but little of the air_
_Of swords by Cornets worn on p'rade_,
_To battle thee I vow to bear_.

_Thou'st decked old chiefs of Cornwall's land_,
_To face the fiend with thee they dared_;
_Thou prov'dst a Tirfing in their hand_
_Which victory gave whene'er_ '_twas bared_.

_Though Cornwall's moors_ '_twas ne'er my lot_
_To view_, _in Eastern Anglia born_,
_Yet I her son's rude strength have got_,
_And feel of death their fearless scorn_.

_And when the foe we have in ken_,
_And with my troop I seek the fray_,
_Thou'lt find the youth who wields thee then_
_Will ne'er the part of Horace play_.

_Meanwhile above my bed's head hang_,
_May no vile rust thy sides bestain_;
_And soon_, _full soon_, _the war-trump's clang_
_Call me and thee to glory's plain_.

These stanzas are interesting in a way which compels one to welcome them,
despite the poverty of the verse. The little poem is a fragment of
autobiographical _juvenilia_, and moreover it is an original composition,
and not a translation, as is the greater part of Borrow's poetical work.

Up to the present date no Complete Collected Edition of Borrow's Works
has been published, either in this country or in America. There is,
however, good reason for hoping that this omission will soon be remedied,
for such an edition is now in contemplation, to be produced under the
agreeable editorship of Mr. Clement Shorter.

It is, I presume, hardly necessary to note that every Book, Pamphlet, and
Magazine dealt with in the following pages has been described _de visu_.

T. J. W.

CONTENTS

PART I.--EDITIONES PRINCIPES PAGE

_PREFACE_ ix

CELEBRATED TRIALS, 1825 3

FAUSTUS, 1825 4

ROMANTIC BALLADS, 1826:

_First issue_ 11

_Second issue_ 44

_Third issue_ 47

TARGUM, 1835 47

THE TALISMAN, 1835 58

THE GOSPE