or three hindred people at the Marquis Cavalli's the other plead laziness the whole and sole cause of my not reply. evening, with as much youth, beauty, and diamonds among ing:-dreadful is the exertion of letter-writing. The the women, as ever averaged in the like number. My Carnival here is less boisterous, but we have balis appearance in waiting on the Guiccioli was considered as and a theatre. I carried Bankes to both, and he carried a thing of course. The Marquis is her uncle, and natu- away, I believe, a much more favourable impression of rally considered me as her reiation. the society here than of that of Venice-recollect that I speak of the native society only. "The paper is out, and so is the letter. Pray write. Address to Venice, whence the letters will be forwarded. "Yours, &c. "B." LETTER CCCCXVIII. TO MR. HOPPNER. one, you "I am drilling very hard to learn how to double a shawl, and should succeed to admiration if I did not always dou ble it the wrong side out; and then I sometimes confuse and bring away two, so as to put all the Serventi out, be sides keeping their Servate in the cold till every body can get back their property. But it is a dreadfully moral place, for you must not look at any body's wife except "Ravenna, January 20, 1820. your neighbour's,-if you go to the next door but "I have not decided any thing about remaining at Ra- are scolded, and presumed to be perfidious. And then a venna. I may stay a day, a week, a year, all my life; but relazione or an amicizia seems to be a regular affair of all this depends upon what I can neither see nor foresee. from five to fifteen years, at which period, if there occur I came because I was called, and will go the moment that a widowhood, it finishes by a sposalizio; and in the mean 1 perceive what may render my departure proper. My time, it has so many rules of its own that it is not much attachment has neither the blindness of the beginning, nor better. A man actually becomes a piece of female pro the microscopic accuracy of the close to such liaisons; perty, they won't let their Serventi marry until there is but 'time and the hour' must decide upon what I do. I a vacancy for themselves. I know two instances of this can as yet say nothing, because I hardly know any thing in one family here. beyond what I have told you. "To-night there was a Lottery after the opera: it "I wrote to you last post for my moveables, as there is is an odd ceremony. Bankes and I took tickets of it, and no getting a lodging with a chair or table here ready; and buffooned together very merrily. He is gone to Firenze. as I have already some things of the sort at Bologna which Mrs. J ** should have sent you my postscript; there I had last summer there for my daughter, I have directed was no occasion to have bored you in person. I never them to be moved; and wish the like to be done with interfere in any body's squabbles,—she may scratch you those of Venice, that I may at least get out of the 'Alber-face herself. go Imperiale,' which is imperial in all true sense of the epithet. Buffini may be paid for his poison. I forgot to thank you and Mrs. Hoppner for a whole treasure of toys for Allegra before our departure; it was very kind, and we are very grateful. "The weather here has been dreadful-snow several feet-a fiume broke down a bridge, and flooded heaven knows how many campi; then rain came-and it is still thawing-so that my saddle-horses have a sinecure till the roads become more practicable. Why did Lega give "Your account of the wedding of the Governor's party away the goat? a blockhead-I must have him again. is very entertaining. If you do not understand the con- "Will you pay Missiaglia and the Buffo Buffini of the sular exceptions, I do; and it is right that a man of ho- Gran Bretagna. I heard from Moore, who is at Paris; nour, and a woman of probity, should find it so, particu-I had previously written to him in London, but he has not larly in a place where there are not 'ten righteous.' As yet got my letter, apparently. to nobility-in England none are strictly noble but peers, not even peers' sons, though titled by courtesy ; nor knights of the garter, unless of the peerage, so that Castlereagh himself would hardly pass through a foreign herald's ordeal till the death of his father. "The snow is a foot deep here. There is a theatre, and opera, the Barber of Seville. Balls begin on Monday, next. Pay the porter for never looking after the gate, and ship my chattels, and let me know, or let Castelli let me know, how my lawsuits go on-but fee him only in proportion to his success. Perhaps we may meet in the spring yet, if you are for England. I see Hobhouse has got into a scrape, which does not please me; he should not have gone so deep among those men, without calculating the consequences. I used to think myself the most imprudent of all among my friends and acquaintances, but almost begin to doubt it. LETTER CCCCXIX. TO MR. HOPPNER. "Yours &c." "Ravenna, January 31, 1820. You would hardly have been troubled with the removal of my furniture, but there is none to be had nearer than Bologna, and I have been fain to have that of the rooms which I fitted up for my daughter there in the summer removed here. The expense will be at least as great of the land carriage, so that you see it was necessity, and not zhoice. Here they get every thing from Bologna, except some lighter articles from Forli or Faenza. - If Sear is mati-ned, prav remember me to him and I "Believe me, &c." LETTER CCCCXX. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, February 7, 1820 "I have had no letter from you these two months; but since I came here in December, 1819, I sent you a letter for Moore, who is God knows where-in Paris or London, presume. I have copied and cut the Third Canto of Don Juan into two, because it was too long; and I tell you this beforehand, because in case of any reckoning between you and me, these two are only to go for one, as this was the original form, and, in fact, the two together are not longer than one of the first: so remember that I have not made this division to double upon you; but merely to suppress some tediousness in the aspect of the thing. I should have served you a pretty trick if I had sent you, for example, cantos of 50 stanzas each. "I am translating the First Canto of Pulci's Morgante Maggiore, and have half done it; but these last days of the Carnival confuse and interrupt every thing. "I have rot yet sent off the Cantos, and have s ne doubt whether they ought to be published, for they have not the spirit of the first. The outcry has not frightened but it has hurt me, and I have not written con amore this time. It very decent, however, and as dull as 'the la new comedy.' "I think my translations of Pulci will make you stare. The word here, being under the seal, is illog!!:'e It must be put by the original, stanza for stanza, and verse veyance-perhaps best by sea. Mr. Kinnaird will disfor verse; and you will see what was permitted in a Ca- burse for them, and deduct from the amount on vour ap tholic country and a bigoted age to a churchman, on the plication or that of Captain Tyler. score of religion;-and so tell those buffoons who accuse me of attacking the Liturgy. "I write in the greatest haste, it being the hour of the Corso, and I must go and buffoon with the rest. My daughter Allegra is just gone with the Countess G. in Count G.'s coach and six, to join the cavalcade, and I must follow with all the rest of the Ravenna world. Our old Cardinal is dead, and the new one not appointed yet; but the masking goes on the same, the vice-legate being a good governor. We have had hideous frost and snow, but all is mild again. "Yours, &c." LETTER CCCCXXI. TO MR. BANKES. "Ravenna, February 19, 1820. "I see the good old King is gone to his place. One can't help being sorry, though blindness, and age, and insanity are supposed to be drawbacks on human felicity; but I am not at all sure that the latter at least might not render him happier than any of his subjects. "I have no thoughts of coming to the coronation, thoug' I should like to see it, and though I have a right to be a puppet in it; but my division with Lady Byron, which has drawn an equinoctial line between me and mine in all other things, will operate in this also to prevent my being in the same procession. By Saturday's post I sent you four packets, containing Cantos Third and Fourth. Recollect that these two cantos reckon only as one with you and me, being in fact the third canto cut into two, because I found it too long. Remember this, and do n't imagine that there could be any other motive. The whole is about 225 stanzas, more or less, and a lyric of 96 lines, so that they are no longer than the I have room for you in the house here, as I had in first single cantos: but the truth is, that I made the first Venice, if you think fit to make use of it; but do not ex-too-long, and should have cut those down also had I pect to find the same gorgeous suite of tapestried halls. thought better. Instead of saying in future for so many Neither dangers nor tropical heats have ever prevented cantos, say so many stanzas or pages: it was Jacob Tonyour penetrating wherever you had a mind to it, and why son's way, and certainly the best; it prevents mistakes. should the snow now!-Italian snow-fie on it!