874 LETTER CCCLXXII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Venice, April 17, 1818 "You may tell them this; and add, that nothing but force or necessity shall stir me one step awards the places to which they would wring me. * "If your literary matters prosper, let me know. "A few days ago, I wrote to you a letter request- If Beppo' pleases, you shall have more in a year ing you to desire Hanson to desire his messenger to or two in the same mood. And so, 'Good morrow come on from Geneva to Venice, because I won't go to you, good Master Lieutenant. from Venice to Geneva; and if this is not done, the messenger may be damned, with him who mis-sent him. Pray reiterate my request. "With the proofs returned, I sent two additional) stanzas for canto fourth: did they arrive? 6 "Yours, &c." LETTER CCCLXXIV. TO MR. MOORE. "Palazzo Mocenigo, Canal Grande, "Venice, June 1, 1818. "Your monthly reviewer has made a mistake: Cavaliere alone is well enough; Cavalier servente' has always the e mute in conversation, and omitted in writing; so that it is not for the sake of metre; and pray let Griffiths know this, with my compli"Your letter is almost the only news, as yet, of ments. I humbly conjecture that I know as much of Italian society and language as any of his peo-canto fourth, and it has by no means settled its fate, -at least, does not tell me how the 'poeshie' has But I suspect. no ple; but to make assurance doubly sure, I asked, at the Countess Benzona's, last night, the question of been received by the public. more than one person in the effice; and of these cavalieri serventi' (in the plural, recollect,) I found great things,-firstly, from Murray's 'horrid stillthat they all accorded in pronouncing for cavalier ness;' secondly: from what you say about the stan yours, but a notion you have binned with among the servente' in the singular number. I wish Mr. ****zas running into each other, which I take not to be (or whoever Griffith's scribbler may be) would not Blues. The fact is, that the terza rima of the Italtalk of what he don't understand. Such fellows are ians, which always runs on and in, may have led me not fit to be intrusted with Italian, even in a quota- into experiments, and carelessness into conceit"Did you receive two additional stanzas, to be conceit into carelessness-in either of which events inserted towards the close of canto fourth? Re-failure will be probable, and my fair woman, saspond, that (if not) they may be sent. tion. * * * "Tell Mr. and Mr. Hanson, that they may as well expect Geneva to come to me, as that I should go to Geneva. The messenger may go or return, as he pleases; I won't stir: and I look upon it as a piece of singular absurdity in those who know me, imagining that I should-not to say malice, in attempting unnecessary torture. If, on the occasion, my interests should suffer, it is their neglect that is to blame; and they may all be d―d together. "It is ten o'clock, and time to dress. "Yours, &c." perne,' end in a fish; so that Childe Harold will be * said no more "Hunt's letter is probably the exact piece of vul gar coxcombry you might expect from his situation. He is a good man, with some poetical elements in his chaos; but spoiled by the Christ-Church Hos pital and a Sunday newspaper, to say nothing of the Surry jail, which conceited him into a martyr. When I saw Rimini in But he is a good man. MSS., I told him that I deemed it good poetry at bottom, disfigured only by a strange style. His "The time is past in which I could feel for the answer was, that his style was a system, or spe dead, or I should feel for the death of Lady Mel-system, or some such eant; and, when a man talks of system, his case is hopeless: so bourne, the best, and kindest, and ablest female But I have supped full to him, and very little to any one else. ever knew, old or young. "He believes his trash of vulgar phrases tortured of horrors;' and events of this kind have only a kind of numbness worse than pain, like a violent into compound barbarisms to be old English; and blow on the elbow or the head. There is one link we may say of it as Aimwell says of Captain Gib bet's regiment, when the captain calls it an old less between England and myself. presented you with Beppo, corps, the oldest in Europe, if I may judge "Now to business. He sent out his 'Foliage' by Perey as part of the contract for canto fourth,-consider- your uniform.' ing the price you are to pay for the same, and in- Shelley, and, of all the ineffable centaurs that were tending to eke you out in case of public caprice or ever begotten by self-love upon a night-mare, I my own poetical failure. If you choose to suppress think this monstrous sagittary the most prodigious it entirely, at Mr.