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

Biorn, read “Björn” and Ivarr, “Ivar.” —⁠Knapp ↩

Verdammt (German): Confounded. —⁠Knapp ↩

“Wife selling:” A very common practice among a certain class, it seems, in England; and, as this will hardly be credited in America, I will append some extracts from the newspapers. The Norfolk Chronicle of 5th May, 1894, says:

“The belief formerly prevailed, especially among the rural population, that a man had a perfectly legal right to sell his wife to another, provided he observed two indispensable formalities. One was that he placed a halter about her neck, and the other that he led her into the market and publicly transferred her to the purchaser. Numerous instances of these strange transactions have been recorded. Our columns, on the 9th of February, 1805, contained an account of the sale of a wife at Norwich. A Kentish tailor, the affections and person of whose amiable spouse had been jockeyed away by a neighbouring horsedealer, caparisoned her neck with a halter and surrendered all right and title to his virtuous rib, in consideration of the sum of £5. On the 2nd of May, 1823, a similar sale was effected in this city. A man named Stebbings disposed of his wile to a person named Turner for the sum of £6 10s. The latter paid £4 on account, took the woman home, and brutally turned his lawful wife out of doors.”

The London Daily Mail of 1st March, 1899, prints the following:⁠—

“Very few people are aware that wives are literally sold today in England. A very common error of the vulgar is that a man by selling his wife releases himself from the marriage contract as surely as if he were legally divorced. In March, 1796, The Times announced the sale of a wife at Sheffield for sixpence. A short time afterwards the same journal calmly stated that the price of wives has risen in Smithfield Market from half a guinea to three guineas and a half! In 1803 a man led his wife, by a halter round her neck, into the cattle market at Sheffield, and sold her for a guinea, the purchaser leading away the woman to his home. In 1820 a man named Brouchet hired a cattle-pen in the Canterbury market, placed his wife in it, and ultimately sold her for 5s. Then wives began to increase in value, for soon afterwards one was sold for £15. This was followed by a ‘slump.’ In 1855 a man led his wife with a halter round her waist into Derby marketplace and offered her for sale, but all be could get for her was eighteen pence and a quart of ale. In 1873 a husband left his home and creditors in Belper for the liberty of America. The week after his flight all his goods were put up for auction to satisfy his debts. His wife claimed part of the money, and this being refused she insisted on being offered for sale as part of her husband’s assets. There was no sale, however, for ‘Lot 29.’ In even more recent days wife sales were common, and are even being effected in this present year of grace. In 1882 John Wilson, a collier of Alfreton, Derbyshire, sold his wife in a public-house for fourpence. Sheffield knife-grinders have long been noted for their transactions in the wife trade. Within quite recent times many a Sheffield wife has been sold by her husband for a gallon of beer, which has been drunk on the spot. Sometimes these sales assume a more formal aspect. In 1887, in the Sheffield County Court, a man admitted that he had bought another man’s wife for 5s. Most of these discreditable ‘deals’ escape notice, but a case has come to light where a man agreed to sell his wife to a collier, and the trio, with the woman’s father and mother and two family friends, assembled to arrange terms. Thirty shillings was the price finally agreed on. Four years ago, at Leeds, a man charged with bigamy pleaded that, as he had sold his wife for 3s. 6d. to another man, he could marry again legally! Eighteen months’ imprisonment was what he got, and more than deserved. A police court case in 1896 at Doncaster revealed the fact that John Tart sold his wife to Enoch Childs, on the understanding that the latter reared the vendor’s four children. In a Durham court in 1894 it transpired that a man named Shaw sold his daughter, a girl of sixteen, to a collier called Cudman, for 1s. Many a wife is at present sold in the East End of London, as well as in Yorkshire, for a quart of beer or an ounce of thick twist. It is the poor man’s method of divorce, and such is popular ignorance that there are scores of people who imagine that selling a wife is as legal a separation as a decree nisi pronounced by a bewigged and berobed judge.”

—⁠Knapp ↩

Herodotus: The story is found in Thalia III, 84⁠–⁠88 (pp. 208⁠–⁠9 of Cary’s English translation). The groom’s name was “Oebares.” —⁠Knapp ↩

Deaghblasda, read “deaghbhlasda” (Irish): Sweet-tasted, dainty. This is the soothing word hinted at, but not given, in Lavengro [end of Chapter XIII]. —⁠Knapp ↩

At H⁠⸺⁠, read “Hertford,” where John Thurtell was hanged, 9th January, 1824. —⁠Knapp ↩

Ned Flatnose: Edward Painter of Norwich. —⁠Knapp ↩

Spring: His true name was Thomas Winter. He died 20th August, 1851. —⁠Knapp ↩

⸻ Fair, read “Greenwich Fair,” on Easter Monday. See Dickens’ Sketches. —⁠Knapp ↩

Oilien (and later, “Oilein”) nan Naomha, read “Oilean na Naomhtha” (Irish): Island of the Saints (Patrick and Columba). —⁠Knapp ↩

Finn-ma-Coul: The tale of