UC-NRLF 
 
 SB 157 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Cf^'i. 
 
 Class F553 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FITZGERALD 
 

jftotes for a jti)ltograpj)2> 
 
 OF 
 
 EDWARD FITZGERALD 
 
 BY 
 
 COLONEL W. F. PRIDEAUX, C.S.I, 
 
 LONDON 
 
 FRANK ROLLINGS 
 
 7 GREAT TURNSTILE, HOLBORN W.C. 
 MCMI 
 
LIBRARIAN'S Fijfi 
 
"AN Emigrant Gentleman visiting England for a while 
 was Wonder-struck at the Indolence of the Middle 
 Classes, especially at such places as Sidmouth ; People 
 lounging about, throwing Stones into the 9ta, and 
 carrying about Three Volumes of Novels from the 
 Circulating Library. ' It seemed to me as if they were 
 all Mad. In Canada everyone is seen at work hack- 
 ing away at something or other, awkwardly perhaps, 
 but still at Work.' Then the fretful movements of 
 the Children in an opposite house Genteelly confined 
 to a Nursery that reflected all their imprisoned 
 Energies back on Themselves, and looking to him 
 like * caged Birds beating their Breasts against the 
 Wires !' Whereas he had just left in Canada his own 
 little Boy of Three Years old feeding the Poultry out 
 of doors, and even then able to distinguish one kind of 
 Grain from another in the Field ; his little Sister with 
 her little Batch of Bread ready for the Oven, when 
 Baking was going forward Both of them insensibly 
 acquiring the most indispensable of the Arts of Life ' " 
 
 (" Euphranor," second edition, Appendix, p. 97). 
 
 9 
 
 " Would we but teach THE PEOPLE, from whom Power 
 Grows slowly up into the Sovereign Flower, 
 By all just dealing with them, head and heart 
 Wisely and religiously to do their part ; 
 And heart and hand, whene'er the hour may come, 
 Answer Brute force, that will not yet be dumb. 
 Lest, like some mighty ship that rides the sea, 
 Old England, one last refuge of the Free, 
 Should, while all Europe thunders with the waves 
 Of war, which shall be Tyrants, Czars, or Slaves, 
 Suddenly, with sails set and timbers true, 
 Go down, betray 'd by a degenerate crew." 
 
 (" Polonius," p. 137.) 
 
 215528 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THESE Bibliographical Notes, which, in their 
 original form, were published in Notes and 
 Queries during the spring of 1900,* were 
 compiled, partly from a wish to present in a 
 compendious form a list of FitzGerald's 
 works, accompanied by such information as 
 was available regarding the circumstances 
 under which they were respectively written, 
 and partly in the hope that they might form 
 a stepping-stone to a more general acquaint- 
 ance with the writings in question. I believe 
 this to be a fuller list than has yet been drawn 
 up, though it has, of course, no pretensions 
 to be exhaustive. I have confined myself to 
 the issues which were published, or, more 
 
 * Ninth Series, v. 201, 221, 241 ; vi. 61. 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 properly speaking, printed, in F'itzGerald's 
 lifetime (with the exception of the " Letters " 
 and other posthumous papers edited by Mr. 
 Aldis Wright), as I consider that these alone 
 possess any real bibliographical value. To 
 enumerate all the American editions of the 
 " Rubaiyat " would be an endless, as well as 
 a useless, task. Some of them, such as the 
 magnificent volume which was accompanied 
 by the drawings of Mr. Elihu Vedder, and 
 the recently published edition with illustra- 
 tions from the pencil of Miss Florence 
 Lundborg, possess extraordinary merit from 
 the decorative point of view ; but they seem 
 to me to belong to the domain of Art rather 
 than to that of Literature, and to have little 
 in keeping with the serenity of FitzGerald's 
 outlook upon Life, or with the directness of 
 his attitude towards both the Known and the 
 Unknown. 
 
 The kindness which I have received from 
 those who have been in a position to help 
 me in my work deserves my warmest ac- 
 knowledgments. To Mr. Aldis Wright, the 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 literary executor of FitzGerald, my grateful 
 thanks are due. Without his generous aid, 
 and the permission accorded by him and by 
 Messrs. Macmillan and Co. to extract from 
 the " Letters " such passages as throw light 
 on the inception and execution of Fitz- 
 Gerald's literary output, it would hardly have 
 been possible to carry out this little attempt. 
 I have further to thank him for leave to add 
 to this issue of the "Bibliography" an 
 Appendix containing some little-known notes 
 on Crabbe, which originally appeared in The 
 East Anglian and in Notes and Queries, and 
 which have never been reprinted in this 
 country. Mr. Edmund Gosse, Mr. R. A. 
 Potts, and Mr. Francis Hindes Groome have 
 rendered me substantial assistance ; and my 
 acknowledgments are also due to Messrs. 
 Billing and Sons, Ltd., of Guildford, for 
 valuable information in connexion with the 
 printing of FitzGerald's later works. Lastly, 
 I must express my cordial thanks to my 
 friend, Mr. Bain, of the Haymarket, for the 
 generous manner in which he has allowed 
 
x INTRODUCTION 
 
 the characteristic sketch of FitzGerald by 
 Charles Keene, which is in his possession, 
 to be reproduced as the frontispiece of this 
 work. I may add that the quotations in the 
 text are from the Eversley edition of the 
 "Letters." 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGB 
 SEPARATE WORKS - - I 
 
 POSTHUMOUS WORKS - 50 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOOKS AND PERIODICALS - / 
 
 APPENDIX - 75 
 
THE 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FITZGERALD 
 
 I SEPARATE WORKS. 
 
 1851. 
 
 EUPHRANOR | A Dialogue on Youth | [Line] 
 London | William Pickering | 1851. 
 
 Collation: Small octavo: pp. [ii]-f82 (last page 
 unnumbered), consisting of: Title-page as above, with 
 imprint on verso, " John Childs and Son, Bungay," 
 pp. [i, ii] ; Text, pp. 1-81 ; Errata, and imprint as 
 before, p. [82]. The title is given as a headline 
 throughout. Issued in green cloth boards, with 
 stamped sides, and lettered upwards along the back 
 " Euphranor," within a gilt ornamental border. 
 
 This little book, the first-fruits of his 
 
 i 
 
2 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1851 
 
 genius, seems to have had a special attraction 
 for FitzGerald, and his coy deprecation of 
 the " confoundedly smart writing " in it 
 reminds one of an Eastern mother who draws 
 attention to a blemish in order to avert the 
 evil eye from her favourite child. Fitz- 
 Gerald's idiosyncrasy is reflected at its highest 
 in " Euphranor." One can perceive that his 
 imaginative power was not great, and it 
 betrays the sign of a slow and fastidious 
 worker. But in its form we see the neat- 
 ness of touch that characterizes the Greek of 
 Sophocles or the French of Sevigne, while in 
 the thought which underlies it we recognise 
 the sanity of a man who lived much in the 
 open air, and whose hand was equally at 
 home with the tiller and the pruning-knife. 
 
 Though not published till 1851, "Eu- 
 phranor" had occupied FitzGerald's thoughts 
 several years previously. In a letter to Pro- 
 fessor Cowell, written at the end of 1846, 
 he says : " I have been doing some of the 
 dialogue, which seems the easiest thing in 
 the world to do, but is not " (" Letters," 
 
1851] OF FITZGERALD. 3 
 
 i. 212). In February, 1851, he sent to the 
 Rev. G. Crabbe a copy of " Euphranor " and 
 of The Examiner, in which Spedding had 
 reviewed the book (" Letters," i. 266, 267). 
 In a letter to the same correspondent, written 
 a fortnight later, he says : " As I have a real 
 horror to be known as the writer, I do not 
 think I can have much personal ambition in 
 its success." Nevertheless, it seems to have 
 had a good sale, as in May, 1868, in again 
 writing to Mr. Cowell, FitzGerald says he 
 does not know where to lay his hands on a 
 copy of the first edition ("Letters," ii. 104). 
 Though a mere skeleton as compared with 
 the later editions, it contained some fine 
 passages, one of which elicited the approba- 
 tion of Tennyson. Mr. F. T. Palgrave, in 
 his " Personal Recollections," says that the 
 poet admired especially 
 
 "the brilliant closing picture of a boat-race, with its 
 glimpse of Whewell, ' the high crest and blowing 
 forelock of Phidippus's mare, and he himself shouting 
 encouragement to his crew, conspicuous over all ' " 
 ("Alfred, Lord Tennyson: a Memoir," 1897, ii. 505). 
 
4 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1852 
 
 1852. 
 
 POLONIUS : I A Collection | of | Wise Saws 
 and Modern Instances. | [Line] There- 
 fore, since brevity is the soul of wit, | 
 And tediousness the limbs and outward 
 flourishes, | I WILL BE BRIEF. | London : | 
 William Pickering. | 1852. 
 
 Collation : Square octavo : pp. [ii] + xvi + 146 (last 
 page unnumbered), consisting of: Title-page as above, 
 with imprint on verso, " John Childs and Son, Bungay," 
 pp. [i, ii] ; Preface, pp. [i]-xvi ; Half-title, p. I ; Text, 
 pp. 2-142 ; Index, pp. [i43]-i45 ; Errata, and imprint 
 as before, p. [146]. Only the Preface has headlines ; 
 in the text the number of the page, in Roman figures, 
 occupies the top centre. Every page is enclosed within 
 double borders, and the little book is prettily got up in 
 the taste of the day. Issued in green cloth boards, 
 lettered upwards along the back " Polonius," and with 
 the motto "LA | VERDAD | ESSIMPRE | VERDE "stamped 
 in gilt letters, within an ornamental wreath, upon the 
 side. 
 
 This little book was apparently published 
 at the beginning of 1852, for FitzGerald 
 refers to it in a letter which he wrote to the 
 Rev. George Crabbe on February 27 in that 
 year ("Letters," i. 273). The "charming 
 
1852] OF FITZGERALD. 5 
 
 and characteristic preface," as it is justly 
 styled by Mr. Edmund Gosse, was reprinted 
 by Mr. Aldis Wright in " The Letters and 
 Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald," 
 1889, iii. 467, and in "Miscellanies," 1900, 
 p. 154. Although the book mainly consists 
 of excerpts from Bacon, Selden, Carlyle, 
 Newman, and other writers, there is suffi- 
 cient of FitzGerald himself in it to afford a 
 strong reflection of his personality. It is in 
 u Polonius " that occurs his well-known 
 aphorism, " Taste is the feminine of genius " 
 (p. 33), to the authorship of which he puts 
 in a coy claim in a letter written many years 
 afterwards to Mr. J. R. Lowell (" Letters," 
 ii. 226).* 
 
 * An interesting copy of this little book, having 
 some notes and corrections in FitzGerald's handwriting, 
 and presented by him to his friend Thomas Church- 
 yard, of Woodbridge, sold for 1 1 los. at Sotheby's 
 on February 27, 1900. Within its leaves were two 
 scraps of paper, on one of which FitzGerald had 
 written, " Truth and Whole Truth," with a Persian 
 translation, and on the other, " Only early Bird gets 
 Worm but the Worm ?" 
 
6 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1853 
 
 1853- 
 
 Six DRAMAS | OF | CALDERON. | Freely trans- 
 lated | by Edward FitzGerald. | London : 
 | William Pickering. | MDCCCLIII. 
 
 Collation : Small octavo: pp. viii -H 276 (the last 
 three unnumbered), consisting of: Half-title, "Six 
 Dramas | of | Calderon " ; pp. [i, ii], verso blank ; 
 Title-page as above, with imprint on verso, " John 
 Childs and Son, Bungay," pp. [iii, iv]; Advertisement, 
 pp. [v]-viii ; Text, pp. [i]-273 ; Imprint as before, 
 p. [274]; Errata, p. [275], verso blank. The volume 
 contains : " The Painter of his own Dishonour," p. I ; 
 " Keep your own Secret," p. 59 ; " Gil Perez, the 
 Gallician," p. 103; "Three Judgments at a Blow," 
 p. 142 ; "The Mayor of Zalamea," p. 191 ; and 
 "Beware of Smooth Water," p. 229. The titles of 
 the respective plays are given as headlines. Issued in 
 watered crimson cloth boards, lettered across the back 
 in gold, " Translations | from | Calderon " ; and, lower 
 down, " E. F. G." 
 
 This volume, as we learn from FitzGerald's 
 letters, was unfavourably noticed in The 
 Leader and The Athenaeum on its first ap- 
 pearance ("Letters," i. 284), though his 
 friend W. B. Donne wrote a " handsome 
 Article " in Fraser on it, and FitzGerald ac- 
 
1 853] OF FITZGERALD. 7 
 
 knowledged that people liked it ( %< Letters," 
 p. 323). The "determined spit" of The 
 Athen^eum^ however, disconcerted him, and 
 he called in all the unsold copies, with the 
 result that the book is now excessively rare. 
 As a specimen of the criticism of the day, it 
 may be not uninteresting to reproduce the 
 short notice to which FitzGerald took ob- 
 jection. It is not easy to find, as it is 
 wrongly indexed, but it appeared in The 
 Athenxum (No. 1350), September 10, 1853, 
 p. 1063 : 
 
 " ' Freely translated,' says Mr. Fitzgerald. There 
 is no doubt of it. By way of apology for so much 
 licence for a freedom in dealing with his text so 
 unusual the translator gives an original reason: *I 
 have not meddled/ he says, ' with any of Calderon's 
 more famous plays, not one of these on my list being 
 mentioned with any praise or included in any selection 
 that I know of except the homely " Mayor of Zalamca"' 
 [sic]. We have not taken the trouble to compare these 
 translations with the originals ; holding it quite un- 
 necessary to treat as a serious work a book whose 
 author confesses that he * has sunk, reduced, altered, 
 and replaced much that seemed not fine or efficient 
 simplified some perplexities, and curtailed or omitted 
 
8 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1853 
 
 scenes that seemed to mar the breadth of general effect, 
 supplying such omissions by some lines.'" 
 
