Footnotes:

Jade.

‘Sore the chavies ’dre their ten Are chories and lubbenies—tatchipen.’

The song may be translated:

There’s a wizard and witch of evil fame, And Petulengro it is their name; Within their tent each lass and youth Is a wanton or thief—I tell you truth.

Said the gipsy girl to her mother dear, ‘O mother dear, a sad load I bear.’ ‘And who gave thee that load to bear, My gypsy girl, my own daughter dear?’ ‘O mother dear, ’twas a lord so proud, A lord so rich of gentile blood, That on a mettled stallion rode— ’Twas he gave me this heavy load.’ ‘Thou harlot young, thou harlot vile, Begone! my tent no more defile; Had gypsy seed within thee sprung, No angry word had left my tongue, But thou art a harlot base and lewd, To stain thyself with gentile blood!’

‘O, how this mother swells up toward my heart! Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow, Thy elements below!’

God.

Good.

which looks like a translation of some English ditty.

‘And by this time to-morrow you’ll see Your Larry will be dead as mutton. All for what? ’Caze his courage was good!’

‘La furent li gentil Baron,’ etc.

And he certainly could not have applied the word better than to the strong Norman thief, aimed cap-à-pie, without one particle of ruth or generosity; for a person to be a pink of gentility, that is heathenism, should have no such feelings; and, indeed, the admirers of gentility seldom or never associate any such feelings with it. It was from the Norman, the worst of all robbers and miscreants, who built strong castles, garrisoned them with devils, and tore out poor wretches’ eyes, as the Saxon Chronicle says, that the English got their detestable word genteel. What could ever have made the English such admirers of gentility, it would be difficult to say; for, during three hundred years, they suffered enough by it. Their genteel Norman landlords were their scourgers, their torturers, the plunderers of their homes, the dishonourers of their wives, and the deflowerers of their daughters. Perhaps, after all, fear is at the root of the English veneration for gentility. (G.B.)