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FITZGERALD, LORD E

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 443 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FITZGERALD, See also:LORD E . 443 (as he afterwards boasted) to the See also:penny See also:box on the bookstalls. But in ,86o See also:Rossetti discovered it, and See also:Swinburne and Lord See also:Houghton quickly followed. The Rubaiyat became slowly famous, but it was not until 1868 that FitzGerald was encouraged to See also:print a second and greatly revised edition. Meanwhile he had produced in 1865 a version of the See also:Agamemnon, and two more plays from See also:Calderon. In 188o–1881 he issued privately See also:translations of the two See also:Oedipus tragedies; his last publication was Readings in See also:Crabbe, 1882. He See also:left in See also:manuscript a version of See also:Attar's Mantic- Uttair under the See also:title of The See also:Bird See also:Parliament. From 1861 onwards FitzGerald's greatest See also:interest had centred in the See also:sea. In See also:June 1863 he bought a yacht, The See also:Scandal," and in 1867 he became See also:part-owner of a See also:herring-lugger, the " Meum and Tuum." For some years, till 1871, he spent the months from June to See also:October mainly in " knocking about somewhere outside of See also:Lowestoft." In this way, and among his books and See also:flowers, FitzGerald gradually became an old See also:man. On the 14th of June 1883 he passed away painlessly in his See also:sleep. He was " an idle See also:fellow, but one whose friendships were more like loves." In 1885 a stimulus was given to the steady advance of his fame by the fact that See also:Tennyson dedicated his Tiresias to FitzGerald's memory, in some touching reminiscent verses to Old Fitz." This was but the See also:signal for that universal appreciation of See also:Omar Khayyam in his See also:English See also:dress, which has been one of the curious See also:literary phenomena of See also:recent years. The See also:melody of FitzGerald's See also:verse is so exquisite, the thoughts he rearranges and strings together are so profound, and the See also:general See also:atmosphere of See also:poetry in which he steeps his version is so pure, that no surprise need be expressed at the universal favour which the poem has met with among See also:critical readers.

But its popularity has gone much deeper than this; it is now probably better known to the general public than any single poem of its class published since the See also:

year 186o, and its admirers have almost transcended See also:common sense in the extravagance of their laudation. FitzGerald married, in See also:middle See also:life, See also:Lucy, the daughter of See also:Bernard See also:Barton, the Quaker poet. Of FitzGerald as a man practically nothing was known until, in 1889, Mr W. Aldis See also:Wright, his intimate friend and literary executor, published his Letters and Literary Remains in three volumes. This was followed in 1895 by the Letters to Fanny See also:Kemble. These letters constitute a fresh bid for See also:immortality, since they discovered that FitzGerald was a witty, picturesque and sympathetic See also:letter-writer. One of the most unobtrusive authors who ever lived, FitzGerald has, nevertheless, by the force of his extraordinary individuality, gradually influenced the whole See also:face of English belles-lettres, in particular as it was manifested between 1890 and 1900. The See also:Works of See also:Edward FitzGerald appeared in 1887. See also a See also:chronological See also:list of FitzGerald's works (See also:Caxton See also:Club, See also:Chicago, 1899) ; notes for a bibliography by See also:Col. W. F. Prideaux, in Notes and Queries (9th See also:series, vol. vi.), published separately in 1901; Letters and Literary Remains (ed.

W. Aldis Wright, 1902–1903) ; and the Life of Edward FitzGerald, by See also:

Thomas Wright (1904), which contains a bibliography (vol. ii. pp. 241-243) and a list of See also:sources (vol. i. pp. xvi.-xvii.). The See also:volume on FitzGerald in the " English Men of Letters " series is by A. C. See also:Benson. The Fitz-Gerald See also:centenary was celebrated in See also:March 1909. See the Centenary Celebrations Souvenir (See also:Ipswich, 1909) and The Times for March 25, 1909. (E.

End of Article: FITZGERALD, LORD E

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