 It is curious that the volume of The 
 Athenaeum which produced this criticism, with 
 its slightly garbled extract, should contain a 
 long review, which was characterized by 
 Archbishop Trench as masterly, of Mr. D. F. 
 McCarthy's translations from Calderon.* In 
 contrast to the summary manner in which 
 The Athenaeum disposed of FitzGerald's claims 
 to recognition, it may be worth while to 
 quote the Archbishop's opinion on the 
 subject. It will be found in Dr. Trench's 
 graceful little book "Life's a Dream," 1856, 
 p. 120: 
 
 " ' Six Dramas of Calderon freely translated,' by 
 Edward Fitzgerald, 1853, are far the most important 
 and worthiest contribution to the knowledge of the 
 
 * The unfavourable notice of FitzGerald's version 
 of Calderon was written by the late Mr. John Chorley, 
 who was also the author of the eulogistic review of 
 McCarthy's translation. John Chorley was perhaps 
 the finest Spanish scholar of his day, and there is no 
 doubt that, from his point of view, FitzGerald's para- 
 phrase did not give an adequate notion of the original. 
 
1853] OF FITZGERALD. 9 
 
 Spanish poet which we have yet received. But, 
 written as they are in English of an exquisite purity 
 and vigour, and dealing with poetry in a poet's spirit, 
 they yet suffer, as it seems to me, under serious draw- 
 backs. Mr. Fitzgerald has chosen, and avows that he 
 has chosen, plays which, with the exception of the 
 noble * Mayor of Zalamea,' can hardly be said to rank 
 among Calderon's greatest, being rather effective melo- 
 dramas than works of highest art. He does this with 
 the observation, ' Such plays as the " Magico Prodi- 
 gioso " and the " Vida es Sueno" require another trans- 
 lator and, I think, form of translation.' In respect of 
 * form of translation ' I am compelled to agree with 
 him, his version being for the most part in English 
 blank verse ; but how little likely Calderon is to obtain 
 a more gifted translator, and how much his modest 
 choice of plays on which to exercise his skill, which 
 are not among the author's best, is to be regretted, I 
 think the reader will own after a single quotation from 
 this volume : 
 
 " ' He who far off beholds another dancing, 
 Even one who dances best, and all the time 
 Hears not the music that he dances to, 
 Thinks him a madman, apprehending not 
 The law that rules his else eccentric action. 
 So he that's in himself insensible 
 Of love's sweet influence, misjudges him 
 Who moves according to love's melody : 
 And knowing not that all these sighs and tears, 
 Ejaculations, and impatiences, 
 
io THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1853 
 
 Are necessary changes of a measure, 
 Which the divine musician plays, may call 
 The lover crazy ; which he would not do 
 Did he within his own heart hear the tune 
 Play'd by the great musician of the world.' " 
 
 ("The Painter of his own Dishonour," p. 15.) 
 
 This just and balanced criticism is worth 
 recording as perhaps the first appreciation of 
 FitzGerald's powers which had appeared in 
 public. It was written more than three years 
 before the publication of the " Rubaiyat." 
 
 It may be added that many passages in 
 these plays are marked by a playful lyricism 
 which his correspondence would scarcely 
 suggest to belong to FitzGerald's literary 
 apparatus. It is astonishing that the in- 
 numerable compilers of anthologies have 
 never quarried in this mine. What can be 
 lighter or more delicate than the following 
 little song from "The Painter of his own 
 Dishonour " ? 
 
 " Of all the shafts to Cupid's bow, 
 
 The first is tipt with fire ; 
 All bare their bosoms to the blow, 
 And call the wound Desire. 
 
II 
 
 1 853] OF FITZGERALD. 
 
 44 Love's second is a poison'd dart, 
 
 And Jealousy is nam'd ; 
 Which carries poison to the heart 
 Desire had first inflam'd. 
 
 " The last of Cupid's arrows all 
 
 With heavy lead is set ; 
 That vainly weeping lovers call 
 Repentance or Regret." 
 
 Or this from " The Mayor of Zalamea " ? 
 
 " Ah for the red spring rose 
 
 Down in the garden growing, 
 
 Fading as fast as it blows, 
 Who shall arrest its going ? 
 
 Peep from thy window and tell, 
 
 Fairest of flowers, Isabel. 
 
 " Wither it would, but the bee 
 
 Over the blossom hovers, 
 And the sweet life ere it flee 
 
 With as sweet art recovers, 
 Sweetest at night in his cell, 
 
 Fairest of flowers, Isabel." 
 
 The " Dramas from Calderon " were not 
 reprinted in England until they were in- 
 cluded in Mr. Aldis Wright's edition of 
 "The Letters and Literary Remains," 1889.* 
 
 * A presentation copy of this book, with the follow- 
 ing inscription on the half-title in FitzGerald's hand- 
 
12 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1855 
 
 1855. 
 
 EUPHRANOR, | a Dialogue on Youth. | 
 " Malim VIRUM sine Literis quam Literas 
 sine Viro." " Better A MAN who doesn't 
 know his Letters than *A BOOK | IN 
 BREECHES/*' | Second Edition. | London : 
 | John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 
 
 1 
 
 Collation: Small octavo: pp. [ii]+ 102 (last page 
 blank and unnumbered), consisting of: Title-page as 
 above, with imprint on verso, " John Childs and Son, 
 Bungay," pp. [i, ii] ; Text, pp. [i]-8y, p. 88 blank; 
 Appendix, pp. [SpJ-ioi ; Advertisements of "New 
 Books and New Editions, published by John W. Parker 
 and Son, West Strand," 4 pages. Issued, like the first 
 edition, in green cloth boards, and lettered upwards 
 along the back "Euphranor," within a gilt ornamental 
 border. Some copies were merely stitched in pamphlet 
 form, without a wrapper, and without the advertise- 
 ments at the end. 
 
 This edition of " Euphranor " is much 
 altered and enlarged, and contains for the 
 
 writing, "Thomas Churchyard, with the translator's 
 kind regards, St. Swithin's Day, 1853," sold for 14 at 
 Sotheby's on February 27, 1901. 
 
1855] OF FITZGERALD. 13 
 
 first time an interesting reference to Tenny- 
 son on p. 72, and the racing ballad of "Our 
 Yorkshire Jen." The appendix consists 
 partly of extracts from Eckermann's u Con- 
 versations with Goethe " and Richter's 
 " Levana," and partly of anecdotes in the 
 style of " Polonius," which are characteristic 
 of FitzGerald's love of a free and healthy 
 life in the open air. But, for some reason 
 or other, it did not wholly meet with his 
 approval, and it has never been reprinted. 
 The second edition of " Euphranor " seems to 
 be much scarcer than the first. FitzGerald, 
 when writing to Professor Cowell, May 28, 
 1868, said, in answer to the Professor's re- 
 quest for some copies of " Euphranor " : 
 
 "Oh yes! I have a Lot of them: returned from 
 Parker's when they were going to dissolve their House; 
 I would not be at the Bother of any further negociation 
 with any other Bookseller, about half-a-dozen little 
 Books which so tew wanted : so had them all sent 
 here. I will therefore send you six copies M ("Letters," 
 ii. 103). 
 
 Later on, FitzGerald bound up several 
 copies of this edition with the privately 
 
i 4 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1855 
 
 printed " Dramas of Calderon " and " Aga- 
 memnon " of 1865 for presentation to his 
 friends (see letters to Pollock, "Letters," 
 ii. 1 6 1, and to Fanny Kemble, p. 66). In 
 these copies the Appendix was cancelled, and 
 many alterations were made by the pen. In 
 particular, the word " Emergencies/' which 
 twice occurs, and to which it seems Fitz- 
 Gerald had a special objection, was altered 
 in one place (p. 73) to "Accidents," and in 
 another (p. 77) to " Difficulties." These 
 corrections were, of course, maintained in 
 the third edition (see letter to Pollock, 
 "Letters," p. 162). 
 
 1856. 
 
 SALAMAN AND ABSAL. | An Allegory. | 
 Translated from the Persian | of | Jami. | 
 London : | J. W. Parker and Son, West 
 Strand. | MDCCCLVI. 
 
 Collation : Small quarto : Frontispiece, copied from 
 a MS. in the Bodleian, representing the " Royal Game 
 
1856] OF FITZGERALD. 15 
 
 of Chiigan " ; pp. xvi + 84, consisting of: Title-page 
 as above, with imprint on verso, "John Childs and 
 Son, Bungay," pp. [i, ii] ; dedication to Professor 
 Cowell, pp. iii-viii ; " Life of Jami," pp. ix-xvi, with 
 note of Errata at bottom of p. xvi ; Text, pp. [i]~75 
 (p. 76 blank); Appendix, pp. [77]-84. Issued in plain 
 blue cloth boards, with the title " Salaman | and | 
 Absal " lettered in gold on the upper cover. 
 
 The dedication, which is in the form of a 
 letter to " My dear Cowell," was not re- 
 printed in the second or any subsequent 
 edition, but some extracts from it have been 
 given in appendices. The appendix to the 
 first edition consists of detached notes on 
 the game of Chugan, etc. " Salaman and 
 Absal " was the first Persian poem that Fitz- 
 Gerald ever read ("Letters/' ii. 324, 325). 
 He had bought a copy in 1854 at Oxford, 
 and began the translation with the aid of 
 Professor Cowell (ibid., \. 318). Of the ver- 
 sion of 1856 FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Schiitz 
 Wilson in March, 1882 (ibid., ii. 325): 
 
 " When Parker disappeared, my unsold Copies, many 
 more than of the sold, were returned to me ; some of 
 which, if not all, I gave to little Quaritch, who, I 
 
1 6 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1859 
 
 believe, trumpeted them off to some little profit : and 
 I thought no more of them." 
 
 This edition has now become very scarce.* 
 
 1859. 
 
 RuBAIYAT | OF | OMAR KHAYYAM, | The 
 
 Astronomer -Poet of Persia. | Translated 
 into English Verse. | London: | Bernard 
 Quaritch, | Castle Street, Leicester Square. | 
 
 1859. 
 
 Collation : Small quarto : pp. xiv (last page blank 
 and unnumbered) + 22 (last page blank and unnum- 
 bered), consisting of : Title-page as above [pp. i, ii, with 
 imprint on verso, " G. Norman, Printer, Maiden Lane, 
 Covent Garden, London "] ; Introduction, headed 
 " Omar Khayyam, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia," pp. 
 [iii]-xiii ; Text, pp. [l]-l6 ; Notes, pp. [i7]-2i. 
 Issued in a brown paper wrapper, with the Title 
 printed on it as above, and enclosed in a two-lined 
 border, with an ornament at each corner. The heading 
 of the text is " Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam of Naish- 
 apur." 
 
 Of this, the best known of FitzGerald's 
 
 * A copy sold for ^13 at Puttick's on April 18, 1901; 
 and another copy for 3 1 at Sotheby's on May 9, 1901. 
 
1 859] OF FITZGERALD. 17 
 
 works, 250 copies are said to have been 
 printed, of which 200 were made a present 
 to the publisher. It was originally pub- 
 lished at the price of one shilling, and, after 
 having endured the indignity of the penny 
 box, has fetched as much at auction as 
 twenty guineas.* This first edition con- 
 
 * Since this was written, I have seen an announce- 
 ment that at Bangs's auction-rooms in New York a copy, 
 in perfect condition and with leaves unopened, was 
 sold on February 13, 1901, for the large sum of $260. 
 The purchaser of the copy at twenty guineas was the' 
 late Mr. B. Quaritch, whose authority I have for the 
 statements in the text. In his Catalogue, No. 194, for 
 December, 1899, p. 118, he gives the following biblio- 
 graphical note : " Nearly the whole of this, the first 
 edition of the Rubaiyat,' I sold (not being able to get 
 more) at one penny each. Mr. FitzGerald had made 
 me a present of about 200 copies of the 250 he had 
 printed. ... At one of the quarterly dinners of the 
 Omar Khayyam Club, a letter was read from Mr. 
 Swinburne, who had numerous interesting things to 
 say of FitzGerald's immortal translation. As to the 
 greatness of the ' Rubaiyat,' he says : ' I know none to 
 be compared with it for power, pathos, and beauty in 
 the same line of thought and work, except, possibly, 
 " Ecclesiastes," and, magnificent as that is, 1 can hardly 
 think its author comparable to Omar either as philo- 
 
 2 
 
1 8 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1859 
 
 tained only seventy-five quatrains. Of the 
 history of the translation, as recorded in 
 FitzGerald's letters and from other sources, 
 it is hardly necessary to say much, as it has 
 been fully given by Mr. Edward Heron- 
 Allen in the introduction to his admirable 
 edition of the " Rubaiyat." FitzGerald 
 seems to have conceived the idea of trans- 
 lating the " Rubaiyat " in the early part of 
 1 857, by which date he had completed a copy 
 of the Persian manuscript, and had entered 
 into a correspondence with Garcin de Tassy 
 regarding copies to be found in the Paris 
 libraries. On July 13, 1857, he wrote to 
 Prof. Cowell that, "by to-morrow I shall 
 have finished my first Physiognomy of 
 Omar, whom I decidedly prefer to any 
 Persian I have yet seen, unless, perhaps, 
 Salaman " (" Letters," i. 336). On Decem- 
 ber 8, 1857, he again writes to Cowell : 
 
 sophcr or poet.' In the same letter he recounts how 
 in 1860 he and Rossetti bought [copies of] the first 
 edition of this great work at a bookstall (mine) for a 
 penny each, they having fallen absolutely dead at the 
 published price of is." 
 
