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Borrow's was an age of gentility and refinement, and he outraged it, first by glorifying vagabondage, secondly by decrying and sneering at gentility. "Qui n' a pas l'esprit de son age, De son age a tout le malheur." And Borrow proved Voltaire's words.
It is true that his books have in them many rude or simple characters of Gypsies, jockeys, and others, living chiefly by their hands, and it is part of the conscious and unconscious object of the books to exalt them. But these people in Borrow's hands seldom or never give the impression of coarse solid bodies well endowed with the principal appetites.
Simpkinson which I forwarded ten days ago? I have not seen her since your abrupt departure from her house." It is rather regrettable that the one side of Borrow's character has to be so emphasised. He could be just and gracious, even to the point of sternly rebuking one who represented his own religious convictions and supporting a dissenter.
This he offered to do in such terms that Borrow's hint at the possible danger of accepting it falls flat.
But nobody else knows anything like as much about the truth, and a peddling biographer's mouldy fragment of plain fact may be far more dangerous than the manly lying of one who was in possession of all the facts. In most cases the fact to use an equivocal term is dead and blown away in dust while Borrow's impression is as green as grass.
When questioned by the Vice-Consul as to his authority for searching Borrow's house, the Alcalde produced a paper purporting to be the deposition of an old woman to whom Borrow was alleged to have sold a Testament some ten days previously. The document Borrow pronounced a forgery and the statement untrue.
He did not see himself as he was, or he would have seen both Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in one, now riding a black Andalusian stallion, now driving an ass before him. Only a power as great as Borrow's own could show how this wild Spain was built up. For it was not done by this and that, but by a great man and a noble country in a state of accord continually vibrating.
She has described how sometimes Borrow would sing one of his Romany songs, "shake his fist at me and look quite wild. Then he would ask: 'Aren't you afraid of me? 'No, not at all, I would say. Miss Harvey has also given us many glimpses into Borrow's character. Finally his plate was full to overflowing, perceiving which he became very angry, and it was some time before he could be appeased.
It was rightly considered as ill-fitting a translation of the words of Christ. Simplicity of diction was to be preserved at all costs, whatever might be the rule with secular books. Borrow's mind continued to dwell upon the project of penetrating into China and distributing the Scriptures himself.
In 1857 Borrow came to see him and had the loan of the "Rubaiyat" in manuscript, and Fitzgerald showed his readiness to see more of the "Great Man." In 1859 he sent Borrow a copy of "Omar." He found Borrow's "masterful manners and irritable temper uncongenial," but succeeded, unlike many other friends, in having no quarrel with him.
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