-so I might have sent you a dozen cantos, of 40 stanzas each, pray come. Tita's heart yearns for you, and mayhap-those of 'The Minstrel' (Beattie's) are no longer,— for your silver broad pieces; and your playfellow, the monkey, is alone and inconsolable. and ruined you at once, if you do n't suffer as it is. But recollect that you are not pinned down to any thing you say in a letter, and that, calculating even these two cantos you are not bound by your offer. Act as may seem fair as one only (which they were and are to be reckoned,) to all parties. "I have finished my translation of the First Canto of the 'Morgante Maggiore' of Pulci, which I will transcribe and send. It is the parent, not only of Whistlecraft, but of all jocose Italian poetry. You must print it side by side with the original Italian, because I wish the reader to judge of the fidelity: it is stanza for stanza, and often line for line, if not word for word. "I forget whether you admire or tolerate red hair, so that I rather dread showing you all that I have about me and around me in this city. Come, nevertheless, you can pay Dante a morning visit, and I will undertake that Theodore and Honoria will be most happy to see you in the forest hard by. We Goths, also, of Ravenna hope you will not despise our arch-Goth, Theodoric. I must leave it to these worthies to entertain you all the fore part of the day, seeing that I have none at all myself-the lark, that rouses me from my slumbers, being an afternoon bird. But, then, all your evenings, and as much as you can give me of your nights, will be mine. Ay! and you "You ask me for a volume of manners, &c. on Italy. will find me eating flesh, too, like yourself or any other Perhaps I am in the case to know more of them than cannibal, except it be upon Fridays. Then, there are most Englishmen, because I have lived among the na more Cantos (and be d-d to them) of what the courteous reader, Mr. Saunders, calls Grub-street, in my never resided before (I speak of Romagna and this place tives, and in parts of the country where Englishmen drawer, which I have a little scheme to commit to your particularly ;) but there are many reasons why I do not charge for England; only I must first cut up (or cut choose to treat in print on such a subject. I have lived down) two aforesaid Cantos into three, because I am grown in their houses and in the heart of their families, sometimes base and mercenary, and it is an ill precedent to let my merely as 'amico di casa,' and sometimes as 'amico di Mecanas, Murray, get too much for his money. I am cuore of the Dama, and in neither case do I feel myself busy, also, with Puici-translasting-servilely translating, authorized in making a book of them. Their moral is stanza for stanza, and line for line-two octaves every not your moral; their life is not your life; you would not night, the same allowance as at Venice. understand it; it is not English, nor French, nor German, Would you call at your banker's at Bologna, and ask which you would all understand. The conventual eduhim for some letters lying there for me, and burn them?cation, the cavalier servitude, the habits of thought and or I will so do not burn them, but bring them, and be- living are so entirely different, and the difference becomes hieve me ever and very affectionately " BYRON. "Yours, "P.S. I have a particular wish to hear from yourself something about Cyprus, so pray recollect all that you can.-Good night." LETTER CCCCXXII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, Feb. 21, 1820. so much more striking the more you live intimately with them, that I know not how to make you comprehend a people who are at once temperate and profligate, serious in their characters and buffoons in their amusements, capable of impressions and passions, which are at once sudden and durable (what you find in no other nation,) and who actually have no society (what we would call so,) as you may see by their comedies; they have no real comedy, not even in Goldoni, and that is becauso they have no society to draw it from. "Their conversazioni are not society at all. They go The bull-dogs will be very agreeable. I have only to the theatre to talk, and into company to hold their those of this country, who, though good, have not the tena-tongues. The women sit in a circle, and the men gather city of tooth and stoicism in endurance of my canine fel-into groupes, or they play at dreary faro, or lotto reale. low-citizens: then pray send them by the readiest con- for small sums. Their academie are concerts like our with better music and more form. Their best things are the carnival balls, and masquerades, when every body • See Don Jian, Canto III, Ste own, suns mad for six weeks. After their dinners and suppers| they make extempore verses and buffoon one another; but it is in a humour which you would not enter into, ye of the north. LETTER CCCCXXIV. TO MR. MURRAY. young lady, and the dictionary, say cuirass. I have written cuirass, but helmet runs in my head nevertheless-ano will run in verse very well, whilk is the principal point. I will ask the Sposa Spina Spinelli, too, the Florentino bride of Count Gabriel Rusponi, just imported troia Flo rence, and get the sense out of somebody. "Ravenna, March 1, 1829. In their houses it is better. I should know something "I sent you by last post the translation of the Fir of the matter, having had a pretty general experience Canto of the Morgante Maggiore, and wish you to ask among their women, from the fisherman's wife up to the Rose about the word 'sbergo,' i. e. 