Letters of Edward FitzGerald

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_My_ family consists of some eight Nieces here, whom I have seen, all of
them, from their Birth upwards--perfectly good, simple, and well-bred,
women and girls; varying in disposition but all agreed among themselves
and to do what they can in a small Sphere. They go about in the Village
here with some consolation both for Body and Mind for the Poor, and have
no desire for the Opera, nor for the Fine Folks and fine Dresses there.
There is however some melancholy in the Blood of some of them--but none
that mars any happiness but their own: and that but so slightly as one
should expect when there was no Fault, and no Remorse, to embitter it!

You will perhaps be as well entertained with this poor familiar news as
any I could tell you. As to public matters, I scarcely meddle with them,
and don't know what to think of India except that it is very terrible. I
always think a Nation with great Estates is like a Man with them:--more
trouble than Profit: I would only have a _Competence_ for my Country as
for myself. Two of my very dearest Friends went but last year to
Calcutta:--he as Professor at the Presidency College there: and now he
has to shoulder a musket, I believe, as well as deliver a Lecture. You
and yours are safe at home, I am glad to think.

Please to remember me to all whom I have shaken hands with, and make my
kind Regards to those of your Party I have not yet seen. I am sure all
_would be_ as kind to me as others who bear the name of Allen _have
been_.

Once more--thank you thank you for your kindness; and believe me yours as
ever very truly,

EDWD. FITZGERALD.

_To E. B. Cowell_.

RUSHMERE, _October_ 3/57.

MY DEAR COWELL,

I hope things will not be so black with you and us by the time this
Letter reaches you, but you may be amused and glad to have it from me.
Not that I have come into Suffolk on any cheerful Errand: I have come to
bury dear old Mr. Crabbe! I suppose you have had some Letters of mine
telling you of his Illness; Epileptic Fits which came successively and
weakened him gradually, and at last put him to his Bed entirely, where he
lay some while unable to move himself or to think! They said he might
lie so a long time, since he eat and drank with fair Appetite: but
suddenly the End came on and after a twelve hours Stupor he died. On
Tuesday September 22 he was buried; and I came from Bedfordshire (where I
had only arrived two days before) to assist at it. I and Mr. Drew were
the only persons invited not of the Family: but there were very many
Farmers and Neighbours come to pay respect to the remains of the brave
old Man, who was buried, by his own desire, among the poor in the
Churchyard in a Grave that he wishes to be no otherwise distinguisht than
by a common Head and Footstone. . . .

You may imagine it was melancholy enough to me to revisit the house when
He who had made it so warm for me so often lay cold in his Coffin unable
to entertain me any more! His little old dark Study (which I called the
'_Cobblery'_) smelt strong of its old Smoke: and the last Cheroot he had
tried lay three quarters smoked in its little China Ash-pan. This I have
taken as a Relic, as also a little silver Nutmeg Grater which used to
give the finishing Touch to many a Glass of good hot Stuff, and also had
belonged to the Poet Crabbe. . . .

Last night I had some of your Letters read to me: among them one but
yesterday arrived, not very sunshiny in its prospects: but your Brother
thinks the Times Newspaper of yesterday somewhat bids us look up. Only,
all are trembling for Lucknow, crowded with Helplessness and Innocence! I
am ashamed to think how little I understand of all these things: but have
wiser men, and men in Place, understood much more? or, understanding,
have they _done_ what they should? . . .

Love to the dear Lady, and may you be now and for time to come safe and
well is the Prayer of yours,

