that the word-master was +not only insane, but also inhuman. Love-making and Armenian +do not go well together, and Belle could not feel that the man +who proposed to conjugate the verb “to love” in +Armenian was master of his intentions in plain English. It +was even so. The man of tongues lacked speech wherewith to +make manifest his passion; the vocabulary of the word-master was +insufficient to convince the workhouse girl of one of the +plainest meanings a man can well have. When the distracted +Borrow had reached the decision that it was high time to give +over his “mocking and scoffing,” and returned with +this resolve to the dingle, Isopel Berners had quitted it, never +to return. She ran away to the nearest sea-port, and took +shipping to America. Lavengro with some anguish steeled his +heart against following her. The scene of these +transactions was a wooded glen or dingle a few miles from +Willenhall, in Staffordshire, where Lavengro and Isopel were +encamped in their respective tents, having as their neighbours +the gipsy clan of which Jasper was the chief. Upon the +whole the Dingle chapters are perhaps the most brilliant and the +most enduring that Borrow ever achieved. Their interest is +greatly enhanced by the fact that they are probably a naked +transcript from actual fact, for Borrow was a poor hand at +invention. He rarely, if ever, invented a character. +His surest source of inspiration was the unadorned truth.</p> +<p>After the experience of a summer in the open, Borrow, who was +now twenty-two, relapsed into the indifferent versification of +Danish ballads and Welsh bards, was severely fleeced in obscure +journeyings in Southern Europe, and so gained some experience for +future use, vainly sought a post, on the strength of his +linguistic attainments, as an assistant in the British Museum +Library, and was reduced to writing reactionary political leaders +for a Norwich paper; he was, in fact, waiting, like Mr. Micawber, +for something to turn up, or, in his own graphic phrase, +“digging holes in the sand and filling them up +again.”</p> +<p>His deliverance was effected in rather a singular +manner. About 1833 he became acquainted with the Skeppers +of Oulton Hall, in that pleasant stretch of country which borders +on the river Waveney. By Mrs. Clarke (afterwards Mrs. +Borrow), the widowed sister of the owner of the Hall, he was +introduced to the Rev. Francis Cunningham, rector of Pakefield, a +fine type of the Evangelical clergyman of a past generation, who +had married the sister of Joseph John Gurney. It seemed to +this good man that Borrow’s gift of tongues might well be +employed in the service of the Bible Society, of which the famous +Norfolk Quaker was an influential member. The hour of the +former would-be martyr to infidelity had now come; he was taken +into the regular service of the society upon an average salary of +about £250, in addition to expenses, and was employed as +editor, translator, and colporteur of Bibles in strange +lands. The labours of the next eight years of his life were +as fruitful and honourable as those of the preceding eight had +been desultory and obscure. His first commission was to go +to St. Petersburg and there edit and superintend the setting up +and printing of Lipóftsof’s version of the New +Testament into Manchu. Borrow acquired the language and +performed his task with an almost incredible expedition. He +also learned Russian, and in the summer of 1835 proposed to the +society that he should himself distribute the work which he had +seen through the press upon the confines of the Far East. +This scheme was scotched by the refusal of the Russian Government +to grant him the necessary authorization and passports. But +Borrow’s energies were transferred to a project which +scarcely, if at all, less deserves the epithet Quixotic. It +was to disseminate a Castilian translation of the Vulgate (made +by Father Scio at Valencia between 1790 and 1793) in Spain and +Portugal. To disperse Bibles in Papua or in Park-lane were, +it might be argued, an enterprise fully as hopeful as to scatter +them in Galicia or La Mancha; but this is neither here nor there, +and the stimulus that was lacking in other directions was +abundantly supplied to the society and their emissary by the fact +that, according to the <i>regla quinta</i> of the old Index, all +Spanish versions of the Bible or of any part of it were +absolutely forbidden, and that as a necessary consequence the +Bible was a book as unfamiliar in Spain as it was held to be +dangerous and revolutionary. Spain was to Borrow what the +Harley Ministry was to Swift. It seemed to develop in him +an almost superhuman activity and power; and, fond of cant as +Borrow’s employers too often were, it is infinitely to +their credit that they not only tolerated but even applauded the +unconventional epistles which he wrote to them of his exploits +during his three long journeys in Spain, which with two brief +intervals occupied him from November, 1835, down to April, +1840. These letters with the addition of a few chapters and +a number of insignificant changes made up “The Bible in +Spain,” which was published by John Murray on December 10, +1812, when “El Gitano,” as the enthusiastic Ford +dubbed the author, literally woke up to find himself +famous. His experience for a season was that of “the +man Sterne”; he dined with peers, Ambassadors, and Bishops, +and, like Major Pendennis, was particularly complacent with +Bishops. We might here for a moment compare his position to +that of Johnson in 1763. He had gone down into the arena +and fought his wild beasts, and had come up triumphant, as +Johnson had done after the Dictionary. He still had +difficulties to meet and debts to face, for he had gradually +become estranged from “the sub-committee,” and the +Bible Society suddenly found that “no sphere remained open +in which his services could be utilized.” +Fortunately, he had provided for his future, not by obtaining a +pension, but by marrying, in April, 1840, an old ally of his, +Mary Clarke, a widow with a good jointure (over £400 a +year), a skilful hand at dumplings and treacle posset, and +“an excellent woman of business.” He was now +fifteen years older than when he had “lost” +Isopel. The motives which prompted this scorner of +matrimony to marry a woman seven or eight years his senior were +similar, it may be surmised, to those which actuated Disraeli on +his marriage. The compact