LETTER 358.

TO MR. BANKES.

:

the Sposa Spina Spinelli, too, the Florentine
bride of Count Gabriel Rusponi, just im-
ported from Florence, and get the sense out
of somebody.

66

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 bon-vivant, in the im-worldly sense of the words.

“Ravenna, February 26. 1820. "Pulci and I are waiting for you with patience; but I suppose we must give way to the attraction of the Bolognese galleries for a time. I know nothing of pictures myself, and care almost as little but to me there are none like the Venetian I remember well above all, Giorgione. his Judgment of Solomon in the Mariscalchi in Bologna. The real mother is beautiful, exquisitely beautiful. Buy her, by all means, if you can, and take her home with you: put her in safety: for be assured there are troublous times brewing for Italy; and 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.

66

I have more of Scott's novels (for surely they are Scott's) since we met, and am more and more delighted. I think that I even prefer them to his poetry, which (by the way) I redde for the first time in my life in your rooms in Trinity College.

"There are some curious commentaries on Dante preserved here, which you should see. Believe me ever, faithfully and most affectionately, yours, &c.”

LETTER 359.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, March 1. 1820.

"Enclosed is a letter which I received
some time ago from Dallas. 2 It will explain
itself. I have not answered it. This comes
of doing people good. At one time or
another (including copyrights) this person
has had about fourteen hundred pounds of
my money, and he writes what he calls a
It is true that I
posthumous work about me, and a scrubby
letter accusing me of treating him ill, when I
never did any such thing.
left off letter-writing, as I have done with
almost every body else; but I can't see how
that was misusing him.

"I look upon his epistle as the conse-
of my
not sending him another hun-
quence
dred 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.

articles my "In your last you ask me after I believe they are as of domestic wants. usual: the bulldogs, magnesia, soda-powders, tooth-powders, brushes, and every thing of the kind which are here unattainable. You still ask me 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 enquire after my health and SPIRITS in "I sent you by last post the translation of large letters: my health can't be very bad, for I the first canto of the Morgante Maggiore, cured myself of a sharp tertian ague, in three a cir and wish you to ask Rose about the words weeks, with cold water, which had held my sbergo' and 'usbergo,' which I have trans- stoutest gondolier for months, notwithstandcumstance which surprised Dr. Aglietti, who lated cuirass. I suspect that it means helmeting all the bark of the apothecary, I did it also. Now, if so, which of the senses is best accordant with the text? I have adopted said it was a proof of great stamina, parOf ticularly in so epidemic a season. cuirass, but will be amenable to reasons. the natives, some say one, and some t'other: out of dislike to the taste of bark (which I but they are no great Tuscans in Romagna. can't bear), and succeeded, contrary to the However, I will ask Sgricci (the famous prophecies of every body, by simply taking improvisatore) to-morrow, who is a native nothing at all. As to spirits, they are unThe Countess Guiccioli, who equal, now high, now low, like other people's of Arezzo.1 have Pray send me W. Scott's new novels. is reckoned a very cultivated young lady, Isuppose, and depending upon circumstances. and the dictionary, say cuirass. The last are too written cuirass, but helmet runs in my head What are their names and characters? I a day, for an hour or so. nevertheless and will run in verse very read some of his former ones, at least once well, whilk is the principal point. I will ask

[Sgricci died at Florence in July 1836.]

2 [See BYRONIANA.]

:

hurried he forgets Ravenswood's name, and calls him Edgar and then Norman; and Girder, the cooper, is styled now Gilbert, and now John; and he don't make enough of Montrose; but Dalgetty is excellent, and so is Lucy Ashton, and the b-h her mother. What is Ivanhoe? and what do you call his other? are there two? Pray make him write at least two a year: I like no reading so well.

Don't forget to answer forthwith, for I wish to hear of the arrival of the packets; viz. the two cantos of Donny Johnny, and the translation of Morgante Maggiore, or Major Morgan.

guené 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 Italian woman, and the Frenchman, there is no trusting to a word they say. The context, too, which should decide, admits 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 letter, or packet, within the last twenty days.

LETTER 361. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, March 14. 1820.

"Enclosed is Dante's Prophecy — Vision

"The editor of the Bologna Telegraph has sent me a paper with extracts from Mr. Mulock's (his name always reminds me of Muley Moloch of Morocco) Atheism an--or what not. 3 Where I have left more than swered,' in which there is a long eulogium of my poesy, and a great compatimento' for my misery. I never could understand what they mean by accusing me of irreligion. However, they may have it their own way. This gentleman 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."

LETTER 360. TO MR. MURRAY.

“ Ravenna, March 5. 1820. "In case, in your country, you should not readily lay hands on the Morgante Maggiore, I send you the original text of the first canto, to correspond with the translation which I sent you a few days ago. It is from the Naples edition in quarto of 1732, - dated Florence, however, by a trick of the trade, which you, as one of the allied sovereigns of the profession, will perfectly understand without any further spiegazione.

"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. Gin

1 [Thomas Mulock, Esq., of Magdalen Hall, author of several theological and political tracts. He was, at this time, residing at Geneva, and delivering a course of Lectures on English Literature.]

2 It has been suggested to me that usbergo is obviously the same as hauberk, habergeon, &c., all from the German halsberg, or covering of the neck.

