The Bible in Spain. Volume 1 of 2

38

May 26, 1834.

39

The ballad of Svend Vonved, translated from the original Danish, was included by Borrow in his collection of Romantic Ballads, a thin demy 8vo volume of 187 pages – now very rare – published by John Taylor in 1826. The lines there read as follows: —

“A wild swine sat on his shoulders broad,Upon his bosom a black bear snor’d.”

The original ballad may be found in the Kjæmpe Viser, and was translated into German by Grimm, who expressed the greatest admiration for the poem. Svend in Danish means “swain” or “youth,” and it is characteristic of Borrow’s mystification of proper names that he should, by a quasi-translation and archaic spelling, give the title of the Danish ballad the appearance of an actual English surname.

40

The Spanish Seo = a cathedral.

41

Serra is the Portuguese form of the Spanish Sierra = a saw.

42

The barbarous seaman’s English transliteration of Setubal, the town of Tubal, a word which perpetuates one of the most ancient legends of Spanish antiquity (see Genesis x. 2, and Burke’s History of Spain, chap. i.).

43

1554–1578 (see note on p. 8).

44

“The Fashion or ordering of the Chapel of the most illustrious and Christian prince, Henry VI. King of England and France, and lord of Ireland, described for the most serene prince, Alfonso the illustrious King of Portugal [Alfonso V., ‘The African’] by his humble servant William Sav., Dean of the aforesaid chapel.” This was William Saye of New College, Oxford, who was Proctor of the University in 1441, and afterwards D.D. and Dean of the Cathedral of St. Paul, and of the Chapel of Henry VI. (See Gutch, Appendix to Woods Fasti Oxonienses, p. 48).

45

Portuguese oração or oraçam– a prayer.

46

This, the correct Portuguese form, is that generally used in English, though the Spanish auto-de-fé is often referred to.

47

Alecrim is usually supposed to be a word of Arab origin. The Spanish for rosemary is, however, quite different, romero. The Goths and Vandals have, it may be noticed in passing, scarcely enriched the modern vocabulary of the Peninsula by a single word. (See the Glossary.)

48

The modern form of “Hymne Marseillaise” is less correct. Hymns of the kind are masculine in French; those that are sung in churches only are feminine!

49

Spanish hidalgo.

50

“Surrender, scoundrel, surrender!”

51

The Portuguese form.

52

The missing word would seem to be “Catholics.” Borrow was fond of such, apparently meaningless, mystery.

53

Toreno (1786–1843), a statesman and historian, thrice banished on account of his liberal opinions, died in exile in Paris. His friend Martinez de la Rosa (1789–1862), who experienced a somewhat similar fate, was the author of some dramas and a satire entitled El Cementerio de Monco. See Kennedy, Modern Poets and Poetry of Spain, p. 169. Toreno’s historical works have been translated into French.

54

When the Jews were banished from Spain by the Catholic sovereign in 1492, they were received into Portugal by the more liberal John II., on payment of a tax or duty of eight cruzados. Armourers and smiths paid four cruzados only. Before the marriage of his cousin, King Emmanuel, with the widowed Princess Isabella in 1497, the Jews were subject to renewed persecution in Portugal by arrangement between Isabella the Catholic and her son-in-law (see Burke’s History of Spain, chaps, xlvi., xlix.).

55

See Appendix to this volume.

56

A seaport town in North Africa, better known by the name of Mogadore (see chap. lii.).

57

The name that may not be spoken; that is, Jehovah or Yahweh (see Glossary, sub verb.).

58

Strange anecdotes, however, are told, tending to prove that Jews of the ancient race are yet to be found in Portugal: it is said that they have been discovered under circumstances the most extraordinary. I am the more inclined to believe in their existence from certain strange incidents connected with a certain race, which occurred within the sphere of my own knowledge, and which will be related further on. – Note by Borrow.

59

Portuguese real = one-twentieth of an English penny.