****'s suggestion, you may do He (Leigh H.) is an honest charlatan, who has per as you please. But recollect it is not to be pub-suaded himself into a belief of his own impostures I reserve to and talks Punch in pure simplicity of heart, taking lished in a garbled or mutilated state. my friends and myself the right of correcting the himself (as poor Fitzgerald said of himself in the press-if the publication continue, it is to continue Morning Post) for Vates in both senses, or no senses, of the word. in its present form. * # Did you look at the transtions of his own which he prefers to Pope and C per, and says so?-Did you read his skinble "As Mr. ** says that he did nor write this letter, &c., I am ready to believe him; but for the skamble about being at the head of his firmness of my former persuasion, I refer to Mr. profession in the eyes of those who followed it?! ****, who can inform you how sincerely I erred thought that poetry was an art, or an attribute, and on this point. He has also the note-or, at least, not a profession;-but be it one, is that had it, for I gave it to him with my verbal comments thereupon. As to 'Beppo,' I will not alter Mr. Moore had said, in his letter to him, that this practice of catal or suppress a syllable for any man's pleasure but my one stanza into another, was "something like taking on horses another s own. without baiting." at the head of your profession in your eyes? I'll others, think of us also?' I turned round and be cursed if he is of mine, or ever shall be. He is answered her-Cara, tu sei troppo bella e giovane the only one of us (but of us he is not) whose coro- per aver' bisogna del' soccorso mio.' She answered, nation I would oppose. Let them take Scott,If you saw my hut and my food, you would not Campbell, Crabbe, or you or me, or any of the liv- say so.' All this passed half jestingly, and I saw ing, and throne him; - but not this new Jacob no more of her for some days. Behmen, this * "A few evenings after, we met with these two whose pride might have kept him true, even had girls again, and they addressed us more seriously, his principles turned as perverted as his soi-disant assuring us of the truth of their statement. They poetry. were cousins; Margarita married, the other single. "But Leigh Hunt is a good man, and a good As I doubted still of the circumstances, I took the father-see his odes to all the Masters Hunt; a business in a different light, and made an appointgood husband-see his sonnet to Mrs. Hunt;-a ment with them for the next evening. good friend-see his epistles to different people:and a great coxcomb, and a very vulgar person in* every thing about him. But that's not his fault, but of circumstances. * In short, in a few evenings we arranged our affairs, and for a long space of time she was the only one who preserved over me an ascendency which was often disputed, and never impaired. "The reasons for this were, firstly, her person; * "I do not know any good model for a life of very dark, tall, the Venetian face, very fine black Sheridan but that of Savage. Recollect, however, eyes. She was two-and-twenty years old, that the life of such a man may be made far more * She was besides a thorough Veneamusing than if he had been a Wilberforce;-and tian in her dialect, in her thoughts, in her countethis without offending the living or insulting the nance, in every thing, with all their naivet and dead. The Whigs abuse him; however, he never pantaloon humor. Besides, she could neither read left them, and such blunderers deserve neither nor write, and could not plague me with letters, credit nor compassion. As for his creditors,-re--except twice that she paid sixpence to a public member, Sheridan never had a shilling, and was scribe, under the piazza, to make a letter for her, thrown, with great powers and passions, into the upon some occasion when I was ill and could not thick of the world, and placed upon the pinnacle see her. In other respects, she was somewhat of success, with no other external means to support fierce and prepotente,' that is overbearing, and him in his elevation. Did Fox *** pay his debts? used to walk in whenever it suited her, with no -or did Sheridan take a subscription? Was the very great regard to time, place, nor persons; and Duke of Norfolk's drunkenness more excusable if she found any women in her way, she knocked than his? Were his intrigues more notorious than them down. those of all his contemporaries? and is his memory "When I first knew her, I was in 'relazione' to be blasted, and theirs respected? Don't let (liaison) with la Signora **, who was silly enough yourself be led away by clamor, but compare him one evening at Dolo, accompained by some of her with the coalitioner Fox, and the pensioner Burke, female friends, to threaten her; for the gossips as a man of principle, and with ten hundred thou- of the Villeggiatura