1859] OF FITZGERALD. 19 
 
 " Don't be surprised (vext you won't be) if I bolicit 
 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 arc 
 more akin, are we not ? You see all [his] Beauty, but 
 you don't feel with him in all 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." 
 
 I have quoted this passage at some length, 
 as it illustrates, in a manner which is some- 
 times overlooked by later critics of the poem, 
 the attitude assumed by FitzGerald in his 
 character as a translator. It is also strictly 
 in accordance with the view which he took of 
 Omar's philosophy in his introduction to the 
 
 2 2 
 
20 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1859 
 
 poem. He credits the Persian with perfect 
 honesty, both of heart and head. " Having 
 failed (however mistakenly) of finding any 
 Providence but Destiny, and any World but 
 This, he set about making the most of it, 
 preferring rather to soothe the Soul through 
 the Senses into Acquiescence with things as 
 he saw them than to perplex it with vain 
 disquietude after what they might be." In 
 judging the poem, and FitzGerald's share in 
 it, these words should be borne in mind, and 
 it will be seen that nothing was further from 
 the writer's thoughts than to formulate a 
 creed, whether of mournful pessimism or of 
 sensual conviviality. Begun originally as an 
 exercise in Persian, the translation developed 
 through the medium of a sympathetic mind, 
 until it became a work of art ; and as a work 
 of art, it stands upon its pedestal in that 
 great hall of unmoral beauty which contains 
 "The Ancient Mariner" and "The Eve of 
 Saint Agnes." 
 
 In January, 1858, FitzGerald carried out 
 his intention of sending the translation to 
 
1 862] OF FITZGERALD. 21 
 
 Parker, the publisher of Fraser's Magazine y 
 and the belief which he had expressed with 
 regard to its fate was vindicated ; for, after 
 keeping it by him for a year, Mr. Parker 
 returned the manuscript to its owner. Fitz- 
 Gerald then sent it to Mr. Quaritch, who 
 printed the work with such expedition that it 
 was ready for issue on February 15, 1859. 
 The copy in the British Museum Library 
 was received there, according to Mr. Heron- 
 Allen, on March 30, 1859. 
 
 1862. 
 
 RUBAIYAT | OF | OMAR KHAYYAM, | Re- 
 printed Privately from the London 
 Edition ; | with an extract | from the | Cal- 
 cutta Review, | No. LIX, March, 1856 
 | A Note by M. Garcin de Tassy, | and | 
 a few additional quatrains. | [Line.] 
 Madras : | 1862. 
 
 Collation: Octavo: pp. ii + x+ 18 + 8 4- 18, total 
 xii + 44, consisting of: Title-page as above ; on verso 
 " Fifty Copies Printed " between two lines [pp. i, ii] ; 
 Second Title-page "as under : 
 
22 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1862 
 
 Rubaiyat | of | Omar Khayyam, | the Astronomer 
 Poet of Persia. | Translated into English Verse. | 
 [Line.] | London : | Bernard guaritch, | Castle Street, 
 Leicester Square. | 1859. I [Line.] Madras : | Re- 
 printed from the London Edition. | 1862. 
 
 Pp. [i, ii, verso blank] ; Introduction, headed as in 
 London edition, pp. [i]-x ; Text, pp. [i]-i3 ; Notes, 
 pp. [i4]-i7 ; p. [18, blank and unnumbered] ; Title- 
 page as under : 
 
 Note | sur | Les Ruba'iyat de 'Omar Khaiyam | par 
 M. Garcin de Tassy, | Membre de 1'Institut. | [Line.] 
 Paris. | Imprimerie Imperiale. | [Line.] | M DCCC LVII. 
 
 Pp. [i, 2, verso blank] ; Text, pp. [3]-;, p. [8 
 blank and unnumbered], followed by " From the 
 Calcutta Review, No. LIX, March, 1856," pp. [i]- 
 14 ; " Some More of Omar's Quatrains," pp. 15-17 ; 
 p. [18 blank and unnumbered]. Issued in a green 
 cloth limp binding, with a label containing the title, 
 " Rubaiyat | of | Omar Khayyam," within an orna- 
 mental border, pasted on the top cover. 
 
 Of the contents of this very scarce brochure, 
 the " Rubaiyat " are a literal reprint of the 
 first London edition ; the note by the learned 
 Orientalist, M. Garcin de Tassy, is reprinted 
 from the Journal Asiatique ; the article from 
 the Calcutta Review was written by Prof. 
 E. B. Cowell ; and the additional quatrains, 
 fifteen in number, and dated " A^iyar, Dec. 
 
1865] OF FITZGERALD. 23 
 
 20, 1862," are by Dr. Whitley Stokes, who 
 is understood to have been the editor of the 
 volume. The copy which I have had the 
 advantage of using has also six additional 
 quatrains, together with a note by Dr. Stokes, 
 pasted into appropriate places in the text, 
 together with a few interesting additions in 
 manuscript and print. 
 
 1865. 
 
 [Two DRAMAS FROM CALDERON : " The 
 Mighty Magician " and " Such Stuff as 
 Dreams are Made of/'] 
 
 Collation : Small octavo : pp. 132 (last page un- 
 numbered), consisting of : Half-title, The Mighty 
 Magician. | [Line.] | Dramatis Personae. | pp. [i, 2, 
 page 2 blank] ; Text of " The Mighty Magician," pp. 
 [3]-63 (p. 64 blank and unnumbered) ; Half-title, Such 
 Stuff as Dreams are Made of, | A Drama, | taken 
 from | Calderon's " Vida es Sueno." | [Line.] 
 
 For Calderon's Drama sufficient would seem 
 The title he chose for it " Life is a Dream "; 
 Two words of the motto now filch'd are enough 
 For the impudent mixture they label "Such Stuff!" 
 
24 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1865 
 
 p. [65] ; Dramatis Personae, p. [66]; Text of "Such 
 Stuff," etc., pp. [67]-! 3 i ; Imprint, "John Childs and 
 Son, Bungay," p. [132]. Issued in a gray paper 
 wrapper. 
 
 It is stated in the " Catalogue of the 
 Library of Mr. Edmund Gosse " that the 
 plays were printed separately, and more 
 copies were distributed of the former than 
 the latter. As the collation begins with 
 signature B, it seems probable it was intended 
 that a general title-page should be prefixed, 
 but no copy is known with one. In a letter 
 to Prof. Cowell, dated November 1 1, 1864, 
 FitzGerald wrote : 
 
 " I have caught up a long ago begun Version of the 
 ' Magico,' and have so recast it that scarce a Plank 
 remains of the original ! Pretty impudence : and yet 
 all done to conciliate English, or modern, Sympathy. 
 This I sha'n't publish : so say (pray !) nothing of it all 
 remember only I shall print some Copies for you 
 and one or two more " (" Letters," ii. 60). 
 
 He adds (p. 61) he should like to take up 
 "Vida es Sueno," too, in the same manner, 
 so it is evident it had not been begun in 
 November, 1 864 ; but on February 25, 1865, 
 
1 865] OF FITZGERALD. 25 
 
 in writing to Archbishop Trench, he says 
 that he had licked the two Calderons into 
 some sort of shape of his own, and was send- 
 ing the " Magico " to his correspondent 
 (ibid., p. 62). FitzGerald kept the copies of 
 these plays in his own hands, and, as before 
 stated, bound up several copies of them, to- 
 gether with the " Agamemnon," for pre- 
 sentation to his friends. In a letter to Mrs. 
 Kemble (p. 64) he wrote that he had about 
 a hundred copies of the Calderon plays 
 printed, and had not a hundred friends to 
 give them to. These, as well as the privately 
 printed " Agamemnon," have now become 
 exceedingly scarce.* 
 
 1865. 
 
 AGAMEMNON. | [Ornamental line.] A 
 Tragedy, | Taken from JEschylus. | Orna- 
 mental cul-de-lampe. 
 
 * A copy of this rare brochure, presented by Fitz- 
 Gerald to his friend Thomas Churchyard of Wood- 
 bridge, sold for 30 los. at Sotheby's on February 27, 
 1901. 
 
26 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1865 
 
 Collation : Small octavo : pp. 64 (last page blank 
 and unnumbered), consisting of: Half-title, " Aga- 
 memnon," pp. [i, 2, verso blank] ; Title-page as above, 
 pp. [3, 4, verso blank] ; [Introduction], pp. [5], 6 ; 
 p. [7, blank] ; Dramatis Persons, p. [8] ; Text, pp. 
 [9]~>3* No date or imprint. Issued in dark blue 
 paper wrappers. 
 
 FitzGerald seems to have sketched out the 
 translation of this drama several years before 
 he printed it (see "Letters," ii. 62, 109, 1 12). 
 In a letter to Sir W. F. Pollock, written in 
 1873, he says : 
 
 "I think you have seen, or had, all the things but 
 the last ['Agamemnon '], which is the most impudent 
 of all. It was. however, not meant for Scholars : 
 mainly for Mrs. Kemble : but as I can't read myself, 
 nor expect others of my age to read, a long MS., I had 
 it printed by a cheap friend (to the bane of other 
 Friends), and here it is" (Ibid., p. 161 ; also pp. 186, 
 188). 
 
 The " Agamemnon," with its fatalistic 
 motif, was a play that suited FitzGerald's 
 genius. In many passages we find an echo 
 of the utterances of the astronomer-poet of 
 Naishapur : 
 
1 868] OF FITZGERALD. 27 
 
 The Robber, blinded in his own conceit, 
 
 Must needs think Retribution deaf and blind : 
 Fool ! not to know what tongue was in the wind, 
 
 When Tellus shudder'd under flying feet. 
 
 And 
 
 Call not on Death, old man, that, call'd or no, 
 
 Comes quick ; nor spend your ebbing breath on me, 
 Nor Helena : who but as arrows be 
 
 Shot by the hidden hand behind the bow. 
 
 The following lines, though in a different 
 metre, enunciate the same philosophy : 
 
 But thus it is ; All bides the destined Hour ; 
 
 And Man, albeit with Justice at his side, 
 Fights in the dark against a secret Power 
 
 Not to be conquer'd and how pacified ? 
 
 1868. 
 RlJBAIYAT | OF | OMAR KHAYYAM, | The 
 
 astronomer-poet | of Persia. | Rendered 
 into English Verse | Second Edition. | 
 London : | Bernard Quaritch, | Piccadilly. | 
 1868. 
 
 Collation : Square octavo: pp. xviii + 30, consist- 
 ing of : Title-page as above [pp. i, ii, with imprint 
 
28 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1871 
 
 on verso, "John Childs and Sons, Printers"] ; [Intro- 
 duction] pp. [iii]-xviii ; Text and Notes, pp. [i]-3O. 
 Imprint as above at foot of p. 30. Issued in a paper 
 wrapper, containing title as above within a two-line 
 border. The text is headed "Rubaiyat of Omar 
 Khayyam " only. 
 
 This edition of the " Rubaiyat " contained 
 1 10 quatrains. 
 
 1871. 
 
 SALAMAN & ABSAL : | An Allegory. | From 
 the Persian | of Jami. | Ipswich : | CowelFs 
 Steam Printing Works, Butter Market. | 
 [Line.] | 1871. 
 
 Collation : Small quarto : pp. ii and 46, consisting 
 of : Frontispiece, as in first edition ; Title-page as 
 above, [i, verso blank and unnumbered]; Text, pp. 
 [i]-42 ; Appendix, 43-45 ; p. [46, blank and unnum- 
 bered]. Issued in dark green limp cloth binding, with 
 gold line border, and red leather back ; no lettering ; 
 edges cut and coloured red. 
 
 This volume seems to have been privately 
 printed in a very limited issue. The text 
 varies greatly, both from that of the first 
 
1871] OF FITZGERALD. 29 
 
 edition of 1856 and that of the third of 1 879. 
 The introductory part is, indeed, entirely 
 different. In the " Chronological List " of 
 FitzGerald's books which were exhibited by 
 the Caxton Club, of Chicago, in January, 
 1899, a copy is described in the following 
 terms : 
 
 "This copy has the title-page and text of the second 
 separate edition, bound up with the * Life of Jami ' 
 (with many corrections in FitzGerald's handwriting) of 
 the first, and was the editorial copy used by Mr. )uaritch 
 for his collected edition." 
 
