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LETTERS OF EDWARD FITZGERALD IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTINS STREET, LONDON 1910 First Edition 1894 Reprinted 1901, 1907, 1910 LETTKfefi. OF EDWARD FITZGERALD To 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 time 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 VOL. n B 2 LETTERS OF 1859 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 didnt 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 Transla tion 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. 1 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. 1 See note on Omar Khayydm, stanza xviii. 1859 EDWARD FITZGERALD 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 childs 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 familia words, Old Fellow Fitz etc., came forth, so spoken, I broke down too in spite of foregone Resolution. They thought hed 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. LETTERS OF 1859 To E. B. CowelL GELDESTONE HALL, BECCLES. April 27 1859 MY DEAR COWELL, Above is the Address you had better direct to in future. I have had a great Loss. W, Browne was fallen upon and half crushed by his horse near three months ago and though the Doctors kept giving hopes while he lay patiently for two months in a condition no one else could have borne for a Fortnight, at last they could do no more, nor Nature neither and he sunk...
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