born c. 1575, Leeds, Yorkshire, Eng. died Jan. 27, 1635
English poet whose Godfrey of Bulloigne or the Recoverie of Jerusalem (1600), a translation of Gerusalemme liberata, an epic poem by his Italian contemporary Torquato Tasso, won fame and was praised by John Dryden. Although translating stanza by stanza, Fairfax freely altered poetic detail. The poem influenced the development of the couplet. It also influenced the poets Edmund Waller and John Milton, whose tonal harmonies Fairfax often anticipated.
Among Fairfax’ other works were 12 eclogues, of which only two and most of a third are known to have survived. The finest, “Hermes and Lycaon,” is a singing match between worldly and spiritual lovers.
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