Richard Francis Burton

Name: The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam — Preface
Author: Richard Francis Burton

Summary

“The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam — Preface”, published in 1898, is a work by Richard Francis Burton. It explores elements such as Gypsies, Damascus and Gypsy.

Quotes from The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam… (Richard Francis Burton)

Richard Francis Burton, The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam… (1898)

“ Richard Burton is the only man (not a Gypsy) with that peculiarity, and he shares with them the same horror of a corpse, death‐bed scenes, and graveyards, though caring little for his own life.’ When to this remarkable fact be added the scarcely less interesting detail that ‘Burton’ is one of the half‐dozen distinctively Romany names, it is evident that the suspicion of Sir Richard Burton having a drop of Gypsy blood in his descent—crossed and commingled though it be with an English, Scottish, French, and Irish strain is not altogether unreasonable. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Francis Burton, The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam… (1898)

“ Whether there may not be also a tinge of Arab, or perhaps of Gypsy blood in Burton’s race, is a point which is perhaps open to question. For the latter suspicion an excuse may be found in the incurable restlessness which has beset him since his infancy, a restlessness which has effectually prevented him from ever settling long in any one place, and in the singular idiosyncrasy which his friends have often remarked—the peculiarity of his eyes. ‘When it (the eye) looks at you,’ said one who knows him well, ‘it looks through you, and then, glazing over, seems to see something behind you. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Francis Burton, The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam… (1898)

“ He hoped, for instance, to make fuller inquiries concerning the Gypsies in France, Germany, and other countries of Europe, and especially he intended to write a chapter on the Gypsies in England on his return home. Even as it stands, however, The Gypsy is a valuable addition to ethnology; for apart from Burton’s rare knowledge of strange peoples and tongues, his connexion with the Gypsies lends to the subject a unique interest. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Francis Burton, The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam… (1898)

“ That so many of Burton’s MSS. were unpublished at the time of his death arose from his habit of working at several books at a time. In his bedroom, which also served as his study, at Trieste were some ten or twelve rough deal tables, and on each table were piled the materials and notes of a different book in a more or less advanced stage of completion. When he was tired of one, or when he came to a standstill for lack of material, he would leave it for a time and work at another. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Francis Burton, The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam… (1898)

“ From these superstitions and cruelties the enlightened and highly favoured Jews in England naturally shrink with abhorrence and repudiation; but it does not therefore follow they have no existence among their less fortunate Eastern brethren.
The Gypsy has a far less eventful history, though the materials for its making were collected during a period of over thirty years, and were gathered for the most part by personal research, in Asia mainly, and also in Africa, South America, and Europe. Burton’s interest in the Gypsies was lifelong ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Francis Burton, The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam… (1898)

“ As it is well known, he left his writings, published and unpublished, to his widow, Lady Burton, absolutely, to do with as she thought best. Lady Burton suppressed what she deemed advisable; the rest she brought with her to England. She published her Life of Sir Richard Burton, a new edition of his Arabian Nights, also Catullus and Il Pentamerone; and was arranging for the publication of others when she died (March, 1896) . ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Francis Burton, The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam… (1898)

“ These arguments had weight with Burton, who was not as a rule influenced by anything but his own will, and for once he deemed discretion the better quality, and returned with his MS. to Trieste. There were other considerations too. His wife had just brought out her Inner Life of Syria, which was partly devoted to a defence of his action at Damascus in the matter of the Jews. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Francis Burton, The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam… (1898)

“ In conclusion, I will only add that it has been my endeavour to give a full and accurate presentment of these hitherto unpublished MSS. There are more to follow; but these form a good sample of the work of the famous Oriental traveller in fields which he made peculiarly his own. They are eminently characteristic of the man. ”

Richard Francis Burton

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Quotes from The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam… (Richard Francis Burton)

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