Epigrams_ bears instructive evidence of the immense amount of care and
labour expended by Borrow upon his metrical compositions. Reduced
facsimiles of two of the pages of this Manuscript are given herewith. It
will be observed that a full page and a half are occupied by the
thirteenth _Epigram_, at which Borrow made no fewer than seven attempts
before he succeeded in producing a version which satisfied him. The
completed _Epigram_ is as follows:-- _So much like a friend with your
foe ever deal_, _That you never need dread the least scratch from his
steel_; _But ne'er with your friend deal so much like a foe_, _That you
ever must dread from his faulchion a blow_. The original Manuscript of
_Little Engel_, written in 1829, is in the library of Mr. Edmund Gosse.
The Manuscript of 1854, from which the ballad was printed, is in my own
library. There is a copy of _Little Engel_, _A Ballad_, &c., in the
Library of the British Museum. The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38. [Picture:
Title page of Little Engel] (42) [ALF THE FREEBOOTER: 1913] Alf the
Freebooter / Little Danneved and / Swayne Trost / and Other Ballads / By
/ George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulati
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