To Dr. John Bowring

Oulton, Lowestoft, Suffolk, July 14th, 1842.

Dear dear Sir,—Pray excuse my troubling you with a line. I wish you would send as many of the papers and manuscripts, which I left at yours some twelve years ago, as you can find. Amongst others there is an essay on Welsh poetry, a translation of the Death of Balder, etc. If I am spared to the beginning of next year, I intend to bring out a volume called Songs of Denmark, consisting of some selections from the Kæmpe Viser and specimens from Ewald, Grundtvig, Oehlenschläger, and I suppose I must give a few notices of those people. Have you any history of Danish literature from which I could glean a few hints. I think you have a book in two volumes containing specimens of Danish poetry. It would be useful to me as I want to translate Ingemann's Dannebrog; and one or two other pieces. I shall preface all with an essay on the Danish language. It is possible that a book of this description may take, as Denmark is quite an untrodden field.

Could you lend me for a short time a Polish and French or Polish and German dictionary. I am going carefully through Makiewitz, about whom I intend to write an article.

The Bible in Spain is in the press, and with God's permission will appear about November in three volumes. I shall tell Murray to send a copy to my oldest, I may say my only friend. Pray let me know how you are getting on. I every now and then see your name in the Examiner, the only paper I read. Should you send the papers and the books it must be by the Yarmouth coach which starts from Fetter Lane. Address: George Borrow, Crown Inn, Lowestoft, Suffolk. With kindest remembrances to Mrs. Bowring, Miss Bowring, and family—I remain, Dear Sir, ever yours,

George Borrow.

FACSIMILE OF A POEM FROM TARGUM
A Translation from the French by George Borrow

Now with the achieved success of The Bible in Spain and the leisure of a happy home Borrow could for the moment think of the ambition of 'twelve years ago'—an ambition to put before the public some of the results of his marvellous industry. The labours of the dark, black years between 1825 and 1830 might now perchance see the light. Three such books got themselves published, as we have seen, Romantic Ballads, Targum, and The Talisman. The Sleeping Bard had been translated and offered to 'a little Welsh bookseller' of Smithfield in 1830, who, however, said, when he had read it, 'were I to print it I should be ruined.' That fate followed the book to the end, and Borrow was premature when he said in his Preface to The Sleeping Bard that such folly is on the decline, because he found 'Albemarle Street in '60 willing to publish a harmless but plain-speaking book which Smithfield shrank from in '30.' At the last moment John Murray refused to publish, but seems to have agreed to give his imprint to the title-page. Borrow published the book at his own expense, it being set up by James Matthew Denew, of 72 Hall Plain, Great Yarmouth. Fourteen years later—in 1874—Mr. Murray made some amends by publishing Romano Lavo-Lil, in which are many fine translations from the Romany, and that, during his lifetime, was the 'beginning and the end' of Borrow's essays in publishing so far as his translations were concerned. Webber, the bookseller of Ipswich, did indeed issue The Turkish Jester—advertised as ready for publication in 1857—in 1884, and Jarrold of Norwich The Death of Balder in 1889; but enthusiasts have asked in vain for Celtic Bards, Chiefs and Kings, Songs of Europe, and Northern Skalds, Kings and Earls. It is not recorded whether Borrow offered these to any publisher other than 'Glorious John' of Albemarle Street, but certain it is that Mr. Murray would have none of them. The 'mountains of manuscript' remained to be the sorrowful interest of Borrow as an old man as they had—many of them—been the sorrow and despair of his early manhood. Here is a memorandum in his daughter's handwriting of the work that Borrow was engaged upon at the time of his death:

Songs of Ireland.
Songs of the Isle of Man.
Songs of Wales.
Songs of the Gaelic Highlands.
Songs of Anglo-Saxon England.
Songs of the North, Mythological.
Songs of the North, Heroic.
Songs of Iceland.
Songs of Sweden.
Songs of Germany.
Songs of Holland.
Songs of Ancient Greece.
Songs of the Modern Greeks.
Songs of the Klephts.
Songs of Denmark, Early Period.
Songs of Denmark, Modern Period.
Songs of the Feroe Isles.
Songs of the Gascons.
Songs of Modern Italy.
Songs of Portugal.
Songs of Poland.
Songs of Hungary.
Songs and Legends of Turkey.
Songs of Ancient Rome.
Songs of the Church.
Songs of the Troubadours.
Songs of Normandy.
Songs of Spain.
Songs of Russia.
Songs of the Basques.
Songs of Finland.

These translations were intended to form a volume with copious notes, but were only completed a month before Mr. Borrow's death, which occurred at his residence, Oulton Cottage, Suffolk, July 26th, 1881, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. This grand old man, full of years and honour, was buried beside his wife (who had proved a noble helpmate to him), in Brompton Cemetery, August 4th.