60

The lines, which Borrow, quoting from memory, has not given quite accurately, occur in the ballad of “The Cout of Keilder.” They are, according to the text in the edition of 1858, with “Life by Sir Walter Scott” —

“The hounds they howled and backward fled,As struck by Fairy charm” (stan. 16).

John Leyden, M.D., was born in 1775, near Hawick, and died in Java in 1811, after an adventurous and varied life. His ballad of Lord Soulis is of the same character as that so highly praised by Borrow.

61

The place of the brooks, or water-courses. Sp. arroyo = brook.

62

The first Lusitanians of whom we have any record or tradition were almost certainly Celts.

63

May you go with God; i. e. God be with you; good-bye.

64

The modern Portuguese vossem or vossé has degenerated into a mode of address to inferiors, and not having any such vocable as the Spanish Vd nor using the second person plural in ordinary address, as in French and English, the Portuguese is forced to turn every sentence, “Is the gentleman’s health good?” “Will Mr. Continho pass the mustard?” “If Mr. Borrow smokes, will he accept this cigar?” In familiar speech the second person singular is universally used.

65

Castellano afrancesado Diablo condenado. The proverb is of very general application.

66

During the Peninsular war, Badajoz was besieged by the French in 1808 and in 1809, and again in 1811, when it surrendered, March 11, to Soult. It was thrice besieged by Wellington; first on April 20, 1811; next in May and June of the same year; and thirdly, in the spring of 1812, when he captured the city by storm, on the night of April 6, after a murderous contest, and a loss, during the twenty days’ siege, of 72 officers and 963 men killed, and 306 officers and 3483 men wounded. The province of Badajoz has an area of 8687 square miles, and a population of (1884) 457,365.

67

See note on p. 11. It is uncertain where the missionary Joao Ferreira d’Almeida made this translation; probably in Ceylon. The place and date of his death are equally uncertain. His translation, revised by more than one Dutch scholar, was finally printed in 1712 at Amsterdam, at the cost of the Dutch East India Company. When the British and Foreign Bible Society first undertook the publication of the Bible in Portuguese in the years 1809–1810, this version of Almeida was selected; but the objections made to its accuracy were so numerous that in 1818, and again in 1821, a reprint of Pereira’s translation was adopted in its place.

68

This was indeed treason, when the “1811’s” were in their prime, and the “1834’s” were already maturing. But ordinary port wine, as made up for the English market, was rather filthy, and as remade up by the grocer or small wine merchant in England, resembled blacking rather than the juice of the grape.

69

This is certainly not true now. Perhaps, if Borrow’s explanation is the true one, in that we have not of late “roughly handled” our jealous neighbours, Sebastopol and Pekin and excuses for being in Egypt have dulled the friendly feelings generated by Vitoria and Waterloo!

70

“Charity, Sir Cavalier, for the love of God, bestow an alms upon me, that I may purchase a mouthful of red wine.”

71

“St. James and close Spain!” The battle-cry of Castilian chivalry for a thousand years.

72

Every one who has gone from Portugal into Spain must understand and sympathize with Borrow’s feelings. I have even felt something of the same expansion in South America, when the Brazilian gave place to the Argentine. I have no doubt that the language has a great deal to say to it.

73

In The Zincali, part ii. chap. i., the date is given as January 6, 1836.

74

They are as old as the ancient Celtiberian times, and are mentioned as σάγοι in a treaty, over 150 years b. c., by Appian, in his Iberica.

75

I suppose Portugal, Spain, and England.

76

See The Zincali, part ii. chap. i.

77

For the meaning of this and other gypsy words, see the Glossary.

78

See The Zincali, part i. chap. vii., part ii. chap. vi., Romano Lavo-Lil, p. 244.

79

See The Zincali, part ii. chap. vi.

80

The Zincali, part ii. chap. i.

81

“I do not understand.”

82

Spirit of the old man.

83

Deceived. An English termination added to a Spanish termination of a Romany word, jonjabar, q. v. in Glossary.

84

El crallis ha nicobado la liri de los Calés. (See The Zincali part ii. chap. i.)

