Books: The Life of George Borrow

H >> Herbert Jenkins >> The Life of George Borrow

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37

"Strange weather this," he had written to John Murray (31st Dec.
1842)--"very unwholesome I believe both for man and beast. Several
people dead and great mortality amongst the cattle. Am intolerably
well myself, but get but little rest--disagreeable dreams--digestion
not quite so good as I could wish--been on the water system--won't
do--have left it off, and am now taking lessons in singing."

Many men have earned the reputation of madness for less eccentric
actions than taking lessons in singing as a cure for indigestion,
after the failure of the water cure.

Although he was receiving complimentary letters from all quarters and
from people he had never even heard of, he seemed acutely unhappy.

"I did wrong," he writes to his wife from London (29th May 1843),
"not to bring you when I came, for without you I cannot get on at
all. Left to myself, a gloom comes upon me which I cannot describe.
I will endeavour to be home on Thursday, as I wish so much to be with
you, without whom there is no joy for me nor rest. You tell me to
ask for SITUATIONS, etc. I am not at all suited for them. My place
seems to be in our own dear cottage, where, with your help, I hope to
prepare for a better world . . . I dare say I shall be home on
Thursday, perhaps earlier, if I am unwell; for the poor bird when in
trouble has no one to fly to but his mate." And a few days later:
"I wish I had not left home. Take care of yourself. Kiss poor Hen."

During his stay in London, Borrow sat to Henry Wyndham Phillips,
R.A., for his portrait. {357a} On 21st June John Murray wrote: "I
have seen your portrait. Phillips is going to saw off a bit of the
panel, which will give you your proper and characteristic height.
Next year you will doubtless cut a great figure in the Exhibition.
It is the best thing young Phillips has done." The painting was
exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 as "George Borrow, Esq.,
author of The Bible in Spain," and is now in the possession of Mr
John Murray.

There is a story told in connection with the painting of this
portrait. Borrow was a bad sitter, and visibly chafed at remaining
indoors doing nothing. To overcome this restlessness the painter had
recourse to a clever stratagem. He enquired of his sitter if Persian
were really a fine language, as he had heard; Borrow assured him that
it was, and at Phillips' request, started declaiming at the top of
his voice, his eyes flashing with enthusiasm. When he ceased, the
wily painter mentioned other tongues, Turkish, Armenian, etc., in
each instance with the same result, and the painting of the portrait
became an easy matter.

On 23rd June John Murray (the Second) died, at the age of sixty-five,
and was succeeded by his son. "Poor old Murray!" Ford wrote to
Borrow, "We shall never see his like again. He . . . was a fine
fellow in every respect." In another letter he refers to him as
"that Prince of Bibliophiles, poor, dear, old Murray." Borrow's own
relations with John Murray had always been most cordial. On one
occasion, when writing to his son, he says: "I shall be most happy
to see you and still more your father, whose jokes do one good. I
wish all the world were as gay as he." Then without a break, he goes
on to deplore the fact that "a gentleman drowned himself last week on
my property. I wish he had gone somewhere else." Such was George
Borrow.

For some time past Borrow's thoughts had been directed towards
obtaining a Government post abroad. The sentence, "You tell me to
ask for situations, etc.," in a letter to his wife had reference to
this ambition. He had previously (21st June 1841) written to Lord
Clarendon suggesting for himself a consulship; but the reply had not
been encouraging. It was "quite hopeless to expect a consulship from
Lord Palmerston, the applicants were too many and the appointments
too few."

Borrow recognised the stagnation of his present life.

"I wish the Government would give me some command in Ireland which
would call forth my energies," he wrote to John Murray (25th Oct.
1843). "If there be an outbreak there I shall apply to them at once,
for my heart is with them in the present matter: I hope they will be
firm, and they have nothing to fear; I am sure that the English
nation will back them, for the insolence and ingratitude of the
Irish, and the cowardice of their humbug chief, have caused universal
disgust." Later he wrote, also to John Murray, with reference to
that "trumpery fellow O'Connell . . . I wish I were acquainted with
Sir Robert Peel. I could give him many a useful hint with respect to
Ireland and the Irish. I know both tolerably well. Whenever there's
a row I intend to go over with Sidi Habismilk and put myself at the
head of a body of volunteers."