E. F. G.

31 PORTLAND STREET, LONDON.
_Decr_. 8/57.

MY DEAR COWELL,

You will recognize the Date of my Abode. Two years ago you were coming
to see me in it much about this Season: and a year ago I wrote you my
first Letter to India from it. I came hither from Brighton a week ago:
how long to be here uncertain: you had best direct to Goldington Hall,
Bedford. I sent you a short Letter by last Marseilles' Post from
Brighton: and I now begin this short one because I have happened again to
take hold of some Books which we are mutually interested in. I have left
with Borrow the Copy of the Mantic De Tassy gave me; so some days ago I
bought another Copy of Norgate. For you must know I had again taken up
my rough Sketch of a Translation, which, such as it is, might easily be
finisht. But it is in truth no Translation: but only the _Paraphrase of
a Syllabus_ of the Poem: quite unlike the original in Style too:--But it
would give, I think, a fair proportionate Account of the Scheme of the
Poem. If ever I finish it, I will send it you. Well; then in turning
this over, I also turned over Volume I of Sprenger's Catalogue, which I
bought by itself for 6s. a year ago. As it contains all the Persian MSS.
I supposed that would be enough for me. I have been looking at his List
of Attar's Poems. What a number! All almost much made up of _Apologues_
in which Attar excels, I think. His Stories are better than Jami's: to
be sure, he gives more to pick out of. An interesting thing in the
Mantic is, the stories about Mahmud: and these are the best in the Book.
I find I have got seven or eight in my brief Extract. I see Sprenger
says Attar was born in 513--four years before poor Omar Khayyam died! He
mentions one of Attar's Books--'The Book of Union,' _waslat_ _namah_,
which seems to be on the very subject of the Apologue to the _Peacock's_
Brag in the Mantic: line 814 in De Tassy. I suppose this is no more the
Orthodox _Mussulman_ Version than it is ours. Sprenger also mentions as
one separate Book what is part of the Mantic--and main part--the _Haft
wady_. Sprenger says (p. 350) how the MSS. of Attar differ from one
another.

And now about old Omar. You talked of sending a Paper about him to
Fraser and I told you, if you did, I would stop it till I had made my
Comments. I suppose you have not had time to do what you proposed, or
are you overcome with the Flood of bad Latin I poured upon you? Well:
don't be surprised (vext, you won't be) if _I_ solicit Fraser for room
for a few Quatrains in English Verse, however--with only such an
Introduction as you and Sprenger give me--very short--so as to leave you
to say all that is Scholarly if you will. I hope this is not very
Cavalier of me. But in truth I take old Omar rather more as my property
than yours: he and I are more akin, are we not? You see all [his]
Beauty, but you don't feel _with_ him in some respects as I do. I think
you would almost feel obliged to leave out the part of Hamlet in
representing him to your Audience: for fear of Mischief. Now I do not
wish to show Hamlet at his maddest: but mad he must be shown, or he is no
Hamlet at all. G. de Tassy eluded all that was dangerous, and all that
was characteristic. I think these _free_ opinions are less dangerous in
an old Mahometan, or an old Roman (like Lucretius) than when they are
returned to by those who have lived on happier Food. I don't know what
you will say to all this. However I dare say it won't matter whether I
do the Paper or not, for I don't believe they'll put it in.

Then--yesterday I bought at that shop in the Narrow Passage at the end of
Oxford Street a very handsome small Folio MS. of Sadi's Bostan for 10s.
But I don't know when I shall look at it to read: for my Eyes are but
bad: and London so dark, that I write this Letter now at noon by the
Light of two Candles. Of which enough for To-day. I must however while
I think of it again notice to you about those first Introductory
Quatrains to Omar in both the Copies you have seen; taken out of their
Alphabetical place, _if they be Omar's own_, evidently by way of putting
a good Leg foremost--or perhaps _not_ his at all. So that which Sprenger
says begins the Oude MS. is manifestly, not any Apology of Omar's own,
but a Denunciation of him by some one else: {344} and is a _sort_ of
Parody (in _Form_ at least) of Omar's own Quatrain 445, with its
indignant reply by the Sultan.

Tuesday Dec. 22. I have your Letter of Nov. 9--giving a gloomy Account
of what has long ere this been settled for better or worse! It is said
we are to have a Mail on Friday. I must post this Letter before then.
Thank you for the MSS. You will let me know what you expend on them. I
have been looking over De Tassy's Omar. Try and see the other Poems of
Attar mentioned by Sprenger: those with Apologues, etc., in which (as I
have said) Attar seems to me to excel. Love to the Lady. I have no news
of the Crabbes, but that they do pretty well in their new home. Donne
has just been here and gone--asking about you. I dine with him on
Christmas Day.

E. F. G.

[MERTON RECTORY].
_September_ 3/58.