was based upon convenience and +mutual esteem, and there is no reason to doubt that it conduced +not only to Borrow’s comfort and security, but also to his +happiness. There were no children. The +“daughter” whose accomplishments Borrow celebrated in +the exordium to “Wild Wales” was his stepdaughter, +Henrietta Clarke. He seemed now in an enviable position, +with a small but agreeable freehold on the banks of Oulton Broad, +able to indulge in “idleness and the pride of +literature” to his heart’s content. If he had +had a “club” or a Boswell about him, he might still +have been tolerably happy. But he was not a clubbable man, +Borrow! Nevertheless it was during the years that followed +that, like Johnson, he achieved his best title to fame, the +wondrous five volumes of autobiography so capriciously planned +and so strangely entitled “Lavengro—Romany +Rye.” The stimulus in his case was largely, we +believe, if not mainly, pecuniary. “Money is our best +friend” he wrote to his wife in 1844. He wanted a +purse of his own to travel and give dinners with, for the edge of +episcopal hospitality was already wearing off. He desired +too, no doubt, to put a coping stone to his fame. Already +in January, 1843, he wrote to his publisher that he had begun +upon a Robinson Borrow, and Murray, Ford, and other friends threw +up their caps. The publisher may have well seen a veritable +gold mine in prospect. One has only to imagine the fervent +curiosity which the personal element in “The Bible in +Spain,” so suggestive of mystery and romance, must have +exalted in the reading public of 1843, to perceive that any such +anticipation was fully warranted by the facts of the case. +Here was a book which bore upon its title-page its passport to +Sunday reading as a good, serious, missionary work, but for which +it was manifest, as the surprised and delighted reader proceeded, +that not Bishop Heber or the good Schwartz, but Mendoza and +Lesage had been taken as models. May not people well have +wondered (the good, pious English folk, to whom +“luck” was a scandal, as the Bible Society’s +secretary wrote to Borrow) what manner of man this +muleteer-missionary might be? The incongruity was only +heightened by familiarity with Borrow’s Pharaoh-like +visage, abundant grey hair, and tall blonde Scandinavian figure, +which reminded those who came under his spell of those roving +Northmen of the days of simple medieval devotion, who were wont +to signalize their conversion from heathen darkness by a +Mediterranean venture, combining the characters of a piratical +cruise and a pious pilgrimage. But if publisher and client +were justified in believing that they <!-- page 214--><a +name="page214"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 214</span>had +discovered an autobiographical El Dorado, they were, none the +less, to be sadly undeceived.</p> +<p>To whatever cause the disappointment may be attributed, it was +certainly not due to any lack of pains on the part of Don +Jorge. The labour which he bestowed upon his Life was +immense, quite disproportionate to his previous efforts. +“The Gypsies in Spain,” for instance, was built up +upon already existing jottings, extracts, and notes, very loosely +thrown together; while “The Bible in Spain” itself +was, in regard to its composition, nothing more than an <i>olla +podrida</i> of journalized letters. But he wrote +“Lavengro,” as it were, with his life’s +blood. It cost him the same agony that parts of +“David Copperfield” cost Dickens, while he had none +of Dickens’s trained fluency or descriptive power. +His lack of ease in writing often gives a wrong impression of +insincerity or artificiality. Most of his apostrophes, even +the most strained, are expressions of genuine feeling, which he +was simply incapable of assimilating to the prevailing tone of +the book, that of a <i>novéla picaresca</i>. His +determination to be original and to tell the truth, to avoid all +padding and second-hand ideas, kept him on the rack; yet he +persevered, working hard at the Life with intervals of +discouragement for no less than six years. +“Lavengro” eventually appeared, in three volumes, in +February, 1851, and was received not merely with coldness and +unconcern, but with hostile carping and even derision. The +critics and Borrow pronounced themselves mutually +disillusioned. It was natural that a man like Borrow should +magnify and should misinterpret this unexpected blow.</p> +<p>The attitude of his critics was due to a very complex system +of causes. The English have always been the most +self-complacent of peoples, and 1851 was perhaps the one year in +the whole of our history when this little weakness reached its +climax. The Oxford Movement, with Newman and Ward as its +prophets, had been succeeded by the Manchester Movement, upon +which Cobden and Macaulay had long been busily engaged in +shedding the most brilliant rays of the prevailing Whig optimism; +factories, railways, penny postage, free trade, commercial +expansion, universal peace and plenty, industrial exhibitions, +religious toleration, general education—these were the +watchwords of the day, and all these things alike were repulsive +in the highest degree to George Borrow. He was as +conservative as a gipsy or a tramp, while his hatred of novelty +was worthy of the race among whom <i>Vaya usted con Dios</i>, +<i>y que no haya Novedad</i>! is a common form of +valediction. His hatred of æsthetic culture, of +sentimental toleration, and of the modern woman amounted to a +positive mania. Of the great writers of his own century he +never spoke unless it were to condemn, as in the case of Scott, +Wordsworth, Thackeray, and Keats, of whom he once asked, +“Have they not been trying to resuscitate him?” +In his conversations with Agnes Strickland and Miss Cobbe, as +recorded by the latter, he appears to have behaved like an +escaped lunatic, while, upon the occasion of his meeting with +Anna Gurney, we know that he literally took to flight and ran +without stopping from Sheringham to the Old Tucker’s Inn at +Cromer. An interview with Mrs. Browning or George Eliot +would have probably driven him stark staring mad. Another +stumbling block to the critics of 1851 was the peculiar dryness, +if we may so describe it, of Borrow’s style. He could +respond to the thrill of natural beauty. He could enjoy and +find utterance for his mood when it came upon him, just as he +could enjoy a tankard of old ale or linger