 I have no doubt that the copy in question 
 was "made up" by FitzGerald by the addi- 
 tion of the introductory matter of the first 
 edition, but it can hardly have been used 
 editorially by Mr. Quaritch for his collected 
 edition, as on a comparison of the copy 
 which has been kindly lent me by Mr. Aldis 
 Wright for the purpose, I find that it entirely 
 differs from the text of Mr. Quaritch's 
 collected edition, which was apparently re- 
 printed from the third edition of 1879. As 
 the only copies of this edition which have 
 
30 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1872 
 
 come under my notice contain alterations 
 and corrections in FitzGerald's handwriting, 
 there can be little doubt that it was printed 
 with his sanction, and probably by his in- 
 structions.* 
 
 1872. 
 
 RUBAIYAT | OF | OMAR KHAYYAM. | The 
 
 astronomer - poet | of Persia. | Rendered 
 into English verse. | Third Edition. | 
 London : | Bernard Quaritch, | Piccadilly. | 
 1872. 
 
 Collation: Square octavo: pp. xxiv+36, consist- 
 ing of : Title-page as above [pp. i, ii, with imprint on 
 verso, " G. Norman and Son, Printers, Maiden Lane, | 
 Covent Garden"]; [Introduction], pp. [iii]-xxiv ; 
 Text and Notes, pp. [i]~36 ; the whole printed within 
 a two-line border. Issued in a half-Roxburgh binding. 
 
 In this edition of the " Rubaiyat " nine of 
 
 * A copy of this edition, bound up with the third 
 edition of the " Rubaiyat," and containing MS. notes 
 by FitzGerald, sold for 13 55. in Mr. Virtue Tebbs's 
 sale at Sotheby's on June 25. 
 
1872] OF FITZGERALD. 31 
 
 the quatrains were cancelled, leaving only a 
 hundred and one. In the history of what is 
 sometimes called the " Omarian cult" it is of 
 importance, because it was not till after its 
 issue that it first dawned upon the reading and 
 thinking classes of the time that a new star 
 had arisen in the literary firmament. One of 
 the first apostles of the cult was Mr. Schiitz 
 Wilson, who, in The Contemporary Review 
 for March, 1876, propounded an Omarian 
 theory that has been the groundwork of 
 nearly everything that has since been written 
 about the philosopher-poet. Mr. Wilson, 
 like Prof. Cowell before him and Mr. 
 Mallock after him, compared Omar with 
 Lucretius, but thought the Roman poet 
 " inferior in depth, in force, in beauty, and 
 glory of rhythm." The English translator, 
 and not the Persian poet, is clearly indicated 
 by the last comparison, and on this point Mr. 
 Wilson fell into a confusion which no later 
 exponent of the " Rubaiyat " seems able to 
 escape. Closely on Mr. Wilson's footsteps 
 followed a critic in The Spectator (March 1 1, 
 
32 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1872 
 
 1876), who differed from Mr. Wilson on a 
 most material issue. Instead of regarding 
 Omar as " full of that unconscious faith which 
 complains to the Deity of its inability to com- 
 prehend the Divine/' he considered that his 
 poem should " take rank as the poem of 
 Revolt and Denial, the song of speculative 
 Nihilism and cynical Sensualism. ... As 
 for nobleness in any moral sense, it seems to 
 us utterly absent from this fine poem, which, 
 of course, should be judged by a Moham- 
 medan, and not by a Christian standard." 
 The writer sums up by bidding us " turn to 
 this far from pious poetry, the very poetry of 
 revolt and despair, and observe with what 
 majesty the mere infinitude of the panorama 
 is depicted, even on the author's assumption 
 that the whole panorama is an illusion and a 
 snare." 
 
 These quotations will show that more than 
 seven years before FitzGerald's death the cult 
 and anti-cult of Omar had each its prophet. 
 About the same time a very able and in- 
 structed lady began to devote her attention 
 
1872] OF FITZGERALD. 33 
 
 to the Persian poet as illuminated by his 
 English interpreter. In a letter written to 
 Mrs. Cowell on March n, 1877, FitzGerald 
 alludes to "some Lady's Edition of Omar 
 which is to discover all my Errors and Per- 
 versities " ("Letters," ii. 216). The labours 
 of Mrs. Cadell, undertaken under most dis- 
 couraging circumstances, and pursued with 
 an ardour which not even ill-health and 
 family cares could interrupt, resulted in an 
 article which appeared in Fraser's Magazine 
 for May, 1 879, under the title of " The True 
 Omar Khayam." Apart from its criticism of 
 Omar as a thinker, this paper had a value as 
 exhibiting the views of an acute and qualified 
 mind on the general merits of FitzGerald's 
 render ing.* Whilst giving due homage to 
 
 * Mrs. Cadell also executed a translation of the 
 " Rubaiyat," which was published in 1899, fifteen 
 years after her death, with a sympathetic memoir by 
 Dr. Richard Garnett, C.B. (London : John Lane, pp. 
 xxx +52). The versification is irregular, and the 
 metrical difficulties inherent in her plan are only too 
 apparent, but, as Dr. Garnett has justly pointed out, 
 her sympathy with Omar has rendered her more of a 
 
 3 
 
34 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1872 
 
 the beautiful English verse which formed the 
 vehicle in which the Persian's thoughts were 
 conveyed, the critic expressed less satisfaction 
 with the work as a translation. One sentence 
 is worth quoting, because it seems to give 
 the key to the popularity of the poem at the 
 present day : 
 
 " Its inexactness has allowed the infusion of a modern 
 element, which we believe to exist in the Persian only 
 in the sense in which the deepest questions of modern 
 life are of all time. Its occasional obscurity, too, has 
 rather helped than hindered the impression of the 
 whole. People expect obscurity in a Persian writer of 
 the twelfth century even like it, as it leaves dark 
 corners which the mind can light up in anyway it pleases, 
 and regard what it finds there as one of the peculiar 
 beauties of Eastern thought." 
 
 All this seems very true. English-speak- 
 ing people would have cared but little for a 
 Persian poet of the twelfth century, if he had 
 merely represented the hopes, the fears, 
 the aspirations of that century. With un- 
 
 Persian than any of her competitors. There is a pain- 
 ful misprint on page xv, where 'Attar's poem, " Man- 
 tiku-t- air " is printed " Martih ut tari." 
 
1872] OF FITZGERALD. 35 
 
 intentional insight, FitzGerald infused his 
 poem with that spirit of modernity which 
 answered the needs of his generation. At 
 the close of a century, when the illusions 
 which surrounded its birth, the gay day- 
 dreams that gave colour to its youth, 
 the sobriety of middle life, are past and 
 gone, to be succeeded by the disappointing 
 realities of age and the fear of approaching 
 extinction, the mind of the world is hardly 
 in tune with the poetry of optimism. The 
 popularity of Omarism will be probably 
 periodic, but while the cult may be expected 
 to evaporate in the next change of atmo- 
 sphere, the beauty and distinction of the poem 
 and the music of its diction will still endure 
 with antiseptic power. 
 
 It may be added that a weird frontispiece 
 to this edition was designed and etched by 
 Mr. Edwin Edwards, the artist friend to 
 whom FitzGerald lent his house at the begin- 
 ning of 1871, and whose death in 1879 was 
 a source of sorrow to him. A few copies 
 of the etching were struck off, but it did not 
 
 32 
 
36 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1876 
 
 meet with the approval of FitzGerald, and 
 was consequently never used. 
 
 1876. 
 
 AGAMEMNON | a Tragedy | Taken from 
 ^schylus j London : | Bernard Quaritch, | 
 15 Piccadilly. | 1876. 
 
 Collation: Small quarto: pp. viii -f 80 (last page 
 blank and unnumbered, with ornament in centre), con- 
 sisting of: Title-page as above, with inscription on 
 verso : "The edition consists of 250 copies. | Bernard 
 Quaritch," pp. [i-ii] ; Preface, pp. [iiij-vi ; Dramatis 
 Personae, p. [vii] ; p. [viii, blank, with ornamental 
 scroll in centre]; Text, pp. [i]-79- The whole is 
 printed within an ornamental two-line border. Issued 
 in a half-Roxburgh binding, with cloth sides, lettered 
 in gold upwards along the back, " Agamemnon of 
 JEschylus." 
 
 It was to this (the first published) edition 
 that FitzGerald referred when writing to 
 Prof. C. E. Norton, August 21, 1877 : 
 
 4 Which also leads me to say that someone sent me 
 a number of your American Nation with a Review of 
 my redoubtable ' Agamemnon ': written by a superior 
 
1879] OF FITZGERALD. 37 
 
 hand, and, I think, quite discriminating in its distribu- 
 tion of Blame and Praise : though I will not say the 
 Praise was not more than deserved ; but it was where 
 deserved, I think " (" Letters," ii. 224). 
 
 I8 79 . 
 
 RUBAIYAT | OF | OMAR KHAYYAM; | AND 
 THE I SALAMAN AND ABSAL | OF | jAMf;| 
 Rendered into English Verse. | [Orna- 
 mental line.] | Bernard Quaritch ; 1 5 
 Piccadilly, London. | 1879. 
 
 Collation: Square octavo: pp. [iv] + pp. xvi (last 
 page unnumbered) + 1 12, consisting of: Half-title 
 " Poems | from the | Persian," pp. [i, ii, verso blank] ; 
 Frontispiece, as in first edition of** Salaman and Absal"; 
 Title-page as above, p. [iii, Imprint, " London:] 
 G. Norman and Son, printers, Maiden Lane, | Covent 
 Garden," p. iv] ; Title, " Rubaiyat | of | Omar Khay- 
 yam, | the astronomer-poet of Persia. | Rendered into 
 English Verse. | Fourth Edition." pp. [i, ii, verso 
 blank] ; [Introduction], pp. [iii]-xv ; p. [xvi, blank] ; 
 Text of " Rubaiyat," pp. [i]-2y ; Notes, pp. [28]-35 ; 
 p. [36 blank]; Half title, " Salaman and Absal," p. 
 [37] 5 P- [3 8 blank] ; Notice of Jamf's Life, pp. [39]- 
 50; Text, pp. [Sij-io;; Appendix, pp. [io8]-U2; 
 the whole within an ornamental one-line border. Issued 
 
38 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1879 
 
 in a half-Roxburgh binding, with cloth sides, lettered 
 in gold, " The | Rubaiyat | of | Omar | Khayyam. | 
 Salaman | and | Absal | of | Jamf. | English | Versions | 
 1879." 
 
 There is very little variation in the 
 " Rubaiyat " between this and the preceding 
 edition. Of the " Salaman and Absal " 
 FitzGerald wrote, in a letter to Mr. C. E. 
 Norton, dated May 18, 1879: "Jami is cut 
 down to two-thirds of his former propor- 
 tion, and very much improved, I think " 
 ("Letters," ii. 263; see also letters to Mr. 
 Schiitz Wilson, ibid^ ii. 325, 326). 
 
 1879. 
 [READINGS IN CRABBE.] 
 
 Collation : pp. [iv unnumbered] -f 242, consisting 
 of: Half-title, "Readings [ in | Crabbe's < Tales of 
 the Hall' " | pp. [i, ii, blank] ; Introductory Note, pp. 
 [iii, iv] ; Text, pp. [i]-242. At the bottom of p. 242 
 is the Imprint, " Billing & Sons, Printers, Guildford, 
 Surrey." Issued in red cloth boards, lettered upwards 
 along the back, " Readings in Crabbe." 
 
1879] OF FITZGERALD. 39 
 
 Messrs. Billing & Sons have been good 
 enough to inform me that they printed 350 
 copies of " Tales of the Hall " for Mr. Fitz- 
 Gerald in May, 1879; but the publication of 
 the work had been contemplated some years 
 previously. As far back as 1865 FitzGerald 
 asked his friend W. B. Donne to "sound 
 Murray at some good opportunity about a 
 Selection from Crabbe " ("Letters," ii. 67). 
 Mr. Murray, however, would not meddle 
 (ibid.y ii. 214). In December, 1876, Fitz- 
 Gerald wrote to Prof. C. E. Norton : 
 
 " I wish some American publisher would publish my 
 Edition of Tales of the Hall, edited by means of 
 Scissors and Paste, with a few words of plain Prose to 
 bridge over whole tracts of bad Verse ; not meaning to 
 improve the original, but to seduce hasty Readers to 
 study it " (ibid., ii. 211) 
 
 By October 15, 1878, the project had 
 really got under way, for, writing to Mr. 
 J. R. Lowell on that date, FitzGerald said : 
 
 " Here am I back again at my old Desk for all the 
 Winter, I suppose, with my old Crabbe once more open 
 before me, disembowelled too ; for I positively meditate 
 a Volume made up of * Readings ' from his Tales of 
 
40 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1879 
 
 the Hall, that is, all his better Verse connected with as 
 few words of my own Prose as will connect it intel- 
 ligibly together" (ibid., ii. 258). 
 
 In May, 1879, ne was a ^ e to sen< ^ co pi es 
 of his " Handbook " to his American friends 
 (ibid., ii. 264, 266), and a year later one was 
 given to Archbishop Trench (ibid.) ii. 284). 
 The copy from which the foregoing collation 
 is made was given to the late Sir W. Frederick 
 Pollock. The Introductory Note, consisting 
 of one leaf, contains the extract from Jeffrey's 
 article in The Edinburgh Review, 1819, which 
 was reprinted in the later revised " Introduc- 
 tion," and also the following remarks : 
 
 " In this abstract of the poem some readings of the 
 poet's original MS., quoted in his son's edition, have 
 been adopted in the text. 
 