MY DEAR COWELL,

. . . Now about my Studies, which, I think, are likely to dwindle away
too. I have not turned to Persian since the Spring; but shall one day
look back to it: and renew my attack on the 'Seven Castles,' if that be
the name. I found the Jami MS. at Rushmere: and there left it for the
present: as the other Poem will be enough for me for my first onslaught.
I believe I will do a little a day, so as not to lose what little
knowledge I had. As to my Omar: I gave it to Parker in January, I think:
he saying Fraser was agreeable to take it. Since then I have heard no
more; so as, I suppose, they don't care about it: and may be quite right.
Had I thought they would be so long however I would have copied it out
and sent it to you: and I will still do so from a rough and imperfect
Copy I have (though not now at hand) in case they show no signs of
printing me. My Translation will interest you from its _Form_, and also
in many respects in its _Detail_: very unliteral as it is. Many
Quatrains are mashed together: and something lost, I doubt, of Omar's
Simplicity, which is so much a Virtue in him. But there it is, such as
it is. I purposely said in the very short notice I prefixed to the Poem
that it was so short because better Information might be furnished in
another Paper, which I thought _you_ would undertake. So it rests. Nor
have I meddled with the Mantic lately: nor does what you say encourage me
to do so. For what I had sketcht out was very paraphrase indeed. I do
not indeed believe that any readable Account (unless a prose Analysis,
for the History and Curiosity of the Thing) will be possible, for _me_ to
do, at least. But I took no great pleasure in what I had done: and every
day get more and more a sort of Terror at re-opening any such MS. My
'_Go'_ (such as it was) is _gone_, and it becomes _Work_: and the Upshot
is not worth _working_ for. It was very well when it was a Pleasure. So
it is with Calderon. It is well enough to sketch such things out in warm
Blood; but to finish them in cold! I wish I could finish the 'Mighty
Magician' in my new way: which I know you would like, in spite of your
caveat for the Gracioso. I have not wholly dropt the two Students, but
kept them quite under: and brought out the religious character of the
Piece into stronger Relief. But as I have thrown much, if not into
Lyric, into Rhyme, which strikes a more Lyric Chord, I have found it much
harder to satisfy myself than with the good old Blank Verse, which I used
to manage easily enough. The 'Vida es Sueno' again, though blank Verse,
has been difficult to arrange; here also Clarin is not quenched, but
subdued: as is all Rosaura's Story, so as to assist, and not compete
with, the main Interest. I really wish I could finish these some lucky
day: but, as I said, it is so much easier to leave them alone; and when I
had done my best, I don't know if they are worth the pains, or whether
any one (except you) would care for them even if they were worth caring
for. So much for my grand Performances: except that I amuse myself with
jotting down materials (out of Vocabularies, etc.) for a Vocabulary of
_rural_ English, or _rustic_ English: that is, only the best country
words selected from the very many Glossaries, etc., relating chiefly to
country matters, but also to things in general: words that carry their
own story with them, without needing Derivation or Authority, though both
are often to be found. I always say I have heard the Language of Queen
Elizabeth's, or King Harry's Court, in the Suffolk Villages: better a
great deal than that spoken in London Societies, whether Fashionable or
Literary: and the homely [strength] of which has made Shakespeare,
Dryden, South, and Swift, what they could not have been without it. But
my Vocabulary if ever done will be a very little Affair, if ever done:
for here again it is pleasant enough to jot down a word now and then, but
not to equip all for the Press.

FARLINGAY, WOODBRIDGE. _Nov_. 2/58.

MY DEAR COWELL,

. . . No. I have not read the Jami Diwan; partly because I find my Eyes
are none the better, and partly because I have now no one to 'prick the
sides of my Intent'; not even 'Vaulting Ambition' now. I have got the
Seven Castles {348} in my Box here and old Johnson's Dictionary; and
these I shall strike a little Fire out of by and by: Jami also in time
perhaps. I have nearly finisht a metrical Paraphrase and Epitome of the
Mantic: but you would scarce like it, and who else would? It has amused
me to give a 'Bird's Eye' View of the Bird Poem in some sixteen hundred
lines. I do not think one could do it as Salaman is done. As to Omar, I
hear and see nothing of it in Fraser yet: and so I suppose they don't
want it. I told Parker he might find it rather dangerous among his
Divines: he took it however, and keeps it. I really think I shall take
it back; add some Stanzas which I kept out for fear of being too strong;
print fifty copies and give away; one to you, who won't like it neither.
Yet it is most ingeniously tesselated into a sort of Epicurean Eclogue in
a Persian Garden.

