Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/231

 V. MARCH 24, 1900.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

223

Son, printers, Maiden Lane, | Covent Garden." p. iv] ; Title, "Rubaiyat | of | Omar Khayyam, | the astronomer-poet of Persia. | Rendered into English Verse. \ Fourth Edition." pp. [i, ii, verso blank] ; [Introduction], pp. iii-xv ; Text of ' Rubaiyat,' pp. 1-27 : Notes, pp. 28-35 ; p. 36 blank ; Half-title, of Jami's Life, pp. 39-50; Text, pp. 51-107; Ap- pendix, pp. 108-112; the whole within an orna- mental one-line border. Issued in a half- Roxburgh binding, with cloth sides, lettered in gold, "The | Rubaiyat | of | Omar | Khayyam. | Salaman | and | Absal | of | Jami. | English | Versions | 1879."
 * Salaman and Absal,' p. [37] ; p. 38 blank ; Notice

There is ve ry little variation i n the ' Rubaiyat between this and the preceding edition. Of the ' Salaman and Absal ' FitzGerald wrote, in a letter to Mr. C. E. Norton, dated 18 May, 1879 : "Jami is cut down to two-thirds of his former proportion, and very much improved, I think " (' Letters,' ii. 263 ; see also letters to Mr. Schiitz Wilson, ibid., ii. 325, 326).

1880-81.

The | Downfall and Death | 'of | King GEdipus. | A Drama in Two Parts. | Chiefly Taken from the | (Edipus Tyrannus and Colonoeus of | Sophocles, j The Inter- Act Choruses are from Potter.

Collation : Octavo : pp. viii and 46 and 46 (last page blank and unnumbered), consisting of : [Dedica-

page as aDove, verso blank, pp. [1, zjs "Parti. | (Edipus in Thebes. | DramatisP pp. [3, 4, verso blank] ; Text, pp. 5-46 ; Imprint at foot of p. 46, " Billing and Sons, Printers and Eecltrotypers [sic] Guildford." Half-title, "The Downfall and Death of | King (Edipus. | Part II. | (Edipus at Athens. | Dramatis Personee," pp. [3, 4, verso blank]; Text, pp. 5^45; Imprint at foot of p. 45, " Billing and Sons, Printers and Electrotypers, (ruildford." Pp. 1, 2 of the second part appear to have been cancelled, if they ever existed. Each part was originally issued in a blue paper wrapper, of which vestiges will be found on the titles after the two parts were made up in one volume, which was also issued in a blue paper wrapper. The pre- fatory dedication (pp. i-viii) was first printed with the second part.

I am indebted to the courtesy of the printers, Messrs. Billing & Sons, of Guildford, for the information that fifty copies of the first part were printed by them in February, 1880, and fifty copies of the second part in February, 1881 (not in March, 1880, as stated in the catalogue of Mr. Gosse's library)- That cata- logue is also incorrect in stating that the paraphrase was written for Mrs. Kemble It was the ' Agamemnon ' that was written for that lady, and the * (Edipus ' seems to have been printed with the object of gratifying FitzGerald's American correspondent Prof, C. E. Norton (see a letter to Mrs. Kemble, written in February, 1881). It was begun about the year 1868, and then put aside (though looked at occasionally) until the writer felt it had become a ghost which must

laid. The first part was dispatched to Prof. Norton on 4 March, 1880, and the second Dart on 13 March in the following year. After ^he two parts had been printed, FitzGerald wrote what he called " a sort of Choral Epi- logue," which he told Prof. Norton he could stick in or not as he would. This epilogue, which was spoken by the Chorus, has been printed by Dr. Aldis Wright from a manu- script copy in his l Letters and Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald,' iii. 263. Further information about the ' (Edipus ' is given in the ' Letters,' ii. 258, 275, 278, 279, 301, 315, 318, 319, 321; 'Letters to Fanny Kemble,' pp. 204, 207.

1882.

Euphranor, I A May-Day Conversation at Cam- bridge, | "Tis Forty Years Since.'

Collation : Octavo : pp. [ii] and 70 (last page blank and unnumbered), consisting of: Half-title as above, pp. [i-ii, verso blank] ; Text, pp. 1-69. At the foot of p. 69 is the imprint, " Billing and Sons, Printers, Guildford and London." The headline, "Euphranor," runs at the head of every page. Issued in a limp half-binding, with roan back and greenish paper sides.

Messrs. Billing & Sons have informed me that fifty copies only of this edition of 'Euphranor' were printed in May, 1882. FitzGerald had occupied a part of the year 1881 in " putting the Dialogue in to shape," as he considered the little tract was overdone, and in some respects in bad taste, " being disfigured by some con- foundedly smart writing in parts " (' Letters to Fanny Kemble,' p. 66). The result was the perfect form in which the dialogue finally appeared, and which FitzGerald himself, when sending a copy to Prof. Norton, con- sidered "a pretty specimen of 'chisell'd Cherry- stone '"('Letters,' ii. 329). It has been reprinted in this final form in Dr. Aldis Wright's edi- tion of the 'Letters and Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald.' Among the additions were the beautiful anecdote of the 'Child and the Sunbeam,' told in connexion with Tenny- son on p. 25,* and the enlargement of the character-sketch of Tennyson on p. 56. This sketch, taken in conjunction with his memoirs of Bernard Barton and of the younger Crabbe, proves that as a literary portrait painter Fitz- Gerald was not excelled by any writer of the century. A copy of this edition was sent to Hallam Tennyson with a charming letter which has been printed in the ' Letters,' ii. 328, and in the ' Memoir of Lord Tennyson,' ii. 272.

1882.

Readings in Crabbe. | * Tales of the Hall.' | London : Bernard Quaritch. | 1882.

date 3 July, 1861 (' Letters,' ii. 23).
 * See also his letter to Archbishop Trench, under