The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1911-05-17
A MIsMATED POET

The incidents leading up TO and those
following the marriage Of Edward
Fitzgerald. translator OF the Omar
Khayyam." were of 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 IL is also rather comic. She
was a Quaker's daughter, who had
Joined the Church Of England as q
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
| ly, the sort Of person to whom 1t seems
equally important to teach in the Sun
| day school and to be a 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.
"Politeness 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
It was also the first
"Fttzgerald supposed apparently that
In marrying Lucy Barton he had mere
~ acquired a housekeeper who would
know her place. who would confine
her new dignity to he, housekeeper's
room. leaving him as free as Of old to
slop about in slippered ease, unkempt,
Anshaven, enveloped in dressing
gown until the evening. with books
all over the floor, pipes all over the
mantelpiece and tobacco ash all over
his clothes
1T would not have mattered. OF
| course. If he had married for love and
grace and charm. Such q one would
have changed all that like fairy wav
Ing a magic wand. But Fitzgerald hat
only married to oblige.' and Mrs. Fitz
gerald was not in the least like a fairy
She was more like female drill ser
geant, conventional. stiff and starched
; yet with pretensions.
"Her 6ow Of fussy small talk was
i nuisance. and her interruption Of Fitz
> gerald's meditations with the deman,
that he should shave and wear cleal
linen assumed the proportion Of
q tragedy in his eyes.
, "He stood it for fortnight and the
: ded, leaving the honeymoon unfinished
e going of to stay with friends. boltin
r like q rabbit for its burrow.
n There were q reunion and an a,
tempt at reconciliation, but in vain
Fttzgerald's letters to his friends q
. this period are like the letters home Q
:: q boy who is being bullied at school.
+; al believe he writes to Professo
F.: Cowell. there are new channels frette
|, I'm 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 hui
tied out Of a comfortable dressin
gown into starched shirt with hig
e collars
= THAT fact was symbolical Of til
! general discrepancy Of tastes an
points Of view. So we find him wri
e ing again. Till | see better how we g
on dare fix on no place to live or d
In and then before long came defini
separation and the drafting Of dee
Of settlement.
"Fitzgerald. it is said, used long af
Sc erward to walk up and down a certa
garden path for hours together callir
himself q fool. and when In later yea
he met his wife again he first put o.
his hand and then changed his mil
- and turned his back"