'usbergo,' which i Nobil Dama, whom I serve. Their system has its rules, have translated cuirass. I suspect that it means hein.et and its fitnesses, and its decorums, so as to be reduced to also. Now, if so, which of the senses is best accordant a kind of discipline or game at hearts, which admits few with the text? I have adopted cuirass, but will be amicdeviations, unless you wish to lose it. They are ex-nable to reasons. Of the natives, some say one, and tremely tenacious, and jealous as furies, not permitting some t' other; but they are no great Tuscans in Rotheir lovers even to marry if they can help it, and keeping magna. However I will ask Sgricci (the famous improthem always close to them in public as in private, when visatore) to-morrow, who is a native of Arezzo. The ever they can. In short, they transfer marriage to adul- Countess Guiccioli, who is reckoned a very cultivated tery, and stike the not out of that commandment. The reason is, that they marry for their parents, and love for themselves. They exact fidelity from a lover as a debt of honour, while they pay the husband as a tradesman, that is, not at all. You hear a person's character, male or female, canvassed, not as depending on their conduct to their husbands or wives, but to their mistress or lover. If I wrote a quarto, I do n't know that I could do more than amplify what I have here noted. It is to be observed that while they do all this, the greatest outward respect is to be paid to the husbands, not only by the ladies, but by their Serventi-particularly if the husband serves no "Enclosed is a letter which I received some time ago one himself (which is not often the case, however;) so from Dallas. It will explain itself. I have not answered that you would often suppose them relations-the Ser-it. This comes of doing people good. At one time or vente making the figure of one adopted into the family. another (including copyrights) this person has had about Sometimes the ladies run a little restive and elope, or fourteen hundred pounds of my money, and he writes divide, or make a scene; but this is at starting, generally, what he calls a posthumous work about me, and a scrubby when they know no better, or when they fall in love with letter accusing me of treating him ill, when I never did a foreigner, or some such anomaly, and is always reck- any such thing. It is true that I left off letter-writing, oned unnecessary and extravagant. as I have done with almost every body else; but I can't see how that was misusing him. "You inquire after Dante's Prophecy: I have not done more than six hundred lines, but will vaticinate at leisure. *Of the bust I know nothing. No cameos or seals are to be cut here or elsewhere that I know of, in any good style. Hobhouse should write himself to Thorwaldsen: the bust was made and paid for three years ago. "I have just been visiting the new Cardinal, who arrived the day before yesterday in his legation. He seems a good old gentleman, pious and simple, and not quite like his predecessor, who was a bonvivant, in the worldly sense of the words. "I look upon his epistle as the consequence of my not sending him another hundred pounds, which he wrote to me for about two years ago, and which I thought proper to withhold, he having had his share, methought, of what I could dispone upon others. "In your last you ask me after my articles of domestic wants: I believe they are as usual; the bull-dogs, mag "Pray tell Mrs. Leigh to request Lady Byron to urge forward the transfer from the funds. I wrote to Lady Byron on business this post, addressed to the care of nesia, soda-powders, tooth-powders, brushes, and every Mr. D. Kinnaird." LETTER CCCCXXI TO MR. BANKES. "Ravenna, February 26, 1820. thing of the kind which are here unattainable. You still ask ine to return to England: alas! to what purpose? You do not know what you are requiring. Return I must, probably, some day or other (if I live,) sooner or later; but it will not be for pleasure, nor can it end in good. You inquire after my health and SPIRITS in large letters: my health can't be very bad, for I cured myself of a sharp *Pulci and I are waiting for you with impatience; but tertian ague, in three weeks, with cold water, which had I suppose we must give way to the attraction of the Bo-held my stoutest gondolier for months, notwithstanding lognese galleries for a time. I know nothing of pictures