to gaze upon a +sympathetic face; but he refused to pamper such feelings, still +more to simulate them; he refused to allow himself to become the +creature of literary or poetic ecstasy; he refused to indulge in +the fashionable debauch of <i>dilettante</i> melancholy. +His life was in many ways the reverse of normal, but he insisted +in writing about it quite naturally, “as if there were +nothing in it.” It is perfectly true, then; Borrow is +dry. What needs to be appreciated is that his dryness is +not that of dry rot, but the dryness of high elevation, of a +somewhat solitary and craggy humour—the dryness of +“Robinson Crusoe,” of “Gil Blas,” of +“Hadji Baba,” and, we might add, of “Don +Quixote.” There is an absence of verdure. You +will not find much sentiment in Borrow. As to +word-painting, picturesque glamour and deference to the +prejudices of earnest people, a quality so dearly prized by +Englishmen of every rank and period, Borrow would have none of +them. You will find none of them in his works; but you will +find “part of the secret, brother,” especially in the +Dingle. For there Borrow is at his best, in the open air, +among the gipsies—with Jasper, Pakomovna, Tawno, Ursula, +the Man in Black, and Belle Berners, interlocutors in dialogues +of the greenwood unrivalled since the heyday of the forest of +Arden. Once more “Lavengro” badly belied the +expectations of those who were looking out for another +“Eothen”; and finally, apart the author’s +objectionable and reactionary prejudices, there were other and +obvious faults about the book (mainly of literary detail, style, +and arrangement) which were abundantly manifest to the strenuous +critics of 1851. What these gentry did not perceive was the +unique character of the book—its truth, its reality, its +open-air quality, its distinctive humour, its dramatic power, the +genius which revealed to Borrow instinctively the literary form +and the picaresque manner which formed the right, nay the +inevitable, setting of the particular story that he had to +tell.</p> +<p>Borrow’s previous success only served to emphasize the +bitterness of his defeat, for so he regarded the failure of his +originality to carry his darling “Lavengro” through +the breakers. He complained that he had “had the +honour” of being rancorously abused by every unmanly +scoundrel, every sycophantic lackey, and every political and +religious renegade in the kingdom. His fury was that of an +angry bull tormented by gnats. His worst passions were +aroused, his most violent prejudices confirmed. But the +abuse did not divert him by a hairbreadth from his preconceived +plan. He proceeded with deliberation to carry on in +“The Romany Rye” the story so abruptly suspended at +the close of the hundredth chapter of +“Lavengro.” The first chapters of “The +Romany Rye” (which was not actually published until May, +1857) are quite equal to anything that Borrow ever wrote. +The book falls off a little towards the close, which is, if +possible, even more abrupt and inconclusive than that of +“Lavengro” itself. In the appendix, the +bigotries, hatreds, and centrifugal propensities which made up +the George Borrow of 1850–57 were emphasized and underlined +for the benefit of the flunkeys, vipers, and “yahoos” +who had dared to asperse his autobiography. He never +carried his story on from 1825 to 1832 or wrote the once +projected “Bible in Russia”; perhaps he never meant +to do so; but, even if he had, we more than doubt whether they +would have approached in value the first 116 chapters of his +immortal autobiography. His remaining work was the detailed +journal of a vacation tour in “Wild Wales,” which was +in no way inferior to its predecessors in literary value, though +it is considerably below them in general interest. Wild +people and old word-music, in its “native wood-notes +wild,” were a passion with Borrow to the last, and helped +to save him from himself. He suffered terribly from horror +of death, religious gloom (“the horrors”), +solitariness, and disappointment. He experienced a series +of rebuffs, failing in succession to obtain a Consulship, a seat +on the quorum, employment in China, and a manuscript-hunting +mission from the British Museum. His unrivalled +qualifications as a linguist failed to obtain for him posts for +which he was eminently fitted, but to which he saw inferior men +preferred. If a roving commission or an administrative post +could have been found for him abroad, by preference in the East +as he himself desired, hard work might have gone far to exorcise +his melancholy, and we might have had from his pen contributions +to the study of Eastern life that would have added lustre to a +group of writers already represented in England by Curzon and +Kinglake, Lane and Morier, Palgrave and Burton. With +Burton’s love of roving adventure, of strange tongues, and +of anthropology in its widest sense, the author of “The +Bible in Spain” had many points in common. As it was, +with brief intervals of solitary excursion in the “Celtic +fringe” or the Near East, Borrow remained glooming at home, +working himself up into a state of nervous excitement bordering +upon dementia about a neighbour’s dog or a railway +bisecting his wife’s land. The gloom, of course, was +not chronic. There were days upon which he was himself +again, the old George Borrow. Generally speaking, his days +and years were passed in a moody inactivity, now at Oulton, then +at Yarmouth, next in London, finally at Oulton again, where he +“died, as he had lived, alone” on July 26, +1881. It seemed for the time as if he had outlived his +reputation. Appearances are proverbially deceptive.</p> +<p>George Borrow’s life and works are one and the same +thing. Few great writers have been more persistently +autobiographical than Borrow was. Boswell, said Johnson +once, had only two subjects, Dr. Johnson and James Boswell, and +he, the Doctor, was heartily sick of both; but Borrow had only +one subject—himself, from which he practically never +wandered. The merry gests and marvellous exploits of the +incomparable George Borrow—these form the unique theme of +our Gitano Crusoe. But it is not enough to say that +Borrow’s autobiographical methods are unique. His +life is presented to us in four panels, each as unlike the others +as it is possible to be in size, shape, texture, and +surface. The scale varies as much as that of an ordnance +map, sometimes 25 inches to the mile, at others five miles to the +inch. The colours upon the palette are artfully changed, +details are sometimes obtruded, at others significantly +hidden. A casual glance obscures rather than reveals the +fact that, whether he is writing of his early life and struggles +(“Lavengro,” i.