Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page,

as above (with blank reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballad and Epigrams pp. 5–27. There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Poem occupying it—save for pp. 23–27, which are headed Epigrams. Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.” The signatures are A (six leaves), and B (a full sheet of eight leaves), the one inset within the other.

Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front. The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.

Thirty Copies only were printed.

Contents.

page
Little Engel. [It was the little Engel, he] 5
An Elegy. [Where shall I rest my hapless head] 21
Epigrams. From the Persian:
1. [Hear what once the pigmy clever] 23
2. [The man who of his words is sparing] 23
3. [If thou would’st ruin ’scape, and blackest woe] 24
4. [Sit down with your friends in delightful repose] 24
5. [The hungry hound upon the bone will pounce] 24
6. [Great Aaroun is dead, and is nothing, the man] 25
7. [Though God provides our daily bread] 25
8. The King and his Followers. [If in the boor’s garden the King eats a pear] 25
9. The Devout Man and the Tyrant. [If the half of a loaf the devout man receives] 26
10. The Cat and the Beggar. [If a cat could the power of flying enjoy] 26
11. The King and Taylor. [The taylor who travels in far foreign lands] 26
12. Gold Coin and Stamped Leather. [Of the children of wisdom how like is the face] 27
13. [So much like a friend with your foe ever deal] The Manuscript of these Epigrams bears instructive evidence of the immense amount of care and labour expended by Borrow upon his metrical compositions. Reduced facsimiles of two of the pages of this Manuscript are given herewith. It will be observed that a full page and a half are occupied by the thirteenth Epigram, at which Borrow made no fewer than seven attempts before he succeeded in producing a version which satisfied him. The completed Epigram is as follows:— So much like a friend with your foe ever deal,
That you never need dread the least scratch from his steel;
But ne’er with your friend deal so much like a foe,
That you ever must dread from his faulchion a blow. 		27

So much like a friend with your foe ever deal,
That you never need dread the least scratch from his steel;
But ne’er with your friend deal so much like a foe,
That you ever must dread from his faulchion a blow.

The original Manuscript of Little Engel, written in 1829, is in the library of Mr. Edmund Gosse. The Manuscript of 1854, from which the ballad was printed, is in my own library.

There is a copy of Little Engel, A Ballad, &c., in the Library of the British Museum. The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.