FAIRFAX, EDWARD, the able English translator of Tasso, was a native of Yorkshire, son of Sir Edward Fairfax of Denton. Little is known of his history; he is believed to have been an illegitimate son; and though liberally provided for by his father, he continued in obscure retirement at home, while the other sons of Sir Edward Fairfax were distinguished for their military services. Edward Fairfax, however, no less signalized served his country by his pen than his brethren did with the sword. In the year 1600, when he is conjectured to have been little more than twenty years of age, he published his translation of the Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso. Never did mere translation receive such enthusiastic and continued approbation as the work of Fairfax. Waller said he was indebted to it for the harmony of his numbers; Dryden places the translator almost on a parity with Spenser (whom undoubtedly Fairfax imitated); and Collins beautifully apostrophises him as
"Prevailing poet, whose undoubting mind
Believed the magic wonders which he sung."
Fairfax. In our own day, Thomas Campbell has reckoned Fairfax's work as one of the glories of the reign of Elizabeth, while Mr Hallam, more critical, admits that if it does not represent the grace of its original, and deviates also too much from its sense, it is by no means deficient in spirit and vigour. The poetical spirit of the translation is indeed its life-blood and preservation. Hoole, Hunt, and others, may give a more literal version, but Fairfax alone seizes upon the poetical and chivalrous character of the Jerusalem, and carries along with him the interest and admiration of the reader. The style of Fairfax is also remarkable, and is characterized by great ease and sweetness of versification. Fairfax made no other appeal to the public. He wrote a series of Eloques, one of which, the fourth, is published in Mrs Cooper's Muses' Library, a modern compilation; while the others remain in manuscript. He wrote also a work on Demonology, which is still in manuscript. This should surely see the light. It would be interesting to trace the effect of superstition on Fairfax's own mind, and to estimate its height in the age in which he lived. A fragment of the work relative to the author has been printed, and in this Fairfax describes himself in these terms:—"I am in religion neither a fantastic Puritan nor superstitious Papist; but so settled in conscience that I have the sure ground of God's word to warrant all I believe, and the commendable ordinances of our English Church to approve all I practise; in which course I live a faithful Christian and an obedient subject, and so teach my family." He appears, however, to have taken a warm interest in the religious controversies of the day, which are seldom conducive to quiet or contentment, and his descendants have not deemed it necessary to publish his prose MSS. on those subjects. His fame is secure, grafted upon the stem of Tasso, and flourishing in perennial beauty and vigour. Fairfax was living in 1631; the date of his death has not been recorded. (R. C.—8.)