INDEX TO LETTERS

_To_ JOHN ALLEN, 4, 5, 9, 10-21, 28, 29, 32-35, 40, 43-48, 55, 59, 66,
69, 71, 122, 138, 172, 196, 234, 235, 243, 252, 255, 280, 291 *

_To_ MRS. CHARLES ALLEN, 337 *

_To_ the Editor of the Athenaeum, 6

_To_ BERNARD BARTON, 50-52, 61, 62, 74, 88, 93, 96, 98, 99, 104-110, 132,
134, 142, 158, 168, 169, 173, 175, 178, 186, 189-191, 197, 209, 220, 222

_From_ CARLYLE, 127, 130, 181 _note_, 205, 298, 299, 302

_To_ CARLYLE, 213, 216, 226, 293, 295, 297

_To_ MRS. CHARLESWORTH, 154-157 *, 160 *, 161 *

_To_ E. B. COWELL, 204, 208, 211 *, 212 *, 228, 231, 232, 240, 248 *,
284, 304, 304 *, 306 *, 309-321, 328-335, 340, 341 *, 345, 348

_To_ MRS. COWELL, 307, 308, 326

_To_ GEORGE CRABBE, 247, 266-268, 273, 274, 282, 284

_To_ W. B. DONNE, 22-26, 31, 41, 97, 187, 198, 203, 206, 210, 241, 253,
259, 279

_To_ SAMUEL LAURENCE, 75, 90, 116, 117, 121, 137, 140, 146, 166, 170,
215, 225, 233, 242

_To_ W. F. POLLOCK, 114, 115, 125, 133, 283

_From_ JAMES SPEDDING, 75 _note_

_To_ FREDERIC TENNYSON, 57, 66, 76, 81, 86, 91, 101, 111, 118, 139, 141,
143, 144, 150, 163, 176, 180, 188, 192, 199, 200, 223, 236, 244, 249,
254, 256, 260, 269, 271, 275, 285, 287

_From_ W. M. THACKERAY, 280

_To_ W. M. THACKERAY, 38, 281

_From_ W. H. THOMPSON, 22 _note_

_To_ W. H. THOMPSON, 79, 85

_The asterisks indicate the letters which are here printed for the first
time_.

Footnotes:

{0a} See Letters and Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald, vol. iii. p.
464.

{14} Now Librarian of the William Salt Library at Stafford: introduced
to FitzGerald at Cambridge by Thackeray. [He died 10th February 1893,
aged 82.]

{19} Through the kindness of Mr. Thomas Allen, I have been enabled to
recover these missing stanzas:--

TO A LADY SINGING.

1.

Canst thou, my Clora, declare,
After thy sweet song dieth
Into the wild summer air,
Whither it falleth or flieth?
Soon would my answer be noted,
Wert thou but sage as sweet throated.

2.

Melody, dying away,
Into the dark sky closes,
Like the good soul from her clay
Like the fair odor of roses:
Therefore thou now art behind it,
But thou shalt follow and find it.

{22} 'My dear Donne,' as FitzGerald called him, 'who shares with
Spedding my oldest and deepest love.' He afterwards succeeded J. M.
Kemble as Licenser of Plays. The late Master of Trinity, then Greek
Professor, wrote to me of him more than five and twenty years ago, 'It
may do no harm that you should be known to Mr. Donne, whose acquaintance
I hope you will keep up. He is one of the finest gentlemen I know, and
no ordinary scholar--remarkable also for his fidelity to his friends.'

{23} The Return to Nature, or, a Defence of the Vegetable Regimen,
dedicated to Dr. W. Lambe, and written in 1811. It was printed in 1821
in The Pamphleteer, No. 38, p. 497.