85

“Doing business, doing business; he has much business to do.”

86

“We have the horse.”

87

See The Zincali, part ii. chap. vi.

88

“Don’t trouble yourself,” “Don’t be afraid.” See vol. ii. p. 2. Cuidao is Andalusian and Gitano for cuidado.

89

See The Zincali, part ii. chap. vi.

90

Mother of the gypsies.

91

See The Zincali, part ii. chap. vii.

92

See The Zincali, part ii. chap. vi. = cauring in English Romany. Romano Lavo-Lil, p. 245.

93

“Say nothing to him, my lad; he is a hog of an alguazil.”

94

“At your service.”

95

“Who goes there?” Fr. Qui vive? The proper answer to the challenge by a Spanish sentry is España, “Spain,” or Piasano, “a civilian.”

96

“Shut up;” “Hold your tongue.”

97

Stealing a donkey.

98

See The Zincali, part i. ch. v.

99

See Introduction.

100

El Serrador, a Carlist partisan, who about this period was much talked of in Spain. Note by Borrow (see the Glossary, s. v.).

101

He is a man indeed; lit. very much a man.

102

On foot.

103

Estremadura was for long years a vast winter pasturage whither the flocks from the Castiles were driven each successive autumn, to return to their own cooler mountains on the return of summer. The flocks were divided into cabañas of about 10,000 sheep, in charge of fifty shepherds and fifty of their immense dogs.

104

“All are taken.”

105

No doubt Oropesa, where the Duke of Frias has an ancient and somewhat dilapidated palace.

106

Las Batuecas is a valley in the south-west corner of the modern province of Salamanca, four leagues from the city of that name, eight leagues from Ciudad Rodrigo, and about six leagues from Bejar. The principal town or village in the remote valley itself was Alberca. The strange inhabitants of the valley of Batuecas are entirely legendary, as is the story of their discovery by a page of the Duke of Alva in the reign of Philip II. See Verdadera relacion de las Batuecas, by Manuel de Gonzalez (Madrid, 1693), Ponz, Viaje vii. 201; Feijoo, Teatro Critico, iv. 241, where the valley is compared with the equally mythical island of Atlantis.

107

More commonly spelt ticking.

108

See Lavengro, chap. 1.

109

The conventional diminutive of Pepa, which is itself the diminutive of Josefa, as is Pepe of Josefe.

110

This is, of course, a fancy name. Borrow has chosen that of a Spanish Jew, one of the great Rabbinical commentators. See The Zincali, part i. chap. ii.

111

This concession to local prejudice is delightful. But it must be remembered that barraganeria or recognized concubinage was approved by Church and State in Spain for many hundred years. See Burke’s History of Spain, vol. i., Appendix ii.

112

Ferdinand the Catholic and his wife Isabella. Their systematic persecution and banishment of the Jews – the edict was dated March 30, 1492 – are well known.

113

The street of the Bramble.

114

See the Introduction, and Duncan, The English in Spain, passim.

115

Juan Alvarez y Mendizabal was a more or less Christianized Jew, who began his career as a commissariat contractor to the national army on the French invasion in 1808. Born in 1790, he rendered important services to Spain, until in 1823 he was compelled, like so many of his liberal compatriots, to take refuge in England from the tyranny of Ferdinand VII. Abroad as well as at home, he displayed his great talent for finance for the benefit of Spain, and returned in 1835 as Minister of Finance in the Toreno Administration. He resigned in 1837, was again called to power in 1841, and died in 1853.

116

The honourable George Villiers was our Minister at Madrid from 1833 to March, 1838, when, having succeeded to the title of his uncle as Earl of Clarendon, he returned to England, where in course of time he became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Foreign Minister.

117

I have been so far unable to discover the name of this gentleman.

118

Mendizabal, as has been said, was a Jew by race.

119

The word “cigarette” was not yet naturalized in England. The thing itself was practically unknown; even cigar was sometimes spelt segar.

