(10) [A Supplementary Chapter to “The Bible in Spain”: 1913]
A / Supplementary Chapter / to / The Bible in Spain / Inspired by / Ford’s “Handbook for Travellers in Spain.” / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.
Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 46; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Frontispiece (with blank recto) pp. 3–4; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 5–6; Prefatory Note (signed ‘T. J. W.’) pp. 7–10; and text of the Chapter pp. 11–46. There are head-lines throughout, each verso being headed A Supplementary Chapter, and each recto To the Bible in Spain. Following p. 46 is a leaf, with blank recto, and with the following imprint upon the reverse, “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N. W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.” The signatures are A to C (3 sheets, each 8 leaves), inset within each other.
Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed
edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front. The leaves measure 8¾ × 6⅞ inches.
Thirty Copies only were printed.
The Frontispiece consists of a greatly reduced facsimile of the last page, bearing Borrow’s corrections, of the original edition of his Review of Ford’s ‘Hand-Book.’
This Supplementary Chapter to “The Bible in Spain” is a reprint of the Review of Ford’s Hand-book for Travellers in Spain written by Borrow in 1845 for insertion in The Quarterly Review, but withdrawn by him in consequence of the proposal made by the Editor, John Gibson Lockhart, that he should himself introduce into Borrow’s Essay a series of extracts from the Handbook. [See ante, No. 9.]
Included in the Prefatory Note is the following amusing squib, written by Borrow in 1845, but never printed by him. I chanced to light upon the Manuscript in a packet of his still unpublished verse:
Would it not be more dignified
To run up debts on every side,
And then to pay your debts refuse,
Than write for rascally Reviews?
And lectures give to great and small,
In pot-house, theatre, and town-hall,
Wearing your brains by night and day
To win the means to pay your way?
I vow by him who reigns in [hell],
It would be more respectable!
There is a copy of A Supplementary Chapter to “The Bible in Spain” in the Library of the British Museum. The press-mark is C. 57. d. 19 (2).
(11) [Lavengro: 1851]
Lavengro; / The Scholar—The Gypsy—The Priest. / By George Borrow, / Author of “The Bible in Spain,” and “The Gypsies of Spain” / In Three Volumes.—Vol. I. [Vol. II., &c.] / London: / John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1851.
Vol. I.
Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. xviii [85] + 360; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “London: / George Woodfall and Son, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” upon the centre of the reverse). Pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with Advertisements of The Bible in Spain and The Zincali upon the reverse) pp. iii–iv; Preface pp. v–xii; and Text pp. 1–360. At the foot of p. 360 the imprint is repeated thus, “G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.” There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the number of the chapter, together with the title of the individual subject occupying it. The signatures are A (nine leaves, a single leaf being inserted between A 6 and A 7), and B to Q (fifteen sheets, each 12 leaves).
A Portrait of Borrow, engraved by W. Holl from a painting by H. W. Phillips, serves as Frontispiece.
Vol. II.
Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. xii + 366; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “London: / George Woodfall and Son, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” upon the
centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with Advertisements of The Bible in Spain and The Zincali upon the reverse) pp. iii–iv; Contents of Vol. II pp. v–xi; p. xii is blank; and Text pp. 1–366. At the foot of p. 366 the imprint is repeated thus, “G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.” There are head-lines throughout, as in the first volume. The signatures are a (2 leaves), b (4 leaves), B to Q (fifteen sheets, each 12 leaves), plus R (3 leaves).
Vol. III.
Collation:—Large duodecimo, pp. xii + 426; consisting of: Half-title (with imprint “London: / George Woodfall and Son, / Angel Court, Skinner Street” upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with Advertisements of The Bible in Spain and The Zincali upon the reverse) pp. iii–iv; Contents of Vol. III pp. v–xi; p. xii is blank; and Text pp. 1–426. At the foot of p. 426 the imprint is repeated thus, “G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.” There are head-lines throughout, as in the first volume. The signatures are a (2 leaves), b (4 leaves), B to S (seventeen sheets, each 12 leaves), T (6 leaves), and U (3 leaves).
