emnon of AEschylus, which fills its reader with regret that he
should not have _Englished_ the whole of the great trilogy with the
same severe sublimity. In America this gentleman is better known by
his translation or adaptation (how much more of it is his own than the
author's I should like to know if I were Irish) of Omar Khayyam, the
astronomer-poet of Persia. Archbishop Trench, in his volume on the
life and genius of Calderon, frequently refers to Mr. Fitzgerald's
translations, and himself gives a version of Life's a Dream, the
excellence of which falls short, however, of his friend's finer
dramatic poem bearing the same name, though he has gallantly attacked
the difficulty of rendering the Spanish in English verse. While these
were Edward Fitzgerald's studies and pursuits, he led a curious life
of almost entire estrangement from society, preferring the
companionship of the rough sailors and fishermen of the Suffolk coast
to that of lettered folk. He lived with them in the most friendly
intimacy, helping them in their sea ventures, and cruising about with
one, an especially fine sample of his sort, in a small fishing-smack
which Edward Fitzgerald's bounty had set afloat, and in which the
translator of Calderon and AEschylus passed his time, better pleased
with the fellowship and intercourse of the captain and crew of his
small fishing craft than with that of more educated and sophisticated
humanity. He and his brothers were school-fellows of my eldest
brother under Dr. Malkin, the master of the grammar school of Bury St.
Edmunds."

{94} Mrs. Kemble's letter was written with a typewriter (see 'Further
Records,' i. 198, 240, 247). It was given by FitzGerald to Mr. F.
Spalding, now of the Colchester Museum, through whose kindness I am
enabled to quote it:--

'YORK FARM, BRANCHTOWN.
'_Tuesday_, _Dec._ 14. 1875.

'MY DEAR EDWARD FITZGERALD,

'I have got a printing-machine and am going to try and write to you upon
it and see if it will suit your eyes better than my scrawl of
handwriting. Thank you for the Photographs and the line of music; I know
that old bit of tune, it seems to me. I think Mr. Irving's face more
like Young's than my Father's. Tom Taylor, years ago, told me that Miss
Ellen Terry would be a consummate comic actress. Portia should never be
without some one to set her before the Public. She is my model woman.'

{97a} See