William Wright - "You are a gypsy then?" Romani Representation in Victorian Periodicals
WilliamBeWright
1823
The Official Flag of the Romani People
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By AdiJapan (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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Within the context of an ever expanding empire, those living during the Victorian era contained a natural curiosity for exploration, particularly an exploration of newly “discovered” cultures at once exotic and subversive to traditional English identity. Edward Said has long examined the treatment of foreign cultures by Western societies during this time period. It is no surprise then, that the Romani people (in all of its varying iterations generally lumped under the term "gypsy") became a popular trope for Victorian readers, a trope that could be exotic, dangerous, mysterious, and, ultimately, exploited. By the time of the development of a magazine culture in Victorian England, the gypsy as trope was firmly established in the English imagination. Throughout the magazines of the Victorian era, the gypsy regularly makes an appearance, at times accurately portrayed in regards to the group’s ethnic and cultural origins and at other times as a figure of contempt and criminality or as figures of escapism and exoticism. Additionally, through the misguided portrayals of gypsies and the Romani's lack of access to cultural hegemony, the Romani people perfectly fit the concept of the subaltern.
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The Romani People: an introduction
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The origin of the Romani people has been speculated throughout the centuries, most notably at the time of their arrival in Europe, but even before during their travels through the Middle East. Scholars, past and present, have put forth varying theories to satisfy the question of origin with varying results. What is agreed upon is that the Romani, based on their physical characteristics and linguistic features, have roots in the Indian subcontinent, perhaps beginning their migration as early as the 4th Century.
Mistrust of the Romani emerged early, a fact that can be seen, as Lou Charnon-Duetsch argues, through the various names received by the Romani in different countries upon their arrival in Europe: many of the names are some derivation of "Egyptian." For instance, in Spain they are "gitanos," in various Eastern Europeans nations they become something akin to "cigany," and in the English speaking world they are "gypsies." This connection to Egypt and Egyptians through something as important as an appellation speaks greatly to the deep-seated feelings of Europeans to Egyptians: |
"Cyganka," Image of a Romani woman from the late 19th Century
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Nikolai Yaroshenko [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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They were descendants of Ham, forever marked by the sins of Cain; they had denied succor to the Holy Family as it fled to Egypt and so were cursed to wander the world to atone for their refusal; they were the Egyptians of the Old Testament, who, Ezekiel prophesized, would be dispersed among the nations.@Lou Charnon-Deutsch. The Spanish Gypsy: The History of a European Obsession. University Park, PA, University of Pennsylvania Press: 2004. 5.
And, as will be shown, the English took this otherness of the Romani people to heart, alienating and forcing representations on the race of people in a plethora of ways.
The English Gypsy
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Entrance for "Gypsy" in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
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The eminent Samuel Johnson may have provided the first meaningful mention of the Romani in the English language by including them (under the name gypsies) in his A Dictionary of the English Language (definition seen left). Interestingly, his definition uses the same language that Charnon-Deutsch points to as occurring in the Biblical animosity towards Egyptians, specifically Ezekiel 30:26.
And, as David Mayall shows in his study Gypsy-Travellers in Nineteenth-Century Society, the English were quick to implement policies limiting the legal and social rights of the Romani people in England. Mayall lists legislation passed over four centuries that, in one way or another, curtailed the rights of gypsies. The first of these comes in 1530 and prevents the immigration of "Egipcions" to England. The most significant laws, "Justices Commitment Act of 1743" and the "Vagrancy Acts" of 1822 and 1824, came later. The latter of these reads as such: |
Any one pretending to tell fortunes by palmistry, or otherwise to deceive; any one wandering abroad and lodging under any tent or cart, not having any visible means of subsistence, and not giving a good account of himself, liable to penalty of three months' imprisonment.@David Mayall. Gypsy-Travellers in Nineteenth-Century Society. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 1988. 190
Comparing this to both the definition offered by Johnson and the general cultural traditions of the Romani people (tradeless, nomadic, caravan/tent-dwelling) and it becomes clear how these laws narrowly target a small subset of people.