He had previously written "the old Duke [Wellington] will at last
give salt eel to that cowardly, bawling vagabond O'Connell." Borrow
detested O'Connell as a "Dublin bully . . . a humbug, without courage
or one particle of manly feeling." Again (17th June) he had written:
"Horrible news from Ireland. I wish sincerely the blackguards would
break out at once; they will never be quiet until they have got a
sound licking, and the sooner the better."

The finer side of Borrow's character was shown in his eagerness to
obtain employment. There is a touch of pathos in the sight of this
knight, armed and ready to fight anything for anybody, wasting his
strength and his talents in feuds with his neighbours.

In the profits on the old and the preparation of new editions of The
Bible in Spain, Borrow took a keen interest. The money he was making
enabled him to assist his wife in disembarrassing her estate. "I
begin to take considerable pleasure in making money," he wrote to his
publisher, "which I hope is a good sign; for what is life unless we
take pleasure in something?" Again he enquires, "Why does not the
public call for another edition of them [The Gypsies of Spain]. You
see what an unconscionable rascal I am becoming." During his
lifetime Borrow received from the firm of Murray, 3437 pounds, 19s.,
most of which was on account of The Bible in Spain and, consequently,
was paid to him during the first years of his association with
Albemarle Street.

Caroline Fox gives an interesting picture of Borrow at this period as
he appeared to her:-

"25th Oct. 1843.

"Catherine Gurney gave us a note to George Borrow, so on him we
called,--a tall, ungainly, uncouth man, with great physical strength,
a quick penetrating eye, a confident manner, and a disagreeable tone
and pronunciation. He was sitting on one side of the fire, and his
old mother on the other. His spirits always sink in wet weather, and
to-day was very rainy, but he was courteous and not displeased to be
a little lionised, for his delicacy is not of the most susceptible.
He talked about Spain and the Spaniards; the lowest classes of whom,
he says, are the only ones worth investigating, the upper and middle
class being (with exceptions, of course) mean, selfish, and proud
beyond description. They care little for Roman Catholicism, and bear
faint allegiance to the Pope. They generally lead profligate lives,
until they lose all energy and then become slavishly superstitious.
He said a curious thing of the Esquimaux, namely, that their language
is a most complex and highly artificial one, calculated to express
the most delicate metaphysical subtleties, yet they have no
literature, nor are there any traces of their ever having had one--a
most curious anomaly; hence he simply argues that you can ill judge
of a people by their language." {360a}

One of the strangest things about Borrow's personality was that it
almost invariably struck women unfavourably. That he himself was not
indifferent to women is shown by the impression made upon him by the
black eyes of one of the Misses Mills of Saxham Hall, where he was
taken to dinner by Dr Hake, who states that "long afterwards, his
inquiries after the black eyes were unfailing." {360b} He was also
very kind and considerate to women. "He was very polite and
gentlemanly in ladies' society, and we all liked him," wrote one
woman friend {360c} who frequently accompanied him on his walks. She
has described him as walking along "singing to himself or quite
silent, quite forgetting me until he came to a high hill, when he
would turn round, seize my hand, and drag me up. Then he would sit
down and enjoy the prospect." {360d}

CHAPTER XXIII: MARCH 1844-1848

In March 1844 Borrow, unable longer to control the Wanderlust within
him, gave up the struggle, and determined to make a journey to the
East. He was in London on the 20th, as Lady Eastlake (then Miss
Elizabeth Rigby) testifies in her Journal. "Borrow came in the
evening," she writes: "now a fine man, but a most disagreeable one;
a kind of character that would be most dangerous in rebellious times-
-one that would suffer or persecute to the utmost. His face is
expressive of wrong-headed determination." {361a}

He left London towards the end of April for Paris, from which he
wrote to John Murray, 1st May

"Vidocq wishes very much to have a copy of my Gypsies of Spain, and
likewise one of the Romany Gospels. On the other side you will find
an order on the Bible Society for the latter, and perhaps you will be
so kind as to let one of your people go to Earl Street to procure it.
You would oblige me by forwarding it to your agent in Paris, the
address is Monsr. Vidocq, Galerie Vivienne, No. 13 . . . V. is a
strange fellow, and amongst other things dabbles in literature. He
is meditating a work upon Les Bohemiens, about whom I see he knows
nothing at all. I have no doubt that the Zincali, were it to fall
into his hands, would be preciously gutted, and the best part of the
contents pirated. By the way, could you not persuade some of the
French publishers to cause it to be translated, in which event there
would be no fear. Such a work would be sure to sell. I wish Vidocq
to have a copy of the book, but I confess I have my suspicions; he is
so extraordinarily civil."

