New-York tribune., 1900-05-19

is rretty certain that he knew Greek when
he entered there. and he never seems to have
acquired more than the elements Of that Ian
guage He never mentions It, far as know
and discreetly avoids all quotation from or refer
ence even to the commonplaces of "classicaT
literature. He shrewd enough to have
learnt that when a man knows more than you
do Of anything you usually give him the credit
for knowing all you know to begin with, and
you assume that he must be wonder to know
that and so much more that you do not know
have strong suspicion that Borrow first
began to learn his gypsy patter when he was
mere child urc chn at Dereham. His father. who
certainly a very noble and high minded
man. with vein of melancholy in him. used to
complain In those days about his ugly duck of a
son as n mischievous and rather unaccountable
boy. The gypsies swarmed hereabouts in those
days. and there were portions of common
land that still remained uncultivated The
Green Lane In this parish. scarcely mile from
Dereham Church. was a famous place of resort
for them in the memory of men still living and
in the Green Lane the Romanys used to hold a
kind of fair and assemble in large encampments
Even during the last twenty-five years
they were frequently to be seen there and I
have myself come upon them, but seldom was
there more than single family. solitary tent
an old horse feeding and few dirty children,
looking as If they would like to beg but dread
Ing to try it on. These were but the ghosts of
the old lawless days, and these have passed
away
1t is less easy to see how Borrow learnt
Welsh. l suspect his knowledge of it not
very profound. But to say of Welsh that il is
'the most difficult language but one of modern
Europe" is ridiculous. The pronunciation is the
only difficulty about it. and that Is alb
surdly exaggerated by the average Welshman,
whose patriotic boast is that but Celt
can pronounce Llangollen. which is about as
true as that only German say Itch"
There can be no doubt however. that Borrow
had remarkable gift of acquiring a certain
command of odd languages-whether he was
master of any is another question His method
of setting to work was not so peculiar as might
appear at first sight. He attacked new lam
guage by translating some Of its songs or bal
lads into verse. Other men have pursued the
Qnd dtHfn do oerntr Il,,ft tb@1
fact in Borrows translations is that they are
badly done. He never showed the least aptitude
Tor dor verse composition His ballads and songs
are the wretchedest doggerel. Give the man
credit for knowing something about thirty Ian
guages as he pretended to know when he
printed his Targum'' in 1885. vet no one can
turn over the pages of the book without thinking
OF OF Dr.: Johnson's saying about dog standing on
his hind legs-"He does not do il we'll but the
wonder is he does it at ALL
And yet, when all is said that needs saying
ana all that had better not be said, THE Rom
any Rye. and much else that Borrow has left
behind him. will continue to exercise an ir-
res1stlbie fascination over some minds and over
most minds OF any intellectual compass in a GER
tam stage or their development. The personages
in these inimitabe books are not merely snap
shots; they are living pictures; and than
that, the people moving about among fut-
tering leaves and flickering sunlight and waves
OF shadow and ripping brooks. One neither
misses the colors of the landscapes the very
SOUNDS OF the voices. Moreover, the characters,
though we feel that they have never come
within the range of our experience. yet did
represented; and we know, too, that such char
acters nave passed away from earth-im-
proved off the face of it, And regret. In
spite of ourselves, that these gypsies are gone.
The rogues will never come back, A feeling of
disappointment is apt TO come over us as we
read, and ready to stop and ask aneriIy
why can't we drop In among the tents and see
an Ursula or q Pakonovna and have our fort
unes told as of yore?" And we know that it
who lived and moved in different age from
ours. as different the age of Hector and
Acniiies when warriors fought in their chariots
round the walls of Troy, and the long haired
Achaians hurled their spears and stole one an
others horses in the darkness. and kings made
long speeches armed to the teeth, and ran away
with other kings wives multiplied their
own. E.
AS for George Borrow, he was much more
than a bit of A brag. He consumed by |
vanity. He hurled himself against all whom he |
thought proper to differ from with violence of |
language that yet never reaches the |
point Oh cruelty, and is never vulgar. coarse or
slangy. He hated Wordsworth and Sir Walter |
man. He could not bear the sight of a Scotch |
man. The very name of the Pope drove him |
into fury. grim and morose parsonage he |
was, with no sense of humor. and hardly any |
taste for harmless fun. Did he ever make |
joke? And yet there is a quite irresistible at |
traction about the man, and help |
feeling that there was an atmosphere of mystery |
about him. Every man, even the greatest, has |
his limitations; but Borrow seems always to |
have wanted to be, to seem what he must |
have known he was not and never could |
be.
had more such volumes this about Romdny |
Rye. For the rest, he not all lovely and |
Why should we expect that of our |
great artists? Almost all Of them had some |
weak spot, and some of them exactly in places |
where should least have expected to find |
them Beethoven deaf post Was |
Raphael angelic? Was Goethe childlike and |
bland? Poor Borrow! Poor Borrow! There Is |
mystery about his life. 1 have said. That |
life not happy life, not a gay one.
OF anything like animal passion there is not a |
trace in all his many volumes. Not hint that
he ever kissed woman or ever took a little |
child upon his knee. He was beardless: his |
voice not the voice of man. His outbursts |
Of wrath never translated themselves into un-
controa bic acts of violence; they showed them |
selves in all the rancorouS hatred that could |
be put into words-the fire smouldered in that |
sad heart Of his. Those big bones and huge |
muscles and the strong brain were never to be
reproduced in offspring TO be proud of. How
If he the Narses of Literature-one who
could be only what he was, though we are al
ways inclined to lament that he was not some
thing more?
BOOKS OF THE WEEK.