Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1911-03-02
A MIsMATED POET
The Tardy Marriage Of Fltz-
gerald and Lucy Barton.
A UNI0a PITlFUL. YET COMIC

The Couple We're Utterly Unsuitsd to
One Another. and He Fled From Her
During the Honeymoon-A Reunion
That Failed TO Reunite.
The incidents ieiiding up TO and those
following the marriage Of Edward
Fitzgerald. translator Of the Omar
khayyaIn." were Of ludicrouS and at
the same time somewhat serious char
meter Mr. Francis Gribble gave the
facts in the Fortnightly Review:
The Lucy Barton story is very pitt
fui. but il is also rather comic she
was a Qnaker'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-
thod ical. fussy not quite lady and
yet In weird provincial way world
ly the sort Of person TO whom il seems
equally important to teach in the Sun
day school and to be q 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 be was too polite 10 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 ana 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 hOuSekeeper WHO would
know her place, who would confine
her new dignity TO her houSekeeper's
. room. leaving him as free as Of old to
Glop about in sippered ease. unkempt
unshaven enveloped in a. dressing
gown until the evening with books
all over the floor, pipes all over tile
mantelpiece and tobacco ash All over
his clothes
1T would not have mattered. Of
course if ne had married for love and
II his bride had been a woman of
grace and charm such one would
have changed all that ike q fairy way
ing a magic wand But Fitzgerald had
only married TO ob,ige. and Mrs. Fitz-
gerald was not in the least like fairy
She was more like female drill ser.
geant conventional. stiff and starched
yet with pretensions
Her flow OF fussy small talk was
nuisance. aud her interruption Of Fitz-
gerald's medilatons with the demand
that he should shave and wear clean
linen assumed the proportion of
tragedy in his eyes
He stood 1t for a fortnight and then
fed. leaving the honeymoon unfinished.
going Off 10 stay with friends boiling
like a rabbit for it's burrow
There were a reunion and an at
tempt NJ reconciliation. but in vain
Fi,zger1ld's letters to his friends at
this period are like the letters home Of
boy who is being bullied at school
II believe he writes to Professor
Cowell, there are new channels fretted
in my cheeks with many unmauly
tears, and there really is no evidence
that he had anything TO cry about be
yond the fact that he was being hus-
tied out Of a comfortable dressing
gown into a starched shirt with high
collars
THAT fact was symboical Of the
general discrepancy of tastes and
points Of view So we find him writ
ing again, Till see better how we get
on dare fix on no place to live or die
in and then before long came definite
separation and the drafting Of a deed
OF settlement.
Fitzgerald. it is said, used long aft
erward 10 walk up and down a certain
garden path for hours together calling
himself fool and when 10 later years
he met his wife again he first put out
his hand aud then changed his mind
and turned his back