all the bark of the apothecary,-a circumstance which myself, and care almost as little; but to me there are surprised Dr. Aglietti, who said it was a proof of great none like the Venetian-above all, Giorgione. I remem- stamina, particularly in so epidemic a season. I did it ber well his judgment of Solomon in the Mariscalchi out of dislike to the taste of bark (which I can't bear,) in Bologna. The real mother is beautiful, exquisitely and succeeded, contrary to the prophecies of every body beautiful. Buy her, by all means, if you can, and by simply taking nothing at all. As to spirits, they are take her home with you: put her in safety-for be as- unequal, now high, now low, like other people's, I suppose sured there are troublous times brewing for Italy; and and depending upon circumstances. as I never could keep out of a row in my life, it will be my fate, I dare say, to be over head and ears in it; but no matter, these are the stronger reasons for coming to see me soon. "Pray send me W. Scott's new novels. What are their names and characters? I read some of his former ones, at least once a day, for an hour or so. The last are too hurried: he forgets Ravenswood's name and calls him "I have more of Scott's novels (for surely they are Edgar and then Norman; and Girder, the cooper, is Scott's) since we met, and am more and more delighted. styled now Gilbert, and now John; and he don't make I think that I even prefer them to his poetry, which (by-enough of Montrose; but Dalgetty is excellent, and so is the-way) I redde for the first time in my life in your Lucy Ashton, and the b-h her mother. What is Ivanrooms in Trinity college. hoe? and what do you call his other? are there too? "There are some curious commentaries on Dante pre-Pray make him write at least two a year: I like no read served here, which you should see. Believe me ever, ing so well. faithfully and most affectionately, "The editor of the Bologna Telegraph has sent me a "Yours, &c. paper with extracts from Mr. Mulock's (his name always reminds me of Muley Moloch of Morocco) 'Atheism did not come of it. I have no objection to this being his answered,' in which their is a long eulogium of my poesy, fourteenth in the four-and-twenty hours. He presides over and a great 'compatimento' for my misery. I never could overturns and all escapes therefrom, it seems; and they understand what they mean by accusing me of irreligion. dedicate pictures, &c. to him, as the sailors once did to However, they may have it their own way. This gen-Neptune, after 'the high Roman fashion.' tleman seems to be my great admirer, so I take what he says in good part, as he evidently intends kindness, to which I can't accuse myself of being invincible. "Yours, &c." "Yours, in haste." LETTER CCCCXXVII. TO MR. MURRAY. LETTER CCCCXXV. TO MR. MURRAY. pos "Ravenna, March 20, 1820. "Last post I sent you, 'The Vision of Dante,'-first four cantos. Enclosed you will find, line for line, in third "Ravenna, March 5, 1820. rhyme (terza rima,*) of which your Briush blackguard "In case, in your country, you should not readily lay reader as yet understands nothing, Fanny of Rimini. You hands on the Morgante Maggiore, I send you the original know that she was born here, and married, and slain, from text of the First Canto, to correspond with the translation Cary, Boyd, and such people. I have done it into cramp which I sent you a few days ago. It is from the Naples English, line for line, and rhyme for rhyme, to try the edition in quarto of 1732,-dated Florence, however, by a sibility. You had best append it to the poems already sent trick of the trade, which you, as one of the allied sove-by last three posts. I shall not allow you to play the tricks reigns of the profession, will perfectly understand without you did last year, with the prose you post-scribed to Ma any farther spiegazione. zeppa, which I sent to you not to be published, if not in a periodical paper,—and there you tacked it, without a word of explanation. If this is published publish it with the ori ginal, and together with the Pulci translation, or the Dan imitation. I suppose you have both by now, and the Juan long before. LETTER CCCCXXVIII. TO MR. MURRAY. "It is strange that here nobody understands the real precise meaning of 'sbergo,' or 'usbergo,'* an old Tuscan word, which I have rendered cuirass (but am not sure it is not helmet.) I have asked at least twenty people, learned and ignorant, male and female, including poets, and officers civil and military. The dictionary says cuirass, but gives no authority; and a female friend of mine says positively cuirass, which makes me doubt the fact still more than before. Ginguené says, 'bonnet de fer' with the usual superficial decision of a Frenchman, so that I can't believe him: and what between the dictionary, the "Ravenna, March 23, 1820. Italian man, and the Frenchman, there's no trusting "I have received your letter of the 7th. Besides the to a word they say. The context too, which should de-four packets you have already received, I have sent the cide, a imits equally of either meaning, as you will perceive. Ask Rose, Hobhouse, Merivale, and Foscolo, and vote with the majority. Is Frere a good Tuscan? if he be, bother him too. I have tried, you see, to be as accurate as I well could. This is my third or fourth lotter, or packet, within the last twenty days." LETTER CCCCXXVI. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, March 14, 1820. Enclosed is Dante's Prophecy-Vision-or what not. Where I have left more than one reading, (which I have done often,) you may adopt that which Gifford, Frere, Rose, and Hobhouse, and others of your Utican Senate think the best, or least bad. The preface will explain all that is explicable. These are but the first four cantos: if approved, I will go on. "Pray mind in printing; and let some good Italian scholar correct the Italian quotations. "Four days ago I was overturned in an open carriage between the river and a steep bank-wheels dashed to pieces, slight bruises, narrow escape, and all that; but no harm done, though coachman, footman, horses, and vehicle were all mixed together like macaroni. It was owing to bad driving, as I say; but the coachman swears to a start on the part of the horses. We went against a post on the verge of a steep bank, and capsized. I usually go out of the town in a carriage, and meet the saddle horses at the bridge; it was in going there that we boggled; but I got my ride, as usual, after the accident. They say here it was all owing to St. Antonio of Padua (serious, I assure you)—who does thirteen miracles a day,-that worse Ustergo is obviously the same as hauberk, habergeon, &c. all from the German hala-berg, or covering of the neck. Gee Gray's lard, "Heim ar hat berk's twisted mail." Pulci a few days after, and since (a few days ago) the first four Cantos of Dante's Prophecy, (the best thing I ever wrote, if it be not unintelligible,) and by last post a literal translation, word for word (versed like the original) of the episode of Francesca of Rimini. I want to hear what you think of the new Juans, and the translations, and the. Vision. They are all things that are, or ought to be, very different from one another. "If you choose to make a print from the Venetian, you may; but she don't correspond at all to the character you mean her to represent. On the contrary, the Contessa G. does (except that she is fair,) and is much prettier than the Fornarina; but I have no picture of her except a miniature, which is very ill done; and, besides, it would not be proper, on any account whatever, to make such a use of it, even if you had a copy. "Recollect that the two new Cantos only count with us for one. You may put the Puici and Dante together: perhaps that were best. So you have put your name to Juan after all your panic. You are a rare fellow. I must now put myself in a passion to continue my prose. "I have caused write to Thorwaldsen. Pray be careful in sending my daughter's picture-I mean, that it be not hurt in the carriage, for it is a journey rather long and jolting." "I wish to know what became of my two Epistles from where nobody can point more than a shilling or two:-St. Paul, (translated from the Armenian three years ago other card-tables, and as much talk and coffee as you and more,) and of the letter to Roberts of last autumn, please. Every body does and says what they please; which you never have attended to? There are two pack-and I do not recollect any disagreeable events, except ets with this. "P. S. I have some thoughts of publishing the 'Hints from Horace,' written ten years ago-if Hobhouse can rummage them out of my papers left at his father's, with some omissions and alterations previously to be made when I see the proofs.' LETTER CCCCXXX. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, March 29, 1820. "Herewith you will receive a note (enclosed) on Pope, which you will find tally with a part of the text of last post. I have at last lost all patience with the atrocious cant and nonsense about Pope, with which our present**s are overflowing, and am determined to make such head against it as an individual can, by prose or verse; and I will at least do it with good will. There is no bearing it any longer; and if it goes on, it will destroy what little good writing or taste remains among us. I hope there are still a few men of taste to second me; but if not, I'll battle it alone, convinced that it is in the best cause of English literature. ་ being three times falsely accused of flirtation, and once being robbed of six sixpences by a nobleman of the city, Count ***. I did not suspect the