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

to the drab-engro ker
Trin hors-worth there of drab we lels
And when to the swety back we wels
We pens we’ll drab the baulo.

“And then we kairs the drab opré,
And then we jaws to the farming ker
To mang a beti habben,
A beti poggado habben.

“A rinkeno baulo there we dick,
And then we pens in Rommany jib:
‘Chiv lis odoy oprey the chick,
The baulo he will lel lis,
The baulo he will lel lis.

“ ‘Apopli on the sorlo we
Will wel and mang him mullo,
Will wel and mang his truppo.’

“And so we kairs, and so we kairs,
We mang him on the sorlo,
And rig to the tan the baulo.

“And then we toves his wendror well
Till sore the wendror iuziou sie,
Till kekkeno drab’s adrey lis,
Till drab there’s kek adrey lis.

“And then his truppo well we hatch,
Kin levinor at the kitchema,
And have a kosko habben,
A kosko Rommano habben.

“The boshom-engro kils, he kils,
The tawni juva gils, she gils,
A puro Rommany gillie,
Now shoon the Rommany gillie.”

3. The third and last MS. is complete, but varies considerably from the printed text. “Romany” is written with two m’s, as in Lavengro throughout; in the fourth verse it reads: “In Rommany chib: chiv lis odoy opré the chik;” fourth line omits “and;” in the fifth and sixth verses it gives “sorlo” properly, instead of “saulo;” in seventh verse it reads “his wendror,” and in the last, “boshom-engro” and “tawni.”

From all these variants it results that MS. No. 3 furnishes a better reading than the printed text. —⁠Knapp ↩

The apothecary. ↩

Ursula’s Song: By the aid of the Gypsy list [the Glossary] at the end of this volume, the translation can be easily made out by the curious reader. —⁠Knapp ↩

MS., see Life, I, 34, n. —⁠Knapp ↩

Sanpriel: Corrupt form of “Sanspareil,” unrivalled. —⁠Knapp ↩

Synfye: Slavonic form of “Cynthia”⁠—th in Russian is pronounced ph or f; Thomas, Fómas. —⁠Knapp ↩

Life, I, 34, n. —⁠Knapp ↩

Life of Charles: Add “XII” —⁠Knapp ↩

The church: Mentioned as three miles from the dingle, has not yet been discovered. —⁠Knapp ↩

The Edda: Early Icelandic literary monuments, consisting of the Elder or Poetic Edda collected by Saemund, and the later or Prose Edda collected by Snorro Sturleson. See Mallet’s Northern Antiquities, Bohn’s Edition. —⁠Knapp ↩

Sagas: Early historical tales handed down by oral tradition. —⁠Knapp ↩

Anselo Herne: His clan-name. —⁠Knapp ↩

Pulci: Luigi Pulci (1432⁠–⁠87). See Morgante Maggiore di Luigi Pulci Firentino, etc. Venetia, 1546. —⁠Knapp ↩

Ingravidata (Italian): With child. —⁠Knapp ↩

E nacquene, etc.: “And of her a son was born, says story, who subsequently gave great victory to Charlemagne.” —⁠Knapp ↩

Fortiguerra: Niccolò Fortiguerra (1674⁠–⁠1735). He did not live to print his voluminous poem entitled Ricciardetto, having died in 1735, just “ninety years” from the date 1825, as our text declares. —⁠Knapp ↩

Slammocks, etc.: Norwich worthies, I suppose; at least I do not find them in the Boxiana at my command. —⁠Knapp ↩

The Armenian in this chapter I find correct. “Hramahyel” should have been given hramaïyel, “hntal,” etc., khntal (χντάλ), and “madagh,” madag.

See The Latin-Armenian Dictionary, with a Grammar Prefixed. By Jacobus Villotte, from which Borrow drew the Haïkian words and forms displayed in Lavengro and Romany Rye. —⁠Knapp ↩

Hard-mouthed jade: This favourite expression of Mr. Borrow’s proceeds, I opine, from his readings in the quaint eighteenth century literature with which his library abounded. In Defoe’s Moll Flanders, p. 301, edition of 1722, we read: “The witnesses were the two wenches, a couple of hard mouth’d jades indeed.” And on p. 323: “A hard mouth’d man.” —⁠Knapp ↩

The “daffodil” poet: William Wordsworth (1770⁠–⁠1850). —⁠Knapp ↩

Carlo Borromeo: The Cardinal saint, born 1538, died 1584. —⁠Knapp ↩

Bricconi abbasso (It.): “Down with the rogues!” —⁠Knapp ↩

Friar Bacon: The celebrated scientist Roger Bacon (1214⁠–⁠94) was fated, like Virgil, to be popularly metamorphosed into a magician and conjuror. Hence the “Friar Bacon” series of chap-books, extending (so far as we know them) from the sixteenth century to the present. I will give the passage referred to by Mr. Borrow, so that it may be seen that the myth had no reference to the railway. No. 3 in The History of Frier Bacon. London, 1683, leaf 8:⁠—

“Chapter V: How Miles watched the Brazen-head, and in the end went away from his master.

“Fryer Bacon, having performed many wonderful things by his curious Art, was now sifting out how he might wall England with brass; wherefore he and Fryer Bungy, when they had raised the devil, bound him to a tree, for to make him tell them how it might be performed. He told them that they should make a Brazen-head, which (if they could watch it till it spoke) would tell them how it might be done. The head was made, and they watched till they could watch no longer. At last Fryer Bungey persuaded Fryer Bacon to let his man Miles watch while they slept; to which the Fryer agreed. Then Miles was called, who undertook to awake them when the Head would speak. So to sleep they went, and Miles expected some great speech to come from the Head. At last the Head cryed, ‘Time Is’; at which Miles fell into a great laughter, and made his scoffs and jears thereat. Then it said, ‘Time Was’; but yet he would not awake his master, counting them but silly and frivolous