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A CENTURY OF BALLADS |
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the wrong, persisted in rejecting all pacific overtures, and refused to return. Eventually Fitzball called to see him, and without making any reference to the unfortunate affair, laid before him a lyric which he had just written, entitled 11 We never see him now." On reading the words Balfe burst into floods of tears and straightway hurried home to ask his wife's pardon. He afterwards set the song, which became very popular, and was often sung in public by Mrs. Balfe.
" The gentle Fitzball," as he was often called, was a great sentimentalist. One of his friends once said of him after his death, "The sentimentality of dear old Fitzball was really very amusing. As a poet he felt every word he wrote, and would shed tears over the creations of his fancy. He believed every woman to be in love with him. And yet his personal attractions cannot be said to have been irresistible. He was tall and slim in figure. He had a long face, his nose was large, and of a broad ungainly shape. He had small twinkling hazel eyes, and spoke in a guttural tone of voice which sounded very like an impediment of speech."
This last infirmity was also a characteristic of Vincent Wallace, with whom Fitzball collaborated in Maritana. Wallace was just the |
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