–lviii.), of one vivid Bohemian +episode of his early manhood +(“Lavengro”—“Romany Rye”), of the +crowning triumph of his maturity (“Bible in Spain”), +or of a vacation tour during the autumn of a disappointed life +(“Wild Wales”), Borrow was always working upon the +same model, with the same desperate and conscientious zeal, with +the same extraordinary gust and vigour, with the same genius, the +same bias, the same limitations.</p> +<p>As a man of letters he must be judged primarily as a +biographer, and, if this be done, it will be found that Borrow +has achieved the great object of biography; he has transmitted a +great personality. The blemishes in his work are not +particularly hard to find. Inadvertently we may have been +betrayed into indicating one or two of them. But it is not +by any means safe ground. With the exception of Jane Austen +(and temporarily speaking, perhaps Charles Dickens) there is +hardly any literary character whom it is so dangerous to approach +without passports and periphrases (securing retreat, if +necessary) and plentiful kow-tows as George Borrow. Among +all literary clansmen you shall hardly find one more implacable, +more fierce, or more blindly fanatical than your Borrovian. +Charles Lamb is almost the only author we can think of (out of +Scotland) who is worshipped by his admirers with quite the same +canine sort of affection. But the cult of Lamb is +restricted largely to briefless Templars, to University men and +“Oxford M.A.’s”; the Borrovian is drawn from a +lower social stratum, from printers, librarians, booksellers, and +others who seldom read books, from indexers, dictionary makers, +and such harmless drudges of literature. To men of such +close and restricted horizons the breath of the Romany Rye is as +that of “the wind on the heath, brother.” Hence +the stern and unbending jealousy of their cult. Real +literary enthusiasts of advanced years are almost as rare in our +streets as elderly naval men of the peculiar type discovered by +Mr. Gilbert. Yet a chance word in a London thoroughfare has +before now elicited this ingenuous confession of faith: +“I’d walk any distance to see anything belonging to +George Borrow or to read anything fresh of his. Lord bless +you, I almost worship that man!”</p> +<h2>Footnotes:</h2> +<p><a name="footnote213a"></a><a href="#citation213a" +class="footnote">[213a]</a> It was not the policy of the +Times Literary Supplement to give the name of the author. +For completeness the author is Thomas Seccombe, and the editor of +the TLS. at the time was James Thursfield.—DP.</p> +<p><a name="footnote213b"></a><a href="#citation213b" +class="footnote">[213b]</a> Two brothers. See +“Gypsies in Spain,” Preface to Second Edition.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE BORROW***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 30887-h.htm or 30887-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/8/8/30887 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +</pre></body> +</html> diff --git a/30887.txt b/30887.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..26fcc19 --- /dev/null +++ b/30887.txt @@ -0,0 +1,817 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, George Borrow, by Thomas Seccombe, Edited by +James Thursfield + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: George Borrow + Times Literary Supplement, 10th July 1903 + + +Author: Thomas Seccombe + +Editor: James Thursfield + +Release Date: January 7, 2010 [eBook #30887] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE BORROW*** + + +Transcribed from the July 10th, 1903, Times Literary Supplement by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + + GEORGE BORROW. {213a} + + +It is a singular coincidence, perhaps, that during one and the same +summer we should be celebrating centenaries of Samuel Pepys and George +Borrow. Pepys died in the early summer of 1703; Borrow was born in July, +1803. Unlike each other in almost every respect, they are _dui palor_, +{213b} as Borrow would say, in one very material point. The reputation +of each of them has risen to such a point that, except for injudicious +and exaggerated praise, it can have little to fear in the future; and in +each case this reputation is based primarily upon autobiography. Among +the world's autobiographers the author of "Lavengro" is entitled, we feel +sure, to rank with St. Augustine, Cellini, Pepys, Rousseau, Franklin; +and, for truthfulness, it is very probable, if we could only estimate it +properly, that he would have to be put at the top of the class. His +nearest competitor in this respect would undoubtedly be Pepys, and the +veracity in both cases not the result of a double share of innate +truthfulness, but very largely an accident, due to lack of invention and +an absence of that powerful literary style which in the case of a Leigh +Hunt or a Stevenson distorts everything that passes through it. In Pepys +the malignity of the literary fairy is more than compensated by the +worthy secretary's insatiable appetite for life; in Borrow by the +_wanderlust_ or extraordinary passion and faculty for adventure, which +makes his best books such an ambrosial hash of sorcery, Jews, Gentiles, +gipsies, prisons, half-in-halves, _cosas de Espana_--what you will. + +George Henry Borrow, to give him for once his full baptismal name, was +born at East Dereham, "a beautiful little town in the western division of +Norfolk," on July 5, 1803. His father, who came of an old Cornish +family, was in his forty-fifth year when Borrow was born, having married +ten years previously Anne Perfrement, of a family which had migrated from +Dauphine in the days of Dutch William. The father was captain in a +marching regiment, the West Norfolk Militia. Like Sterne's therefore, +Borrow's early life was nomadic, and his school-life was broken between +Edinburgh, Clonmel, and Norwich. But his real mentors were found in this +last city, where he came in contact with a French _emigre_ named +d'Eterville. Here, too, he fell under the influence of "godless Billy" +Taylor, and dreamt of writing plays and poems and abusing religion. +Here, too, while he ought to have been studying law, he was claiming +acquaintance