him?' said she. A great chemist,' quoth I. What a great man, and live among great men, but do pray can he do?' repeated the lady. Almost any thing,' recollect your absent friends and authors. said I. Oh, then, mio caro, do pray beg him to "In the first place, your packets; then a letter give me something to dye my eyebrows black. I from Kinnaird, on the most urgent business; an have tried a thousand things, and the colors all other from Moore, about a communication to Lady come off; and besides, they don't grow; can't he Byron of importance; a fourth from the mother of invent something to make them grow?' All this Allegra; and fifthly, at Ravenna, the Contessa G. with the greatest earnestness; and what you will be is on the eve of being divorced.-But the Italian surprised at, she is neither ignorant nor a fool, but public are on our side, particularly the women,-and really well educated and clever. But they speak the men also, because they say that he had no busilike children, when first out of their convents; ness to take the business up now after a year of toland, after all, this is better than an English blue-eration. All her relations (who are numerous, high stocking. in rank and powerful) are furious against him for "I did not tell Sir Humphrey of this last piece of his conduct. I am warned to be on my guard, as he philosophy, not knowing how he might take it.-is very capable of employing sicarii-this is Latin Davy was much taken with Ravenna, and the as well as Italian, so you can understand it; but PRIMITIVE Italianism of the people, who are un- have arms, and don't mind them, thinking that I used to foreigners: but he only staid a day. "Send me Scott's novels and some news. "P. S. I have begun and advanced into the second act of a tragedy on the subject of the Doge's conspiracy, (i. e. the story of Marino Faliero ;) but my present feeling is so little encouraging on such matters that I begin to think I have mined my talent out, and proceed in no great phantasy of finding a new vein. could pepper his ragamuffins, if they don't come unawares, and that if they do, one may as well end that way as another; and it would besides serve you as an advertisement. Man may escape from rope or gun, &c., But he who takes woman, woman, woman,' &c. "P. S. I have looked over the press, but heaven "P. S. I sometimes think (if the Italians don't knows how. Think what I have on hand, and the rise) of coming over to England in the autumn post going out to-morrow. Do you remember the after the coronation, (at which I would not appear epitaph on Voltaire ? can on account of my family schism,) but as yet decide nothing. The place must be a great deal changed since I left it, now more than four years ago. 'Ci-git l'enfant gâtè,' &c. 'Here lies the spoil'd child Of the world which he spoil'd.' The original is in Grimm and Diderot, &c., &c., &c LETTER CCCCXXXVII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, May 20, 1820. LETTER CCCCXXXIX. TO MR. MOORE. "Ravenna, May 24, 1820. 'Murray, my dear, make my respects to Thomas Campbell, and tell him from me, with faith and friendship, three things that he must right in his poets: Firstly, he says Anstey's Bath Guide char- "I wrote to you a few days ago. There is also a acters are taken from Smollett. 'Tis impossible: letter of January last for you at Murray's which -the Guide was published in 1766, and Humphrey will explain to you why I am here. Murray ought Clinker in 1771-dunque, 'tis Smollett who has taken to have forwarded it long ago. I enclose you an from Anstey. Secondly, he does not know to whom epistle from a countrywoman of yours at Paris, Cowper alludes when he says that there was one which has moved my entrails. You will have the who built a church to God, and then blasphemed goodness, perhaps, to inquire into the truth of her his name:' it was Deo erexit Voltaire,' to whom story, and I will help her as far as I can,-though that maniacal Calvinist and coddled poet alludes.