From Paris he proceeded to Vienna, and thence into Hungary and
Transylvania, where he remained for some months. He is known to have
been "in the steppe of Debreczin," {362a} to Koloszvar, through Nagy-
Szeben, or Hermannstadt, on his journey through Roumania to
Bucharest. He visited Wallachia "for the express purpose of
discoursing with the Gypsies, many of whom I found wandering about."
{362b}

So little is known of Borrow's Eastern Journey that the following
account, given by an American, has a peculiar interest:-

"My companions, as we rode along, related some marvellous stories of
a certain English traveller who had been here [near Grosswardein] and
of his influence over the Gypsies. One of them said that he was
walking out with him one day, when they met a poor gypsy woman. The
Englishman addressed her in Hungarian, and she answered in the usual
disdainful way. He changed his language, however, and spoke a word
or two in an unknown tongue. The woman's face lighted up in an
instant, and she replied in the most passionate, eager way, and after
some conversation dragged him away almost with her. After this the
English gentleman visited a number of their most private gatherings
and was received everywhere as one of them. He did more good among
them, all said, than all the laws over them, or the benevolent
efforts for them, of the last half century. They described his
appearance--his tall, lank, muscular form, and mentioned that he had
been much in Spain, and I saw that it must be that most ubiquitous of
travellers, Mr Borrow." {362c}

This was the fame most congenial to Borrow's strange nature.
Dinners, receptions, and the like caused him to despise those who
found pleasure in such "crazy admiration for what they called
gentility." It was his foible, as much as "gentility nonsense" was
theirs, to find pleasure in the role of the mysterious stranger, who
by a word could change a disdainful gypsy into a fawning, awe-
stricken slave. Fame to satisfy George Borrow must carry with it
something of the greatness of Olympus.

A glimpse of Borrow during his Eastern tour is obtained from Mrs
Borrow's letters to John Murray. After telling him that she
possesses a privilege which many wives do not (viz.), permission to
open her Husband's letters during his absence, she proceeds:-

"The accounts from him are, I am thankful to say, very satisfactory.
It is extraordinary with what marks of kindness even Catholics of
distinction treat him when they know who he is, but it is clearly his
gift of tongues which causes him to meet with so many adventures,
several of which he has recorded of a most singular nature." {363a}

At Vienna Borrow had arranged to wait until he should receive a
letter from his wife, "being very anxious to know of his family," as
Mrs Borrow informed John Murray (24th July).

"Thus far," she continues, "thanks be to God, he has prospered in his
journey. Many and wonderful are the adventures he has met with,
which I hope at no distant period may be related to his friends.
Doctor Bowring was very kind in sending me flattering tidings of my
Husband."

Borrow was at Constantinople on 17th Sept. when he drew on his letter
of credit. Leland tells an anecdote about Borrow at Constantinople;
but it must be remembered that it was written when he regarded Borrow
with anything but friendly feelings:-

"Sir Patrick Colquhoun told me that once when he was at
Constantinople, Mr Borrow came there, and gave it out that he was a
marvellous Oriental scholar. But there was great scepticism on this
subject at the Legation, and one day at the table d'hote, where the
great writer and divers young diplomatists dined, two who were seated
on either side of Borrow began to talk Arabic, speaking to him, the
result being that he was obliged to confess that he not only did not
understand what they were saying, but did not even know what the
language was. Then he was tried in Modern Greek, with the same
result." {364a}

The story is obviously untrue. Had Borrow been ignorant of Arabic he
would not have risked writing to Dr Bowring (11th Sept. 1831; see
ante, page 85) expressing his enthusiasm for that language. Arabic
had, apparently, formed one of the subjects of his preliminary
examination at Earl Street. With regard to Modern Greek he confessed
in a letter to Mr Brandram (12th June 1839), "though I speak it very
ill, I can make myself understood."

Having obtained a Turkish passport, and after being presented to
Abdul Medjid, the Sultan, Borrow proceeded to Salonika and, crossing
Thessaly to Albania, visited Janina and Prevesa. He passed over to
Corfu, and saw Venice and Rome, returning to England by way of
Marseilles, Paris and Havre. He arrived in London on 16th November,
after nearly seven months' absence, to find his "home particularly
dear to me . . . after my long wanderings."