There were in this Poem, originally, three lines of

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 four first 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 did not come of it. I have no objection to this being his fourteenth in the four-and-twenty hours. He presides over overturns and all escapes therefrom, it seems and they dedicate pictures, &c. to him, as the sailors once did to Neptune, after the high Roman fashion.'

66

Yours, in haste."

remarkable strength and severity, which, as the Italian
poet against whom they were directed was then living,
were omitted in the publication. I shall here give them
from memory.

"The prostitution of his Muse and wife,
Both beautiful, and both by him debased,
Shall salt his bread and give him means of life."

LETTER 362. TO MR. MURRAY.

Pulci and Dante together: perhaps that were best. So you have put your name to Juan, after all your panic, and the row: you are a rare fellow. I must now put myself in a passion to continue my prose.

"Yours, &c.

"BYRON."

"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."

"Ravenna, March 20. 1820. "Last post I sent you 'The Vision of Dante,' -four first cantos. Enclosed you will find, line for line, in third rhyme (terza rima,) of which your British blackguard reader as yet understands nothing, Fanny of Rimini. You know that she was born here, and married, and slain, from Cary, Boyd, and such people. I have done it into cramp English, line for line, and rhyme for rhyme, to try the possibility. You had best append it to the poems already sent by last three posts. I shall not allow you to play the tricks you did last year, with the prose you post-scribed to Mazeppa, 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 original, and together with RAVENNA. the Pulci translation, or the Dante imitation. I suppose you have both by now, and the Juan long before. '

LETTER 363. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, March 23. 1820.

"I have received your letter of the 7th. Besides the four packets you have already received, I have sent the Pulci a few days after, and since (a few days ago) the four first 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 remarkably 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

1 For this translation of the exquisitely pathetic episode of Francesca of Rimini, see Works, p. 505.

* When making the observations which occur in the early part of this work, on the singular preference given by the noble author to the " Hints from Horace," I was not aware of the revival of this strange predilection, which (as it appears from the above letter, and, still

LIVRE.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

1820.

POPE CONTROVERSY. PULCI. ·CONGREVE.SHERIDAN.-MRS.CENTCOMMENCEMENT OF MARINO FALIERO.— SIR WALTER SCOTT. GOLDSMITH. THE CARBONARI.- REPLY TO BLACKWOOD. ITALIAN TRANSLATION OF CHILDE HAROLD. — SIR HUMPHRY DAVY AT RAVENNA.—ANECDOTES.-CAMPBELL'S POETS. VOLTAIRE. GOETHE ON MANFRED.-PAPAL DECREE.-GUICCIOLI SEPARATION.

LETTER 364. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, March 28. 1820. "ENCLOSED is a Screed of Doctrine' for you, of which I will trouble you to acknowledge the receipt by next post. Mr. Hobhouse must have the correction of it for press. you please.

the

66

You may

show it first to whom

I wish to know what became of my two Armenian three years ago and more), and of Epistles from St. Paul (translated from the the letter to Roberts of last autumn, which you never have attended to? There are two packets with this..

"P. S.-I have some thoughts of publishing the Hints from Horace,' written ten years ago 2,-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."

more strongly, from some that follow) took place so many years after, in the full maturity of his powers and taste. Such a delusion is hardly conceivable, and can only, perhaps, be accounted for by that tenaciousness of early opinions and impressions by which his mind, in other respects so versatile, was characterised.

LETTER 365. 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 blackguards 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 amongst 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.

"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 Craigengelt (an officer of the old Napoleon Italian army) is in waiting, and my groom and cattle to boot.

"You have given me a screed of metaphor and what not about Pulci, and manners, and 'going without clothes, like our Saxon ancestors. Now, the Saxons did not go without clothes; and, in the next place, they are not my ancestors, nor yours either; for mine were Norman, and yours, I take it by your name, were Gael. And, in the next, I differ from you about the refinement' which has banished the comedies of Congreve. Are not the comedies of Sheridan acted to the

"Ravenna, March 31. 1820. "Ravenna continues much the same as I described it. Conversazioni all Lent, and much better ones than any at Venice. There are small games at hazard, that is, faro, where nobody can point more than a shilling or two; - other card-tables, and as much talk and coffee as you please. Every body does and says what they please; and I do not recollect any disagreeable events, except being three times falsely accused of flirtation, and once being robbed of six sixpences by a nobleman of the city, a 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.

66

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 thinnest houses? I know (as ex-committed) what books remain at Venice? I don't want that The School for Scandal' was the worst them, but want to know whether the few stock piece upon record. I also know that that are not here are there, and were not Congreve gave up writing because Mrs. Cent-lost by the way. I hope and trust you livre's balderdash drove his comedies off. So it is not decency, but stupidity, that does all this; for Sheridan is as decent a writer as need be, and Congreve no worse than Mrs. Centlivre, of whom Wilks (the actor) said, not only her play would be damned, but she too.' He alluded to 'A Bold Stroke for a Wife.' But last, and most to the purpose, Pulci is not an indecent writer - at least in his first canto, as you will have perceived 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.

"But to return. I should like to see the proofs of mine answer, because there will be

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 herself handsome, and will do as she pleases.

LETTER 367. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, April 9. 1820. "In the name of all the devils in the printing-office, why don't you write to acknowledge the receipt of the second, third, and fourth packets, viz. the Pulci-translation and original, the Danticles, the Observations on, &c.? You forget that you keep me in hot water till I know whether they are arrived, or if I must have the bore of re-copying.