-not in the useless way she proposes. Her letter is Thirdly, he misquotes and spoils a passage from evidently unstudied, and so natural, that the orthog Shakspeare, 'to gild refined gold, to paint the lily,' raphy is also in a state of nature. &c.; for lily he puts rose, and bedevils in more Here is a poor creature, ill and solitary, who words than one the whole quotation. thinks, as a last resource, of translating you or me into French! Was there ever such a notion? It seems to me the consummation of despair. Pray inquire, and let me know, and, if you could draw a bill on me here for a few hundred francs, at your banker's I will duly honor it, that is, if she is not an impostor. If not, let me know, that I may get something remitted by my banker Longhi, of Bologna, for I have no correspondence, myself, at Paris; but tell her she must not translate;-if she does, it will be the height of ingratitude. I "Now, Tom is a fine fellow; but he should be correct for the first is an injustice, (to Antsey), the second an ignorance, and the third a blunder. Tell him all this, and let him take it in good part; for might have rammed it into a review and rowed him -instead of which, I act like a Christian. "Yours, &c." LETTER CCCCXXXVIII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, May 20, 1820. "First and foremost, you must forward my letter to Moore dated 2d January, which I said you might open, but desired you to forward. Now, you should really not forget these little things, because they do mischief among friends. You are an excellent man, • See Don Juan, canto v., note ix. "I had a letter (not of the same kind, but in French and flattery) from a Madame Sophie Gail, of Paris, whom I take to be the spouse of a GalloGreek of that name. Who is she? and what is she? and how came she to take an interest in my poeshie or its author? If you know her, tell her, with my compliments, that, as I only read French, I have not answered her letter; but would have done so in Italian, if I had not thought it would look like an affectation. I have just been scolding my monkey for tearing the seal of her letter, and spoiling a mock book, in which I put rose leaves. I had a civet-cat the other day, too; but it run away after scratching my monkey's cheek, and I am in to me some remarks, which appear to be Goethe's, search of it still. It was the fiercest beast I ever upon Manfred!-and if I may judge by two notes of saw, and like ** in the face and manner. admiration (generally put after something ridicu lous by us), and the word hypocondrisch,' are any thing but favorable. I shall regret this, for I should have been proud of Goethe's good word; but I shan't alter my opinion of him, even though ha should be savage. "I have a world of things to say; but as they are not come to a d nouement, I don't care to begin their history till it is wound up. After you went I had a fever, but got well again without bark. Sir Humphrey Davy was here the other day, and liked Ravenna very much. He will tell you any thing you "Will you excuse this trouble, and do me this may wish to know about the place and your humble favor?-never mind-soften nothing-I am literary servitor. proof-having had good and evil said in most mod ern languages. "Believe me, &c." LETTER CCCCXLI. TO MR. MOORE. "Ravenna, Jose, 1820. "Your apprehensions (arising from Scott's) were unfounded. There are no damages in this country, but there will probably be a separation between them, as her family, which is a principal one, by its connexions, are very much against him, for the whole of his conduct;-and he is old and obstinate, and she is young and a woman, determined to sacrifice every thing to her affections. I have given her the best advice, viz., to stay with him,-pointing out the state of a separated woman, (for the priests "I have received a Parisian letter from W. W., won't let lovers live openly together, unless the hus- which I prefer answering through you, if that band sanctions it,) and making the most exquisite worthy be still at Paris, and, as he says, an occamoral reflections, but to no purpose. She says, sional visiter of yours. In November last he wrote "I will stay with him, if he will let you remain with to me a well-meaning letter, stating, for some rea me. It is hard that I should be the only woman in Ro- sons of his own, his belief that a reunion might be magna who is not to have her Amico; but, if not, I effected between Lady B. and myself. To this I will not live with him; and as for the consequences, answered as usual; and he sent me a second letter, love,' &c., &c., &c.,—you know how females reason repeating his notions, which letter I have never He says he has let it go on, till he can do so no think of. He now writes as if he believed that he answered, having had a thousand other things to longer. But he wants her to stay and dismiss me; had offended me, by touching on the topic; and I for he doesn't like to pay back her dowry and to wish you to assure him that I am not at all so,― make an alimony. Her relations are rather for the but on the contrary, obliged by his good-nature. separation, as they detest him-indeed, so does At the same time acquaint him the thing is impos every body. The populace and the women are, as sible. You know this, as well as I,-and there let usual, all for those who are in the wrong, viz., the it end. lady and her lover. I should have retreated, but honor and an erysipelas which has attacked her, prevent me,-to say nothing of love, for I love her most entirely, though not enough to persuade her to sacrifice every thing to a frenzy. I see how it will end; she will be the sixteenth Mrs. Shuilleton.' "My paper is finished, and so must this letter. 