It is curious that he should have left no record of this expedition;
but if he made notes he evidently destroyed them, as, with the
exception of a few letters, nothing was found among his papers
relating to the Eastern tour. There is evidence that he was occupied
with his pen during this journey, in the existence at the British
Museum of his Vocabulary of the Gypsy Language as spoken in Hungary
and Transylvania, compiled during an intercourse of some months with
the Gypsies in those parts in the year 1844, by George Borrow. In
all probability he prepared his Bohemian Grammar at the same time.
{365a}

From the time that he became acquainted with Borrow, Richard Ford had
constituted himself the genius of La Mezquita (the Mosque), as he
states the little octagonal Summer-house was called. He was for ever
urging in impulsive, polyglot letters that the curtain to be lifted.
"Publish your WHOLE adventures for the last twenty years," he had
written. {365b} Ford saw that a man of Borrow's nature must have had
astonishing adventures, and with HIS pen would be able to tell them
in an astonishing manner.

As early as the summer of 1841 Borrow appears to have contemplated
writing his Autobiography. On the eve of the appearance of The Bible
in Spain (17th Dec.) he wrote to John Murray: "I hope our book will
be successful; if so, I shall put another on the stocks. Capital
subject: early life; studies and adventures; some account of my
father, William Taylor, Whiter, Big Ben, etc. etc."

The first draft of notes for Lavengro, an Autobiography, as the book
was originally advertised in the announcement, is extremely
interesting. It runs:-

"Reasons for studying languages: French, Italian, D'Eterville.
Southern tongues. Dante.
Walks. The Quaker's Home, Mousehold. Petulengro.
The Gypsies.
The Office. Welsh. Lhuyd.
German. Levy. Billy Taylor.
Danish. Kaempe Viser. Billy Taylor. Dinner.
Bowring.
Hebrew. The Jew.
Philosophy. Radicalism. Ranters.
Thurtell. Boxers. Petulengres." {365c}

Lavengro was planned in 1842 and the greater part written before the
end of the following year, although the work was not actually
completed until 1846. There are numerous references in Borrow's
letters of this period to the book on which he was then engaged, and
he invariably refers to it as his Life. On 21st January 1843 he
writes to John Murray, Junr.: "I meditate shortly a return to
Barbary in quest of the Witch Hamlet, and my adventures in the land
of wonders will serve capitally to fill the thin volume of My Life, a
Drama, By G. B." Again and again Borrow refers to My Life. Hasfeldt
and Ford also wrote of it as the "wonderful life" and "the
Biography."

In his letters to John Murray, Borrow not only refers to the book as
his Life, but from time to time gives crumbs of information
concerning its progress. The Secretary of the Bible Society has just
lent him his letters from Russia, "which will be of great assistance
in the Life, as I shall work them up as I did those relating to
Spain. The first volume," he continues, "will be devoted to England
entirely, and my pursuits and adventures in early life." He
recognises that he must be careful of the reputation that he has
earned. His new book is to be original, as would be seen when it at
last appears; but he confesses that occasionally he feels
"tremendously lazy." On another occasion (27th March 1843) he writes
to John Murray, Junr.: "I hope by the end of next year that I shall
have part of my life ready for the press in 3 vols." Six months
later (2nd Oct. 1843) he writes to John Murray:-

"I wish I had another Bible ready; but slow and sure is my maxim.
The book which I am at present about will consist, if I live to
finish it of a series of Rembrandt pictures interspersed here and
there with a Claude. I shall tell the world of my parentage, my
early thoughts and habits; how I became a sap-engro, or viper-
catcher; my wanderings with the regiment in England, Scotland and
Ireland . . . Then a great deal about Norwich, Billy Taylor,
Thurtell, etc.; how I took to study and became a lav-engro. What do
you think of this as a bill of fare for the FIRST Vol.? The second
will consist of my adventures in London as an author in the year '23
(sic), adventures on the Big North Road in '24 (sic), Constantinople,
etc. The third--but I shall tell you no more of my secrets."

In a letter to John Murray (25th Oct. 8843), the title is referred to
as Lavengro: A Biography. It is to be "full of grave fun and solemn
laughter like the Bible." On 6th December he again writes:-

"I do not wish for my next book to be advertised yet; I have a
particular reason. The Americans are up to everything which affords
a prospect of gain, and I should not wonder that, provided I were to
announce my title, and the book did not appear forthwith, they would
write one for me and send forth their trash into the world under my
name. For my own part I am in no hurry," he proceeds. "I am writing
to please myself, and am quite sure that if I can contrive to please
myself, I shall please the public also. Had I written a book less
popular than the Bible, I should be less cautious; but I know how
much is expected from me, and also know what a roar of exultation
would be raised by my enemies (and I have plenty) were I to produce
anything that was not first rate."