Issued in dark blue cloth boards, with white paper back-labels, lettered “Lavengro; / the / Scholar, / the Gypsy, / and / the Priest. / By George Borrow / Vol. i. [Vol. ii., &c.]” The leaves measure 7¾ × 4⅞ inches. The edition consisted of 3,000 Copies. The published price was 30s.
A Second Edition (miscalled Third Edition) was issued in 1872; a Third (miscalled Fourth) in 1888; and a Fourth (miscalled Fifth) in 1896. To the edition of 1872 was prefixed a new
Preface, in which Borrow replied to his critics in a somewhat angry and irritable manner. Copies of the First Edition of Lavengro are to be met with, the three volumes bound in one, in original publishers’ cloth, bearing the name of the firm of Chapman and Hall upon the back. These copies are ‘remainders.’ They were made up in 1870. It is by no means unlikely that in 1872 some confusion prevailed as to the nature of this subsidiary issue, and that it was mistaken for a Second Edition of the book. If so the incorrect numbering of the edition of that date, the actual Second Edition, may be readily accounted for.
An important edition of Lavengro is:
Lavengro / By George Borrow / A New Edition / Containing the unaltered Text of the Original Issue; / some Suppressed Passages now printed for the / first time; MS. Variorum, Vocabulary and Notes / By the Author of / The Life of George Borrow / London / John Murray, Albemarle Street / 1900.—Crown 8vo, pp. xxviii + 569.
The book was reprinted in 1911. The Editor was Dr. William Knapp.
An edition of Lavengro, with a valuable Introduction by Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton, was published by Messrs. Ward, Lock & Co., in 1893. The work is also included in Everyman’s Library, and in other series of popular reprints.
When put to press in February, 1849, the first volume of Lavengro was set up with the title-page reading as follows:—
Life, A Drama. / By / George Borrow, Esq., / Author of “The Bible in Spain,” etc. / In Three Volumes. / Vol. i. / London: / John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1849.
Only two examples of the volume with this interesting early title-page are known to have survived. One of these is now in the possession of the Hispanic Society, of New York. The other is the property of Mr. Otto Kyllmann.
Later in the same year Murray advertised the work under the following title:—
Lavengro, An Autobiography. By George Borrow, Esq., &c.
The same title was employed in the advertisements of 1850.
Mr. Clement Shorter possesses the original draft of the first portion of Lavengro. In this draft the title-page appears in its earliest form, and describes the book as Some Account of the Life, Pursuits, and Adventures of a Norfolk Man. A facsimile of this tentative title was given by Mr. Shorter in George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, p. 280.
“Borrow took many years to write Lavengro. ‘I am writing the work,’ he told Dawson Turner, ‘in precisely the same manner as The Bible in Spain, viz. on blank sheets of old account-books, backs of letters,’ &c., and he recalls Mahomet writing the Koran on mutton bones as an analogy to his own ‘slovenliness of manuscript.’ I have had plenty of opportunity of testing this slovenliness in the collection of manuscripts of portions of Lavengro that have come into my possession. These are written upon pieces of paper of all shapes and sizes, although at least a third of the book in Borrow’s very neat handwriting is contained in a leather notebook. The title-page demonstrates the earliest form of Borrow’s conception. Not only did he then contemplate an undisguised autobiography, but even described himself as ‘a Norfolk man.’ Before the book was finished, however, he repudiated the autobiographical note, and we find him fiercely denouncing his critics for coming to such a conclusion. ‘The writer,’ he declares, ‘never said it was an autobiography; never authorised any person to say it was one.’ Which was doubtless true, in a measure.”—[George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, pp. 279–281].
There is a copy of the First Edition of Lavengro in the Library of the British Museum. The Press-mark is 12622. f. 7.