"I wrote little at Venice, and was forced "into the search of pleasure,-an employ"ment I was soon jaded with the pursuit of. "Women were there, as they have ever "been fated to be, my bane. Like Napo"leon, I have always had a great contempt "for women; and formed this opinion of "them not hastily, but from my own fatal 66 experience. My writings, indeed, tend to "exalt the sex; and my imagination has 66 always delighted in giving them a beau "idéal likeness, but I only drew them as a painter or statuary would do, -as they a native. He must have been remarkably ingenious to horsewhip in a close carriage, and find a nobleman who pocketed the affront! But " uno disce omnes.” ex "should be*. Perhaps my prejudices, and "keeping them at a distance, contributed to prevent the illusion from altogether being "worn out and destroyed as to their celes"tial qualities. 66 They are in an unnatural state of so"ciety. The Turks and Eastern people 66 manage these matters better than we do. * His Medora, Gulnare (Kaled), Zuleika, Thyrza, Angiolina, Myrrha, Adah,—and Haidee,' in Don Juan, are beautiful creations of gentleness, sensibility, firmness, and constancy. If, as a reviewer has sagely discovered, all his male characters, from Childe Harold down to Lucifer, are the same, he cannot be denied the dramatic faculty in his women -in whom there is little family likeness. 66 happier. Give a woman a looking-glass "and a few sugar-plums, and she will be "satisfied. "I have suffered from the other sex ever "since I can remember any thing. I began 66 by being jilted, and ended by being un"wived. Those are wisest who make no " connexion of wife or mistress. The knight"service of the Continent, with or without "the k, is perhaps a slavery as bad, or worse, "than either. An intrigue with a married 66 66 woman at home, though more secret, is equally difficult to break. I had no tie of "any kind at Venice, yet I was not without 66 my annoyances. You "ing the portrait of a female which Murray 66 got engraved, and dubbed my Forna "rina.' "Harlowe, the poor fellow who died soon "after his return from Rome, and who used "to copy pictures from memory, took my "likeness when he was at Venice: and one day this frail one, who was a casual acquaintance of mine, happened to be at my palace, and to be seen by the painter, who 66 was struck with her, and begged she might "sit to him. She did so, and I sent the draw 66 ing home as a specimen of the Venetians, " and not a bad one either; for the jade was handsome, though the most troublesome "shrew and termagant I ever met with. "To give you an idea of the lady, she used "to call me the Gran Cane della Madonna. "When once she obtained a footing inside 66 my door, she took a dislike to the outside “of it, and I had great difficulty in uncolo 66 nizing her. She forced her 66 day when I was at dinner, and snatching a "knife from the table, offered to stab herself "if I did not consent to her stay. Seeing I "took no notice of her threat, as knowing it "to be only a feint, she ran into the balcony "and threw herself into the canal. As it 66 was only knee-deep and there were plenty "of gondolas, one of them picked her up. "This affair made a great noise at the time. "Some said that I had thrown her into the 66 water, others that she had drowned herself "for love; but this is the real story. 66 "I got into nearly as great a scrape by making my court to a spinster. As many "Dowagers as you please at Venice, but beware of flirting with Raggazzas. I had "been one night under her window serenad 66 ing, and the next morning who should be "announced at the same time but a priest "and a police-officer, come, as I thought, |