The Life of George Borrow by Herbert George Jenkins
page 76 of 597 (12%)
page 76 of 597 (12%)
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accordance with Borrow's autobiographical methods.
Borrow wrote in Lavengro, "I have been a wanderer the greater part of my life; indeed I remember only two periods, and these by no means lengthy, when I was, strictly speaking, stationary." {75a} One of the "two periods" was obviously the eight years spent at Norwich, 1816-24, the other is probably the years spent at Oulton. Thus the "Veiled Period" may be assumed to have been one of wandering. The seven years are gloomy and mysterious, but not utterly dark. There is a hint here, a suggestion there--a letter or a paragraph, that gives in a vague way some idea of what Borrow was doing, and where. It seems comparatively safe to assume that after the publication of Romantic Ballads he plunged into a life of roving and vagabondage, which, in all probability, was brought to an abrupt termination by either the loss or the exhaustion of his money. Anything beyond this is pure conjecture. {75b} After he became associated with the British & Foreign Bible Society, his movements are easily accounted for; but all we have to guide us as to what countries he had seen before 1833 is an occasional hint. He casually admits having been in Italy, {75c} at Bayonne, {75d} Paris, {75e} Madrid, {75f} the south of France. {75g} "I have visited most of the principal capitals of the world," he writes in 1843; and again in the same year, "I have heard the ballad of Alonzo Guzman chanted in Danish, by a hind in the wilds of Jutland." {76a} "I have lived in different parts of the world, much amongst the Hebrew race, and I am well acquainted with their words and phraseology," {76b} he writes; and on another occasion: "I have seen gypsies of various lands, Russian, Hungarian, and Turkish; and I have also seen the legitimate children of most countries of the world." |
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