had already found out, by the sand in personal views, and with none in talent, neighing of my horse one evening, that I used to for he beat them all out and out. Without means, ride late in the night' to meet the Fornarina without connexion, without character (which might Margarita threw back her veil (fazziolo), and replied be false at first, and made him mad afterward from in very explicit Venetian: You are not his wife. desperation), he beat them all, in all he ever at- I am not his wife: you are his Donna, and I am tempted. But alas, poor human nature! Good his Donna: your husband is a becco, and mine is night-or, rather, morning. It is four, and the another. For the rest, what right have you to dawn gleams over the Grand Canal, and unshadows reproach me? If he prefers me to you, is it my the Rialto. I must to bed; up all night-but, as fault? If you wish to secure him, tie him to your George Philpot says, 'it's life, though, damme, it's petticoat-string. But do not think to speak to me "Ever yours, without a reply, because you happen to be richer than I am.' Having delivered this pretty piece of "Excuse errors-no time for revision. The post eloquence (which I translate as it was translated goes out at noon, and I shan't be up then. I will to me by a bystander), she went on her way, leaving write again soon about your plan for a publication." a numerous audience, with Madame ** to ponder life! LETTER CCCLXXV. ΤΟ "B." at her leisure on the dialogue between them. "When I came to Venice for the winter she followed; and as she found herself out to be a favorite, she came to me pretty often. But she had inordinate self-love, and was not tolerant of other women. At the Cavalchina,' the masked ball on the last night of the Carnival, where all the world goes, she snatched off the mask of Madame Contarini, a lady noble by birth, and decent in conduct, for no other reason but because she happened to "Her face is the fine Venetian cast of the old be leaning on my arm. You may suppose what a time; her figure, though perhaps too tall, is not cursed noise this made; but this is only one of her less fine- and taken altogether in the national pranks. dress. "Since you desire the story of Margarita Cogni, you shall be told it, though it may be lengthy. "At last she quarrelled with her husband, and "In the summer of 1817, and myself one evening ran away to my house. I told her this were sauntering on horseback along the Brenta one would not do; she said she would lie in the street, evening, when, among a group of peasants, we re- but not go back to him; that he beat her, (the marked two girls as the prettiest we had seen for gentle tigress!) spent her money, and scandalously some time. About this period there had been great neglected her. As it was midnight, I let her stay, distress in the country, and I had a little relieved and next day there was no moving her at all. Her some of the people. Generosity makes a great husband came roaring and crying, and entreating figure at very little cost in Venetian livres, and her to come back-not she! He then applied to mine had probably been exaggerated as an English- the police, and they applied to me: I told them man's. Whether they remarked us looking at them and her husband to take her; I did not want her; or no, I know not; but one of them called out to she had come, and I could not fling her out of the me in Venetian, 'Why do not you, who relieve window; but they might conduct her through that 876 or the door if they chose it. She went before the of the canal to put out into the harbor in such a commissary, but was obliged to return with that moment; and that then she sat down on the steps 'becco ettico,' as she called the poor man, who had in all the thickest of the squall, and would neither a phthisic. In a few days she ran away again. be removed nor comforted. Her joy at seeing me After a precious piece of work, she fixed herself in again was moderately mixed with ferocity, and gave my house, really and truly without my consent; me the idea of a tigress over her recovered cubs. "But her reign drew near a close. She became but, owing to my indolence, and not being able to keep my countenance-for if I began in a rage, she quite ungovernable some months after, and a conalways finished by making me laugh with some currence of complaints, some true, and many false Venetian pantaloonery or another; and the gipsy a favorite has no friends'-determined me to knew this well enough, as well as her other powers part with her. I told her quietly that she must of persuasion, and exerted them with the usual tact return home, (she had acquired a sufficient proand success of all she-things;-high and low, they vision for herself and mother, &c., in my service.) and she refused to quit the house. I was firm, and are all alike