And so what many will consider Borrow's 'craze' for verse translations remained with him to the end. We know with what equanimity he bore his defeat in early years. Did he not make humorous 'copy' out of it in Lavengro. It must have been a greater disappointment that his publisher would have none of his wares when he had proved by writing The Bible in Spain that at least some of his work had money in it. For years it was Borrow's opinion that Lockhart stood in his way, wishing to hold the field with his Ancient Spanish Ballads (1821), and maintaining that Borrow was no poet. The view that Borrow had no poetry in him and that his verse is always poor has been held by many of Borrow's admirers. The view will not have the support of those who have had the advantage of reading all Borrow's less known published writings, and the many manuscripts that he left behind him. But on the general question let us hear Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton:—

It should never be forgotten that Borrow was, before everything else, a poet.... By poet I do not mean merely a man who is skilled in writing lyrics and sonnets and that kind of thing, but primarily a man who has the poetic gift of seeing through 'the show of things,' and knowing where he is—the gift of drinking deeply of the waters of life, and of feeling grateful to Nature for so sweet a draught.'[245]

Possibly Mr. Watts-Dunton did not contemplate his idea being applied to Borrow's verse translations, but all the same the quality of poetic imagination may be found here in abundance. The little Welsh bookseller of Smithfield said to Borrow in reference to The Sleeping Bard:

Were I to print it I should be ruined; the terrible description of vice and torment would frighten the genteel part of the English public out of its wits, and I should to a certainty be prosecuted by Sir James Scarlett. I am much obliged to you for the trouble you have given yourself on my account—but, Myn Diawl! I had no idea, till I had read him in English, that Elis Wyn had been such a terrible fellow.

And here the little Welsh bookseller paid Borrow a signal compliment. In the main Borrow provided a prose translation of The Sleeping Bard. In Targum however, he showed himself a quite gifted balladist, far removed from the literary standard of Romantic Ballads ten years earlier. Space does not permit of any quotation in this chapter, and I must be content here to declare that the spirit of poetry came over Borrow on many occasions. The whole of Borrow's Songs of Scandinavia will ultimately be published, although for eighty and more years[246] the pile of neatly written manuscript of that book, which is now in my possession, has appealed for publication in vain. There will be found, in such a ballad as Orm Ungerswayne, for example, a practical demonstration that Borrow had the root of the matter in him. It is true that Borrow's limited acquaintance with English poetry was a serious drawback to great achievement, and his many translations from his favourite Welsh bard Goronwy Owen that are before me are too much under the influence of Pope. In addition to the Songs of Scandinavia I have before me certain other ballads in manuscript—such portions of his various unpublished but frequently advertised works as did not fall to Dr. Knapp.[247] Of these I do not hesitate to say that whatever the difference of opinion as to their poetic quality there can be no difference of opinion as to their being well-told stories of an exceedingly interesting and invigorating character. But I must leave for another time and another opportunity any discussion of Borrow's poetic achievement of which at present the world has had little opportunity of knowing anything.[248] Of prose manuscript there is also a considerable quantity, including diaries of travel and translations of nine or ten stories from various languages. Of the minor books already published we have already spoken of Faustus, Romantic Ballads, Targum, and The Talisman, and Borrow's last and least interesting book Romano Lavo-Lil. There remains but to recall:—

The Sleeping Bard,published byJohn Murray, 1860
The Turkish Jester,"W. Webber, 1884
The Death of Balder,"Jarrold and Sons, 1889

These eight little volumes will always remain Borrow's least-read books. Only in Targum and The Sleeping Bard do we find much indication of those qualities which made him famous. It is not in the least surprising that the other work failed to find a publisher, and, indeed, from a merely commercial point of view, the late John Murray had more excuse for refusing Romano Lavo-Lil, which he did publish, than The Sleeping Bard, which he refused to publish—at least on his own responsibility. Such books, whatever their merits, are issued to-day only by learned societies. In a quite different category were those many ballads[249] from diverse languages that Borrow had hoped to issue under such titles as Celtic Bards, Chiefs and Kings, and Northern Skalds, Kings and Earls. These books would have had no difficulty in finding a publisher to-day were they offered by a writer of one half the popularity of Borrow.[250]

BORROW AS A PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES
An 'Advertisement' put forth by Borrow in Norwich during the years of struggle before he was sent to Russia by the Bible Society. This interesting document, which is in Borrow's handwriting, is in the possession of Mr. Frank J. Farrell of Great Yarmouth, by whose courtesy it is reproduced here.

There is, I repeat, excellent work in these ballads. As to Targum let it not be forgotten that Hasfeld—really a good judge—said in The Athenæum that 'the work is a pearl of genius,' and that William Bodham Donne declared that 'the language and rhythm are vastly superior to Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome.' As to The Sleeping Bard Borrow himself was able to make his own vigorous defence of that work. In emulation of Walter Scott he reviewed himself in The Quarterly.[251] His article is really an essay on Welsh poetry, and incidentally he quotes from his unpublished Celtic Bards, Chiefs and Kings a lengthy passage, the manuscript of which is in my possession. We are introduced again to all Borrow's old friends of Wild Wales: Hew Morris, Goronwy Owen, and finally Elis Wyn. Borrow quotes from The Romany Rye, but as becomes a reviewer of his own book, gives no praise to his achievement.

I find no plays among Borrow's 'mountains of manuscript' in my possession, and so I am not disposed to accept the suggestion that the following letter from Gifford to Borrow refers to a play which Borrow pretended to be the work of a friend while it was really his own. If it was his own he doubtless took Gifford's counsel to heart and promptly destroyed the manuscript:—