(13) [The Sleeping Bard: 1860]

The Sleeping Bard; / Or / Visions of the World, Death, and Hell, / By / Elis Wyn. / Translated from the Cambrian British / By / George Borrow, / Author of/ “The Bible in Spain,” “The Gypsies of Spain,” etc. / London: / John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1860.

Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. x + 128; consisting of: Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. i–ii; Preface pp. iii–vii; p. viii is blank; Fly-title to A Vision of the Course of the World (with blank reverse) pp. ix-x; and Text of the three Visions pp.

1–128. There are head-lines throughout, each double-page being headed with the title of the particular Vision occupying it. A Vision of Hell is preceded by a separate Fly-title (pp. 67–68) with blank reverse. At the foot of p. 128 is the following imprint, “James M. Denew, Printer, 72, Hall Plain, Great Yarmouth.” The sheets carry no register. The book was issued without any Half-title. In some copies the Christian name of the printer is misprinted Jamms.

Issued (in June, 1860) in magenta coloured cloth boards, lettered in gold along the back, “The Sleeping Bard,” and “London / John Murray” across the foot. The published price was 5s.; 250 copies were printed. Murray’s connection with the work was nominal. The book was actually issued at Yarmouth by J. M. Denew, the printer by whom it was produced. The cost was borne by the author himself, to whom the majority of the copies were ultimately delivered.

Some few copies of The Sleeping Bard would appear to have been put up in yellowish-brown plain paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges. One such example is in the possession of Mr. Paul Lemperley, of Cleveland, Ohio; a second is in the library of Mr. Clement Shorter. The leaves of both these copies measure 8¾ × 5¾ inches. The leaves of ordinary copies in cloth measure 7½ × 4¾ inches. The translation was made in 1830.

The text of The Sleeping Bard is divided into three sections. Each of these sections closes with a poem of some length, as follows:—

page
1. The Perishing World. [O man, upon this building gaze] 38
2. Death the Great. [Leave land and house we must some day] In the printed text the seventh stanza of Death the Great reads thus: The song and dance afford, I ween,
Relief from spleen, and sorrows grave;
How very strange there is no dance,
Nor tune of France, from Death can save! About the year 1871 Borrow re-wrote this stanza, as follows: The song and dance can drive, they say,
The spleen away, and humour’s grave;
Why hast thou not devised, O France!
Some tune and dance, from Death to save? As was invariably the case with Borrow, his revision was a vast improvement upon the original version. 		63
3. The Heavy Heart. [Heavy’s the heart with wandering below] The Manuscript of The Sleeping Bard was formerly in the possession of Dr. Knapp. It is now the property of the Hispanic Society, of New York. It extends to 74 pages 4to. 124

The song and dance afford, I ween,
Relief from spleen, and sorrows grave;
How very strange there is no dance,
Nor tune of France, from Death can save!

The song and dance can drive, they say,
The spleen away, and humour’s grave;
Why hast thou not devised, O France!
Some tune and dance, from Death to save?

There is a copy of the First Edition of The Sleeping Bard in the Library of the British Museum. The Press-mark is 12355. c. 17.