Note 169 — LETTERS OF EDWARD FITZGERALD (continued 3)

In January 1874, Donne wrote to Thompson, ‘You probably know that our friend E. F. G. has been turned out of his long inhabited lodgings by a widow weighing at least fourteen stone, who is soon to espouse, and sure to rule over, his landlord, who weighs at most nine stone—“impar congressus.” “Ordinary men and Christians” would occupy a new and commodious house which they have built, and which, in this case, you doubtless have seen. But the FitzGeralds are not ordinary men, however Christian they may be, and our friend is now looking for an alien home for himself, his books, pictures, and other “rich moveables.”’