: 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. "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 answered,' 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. 46 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. 3 There were in this Poem, originally, three lines of 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 -or what not. 3 Where I have left more than 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. 66 : 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.' "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, "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, 4.39 Pulci and Dante together: perhaps that were best. So have put your name to Juan, you 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." CHAPTER XXXVIII. 1820. publish it with the original, and together with RAVENNA. POPE CONTROVERSY. 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. 66 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. 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 ledge the receipt by next post. you, of which I will trouble you to acknowMr. Hobhouse must have the correction of it for the press. You may show it first to whom you please. "I wish to know what became of my two Epistles from St. Paul (translated from the Armenian three years ago and more), and of the letter to Roberts of last autumn, which you never have attended to? There are two packets with this. 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 il 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. something to omit or to alter. But pray let it be carefully printed. When convenient let me have an answer. LETTER 366. TO MR. HOPPNER. "Ravenna, March 31. 1830. "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. "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. 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 "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. "Have you gotten the cream of translations, Francesca of Rimini, from the Inferno? Why, I have sent you a warehouse of trash within the last month, and you have no sort of feeling about you: a pastry-cook would have had twice the gratitude, and thanked me at least for the quantity. "To make the letter heavier, I enclose you the Cardinal Legate's (our Campeius) circular for his conversazione this evening. It is the anniversary of the Pope's tiaration, and all polite Christians, even of the Lutheran creed, must go and be civil. And there will be a circle, and a faro-table, (for shillings, that is, they don't allow high play,) and all the beauty, nobility, and sanctity of Ravenna present. The Cardinal himself is a very good-natured little fellow, bishop of Muda, and legate here, - a decent believer in all the doctrines of the church. He has kept his housekeeper these forty years * * * but is reckoned a pious man, and a moral liver. 441 ought at least to say whether they are come or not. You are not expected to write frequent, or long letters, as your time is much occupied ; but when parcels that have cost some pains in the composition, and great trouble in the copying, are sent to you, I should at least be put out of suspense, by the immediate acknowledgment, per return of post, addressed directly to Ravenna. I am naturally — knowing what continental posts are- anxious to hear that they are arrived; especially as I loathe the task of copying so much, that if there was a human being that could copy my blotted MSS. he should have all they can ever bring for his trouble. All I desire is two lines, to say, such a day I received such a packet. There are at least six unacknowledged. This is neither kind nor courteous. "I have, besides, another reason for desiring you to be speedy, which is, that there is THAT brewing in Italy which will speedily cut off all security of communication, and set all your Anglo-travellers flying in every direction, with their usual fortitude in foreign tumults. The Spanish and French affairs have set the Italians in a ferment; and no wonder: they have been too long trampled on. This will make a sad scene for your exquisite traveller, but not for the resident, who naturally wishes a people to redress itself. I shall, if permitted by the natives, remain to see what will come of it, and perhaps to take a turn with them, like Dugald Dalgetty and his horse, in case of business; for I shall think it by far the most interesting spectacle and moment in existence, to see the Italians send the barbarians of all nations back to their own dens. I have lived long enough among them to feel more for them as a nation than for any other people in existence. But they want union, and they want principle; and I doubt their success. However, they will try, probably; and if they do, it will be a good cause. No Italian can hate an Austrian more than I do: unless it be the English, the Austrians seem to me the most obnoxious race under the sky. “But I doubt, if any thing be done, it won't be so quietly as in Spain. To be sure, revolutions are not to be made with rose-water, where there are foreigners as masters. "Write while you can; for it is but the toss up of a paul that there will not be a row that will somewhat retard the mail by and by. "Yours, &c. "BYRON." LETTER 369. TO MR. HOPPNER. "Ravenna, April 18. 1820. like, or not to publish, and I think that's sufficient. : "I told you that I wrote on with no good "I have caused write to Siri and Will-will- that I had been, not frightened, but halm to send with Vincenza, in a boat, the hurt by the outcry, and, besides, that when camp-beds and swords left in their care I wrote last November, I was ill in body, when I quitted Venice. There are also and in very great distress of mind about several pounds of Manton's best powder in a some private things of my own; but you Japan case; but unless I felt sure of getting would have it so I sent it to you, and it away from V. without seizure, I won't to make it lighter, cut it in two- but I can't have it ventured. I can get it in here, by piece it together again. I can't cobble: I means of an acquaintance in the customs, must either make a spoon or spoil a horn,' who has offered to get it ashore for me; but should like to be certiorated of its safety in leaving Venice. I would not lose it for its weight in gold-there is none such in Italy, as I take it to be. "I wrote to you a week or so ago, and hope you are in good plight and spirits. Sir Humphry Davy is here, and was last night at the Cardinal's. As I had been there last Sunday, and yesterday was warm, I did not go, which I should have done, if I had thought of meeting the man of chemistry. He called this morning, and I shall go in search of him at Corso time. I believe today, being Monday, there is no great conversazione, and only the family one at the Marchese Cavalli's, where I go as a relation sometimes; so that, unless he stays a day or two, we should hardly meet in public. 66 The theatre is to open in May for the fair, if there is not a row in all Italy by that time, the Spanish business has set them all a constitutioning, and what will be the end, no one knows—it is also necessary thereunto to have a beginning. Yours, &c. "P. S. My benediction to Mrs. Hoppner. How is your little boy? Allegra is growing, and has increased in good looks and obstinacy." LETTER 370. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, April 23. 1820. "The proofs don't contain the last stanzas of Canto second, but end abruptly with the 105th stanza. "I told you long ago that the new Cantos were not good, and I also told you a reason. Recollect, I do not oblige you to publish them; you may suppress them, if you like, but I can alter nothing. I have erased the six stanzas about those two impostors, Southey and Wordsworth (which I suppose will give you great pleasure), but I can do no more. I can neither recast, nor replace; but I give you leave to put it all into the fire, if you 1 [See BYRONIANA.] and there's an end; for there's no remeid: but I leave you free will to suppress the whole, if you like it. "About the Morgante Maggiore, I won't have a line omitted. It may circulate, or it may not; but all the criticism on earth shan't touch a line, unless it be because it is badly translated. Now you say, and I say, and others say, that the translation is a good one; and so it shall go to press as it is. Pulci must answer for his own irreligion : I answer for the translation only. 66 Pray let Mr. Hobhouse look to the Italian next time in the proofs: this time, while I am scribbling to you, they are corrected by one who passes for the prettiest woman in Romagna, and even the marches, as far as Ancona, be the other who she may. "I am glad you like my answer to your enquiries about Italian society. It is fit you should like something, and be d-d to you. 'My love to Scott. I shall think higher of knighthood ever after for his being dubbed. By the way, he is the first poet titled for his talent in Britain: it has happened abroad before now; but on the Continent titles are universal and worthless. Why don't you send me Ivanhoe and the Monastery? I have never written to Sir Walter, for I know he has a thousand things, and I a thousand nothings, to do; but I hope to see him at Abbotsford before very long, and I will sweat his claret for him, though Italian abstemiousness has made my brain but a shilpit concern for a Scotch sitting inter pocula.' I love Scott and Moore, and all the better brethren; but I hate and abhor that puddle of water-worms whom you have taken into your troop. : "Yours, &c. "P. S. You say that one half is very good you are wrong; for, if it were, it would be the finest poem in existence. Where is the poetry of which one half is good? is it the Eneid? is it Milton's? is it Dryden's? is it 2 Of Don Juan. |