Time after time he insists upon his determination to publish nothing
that is not "as good as the last." "I shall go on with my Life," he
writes, to Ford (9th Feb. 1844), "but slowly and lazily. What I
write, however, is GOOD. I feel it is good, strange and wild as it
is." {367a}

From 24th-27th Jan. 1844 that "most astonishing fellow" Richard Ford
visited Borrow at Oulton, urging again in person, most likely, the
lifting of the veil that obscured those seven mysterious years. Ford
has himself described this visit to Borrow in a letter written from
Oulton Hall.

"I am here on a visit to El Gitano;" he writes, "two 'rum' coves, in
a queer country . . . we defy the elements, and chat over las cosas
de Espana, and he tells me portions of his life, more strange even
than his book. We scamper by day over the country in a sort of gig,
which reminds me of Mr Weare on his trip with Mr THURTELL [Borrow's
old preceptor]; 'Sidi Habismilk' is in the stable and a Zamarra
[sheepskin coat] now before me, writing as I am in a sort of summer-
house called La Mezquita, in which El Gitano concocts his
lucubrations, and PAINTS his pictures, for his object is to colour up
and poetise his adventures."

By this last sentence Ford showed how thoroughly he understood
Borrow's literary methods. A fortnight later Borrow writes to Ford:-

"You can't think how I miss you and our chats by the fireside. The
wine, now I am alone, has lost its flavour, and the cigars make me
ill. I am frequently in my valley of the shadows, and had I not my
summer jaunt [the Eastern Tour] to look forward to, I am afraid it
would be all up with your friend and Batushka."

The Eastern Tour considerably interfered with the writing of
Lavengro. There was a seven months' break; but Borrow settled down
to work on it again, still determined to take his time and produce a
book that should be better than The Bible in Spain.

Ford's Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain and Readers at Home appeared
in 1845, a work that had cost its author upwards of sixteen years of
labour. In a letter to Borrow he characterised it as "a RUM book and
has queer stuff in it, although much expurgated for the sake of
Spain." Ford was very anxious that Borrow should keep the promise
that he had given two years previously to review the Hand-Book when
it appeared. "You will do it MAGNIFICENTLY. 'Thou art the man,'"
Ford had written with the greatest enthusiasm. On 2nd June an
article of thirty-seven folio pages was despatched by Borrow to John
Murray for The Quarterly Review, with the following from Mrs Borrow:-

"With regard to the article, it must not be received as a specimen of
what Mr Borrow would have produced had he been well, but he
considered his promise to Mr Ford sacred--and it is only to be wished
that it had been written under more favourable circumstances."
Borrow was ill at the time, having been "very unwell for the last
month," as Mrs Borrow explains, "and particularly so lately.
Shivering fits have been succeeded by burning fever, till his
strength was much reduced; and he at present remains in a low, and
weak state, and what is worse, we are by no means sure that the
disease is subdued."

Ford saw in Borrow "a crack reviewer." " . . . You have," he assured
him in 1843, "only to write a LONG LETTER, having read the book
carefully and thought over the subject." Ford also wrote to Borrow
(26th Oct. 1843): "I have written several letters to Murray
recommending them to BAG you forthwith, unless they are demented."
There was no doubt in his, Ford's, mind as to the acceptance of
Borrow's article.

"If insanity does not rule the Q. R. camp, they will embrace the
offer with open arms in their present Erebus state of dullness," he
tells Borrow, then, with a burst of confidence continues, "But,
barring politics, I confidentially tell you that the Ed[inburgh] Rev.
does business in a more liberal and more business-like manner than
the Q[uarterly] Rev. I am always dunning this into Murray's head.
More flies are caught with honey than vinegar. Soft sawder,
especially if plenty of GOLD goes into the composition, cements a
party and keeps earnest pens together. I grieve, for my heart is
entirely with the Q. R., its views and objects."

The article turned out to be, not a review of the Hand-Book, but a
bitter attack on Spain and her rulers. The second part was to some
extent germane to the subject, but it appears to have been more
concerned with Borrow's view of Spain and things Spanish than with
Ford's book. Lockhart saw that it would not do. In a letter to John
Murray he explains very clearly and very justly the objections to
using the article as it stood.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37