Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/209

. V. MARCH 17, 1900.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

201

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1900.

CONTENTS. No. 116.

NOTES : FitzGerald Bibliography, 201 The Gantelope 201 Byroniana, 205 Italian Ball Games Newsham's Fire-engine Parish and other Accounts Robert Palk 207.

QUERIES : " To iipper a joint" Refrain of Poem "Colly " Kellet Family Buller Byng ' Winter's Tale

Log-rolling Tennyson's 'Dream of Fair Women' Benson's Latin Verses, 208 Gorey or Gourey Chinese Children Discoveries by Capt. Edge Bookbinding Sir Richard Cave" Figs in fruit "Lady Gerard Deadman's Place Burial-ground Will of Thomas Guy Capt. Samue

1 Goodere, 209 Coronation of Henry II. Hymn to Guardian

. Angel Authors Wanted, 210.

- REPLIES : " Gavel " and "Shieling." 210 "Argh"

Slang Rubbing the Eyes with Gold, 212 Prime Minister

Horse Equipment 'Dr. Johnson as a Grecian' "Hurgin," 213 Curiosities of Collaboration 'Eugenie Empress of the French' Prince of Wales, 214 "Parsi- mony " Duke of Cornwall Churches of Unhewn Stone " international Library of Famous Literature," 215 Bear and Ragged Staff Wagner's ' Meistersinger ' Future of Books and Bookmen Nurserv Rimes, 216

" Hurry "=Staith Word Corruption Depreciation oi 1 Coinage Jacobite Societies Shrapnel Shaddock, 217 'Charlotte Temple ' Ancient Tin Trade "Nostoc" " Middlin' " " Horse-Gentler," 218 Authors Wanted,
 * 219.

rNOTES ON BOOKS : Elworthy's 'Horns of Honour'

Haines's ' Memoir of Richard Haines ' ' The English

Catalogue of Books.'

3Sfotices to Correspondents.

NOTES FOR A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF

EDWARD FITZGERALD. IT i not altogether easy to account for the popularity to which FitzGe raid's version of the ' Rtabaiyat ' has attained within the last ten or fifteen years. Scarcely a month passes without a fresh edition being issued from some American press ; the house of Macmillan, in adding it to their "Golden Treasury" series, have given it a place beside the supremest efforts of poetic genius ; and enthusiasts like Mr. Nathan H. Dole in America and Mr. Edward Heron- Allen in England, in striving to fathom the mysteries with which the origines of the poem are enveloped, have devoted to their task a power of research and an indefatigable industry which would not be misplaced in the case of a com- mentator on Plato or Isaiah. The main cause of this popularity is, I take it, that in the 4 Rubaiyat ' FitzGerald almost unconsciously gave expression to a feeling which, inarticu- late in his own day, demands a hearing when a century's death is at hand. The illusions which s-urrounded its birth, the gay day- dreams that gave colour to its youth, the sobriety of middle life all these are past, to be succeeded by the disappointing realities of age and the fear of approaching extinction. That there was anything morbid in Fitz- Gerald's own temperament no one who reads

his letters can for a moment believe ; and if on one occasion he refers to his kinship with Omar, it is not so much in respect of the poet's pessimism as of his freedom from con- ventional thought. It is very doubtful if FitzGerald regarded his translation as the masterpiece of expression which it un- doubtedly is; and we may gather from many indications in his correspondence that other compositions, such as 'Euphranor' and the Calderon plays, possessed a larger share of his affection. To 'Euphranor,' indeed, he seems to have been drawn by a special attraction, and his coy depreciation 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. FitzGerald's idiosyncrasy is reflected at its highest in this little work. 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 neatness of touch that characterizes the Greek of Sophocles or the French of Sevigne, while in the thought which underlies it we recognize 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. In turning to the Calderon plays we find not only these characteristics, but a playful lyricism which one can barely guess at from his correspondence. It is astonishing that the innumerable 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.

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 ' 1 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.