The Romany Rye

And

IT having been frequently stated in print that the book called "Lavengro" was got up expressly against the popish agitation, in the years 1850-51, the author takes this opportunity of saying that the principal part of that book was written in the year '43, that the whole of it was completed before the termination of the year '46, and that it was in the hands of the publisher in the year '48. here he cannot forbear observing, that it was the duty of that publisher to have rebutted a statement which he knew to be a calumny; and also to have set the public right on another point dealt with in the Appendix to the present work, more especially as he was the proprietor of a review enjoying, however undeservedly, a certain sale and reputation.

"But take your own part, boy!

For if you don't, no one will take it for you."

With respect to "Lavengro," the author feels that he has no reason to be ashamed of it. In writing that book he did his duty, by pointing out to his country people the nonsense which, to the greater part of them, is as the breath of their nostrils, and which, if indulged in, as it probably will be, to the same extent as hitherto, will, within a very few years, bring the land which he most loves beneath a foreign yoke: he does not here allude to the yoke of Rome.

Instead of being ashamed, has he not rather cause to be proud of a book which has had the honour of being rancorously abused and execrated by the very people of whom the country has least reason to be proud?

ONE day Cogia Efendy went to a bridal festival. The masters of the feast, observing his old and coarse apparel, paid him no consideration whatever. The Cogia saw that he had no chance of notice; so going out, he hurried to his house, and, putting on a splendid pelisse, returned to the place of festival. No sooner did he enter the door than the masters advanced to meet him, and saying, "Welcome, Cogia Efendy,' with all imaginable honour and reverence, placed him at the head of the table, and said, "Please to eat, Lord Cogia." Forthwith the Cogia, taking hold of one of the furs of his pelisse, said, Welcome, my pelisse; please to eat, my lord." The masters looking at the Cogia with great surprise, said, "What are you about?" Whereupon the Cogia replied, As it is quite evident that all the honour paid, is paid to my pelisse, I think it ought to have some food too."-PLEASANTRIES OF THE COGIA NASR EDDIN EFEndi.

EDITOR'S NOTE

"The Romany RYE " is virtually one book with “ 'Lavengro,' - and, so far as its relation to George Borrow's life and his real or romantic history of himself goes, the introduction to the earlier work may apply also to the later. In 1853 (October 18) Mrs. George Borrow wrote to John Murray, and spoke of her husband's completing his work—“ which he proposes to call' The Romany Rye-A Sequel to Lavengro.'" In 1854, on his return from Wales, Borrow sent the MS. of this sequel to Murray. In 1856 it was still in manuscript, as Borrow then asked for it back again. In 1857 (February 27) he sent a kind of ultimatum to Murray, saying that the work must go to press, and that unless the printing were to be immediately put in hand, he must himself come up to London and attend to the matter personally. "Time is passing away," he writes. "It ought to have appeared many years ago. I can submit to no more delays." In March 1857, we hear of it as actually at press; and in the course of that spring—in May, precisely—it was published.

As for the internal chronology, that is a simple matter. The book deals with the same one eventful year of 1825, dealt with in the later chapters of " Lavengro." It is in dramatic time strictly a continuation, and an abruptly resumed continuation of that book;" strange cross between a novel and an autobiography," as a Saturday Reviewer termed the "Romany Rye' on its publication in 1857.

For the many interesting critical points raised by both these works which are one work, the reader must turn to the introduction to Lavengro" by Mr. Seccombe.

The following is a list of the works of George Borrow

Faustus, His Life and Death [from the German of F. M. von Klinger], 1825; Romantic Ballads [from the Danish of Öhlenschläger, and from

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the Kiempé Viser], and miscellaneous pieces [from the Danish of Ewald and others], 1826; Targum, or Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects, 1835; The Talisman of A. Pushkin, with other pieces [from Russian and Polish], 1835; New Testament (Luke), Embéo e Majaró Lucas . . . El Evangelio segun S. Lucas, traducido al Romani, 1837; The Bible in Spain, 3 vols., 1843; The Zincali (Gypsies of Spain), 2 vols., 1841; Lavengro: The Scholar— The Gypsy-The Priest, 3 vols., 1851; The Romany Rye, 2 vols., 1857; The Sleeping Bard, translated from the Cambrian British, 1860; Wild Wales, 3 vols., 1862; Romano Lavo-Lil: Word-Book of the Romany, 1874; Násr Al-Din, Khwajah, The Turkish Jester [from the Turkish], 1884; Death of Balder [from the Danish of Ewald], 1889.

The Life, Writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow, in 2 vols., by Dr. W. I. Knapp, appeared in 1899. Those who are specially interested in Borrow's philological acquirements, or deficiencies, will do well to consult the editions of "Lavengro" by Dr. Knapp (1900), and F. Hindes Groome (2 vols., 1901), and that of "Romany Rye," by John Sampson (1903). The " Isopel Berners" episode, excerpted from "Lavengro" and "Romany Rye," was edited and annotated by Thomas Seccombe in 1901.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

The Making of the Linch-pin-The Sound Sleeper-Breakfast-

The Postillion's Departure