for that. "Madame Benzoni also took her under her pro- she went threatening knives and revenge. I told tection, and then her head turned. She was always her that I had seen knives drawn before her time, in extremes, either crying or laughing, and so fierce and that if she chose to begin, there was a knife, when angered, that she was the terror of men, wo- and fork also, at her service on the table, and that men, and children-for she had the strength of an intimidation would not do. The next day, while I Amazon, with the temper of Medea. She was a was at dinner, she walked in, (having broken open fine animal, but quite untameable. I was the only a glass door that lead from the hall below to the person that could at all keep her in any order, and staircase, by way of prologue,) and advancing when she saw me really angry (which they tell me straight up to the table, snatched the knife from is a savage sight), she subsided. But she had a my hand, cutting me slightly in the thumb in the thousand fooleries. In her fazziolo, the dress of operation. Whether she meant to use this against the lower orders, she looked beautiful; but, alas! herself or me, I know not-probably against neither she longed for a hat and feathers; and all I could-but Fletcher seized her by the arms, and disarmed say or do (and I said much) could not prevent this her. I then called my boatmen, and desired them travestie. I put the first into the fire; but I got to get the gondola ready, and conduct her to her She seemed quite tired of burning them before she did of buying own house again, seeing carefully that she did herthem, so that she made herself a figure-for they self no mischief by the way. quiet, and walked down stairs. did not at all become her. "Then she would have her gowns with a tail- dinner. "We heard a great noise, and went out, and met like a lady, forsooth; nothing would serve her but 'l'abita colla coua,' or cua (that is the Venetian for them on the staircase, carrying her up stairs. She la cola,' the tail or train), and as her cursed pro- had thrown herself into the canal. That she innunciation of the word made me laugh, there was tended to destroy herself, I do not believe: but an end of all controversy, and she dragged this when we consider the fear women and men whe can't swim have of deep or even of shallow water, diabolical tail after her every where. I resumed my "In the mean time, she beat the women and (and the Venetians in particular, though they live stopped my letters. I found her one day ponder- on the waves,) and that it was also night, and dark, ing over one. She used to try to find out by their and very cold, it shows that she had a devilish spirit shape whether they were feminine or no; and she of some sort within her. They had got her out used to lament her ignorance, and actually studied without much difficulty or damage, excepting the her alphabet, on purpose (as she declared) to open salt water she had swallowed, and the wetting she all letters addressed to me, and read their contents. had undergone. "I must not omit to do justice to her housekeep "I foresaw her intention to refix herself, and sent ing qualities. After she came into my house as for a surgeon, inquiring how many hours it would 'donna di governo,' the expenses were reduced to require to restore her from her agitation; and be less than half, and every body did their duty better named the time. I then said, I give you that -the apartments were kept in order, and every time, and more if you require it; but at the expir tion of this prescribed period, if she does not leave thing, and every body else, except herself. That she had a sufficient regard for me in her the house, I will.' "All my people were consternated. They had wild way, I had many reasons to believe. I will mention one. In the autumn, one day going to the always been frightened at her, and were now paraLido with my gondoliers, we were overtaken by alyzed: they wanted me to apply to the police, to I did nothing of the heavy squall, and the gondola put in peril-hats guard myself, &c., &c., like a pack of snivelling blown away, boat filling, oar lost, tumbling sea, servile boobies, as they were. thunder, rain in torrents, night coming, and wind kind, thinking that I might as well end that way as unceasing. On our return, after a tight struggle, another; besides, I had been used to savage women, I found her on the open steps of the Mocenigo and knew their ways. "I had her sent home quietly after her recovery, palace, on the Grand Canal, with her great black eyes flashing through her tears, and the long dark and never saw her since, except twice at the opera, hair, which was streaming, drenched with rain, at a distance among the audience. She made many She was perfectly ex- attempts to return, but no more violent ones.-And over her brows and breast. posed to the storm; and the wind blowing her hair this is the story of Margarita Cogni, as far as a and dress about her thin tall figure, and the light- relates to me. ning flashing around her, and the waves rolling at "I forgot to mention that she was very devout, her feet, made her look like Medea alighting from and would cross herself if she heard the prayer her chariot, or the sibyl of the tempest that was time strike. rolling around her, the only living thing within On seeing "She was quick in reply; as, for instance-One hail at that moment except ourselves. me safe, she did not wait to greet me, as might day when she had made me very angry with beat have been expected, but calling out to me-Ah! ing somebody or other, I called her a cote, (a cow, can' della Madonna, xe esto il tempo por andar' al' in Italian, is a sad affront.) Lido?' (Ah! dog of the Virgin, is this a time to She turned round, curtsied, and answered, Vecca go to Lido?) ran into the house, and solaced her- tua, 'celenza,' (i. e. eccellenza.) Your cow, please self with scolding the boatmen for not foreseeing your Excellency. In short, she was, as I said be the temporale. I am told by the servants that fore, a very fine animal, of considerable beauty and she had only been prevented from coming in a boat energy, with many good and several amusing quali to look after me, by the refusal of all the gondoliers ties, but wild as a witch and fierce as a demon. ” She called her Tecca' 1 ased to boast publicly of her ascendancy over me, that they all tried to get her away, and no one LETTER CCCLXXVII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Venice, July 10, 1818. "I omitted to tell you her answer, when I re- "I have received your letter and the credit from proached her for snatching Madame Contarini's Morlands, &c., for whom I have also drawn upon mask at the Cavalchina. I represented to her that you at sixty days' sight for the remainder, accordshe was a lady of high birth, una Dama,' &c. ing to your proposition. She answered, Se ella è dama mi (io) son Vene- "I am still waiting in Venice, in expectancy of tian:if she is a lady, I am a Venetian.' This the arrival of Hanson's clerk. What can detain would have been fine a hundred years ago, the pride him, I do not know: but I trust that Mr. Hobhouse of the nation rising up against the pride of aristoc- and Mr. Kinnaird, when the political fit is abated, racy: but, alas! Venice, and her people, and her will take the trouble to inquire and expedite him, nobles, are alike returning fast to the ocean; and as I have nearly a hundred thousand pounds dewhere there is no independence, there can be no pending upon the completion of the sale and the real self-respect. I believe that I mistook or mis-signature of the papers. stated one of her phrases in my letter; it should "The draft on you is drawn up by Siri and Willhave been 'Can' della Madonna, cosa vus' tu? halm. I hope that the form is correct. I signed it esto non é tempo per andar' a Lido?' two or three days ago, desiring them to forward it to Messrs. Morland and Ransom. LETTER CCCLXXVI. TO MR. MURRAY. "Venice, June 18, 1818. "Your projected editions for November had better be postponed, as I have some things in project, or preparation, that may be of use to you, though not very important in themselves. I have completed an ode on Venice, and have two stories, one serious and one ludicrous, (à la Beppo,) not yet finished, and in no hurry to be so. "You talk of the letter to Hobhouse being much admired, and speak of prose. I think of writing "Business, and the utter and inexplicable silence (for your full edition) some memoirs of my life, to of all my correspondents, renders me impatient and prefix to them, upon the same model (though far troublesome. I wrote to Mr. Hanson for a balance enough, I fear, from reaching it), of Gifford, Hume, which is (or ought to be) in his hands;-no answer. &c.; and this without any intention of making disI expected the messenger with the Newstead papers closures, or remarks upon living people, which two months ago, and instead of him, I received a would be unpleasant to them: but I think it might requisition to proceed to Geneva, which (from **, be done, and well done. However, this is to be who knows my wishes and opinions about approach-considered. I have materials in plenty, but the ing England) could only be irony or insult." greater part of them could not be used by me, nor "I must, therefore, trouble you to pay into my for these hundred years to come. However, there bankers immediately whatever sum or sums you is enough without these, and merely as a literary can make it convenient to do on our agreement; man, to make a preface for such an edition as you otherwise, I shall be put to the severest and most meditate. But this is by-the-way: I have not immediate inconvenience; and this at a time when, made up my mind. "B." by every rational prospect and calculation, I ought "I enclose you a note on the subject of 'Parito be in the receipt of considerable sums. Pray do sini,' which Hobhouse can dress for you. It is an not neglect this; you have no idea to what incon- extract of particulars from a history of Ferrara. venience you will otherwise put me. had some "I trust you have been attentive to Missiaglia, absurd notion about the disposal of this money in for the English have the character of neglecting annuity, (or God knows what,) which I merely lis- the Italians at present, which I hope you will retened to when he was here to avoid squabbles and deem. "Yours in haste, sermons; but I have occasion for the principal, and had never any serious idea of approbating it otherwise than to answer my personal expenses. Hobhouse's wish is, if possible, to force me back to England: he will not succeed; and if he did, I would not stay. I hate the country, and like this; and all foolish opposition, of course, merely adds to the feeling. Your silence makes me doubt the success of canto fourth. If it has failed, I will make such deduction as you think proper and fair "I suppose that Aglietti will take whatever you from the original agreement; but I could wish offer, but till his return from Vienna I can make whatever is to be paid were remitted to me, without him no proposal; nor, indeed, have you authorized delay, through the usual channel, by course of post. me to do so. The three French notes are by Lady "When I tell you that I have not heard a word Mary; also another half-English-French-Italian. from England since very early in May, I have made They are very pretty and passionate; it is a pity the eulogium of my friends, or the persons who call that a piece of one of them is lost. Algathemselves so, since I have written so often and in rotti seems to have treated her ill; but she was the greatest anxiety. Thank God, the longer I am much his senior, and all women are used ill-or say absent, the less cause I see for regretting the so, whether they are or not. country or its living cor tents. "I am yours, &c. LETTER CCCLXXVIII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Venice, July 17, 1818. "I shall be glad of your books and powders. I "P. S. Tell Mr. *** that am still in waiting for Hanson's clerk, but luckily not at Geneva. All my good friends wrote to me and that I never will forgive him, (or any body,) the to hasten there to meet him, but not one had the atrocity of their late silence at a time when I wished good sense, or the good nature, to write afterward particularly to hear, for every reason, from my to tell me that it would be time and a journev friends." • Childe Harold, canto iv., stanza xiii.,-"Sinks like a seaweed into whence she rose. ⚫ See page 529. The two stories were Mazeppa and Don Juan. ↑ Dedication to the fourth canto of Childe Harold. See Parisina, note, 878 thrown away, as he could not set off for some sible for me to keep clear-I have not the pa months after the period appointed. If I had taken tience. the journey on the general suggestion, I never Thanks for 66 Yours, &c." "Enclosed is a list of books which Dr. Aglietti would have spoken again to one of you as long as I would be glad to receive by way of price for his MS. existed. I have written to request Mr. Kinnaird, letters, if you are disposed to purchase at the rate when the foam of his politics is wiped away, to ex-of fifty pounds sterling. These he will be glad to **, and not have as part, and the rest I will give him in money, accordtract a positive answer from that ** to keep me in a state of suspense upon the subject. and you may carry it to the account of books, &c., I hope that Kinnaird, who has my power of attor-which is in balance againt me, deducting ney, keeps a look-out upon the gentleman, which is ingly. So that the letters are yours, if you like the more necessary, as I have a great dislike to the them, at any rate; and he and I are going to hunt for more Lady-Montague letters, which he idea of coming over to look after him myself. "I have several things begun, verse and prose, thinks of finding. I write in haste. I have written the article, and believe me, but none in much forwardness. some six or seven sheets of a life, which I mean to continue, and send you when finished. It may perIf you haps serve for your projected editions. would tell me exactly (for I know nothing and have no correspondents, except on business) the state of the reception of our late publications, and the feeling upon them, without consulting any delicacies, (I am too seasoned to require them,) I should know how and in what manner to proceed. I should not like to give them