esop

Updated: June 23, 2025

I felt that I was not qualified to be a soldier, at least a private one; far better be a drudge to the most ferocious of publishers, editing Newgate lives, and writing in eighteenpenny reviews—better to translate the Haik Esop, under the superintendence of ten Armenians, than be a private soldier in the English service; I did not decide rashly—I knew something of soldiering. What should I do?

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro: The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest

‘Who is he?’ said the man. ‘Esop?’ ‘No, I know what that is, Esop’s cant for a hunchback; but t’other?’ ‘You should know,’ said I. ‘Never saw the man in all my life.’ ‘Yes, you have,’ said I, ‘and felt him too; don’t you remember the individual from whom you took the pocket-book?’

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro: The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest

But all of a sudden I remembered that the Armenian appeared to have altered his intentions towards me: he appeared no longer desirous that I should render the Haik Esop into English for the benefit of the stock- jobbers on Exchange, but rather that I should acquire the rudiments of doing business in the Armenian fashion, and accumulate a fortune, which would enable me to make a figure upon 'Change with the best of the stock- jobbers.

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest

But all of a sudden I remembered that the Armenian appeared to have altered his intentions towards me: he appeared no longer desirous that I should render the Haik Esop into English for the benefit of the stock-jobbers on Exchange, but rather that I should acquire the rudiments of doing business in the Armenian fashion, and accumulate a fortune, which would enable me to make a figure upon ’Change with the best of the stock-jobbers. ‘Well,’ thought I, withdrawing my hand from my pocket, whither it had again mechanically dived, ‘after all, what would the world, what would this city, be without commerce?

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro: The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest

But all of a sudden I remembered that the Armenian appeared to have altered his intentions towards me: he appeared no longer desirous that I should render the Haik Esop into English for the benefit of the stock- jobbers on Exchange, but rather that I should acquire the rudiments of doing business in the Armenian fashion, and accumulate a fortune, which would enable me to make a figure upon 'Change with the best of the stock- jobbers.

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest

"Why, to a first-rate bonnet, as I think you would prove, I could afford to give from forty to fifty shillings a week." "Is it possible?" said I. "Good wages, a'n't they?" said the man. "First rate," said I; "bonneting is more profitable than reviewing." "Anan?" said the man. "Or translating; I don't think the Armenian would have paid me at that rate for translating his Esop."

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest

I reflected, for I made a virtue of necessity, that, after all, such an employment would be an honest and honourable one; honest, inasmuch as by engaging in it I should do harm to nobody; honourable, inasmuch as it was a literary task, which not every one was capable of executing. it was not every one of the booksellers' writers of London who was competent to translate the Haik Esop.

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest

But for that, he might at the present moment have been in London, increasing his fortune by his usual methods, and I might be commencing under his auspices the translation of the Haik Esop, with the promise, no doubt, of a considerable remuneration for my trouble; or I might be taking a seat opposite the Moldavian clerk, and imbibing the first rudiments of doing business after the Armenian fashion, with the comfortable hope of realising, in a short time, a fortune of three or four hundred thousand pounds; but the Armenian was now gone, and farewell to the fine hopes I had founded upon him the day before.

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest

'Who is he? said the man. 'Esop? 'No, I know what that is, Esop's cant for a hunchback; but t'other? 'You should know, said I. 'Never saw the man in all my life. 'Yes, you have, said I, 'and felt him too; don't you remember the individual from whom you took the pocket-book?

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest

'Why, to a first-rate bonnet, as I think you would prove, I could afford to give from forty to fifty shillings a week. 'Is it possible? said I. 'Good wages, ain't they? said the man. 'First-rate, said I; 'bonneting is more profitable than reviewing. 'Anan? said the man. 'Or translating; I don't think the Armenian would have paid me at that rate for translating his Esop.

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest