'take notes for Leigh Hunt, who will be glad to hear of the scenery of his Poem. There was a devil of a ' review of him in the Quarterly, a year ago, which he ' answered. All answers are imprudent; but, to be sure, poetical flesh and blood must have the last 'word that's certain. I thought, and think, very highly of his Poem; but I warned him of the row 'his favourite antique phraseology would bring him ' into. 'You have taken a house at Hornsey: I had much ' rather you had taken one in the Apennines. If If you 'think of coming out for a summer, or so, tell me, that 'I may be upon the hover for you. 'Ever, &c.' LETTER 274. TO MR. MURRAY. 'Venice, April 14th, 1817. By the favour of Dr. Polidori, who is here on 'his way to England with the present Lord G ** (the 'late earl having gone to England by another road, accompanied by his bowels in a separate coffer), 1 ' remit to you, to deliver to Mrs. Leigh, two minia'tures; but previously you will have the goodness to desire Mr. Love (as a peace-offering between him and me) to set them in plain gold, with my arms complete, and "Painted by Prepiani. — Venice, 1817," on the back. I wish also that you would ' desire Holmes to make a copy of each-that is, both '-for myself, and that you will retain the said copies 'till my return. One was done while I was very 'unwell; the other in my health, which may account 'for their dissimilitude. I trust that they will reach 'their destination in safety. I recommend the doctor to your good offices with your government friends; and if you can be of any use to him in a literary point of view, pray be so. To-day, or rather yesterday, for it is past midnight, I have been up to the battlements of the highest tower in Venice, and seen it and its view, in all the glory of a clear Italian sky. I also went over the Manfrini Palace, famous for its pictures. Amongst them, there is a portrait of Ariosto, by Titian, surpassing all my anticipation of the power of painting or 'human expression: it is the poetry of portrait, and 'the portrait of poetry. There was also one of some 'learned lady, centuries old, whose name I forget, but 'whose features must always be remembered. I never saw greater beauty, or sweetness, or wisdom :-it is 'the kind of face to go mad for, because it cannot walk " out of its frame. There is also a famous dead Christ ' and live Apostles, for which Buonaparte offered in ' vain five thousand louis; and of which, though it is 'a capo d'opera of Titian, as I am no connoisseur, I say little, and thought less, except of one figure in 'it. There are ten thousand others, and some very 'fine Giorgiones amongst them, &c. &c. There is an 'original Laura and Petrarch, very hideous both. 'Petrarch has not only the dress, but the features and 'air of an old woman, and Laura looks by no means like a young one, or a pretty one. What struck me 'most in the general collection was the extreme re'semblance of the style of the female faces in the mass ' of pictures, so many centuries or generations old, to 'those you see and meet every day among the existing Italians. The queen of Cyprus and Giorgione's wife, particularly the latter, are Venetians as it were of 'yesterday; the same eyes and expression, and, to my 'mind, there is none finer. 'You must recollect, however, that I know nothing ' of painting; and that I detest it, unless it reminds me of something I have seen, or think it possible to see, for which reason I spit upon and abhor all the 'Saints and subjects of one half the impostures I see ' in the churches and palaces; and when in Flanders, 'I never was so disgusted in my life, as with Rubens ' and his eternal wives and infernal glare of colours, as they appeared to me; and in Spain I did not think 'much of Murillo and Velasquez. Depend upon it, ' of all the arts, it is the most artificial and unnatural, ' and that by which the nonsense of mankind is most imposed upon. I never yet saw the picture or the statue which came a league within my conception or expectation; but I have seen many mountains, and seas, and rivers, and views, and two or three women, 'who went as far beyond it,-besides some horses; ' and a lion (at Veli Pacha's) in the Morea; and a tiger at supper in Exeter 'Change. When you write, continue to address to me at "Venice. Where do you suppose the books you sent 'to me are? At Turin! This comes of "the Foreign Office," which is foreign enough, God knows, for any good it can be of to me, or any one else, and be 'dd to it, to its last clerk and first charlatan, Castlereagh. 'This makes my hundredth letter at least. 'Yours, &c.' LETTER 275. TO MR. MURRAY. Venice, April 14th, 1817. 'The present proofs (of the whole) begin only at the 17th page; but as I had corrected and sent back the 'First Act, it does not signify. |