 " Many omissions, and some transposal of the text, 
 have here and there occasioned the change of some 
 pronoun, or particle, connecting one paragraph with 
 another originally separated from it. 
 
 " And some words have inadvertently slipped from 
 my 'copy' into the text, of which (as of some other 
 errata) I subjoin the right reading, marked in italics." 
 
 Here follow the nineteen errata printed in 
 a note at p. xi of the 1883 issue. 
 
i88o-8i] OF FITZGERALD. 41 
 
 The " Readings in Crabbe " remained in 
 this state until February, 1881, when, as I 
 am informed by the printers, Messrs. Billing 
 & Sons, fifty-six copies of the " Introduc- 
 tion " in its original state were printed, and 
 the work, with this " Introduction," consti- 
 tuted the 1882 issue which I have described 
 below. In June, 1883, 200 copies of the 
 revised " Introduction " were printed, and it 
 is in this form that the work is most com- 
 monly met with. 
 
 1 880-8 1. 
 
 THE | DOWNFALL AND DEATH | OF | KING 
 QLDIPUS. | A Drama in Two Parts. | 
 Chiefly Taken from the | CEdipus Tyran- 
 nus and Colonaeus of | Sophocles. | The 
 I nter- Act Choruses are from Potter. 
 
 Collation : Octavo : pp. viii + 46 + 46 (last page 
 blank and unnumbered), consisting of : [Dedication to 
 Prof. C. E. Norton, beginning with "My dear N - ," 
 and signed " Littlegrange "], pp. [i]-viii ; Title-page as 
 above, verso blank, pp. [i, 2] ; Half-title, "Part I. 
 
42 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1880 
 
 CEdipus in Thebes. | Dramatis Persona? | ," pp. [3, 4, 
 verso blank] ; Text, pp. [5^46 ; Imprint at foot of p. 
 46, "Billing and Sons, Printers and Eecltrotypers [sic] 
 Guildford." Half-title, "The Downfall and Death 
 of | King CEdipus. | Part II. | CEdipus at Athens. | 
 Dramatis Personae," pp. [3, 4, verso blank] ; Text, pp. 
 [5]-45 ; Imprint at foot of p. 45, " Billing and Sons, 
 Printers and Electrotypers, Guildford." Pp. I, 2 of 
 the second part appear to have been cancelled, if they 
 ever existed. Each part was originally issued in a blue 
 paper wrapper, of which vestiges will be found on the 
 titles after the two parts were made up in one volume, 
 which was also issued in a blue paper wrapper. The 
 prefatory dedication (pp. i-viii) was first printed with the 
 second part. 
 
 I am indebted to the courtesy of the 
 printers, Messrs. Billing & Sons, of Guild- 
 ford, for the information that fifty copies of 
 the first part were printed by them in 
 February, 1 880, and fifty copies of the second 
 part in February, 1881 (not in March, 1880, 
 as stated in the catalogue of Mr. Gosse's 
 library). That catalogue is also incorrect in 
 stating that the paraphrase was written for 
 Mrs. Kemble. It was the " Agamemnon " 
 that was written for that lady, and the 
 " CEdipus " seems to have been printed with 
 
1881] OF FITZGERALD. 43 
 
 the object of gratifying FitzGerald's American 
 correspondent Prof. C. E. Norton (see a 
 letter to Mrs. Kemble, written in February, 
 1881). It was begun about the year 1868, 
 and then put aside (though looked at occa- 
 sionally) until the writer felt it had become a 
 ghost which must be laid. The first part 
 was dispatched to Prof. Norton on March 4, 
 1880, and the second part on March 13 in 
 the following year. After the two parts had 
 been printed, FitzGerald wrote what he 
 called " a sort of Choral Epilogue," which he 
 told Prof. Norton he could stick in or not as 
 he would. This epilogue, which was spoken 
 by the Chorus, has been printed by Mr. 
 Aldis Wright from a manuscript copy in his 
 " Letters and Literary Remains of Edward 
 FitzGerald," iii. 263. Further information 
 about the " CEdipus " is given in the 
 "Letters," ii. 258, 275, 278, 279, 301, 315, 
 3 l8 > 3 J 9) 3 21 5 " Letters to Fanny Kemble," 
 pp. 204, 207. 
 
44 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1882 
 
 1882. 
 
 EUPHRANOR, | A May-Day Conversation at 
 Cambridge, | " 'Tis Forty Years Since." 
 
 Collation: Octavo: pp. [ii] + 7o (last page blank 
 and unnumbered), consisting of: Half-title as above, 
 pp. [i-ii, verso blank] ; Text, pp. [i]-69- At the foot 
 of p. 69 is the imprint, "Billing and Sons, Printers, 
 Guildford and London." The headline, " Euphranor," 
 runs at the head of every page. Issued in a limp half- 
 binding, with roan back and greenish paper sides. 
 
 Messrs. Billing & Sons have informed me 
 that fifty copies only of this edition of 
 " Euphranor " were printed in May, 1882. 
 FitzGerald had occupied a part of the year 
 1 88 1 in "putting the Dialogue into shape," 
 as he considered the little tract was overdone, 
 and in some respects in bad taste, " being 
 disfigured by some confoundedly smart 
 writing in parts " (" Letters to Fanny 
 Kemble," p. 66). The result was the perfect 
 form in which the dialogue finally appeared, 
 and which FitzGerald himself, when sending 
 a copy to Prof. Norton, considered " a pretty 
 specimen of c chisell'd Cherrystone 
 
1 882] OF FITZGERALD. 45 
 
 (" Letters," ii. 329). It has been reprinted 
 in this final form in Mr. Aldis Wright's 
 edition of the " Letters and Literary Remains 
 of Edward FitzGerald," and in "Miscel- 
 lanies," 1900, pp. 59-153. Among the 
 additions were the beautiful anecdote of the 
 " Child and the Sunbeam," told in connexion 
 with Tennyson on p. 25,* and the enlarge- 
 ment of the character-sketch of Tennyson on 
 p. 56. This sketch, taken in conjunction 
 with his memoirs of Bernard Barton and of 
 the younger Crabbe, proves that as a literary 
 portrait painter FitzGerald was not excelled 
 by any writer of the century. A copy of 
 this edition was sent to Hallam Tennyson 
 with a charming letter which has been printed 
 in the "Letters," ii. 328, and in the 
 " Memoir of Lord Tennyson," ii. 272. 
 
 * See also his letter to Archbishop Trench, under 
 date July 3, 1861 ( 4< Letters," ii. 23). 
 
46 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1882 
 
 1882. 
 
 READINGS IN CRABBE. | "Tales of the 
 Hall." | London : Bernard Quaritch. | 
 1882. 
 
 Collation : Small octavo : pp. xvi-f 242, consisting 
 of": Title-page as above, pp. [i, ii, verso blank] ; Intro- 
 duction, pp. [iii]-xiv; Two pages, pp. [xv, xvi, blank 
 and unnumbered] ; Text, pp. [i]-242. A Note, with 
 quotation from a Tale not included in the volume, is 
 pasted on p. 242, above the Imprint, " Billing and 
 Sons, Printers, Guildford, Surrey." Issued in green 
 cloth boards, lettered " Crabbe." 
 
 On March 7, 1883, FitzGerald wrote to 
 Prof. Norton : 
 
 " The Crabbe is the same I sent you some years ago ; 
 left in sheets, except the few copies I sent to friends. 
 And now I have tacked to it a little Introduction, and 
 sent forty copies to lie on Quaritch's counter : for I do 
 not suppose they will get further. And no great harm 
 done if they stay where they are." 
 
 I88 3 . 
 
 READINGS IN CRABBE. | "Tales of the 
 Hall." | London : Bernard Quaritch. | 
 1883. 
 
1 8 83] OF FITZGERALD. 47 
 
 Collation : Small octavo: pp. xvi + 244 (two last 
 pages unnumbered), consisting of : Title-page as above, 
 pp. [i, ii, verso blank] ; Introduction, pp. [iii]-xvi ; 
 Text, pp. [i]-242 ; a leaf containing the note which in 
 the issue of 1882 had been pasted on the last page 
 above the imprint, pp. [243, 244, both unnumbered 
 and last page blank]. Issued in crimson cloth boards, 
 lettered " Crabbe." 
 
 This issue is not a new edition. The text 
 is made up of the remainder of the 350 
 copies which were printed in May, 1879; 
 but just before his death FitzGerald directed 
 Messrs. Billing & Sons to print 200 copies 
 of a new and revised introduction, which he 
 had rewritten chiefly in order to introduce a 
 quotation from one of Newman's " Dis- 
 courses," which had been brought to his 
 notice by Mr. Leslie Stephen (" Letters," ii. 
 341). In doing this he enlarged to four 
 pages the two and a half at the end of the 
 introduction beginning at " I feel bound to 
 make all apology." He also introduced a 
 footnote on p. v. FitzGerald died on June 
 14, 1883, and these sheets were not ready 
 for delivery till the following month. Most 
 
48 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1883 
 
 of the copies seem to have come into posses- 
 sion of the late Mr. Quaritch, from whom I 
 remember buying a copy for a shilling or two 
 almost immediately after the writer's death. 
 The introduction, in its revised form, has 
 been reprinted by Mr. Aldis Wright in his 
 " Letters and Remains of Edward Fitz- 
 Gerald," and in "Miscellanies," 1900, pp. 
 1 84-200. 
 
 [Uncertain Date.] 
 
 THE Two GENERALS. I. Lucius ^Emilius 
 Paullus. II. Sir Charles Napier. 
 
 Collation : Small quarto . pp. 8 (last two blank 
 and unnumbered). 
 
 These two poems were printed privately 
 on a single sheet of paper, paged from i to 6. 
 They had apparently been offered to Mac- 
 millans Magazine and declined. In a letter 
 to Prof. E. B. Cowell, dated May 28, 1868, 
 FitzGerald wrote : 
 
 " I am sorry to trouble you about Macmillan : I 
 should not have done so had I kept my Copy with your 
 
OF FIJZGERALD. 49 
 
 corrections as well as my own. As Lamb said of him- 
 self, so I say ; that I never had any Luck with print- 
 ing : I certainly don't mean that I have had much 
 cause to complain : but, for instance, I know that Livy 
 and Napier, put into good Verse, arc just worth a 
 corner in one of the swarm of Shilling Monthlies" 
 ("Letters," ii. 105). 
 
 On July 25, 1868, he wrote to the same 
 correspondent : 
 
 "I only wanted Macmillan to return the Verses if 
 he wouldn't use them, because of my having no cor- 
 rected Copy of them." 
 
 Probably they had been written several years 
 before, as Mr. Francis Hindes Groome found 
 a copy of " Lucius ^milius Paullus " in a 
 MS. note-book belonging to his father, Arch- 
 deacon Groome, which he has reprinted in 
 his delightful book "Two Suffolk Friends." 
 This version differs considerably from that 
 given by Mr. Aldis Wright in the "Letters 
 and Literary Remains of Edward Fitz- 
 Gerald," ii. 483, which is a reprint of the 
 privately printed sheet. 
 
50 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1889 
 
 II.POSTHUMOUS WORKS. 
 
 1889. 
 
 LETTERS | AND | LITERARY REMAINS | OF 
 | EDWARD FITZGERALD | Edited by | 
 William Aldis Wright | In Three Volumes. 
 | Vol. I. [II., III.] | London: | Macmillan 
 and Co. | and New York. | 1889. | [All 
 Rights Reserved.] 
 
 Collation: Crown octavo: Vol. I. pp. xii + 5O2 
 and 2 pp. advertisements, consisting of : Half-title, pp. 
 [i, ii, publishers' monogram on verso] ; Frontispiece ; 
 Title-page as above, pp. [iii, iv, verso blank] ; Contents, 
 pp. [v, vi, verso blank] ; Preface, pp. [vii]-xii ; Text, 
 pp. [i]-499 ; p. [500, blank] ; Index to the Letters, 
 pp. [501], 502; Imprint at foot of p. 502, "Cam- 
 bridge : Printed by C. J. Clay, M.A. and Sons, at the 
 University Press." Vol. II. pp. vi + 488, consisting of: 
 Half-title, pp. [i, ii, monogram on verso] ; Frontis- 
 piece ; Title-page as above, pp. [iii, iv, Imprint as 
 above, on verso] ; Contents, pp. [v] ; p. [vi, blank] ; 
 Text, pp. [i]-488 ; Imprint at foot of p. 488. Vol. III. 
 pp. vi + 492, consisting of: Half-title, pp. [i, ii, mono- 
 gram on verso] ; Frontispiece ; Title-page as above, pp. 
 [iii, iv, Imprint on verso] ; Contents, p. [v] ; p. [vi, 
 blank]; Text, pp. [i>492. 
 
1889] OF FITZGERALD. 51 
 
 The frontispiece of the first volume is a 
 bust-portrait of FitzGerald, engraved on steel 
 by G. J. Stodart after a photograph by Messrs. 
 Cade and White, of Ipswich, which was taken 
 in 1873, when FitzGerald was sixty-four 
 years of age ; that of the second volume is 
 a picture of " Little Grange," Woodbridge, 
 engraved on wood ; and that of the third 
 volume is the " Game of Chugan," which 
 originally figured as a frontispiece to "Sala- 
 man and Absal." 
 
