ÆT. 29.

our ancestors. The pain seems little; and yet the effect to the spectator, and the preparation to the criminal, are very striking and chilling. The first turned me quite hot and thirsty, and made me shake so that I could hardly hold the opera-glass (I was close, but was determined to see, as one should see every thing, once, with attention); the second and third (which shows how dreadfully soon things grow indifferent), I am ashamed to say, had no effect on me as a horror, though I would have saved them if I could. Yours, &c."

LETTER 281.

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TO MR. MURRAY.

Venice, June 4. 1817. "I have received the proofs of the Lament of Tasso,' which makes me hope that you have also received the reformed third act of Manfred, from Rome, which I sent soon after my arrival there. My date will apprise you of my return home within these few days. For me, I have received none of your packets, except, after long delay, the Tales of my Landlord,' which I before acknowledged. I do not at all understand the why nots, but so it is; no Manuel, no letters, no tooth-powder, no extract from Moore's Italy concerning Marino Faliero, no NOTHING - as a man hallooed out at one of Burdett's elections, after a long ululatus of No Bastille! No Governor Aris! No-God knows who or what;-but his ne plus ultra was, 'No nothing!'-and my receipts of your packages amount to about his meaning. I want the extract from Moore's Italy very much, and the tooth-powder, and the magnesia; I don't care so much about the poetry, or the letters, or Mr. Maturin's byJasus tragedy. Most of the things sent by the post have come- I mean proofs and letters; therefore send me Marino Faliero by the post, in a letter.

"I was delighted with Rome, and was on horseback all round it many hours daily, besides in it the rest of my time, bothering over its marvels. I excursed and skirred

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the country round to Alba, Tivoli, Frescati, Licenza, &c. &c.; besides, I visited twice the Fall of Terni, which beats every thing. 1 On my way back, close to the temple by its banks, I got some famous trout out of the river Clitumnus- -the prettiest little stream in all poesy, near the first post from Foligno and Spoletto. I did not stay at Florence, being anxious to get home to Venice, and having already seen the galleries and other sights. I left my commendatory letters the evening before I went, so I saw nobody.

To-day, Pindemonte, the celebrated poet of Verona, called on me; he is a little thin man, with acute and pleasing features; his address good and gentle; his appearance altogether very philosophical; his age about sixty, or more. He is one of their best going. I gave him Forsyth, as he speaks, or reads rather, a little English, and will find there a favourable account of himself. He enquired after his old Cruscan friends, Parsons, Greathead, Mrs. Piozzi, and Merry, all of whom he had known in his youth. I gave him as bad an account of them as I could, answering, as the false Solomon Lob' does to 'Totterton' in the farce, all gone dead,' and damned by a satire more than twenty years ago; that the name of their extinguisher was Gifford 3; that they were but a sad set of scribes after all, and no great things in any other way. He seemed, as was natural, very much pleased with this account of his old acquaintances, and went away greatly gratified with that and Mr. Forsyth's sententious paragraph of applause in his own (Pindemonte's) favour. After having been a little libertine in his youth, he is grown devout, and takes prayers, and talks to himself, to keep off the devil; but for all that, he is a very nice little old gentleman.

"I forgot to tell you that at Bologna (which is celebrated for producing popes, painters, and sausages) I saw an anatomical gallery, where there is a deal of waxwork, in which

"Per cui la fama in te chiara risuona Egregia, eccelsa, alma Verona.'

"whose name,

August Verona, forms thy fairest fame.'

I mean Ippolito Pindemonte, a poet who has caught a portion of that sun, whose setting beams yet gild the horizon of Italy. Mr. Forsyth, our best Italian traveller, sums up the merits of this gentleman by saying, that he thinks, and makes his readers think. Were I confined to the same number of words, I should say that he feels, and makes his readers feel."- Italy, vol. i. p. 45. Pindemonte died at Verona in November 1828, in his seventy-sixth

year.]

"I am sorry to hear of your row with Hunt; but suppose him to be exasperated by the Quarterly and your refusal to deal; and when one is angry and edites a paper, I should think the temptation too strong for literary nature, which is not always human. I can't conceive in what, and for what, he abuses you what have you done? you are not an author, nor a politician, nor a public character; I know no scrape you have tumbled into. I am the more sorry for this, because I introduced you to Hunt, and because I believe him to be a good man; but till I know the particulars, I can give no opinion.

:

"Let me know about Lalla Rookh, which must be out by this time.

"I restore the proofs, but the punctuation should be corrected. I feel too lazy to have at it myself; so beg and pray Mr. Gifford for me. Address to Venice. In a few days I go to my villeggiatura, in a casino near the Brenta, a few miles only on the main land. I have determined on another year, and many years of residence if I can compass them. Marianna is with me, hardly recovered of the fever, which has been attacking all Italy last winter. I am afraid she is a little hectic; but I hope the best. "Ever, &c.

"P. S.-Torwaltzen has done a bust of me at Rome for Mr. Hobhouse, which is reckoned very good. He is their best after Canova, and by some preferred to him.

“I have had a letter from Mr. Hodgson. He is very happy, has got a living, but not a child if he had stuck to a curacy, babes would have come of course, because he could not have maintained them.

