Edward Fitzgerald: Bird-Parliament and letters

Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883), poet and translator, was born at Bredfield House, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, on 31 March 1809. He entered King Edward the Sixth's Grammar School at Bury St Edmunds in 1821, and joined Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1826 (B.A., 1830). Fitzgerald settled in Suffolk, and worked on the translation of classical texts, many of which were published anonymously. His best known work is an English translation from the Persian of the 'Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám', published anonymously in 1859. Fitzgerald died at Merton Rectory in Norfolk on 14 June 1883.

Manuscript of Fitzgerald's translation of a Sufi poem and letters to Elizabeth and Edward Cowell.

MS.Add.4505 was presented by the family of Professor E.B. Cowell, 1903; MS.Add.4507 was presented by W. Aldis Wright, 1905.

Please cite as Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Edward Fitzgerald: Bird-Parliament and letters, MS Add.4505, 4507

MS.Add.4507 is printed in W. Aldis Wright's edition of the Letters and literary remains of Edward Fitzgerald, Vol. VII (London, 1903), pp. 257-312.

The letters in MS.Add.4505 are printed in the Letters and literary remains of Edward Fitzgerald, Vol. II (London, 1903), as follows: no. 1, p. 51; 2, p. 54; 3, p. 62; 4, p. 68; 5, p. 91 (part only); 6, p. 113.

See MS.Add.4504 for another copy of Bird Parliament, owned by Edward Cowell.