66 Yours ever, on such occasions. B. "I believe that I showed you his epistle in autumn last. He asks me if I have heard of my laurcate' at Paris,*-somebody who has written a most sanguinary Epitre' against me; but whether in French, or Dutch, or on what score, I know not, and he don't say,-except that (for my satisfaction) he says it is the best thing in the fellow's volume. If there is any thing of the kind that I ought to know, you will doubtless tell me. I suppose it to be something of the usual sort;-he says, he don't remember the author's name. "I wrote to you some ten days ago, and expect an answer at your leisure. "P. S. I regret that you have not completed the Italian Fudges. Pray, how come you to be still in Paris? Murray has four or five things of mine in hand-the new Don Juan, which his back-shop synod don't admire;-a translation of the first canto of "The separation business still continues, and all Pulci's Morgante Maggiore, excellent;-a short the world are implicated, including priests and carditto from Dante, not so much approved;-the dinals. The public opinion is furious against him, Prophecy of Dante, very grand and worthy, &c., because he ought to have cut the matter short at &c., &c.;-a furious prose answer to Blackwood's first, and not waited twelve months to begin. Observations on Don Juan, with a savage Defence He has been trying at evidence, but can get none of Pope-likely to make a row. The opinions sufficient; for what would make fifty divorces in above I quote from Murray and his Utican senate; England won't do here-there must be the most de-you will form your own, when you see the things. cided proofs. You will have no great chance of seeing me, for I begin to think I must finish in Italy. But, if you come my way, you shall have a tureen of macaroni. Pray tell me about yourself and your in tents. "It is the first cause of the kind attempted in Ravenna for these two hundred years; for, though they often separate, they assign a different motive. You know that the continental incontinent are more delicate than the English, and don't like proclaiming their coronation in a court, even when nobody doubts it. "All her relations are furious against him. The father has challenged him-a superfluous valor, for he don't fight, though suspected of two assassinations-one of the famous Monzoni of Forli. Warning was given me not to take such long rides in the Pine Forest without being on my guard; so I take my stiletto and a pair of pistols in my pocket during my daily rides. "Iwon't stir from this place till the matter is settled one way or the other. She is as femininely firm as possible; and the opinion is so much against him, that the advocates decline to undertake his cause, because they say that he is either a fool or a • Mr. Lamartine. rogue-fool, if he did not discover the liaison till Music assists my memory through the ear, not now; and rogue, if he did know it, and waited, for through the eye; I mean, that her quavers perplex some bad end, to divulge it. In short, there has me uon paper, but they are a help when heard. been nothing like it since the days of Guido di Po- And thus I was glad to see the words without their lenta's family, in these parts. borrowed robes;-to my mind they look none the worse for their nudity. "If the man has me taken off, like Polonius, say he made a good end'-for a melodrame. The prin- "The biographer has made a botch of your lifecipal security is, that he has not the courage to calling your father a venerable old gentleman,' spend twenty scudi-the average price of a clean- and prattling of Addison,' and dowager counthanded bravo-otherwise there is no want of op- esses.' If that dammed fellow was to write my life, Fortunity, for I ride about the woods every evening, I would certainly take his. And then at the Dubwith one servant, and sometimes an acquaintance, who latterly looks a little queer in solitary bits of tushes. "Good-by.