The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-11-10
A MISMATED POET
The Tardy Marriage of Fitz,
gerald and Lucy Barton.
A UNION FITlFUL, YET C0@''

Tho Couple Were Utterly Onsuiteo
One Another, and He Fled From H.
During tho Honeymoon-A Reun'o
That Failed to Reunits.
The Incidents leading up to and those
following the marriage of Edward
Fitzgerald, translator Of the "0nnr
Khayyam."' were Of ludicrous and ut
the same time somewhat serious char
acter. Mr.. Francis Gribble gave the
facts in the Fortnightly Review:
The Lucy Barton story il very pitt
fal, but It is also rather comic. She
was q Quaker's daughter. who had
Joined the Church of England as a
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 lady and
yet In a weird provincial way world
~, the sort of person to whom 1t seems
equally important to teach in the Sun
day school and to be leader of So
ciety.
Fitzgerald and she had known each
other for the greater part Of their
lives and were both nearly fifty years
Of age when marriage overlook them.
He did not even know that he was en-
gagged to her. But she told him that he
was, and he was too polite to contra
dict her.
"Pollteness only broke down when.
after the ceremony. she assumed pro-
pictorial airs and insisted that her
husband should pay afternoon calls
with her and dress for dinner. That
was the last straw. though very likely
1t was also the first.
Fitzgerald supposed apparently that
in marrying Lucy Barton he had mere
ly acquired housekeeper who would
know her place, who would coIlins
her new dignity to her housekeeper's
room. leaving him as free ss Of old tC
slop about in slippered ease. rnkempt
unshaven, enveloped In q dressing
gown until the evening. with books
all over the floor. pipes all over the
mantelpiece and tobacco ash all ovel
his clothes.
ut would not have mattered. O
course, II he had married for love ant
If his bride had been woman O
grace and charm. Such a one woul,
have changed all that like fairy way
ing a magic wand. But Fitzgerald ha,
only married to 0blige.' 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 Cow Of fussy small talk was
nuisance, and her interruption Of Fitz
geralds meditations with the deman
that he should shave and wear clea
linen assumed the proportion Of
tragedy In his eyes.
HE stood 1t for fortnight and the
fed, leaving the honeymoon unfinished
going or to stay with friends. boltin
like a rabbit for its burrow.
There were reunion and an a
tempt at reconciliation. but in vail
Fitzgerald's letters to his friends &
this period are like the letters home {
a boy who is being bullied at school,
"T believe he writes to Professc
Cowell, there are new channels frette
In my cheeks with many unmanl
tears, and there really is no evidenC
that he had anything to cry about b
yond the fact that he was being hu
tied out of a comfortable dressin
gown into q starched shirt with big
collars.
'That fact was symbolical Of Il
general discrepancy Of tastes an
points Of view. So we find him wri
ing again, IT'LL see better how we g
on dare fx on no place to live or d
In and then before long came defini
separation and the drafting Of dee
Of settlement.
Fitzgerald. 1t is said. used long af
erward to walk up and down a certa
garden path for hours together callir
himself fool, and when in later yea
he met his wife again he first put oil
his hand and then changed his mir
and turned his back"