CHAPTER III

--PRESENTING THE TRUTH

"Life, a Drama," was to have been published in 1849, and proof sheets with this name and date on the title page were lately in my hands: as far as page 168 the left hand page heading is "A Dramatic History," which is there crossed out and "Life, a Drama" thenceforward substituted. Borrow's corrections are worth the attention of anyone who cares for men and books.

"Lavengro" now opens with the sentence: "On an evening of July, in the year 18--, at East D---, a beautiful little town in a certain district of East Anglia, I first saw the light."

The proof shows that Borrow preferred "a certain district of East Anglia" to "The western division of Norfolk." Here the added shade of indefiniteness can hardly seem valuable to any but the author himself. In another place he prefers (