120

Ojalateros, criers of ojala; Arab. Inshallah, “if it please God,” “would to God.” Pasteleros, pastry-cooks, “wishers and dishers.”

121

See the Glossary.

122

“A gypsy matron without honour spoke to her man of blood.”

123

These are not fanciful names. Francisco Montes, who was born in 1805, was not only a celebrated matador, but the author of a work on Tauromachia; he appeared in the ring for the last time in 1850, and died in 1851. Sevilla was the name borne by many less distinguished toreadores; Francisco Sevilla, the picador, who appeared for the last time in 1838, is perhaps the man referred to. Poquito Pan, or Bit of Bread, was the Tauromachian nickname of Antonio Sanchez, one of the favourite picadores in the cuadrilla or band of Montes.

124

A gallows-show. Yet, as will be seen in the text, the gallows or furca itself is no longer used.

125

Peace, pity, and tranquillity.

126

Manolo is a somewhat difficult word to translate; it is applied to the flash or fancy man and his manola in Madrid only, a class fond of pleasure, of fine clothes, of bull-fights, and of sunshine, with a code of honour of their own; men and women rather picturesque than exemplary, and eminently racy of the soil.

127

In 1808.

128

At the last attack on Warsaw, when the loss of the Russians amounted to upwards of twenty thousand men, the soldiery mounted the breach, repeating, in measured chant, one of their popular songs, “Come, let us cut the cabbage,” etc. – [Note by Borrow.] See the Glossary, s. v. Mujik.

129

“Another glass; come on, little Englishman, another glass.”

130

See note on chap. x. p. 138.

131

Montero in Spanish means “a hunter;” and a montero cap, which every reader of Sterne is familiar with at least by name, is a cap, generally of leather, such as was used by hunters in the Peninsula.

132

Twelve ounces of bread, small pound, as given in the prison. [Note by Borrow.]

133

According to the late Marquis de Santa Coloma, as reported by Mr. Wentworth Webster (Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, vol. i. p. 151), “in Madrid Borrow used to ride a fine black Andalusian horse (v. p. 261), with a Russian skin for a saddle, and without stirrups.” This was, however, during his second visit, and Don Jorge may have changed his practice. That he could ride without stirrups, or saddle either, is certain (p. 308, and Lavengro, chap. xiii.).

134

General Cordova had been entrusted from the beginning of the war with high command in the queen’s armies. He succeeded Valdez as commander-in-chief immediately after the death of Zumalacarregui, at the end of June, 1835, to the end of August, 1836, when he was succeeded by Espartero. See Duncan, The English in Spain, pp. 58, 72.

135

See Introduction, and Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 fevrier, 1851.

136

May, 1836.

137

Don Francisco Xavier de Isturitz was born in 1790, and after taking part in the various liberal governments from 1808 to 1823, was forced to fly to England on the absolutist counter-revolution in that year. He returned to Spain on the amnesty in 1834, and on the fall of his old friend Mendizabal in 1836, he became minister for foreign affairs, and lived to negotiate the “Spanish marriages,” and to occupy many high political and diplomatic posts under Isabella II.

138

See Introduction, p. xxiii.

139

“He will do what you want for you: will gratify your fancy.”

140

“Stuff and nonsense.”

141

Charles III. of Spain (1759–1788). See The Zincali, part i. chap. xii.

142

“How goes it?”

143

Whether this episode of Benedict Mol has any foundation in fact I cannot say. I was on the point of starting for Compostella, where I might have investigated the incident detailed, vol. ii. p. 183, and I had actually paid for my ticket to Irun (May 2, 1895), when I was summoned to a more distant shrine on the slopes of the Southern Pacific.

144

A cuarto, a trifle over an English farthing, being almost exactly 4/34 of 2½d.

145

“In short.”

146

Borrow writes indifferently Saint James, St. Jago, and Santiago. The last is the correct Spanish form, while the English usually speak of the place as Compostella. It has been thought best to retain the form used by the author in each case.

