Item 11.12 - Volume of notes on vocabulary and etymology compiled by Edward FitzGerald

1 vol., c. 329 x 210 x 24 mm. ff. 1-116 (2 ff. numbered 99), lined, with 2 flyleaves at front and 1 at back. Printed slip pasted in inside front cover. Single sheet loose between ff. 7-8 (and stub from which it originally came). Single sheet loose between ff. 13-14. Single sheet loose between ff. 25-26. 3 small printed cuttings pasted in at the bottom of f. 74r. Single sheet loose between ff. 76-77 (originally pinned to f. 76v). 1 folded sheet loose between ff. 116 and flyleaf.

Left to Trinity College by William Aldis Wright on his death in 1914, as recorded by a Latin bookplate pasted to the inside front cover. Aldis Wright was FitzGerald's literary executor.

Labelled 'E. FitzGerald | 'Commonplace Book' in pencil on the front cover, but the book is predominantly used to record words and notes on etymology. Letters of the alphabet are written at the head of the rectos of ff. 1-116 ('V' on the same page as 'U', f. 113 blank, perhaps left for 'X', no 'Z'); words are written in the margin with notes, quotations etc alongside them; occasionally the facing verso is also used for notes.

In a letter from FitzGerald to E. B. Cowell, 3 Sept. 1858, he states that 'I amuse myself with jotting down materials (out of vocabularies, etc) for a Vocabulary of rural English, or rustic English: that is, only the best country words selected from the very many Glossaries, etc., relating chiefly to country matters, but also to things in general: words that carry their own story with them, without needing Derivation or Authority, though both are often to be found...'

Some French words and phrases are recorded at the end of the book (f 116v and the following, unnumbered f.) The flyleaves are used for notes, including some taken from 'Mr Muller's Lectures'.

Several references date the book to c 1860, for example, a note on f. 36v: 'August 19/60. I this morning read the word "dade" so aptly employ'd, & relating to so good an Anecdote of Bewick, that I must quote it...'

Another book of notes by FitzGerald, described as a commonplace book, is held by the Beinecke Library, GEN MSS 235.

For a discussion of FitzGerald's interest in country vocabulary, see Terhune (1947), The Life of Edward FitzGerald, pp. 288-289.