"Remember me to all friends, &c. &c. "An Austrian officer, the other day, being in love with a Venetian, was ordered, with

his regiment, into Hungary. Distracted between love and duty, he purchased a deadly drug, which dividing with his mistress, both swallowed. The ensuing pains were terrific, but the pills were purgative, and not poisonous, by the contrivance of the unsentimental apothecary; so that so much suicide was all thrown away. You may conceive the previous confusion and the final laughter; but the intention was good on all sides."

LETTER 282. TO MR. MURRAY.

64 Venice, June 8. 1817.

"The present letter will be delivered to you by two Armenian friars, on their way, by England, to Madras. They will also convey some copies of the grammar, which I think you agreed to take. If you can be of any use to them, either amongst your naval or East Indian acquaintances, I hope you

will so far oblige me, as they and their order have been remarkably attentive and friendly towards me since my arrival at Venice. Their names are Father Sukias Somalian and Father Sarkis Theodorosian. They speak Italian, and probably French, or a little English. Repeating earnestly my recommendatory request, believe me very truly, yours, "BYRON.

"Perhaps you can help them to their passage, or give or get them letters for India.”

LETTER 283. TO MR. MURRAY.

"La Mira, near Venice, June 14. 1817.

"I write to you from the banks of the Brenta, a few miles from Venice, where I have colonised for six months to come. Address, as usual, to Venice.

“Three months after date (17th March), like the unnegotiable bill despondingly received by the reluctant tailor,- your despatch has arrived, containing the extract from Moore's Italy and Mr. Maturin's bankrupt tragedy. It is the absurd work of a clever man. I think it might have done upon the stage, if he had made Manuel (by some trickery, in a masque or vizor) fight his own battle, instead of employing Molineux as his champion; and, after the defeat of his enemy, by some revulsion of feeling, of Torismond, have made him spare the son not incompatible with a character of extravagant and distempered emotions. But as it is, what with the Justiza, and the ridiculous conduct of the whole dram. pers. (for they are all as mad as Manual, who surely must have had more interest with a corrupt bench somewhat suspect of homicide), I do not than a distant relation and heir presumptive,

wonder at its failure.

practicable; as a poem, no great things. As a play, it is imWho was the Greek that grappled with Alexander the Great, when he ran stark glory naked?' the Olympic wrestlers? or round the tomb of t'other fellow? or the Spartan who was fined by the Ephori for And as to flaying off life like a garment,' fighting without his armour? or who? helas! that's in Tom Thumb-see king Arthur's soliloquy :—

"Life's a mere rag, not worth a prince's wearing;

I'll cast it off.'

And the stage-directions- Staggers among the bodies;'-the slain are too numerous, as well as the blackamoor knight-penitent being one too many: and De Zelos is such a shabby Monmouth Street villain, without any redeeming quality-Stap my vitals! Maturin seems to be declining into Nat. Lee. But let him try again; he has talent,

ET. 29.

but not much taste. I'gin to fear, or to hope, that Sotheby, after all, is to be the Eschylus of the age, unless Mr. Shiel be really worthy his success. The more I see of the stage, the less I would wish to have any thing to do with it; as a proof of which, I hope you have received the third act of Manfred, which will at least prove that I wish to steer very clear of the possibility of being put into scenery. I sent it from Rome.

"I returned the proof of Tasso. By the way, have you never received a translation of St. Paul which I sent you, not for publication, before I went to Rome?

"I am at present on the Brenta. Opposite is a Spanish marquis, ninety years old; next his casino is a Frenchman's,besides the natives; so that, as somebody said the other day, we are exactly one of Goldoni's comedies (La Vedova Scaltra), where a Spaniard, English, and Frenchman are introduced but we are all very good neighbours, Venetians, &c. &c. &c.

:

"I am just getting on horseback for my evening ride, and a visit to a physician, who has an agreeable family, of a wife and four unmarried daughters, all under eighteen, who are friends of Signora Segati and enemies to nobody. There are, and are to be, besides conversaziones and I know not what, a Countess Labbia's and I know not whom. The weather is mild; the thermometer 110 in the sun this day, and 80 odd in the shade. Yours, &c.

LETTER 284. TO MR. MURRAY.

"N."

"La Mira, near Venice, June 17. 1817.

"It gives me great pleasure to hear of Moore's success, and the more so that I never doubted that it would be complete. Whatever good you can tell me of him and his poem will be most acceptable: I feel very anxious indeed to receive it. I hope that he is as happy in his fame and reward as I wish him to be; for I know no one who deserves both more - if any so much.

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Now to business ; * * I say unto you, verily, it is not so; or, as the foreigner said to the waiter, after asking him to bring a glass of water, to which the man answered 'I will, sir,' — You will! —G—d d—n, I say, you mush!' And I will submit this to the decision of any person or persons to be appointed by both, on a fair examination of the circumstances of this as compared with the preceding publications. So there's for you. There is always some row or other previously to all our publications: it should

359

seem that, on approximating, we can never quite get over the natural antipathy of author and bookseller, and that more particularly the ferine nature of the latter must break forth.

