Translator of Tasso, was a son (perhaps a natural son) of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton in Yorkshire. His life was spent in literary pursuits at Fewston, near Otley; and his translation of Tasso’s “Gerusalemme Liberata” (1600) has been universally praised. His “Discourse of Witchcraft” (1621) was published by Monckton Milnes in the “Miscellanies” of the Philobiblon Society (1858–59).

  One of the most judicious, elegant, and haply in his time, most approved of English Translatours, both for his choice of so worthily extoll’d a heroic poet as Torquato Tasso; as for the exactness of his version, in which he is judg’d by some to have approved himself no less a poet than in what he hath written of his own genius.

  Milton has acknowledged to me, that Spenser was his original; and many besides myself have heard our famous Waller own, that he derived the harmony of his numbers from “Godfrey of Bulloigne,” which was turned into English by Mr. Fairfax.

  A Gentleman of so much Merit, that he eminently deserves to be rank’d among the First of our English Writers; yet has He hitherto been treated with so much Neglect, to say no Worse, That no one Author has afforded us a tolerable Sketch of his Life; or given Themselves even the Trouble to make the slightest Enquiry after Him. Philips so far overlooks him, that he was forc’d to crowd him into his Supplement, and his Transcriber Winstanly, does, in a Manner, the same, by postponing him till after the Earl of Rochester. Sir Thomas Pope Blunt makes no mention of him at all: And Mr. Jacob informs us he wrote in the Reign of King Charles the First; tho’ He dedicates his Translation of Tasso to Queen Elizabeth: Indeed all that name him, do him the Justice to allow he was an accomplish’d Genius; but then ’tis in so cool, and careless a Manner, as plainly indicates they were very little acquainted with the Merit they prais’d…. In Fact, this Gentleman is the only Writer down to D’Avenant, that needs no Apology to be made for him, on Account of the Age he lived in.—His Diction being, generally speaking, so pure, so elegant, and full of Graces, and the Turn of his Lines so perfectly Melodious, that I hardly believe the Original Italian has greatly the Advantage in either: Nor could any Author, in my Opinion, be justify’d for attempting Tasso anew, as long as his Translation can be read.

  Fairfax has translated Tasso with an elegance and ease, and at the same time with an exactness, which, for that age, are surprising.

  I question whether any late attempt to naturalize the beautiful epic of Tasso can be considered as superior, either in energy or fidelity, to this old but admirable version. In many places the diction of Fairfax is peculiarly pleasing; and he greatly excels in transfusing the rural imagery of his author, and which sometimes receives even improvement from his colouring.

  His translation of the Jerusalem was published when he was a young man, was inscribed to Queen Elizabeth, and forms one of the glories of her reign.

  Of Fairfax, the elegant translator of Tasso, it is enough to say that he is styled by Dryden “the poetical father of Waller,” and quoted by him, in conjunction with Spenser, as “one of the great masters of our language.”

  If it does not represent the grace of its original, and deviates also too much from its sense, is by no means deficient in spirit and vigor. It has been considered as one of the earliest works, in which the obsolete English, which had not been laid aside in the days of Sackville, and which Spenser affected to preserve, gave way to a style not much differing, at least in point of single words and phrases, from that of the present age. But this praise is equally due to Daniel, to Drayton, and to others of the later Elizabethan poets. The translation of Ariosto by Sir John Harrington, in 1591, is much inferior.

  Fairfax employs the ottava rima in his translation of Tasso’s “Jerusalem Delivered;” and great as is the poetical merit of this translation, the reader soon tires of the rhyme-scheme.

  Fairfax’s worst blunders, or seeming blunders, in translation do little damage to the spirit of his text.