with gipsies, bruisers, and shady characters, such as the +notorious Thurtell. A more dangerous influence to Borrow than any, +perhaps, was that of Sir John Bowring, a plausible polyglot, who +deliberately used his facility in acquiring and translating tongues as a +ladder to an administrative post abroad. Borrow, as was perhaps natural, +put a wrong construction upon his sympathy, and his apparently +disinterested ambition to leave no poetic fragment in Russian, Swedish, +Polish, Servian, Bohemian, or Hungarian unrendered into English. He +determined to emulate a purpose so lofty in its detachment, and the +mistake cost him dear, for it led him for long years into a veritable +_cul de sac_ of literature; it led also to the accentuation of that +pseudo-philological mania which played such havoc with the ordinary +development of rational ideas in a man in many respects so sane as +Borrow. + +An entirely erroneous belief in the marketable value of Danish ballads, +Welsh triads, Russian folk-songs, and the like in rococo English +translations after the Bowring pattern led Borrow to exchange an +attorney's office for a garret in Grub-street. His immediate ambition +was something between Goldsmith's and Chatterton's ballads, Homeric odes, +epics, plays; he was, at all hazards, to write something grand--"to be +stared at, lifted on peoples' shoulders." He found his Griffiths in Sir +Richard Phillips, the radical alderman and philanthropic sweater, under +whose tender mercies he rapidly developed a suicidal tendency, until in +May, 1825, a windfall of 20 pounds enabled him to break his chain and +escape to the highway and the dingle and the picturesque group of +moochers and gipsies enshrined for ever in the pages of "Lavengro." The +central portion of this marvellous composition is occupied by the Dingle +episode, in which Lavengro (the "word-master," Borrow's gipsy name for +himself) is revealed to us in conflict with "the flaming Tinman" and in +colloquy with his Romany friend, Jasper Petulengro, with a subtle +papistical propagandist, "the man in black," with the typical gipsy chi, +Ursula, and with the peerless Isopel Berners. His account of his +relations with her we take to be strictly and almost literally accurate. +He was powerfully attracted by the magnanimity of spirit no less than by +the physical charm of this Brynhildic damsel, tall, straight, and blonde, +with loose-flowing flaxen hair, and with a carriage, especially of the +neck and shoulders, which reminded the postilion of a certain marchioness +of his acquaintance. But Borrow was of a cold temperament, a despiser +and mistruster of young women, whom he regarded primarily as invaluable +repositories of nursery lore, folk-song, tradition, and similar toys, +about which his male friends were apt to be reticent. The attraction was +so strong that he had serious thoughts of emigrating with "the beauteous +Queen of the Dingle," but he dallied with the idea with characteristic +waywardness until it was too late. He sought to postpone awkward +decisions, to divert himself and amuse Isopel by making his charmer learn +Armenian--the language which he happened at the time to be studying. +Isopel bore with it for some time, but the imposition of the verb "to +love" in Armenian convinced her that the word-master was not only insane, +but also inhuman. Love-making and Armenian do not go well together, and +Belle could not feel that the man who proposed to conjugate the verb "to +love" in Armenian was master of his intentions in plain English. It was +even so. The man of tongues lacked speech wherewith to make manifest his +passion; the vocabulary of the word-master was insufficient to convince +the workhouse girl of one of the plainest meanings a man can well have. +When the distracted Borrow had reached the decision that it was high time +to give over his "mocking and scoffing," and returned with this resolve +to the dingle, Isopel Berners had quitted it, never to return. She ran +away to the nearest sea-port, and took shipping to America. Lavengro +with some anguish steeled his heart against following her. The scene of +these transactions was a wooded glen or dingle a few miles from +Willenhall, in Staffordshire, where Lavengro and Isopel were encamped in +their respective tents, having as their neighbours the gipsy clan of +which Jasper was the chief. Upon the whole the Dingle chapters are +perhaps the most brilliant and the most enduring that Borrow ever +achieved. Their interest is greatly enhanced by the fact that they are +probably a naked transcript from actual fact, for Borrow was a poor hand +at invention. He rarely, if ever, invented a character. His surest +source of inspiration was the unadorned truth. + +After the experience of a summer in the open, Borrow, who was now +twenty-two, relapsed into the indifferent versification of Danish ballads +and Welsh bards, was severely fleeced in obscure journeyings in Southern +Europe, and so gained some experience for future use, vainly sought a +post, on the strength of his linguistic attainments, as an assistant in +the British Museum Library, and was reduced to writing reactionary +political leaders for a Norwich paper; he was, in fact, waiting, like Mr. +Micawber, for something to turn up, or, in his own graphic phrase, +"digging holes in the sand and filling them up again." + +His deliverance was effected in rather a singular manner. About 1833 he +became acquainted with the Skeppers of Oulton Hall, in that pleasant +stretch of country which borders on the river Waveney. By Mrs. Clarke +(afterwards Mrs. Borrow), the widowed sister of the owner of the Hall, he +was introduced to the Rev. Francis Cunningham, rector of Pakefield, a +fine type of the Evangelical clergyman of a past generation, who had +married the sister of Joseph John Gurney. It seemed to this good man +that Borrow's gift of tongues might well be employed in the service of +the Bible Society, of which the famous Norfolk Quaker was an influential +member. The hour of the former would-be martyr to infidelity had now +come; he was taken into the regular service of the society upon an +average salary of about 250 pounds, in addition to expenses, and was +employed as editor, translator, and colporteur of Bibles in strange +lands. The labours of the next eight years of his life were as fruitful +and honourable as those of the preceding eight had been desultory and +obscure. His first commission was to go to St. Petersburg