Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2

Name: Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2
Author: FitzGerald, Edward

FitzGerald, Edward

Authors, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence; FitzGerald, Edward, 1809-1883 -- Correspondence

. . . I am very shy of 'The Greatest Poem,' The Greatest Picture,
Symphony, etc., but one single thing I always was assured of: that 'The
School' was the best Comedy in the English Language.  Not wittier than
Congreve, etc., but with Human Character that one likes in it; Charles,
both Teazles, Sir Oliver, etc.  Whereas the Congreve School inspires no
sympathy with the People: who are Manners not Men, you know.  Voila de
suffisamment perore a ce sujet-la. . . .  I set my Reader last night on
beginning The Mill on the Floss.  I couldn't take to it more than to
others I have tried to read by the Greatest Novelist of the Day: but I
will go on a little further.  Oh for some more brave Trollope; who I am
sure conceals a much profounder observation than these Dreadful Denners
of Romance under his lightsome and sketchy touch, as Gainboro compared to
Denner.

[_July_ 1873.]

MY DEAR POLLOCK,

Thank you for the Fraser, and your Paper in it: which I relished very
much for its Humour, Discrimination, and easy style; like all you write.
Perhaps I should not agree with you about all the Pictures: but you do
not give me any great desire to put that to the test.

Max Muller's Darwin Paper reminded me of an Observation in Bacon's Sylva;
{160} that Apes and Monkeys, with Organs of Speech so much like Man's
have never been taught to speak an Articulate word: whereas Parrots and
Starlings, with organs so unlike Man's, are easily taught to do so.  Do
you know if Darwin, or any of his Followers, or Antagonists, advert to
this?

I have been a wonderful Journey--for me--even to Naseby in
Northamptonshire; to authenticate the spot where I dug up some bones of
those slain there, for Gurlyle thirty years ago.  We are to put up a
Stone there to record the fact, if we can get leave of the present Owners
of the Field; a permission, one would think, easy enough to obtain; but I
have been more than a Year trying to obtain it, notwithstanding; and do
not know that I am nearer the point after all.  The Owner is a Minor: and
three Trustees must sanction the thing for him; and these three Trustees
are all great People, all living in different parts of England; and, I
suppose, forgetful of such a little matter, though their Estate-agent,
and Lawyer, represented it to them long ago.

I stayed at Cambridge some three hours on my way, so as to look at some
of the Old, and New, Buildings, which I had not seen these dozen years
and more.  The Hall of Trinity looked to me very fine; and Sir Joshua's
Duke of Gloucester the most beautiful thing in it.  I looked into the
Chapel, where they were at work: the Roof seemed to me being overdone:
and Roubiliac's Newton is now nowhere, between the Statues of Bacon and
Barrow which are executed on a larger scale. {161}  And what does
Spedding say to Macaulay in that Company?  I never saw Cambridge so
empty, but not the less pleasant.

[1873.]

MY DEAR POLLOCK,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2FitzGerald, Edward

General

Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2

FitzGerald, Edward

Authors, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence; FitzGerald, Edward, 1809-1883 -- Correspondence

. . . I am very shy of 'The Greatest Poem,' The Greatest Picture,
Symphony, etc., but one single thing I always was assured of: that 'The
School' was the best Comedy in the English Language.  Not wittier than
Congreve, etc., but with Human Character that one likes in it; Charles,
both Teazles, Sir Oliver, etc.  Whereas the Congreve School inspires no
sympathy with the People: who are Manners not Men, you know.  Voila de
suffisamment perore a ce sujet-la. . . .  I set my Reader last night on
beginning The Mill on the Floss.  I couldn't take to it more than to
others I have tried to read by the Greatest Novelist of the Day: but I
will go on a little further.  Oh for some more brave Trollope; who I am
sure conceals a much profounder observation than these Dreadful Denners
of Romance under his lightsome and sketchy touch, as Gainboro compared to
Denner.

[_July_ 1873.]

MY DEAR POLLOCK,

Thank you for the Fraser, and your Paper in it: which I relished very
much for its Humour, Discrimination, and easy style; like all you write.
Perhaps I should not agree with you about all the Pictures: but you do
not give me any great desire to put that to the test.

Max Muller's Darwin Paper reminded me of an Observation in Bacon's Sylva;
{160} that Apes and Monkeys, with Organs of Speech so much like Man's
have never been taught to speak an Articulate word: whereas Parrots and
Starlings, with organs so unlike Man's, are easily taught to do so.  Do
you know if Darwin, or any of his Followers, or Antagonists, advert to
this?

I have been a wonderful Journey--for me--even to Naseby in
Northamptonshire; to authenticate the spot where I dug up some bones of
those slain there, for Gurlyle thirty years ago.  We are to put up a
Stone there to record the fact, if we can get leave of the present Owners
of the Field; a permission, one would think, easy enough to obtain; but I
have been more than a Year trying to obtain it, notwithstanding; and do
not know that I am nearer the point after all.  The Owner is a Minor: and
three Trustees must sanction the thing for him; and these three Trustees
are all great People, all living in different parts of England; and, I
suppose, forgetful of such a little matter, though their Estate-agent,
and Lawyer, represented it to them long ago.

I stayed at Cambridge some three hours on my way, so as to look at some
of the Old, and New, Buildings, which I had not seen these dozen years
and more.  The Hall of Trinity looked to me very fine; and Sir Joshua's
Duke of Gloucester the most beautiful thing in it.  I looked into the
Chapel, where they were at work: the Roof seemed to me being overdone:
and Roubiliac's Newton is now nowhere, between the Statues of Bacon and
Barrow which are executed on a larger scale. {161}  And what does
Spedding say to Macaulay in that Company?  I never saw Cambridge so
empty, but not the less pleasant.

[1873.]

MY DEAR POLLOCK,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2

Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2

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