George Borrow | Page 9

in Russia, and these he hoped to use as he had
already used those written in Spain. Ford encouraged him, saying:
"Truth is great and always pleases. Never mind nimminy-pimminy
people thinking subjects low. Things are low in manner of handling." In
the midsummer of 1843 Borrow told Murray that he was getting

on--"some parts are very wild and strange," others are full of "useful
information." In another place he called the pictures in it Rembrandts
interspersed with Claudes. At first the book was to have been "My Life,
a Drama, by George Borrow"; at the end of the year it was "Lavengro,
a Biography," and also "My Life." He was writing slowly "to please
himself." Later on he called it a biography "in the Robinson Crusoe
style." Nearly three years passed since that meeting with Mr.
Petulengro, and still the book was not ready. Ford had been pressing
him to lift a corner of the curtain which he had gradually let fall over
the seven years of his life preceding his work for the Bible Society, but
he made no promise. He was bent on putting in nothing but his best
work, and avoiding haste. In July, 1848, Murray announced, among his
"new works in preparation," "Lavengro, an Autobiography, by George
Borrow." The first volume went to press in the autumn, and there was
another announcement of "Lavengro, an Autobiography," followed by
one of "Life, a Drama." Yet again in 1849 the book was announced as
"Lavengro, an Autobiography," though the first volume already bore
the title, "Life, a Drama." In 1850 publication was still delayed by
Borrow's ill health and his reluctance to finish and have done with the
book. It was still announced as "Lavengro, an Autobiography." But at
the end of the year it was "Lavengro: the Scholar--the Gypsy--the
Priest," and with that title it appeared early in 1851. Borrow was then
forty-six years old, and the third volume of his book left him still in the
dingle beside the great north road, when he was, according to the
conversation with Mr. Petulengro, a young man of twenty-one.
{picture: East Dereham Church, Norfolk. Photo: H. T. Cave, East
Dereham: page21.jpg}
CHAPTER III
--PRESENTING THE TRUTH
"Life, a Drama," was to have been published in 1849, and proof sheets
with this name and date on the title page were lately in my hands: as far
as page 168 the left hand page heading is "A Dramatic History," which
is there crossed out and "Life, a Drama" thenceforward substituted.

Borrow's corrections are worth the attention of anyone who cares for
men and books.
"Lavengro" now opens with the sentence: "On an evening of July, in
the year 18--, at East D---, a beautiful little town in a certain district of
East Anglia, I first saw the light."
The proof shows that Borrow preferred "a certain district of East
Anglia" to "The western division of Norfolk." Here the added shade of
indefiniteness can hardly seem valuable to any but the author himself.
In another place he prefers (chapter XIII.) the vague "one of the most
glorious of Homer's rhapsodies" to "the enchantments of Canidia, the
masterpiece of the prince of Roman poets."
In the second chapter he describes how, near Pett, in Sussex, as a child
less than three years old, he took up a viper without being injured or
even resisted, amid the alarms of his mother and elder brother. After
this description he comments:
"It is my firm belief that certain individuals possess an inherent power,
or fascination, over certain creatures, otherwise I should be unable to
account for many feats which I have witnessed, and, indeed, borne a
share in, connected with the taming of brutes and reptiles."
This was in the proof preceded by a passage at first modified and then
cut out, reading thus:
"In some parts of the world and more particularly in India there are
people who devote themselves to the pursuit and taming of serpents.
Had I been born in those regions I perhaps should have been what is
termed a snake charmer. That I had a genius for the profession, as
probably all have who follow it, I gave decided proof of the above
instance as in others which I shall have occasion subsequently to
relate."
This he cut out presumably because it was too "informing" and too
little "wild and strange."

A little later in the same chapter he describes how, before he was four
years old, near Hythe, in Kent, he saw in a penthouse against an old
village church, "skulls of the old Danes":
"'Long ago' (said the sexton, with Borrow's aid), 'long ago they came
pirating into these parts: and then there chanced a mighty shipwreck,
for God was angry with them, and He sunk them; and their skulls,