illustrious delinquent; but the Countess V *** and the Marquis L *** told me of it directly, and also that it was a way he had, of filching money when he saw it before him; but I did not ar him for the cash, but contented myself with telling him that if he did it again, I should anticipate the law. "There is to be a theatre in April, and a fair, and an opera, and another opera in June, besides the fine weather of nature's giving, and the rides in the Forest of Pine. With my best respects to Mrs. Hoppner, believe me ever, &c. "BYRON. "P. S. Could you give me an item of what books remain at Venice? I don't want them, but want to know whether the few that are not here are there, and were not lost by the way. I hope and trust you have got all your wine safe, and that it is drinkable. Allegra is prettier, I think, but as obstinate as a mule, and as ravenous as a vulture: health good, to judge of the complexion-temper tolerable, but for vanity and pertinacity. She thinks her self handsome and will do as she pleases." * LETTER CCCCXXXII. TO MR. MURRAY. * * on, "I have sent you so many packets, verse and prose, lately, that you will be tired of the postage, if not of the perusal. I want to answer some parts of your last letter, but I have not time, for I must 'boot and saddle,' as my Captain Craigengilt (an officer of the old Napoleon Italian "Ravenna, April 9, 1820. "In the name of all the devils in the printing-office, why army) is in waiting, and my groom and cattle to boot. "You have given me a screed of metaphor and what don't you write to acknowledge the receipt of the second, not about Pulci, and manners, 'going without clothes, like third, and fourth packets, viz. the Pulci translation and our Saxon ancestors.' Now, the Sarons did not go with-original, the Danticles, the Observations &c.? You out clothes; and, in the next place, they are not my anforget that you keep me in hot water till I know whether cestors, nor yours either; for mine were Norman, and they are arrived, or if I must have the bore of recopying. yours, I take it by your name, where Gael. And, in the next, I differ from you about the 'refinement' which has "Have you gotten the cream of translations, Francesca banished the comedies of Congreve. Are not the come-of Rimini, from the Inferno? Why, I have sent you a dies of Sheridan acted to the thinnest houses? I know (as warehouse of trash within the last month, and you have ex-committed) that 'The School for Scandal' was the worst no sort of feeling about you: a pastry-cook would have stock-piece upon record. I also know that Congreve gave had twice the gratitude, and thanked me at least for the up wriung because Mrs. Centlivre's balderdash drove his quantity. comedies off. So it is not decency, but stupidity, that does "To make the letter heavier, I enclose you the Cardiall this; for Sheridan is as decent a writer as need be, and nal Legate's (our Campeius) circular for his conversa. Congreve no worse than Mrs. Centlivre, of whom Wilkes zione this evening. It is the anniversary of the Pope's (the actor) said, 'not only her play would be damned, but tiara-tion, and all polite Christians, even of the Lutheran she too.' He alluded to 'A Bold Stroke for a Wife.' But creed, must go and be civil. And there will be a circle, last, and most to the purpose, Pulci is not an indecent and a faro-table, (for shillings, that is, they do n' allow wiriter at least in his first Canto, as you will have per-high play,) and all the beauty, nobility, and sanctity of ceived by this time. "You talk of refinement:-are you all more moral? are you so moral? No such thing. I know what the world is in England, by my own proper experience of the best of it at least of the loftiest; and I have described it every where as it is to be found in all places. Ravenna present. The Cardinal himself is a very good- * "I am not quite sure that I won't be among you this "But to return. I should like to see the proofs of mine autumn, for I find that business do n't go on-what with answer, because there will be something to omit or to trustees and lawyers as it should do, with all delibealter. But pray let it be carefully printed. When con-rate speed.' They differ about investments in Ireland. venient let me have an answer. LETTER CCCCXXXI. TO MR. HOPPNER. "Yours." "Between the devil and deep sea, I am puzzled; and so much time is lost by my not being upon the spot, what with answers, demurs, rejoinders, that it may be I must come and look to it; for one says do, and t' other do n't, so that I know not which way to turn: but perhaps they can manage without me. "Yours, &c. "P.S. I have begun a tragedy on the subject of Ma rino Faliero, the Doge of Venice; but you sha'n' ́t see it these six years, if you do n't acknowledge my packets win more quickness and precision. Always urite, if but a |