and there edit +and superintend the setting up and printing of Lipoftsof's version of the +New Testament into Manchu. Borrow acquired the language and performed +his task with an almost incredible expedition. He also learned Russian, +and in the summer of 1835 proposed to the society that he should himself +distribute the work which he had seen through the press upon the confines +of the Far East. This scheme was scotched by the refusal of the Russian +Government to grant him the necessary authorization and passports. But +Borrow's energies were transferred to a project which scarcely, if at +all, less deserves the epithet Quixotic. It was to disseminate a +Castilian translation of the Vulgate (made by Father Scio at Valencia +between 1790 and 1793) in Spain and Portugal. To disperse Bibles in +Papua or in Park-lane were, it might be argued, an enterprise fully as +hopeful as to scatter them in Galicia or La Mancha; but this is neither +here nor there, and the stimulus that was lacking in other directions was +abundantly supplied to the society and their emissary by the fact that, +according to the _regla quinta_ of the old Index, all Spanish versions of +the Bible or of any part of it were absolutely forbidden, and that as a +necessary consequence the Bible was a book as unfamiliar in Spain as it +was held to be dangerous and revolutionary. Spain was to Borrow what the +Harley Ministry was to Swift. It seemed to develop in him an almost +superhuman activity and power; and, fond of cant as Borrow's employers +too often were, it is infinitely to their credit that they not only +tolerated but even applauded the unconventional epistles which he wrote +to them of his exploits during his three long journeys in Spain, which +with two brief intervals occupied him from November, 1835, down to April, +1840. These letters with the addition of a few chapters and a number of +insignificant changes made up "The Bible in Spain," which was published +by John Murray on December 10, 1812, when "El Gitano," as the +enthusiastic Ford dubbed the author, literally woke up to find himself +famous. His experience for a season was that of "the man Sterne"; he +dined with peers, Ambassadors, and Bishops, and, like Major Pendennis, +was particularly complacent with Bishops. We might here for a moment +compare his position to that of Johnson in 1763. He had gone down into +the arena and fought his wild beasts, and had come up triumphant, as +Johnson had done after the Dictionary. He still had difficulties to meet +and debts to face, for he had gradually become estranged from "the +sub-committee," and the Bible Society suddenly found that "no sphere +remained open in which his services could be utilized." Fortunately, he +had provided for his future, not by obtaining a pension, but by marrying, +in April, 1840, an old ally of his, Mary Clarke, a widow with a good +jointure (over 400 pounds a year), a skilful hand at dumplings and +treacle posset, and "an excellent woman of business." He was now fifteen +years older than when he had "lost" Isopel. The motives which prompted +this scorner of matrimony to marry a woman seven or eight years his +senior were similar, it may be surmised, to those which actuated Disraeli +on his marriage. The compact was based upon convenience and mutual +esteem, and there is no reason to doubt that it conduced not only to +Borrow's comfort and security, but also to his happiness. There were no +children. The "daughter" whose accomplishments Borrow celebrated in the +exordium to "Wild Wales" was his stepdaughter, Henrietta Clarke. He +seemed now in an enviable position, with a small but agreeable freehold +on the banks of Oulton Broad, able to indulge in "idleness and the pride +of literature" to his heart's content. If he had had a "club" or a +Boswell about him, he might still have been tolerably happy. But he was +not a clubbable man, Borrow! Nevertheless it was during the years that +followed that, like Johnson, he achieved his best title to fame, the +wondrous five volumes of autobiography so capriciously planned and so +strangely entitled "Lavengro--Romany Rye." The stimulus in his case was +largely, we believe, if not mainly, pecuniary. "Money is our best +friend" he wrote to his wife in 1844. He wanted a purse of his own to +travel and give dinners with, for the edge of episcopal hospitality was +already wearing off. He desired too, no doubt, to put a coping stone to +his fame. Already in January, 1843, he wrote to his publisher that he +had begun upon a Robinson Borrow, and Murray, Ford, and other friends +threw up their caps. The publisher may have well seen a veritable gold +mine in prospect. One has only to imagine the fervent curiosity which +the personal element in "The Bible in Spain," so suggestive of mystery +and romance, must have exalted in the reading public of 1843, to perceive +that any such anticipation was fully warranted by the facts of the case. +Here was a book which bore upon its title-page its passport to Sunday +reading as a good, serious, missionary work, but for which it was +manifest, as the surprised and delighted reader proceeded, that not +Bishop Heber or the good Schwartz, but Mendoza and Lesage had been taken +as models. May not people well have wondered (the good, pious English +folk, to whom "luck" was a scandal, as the Bible Society's secretary +wrote to Borrow) what manner of man this muleteer-missionary might be? +The incongruity was only heightened by familiarity with Borrow's +Pharaoh-like visage, abundant grey hair, and tall blonde Scandinavian +figure, which reminded those who came under his spell of those roving +Northmen of the days of simple medieval devotion, who were wont to +signalize their conversion from heathen darkness by a Mediterranean +venture, combining the characters of a piratical cruise and a pious +pilgrimage. But if publisher and client were justified in believing that +they had discovered an autobiographical El Dorado, they were, none the +less, to be sadly undeceived. + +To whatever cause the disappointment may be attributed, it was certainly +not due to any lack of pains on the part of Don Jorge. The labour which +he bestowed upon his Life was immense, quite disproportionate to his +previous efforts. "The Gypsies in Spain," for instance, was built up +upon already existing jottings, extracts, and notes, very loosely thrown +together; while "The Bible in Spain" itself was, in regard to its +composition, nothing