-Write to yours ever, &c." LETTER CCCCXLII. TO MR. MURRAY. lin dinner, you have made a speech,' (do you recollect, at Douglas K.'s. 'Sir, he made me a speech?') too complimentary to the 'living poets,' and somewhat redolent of universal praise. I am but too well off in it, but "You have not sent me any poetical or personal news of yourself. Why don't you complete an Italian Tour of the Fudges? I have just been turning over Little, which I knew by heart in 1803, being then in my fifteenth summer. Heigho! I believe all the mischief I have ever done, or sung, has "Ravenna, June 7, 1820. been owing to that confounded book of yours." Enclosed is something which will interest you, "In my last I told you of a cargo of 'Poeshie,' to wit, the opinion of the greatest man of Germany which I had sent to M. at his own impatient desire; perhaps of Europe-upon one of the great men of and, now he has got it, he don't like it, and deyour advertisements (all famous hands,' as Jacob murs. Perhaps he is right. I have no great Tonson used to say of his ragamuffins)-in short, a opinion of any of my last shipment, except a transcritique of Goethe's upon Manfred. There is the lation from Pulci, which is word for word, and verse original, an English translation, and an Italian one; for verse. keep them all in your archives, for the opinions of "I am in the third act of a tragedy; but whether such as Goethe, whether favorable or not, are al- it will be finished or not, I know not: I have, at ways interesting-and this is more so, as favorable. this present, too many passions of my own on hand His Faust I never read, for I don't know German; to do justice to those of the dead. Besides the but Matthew Monk Lewis in 1816, at Coligny, vexations mentioned in my last, I have incurred a translated most of it to me vivé voce, and I was quarrel with the Pope's carabiniers, or gensnaturally much struck with it; but it was the d'armerie, who have petitioned the cardinal against Steinbach and the Jungfrau, and something else, my liveries, as resembling too nearly their own lousy much more than Faustus, that made me write Man- uniform. They particularly object to the epaulettes, fred. The first scene, however, and that of Faus- which all the world with us have upon gala days. tus, are very similar. Acknowledge this letter. My liveries are of the colors conforming to my arms, and have been the family hue ever since the "Yours ever. "P. S. I have received Ivanhoe;-good. Pray year 1066. send me some tooth-powder and tincture of myrrh, "I have sent a trenchant reply, as you may supby Waite, &c., Ricciardetto should have been trans- pose; and have given to understand that, if any lated literally, or not at all. As to puffing Whistle-soldados of that respectable corps insult my sercraft, it won't do. I'll tell you why some day or vants, I will do likewise by their gallant comother. Cornwall's a poet, but spoiled by the de- manders; and I have directed my ragamuffins, six testable schools of the day. Mrs. Hemans is a in number, who are tolerably savage, to defend poet also, but too stiltified and apostrophic,-and themselves, in case of agression: and, on holydays quite wrong. Men died calmly before the Chris- and gaudy days, I shall arm the whole set, including tian era, and since, without Christianity-witness myself, in case of accidents or treachery. I used the Romans, and lately, Thistlewood, Sandt, and to play pretty well at the broadsword, once upon a Lovel-men who ought to have been weighed down time, at Angelo's; but I should like the pistol, our with their crimes, even had they believed. A death-national buccaneer weapon, better, though I am bed is a matter of nerves and constitution, and not out of practice at present. However, I can wink of religion. Voltaire was frightened, Frederick of and hold out mine iron.' It makes me think (the Prussia not: Christians the same, according to whole thing does) of Romeo and Juliet-'now, their strength rather than their creed. What does Gregory, remember thy smashing blow.' H**H** mean by his stanza? which is octave, got drunk, or gone mad.-He ought to have his ears boxed with Thor's hammer for rhyming so fantastically." "All these feuds, however, with the cavalier for his wife, and the troopers for my liveries, are very tiresome to a quiet man, who does his best to please all the world, and longs for fellowship and goodwill. Pray write. "I am yours, &c." LETTER CCCCXLIII. TO MR. MOORE. "Ravenna, June 9, 1820. Galignani has just sent me the Paris edition of your works, (which I wrote to order,) and I am glad LETTER CCCCXLIV. TO MR. MOORE. "Ravenna, July 13, 1820. "To remove or increase your Irish anxiety about to see my old friends with a French face. I have my being in a whisp,' I answer your letter forthbeen skimming and dipping, in and over them, like with; premising that as I am a Will of the wisp,' I a swallow, and as pleased as one. It is the first may chance to flit out of it. But, first, a word on time that I had seen the melodies without music; the Memoir;-I have no objection, nay, I would and I don't know how, but I can't read in a music- rather that one correct copy was taken and depos book-the crotchets confound the words in my head, though I recollect them perfectly when sung. • An Irish phrase for being in a scrape. ited in honorable hands, in case of accidents! "There is a revolution at Naples. If so, it wi happening to the original; for you know that I probably leave a card at Ravenna in its way to Lomhave none, and have never even re-read, nor, indeed, bardy. read at all what is there written; I only know that "Your publishers seem to have used you like I wrote it with the fullest intention to be faithful mine. Murray has shuffled, and almost insinuated and true' in my narrative, but not impartial-no, that my last productions are dull. Dull, sir!by the Lord! I can't pretend to be that, while I damme, dull! I believe he is right. He begs for feel. But I wish to give every body concerned the the completion of my tragedy on Marino Faliero, opportunity to contradict or correct me. "I have no objection to any proper person seeing what is there written,-seeing it was written, like every thing else, for the purpose of being read, however much many writings may fail in arriving at that object. none of which has yet gone to England. The fifte act is nearly completed, but it is dreadfully longforty sheets of long paper, four pages each-about one hundred and fifty when printed; but so full of pastime and prodigality' that I think it will do. "Pray send and publish your poem upon me; and don't be afraid of praising me too highly. I shall pocket my blushes. "Not actionable!'-Chantre d'enfer-by "With regard to the whisp,' the Pope has pronounced their separation. The degree came esterday from Babylon,-it was she and her friends who demanded it, on the grounds of her husband's that's a speech,' and I won't put up with it. A (the noble Count Cavalier's) extraordinary usage. pretty title to give a man for doubting if there be He opposed it with all his might, because of the any such place! alimony, which has been assigned, with all her So my Gail is gone-and Miss Mahony won't goods, chattels, carriage, &c., to be restored by take money. I am very glad of it-I like to be him. In Italy they can't divorce. He insisted on generous free of expense. But beg her not to transher giving me up, and he would forgive every thing late me. -even the adultery which he swears that he can prove by famous winesses.' But, in this country, the very courts hold such proofs in abhorrence, the Italians being as much more delicate in public than the English, as they are more passionate in private. "Oh, pray tell Galignani that I shall send him a screed of doctrine if he don't be more punctual. Somebody regularly detains two, and sometimes four, of his messengers by the way. Do, pray, entreat him to be more precise. News are worth money in this remote kingdom of the Ostrogoths. "The friends and relatives, who are numerous "Pray, reply. I should like much to share some and powerful, reply to him-You yourself are of your champagne and La Fitte, but I am too Italeither fool or knave,-fool, if you did not see the ian for Paris in general. Make Murray send my consequences of the approximation of these two letter to you if it is full of epigrams. young persons,-knave, if you connive at it. Take your choice, but don't break out (after twelve months of the closest intimacy, under your own eyes and positive sanction) with a scandal, which can only make you ridiculous and her unhappy.' "He swore that he thought our intercourse was purely amicable, and that I was more partial to him than to her, till melancholy testimony proved the contrary. To this they answer, that Will of this wisp' was not an unknown person, and that 'clamosa Fama' had not proclaimed the purity of my morals:-that her brother, a year ago, wrote from Rome to warn him, that his wife would infallibly be led astray by this ignis fatuus, unless