The Life of George Borrow [61]
devoted to philological pursuits." Three months later he published another collection entitled The Talisman, From the Russian of Alexander Pushkin. With Other Pieces. {143a} There were seven poems in all, two after Pushkin, one from the Malo-Russian, one from Mickiewicz, and three "ancient Russian Songs." Again the printers were Schultz & Beneze. Each of these editions appears to have been limited to one hundred copies. {143b}
Writing in the Athenaeum, {143c} J. P. H[asfeldt] says:- "The work is a pearl in literature, and, like pearls, derives value from its scarcity, for the whole edition was limited to about a hundred copies." W. B. Donne admired the translations immensely, considering "the language and rhythm as vastly superior to Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome." {143d}
Whilst the last two volumes of the Manchu New Testament were waiting for paper (probably for end-papers), Borrow determined to pay a hurried visit to Moscow, "by far the most remarkable city it has ever been my fortune to see." One of his principal objects in visiting the ancient capital of Russia was to see the gypsies, who flourished there as they flourished nowhere else in Europe. They numbered several thousands, and many of them inhabited large and handsome houses, drove in their carriages, and were "distinguishable from the genteel class of the Russians only . . . by superior personal advantages and mental accomplishments." {143e} For this unusual state of prosperity the women were responsible, "having from time immemorial cultivated their vocal powers to such an extent that, although in the heart of a country in which the vocal art has arrived at greater perfection than in any other part of the world, the principal Gypsy choirs in Moscow are allowed by the general voice of the public to be unrivalled and to bear away the palm from all competitors. It is a fact notorious in Russia that the celebrated Catalani was so filled with admiration for the powers of voice displayed by one of the Gypsy songsters, who, after the former had sung before a splendid audience at Moscow, stepped forward and with an astonishing burst of melody ravished every ear, that she [Catalani] tore from her own shoulders a shawl of immense value which had been presented to her by the Pope, and embracing the Gypsy, compelled her to accept it, saying that it had been originally intended for the matchless singer, which she now discovered was not herself." {144a}
These Russian gypsy singers lived luxurious lives and frequently married Russian gentry or even the nobility. It was only the successes, however, who achieved such distinction, and there were "a great number of low, vulgar, and profligate females who sing in taverns, or at the various gardens in the neighbourhood, and whose husbands and male connections subsist by horse-jobbing and such kinds of low traffic." {144b}
One fine evening Borrow hired a calash and drove out to Marina Rotze, "a kind of sylvan garden," about one and a half miles out of Moscow, where this particular class of Romanys resorted. "Upon my arriving there," he writes, "the Gypsies swarmed out of their tents and from the little tracteer or tavern, and surrounded me. Standing on the seat of the calash, I addressed them in a loud voice in the dialect of the English Gypsies, with which I have some slight acquaintance. A scream of wonder instantly arose, and welcomes and greetings were poured forth in torrents of musical Romany, amongst which, however, the most pronounced cry was: ah kak mi toute karmuma {145a}--'Oh how we love you'; for at first they supposed me to be one of their brothers, who, they said, were wandering about in Turkey, China, and other parts, and that I had come over the great pawnee, or water, to visit them." {145b}
On several other occasions during his stay at Moscow, Borrow went out to Marina Rotze, to hold converse with the gypsies. He "spoke to them upon their sinful manner of living," about Christianity and the advent of Christ, to which the gypsies listened with attention, but apparently not much profit.
Writing in the Athenaeum, {143c} J. P. H[asfeldt] says:- "The work is a pearl in literature, and, like pearls, derives value from its scarcity, for the whole edition was limited to about a hundred copies." W. B. Donne admired the translations immensely, considering "the language and rhythm as vastly superior to Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome." {143d}
Whilst the last two volumes of the Manchu New Testament were waiting for paper (probably for end-papers), Borrow determined to pay a hurried visit to Moscow, "by far the most remarkable city it has ever been my fortune to see." One of his principal objects in visiting the ancient capital of Russia was to see the gypsies, who flourished there as they flourished nowhere else in Europe. They numbered several thousands, and many of them inhabited large and handsome houses, drove in their carriages, and were "distinguishable from the genteel class of the Russians only . . . by superior personal advantages and mental accomplishments." {143e} For this unusual state of prosperity the women were responsible, "having from time immemorial cultivated their vocal powers to such an extent that, although in the heart of a country in which the vocal art has arrived at greater perfection than in any other part of the world, the principal Gypsy choirs in Moscow are allowed by the general voice of the public to be unrivalled and to bear away the palm from all competitors. It is a fact notorious in Russia that the celebrated Catalani was so filled with admiration for the powers of voice displayed by one of the Gypsy songsters, who, after the former had sung before a splendid audience at Moscow, stepped forward and with an astonishing burst of melody ravished every ear, that she [Catalani] tore from her own shoulders a shawl of immense value which had been presented to her by the Pope, and embracing the Gypsy, compelled her to accept it, saying that it had been originally intended for the matchless singer, which she now discovered was not herself." {144a}
These Russian gypsy singers lived luxurious lives and frequently married Russian gentry or even the nobility. It was only the successes, however, who achieved such distinction, and there were "a great number of low, vulgar, and profligate females who sing in taverns, or at the various gardens in the neighbourhood, and whose husbands and male connections subsist by horse-jobbing and such kinds of low traffic." {144b}
One fine evening Borrow hired a calash and drove out to Marina Rotze, "a kind of sylvan garden," about one and a half miles out of Moscow, where this particular class of Romanys resorted. "Upon my arriving there," he writes, "the Gypsies swarmed out of their tents and from the little tracteer or tavern, and surrounded me. Standing on the seat of the calash, I addressed them in a loud voice in the dialect of the English Gypsies, with which I have some slight acquaintance. A scream of wonder instantly arose, and welcomes and greetings were poured forth in torrents of musical Romany, amongst which, however, the most pronounced cry was: ah kak mi toute karmuma {145a}--'Oh how we love you'; for at first they supposed me to be one of their brothers, who, they said, were wandering about in Turkey, China, and other parts, and that I had come over the great pawnee, or water, to visit them." {145b}
On several other occasions during his stay at Moscow, Borrow went out to Marina Rotze, to hold converse with the gypsies. He "spoke to them upon their sinful manner of living," about Christianity and the advent of Christ, to which the gypsies listened with attention, but apparently not much profit.