more than an _olla podrida_ of journalized letters. +But he wrote "Lavengro," as it were, with his life's blood. It cost him +the same agony that parts of "David Copperfield" cost Dickens, while he +had none of Dickens's trained fluency or descriptive power. His lack of +ease in writing often gives a wrong impression of insincerity or +artificiality. Most of his apostrophes, even the most strained, are +expressions of genuine feeling, which he was simply incapable of +assimilating to the prevailing tone of the book, that of a _novela +picaresca_. His determination to be original and to tell the truth, to +avoid all padding and second-hand ideas, kept him on the rack; yet he +persevered, working hard at the Life with intervals of discouragement for +no less than six years. "Lavengro" eventually appeared, in three +volumes, in February, 1851, and was received not merely with coldness and +unconcern, but with hostile carping and even derision. The critics and +Borrow pronounced themselves mutually disillusioned. It was natural that +a man like Borrow should magnify and should misinterpret this unexpected +blow. + +The attitude of his critics was due to a very complex system of causes. +The English have always been the most self-complacent of peoples, and +1851 was perhaps the one year in the whole of our history when this +little weakness reached its climax. The Oxford Movement, with Newman and +Ward as its prophets, had been succeeded by the Manchester Movement, upon +which Cobden and Macaulay had long been busily engaged in shedding the +most brilliant rays of the prevailing Whig optimism; factories, railways, +penny postage, free trade, commercial expansion, universal peace and +plenty, industrial exhibitions, religious toleration, general +education--these were the watchwords of the day, and all these things +alike were repulsive in the highest degree to George Borrow. He was as +conservative as a gipsy or a tramp, while his hatred of novelty was +worthy of the race among whom _Vaya usted con Dios_, _y que no haya +Novedad_! is a common form of valediction. His hatred of aesthetic +culture, of sentimental toleration, and of the modern woman amounted to a +positive mania. Of the great writers of his own century he never spoke +unless it were to condemn, as in the case of Scott, Wordsworth, +Thackeray, and Keats, of whom he once asked, "Have they not been trying +to resuscitate him?" In his conversations with Agnes Strickland and Miss +Cobbe, as recorded by the latter, he appears to have behaved like an +escaped lunatic, while, upon the occasion of his meeting with Anna +Gurney, we know that he literally took to flight and ran without stopping +from Sheringham to the Old Tucker's Inn at Cromer. An interview with +Mrs. Browning or George Eliot would have probably driven him stark +staring mad. Another stumbling block to the critics of 1851 was the +peculiar dryness, if we may so describe it, of Borrow's style. He could +respond to the thrill of natural beauty. He could enjoy and find +utterance for his mood when it came upon him, just as he could enjoy a +tankard of old ale or linger to gaze upon a sympathetic face; but he +refused to pamper such feelings, still more to simulate them; he refused +to allow himself to become the creature of literary or poetic ecstasy; he +refused to indulge in the fashionable debauch of _dilettante_ melancholy. +His life was in many ways the reverse of normal, but he insisted in +writing about it quite naturally, "as if there were nothing in it." It +is perfectly true, then; Borrow is dry. What needs to be appreciated is +that his dryness is not that of dry rot, but the dryness of high +elevation, of a somewhat solitary and craggy humour--the dryness of +"Robinson Crusoe," of "Gil Blas," of "Hadji Baba," and, we might add, of +"Don Quixote." There is an absence of verdure. You will not find much +sentiment in Borrow. As to word-painting, picturesque glamour and +deference to the prejudices of earnest people, a quality so dearly prized +by Englishmen of every rank and period, Borrow would have none of them. +You will find none of them in his works; but you will find "part of the +secret, brother," especially in the Dingle. For there Borrow is at his +best, in the open air, among the gipsies--with Jasper, Pakomovna, Tawno, +Ursula, the Man in Black, and Belle Berners, interlocutors in dialogues +of the greenwood unrivalled since the heyday of the forest of Arden. +Once more "Lavengro" badly belied the expectations of those who were +looking out for another "Eothen"; and finally, apart the author's +objectionable and reactionary prejudices, there were other and obvious +faults about the book (mainly of literary detail, style, and arrangement) +which were abundantly manifest to the strenuous critics of 1851. What +these gentry did not perceive was the unique character of the book--its +truth, its reality, its open-air quality, its distinctive humour, its +dramatic power, the genius which revealed to Borrow instinctively the +literary form and the picaresque manner which formed the right, nay the +inevitable, setting of the particular story that he had to tell. + +Borrow's previous success only served to emphasize the bitterness of his +defeat, for so he regarded the failure of his originality to carry his +darling "Lavengro" through the breakers. He complained that he had "had +the honour" of being rancorously abused by every unmanly scoundrel, every +sycophantic lackey, and every political and religious renegade in the +kingdom. His fury was that of an angry bull tormented by gnats. His +worst passions were aroused, his most violent prejudices confirmed. But +the abuse did not divert him by a hairbreadth from his preconceived plan. +He proceeded with deliberation to carry on in "The Romany Rye" the story +so abruptly suspended at the close of the hundredth chapter of +"Lavengro." The first chapters of "The Romany Rye" (which was not +actually published until May, 1857) are quite equal to anything that +Borrow ever wrote. The book falls off a little towards the close, which +is, if possible, even more abrupt and inconclusive than that of +"Lavengro" itself. In the appendix, the bigotries, hatreds, and +centrifugal propensities which made up the George Borrow of 1850-57 were +emphasized and underlined for the benefit of the flunkeys, vipers, and +"yahoos" who had dared to asperse his autobiography. He never carried +his story on from 1825 to 1832 or wrote