Smyrna times., 1910-12-28
4 MIsMATED POET
The Tardy Marriage of Fitz-
gerald and Lucy Barton.
A UNION PITIFUL, YET COMi{.

The Couple Were Utterly Unsuited 10
Ono Another, and He Fled From Her
During ethe Honeymoon-A Reunion
That Failed so Reunite.
The incidents leading up to and those
following the marriage of Edward
Fitzgerald. translator of the Omar
Khayyam." were of a ludicrous and at
the same time somewhat serious char
acter Mr.. Francis Gribble gave the
facts in the Fortnightly Review:
THE Lucy Barton story is very pitt |
ful. but it is also rather comic. She |
was Quakers daughter, who had
joined the Church of England as n
means. one imagines. of climbing the |
social ladder. and she was just the
sort of person whom Fitzgerald would
esteem. but detest-prim. pious. me-
thodical. fussy. not quite a lady and
yet in Il weird provincial way world
ly. the sCrt of person to whom it seems
equally important to teach in the sun
day school and to be Il leader of So.
ciety.
"FitZgerald and she had known each
other for the greater part of their
.ives and were both nearly fifty years
Of age when marriage overlook the.l.
He did not even know that he was Gu
gagged to her But she told him that he
was. and he YVES too polite to contra
dict her
"POliteness only broke down when.
after the ceremony. she assumed pro
prietorial airs and insisted that her
husband should pay afternoon calls
with her and dress for dinner. That
was the last straw, though very likely
it was also the first
"Fitzgerald supposed apparently that
in marrying Lucy Barton he had mere
ly acquired Il housekeeper who wCu'd
know her place, who would comm
her new dignity to her hOuSekeeppi's
room. leaving him as free as of oiG tn
slop about in slippered ease. unkeapt
unShaven. envelOped in a dressing
gown until the evening with bocl:;
all over the floor. pipes all over the
mantelpiece and tobacco ash all over
his clothes
1T would not have mattered. os
course. if he had married for love and
if his bride had been woman of
grace and charm. such a one wculG
have changed all that like fairy wav-
ing "A magic wand Put Fitzgerald had
only married TO oblige.' and Mrs. Fitz-
gerald was not in the least like fairy.
She was more like a female drill ser
geant. conventional. stiff and starched
yet with pretensions.
Her flow of fussy small talk was Il
nuisance. and her interruption of FitZ-
geralI's meditations with the demand
! that he should shave and wear clean
linen assumed the proportion of q
tragedy i'm his eyes
He stood it for fortnight ana then
fed. leaving the homes ymoCn unfinished
going off To stay with friends. bOlti.2
like a rabbit for its burn q
There were IA reunion and an at
tempt AT reconciliation. but in vain
Fitzgerald's letters to his friends a
this period are like the letters home OF
a boy who is being bulied at school.
81 believe he writes to Professo
Cowell. there are new channels frette,
in my cheeks with many unmanI.
tears. and there really is no evidenc
that he had anything to cry about be
yOnd the fact that he was being hus
tied out of a comfortable dressin
gown into starched shirt with hig
collars
That fact was symbOlical Of IL
general discrepancy of tastes an
points of view. So we find him wri
ing again. Till see better how We gt
on dare fix on no place to live or di
in. and then before long came dehnit
separation and the drafting of dee
Of settlement.
Fitzgerald. it is said. used long ar
erward to walk up and down certai
garden path for hours together calm
himself a fool. and when in later year
he met his wife again he first put OF
his hand and then changed his MN
and turned his back"