 The following pieces were printed for the 
 first time in this collection from MSS. left 
 by Edward FitzGerald : 
 
 "The Bird Parliament," ii. 431. (From the Persian 
 of 'Attar's " Mantik-ut-Tair.") 
 " Bredfield Hall," iii. 458. 
 " Translation from Petrarch," iii. 466. 
 " Written by Petrarch in his Virgil," iii. 492. 
 
 Mr. Aldis Wright says, with reference to 
 " Bredfield Hall," that " these verses on his 
 old home were written originally by Fitz- 
 Gerald as early as 1839, an d communicated 
 by him to Bernard Barton." In a letter to 
 
 42 
 
52 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1891 
 
 Barton, dated October 20, 1839, FitzGerald 
 says : 
 
 " Thank you for the picture of my dear old Bredfield 
 which you have secured for me : it is most welcome. 
 Poor Nursey once made me a very pretty oil sketch of 
 it ; but I gave it to Mr. Jenney. By all means have it 
 engraved for the pocket book; it is well worthy" 
 (" Letters/' i. 63). 
 
 The " pocket book " of which mention is 
 here made was doubtless Fulcher's " Sudbury 
 Pocket Book," to which Barton was a constant 
 contributor, and the question suggests itself 
 whether FitzGerald's verses may not have 
 appeared in that periodical, as an accompani- 
 ment to the picture of the house. 
 
 1891. 
 OCCASIONAL VERSES. 
 
 In February, 1891, Mr. Aldis Wright 
 printed privately twenty-five copies of some 
 verses by FitzGerald in a leaflet of four 
 pages, uniform in size with "The Letters 
 
1894] OF FITZGERALD. 53 
 
 and Literary Remains.'* The verses, with a 
 short introductory paragraph, were as follows: 
 " To a Lady Singing," [" On Anne Allen "], 
 and [" To a Violet "]. The last two pieces 
 had never been printed before, but the last 
 two stanzas of the first piece, which were 
 enclosed in a letter to John Allen, written in 
 December, 1837, were printed in "Letters 
 and Literary Remains," i. 16, and afterwards 
 in "Letters," i. 19, to which were added in 
 a note the first two stanzas, which Mr. Aldis 
 Wright had been enabled to recover through 
 the kindness of Mr. Thomas Allen. The 
 " Occasional Verses " were published in 
 "Miscellanies," 1900, pp. 203-207. 
 
 1894. 
 
 LETTERS | OF | EDWARD FITZGERALD | In 
 Two Volumes | Vol. I. [II.] London | 
 Macmillan and Co. | and New York | 
 1894 | All rights reserved. 
 
 Collation: Globe octavo: Vol. I. pp. 
 
54 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1895 
 
 (last two unnumbered), consisting of: Half-title, pp. 
 [i, ii, publishers' monogram on verso] ; Frontispiece ; 
 Title-page as above, p. [iii] ; p. [iv blank] ; Preface, 
 pp. [v]-vi ; Preface to Letters and Literary Remains, 
 pp. [vii]-xiv ; Text, pp. [i]-348 ; Index to Letters, p. 
 [349] J P- [35 w i tn Imprint, " Printed by R. and R. 
 Clark, Edinburgh "] ; Advertisement of " Eversley 
 Series," one leaf unpaged. Vol. II. pp. [iv] + 368, 
 consisting of : Half-title, pp. [i, ii, publishers' monogram 
 on verso] ; Frontispiece ; Title-page as above, p. [iii] ; 
 p. [iv blank]; Text, pp. [i>349 J P- [35 blank]; 
 Index to Letters, pp. [351], 352; Index, pp. [353]- 
 368 ; Imprint as above at foot of p. 368. 
 
 The frontispieces of the two volumes are 
 identical with those of the first two volumes 
 of "Letters and Literary Remains/' 1889. 
 
 This collection, which was edited by Mr. 
 Aldis Wright, contains several letters which 
 were not included in the edition of 1889. 
 It belongs to Messrs. Macmillan's well-known 
 " Eversley Series." 
 
 1895. 
 
 LETTERS | OF | EDWARD FITZGERALD | TO 
 | FANNY KEMBLE | 1871-1883. | Edited 
 
1895] OF FITZGERALD. 55 
 
 by | William Aldis Wright. | [Publishers' 
 monogram.] London : | Richard Bentley 
 and Son, | Publishers in Ordinary to Her 
 Majesty. | 1895. ( ^11 righ ts res erved. ) 
 
 Collation: Globe octavo : pp. [vij + ijo, last page 
 unnumbered, consisting of : Half-title, p. [i] ; p. [ii, 
 blank] : Frontispiece ; Title-page as above, pp. [i, ii, 
 verso blank] ; [Introductory Note, p. v] : p. [vi, 
 blank] ; Portrait of Mrs. Kcmble ; Text, pp. [l]-26z; 
 Index, pp. [z63]-269 ; Imprint at foot of p. 269, 
 " Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, | 
 London and Beccles. 7. D. & Co."; p. [270, blank]. 
 
 The frontispiece is a portrait of FitzGerald, 
 engraved on steel by RofFe from the photo- 
 graph of Messrs. Cade and White. The 
 portrait of Mrs. Kemble was begun by 
 G. J. Stodart for that lady's " Records of 
 Later Life," and finished by RofFe for this 
 work, as I have been courteously informed 
 by Mr. Richard Bentley. The Introductory 
 Note, by Mr. Aldis Wright, is as follows : 
 
 " Of the letters which are contained in the present 
 volume, the first eighty-five were in the possession of 
 the late Mr. George Bentley, who took great interest 
 in their publication in The Temple Bar Magazine, and 
 
56 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY [1900 
 
 was in correspondence with the Editor until within a 
 short time of his death. The remainder were placed 
 in the Editor's hands by Mrs. Kemble in 1883, and of 
 these some were printed in whole or in part in Fitz- 
 Gerald's Letters and Literary Remains, which first 
 appeared in 1889." 
 
 The Letters to Fanny Kemble were 
 originally published in Temple Bar from 
 January to August, 1895 ( vo ^ IO 4> PP- 2 7> 
 
 !87i 335> 473 ; vo1 - IO 5> PP- 33, J 93> 35 8 > 
 486). 
 
 1900. 
 
 MISCELLANIES | by Edward FitzGerald | 
 London | Macmillan and Co., Limited | 
 New York : the Macmillan Company | 
 1 900 | All rights reserved. 
 
 Collation : lamo : pp. viii -f- 208 (last page unnum- 
 bered), consisting of : Half-title, pp. [i, ii, verso blank] ; 
 Title-page as above, printed in red and black, pp. [iii, 
 iv, verso blank] ; Preface, pp. [v], vi ; Contents, p. 
 [vii]; p. [viii, blank] ; Text, pp. [i]-2O7, with imprint 
 at foot of last page, " Printed by R. & R. Clark, 
 Limited, Edinburgh "; p. [208, blank] ; four pages of 
 
1 9 oo] OF FITZGERALD. 57 
 
 advertisements of Macmillan's Golden Treasury Scries, 
 in which this volume is included. 
 
 This little book was edited by Mr. W. 
 Aldis Wright, and the only piece included 
 in it which was actually printed for the first 
 time was ajeu cT esprit entitled " Red Boxes," 
 p. 20 1, which had been written by Fitz- 
 Gerald on the fly-leaf of a copy of Sir Arthur 
 Helps' " Essays in the Intervals of Business." 
 The other contents of the book have been 
 noted under their respective headings in this 
 Bibliography. 
 
 III. -CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOOKS 
 AND PERIODICALS. 
 
 HONE'S YEAR-BOOK, 1832. 
 
 " The Meadows in Spring," signed " Ep- 
 silon,"col. 510, under date April 30, 1831. 
 
 These verses have been republished by 
 Mr. Aldis Wright in the "Letters and 
 
58 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald," 
 i. 6, and in the "Letters," i. 7, with a short 
 account of their production, from which it 
 appears that, with a few alterations, they were 
 reprinted in The Athen#um^for July 9, 1831, 
 the editor of which journal supposed them to 
 have been written by Lamb, who declared in 
 a letter to Moxon, dated August, 1831, that 
 he envied the writer, because he felt he could 
 have done something like them (Lamb's 
 "Letters," Ainger's edition, ii. 273, 352). 
 Another slightly differing copy was discovered 
 some years ago in a commonplace book be- 
 longing to the late Archdeacon Allen, with 
 the heading " E. F. G.," and the date 
 "Naseby, Spring, 1831." 
 
 FULCHER'S POETICAL MISCELLANY. Pub- 
 lished by G. W. Fulcher, Sudbury, and 
 Suttaby & Co., London [1841 ]. " Chrono- 
 moros," signed "Anon.," p. 236. 
 
 This little book, of which a copy of the 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 59 
 
 second edition, issued in May, 1841, will be 
 found in the British Museum, is made up, 
 with a few exceptions, according to the 
 preface, of selections from the seventeen 
 volumes of Fulcher's " Sudbury Pocket 
 Book," of which no example appears to exist 
 in the national collection. I am therefore 
 unable to say whether the poem of " Chrono- 
 moros," which has been reprinted by Mr. 
 Aldis Wright in the " Letters and Literary 
 Remains of Edward FitzGerald," iii. 461, 
 appeared originally in the " Pocket Book " 
 or the " Miscellany." 
 
 THE TABLE-TALK OF JOHN SELDEN, ESQ. 
 With a Biographical Preface and Notes by 
 S. W. Singer, Esq. London, William 
 Pickering, 1847. 
 
 At the head of the Notes, p. 235, it is 
 stated : 
 
 " Part of the following Illustrations were kindly 
 communicated to the Editor by a gentleman to whom 
 
60 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 his best thanks are due, and whom it would have 
 afforded him great pleasure to be allowed to name." 
 
 This gentleman is understood to have 
 been Edward FitzGerald, and Mr. Aldis 
 Wright states that he has in his possession a 
 copy of the "Table-Talk " which FitzGerald 
 gave him about 1871 or 1872, with annota- 
 tions in his own handwriting, and these are 
 almost literally reproduced in the notes to 
 Singer's edition. Of this copy FitzGerald 
 wrote to Mr. Wright : 
 
 " What notes I have appended are worth nothing, 
 I suspect ; though I remember that the advice of the 
 present Chancellor [Lord Hatherley] was asked in some 
 cases" ("Letters," i., pp. 230, 231). 
 
 The notes exhibit extensive reading, but 
 there is nothing of an original character in 
 them. It is curious that the word " emer- 
 gencies/' to which FitzGerald had so strong 
 an objection, and of which he thought Blake 
 might have made a picture as he did of the 
 flea ("Letters," ii. 162), is used by Selden 
 himself in the phrase : " A Man must do 
 according to Accidents and Emergencies " 
 (p. 227). 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 61 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE POEMS AND LETTERS 
 OF BERNARD BARTON. Edited by his 
 Daughter. London : Hall, Virtue and 
 Co., 25, Paternoster Row. MDCCCXLIX. 
 
 To this volume FitzGerald contributed a 
 memoir (pp. ix-xxxvi, signed " E. F. G.") 
 which, in the opinion of competent judges, 
 ranks as a little masterpiece of biography. 
 In " delicacy of style, justice of appreciation, 
 and Tightness of proportion," it has been 
 held to be " a model of what such memoirs 
 should be " (Lucas, " Bernard Barton and 
 his Friends," prefatory note). FitzGerald 
 himself thought but little of it. In a letter 
 to Frederick Tennyson, dated December 7, 
 1849, he says : 
 
 " I have been obliged to turn Author on the very 
 smallest scale. My old friend Bernard Barton chose 
 to die in the early part of this year. . . . We have 
 made a Book out of his Letters and Poems, and pub- 
 lished it by subscription . . . and I have been obliged 
 to contribute a little dapper Memoir, as well as to 
 select bits of Letters, bits of Poems, &c. All that was 
 wanted is accomplished : many people subscribed. 
 Some of B. B.'s letters are pleasant,, I think, and when 
 
62 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 you come to England I will give you this little book 
 of incredibly small value" ("Letters," i. 251). 
 
 This memoir was reprinted for the first 
 time in " Miscellanies," 1900, pp. 1-48. 
 The book in which it originally appeared is 
 not a scarce one, and may be often met with 
 in booksellers' catalogues. 
 
 The Gentleman's Magazine. "The Rev. 
 George Crabbe." Signed " E. F. G." 
 (vol. cciii. pp. 562, 563, November, 1857). 
 
 This memoir of FitzGerald's old friend, 
 the Vicar of Bredfield, who died at the age 
 of seventy-two on September 16, 1857, is 
 marked by all the insight into character and 
 felicity of expression which seem to have 
 been native to FitzGerald whenever his pen 
 touched a biographical theme. It has been 
 reprinted by Mr. Aldis Wright in " Mis- 
 cellanies," 1900, pp. 173-177. 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 63 
 
 The East Anglian ; or, Notes and Queries on 
 subjects connected with the Counties of 
 Suffolk, Cambridge, and Essex. Edited 
 by Samuel Tymms, F.S.A., F.G.H.S., &c. 
 Lowestoft : Samuel Tymms, 60, High 
 Street. London : Whittaker and Co. : 
 Ave Maria Lane. 
 
 "Play-stalls," signed " F.," vol. i. p. 71 
 (April, 1860). 
 
 "Orwell Wands," signed " F.," vol. i. p. 76 
 (April, 1860). 
 
