Edward Fitzgerald

At 74 years old, Edward Fitzgerald physical status not available right now. We will update Edward Fitzgerald's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Edward FitzGerald (31 March 1809 – 14 June 1883) was an English poet and writer best known as the writer of Omar Khayyam's first and most popular English translation.

Both FitzGerald and Fitzgerald are seen in the writing of his name.

FitzGerald's usage matches that of his own books, anthologies, such as Quiller-Couch's Oxford Book of English Verse, and the majority of reference books published before about 1960.

Life

Edward FitzGerald was born Edward Purcell at Bredfield House in Bredfield, some two miles north of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, in 1809. John Purcell, his father, took the name and arms of his wife's family, the FitzGeralds, in 1818. From 1858, John's elder brother John used the surname Purcell-Fitzgerald.

The change of family name came shortly after FitzGerald's mother inherited a second fortune. She had previously inherit over half a million pounds from an aunt, but her father died in 1818 and left her considerably more than than that. The FitzGeralds were one of England's richest families. Edward FitzGerald later said that all of his relatives were insane; further, that he was insane as well, but was at least aware of the situation.

The family immigrated to France in 1816 and spent in St Germain as well as Paris, but the family had to return to England in 1818 following the death of his maternal grandfather. Edward was sent to King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds, in 1821. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1826. He became familiar with William Makepeace Thackeray and William Hepworth Thompson. Despite the fact that he had many acquaintances with the Cambridge Apostles, most notably Alfred Tennyson, FitzGerald himself was never offered a ticket to this prestigious group. FitzGerald left for Paris in 1830, but he died in 1831 in a farmhouse on the battlefield of Naseby.

FitzGerald, who had no work, returned to Suffolk, where he lived comfortably for more than a week or two while living there. The FitzGeralds lived in Wherstead until 1853, when they moved to a cottage on the grounds of Boulge Hall, near Woodbridge, where their parents had migrated. He and his family travelled to Farlingay Hall in 1860, where they stayed until 1873. FitzGerald's last move was to Woodbridge, where they stayed at his own house nearby, Little Grange. FitzGerald was preoccupied with flowers, music, and literature for the bulk of this period. Tennyson and Thackeray's friends had outranked him in literature, and FitzGerald had no intention of imitateing their literary triumph. Euphoria, a Platonic dialogue born of memories of the old happy life in Cambridge, was published in 1851. Polonius, a series of "saws and modern instances," was a hit in 1852, with some of them his own, the majority of which were borrowed from less familiar English classics. FitzGerald began studying Spanish poetry in 1850 at Elmsett, followed by Persian literature at the University of Oxford with Professor Edward Byles Cowell in 1853.

After a death-bed promise to Bernard in 1849 to look after her, FitzGerald married Lucy, daughter of Quaker poet Bernard Barton, in Chichester on November 4th, 1856. Despite having known each other for many years and collaborated on a book about her father's occupations in 1849, the marriage was unhappy and the couple separated after only a few months.

Early literary work

FitzGerald published Six Dramas of Calderon in 1853, a free translation. He then turned to Oriental studies, and in 1856, he published an inaccurate copy of the Salámán and Absál of Jami in Miltonic verse. In March 1857, Cowell discovered a series of Persian quatrains by Omar Khayyam in the Asiatic Society library in Calcutta and sent them to FitzGerald. "Hafiz and Omar Khayyam ring like genuine metal" at the time, when FitzGerald's name is so closely identified in his letter: "Hafiz and Omar Khayyam ring like real metal." An anonymous pamphlet named The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam appeared on Jan. 15, 1859. The poem appears to have attracted no attention in the world wide and the circle of FitzGerald's closest friends at first. The publisher encouraged it to increase to a fourpenny or even (as he later claimed) to a penny box on the bookstalls.

However, it was discovered by Rossetti in 1861 and by Swinburne and Lord Houghton shortly after. The Rubaiyat gradually became well-known, but FitzGerald was not allowed to produce a second, heavily revised version of it until 1868. He had produced a version of the Agamemnon in 1865, as well as two more Calderón plays. He privately published translations of the two Oedipus tragedies from 1880 to 1891. Readings in Crabbe, 1882, was his last book. He left a copy of Attar of Nishapur's Mantic-Uttair in a manuscript. FitzGerald's latest translation "A Bird's Eye View of the Bird Parliament" whittling the Persian original (some 4500 lines) down to a more manageable 1500 lines in English. Some have dubbed this translation a virtually unknown masterpiece.

FitzGerald's biggest concern from 1861 to present had been in the sea. He bought "The Scandal" in June 1863, and in 1867 he became part-owner of a herring lugger, the Meum and Tuum ("mine and thine"). He spent his summers "knocking about somewhere outside of Lowestoft" for many years up to 1871. He died in his sleep in 1883 and was buried in the graveyard at St Michael's Church in Boulge, Suffolk. "A lazy fellow, but one whose friendships were more like love," he said. In 1885, Tennyson's dedication of his Tiresias to FitzGerald's memory was enhanced by his fame in a few similar verses to "Old Fitz."

Personal life

FitzGerald personally until his close friend and literary executor W. Aldis Wright published his three-volume Letters and Literary Remains in 1889 and Letters to Fanny Kemble in 1895. FitzGerald's letters reveal that he was a witty, picturesque, and sympathetic letter writer. George Gissing, a late 19th-century English novelist, found them fascinating enough to read the three-volume collection twice, both in 1890 and 1896. To Fanny Kemble, Fitzgerald sent some of Fitzgerald's letters. In December of this year, Gissing also read the 1895 volume of letters. FitzGerald was unobtrue personally, but his distinctive individuality in the 1890s lent him a lot of respect over English belles-lettres.

FitzGerald's emotional life was tumultuous. He was remarkably close to many people, including William Browne, who was 16 when they met. Browne's tragically early death in a horse-riding crash was a tragedy for FitzGerald. FitzGerald came close to Joseph Fletcher, a fisherman from whom he had bought a herring boat. Although FitzGerald is believed to have been a homosexual, a number of present-day scholars and journalists believe him to have been a sexist. FitzGerald's original text, as shown by our word 'gay', is uncertain whether FitzGerald's words were ever identified as a homosexual or admitted himself to be one. Professor Daniel Karlin wrote in his introduction to the 2009 Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám that "His [FitzGerald] homogenetic sentiments (...) were certainly unclear to him, at least in the way implied by our word ga

FitzGerald became disenchanted with Christianity and eventually stopped attending services. The local pastor, who stopped by, was attracted by this tale. FitzGerald is alleged to have told him that his decision to not reveal himself was the result of long and hard meditation. FitzGerald led him to the door and said, "You might have guessed that a man does not come to my years of life without worrying about any of these things." I believe I could say that I have reflected [on] them as well as you. This tour should not be repeated.

Edward Fitzgerald's "Posh": Herring Merchants (includes letters from E. Fitzgerald to J. Fletcher), who was still living when James Blyth began researching for the book in 1908. In Fitzgerald's letters, Posh is also present. The Port of Lowestoft Research Society has published documentation relating to the Fitzgerald–Posh relationship. Posh died in Mutford Union's near-Lowertown, near Lowestoft, on September 7th, 1915, at the age of 76.

Fitzgerald was described as "most vegetarian" because he ate meat only in other people's homes. Thomas Wright, his biographer, wrote that "thought never a strict vegetarian, his diet was primarily bread and fruit." FitzGerald wrote of his diet, "Tea, pure and simple with bread-and-butter, is the only meal I do care to participate in" many years before his death.

Source