147

Witch. Ger. Hexe. – [Note by Borrow.]

148

“Thanks be to God!”

149

See note on p. 340.

150

Señor Menendez Pelayo remarks that the government was too busy with Carlists in the country and revolutionaries in the city to care very much about Borrow or the Bible, and they therefore allowed him for the moment to do pretty much as he pleased (Heterodoxos Españoles, tom. iii. p. 662).

151

Or San Ildefonso.

152

This was August 14, 1836.

153

The General Post-office.

154

Gypsy fellows.

155

A compound of the modern Greek πέταλον, and the Sanscrit kara, the literal meaning being Lord of the horse-shoe (i.e. maker); it is one of the private cognominations of “The Smiths,” an English gypsy clan. – [Note by Borrow.] See The Zincali, vol. i. p. 31; Romano Lavo-Lil, p. 226, and the Glossary.

156

Of these lines the following translation, in the style of the old English ballad, will, perhaps, not be unacceptable: —

“What down the hill comes hurrying there? —With a hey, with a ho, a sword and a gun!Quesada’s bones, which a hound doth bear.Hurrah, brave brothers! – the work is done.”

– [Note by Borrow.]

157

“One night I was with thee.”

158

Don Rafael, son of D. Eugenio Antonio del Riego y Nuñez, whose poems were published in 1844 by D. Miguel del Riego, Canon of Oviedo, was born at Oviedo on the 24th October, 1785. On the 1st January, 1820, he began the revolt against Ferdinand VII. (see Introduction, p. xvi.), at Las Cabezas de San Juan. He was finally hanged at Madrid on the 7th November, 1823. El Himno de Riego, the Spanish Marseillaise, was composed by Huerta in 1820, the words being written by Evariste San-Miguel.

159

“Au revoir, Sir George!”

160

1836.

161

Dom José Agostinho Freire was minister of war to Dom Pedro, and subsequently minister of the interior under the Duke of Terceira. In 1836 he was murdered at Lisbon by the National Guard, while driving in his carriage.

162

The Carlist leader. See Duncan, The English in Spain, p. 88.

163

Latin, Bætis = the river afterwards named by the Arabs Wady al Kebir, the Guadalquivir.

164

The vane, porque gira. The modern tower is about 275 feet high. See Girault de Prangey, Essai sur l’Architecture des Maures et Arabes (1841), pp. 103–112.

165

The largest and perhaps the grandest of the mediæval cathedrals, not only of Spain, but of Europe. It was commenced in 1403, and completed about 1520.

166

1350–1369.

167

Triana, for long the Whitefriars or Alsatia of Seville, the resort of thieves, gypsies, and mala gente of every description. See Zincali, pt. ii. chap. ii. The Arabic Tarayana is said to perpetuate the name of the Emperor Trajan, who was certainly born in the neighbourhood, and who would not be proud of his supposed conciudadanos! The modern suburb was almost entirely destroyed by the overflowing of the Guadalquivir in 1876. There is now (1895) a permanent bridge across the river.

168

This is, I think, a good English word. The Spanish form would be desesperados.

169

King of the gypsies in Triana.

170

Isidore Justin Severin, Baron Taylor, was born at Brussels in 1789. His father was an Englishman, and his mother half Irish, half Flemish. Isidore was naturalized as a Frenchman, and after serious studies and artistic travels throughout Europe, he returned to France on the Restoration with a commission in the Royal Guard. His Bertram, written in collaboration with Charles Nodier, had a great success on the Paris stage in 1821. In 1823 he accompanied the French army to Spain, and on his return was made Commissaire Royal du Théâtre Français, in which capacity he authorized the production of Hernani and the Mariage de Figaro. In 1833 he arranged for the transport of the two obelisks from Luxor to Paris, and in 1835 he was commissioned by Louis Philippe with an artistic mission to Spain to purchase pictures for the Louvre, and on his return, having transferred the Standish collection of paintings from London to Paris, he was named Inspecteur-Général des beaux arts in 1838. He died in 1879.