 " East Anglian Songs," signed " F.," vol. i. 
 p. 139 (July, 1860). 
 
 "The Vocabulary of the Sea-Board," signed 
 "F.," vol. i. p. 141 (July, 1860). 
 
 " Sea Words and Phrases along the Suffolk 
 Coast," preceded by a letter to the Editor, 
 signed " E. F. G.," vol. iii. pp. 347-363 
 (December, 1868, Nos. 95 and 96). 
 
 " Sea Words and Phrases along the Suffolk 
 Coast," preceded by a short letter to the 
 Editor, signed "E. F. G.," vol. iv. pp. 109- 
 
64 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 1 20 (pp. 1 1 6-1 1 8 contain some notes by 
 Mr. Aldis Wright, which were communi- 
 cated by him to FitzGerald). 
 
 " Additions to Forby's Vocabulary of East 
 Anglia," signed " E. F. G.," vol. iv. 
 pp. 128, 129. 
 
 " Errata " to above, vol. iv. p. 156. 
 
 "A Capfull of Sea-Slang for Christmas," 
 signed "E. F. G.," vol. iv. pp. 261-264. 
 
 I am unable to give the dates of the last 
 four articles, as the fourth volume of The 
 East Anglian was issued in undated numbers, 
 and not in quarterly parts, but they were 
 probably printed during 1869 and 1870, the 
 " Capfull " appearing in the November 
 number of the latter year. In a letter to 
 S. Laurence, dated February 27 (1870), 
 FitzGerald told him that he would send him 
 two little papers about the sea words and 
 phrases used about Lowestoft (" Letters," 
 ii. 115, 1 1 6), and it amused him to have 
 his three papers on the subject done up in 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 65 
 
 wrappers for presentation to his friends. 
 One of these copies, comprising only the 
 first part, which was formerly in my pos- 
 session, was enclosed in a pink wrapper, on 
 which was the following title : 
 
 Sea Words and Phrases | along the Suffolk Coast. | 
 No. I. | Extracted from the East Anglian Notes and 
 Queries, | January, 1869. | Lowestoft : | Samuel 
 Tymms, 60 High Street. | 1869. 
 
 These " Sea Words " were not reprinted 
 by Mr. Aldis Wright in the " Letters and 
 Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald," 
 but they will be found at the end of the 
 second volume of Mr. Quaritch's American 
 edition of FitzGerald's "Works." 
 
 Notes and Queries. " Anecdote Biography," 
 2 nd S. x. 123 (i 8 Aug., 1860). 
 
 "Old English Tunes," 2 nd S. x. 126 
 (18 Aug., 1860). 
 
 " Gonge : the Conge, Yarmouth " [and the 
 
 5 
 
66 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Gong at Lowestoft], 2 nd S. x. 137(18 Aug. , 
 1860). 
 
 " Latin, Greek, and Roman Metres," 2 nd S. 
 x. 139 (18 Aug., 1860). 
 
 " Harmonious Blacksmith," 2 nd S. x. 227 
 (22 Sept., 1860). 
 
 " Bachaumont's Memoires Secrets, Londres, 
 1778," 2 nd S. x. 447 (8 Dec., 1860). 
 
 "East Anglian Words," 2 nd S. xi. 63 
 (26 Jan., 1861). 
 
 At the end of this note is the following 
 query : 
 
 " Why will no one reprint the whole, or a good 
 abstract, of Dampier's fine 'Voyages'? and (now one 
 is about it) all Dryden's Prefaces, which Johnson 
 notices as things sui generis quite ?" 
 
 It will be seen that this idea is worked out 
 in a later note, and it clung to FitzGerald 
 till the end of his life, for in a letter to Mr. 
 Lowell, written in October, 1877, he returns 
 to the subject, and expresses the opinion that 
 " Dryden's Prose, quoad Prose, is the finest 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 67 
 
 Style of all " (" Letters/' ii. 227, 228). In 
 a letter to Lady Tennyson (1862) he wrote : 
 
 " I have been almost tempted to write you out some 
 morsels of Dampier's ' Voyages' which I copied out for 
 myself: so fine as they are in their way, I think" 
 ("Alfred Lord Tennyson : a Memoir," 1897, i. 515). 
 
 "France Past and Present," 2 nd S. xi. 107 
 
 (9 Feb., 1861). 
 " Dryden's Prefaces," 2 nd S. xi. 125 (16 Feb., 
 
 1861). 
 "Whittington and his Cat," 2 nd S. xi. 372 
 
 (n May, 1861). 
 "Memoranda," 2 nd S. xi. 377 (n May, 
 
 1861). 
 "Detrus [Petrus]," 2 nd S. xi. 415 (25 May, 
 
 1861). 
 
 All these communications to N. and Q. 
 were signed by the characteristic name of 
 " Parathina," which suited well one who 
 loved the sea as FitzGerald did. " My chief 
 Amusement in Life is Boating, on River and 
 Sea," he told Professor Cowell just three 
 days before his last note appeared. It has 
 
 r o 
 
68 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 been suggested that he sometimes used the 
 signature " Epsilon " in N. and Q., but I 
 have not found any communication over 
 that signature which can be indisputably set 
 down as Edward FitzGerald's. It is curious 
 that all his communications should be con- 
 fined to two volumes of the series. 
 
 The Ipswich Journal. "Death of Bernard 
 Barton" (24 Feb., 1849). 
 
 "Funeral of Bernard Barton" (3 March, 1 849). 
 
 These two communications were reprinted 
 by Mr. Aldis Wright in " Miscellanies," 
 1900, pp. 49, 57. The affecting lines at the 
 end of the second extract were published by 
 Mr. E. Verrall Lucas as a fitting conclusion 
 to his little book, "Bernard Barton and his 
 Friends," 1893, P- J 9 2 - 
 
 The Ipswich journal (Suffolk Notes and 
 Queries), 1877-78 : "Limb" (No. VII.). 
 
 " Rev. John Carter of Bramford " (No. VII.). 
 " Duzzy " (No. XIX.). 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 69 
 
 " East Anglian Query " [as to the rime 
 
 " He who would old England win 
 At Weybournc Hoopc must first begin "] 
 
 (No. XXL). 
 
 " Norfolk Superstition " [as to All Hallows 
 
 Eve] (No. XXII.). 
 " Major Moor, David Hume, and the Royal 
 
 George " (No. XXIII.). 
 
 " Suffolk Minstrelsy " (No. L.). 
 
 All these contributions were signed 
 "Effigy," /'.<?., E. F. G. A few of them 
 have been reprinted by Mr. Francis Hindes 
 Groome in his "Two Suffolk Friends,'* 
 pp. 78-80. 
 
 Temple "Bar^ a London Magazine for Town 
 and Country Readers. " Percival Stock- 
 dale and Baldock Black Horse," no signa- 
 ture, vol. Iviii. p. 21 (Jan., 1880, No. 230). 
 
 "These notes concerning Baldock Mill and Church- 
 yard were taken during a visit there in the spring of 
 1857, just one hundred years after poor 'Stockey's' 
 visit, perhaps even to a day, for a large oak-apple 
 
7 o THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 bough had just, I remember, been hoisted on the 
 steeple in annual memory of King Charles" (tf, 
 " Letters," i. 332, for this visit to Bedfordshire). 
 
 This paper has never been reprinted. 
 
 "Virgil's Garden laid out a la Delille," no 
 signature, vol. Ixiv. p. 597 (April, 1882, 
 No. 257). 
 
 In a letter to Professor C. E. Norton, dated 
 9 June, 1882, FitzGerald wrote : 
 
 " I will enclose some pretty Verses, some twenty 
 years old, which I sent to Temple Bar, which repaid 
 me (as I deserved) with a dozen copies " (" Letters," 
 " 33)- 
 
 These verses were reprinted by Mr. Aldis 
 Wright in the " Letters and Literary Remains 
 of Edward FitzGerald," iii. 464. 
 
 It is generally known that FitzGerald was 
 fond of printing off a few copies of any 
 literary waif or stray which happened to 
 strike his fancy. These trifles do not, of 
 course, fall within the scope of these notes, 
 but one or two maybe mentioned. In June, 
 1878, he reprinted from The Ipswich Journal 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 71 
 
 some copies of Archdeacon Groome's story 
 of " The Only Darter," which many people 
 will agree with him in thinking " a beautiful 
 Suffolk Idyll" ("Letters," ii. 252, 253); in 
 November, 1872, he reprinted a few copies 
 of Byron's verses on "Rogers" (ibid. y ii. 
 144); and on December 12, 1876, he wrote 
 to Miss Thackeray, asking her to approve of 
 his printing three stanzas of her father's 
 " Ho, pretty Page," which he had adapted 
 to an old Cambridge tune. Of a somewhat 
 kindred nature were his " last Great Work," 
 a calendar of Charles Lamb's life, in four 
 pages ("Letters," ii. 239, 242, 247), which 
 he drew up when nearly seventy years of 
 age, as a kind of aide me moire in the perusal 
 of the letters,* and the dictionary of the 
 dramatis person* figuring in the " Corre- 
 spondence of Madame de Sevigne " (ibid., 
 ii. 217, 289). From a letter to Mrs. Kemble, 
 p. 126, it would appear that this dictionary, 
 
 * This Calendar has been reprinted by Mr. Aldis 
 Wright in "Miscellanies," 1900, p. 178, from a copy 
 annotated in FitzGerald's own hand. 
 
72 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 which remained in manuscript, and is now in 
 the possession of Mr. Aldis Wright, was 
 begun in the spring of 1877. 
 
 I may also refer readers interested in the 
 growth of FitzGerald's mind and the forma- 
 tion of his habits of thought to an interesting 
 account of a commonplace book formerly in 
 his possession, which originally appeared in 
 The Bookman for May, 1892, and was re- 
 printed in " Literary Anecdotes of the Nine- 
 teenth Century," ii. 387. Whether this was 
 the " Paradise " to which he occasionally 
 refers in his earlier letters I am unable to say. 
 
 The life of FitzGerald is written in his 
 letters, and no memoir of such a man, 
 whether "dapper" in his own delightful 
 style, or the perfunctory effusion of the 
 official biographer, can be other than un- 
 welcome to those who really understand his 
 character.* But many notices of him are in 
 
 * Since this was written, Mr. Clyde's " Memoir of 
 FitzGerald " has made its appearance. Though drawn 
 up with the best intentions, it has not induced me to 
 alter the opinion which I have expressed in the text. 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 73 
 
 existence, the principal of which it may not 
 be inopportune to enumerate. The charming 
 little sketch by Mr. Aldis Wright, which 
 appeared in The Athen<eum for June 23, 
 1883, a few days after FitzGerald's death, 
 has been followed by a fuller memoir in the 
 " Dictionary of National Biography," and it 
 is to these sources that we must look for 
 authoritative information regarding his un- 
 eventful career. Of a more episodic nature 
 are Mr. F. H. Groome's silhouette in " Two 
 Suffolk Friends," in which several letters are 
 produced for the first time ; the present 
 Lord Tennyson's "Memoir" of his father, 
 in which, amongst other new letters, the 
 characteristic " Hints for Enoch Arden " 
 will be found ; Mr. E. V. Lucas's " Bernard 
 Barton and his Friends," which reproduces 
 the greater part of FitzGerald's memoir of 
 the poet ; and Mr. Gosse's luminous essay in 
 " Critical Kit-Kats." Of slighter texture, so 
 far as regards a connexion with FitzGerald, 
 are the " Personal Recollections of Sir 
 Frederick Pollock," the "Life of Lord 
 
74 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FITZGERALD. 
 
 Houghton," the " Memoirs of Percy Fitz- 
 Gerald," the "Life of Archdeacon Allen," 
 Dr. Knapp's " Life of George Borrow," and 
 Mr. Layard's book on Charles Keene ; and 
 last, but by no means least, Mrs. Richmond 
 Ritchie's graceful introductions to the " Bio- 
 graphical Edition " of her father's works. 
 It is tempting to the biographical mind to 
 endeavour to collect and co-ordinate the vital 
 statistics which are scattered through these 
 various volumes, but the horror with which 
 FitzGerald would have regarded such an 
 attempt it requires no effort of imagination 
 to depict, when we remember the terms in 
 which he habitually spoke of the numerous 
 efforts that were made to give honorific 
 treatment to the genius of his friend Carlyle. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 CRABBE'S "SUFFOLK" 
 Prime : 
 
 " We prune our hedges, prime our slender trees, 
 And nothing looks untutored, or at ease." Borough. 
 
 Moor defines "priming; pruning the 
 lower, or wash boughs of a tree." But 
 Forby, " to trim up the stems ; to give them 
 the first dressing in order to make them look 
 shapely " ; which accords more with the 
 original meaning of the word and with 
 Crabbe's use of it. 
 
 But Crabbe has another word on the same 
 subject, which is not found in Moor or 
 Forby and where else ? in such a sense ; 
 in which sense I am persuaded it was used, 
 by some Suffolk people at least, from whom 
 
76 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Crabbe caught it carelessly up. It has the 
 true Suffolk stamp about it. 
 
 " Where those dark shrubs, that now grow wild at will, 
 Were clipped in form, and tantalised with skill." 
 
 Parish Register. 
 