"You are out about the third canto: I have not done, nor designed, a line of continuation to that poem. I was too short a time at Rome for it, and have no thought of recommencing.

"I cannot well explain to you by letter what I conceive to be the origin of my sister's notion about Tales of my Landlord ;' but it is some points of the characters of Sir E. Manley and Burley, as well as one or two of the jocular portions, on which it is founded, probably.

"If you have received Dr. Polidori as well as a parcel of books, and you can be of use to him, be so. I never was much more disgusted with any human production than with the eternal nonsense, and tracasseries, and emptiness, and ill humour, and vanity of that young person; but he has some talent, and is a man of honour, and has dispositions of amendment, in which he has been aided by a little subsequent experience, and may turn out well. Therefore, use your government interest for him, for he is improved and improvable.

Yours, &c."

LETTER 285. TO MR. MURRAY.

"La Mira, near Venice, June 18. 1817. "Enclosed is a letter to Dr. Holland from Pindemonte. Not knowing the Doctor's address, I am desired to inquire, and perhaps, being a literary man, you will know or discover his haunt near some populous churchyard. I have written to you a scolding letter- I believe, upon a misapprehended passage in your letter — but never mind: it will do for next time, and you will surely deserve it. Talking of doctors reminds me once more to recommend to you one who will not recommend himself, the Doctor Polidori. If you can help him to a publisher, do; or, if you have any sick relation, I would advise his advice: all the patients he had in Italy are dead Mr. Hope's son, Mr. Horner, and Lord Guilford, whom he embowelled with great success at Pisa.

"Remember me to Moore, whom I congratulate. How is Rogers? How does he look? eh! and what is become of Campbell and all t'other fellows of the Druid order? I got Maturin's Bedlam at last, but no other parcel; I am in fits for the tooth-powder, and the magnesia. I want some of Burkitt's soda powders. Will you tell Mr. Kinnaird that I

have written him two letters on pressing business (about Newstead, &c.), to which I humbly solicit his attendance. I am just returned from a gallop along the banks of the Brenta-time, sunset. Yours,

VENICE.

CHAPTER XXXI.

1817-1818.

"B."

- COMMENCEMENT OF THE FOURTH CANTO OF CHILDE HAROLD. LETTERS TO MURRAY AND MOORE, — LALLA ROOKH, MY BOAT IS ON THE SHORE. VISIT OF LEWIS AND HOBHOUSE.-DEATH OF MADAME DE STAEL. THE MEDICAL TRAGEDY. TREATMENT OF THE ENGLISH at VENICE. -MR. JOY'S INTERVIEW WITH LORD BYRON. -LETTERS CONCERNING THE FOURTH CANTO OF CHILDE HAROLD.-AND POETRY IN GENERAL. ARIOSTO OF THE NORTH. COLERIDGE'S BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA. MARLOW'S FAUSTUS.- ANECDOTES.-LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE. DEATH OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. MY DEAR MR. MURRAY ETC.-COMPLETION OF BEPPO.

is one of his enthusiasms also to like the city.

"I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,' &c. &c.

"The Bridge of Sighs' (i. e. Ponte dei Sospiri) is that which divides, or rather joins, the palace of the Doge to the prison of the state. It has two passages: the criminal went by the one to judgment, and returned by the other to death, being strangled in a chamber adjoining, where there was a mechanical process for the purpose.

66

:

This is the first stanza of our new canto; and now for a line of the second :"In Venice, Tasso's echoes are no more, And silent rows the songless gondolier, Her palaces, &c. &c.

LETTER 287. TO MR. MURRAY.

"La Mira, near Venice, July 8. 1817. "If you can convey the enclosed letter to

MINISCENCES OF LORD BYRON.

LETTER 286. TO MR. MURRAY.

6

"La Mira, near Venice, July 1. 1817. "SINCE my former letter, I have been working up my impressions into a fourth canto of Childe Harold, of which I have roughened off about rather better than thirty stanzas, and mean to go on; and probably to make this Fytte' the concluding one of the poem, so that you may propose against the autumn to draw out the conscription for 1818. You must provide moneys, as this new resumption bodes you certain disbursements. Somewhere about the end of September or October, I propose to be under way (i. e. in the press); but I have no idea yet of the probable length of calibre of the canto, or what it will be good for, but I mean to be as mercenary as possible, an example (I do not mean of any individual in particular, and least of all any person or persons of our mutual acquaintance) which I should have followed in my youth, and I might still have been a prosperous gentleman.

66

No tooth-powder, no letters, no recent tidings of you.

Mr. Lewis is at Venice, and I am going up to stay a week with him there -as it

man.

it is directed, you will confer a favour upon the Venetian creditor of a deceased EnglishThis epistle is a dun to his executor, for house-rent. The name of the insolvent defunct is, or was, Porter Valter, according to the account of the plaintiff, which I rather suspect ought to be Walter Porter, according to our mode of collocation. If you are acquainted with any dead man of the like name a good deal in debt, pray dig him up, and tell him that 'a pound of his fair flesh' or the ducats are required, and that if you deny them, fie upon your law!'