FAIRFAX, EDWARD, was the second son of Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Denton iu Yorkshire. The date of his birth is unknown ; but as his translation of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered' was published in 1600, we may suppose that it fell some time in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Contrary to the habits of his family, who were of a mili tary turn, he led a life of complete retirement at his native place, where his time was spent in literary pursuits, and in the education of his own children and those of his brother, one of whom became the father of the celebrated Lord Fairfax. We learn from his own writings that he was neither a superstitious Papist nor a fantastic Puritan ; ' but farther particulars of his life there are none. He is supposed to have died about the year 1632.
Fairfax is now known only for his translation of Tasso'e 'Jerusalem Delivered,' which is executed in a manner which makes it wonderful how the frigid, jingling, and affected version by Hoole ever survived its birth. The measure which he chose for his work (that of the original Italian) is one less stately perhaps than the Spenserian stanza, but not less fitted for heroic subjects. It consists of eight-line stanzas, of which the first six lines are in terms rime and the last two rhyme with each other. It has this great superiority over the common heroic couplet, that all jingle is avoided by the occasional introduc tion of a different species of rhyme. Moreover the verses are much
more harmonious than those of Hoole ; the diction is more simple, and the English more pure. Now perhaps most readers would smile at the assertion of Hoole in the Preface to his translation of Tam, that Fairfax's translation "is iu stanzas that cannot be read with pleasure by the generality of those who have a taste for English poetry ;" but we must at the same time regret that a literary school like that of the followers of Pope should have usurped for so long a time such entire dominion as to enable one of its humblest members to make assertions so sweeping and insolent as those contained in the preface from which we have just quoted. Fairfax's studies were to a great extent of a theological and metaphysical turn, and he was induced to undertake the defence of the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England in reply to oue Dorrel, a Roman Catholic, but his writings on this subject have never been published. He also paid a good deal of attention to the subject of demonology, in which he was a believer, and he left a manuscript treatise, entitled 'A Discourse of Witchcraft, as it was acted in the family of Mr. Edward Fairfax of Faystone, in the county of York, in the year 1621.'