 We should now, perhaps, say " titivated/ 1 
 
 Tantalize, Dogmatize, Moralize, etc., we 
 are all familiarized with in some way or other. 
 So much cannot be said for another such 
 word, as properly formed, which Crabbe uses, 
 but did not pick up in Suffolk, I think. A 
 too happy lover tells of having, in the midst 
 of his own exultation, met a poor unhappy 
 man ; 
 
 " And I was thankful for the moral sight, 
 Which soberized the vast and wild delight," 
 
 Well, the word is worthy of the lines, and 
 the lines of the foolish story they wind up. 
 And this inequality and disproportion it is 
 this " loose screw " in so great a faculty, 
 together with great carelessness in his later 
 poems, and a want of what is called Art in 
 all that weighs down the popularity of a 
 writer, whose couplets Johnson, Pope, and 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 77 
 
 Dryden might have familiarly quoted, and 
 whose whole poems, with all their imper- 
 fections, will live, old Wordsworth says, at 
 least as long as anything written since in- 
 cluding his own. 
 
 Conceit : In the sense of conception, noun 
 and verb. " I du conceit " pronounced, of 
 course, " concite." 
 
 Ruth's father and mother have been wait- 
 ing for her (the passage is so fine that it is 
 even a pleasure to transcribe, and I think no 
 one will grudge to read it) from morning till 
 evening : 
 
 " Still she came not home ; 
 
 The night grew dark and yet she was not come ; 
 The east wind roared, the sea return'd the sound, 
 And the rain fell as if" the world were drown'd. 
 There were no lights without ; and my good man, 
 To kindness frighten'd, with a groan began 
 To talk of Ruth, and pray ; and then he took 
 The Bible down, and read the Holy Book ; 
 For he had learning ; and when that was done, 
 We sat in silence * Whither can we run ?' 
 We said, and then ran frighten'd from the door, 
 For we could bear our own conceit no more." 
 
 What became of Ruth ? Let every good 
 
78 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 East Anglian who can afford it buy the book 
 and see. What a Dryden line, the fourth ! 
 
 Like : As we take the word in full to the 
 end of an adjective ; adjective//^, not ad- 
 jective/jy. 
 
 I am sorry to find this good old form sup- 
 planted by a vile compound. Instead of the 
 sky looking squally-like^ rainy-like^ " my dear 
 friends" will say " squallified, minified" etc., 
 for which they deserve a round dozen. 
 Fui 'i us Troes. 
 
 But to return to Crabbe. His word occurs 
 in another passage, so fine that I must trans- 
 scribe one of the best glimpses of a ghost 
 I know because it if but a glimpse : 
 
 " I loved in summer on the heath to walk, 
 And seek the shepherd shepherds love to talk ; 
 His boy, his Joe, he said, from duty ran, 
 Took to the sea, and grew a fearless man 
 On yonder knoll the sheep were in the fold 
 His spirit passed me, shivering-like and cold ; 
 I felt a fluttering, but I knew not how, 
 And heard him utter, like a whisper, * Now /* 
 Soon came a letter from a friend to tell 
 That he had fallen, and the hour he fell." 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 79 
 
 Dole: A word we are very familiar with, 
 especially on the coast, where Crabbe heard 
 of it before his A B C : 
 
 " His very soul was not his own ; he stole 
 As others ordered, and without a dole" 
 
 Parish Register. 
 
 Without having any share in the plunder, as 
 we know ; but I wonder if the word was 
 generally understood ? Crabbe felt called on 
 to explain it by a note in another poem : 
 
 " He was a fisher from his earliest day, 
 And placed "(No! no! remember your old Aldbro' !) 
 
 " And shot his nets within the borough's bay; 
 There by his skates, his herrings, and his soles, 
 He lived, nor dreamed of Corporation-doles."* 
 
 Borough Election. 
 
 Lastly, the poet in several instances dis- 
 misses the final s from the third person 
 singular, after our oriental fashion. I 
 
 * " I am informed that some explanation is here 
 necessary, though I am ignorant for what class of 
 readers it can be required." And he goes on to explain 
 everything ; except the word^ which simply means a 
 share, whether of a boat's earnings or of Corporation 
 funds. 
 
8o THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 confess to a liking for this, partly because of 
 its ridding us of one hiss from our hissing 
 language. And why, as Forby asks, should 
 there be such an addition to this single person 
 of the verb ? He remarks that the auxiliary 
 verbs do not follow the rule ; and he quotes 
 the conjugation of Icelandic her (porto} to 
 prove that our Suffolk usage has very ancient 
 precedent in its favour : first person ber, 
 second ber, third ber that is, " I bear, you 
 bear, he bear," just as we Suffolk people now 
 talk. Therefore, / say, that when Crabbe 
 say so, it do not shock me, though I would 
 not adopt the usage from him at this time of 
 day. And, certainly, if I wrote verse meant 
 to last (as I am sure Crabbe's will last, though 
 I am not sure that he reckoned upon it), I 
 would take care to stick to the tongue that 
 Shakespeare, Bacon, and our Bible have fixed 
 for us. 
 
 There are several instances in his books ; 
 but I content myself with two : one of which 
 was recited at the Literary Fund Dinner by 
 a poet, who never made any such mistakes 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 81 
 
 W. T. Fitz-Gerald and the other passed 
 without a comment under Johnson's own 
 eyes.* But the old lion's eye was fast 
 dimming then. 
 
 " When our relief from such resources rise, 
 All painful sense of obligation dies." 
 
 Borough Curate. 
 
 " No ; cast by fortune on a frowning coast, 
 Which neither groves nor happy valleys boast" etc. 
 
 tillage. 
 
 To be sure, the rhyme might have 
 him, must we say ? or, perhaps, what will 
 sometimes happen, the other plural noun in 
 the sentence. 
 
 One maxim of Johnson's made a deep 
 impression on Crabbe's mind, says his Bio- 
 grapher : " Never fear putting the strongest 
 and best things you can think of into the 
 mouth of your speaker, whatever may be his 
 condition." This reminds one a little of 
 
 * " He is not to think his copy wantonly defaced : a 
 wet sponge will wash all the red lines away, and leave 
 the pages clean " (Johnson on returning the MS. of 
 < The Village " to Sir Joshua). 
 
 6 
 
82 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Goldsmith's joke, that if Johnson had to 
 make animals speak, his sprats would talk as 
 big as whales. Johnson certainly misrepre- 
 sented his own great powers by acting on his 
 own advice ; and his pupil, who has been 
 called Nature's best and sternest painter, and 
 who certainly had as keen insight as any into 
 the larger half of human nature, sometimes 
 loses his strong outline by daubing over it. 
 And this with subjects he had been most 
 familiar with. He does not make fishes talk, 
 but he himself talks of the porpoise having 
 been seen rolling about the day before a 
 gale 
 
 "Dark as the cloud and furious as the storm/' 
 
 And the sailor, come from sea, with his 
 children on his knees, and his friends about 
 him, tells them of his dangers : 
 
 "When seas ran mountains high, 
 When tempest raved, when horrors veiled the sky ; 
 When in the yawning gulf far down we drove, 
 And gazed upon the billowy mount above, 
 Till up that mountain, swinging with the gale, 
 We z'ieiu'd the horrors of the watery vale." 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 83 
 
 When did he ever hear the like at Aldbro', 
 or elsewhere, from a sailor s mouth ? Crabbe 
 was thinking of Thomson and the poets of 
 the century which he was born in, and out 
 of which he had not quite risen into himself. 
 Compare the foregoing with the old shep- 
 herd's ghost, written twenty years after, 
 when, however, the poet began to err from 
 carelessness, as formerly from mistaken care, 
 perhaps. 
 
 # # % -ro >; 
 
 Having said thus much of the poet's 
 " Suffolk," I must give one word of it from 
 the capital biography of him by my noble 
 old friend, his son George, Vicar of Bred- 
 field, now gone the way of his father. In 
 the admirable account of Mr. Tovell's farm 
 at Parham a perfect Dutch interior he says 
 that, while master and mistress were at dinner 
 at the main table in the room, the " female 
 servants " were " at a side table called a 
 B outer" As I could not for a long while 
 get any explanation of this word, I thought 
 the meaning might be a table in a bight, or 
 
 62 
 
84 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 bought^ as sometimes called that is, in an 
 angle or corner of the room. At last I heard 
 of some farmers who knew the thing well, 
 that it was properly a " Boulter table," a sort 
 of covered hutch, with a machine inside to 
 boult the meal for household use ; and, when 
 not so used, with a cover or lid to go over, 
 which might serve as a table for a servant or 
 a chance guest. And Boulter might be pro- 
 nounced Bowter in the same way as (Moor 
 says, and we all know) colt is pronounced 
 c owt ; cold, cowd ; hold, howd, etc. 
 
 Mr. Nail was not contented with this ex- 
 planation, of which the farmers made no sort 
 of doubt ; he derives the word from Dutch 
 and Flemish die booden, the domestic servant. 
 So people must please themselves between 
 the learned etymologist who has to cross the 
 water for a derivation, and the unetymological 
 farmers who went no further for it than the 
 thing itself, which they had been familiar with 
 from infancy. 
 
 One story draws another. The mention 
 of Mr. Tovell's farm has recalled it to my 
 
OF FITZGERALD. 85 
 
 memory, and as it includes the poet, his 
 biographer, and one of the most venerable 
 of old Suffolk words, it shall close this gossip, 
 and leave the East Anglian to its usual tone 
 and topics. Whoever has read that account 
 of Parham Farm will remember that, not 
 Mr. Tovell, but " his Missis" is the chief 
 figure there. She was aunt to the Miss 
 Elmy whom the poet married, and used to 
 boast that " she could screw up old Crabbe 
 like a fiddle." In the " Life " there is a story 
 of this good lady once finding one of her 
 maids daring to scrub the parlour floor ! 
 an office sacred to Mrs. Tovell herself. " Tou 
 wash such floors as these ! Get down to the 
 scullery ! As true's God's in heaven, here 
 comes Lord Rochford to call on Mr. Tovell!" 
 etc. And she whips off a scrubbing-apron, 
 which she calls her " mantle" and goes down 
 to let his lordship in. It might have been this 
 same servant who, having been pursued one 
 day by her mistress, armed with a frying- 
 pan, said, when the chase was over, and she 
 could draw breath in safety : " Well, this I 
 
86 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 will say : if an angel of Htv'n was to come 
 down and live with Mauther for missis, she 
 couldn't give satisfaction." This the poet 
 heard : and this his son told me some happy 
 day or happy night. 
 
 ***** 
 At p. 238 of Mr. Timbs's very agreeable 
 " Anecdote Biography " I read : 
 
 " The author of a volume of ' Pen and Ink Sketches,' 
 published in 1847, relates that he was introduced to 
 Crabbe at a Conversazione at the Beccles Philosophical 
 Institution. The poet was seated in Cowper's arm- 
 chair, the same which the Bard of Olney occupied at 
 Mrs. Unwin's. * Pleased to see you, my young friend : 
 very pleased to see you,' said Crabbe to the author of 
 the ' Sketches ' : and after a little while he pointed to 
 the fine portrait of Burke by Sir Joshua Reynolds that 
 hung near him, and said, ' Very like, very like indeed. 
 I was in Sir Joshua's study when Burke sat for it. 
 Ah ! there was a man ! If ever you come to Trow- 
 bridge/ he added, * you must call at the vicarage, and 
 I'll show you a sketch of Burke, taken at Westminster 
 Hall, when he made his great speech in the Warren 
 Hastings case. Edmund left it to me ; it is only a 
 rude pencil drawing, but it gives more of the orator 
 than that picture does.' " 
 
 Having had the pleasure of knowing 
 
OF FITZGERALD, 87 
 
 Beccles and the poet Crabbe's family rather 
 intimately, I was startled with this new 
 anecdote ; and, inquiring in both these 
 quarters, I find, first, that there never was a 
 Philosophical Institute at Beccles, nor ever a 
 " Conversazione," except one, in connexion 
 with the Public Library, long after the poet's 
 death, nor Burke's portrait, nor Cowper's 
 arm-chair ever remembered in the town at 
 all. 
 
 " Beccles," however, may be a slip of the 
 author's or transcriber's pen for Norwich, 
 where Crabbe usually spent a day or two 
 with Mrs. Opie when he came this way, and 
 where Cowper's arm-chair, at least, may very 
 likely have been produced at some such Con- 
 versazione; but whence the portrait of Burke, 
 at the painting of which " I was in Sir 
 Joshua's study," etc. ? As to the " pencil 
 drawing " of Burke making " his great 
 speech," and left "by Edmund to me!" nothing 
 is remembered of it by any one of the poet's 
 surviving family ; one of whom, most com- 
 petent to speak, is quite certain that " it did 
 
88 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FITZGERALD. 
 
 not exist when the property was divided " 
 between the poet's two sons at his death ; and 
 such a relic was not likely to be overlooked. 
 The same person observes on the utter im- 
 probability of the language put into the 
 poet's mouth : " How difficult it was ever to 
 get him to speak in the country of the great 
 people he fell in with in town " ; how very 
 little given he was to invite strangers to his 
 house u not always civil to such as broke 
 in upon him," as a celebrity ; that whether 
 " Edmund left it to me" were a fact, such 
 were " certainly not his words " in telling of 
 it ; " he would have said * Mr. Burke,' ' 
 being, as everyone who knew him knows, 
 somewhat 0i^rformal in such punctilio. 
 
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