Lavengro by George Borrow (read me a book txt) 📕

duly inscribed on the back of the frame.

—⁠Knapp ↩

Public: The Castle Tavern, Holborn, kept by Tom Belcher⁠—the “Daffy Club.” —⁠Knapp ↩

“Here’s a health to old honest John Bull:” The verses were taken from a rare old volume entitled: The Norwich Minstrel, p. 30:⁠—

Honest John Bull

Here’s a health to ‘Old honest John Bull’;
When he’s gone we shan’t find such another;
With hearts and with glasses brim full,
We’ll drink to ‘Britannia, his mother’;
For she gave him a good education,
Bade him keep to his God and his King,
Be loyal and true to the nation,
And then to get merry and sing.

For John is a good-natured fellow,
Industrious, honest and brave;
Not afraid of his betters when mellow,
For betters he knows he must have.
There must be fine lords and fine ladies,
There must be some little, some great;
Their wealth the support of our trade is,
Our trade the support of the State.

Some were born for the court and the city,
And some for the village and cot;
For it would be a dolorous ditty,
If we were born ‘equal in lot.’
If our ships had no pilots to steer,
What would come of poor Jack on the shrouds?
Or our troops no commanders to fear,
They would soon be arm’d robbers in crowds.

The plough and the loom would stand still,
If we were made gentlefolks all;
If clodhoppers⁠—who then would fill
The parliament, pulpit or hall?
‘Rights of Man’ makes a very fine sound,
‘Equal riches’ a plausible tale;
Whose labourers would then till the ground?
All would drink, but who’d brew the ale?

Half naked and starv’d, in the streets
We should wander about, sans culottes;
Would Liberty find us in meats,
Or Equality lengthen our coats?
That knaves are for levelling, don’t wonder,
We may easily guess at their views;
Pray, who’d gain the most by the plunder?
Why, they that have nothing to lose.

Then away with this nonsense and stuff,
Full of treason, confusion and blood;
Every Briton has freedom enough
To be happy as long as he’s good.
To be rul’d by a glorious king,
To be govern’d by jury and laws;
Then let us be happy and sing,
‘This, this, is true Liberty’s cause.’

—⁠Knapp ↩

Haik, read “Haïk:” Armenian. —⁠Knapp ↩

Conqueror of Tippoo Sahib: General Harris (1791). —⁠Knapp ↩

March: The exact date was discovered by me in private letters in Norwich. See Life, I, p. 91. George left Norwich on the evening of 1st April, 1824, and consequently reached London early on the morning of 2nd April. —⁠Knapp ↩

Lodging: No. 16 Millman Street, Bedford Row. —⁠Knapp ↩

The publisher: Sir Richard Phillips. —⁠Knapp ↩

Mr. so-and-so: Taylor of Norwich. —⁠Knapp ↩

MS., “Bartlett.” —⁠Knapp ↩

The Magazine: The Monthly Magazine; or, British Register. —⁠Knapp ↩

MS., “Saviour.” —⁠Knapp ↩

MS., “High Tory principles.” —⁠Knapp ↩

The Oxford Review: The Universal Review; or, Chronicle of the Literature of All Nations. No. 1, March, 1824, to No. 6, January, 1825. —⁠Knapp ↩

Red Julius, called elsewhere by Borrow Iolo Goch: A Welsh bard of the fifteenth century. —⁠Knapp ↩

Caesar’s Castle: The Tower of London. —⁠Knapp ↩

Blessed Mary Flanders: Defoe’s “Moll Flanders:” The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, etc., Who Was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu’d Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, Was Twelve Year a W⁠⸺, five Times a Wife ⸻, Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at Last Grew Rich, liv’d Honest, and Died a Penitent. Written from her Own Memorandums. London, 1721. —⁠Knapp ↩

Booksellers’ shop: The shop was a depository of the Religious Tract Society, the publishers of Legh Richmond’s Annals of the Poor, of which the first section was the Dairyman’s Daughter. —⁠Knapp ↩

MS., “Arden” throughout. —⁠Knapp ↩

Newly married: Richard, Jr., married Feb., 1823. —⁠Knapp ↩

“Newgate Lives:” The true title was: Celebrated Trials, and Remarkable Cases of Criminal Jurisprudence, from the Earliest Records to the Year 1825, London, 1825 (February). —⁠Knapp ↩

Translator of “Faustus:” Faust, a Drama by Goethe, and Schiller’s Song of the Bell; translated by Lord Francis Leveson Gower, London, J. Murray, 1823 —⁠Knapp ↩

Translator of Quintilian: I doubt whether this was John Carey, LL.D. (1756⁠–⁠1826), who published an edition of Quintilian, 1822, but no translation. My information is positive that it was Wm. Gifford, translator of Juvenal, 1802, 3rd ed. 1817. —⁠Knapp ↩

The MS. develops this paragraph as follows:⁠—

So Francis Ardry called upon me, and right glad I was that he did so; and after we had sat conversing for some time, he said, “Did you ever see Kean?”

“No,” said I, “but I have heard both of him and of Belcher. I should like to see either, especially the latter. Where are they to be found?”

“I know nothing of the latter,” said Frank, “but if you wish to see Kean, you had better come with me where he will appear tonight after a long absence. The public are anxiously waiting for him, intending to pelt him off the stage.”

“And what has he done,” said I, “to be pelted off the stage?”

“What is very naughty,” said Frank; “breaking one of the commandments.”

“And did he break the commandment on the stage?”

“No,” said Frank, “I never heard that he broke it on the stage, except in the way of his profession.”

“Then, what have the public to do with the matter?”

“They think they have,” said Frank.

And then we went out together to see Shakespeare’s Richard, or rather we went to see the man who was to personate Shakespeare’s Richard⁠—and so did thousands; we did not see him, however.