he took proper measures, all of which he neglected to take, &c., &c. "Now, he says, that he encouraged my return to Ravenna, to see in quanti piedi di acqua siamo,' and he has found enough to drown him in. short, "Ce ne fut pas le tout; sa femme se plaignit— In "Yours, &c." LETTER CCCCXLV. TO MR. MURRAY. “Ravenra, July 17, 1959. "I have received some books, and Quarterlies, and Edinburghs, for all which I am grateful; they contain all I know of England, except by Galigna ni's newspaper. "The tragedyt is completed, but now comes the task of copy and correction. It is very long, (fortytwo sheets of long paper, of four pages each,) and I believe must make more than one hundred and forty or one hundred and fifty pages, besides many historical extracts as notes, which I mean to append. History is closely followed. Dr. Moore's account is in some respects false, and in all foolish and flippant. None of the chronicles (and I have consulted Sanuto, Sandi, Navagero, and an anonymous Siege of Zara, besides the histories of Laugier, Dara, SisIt is but to let the women alone, in the way of con- mondi, &c.) state, or even hint, that he begged his flict, for they are sure to win against the field. She life; they merely say that he did not deny the conreturns to her father's house, and I can only see her spiracy. He was one of their great men,-comunder great restrictions-such is the custom of the mander at the siege of Zara,-beat eighty thousand country. The relations behaved very well;—I offered Hungarians, killing eight thousand, and at the any settlement, but they refused to accept it, and same time kept the town he was besieging in order, swear she shan't live with G., (as he has tried to took Capo d'Istria,-was ambassador at Genoa, prove her faithless,) but that he shall maintain her; Rome, and finally Doge, where he fell for treason, and, in fact, a judgment to this effect came yester-in attempting to alter the government, by what day. I am, of course, in an awkward situation Sanuto calls a judgment on him for, many years enough. before, (when podesta and captain of Treviso,) "I have heard no more of the carabiniers who having knocked down a bishop, who was sluggish protested against my liveries. They are not popu- in carrying the host at a procession. He saddles lar, those same soldiers, and, in a small row, the him,' as Thwackum did Square, with a judgment;" other night, one was slain, another wounded, and but he does not mention whether he had been pun divers put to flight, by some of the Romagnuole ished at the time for what would appear very strange, youth, who are dexterous, and somewhat liberal of even now, and must have been still more so in an the knife. The perpetrators are not discovered, but age of papal power and glory. Sanuto says, that I hope and believe that none of my ragamuffins were Heaven took away his senses for this buffet, and in it, though they are somewhat savage, and secret 64 ly armed, like most of the inhabitants. It is their way, and saves sometimes a good deal of litigation. • The title given him by M. Lamartine, in ons of his poena. ↑ Marino Faliero. Induced him to conspire. Però fu permesso che il know. As to reform, I did reform-what would you Faliero perdette l' intelletto,' &c. have? Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.' "I do not know what your parlor-boarders will I verily believe that nor you, nor any man of poetithink of the drama I have founded upon this extra-cal temperament, can avoid a strong passion of ordinary event. The only similar one in history is some kind. It is the poetry of life. What should the story of Agis, King of Sparta, a prince, with I have known or written, had I been a quiet, merthe commons against the aristocracy, and losing his cantile politician, or a lord in waiting? A man life therefor. But it shall be sent when copied, must travel and turmoil, or there is no existence. Besides, I only meant to be a cavalier servente, and had no idea it would turn out a romance, in the Anglo fashion. "I should be glad to know why your Quartering Reviewers, at the close of the Fall of Jerusalem, accuse me of Manicheism? a compliment to which the sweetener of one of the mightiest spirits' by However, I suspect I know a thing or two of no means reconciles me. The poem they review is Italy-more than Lady Morgan has picked up in very noble; but could they not do justice to the her posting. What do Englishmen know of Italwriter without converting him into my religious ians beyond their museums and saloons-and some antidote? I am not a Manichean, nor an Any-hack, en passant? Now, I have lived in the chean. I should like to know what harm my heart of their houses, in parts of Italy freshest and 'poeshies' have done? I can't tell what people least influenced by strangers,-have seen and bemean by making me a hobgoblin.” LETTER CCCCXLVI. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, August 31, 1820. come (pars magna fui) a portion of their hopes, and fears, and passions, and am almost inoculated into a family. This is to see men and things as they are. "You say that I called you 'quiet't-I don't recollect any thing of the sort. On the contrary you are always in scrapes. "What think you of the Queen? I hear Mr. Hoby says, 'that it makes him weep to see her, she reminds him so much of Jane Shore.' "1 have put my soul' into the tragedy, (as you if it;) but you know that there are d-d souls as well as tragedies. Recollect that it is not a political play, though it may look like it: it is strictly Pray, historical. Read the history and judge. "Mr. Hoby, the bootmaker's heart is quite sore, excuse this ribaldry. What is your poem about? Write and tell me all about it and you. "Yours, &c." "Ada's picture is her mother's. I am glad of it -the mother made a good daughter. Send me Gifford's opinion, and never mind the Archbishop. "P. S. Did you write the lively quiz on Peter I can neither send you away, nor give you a hundred Bell? It has wit enough to be yours, and almost pistoles, nor a better taste; I send you a tragedy, too much to be any body else's now going. It was and you asked for 'facetious epistles;' a little like in Galignani the other day or week." your predecessor, who advised Dr. Prideaux to put some more humor into his Life of Mahomet.' "Bankes is a wonderful fellow. There is hardly one of my school or college contemporaries that has not turned out more or less celebrated. Peel, Palmerston, Bankes, Hobhouse, Tavistock, Bob Mills, Douglas Kinnaird, &c., &c., have all talked and Deen talked about. LETTER CCCCXLVIII. TO MR. MURRAY. "We are here going to fight a little next month, "Ravenna, September 7, 1820. if the Huns don't cross the Po, and probably if they do. I can't say more now. If any thing happens, manuscript, because there are in it various readings. "In correcting the proofs you must refer to the you have matter for a posthumous work in MS.; so pray be civil. Depend upon it, there will be savage best. Let me hear what he thinks of the whole. Pray attend to this, and choose what Gifford thinks work, if once they begin here. The French courage proceeds from vanity, the German from phlegm, the Turkish from fanaticism and opium, the Spanish from pride, the English from coolness, the Dutch from obstinacy, the Russian from insensibility, but the Italian from anger; so you see that they will spare nothing." LETTER CCCCXLVII. TO MR. MOORE. "Ravenna, August 31, 1820, "You speak of Lady's illness; she is not of those who die:-the amiable only do; and those whose death would do good live. Whenever she is pleased to return, it may be presumed she will take her divining rod' along with her: it may be of use to her at home, as well as to the rich man' of the Evangelists. "Pray, do not let the papers paragraph me back to England. They may say what they please, any loathsome abuse but that. Contradict it. "My last letters will have taught you to expect an explosion here: it was primed and loaded, but they hesitated to fire the train. One of the cities shirked from the league. I cannot write more at large for a thousand reasons. Our puir hill folk "D-n your 'mezzo cammin'-you should say offered to strike, and raise the first banner, but Bothe prime of life,' a much more consolatory phrase. logna paused; and now 'tis autumn, and the season 'O Jerusalem! Jerusalem!' The Huns Besides, it is not correct. I was born in 1788, and half over. consequently am but thirty-two. You are mistaken are on the Po; but if once they pass it on their way on another point. The Sequin Box' never came to Naples, all Italy will be behind them. The dogs into requisition, nor is it likely to do so. -the wolves-may they perish like the host of better that it had, for then a man is not bound, you Sennacherib! If you want to publish the Prophecy of Dante, you never will have a better time." It were I had congratulated him upon arriving at what Dante calls the "mezzo ammin" of life, the age of thirty-three.-Moore • 1 had mistaken the concluding words of his letter of the 9th of June Moore. |