the once projected "Bible in +Russia"; perhaps he never meant to do so; but, even if he had, we more +than doubt whether they would have approached in value the first 116 +chapters of his immortal autobiography. His remaining work was the +detailed journal of a vacation tour in "Wild Wales," which was in no way +inferior to its predecessors in literary value, though it is considerably +below them in general interest. Wild people and old word-music, in its +"native wood-notes wild," were a passion with Borrow to the last, and +helped to save him from himself. He suffered terribly from horror of +death, religious gloom ("the horrors"), solitariness, and disappointment. +He experienced a series of rebuffs, failing in succession to obtain a +Consulship, a seat on the quorum, employment in China, and a +manuscript-hunting mission from the British Museum. His unrivalled +qualifications as a linguist failed to obtain for him posts for which he +was eminently fitted, but to which he saw inferior men preferred. If a +roving commission or an administrative post could have been found for him +abroad, by preference in the East as he himself desired, hard work might +have gone far to exorcise his melancholy, and we might have had from his +pen contributions to the study of Eastern life that would have added +lustre to a group of writers already represented in England by Curzon and +Kinglake, Lane and Morier, Palgrave and Burton. With Burton's love of +roving adventure, of strange tongues, and of anthropology in its widest +sense, the author of "The Bible in Spain" had many points in common. As +it was, with brief intervals of solitary excursion in the "Celtic fringe" +or the Near East, Borrow remained glooming at home, working himself up +into a state of nervous excitement bordering upon dementia about a +neighbour's dog or a railway bisecting his wife's land. The gloom, of +course, was not chronic. There were days upon which he was himself +again, the old George Borrow. Generally speaking, his days and years +were passed in a moody inactivity, now at Oulton, then at Yarmouth, next +in London, finally at Oulton again, where he "died, as he had lived, +alone" on July 26, 1881. It seemed for the time as if he had outlived +his reputation. Appearances are proverbially deceptive. + +George Borrow's life and works are one and the same thing. Few great +writers have been more persistently autobiographical than Borrow was. +Boswell, said Johnson once, had only two subjects, Dr. Johnson and James +Boswell, and he, the Doctor, was heartily sick of both; but Borrow had +only one subject--himself, from which he practically never wandered. The +merry gests and marvellous exploits of the incomparable George +Borrow--these form the unique theme of our Gitano Crusoe. But it is not +enough to say that Borrow's autobiographical methods are unique. His +life is presented to us in four panels, each as unlike the others as it +is possible to be in size, shape, texture, and surface. The scale varies +as much as that of an ordnance map, sometimes 25 inches to the mile, at +others five miles to the inch. The colours upon the palette are artfully +changed, details are sometimes obtruded, at others significantly hidden. +A casual glance obscures rather than reveals the fact that, whether he is +writing of his early life and struggles ("Lavengro," i.-lviii.), of one +vivid Bohemian episode of his early manhood ("Lavengro"--"Romany Rye"), +of the crowning triumph of his maturity ("Bible in Spain"), or of a +vacation tour during the autumn of a disappointed life ("Wild Wales"), +Borrow was always working upon the same model, with the same desperate +and conscientious zeal, with the same extraordinary gust and vigour, with +the same genius, the same bias, the same limitations. + +As a man of letters he must be judged primarily as a biographer, and, if +this be done, it will be found that Borrow has achieved the great object +of biography; he has transmitted a great personality. The blemishes in +his work are not particularly hard to find. Inadvertently we may have +been betrayed into indicating one or two of them. But it is not by any +means safe ground. With the exception of Jane Austen (and temporarily +speaking, perhaps Charles Dickens) there is hardly any literary character +whom it is so dangerous to approach without passports and periphrases +(securing retreat, if necessary) and plentiful kow-tows as George Borrow. +Among all literary clansmen you shall hardly find one more implacable, +more fierce, or more blindly fanatical than your Borrovian. Charles Lamb +is almost the only author we can think of (out of Scotland) who is +worshipped by his admirers with quite the same canine sort of affection. +But the cult of Lamb is restricted largely to briefless Templars, to +University men and "Oxford M.A.'s"; the Borrovian is drawn from a lower +social stratum, from printers, librarians, booksellers, and others who +seldom read books, from indexers, dictionary makers, and such harmless +drudges of literature. To men of such close and restricted horizons the +breath of the Romany Rye is as that of "the wind on the heath, brother." +Hence the stern and unbending jealousy of their cult. Real literary +enthusiasts of advanced years are almost as rare in our streets as +elderly naval men of the peculiar type discovered by Mr. Gilbert. Yet a +chance word in a London thoroughfare has before now elicited this +ingenuous confession of faith: "I'd walk any distance to see anything +belonging to George Borrow or to read anything fresh of his. Lord bless +you, I almost worship that man!" + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{213a} It was not the policy of the Times Literary Supplement to give +the name of the author. For completeness the author is Thomas Seccombe, +and the editor of the TLS. at the time was James Thursfield.--DP. + +{213b} Two brothers. See "Gypsies in Spain," Preface to Second Edition. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE BORROW*** + + +******* This file should be named 30887.txt or 30887.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/8/8/30887 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/30887.zip b/30887.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..982c470 --- /dev/null +++ b/30887.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e64ab6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #30887 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30887) |