too much, which may probably have been the case already; but, as I tell you, I know nothing. LETTER CCCLXXX. TO CAPT. BASIL HALL. "Venice, Aug. 31, 1318, regret very "DEAR SIR, "Dr. Aglietti is the best physician, not only in Venice, but in Italy; his residence is on the Grand "I once wrote from the fulness of my mind and Canal, and easily found; I forget the number, but the love of fame, (not as an end, but as a means, to am probably the only person in Venice who don't obtain that influence over men's minds which is know it. There is no comparison between him and power in itself and in its consequences,) and now any of the other medical people here. from habit and from avarice; so that the effect may much to hear of your indisposition, and shall do I write this in bed, and have only just probably be as different as the inspiration. I have myself the honor of waiting upon you the moment the same facility, and indeed necessity, of composi- I am up. tion, to avoid idleness, (though idleness in a hot received the letter and note. I beg you to believe country is a pleasure,) but a much greater indiffer- that nothing but the extreme lateness of my bours ence to what is to become of it, after it has served could have prevented me from replying immediately, my immediate purpose. However, I should on no or coming in person. I have not been called a but I won't go on, like the minute. I have the honor to be, very truly, "Your most obedient servant, "BYRON." account like to archbishop of Granada, as I am very sure that you dread the fate of Gil Blas, and with good reason. "Yours, &c." "P. S. I have written some very savage letters to Mr. Hobhouse, Kinnaird, to you, and to Hanson, because the silence of so long a time made me tear] off my remaining rags of patience. I have seen one or two late English publications which are no great things, except Rob Roy. I shall be glad of Whistlecraft." LETTER CCCLXXIX. TO MR. MURRAY. "Venice, Aug. 26, 1818. LETTER CCCLXXXI. TO MR. MOORE. "Venice, Sept. 19, 1818. "An English newspaper here would be a prodigy, and an opposition one a monster; and, except some extracts from extracts in the vile, garbled Paris gazettes, nothing of the kind reaches the VenetoLombard public, who are perhaps the most op My correspondences with pressed in Europe. England are mostly on business, and chiedy with my solicitor, Mr. Hanson, who has no very exalted "You may go on with your edition, without cal-notion, or extensive conception, of an author's culating on the memoir, which I shall not publish attributes; for he once took up an Edinburgh Re at present. It is nearly finished, but will be too view, and, looking at it a minute, said to me, 'Sol long; and there are so many things, which, out of see you have got into the magazine,' which is the regard to the living, cannot be mentioned, that I only sentence I ever heard him utter upon literary have written with too much detail of that which in-matters, or the men thereof. My first news of your Irish apotheosis has, c terested me least; so that my autobiographical essay would resemble the tragedy of Hamlet at the sequently, been from yourself. But, as it will not country theatre, recited with the part of Hamlet be forgotten in a hurry, either by your friends or left out by particular desire.' I shall keep it among your enemies, I hope to have it more in detail from my papers; it will be a kind of guide-post in case some of the former, and, in the mean time, I wish of death, and prevent some of the lies which would you joy with all my heart. Such a moment must otherwise be told, and destroy some which have have been a good deal better than Westminster Abbey,-besides being an assurance of that one day been told already. "The tales also are in an unfinished state, and I (many years hence, I trust) into the bargain. "I am sorry to perceive, however, by the close of can fix no time for their completion; they are also You must not, therefore, your letter, that even you have not escaped the not in the best manner. dew from the still re calculate upon any thing in time for this edition. surgit amari,' &c., and that your damned deputy The memoir is already above forty sheets of very has been gathering such large, long paper, and will be about fifty or sixty; Bermoothes'-or rather vexatious. Pray, give me but I wish to go on leisurely; and when finished, some items of the affair, as you say it is a ser although it might do a good deal for you at the one; and, if it grows more so, you should make s time, am not sure that it would serve any good trip over here for a few months, to see how things purpose in the end either, as it is full of many pas- turn out. I suppose you are a violent admirer of sions and prejudices, of which it has been impos- England by your staying so long in it. For my own |