{28} Wherstead Lodge on the West bank of the Orwell, about two miles
from Ipswich, formerly belonged to the Vernon family. The FitzGeralds
lived there for about ten years, from 1825 to 1835, when they removed to
Boulge, near Woodbridge, the adjoining Parish to Bredfield.

{32} By De Quincey, in Tait's Magazine, Sept. 1834, etc.

{38} At Boulge.

{42} Life of Cowper.

{43a} Probably the Perse Grammar School.

{43b} See Carlyle's Life of Sterling, c. iv.

{44} East Anglian for 'shovel.'

{45} Mrs. Schutz lived till December, 1847.

{50a} The Quaker Poet of Woodbridge, whose daughter FitzGerald
afterwards married.

{50b} His eldest brother, John Purcell FitzGerald.

{52} Letters from an eminent Prelate to one of his Friends, 2nd ed.;
1809, p. 114, Letter XLVI.

{57} A noted prize fighter.

{58} Widow of Serjeant Frere, Master of Downing College, Cambridge.

{59} Probably Mrs. Schutz of Gillingham Hall, already mentioned.

{60a} Coram Street.

{60b} Wordsworth, The Fountain, ed. 1800.

{61a} William Browne.

{61b} Probably Bletsoe.

{62} Where FitzGerald's uncle, Mr. Peter Purcell, lived.

{64} By Captain Allen F. Gardiner, R.N., 1836.

{65} In an article in Blackwood's Magazine for April 1830, p. 632,
headed Poetical Portraits by a Modern Pythagorean. FitzGerald either
quoted the lines from memory, or intentionally altered them. They
originally stood,

His spirit was the home
Of aspirations high;
A temple, whose huge dome
Was hidden in the sky.

Robert Macnish, LL.D., was the author of The Anatomy of Drunkenness and
The Philosophy of Sleep.

{66a} Master Humphrey's Clock.

{66b} Where Thackeray was then also living.

{67} At Geldestone Hall, near Beccles.

{73a} His sister.

{73b} R. W. Evans, Vicar of Heversham.

{73c} The Paris Sketch Book.

{73d} V. 9.

{75} The artist, of whom Spedding wrote to Thompson in 1842 when he
wished them to become acquainted, 'There is another man whom I have asked
to come a little after 10; because you do not know him, and mutual self
introductions are a nuisance. If however he should by any misfortune of
mine arrive before I do, know that he is Samuel Laurence, a portrait
painter of real genius, of whom during the last year I have seen a great
deal and boldly pronounce him to be worthy of all good men's love. He is
one of the men of whom you feel certain that they will never tire you,
and never do anything which you will wish they had not done. His
advantages of education have been such as it has pleased God (who was
never particular about giving his favourite children a good education) to
send him. But he has sent him what really does as well or better--the
clearest eye and the truest heart; and it may be said of him as of Sir
Peter that

Nature had but little clay
Like that of which she moulded him.'

{79a} Afterwards Greek Professor and Master of Trinity College,
Cambridge.

{79b} In a letter to me written in August 1881 he says, "To-morrow comes
down my Italian sister to Boulge (Malebolge?), and I await her visits
here."

{80a} The British and Foreign Review, 1840, Art. on 'The Present
Government of Russia,' pp 543-591.

{80b} _Ibid._ pp. 510-542.

{80c} _Ibid._ p. 355, etc., Art. on 'Introduction to the Literature of
Europe.'

{82} On Hero Worship.

{89} Major Moor of Great Bealings; author of The Hindu Pantheon, Suffolk
Words, Oriental Fragments, etc.

{90a} By Gerald Griffin.

{90b} The chapel of the Palazzo del Podesta, or Bargello, then used as a
prison.

{93} The London coach.

{96} The owner of Bredfield House, where E. F. G. was born.

{97} Hor. Od. 1. 4. 14, 15.

{98} Hor. Od. IV. 5, 25-27. horrida . . . foetus per metasyntaxin
'horrid abortions.'

{99} Not for the Cabinet Cyclopaedia, but the Library of Useful
Knowledge. It was never finished.

{100a} See Barton's Letters, p. 70.

{100b} Vol. III. p. 318.

{100c} The correct reading is 'lonesome.'

{102} No. 30, where his father and mother lived.

