Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/309

 1901; German trans, Leipzig, 1905); 'From the Hills of Dream,' poems and 'prose rhythms' (Edinb. 1896; new edit. Lond. 1907); 'The Laughter of Peterkin,' a Christmas book of Celtic tales for children (1897); and 'The Divine Adventure; Iona; By Sundown Shores' (1900), a series of essays. A Celtic play, by 'Fiona,' 'The House of Usna,' was performed by the Stage Society at the Globe Theatre on 29 April 1900; and after its appearance in the 'National Review' on 1 July was issued in book form in America in 1903. Another drama, 'The Immortal Hour,' was printed in the 'Fortnightly Review' (Nov. 1900; reissued posthumously in America in 1907 and in London in 1908). 'Fiona' was also a contributor of articles to periodicals, many of which were collected, as 'The Winged Destiny' (1904) and ' Where the Forest murmurs ' (1906). Selections of 'Fiona' tales appeared in the Tauchnitz series as 'Wind and Wave' (Leipzig, 1902; German trans. Leipzig, 1905; Danish trans. Stockholm, 1910), and as 'The Sunset of Old Tales' (1905). A uniform edition of 'Fiona's' works was published in England in 1910.

The secret of Sharp's responsibilities for the 'Fiona' literature was well kept in his lifetime. He sedulously encouraged the popular assumption that 'Fiona Macleod' was a young lady endowed with 'the dreamy Celtic genius.' Sharp contributed to 'Who's Who' a fictitious memoir of 'Fiona Macleod,' describing her favourite recreations as 'boating, hill-climbing, and hstening,' and he corresponded with her admiring readers through the hand of his sister. Educated Highland Celts detected in the books the imperfection of the supposed lady's Celtic equipment. While her work reflected the influence of old Celtic paganism, it was chiefly coloured by a rapturous worship of nature and mirrored the insistent vividness and weirdness of dreams.

Meanwhile Sharp, under his own name, found it needful, both for pecuniary reasons and for the preservation of the 'Fiona' mystery, to be as productive as before. Fiction mainly occupied him. Of two volumes of short stories, one, 'The Gypsy Christ,' published in America in 1895, was reissued in 1896 in England as 'Madge o' the Pool,' and the other, 'Ecce Puella,' appeared in London in 1896. Later works of fiction were 'Wives in Exile,' a comedy in romance (Boston, Mass. 1896; London 1898) and 'Silence Farm,' a tale of the Lowlands (1899). With Mrs. Sharp he edited in 1896 'Lyra Celtica,' an anthology of Celtic poetry, with introduction and notes; and there followed 'The Progress of Art in the Century' (1902; 2nd edit. 1906) and 'Literary Geography' (from the 'Pall Mall Magazine') (1904; 2nd edit. 1907). In 1896–7 he was also editor of a quarterly periodical, the ' Evergreen,' issued by the Grades firm. Two volumes of papers, critical and reminiscent, containing some of the best work of William Sharp, are included in a reissue of some of his writings (1912).

The 'Fiona' development, implying the 'continual play of the two forces in him, or of the two sides of his nature,' produced ’a tremendous strain on his physical and mental resources, and at one time, 1897–8, threatened him with a complete nervous collapse' (Life, p. 223). He found rellef in travel and change of scene: the Highlands, America, Rome, Sicily, Greece, were all included in a constantly recurring itinerary. But his restless energy gradually undermined his constitution. After a cold caught during a drive in the Alcantara valley in Sicily he died at Castle Maniace, the home of his friend, the Duke of Brontë, to the west of Mount Etna, on 14 Dec. 1905. He was buried in a woodland cemetery on the hillside, where an Iona cross, carved in marble, has been erected. He left a letter, to be communicated to his friends, explaining why he found it necessary not to disclose his identity with 'Fiona.'

On 31 Oct. 1884 Sharp married Elizabeth, daughter of his father's elder brother, Thomas Sharp, by Agnes, daughter of Robert Farquharson of Breda and Allargue; he became secretly pledged to her in September 1875. There were no children of the marriage.

Sharp was tall, handsome, fair-haired, and blue-eyed. A painted portrait of him by Daniel Wehrschmidt and a pastel by Charles Ross are in the possession of his widow. There are also etchings by William Strang and Sir Charles Holroyd.



SHARPE, RICHARD BOWDLER (1847–1909), ornithologist, was born on 22 Nov. 1847, at 1 Skinner Street, Snow Hill, London, where his father, Thomas Bowdler Sharpe, edited and published 'Sharpe's London Magazine.' His grandfather, Lancelot Sharpe, was rector of All Hallows Staining, and headmaster of St. Saviour's grammar school, Southwark. From the