Letters of Edward FitzGerald

Letters of Edward FitzGerald in
Two Volumes,
by Edward
FitzGerald, Edited by William
Aldis Wright

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by Edward FitzGerald, Edited by William Aldis Wright
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Title: Letters of Edward FitzGerald in Two Volumes Vol. II
Author: Edward FitzGerald
Editor: William Aldis Wright
Release Date: February 6, 2007 [eBook #20539]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS

OF EDWARD FITZGERALD***

Transcribed from the 1901 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price,
email [email protected]

LETTERS OF EDWARD FITZGERALD
IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II
London MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK: THE
MACMILLAN COMPANY
1901
All rights reserved
First Edition 1894. Reprinted 1901
{The "Little Grange," Woodbridge: p0.jpg}

LETTERS OF EDWARD FITZGERALD
To E. B. Cowell.
88 GT. PORTLAND ST., LONDON, Jan. 13/59.
MY DEAR COWELL,
I have been here some five weeks: but before my Letter reaches you
shall probably have slid back into the Country somewhere. This is my
old Lodging, but new numbered. I have been almost alone here: having
seen even Spedding and Donne but two or three times. They are well
and go on as before. Spedding has got out the seventh volume of Bacon,
I believe: with Capital Prefaces to Henry VII., etc. But I have not yet
seen it. After vol. viii. (I think) there is to be a Pause: till Spedding has

set the Letters to his Mind. Then we shall see what he can make of his
Blackamoor. . . .
I am almost ashamed to write to you, so much have I forsaken Persian,
and even all good Books of late. There is no one now to 'prick the Sides
of my Intent'; Vaulting Ambition having long failed to do so! I took my
Omar from Fraser [? Parker], as I saw he didn't care for it; and also I
want to enlarge it to near as much again, of such Matter as he would
not dare to put in Fraser. If I print it, I shall do the impudence of
quoting your Account of Omar, and your Apology for his Freethinking:
it is not wholly my Apology, but you introduced him to me, and your
excuse extends to that which you have not ventured to quote, and I do. I
like your Apology extremely also, allowing its Point of View. I doubt
you will repent of ever having showed me the Book. I should like well
to have the Lithograph Copy of Omar which you tell of in your Note.
My Translation has its merit: but it misses a main one in Omar, which I
will leave you to find out. The Latin Versions, if they were corrected
into decent Latin, would be very much better. . . . I have forgotten to
write out for you a little Quatrain which Binning found written in
Persepolis; the Persian Tourists having the same propensity as English
to write their Names and Sentiments on their national Monuments. {2}
* * * * *
In the early part of 1859 his friend William Browne was terribly injured
by his horse falling upon him and lingered in great agony for several
weeks.
To W. B. Donne.
GOLDINGTON, BEDFORD. March 26 [1859].
MY DEAR DONNE,
Your folks told you on what Errand I left your house so abruptly. I was
not allowed to see W. B. the day I came: nor yesterday till 3 p.m.; when,
poor fellow, he tried to write a line to me, like a child's! and I went, and
saw, no longer the gay Lad, nor the healthy Man, I had known: but a

wreck of all that: a Face like Charles I. (after decapitation almost)
above the Clothes: and the poor shattered Body underneath lying as it
had lain eight weeks; such a case as the Doctor says he had never
known. Instead of the light utterance of other days too, came the slow
painful syllables in a far lower Key: and when the old familiar words,
'Old Fellow--Fitz'--etc., came forth, so spoken, I broke down too in
spite of foregone Resolution.
They thought he'd die last Night: but this Morning he is a little better:
but no hope. He has spoken of me in the Night, and (if he wishes) I
shall go again, provided his Wife and Doctor approve. But it agitates
him: and Tears he could not wipe away came to his Eyes. The poor
Wife bears up wonderfully.
To E. B. Cowell.
GELDESTONE HALL, BECCLES. April 27