Despite both a religious inkling of mistrust towards the Romani and a slew of discriminatory laws, the Gypsy became something of an object of obsession, both before and during the Victorian era. Gypsy characters can be found in the work of Ben Jonson (see his masque The Gypsy Metamorphosed) and even in the famous character of Heathcliff from Emily Brontë 's Wuthering Heights. However, the Victorians increased the amount of literature on Gypsies (both fiction and non-fiction) tenfold. This increase in interest can be attributed to two causes: 1) An English author named George Borrow and 2) a rise in the importance of social sciences.
George Borrow, born in 1803, came to prominence in England through his writings on Gypsy life, particularly with Lavengro and its sequel The Romany Rye. Both works detail his time living with Romani tribes in England and elsewhere in Europe. A modern biographer of Borrow, Robert R. Meyers, characterizes the author as a man of much "interest, as a linguist, in the odd language of the gypsies and of his curiosity about their customs and traditions... He liked their free mode of life, their healthy journeyings upon the windy heath, their powerfully loyal clannishness. He knew that they were often cheats, liars, and thieves; but they fascinated him no less."@Robert R. Meyers. George Borrow. London, Thwayne Publishing: 1966. 75.
At the same time, the Nineteenth Century saw a great rise in social sciences. With Darwin's On the Origin of Species and the work of James Cowels Prichard, an early ethnographer or, as is more common now, anthropologist, both appearing in the nineteenth century, the nature of the human race became a prime topic of study. George W. Stocking, Jr's study of Victorian anthropology shows that much of these studies of the social sciences were focused in a such a way as to establish a Biblical narrative, based in rational science, for the human race and that race's dispersal across the planet and differences in both appearance and culture.@George W. Stocking, Jr. Victorian Anthropology. New York: The Free Press, 1987. 49. For the Romani, this often meant a relegation to the same status as many other non-white races of Europe, races that, as alluded to earlier, were not descended from the twelve tribes of Israel and thus greatly suspect as to their moral abilities.
The combination of these two events of the Nineteenth Century, a general interest in social science and the establishment of a corpus of literature concerning gypsies, caused the appearance of gypsies in literature, fiction and otherwise, to greatly increase. Particularly in the realm of serial fiction, with each serials' constant expanding litany of characters with a new issue coming out weekly or monthly, the gypsy found a home as a trope and a reoccurring, non-white entity.
George Borrow, born in 1803, came to prominence in England through his writings on Gypsy life, particularly with Lavengro and its sequel The Romany Rye. Both works detail his time living with Romani tribes in England and elsewhere in Europe. A modern biographer of Borrow, Robert R. Meyers, characterizes the author as a man of much "interest, as a linguist, in the odd language of the gypsies and of his curiosity about their customs and traditions... He liked their free mode of life, their healthy journeyings upon the windy heath, their powerfully loyal clannishness. He knew that they were often cheats, liars, and thieves; but they fascinated him no less."@Robert R. Meyers. George Borrow. London, Thwayne Publishing: 1966. 75.
At the same time, the Nineteenth Century saw a great rise in social sciences. With Darwin's On the Origin of Species and the work of James Cowels Prichard, an early ethnographer or, as is more common now, anthropologist, both appearing in the nineteenth century, the nature of the human race became a prime topic of study. George W. Stocking, Jr's study of Victorian anthropology shows that much of these studies of the social sciences were focused in a such a way as to establish a Biblical narrative, based in rational science, for the human race and that race's dispersal across the planet and differences in both appearance and culture.@George W. Stocking, Jr. Victorian Anthropology. New York: The Free Press, 1987. 49. For the Romani, this often meant a relegation to the same status as many other non-white races of Europe, races that, as alluded to earlier, were not descended from the twelve tribes of Israel and thus greatly suspect as to their moral abilities.
The combination of these two events of the Nineteenth Century, a general interest in social science and the establishment of a corpus of literature concerning gypsies, caused the appearance of gypsies in literature, fiction and otherwise, to greatly increase. Particularly in the realm of serial fiction, with each serials' constant expanding litany of characters with a new issue coming out weekly or monthly, the gypsy found a home as a trope and a reoccurring, non-white entity.
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