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

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Hanged the mayor: The suppressed name of the Welshman and the whole account of the affair is given in Wild Wales, p. 7 (chapter III). —⁠Knapp ↩

Bardd Cwsg: The Sleeping Bard, by Ellis Wynn: The Sleeping Bard; or Visions of the World, Death, and Hell. By Elis Wyn. Translated from the Cambrian British by George Borrow. London, 1860. —⁠Knapp ↩

Merddin Wyllt (“Myrddin”): i.e., Wild Merlin, called the Wizard. —⁠Knapp ↩

Found written: See Moll Flanders by Defoe, p. 188, ed. 1722: “Oh! what a felicity is it to mankind,” said I, “that they cannot see into the hearts of one another!” I have carefully reread the whole volume of Moll Flanders, and find no such passages as those referred to here, save the one above. Hence, we may justly infer that Borrow quoted the spirit, rather than the words, of his author. —⁠Knapp ↩

Catraeth, read “Cattraeth.” The reference is to Aneurin’s book, the Y Gododin. A poem on the Battle of Cattraeth, by Aneurin, a Welsh Bard of the Sixth Century. With an English translation by J. Williams ab Ithel. Llandovery, 1852. —⁠Knapp ↩

Fish or flesh: See Borrow’s Targum, St. Petersburg, 1835, p. 76, under the “History of Taliesin,” ending:⁠—

“I saw the end with horror
Of Sodom and Gomorrah!
And with this very eye
Have seen the [Trinity];
I till the judgment day
Upon the earth shall stray:
None knows for certainty
Whether fish or flesh I be.”

The original Welsh of the “Hanes Taliesin” is in the Gorchestion Beirdd Cymru, 1773. —⁠Knapp ↩

Take this: This Bible, with Peter Williams’ name in it, was sold in London in 1886 out of George Borrow’s collection. —⁠Knapp ↩

Mumpers’ Dingle: Near Willenhall, Staffordshire. The place is properly Momber or Monmer Lane, and is now occupied by the “Monmer Lane Ironworks,” hence totally obliterated. —⁠Knapp ↩

Volundr (Völundr): The Wayland Smith of Northern legends. Wayland Smith.⁠—A Dissertation on a Tradition of the Middle Ages. From the French of G. B. Depping and Francisque Michel. London, 1847. —⁠Knapp ↩

Ingeborg: The lines are from the Romantic Ballads of 1826, p. 58, entitled the “Heroes of Dovrefeld. From the old Danish.” —⁠Knapp ↩

“As I was jawing:” Text and translation of the whole eight lines are found on pp. 182⁠–⁠83 of the Lavo-Lil, 1874:⁠—

As I to the town was going one day
My Roman lass I met by the way.

The MS. is somewhat different⁠—“Rommany” instead of “Roman,” and the last line, “If you will share my lot with me.” —⁠Knapp ↩

The man in black: This priest seems to have been a Fraser of Lovat. See The Life, Adventures, and many and great Vicissitudes of Fortune of Simon, Lord Lovat, the Head of the Family of Frasers. From his birth at Beaufort, near Inverness, in the Highlands of Scotland, in 1668, to the time of his being taken by Capt. Millar, after three days search, in a hollow tree, on the coasts of Knoidart and Arisaig. By the Rev. Archibald Arbuthnot, London, 1746. —⁠Knapp ↩

Armenian: It must be remembered that Borrow’s Armenian was limited to the Introduction, Grammar and Latin-Armenian Dictionary of the Jesuit Joseph Villotte, 1714, which he picked up at Norwich in 1822⁠–⁠23. Hence all his examples are taken from that book⁠—mi, one; yergou, two; yerek, three, and those in Romany Rye. —⁠Knapp ↩

Buona sera (Italian): Good evening. —⁠Knapp ↩

Per far visita, etc.: To pay your lordship a call, that is my motive. —⁠Knapp ↩

MS. “Lord A[berdeen].” —⁠Knapp ↩

Che io non, etc., read ch’ in, etc.: That I do not believe at all. —⁠Knapp ↩

Addio: Farewell. —⁠Knapp ↩

Pulci: See Morgante Maggiore di Luigi Pulci Firentino, etc. Venetia, 1546. This version is rather free and local. Here is the original (canto XVIII, f. 97, ed. 1546):⁠—

Rispose allhor Margutte: “A dirtel tosto,
Io non credo piu al nero ch’ a l’azzurro,
Ma nel cappone, o lesso, o, vuogli, arrosto,
E credo alcuna volta anco nel burro,
Nella cervogia, e, quando io n’ho, nel mosto,
E molto pui nell’ aspro che il mangurro,
Ma sopra tutto nel buon vino ho fede,
E credo che sia salvo chi gli crede.”

—⁠Knapp ↩

O Cavaliere, etc.: Oh, Sir Walter, ye have wrought much in behalf of the Holy See! —⁠Knapp ↩

Poveri frati: Poor friars! —⁠Knapp ↩

One fellow I met: See the postillion’s story [later]. —⁠Knapp ↩

Master in Armenian is d’yèr; of a master, d’yearn; plural, d’yeark. —⁠Knapp ↩

Koul Adonai, read “Kôl Adonai.” The next quotation is from part of verse 4 of the XXIX Psalm, which he gives according to the prayerbook version. —⁠Knapp ↩

The one sole emendation consists in substituting the masculine cheval for the feminine jument, [in chapter XVIII]. Le jument est beau was a solecism that could not longer be tolerated. —⁠Knapp ↩

MS., “ ’49.” —⁠Knapp ↩

MS., “execrated by every unmanly scoundrel, every sycophantic lackey, and every political and religious renegade in Britain.” —⁠Knapp ↩

The man in black: This priest seems to have been a Fraser of Lovat. See The Life, Adventures, and many and great Vicissitudes of Fortune of Simon, Lord Lovat, the Head of the Family of Frasers. From his birth at Beaufort,