{106} Shakespeare, Macb. I. 3, 146, 147.

{111} Milton, P. L. IX. 445.

{114a} Who was in America with Lord Ashburton.

{114b} The late Sir W. F. Pollock, formerly Queen's Remembrancer.

{114c} The Library of Useless Knowledge, by Athanasius Gasker [E. W.
Clarke, son of E. D. Clarke, the Traveller], published in 1837.

{115a} Referring to the 1842 edition of Tennyson's Poems.

{115b} Spedding was at this time in America with Lord Ashburton.

{122} The Rev. T. R. Matthews, of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge:
formerly Curate of Bolnhurst and Colmworth, Chaplain of the House of
Industry, Bedford, and incumbent of Christ Church in that town. He died
4th Sept 1845, and his memory is still cherished by those who were
brought under his influence. Dr. Brown, the biographer of Bunyan,
informs me, 'There is a little Nonconformist community at Ravensden,
about three miles from Bedford, first formed by his adherents, and they
keep hung upon the wall behind the pulpit the trumpet Mr. Matthews used
to blow on village greens and along the highways to gather his
congregation.'

{123} William Browne.

{125} On Levett; quoted from memory.

{128} There were two Parsons who wrote accounts of Naseby--Mastin in
1792, and Locking in 1830.--_Note by E. F. G._

{134} Georg. I. 208-211.

{135} Referring to a passage in the Garden of Cyrus, near the end: 'To
keep our eyes open longer, were but to act our _Antipodes_. The Huntsmen
are up in _America_, and they are already past their first sleep in
_Persia_.'

{137} This was a series of notes, drawn up by Carlyle for FitzGerald's
guidance, and afterwards incorporated almost verbatim in an Appendix to
the Life of Cromwell.

{138} Spedding.

{139} FitzGerald's copy of the 1676 edition is now in my possession.

{142a} Where his brother Peter FitzGerald lived

{142b} See Letter to Barton of 2 Sept. 1841.

{146a} Elegy xi.

{146b} Mrs. Wilkinson, his sister.

{147} Practical Hints on Light and Shade in Painting, by John Burnet,
1826, pp. 25, 26.

{149} His housekeeper at Little Grange.

{152} Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 233.

{155} An old woman at Wherstead in whom FitzGerald took great interest.
She died early in March 1844, at the age of 84.

{157} The Rector of Boulge.

{159} His parrot.

{161} W. Cookson, M.D, of Lincoln died 12 April 1844.

{166} _Note by E. F. G._--Also, bottle-brown: in general all bottled
things are not so fresh coloured as before they were put in. A gherkin
loses considerably in freshness. The great triumph of a housekeeper is
when her guests say, 'Why, are these _really_ bottled gooseberries! They
look like fresh, etc.'

{174a} The MS. of this has been preserved.

{174b} To the Rev. Francis de Soyres.

{181} On the 26th of October, Carlyle wrote to FitzGerald:

'One day we had Alfred Tennyson here; an unforgettable day. He staid
with us till late; forgot his stick: we dismissed him with Macpherson's
Farewell. Macpherson (see Burns) was a Highland robber; he played that
Tune, of his own composition, on his way to the gallows; asked, "If in
all that crowd the Macpherson had any clansman?" holding up the fiddle
that he might bequeath it to some one. "Any kinsman, any soul that
wished him well?" Nothing answered, nothing durst answer. He crushed
the fiddle under his foot, and sprang off. The Tune is rough as hemp,
but strong as a lion. I never hear it without something of emotion,--poor
Macpherson; tho' the Artist hates to play it. Alfred's dark face grew
darker, and I saw his lip slightly quivering!'

{185} By James Montgomery: 'Friends' in his Miscellaneous Poems (Works,
ii. 298, ed. 1836).

{189} Miss Cooke.

{190} Great aunt of W. B. Donne.

{196} At Keysoe Vicarage

{197} See letter to Allen, August 1842.

{198} At the Norwich Festival.

{201} James White, author of The Earl of Gowrie, etc.

{202} A Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo.

{203} See the Memoir of Bernard Barton by E. F. G. prefixed to the
posthumous volume of selections from his Poems and Letters, p. xxvi.

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