Item 4 - Letter from Edward Fitzgerald to Lord Houghton

3 ff.

No English poet can honour Calderon with the true sympathy of a compatriot, but an elevated style would convey appropriate feelings: 'No modern Aesthetic & Philosophy of the Wordsworth-Arnold School [will] do for the People, I am sure'. Dryden's Alexander's Feats, 'immeasurably the finest ode in our Language' a suitable model. Why not abandon the competition and instead commission an ode from a master such as Swinburne?; with his talent he could learn enough of Spanish in a month to achieve a complete understanding of the task; open competition will yield very little of value; Swinburne is the very best man for the purpose. Postscript: 'Our old Alfred [Tennyson] has. I think, been out of the Question this long while'.