furnished, and with stabling (for me at least) for eight horses. I shall bring Allegra with me. Could you assist me or Hentsch in his researches? The Gambas are at Florence, but have authorized me to treat for them. You know, or do not know, that they are great patriots -and both-but the son in particular-very fine fellows. This I know, for I have seen them lately in very awkward situations—not pecuniary, but personal-and they behaved like heroes, neither yielding nor retracting.

«You have no idea what a state of oppression this country is in-they arrested above a thousand of high and low throughout Romagna-banished some and confined others, without trial, process, or even accusation!! Every body says they would have done the same by me if they dared proceed openly. My motive, however, for remaining, is because every one of my acquaintance, to the amount of hundreds almost, have been exiled.

"Will you do what you can in looking out for a couple of houses furnished, and conferring with Hentsch for us? We care nothing about society, and are only anxious for a temporary and tranquil asylum and individual freedom.

<< Believe me, etc.

«P.S.-Can you give me an idea of the comparative expenses of Switzerland and Italy? which I have forgotten. I speak merely of those of decent living, horses, etc. and not of luxuries or high living. Do not, however decide any thing positively till I have your answer, as I can then know how to think upon these topics of transmigration, etc. etc. etc.»

LETTER CCCCXLI.

TO MR MURRAY.

"

Ravenna, July 30th, 1821.

« Enclosed is the best account of the Doge Faliero, which was only sent to me from an old MS. the other day. Get it translated, and append it as a note to the next edition. You will perhaps be pleased to see that my conceptions of his character were correct, though I regret not having met with this extract before. You will perceive that he himself said exactly what he is made to say about the Bishop of Treviso. You will see also that he spoke very little, and those only words of rage and disdain,' after his arrest, which is the case in the play, except when he breaks out at the close of Act Fifth. But his speech to the conspirators is better in the MS. than in the play. I wish that I had met with it in time. Do not forget this note, with a translation. « In a former note to the Juans, speaking of Voltaire, I have quoted his famous 'Zaire, tu pleures,' which is an error; it should be 'Zaire, vous pleurez.' Recollect this.

"I am so busy here about those poor proscribed exiles, who are scattered about, and with trying to get some of them recalled, that I have hardly time or patience to write a short preface, which will be proper for the two plays. However, I will make it out on receiving the next proofs.

« Yours ever, etc.

« P.S.—Please to append the letter about the Hellespont as a note to your next opportunity of the verses on Leander, etc. etc. etc. in Childe Harold. Don't forget it amidst your multitudinous avocations, which I think

of celebrating in a Dithyrambic Ode to Albemarle

street.

« Are you aware that Shelley has written an Elegy on Keats, and accuses the Quarterly of killing him?

« You know very well that I did not approve of Keats's poetry, or principles of poetry, or of his abuse of Pope; but, as he is dead, omit all that is said about him in any MSS. of mine, or publication. His Hyperion is a fine monument, and will keep his name. I do not envy the man who wrote the article;-you Review-people have no more right to kill than any other footpads. However, he who would die of an article in a Review would probably have died of something else equally trivial. The same thing nearly happened to Kirke White, who died afterwards of a consumption.»>

<< I had certainly answered your last letter, though but briefly, to the part to which you refer, merely saying, 'damn the controversy;' and quoting some verses of George Colman's, not as allusive to you, but to the

disputants. Did you receive this letter? It imports me to know that our letters are not intercepted or mislaid.

« Your Berlin drama1 is an honour, unknown since the days of Elkanah Settle, whose Emperor of Morocco' was represented by the Court ladies, which was, as Johnson 'the last blast of inflammation' to poor says, Dryden, who could not bear it, and fell foul of Settle without mercy or moderation, on account of that and a frontispiece, which he dared to put before his play. « Was not your showing the Memoranda to ** what perilous? Is there not a facetious allusion or two which might as well be reserved for posterity?

some

« I know S** well-that is to say, I have met him occasionally at Copet. Is he not also touched lightly in the Memoranda? In a review of Childe Harold, Canto 4th, three years ago, in Blackwood's Magazine, they quote some stanzas of an elegy of S**'s on Rome, from which they say that I might have taken some ideas. I give you my honour that I never saw it except in that criticism, which gives, I think, three or four stanzas, sent them (they say) for the nonce by a correspondent -perhaps himself. The fact is easily proved; for I

don't understand German, and there was I believe no translation—at least, it was the first time that I ever heard of, or saw, either translation or original.

« I remember having some talk with S** about Alfieri, whose merit he denies. He was also wroth about the Edinburgh Review of Goethe, which was sharp enough, to be sure. He went about saying, too, of

There had been, a short time before, performed at the Court of Berlin a spectacle founded on the Poem of Lalla Rookh, in which the present Emperor of Russia personated Feramorz, and the Empress, Lalla Rookh.

the French-I meditate a terrible vengeance against the French-I will prove that Molière is no poet.' *

*

"I don't see why you should talk of declining.' When I saw you, you looked thinner, and yet younger, than you did when we parted several years before. You may rely upon this as fact. If it were not, I should say nothing, for I would rather not say unpleasant personal things to any one-but, as it was the pleasant truth, I tell it you. If you had led my life, indeed, changing climates and connexions-thinning yourself with fasting and purgatives-besides the wear and tear of the vulture passions, and a very bad temper besides, you might talk in this way-but you! I know no man who looks so well for his years, or who deserves to look better and to be better, in all respects. You are a *** and, what is perhaps better for your friends, a good fellow. So, don't talk of decay, but put in for eighty, well may.

as you

<< I am, at present, occupied principally about these unhappy proscriptions and exiles, which have taken place here on account of politics. It has been a miserable sight to see the general desolation in families. I am doing what I can for them, high and low, by such interest and means as I possess or can bring to bear. There have been thousands of these proscriptions within the last month in the Exarchate, or (to speak modernly) the Legations. Yesterday, too, a man got his back broken, in extricating a dog of mine from under a millwheel. The dog was killed, and the man is in the greatest danger. I was not present-it happened before I was up, owing to a stupid boy taking the dog to

This threat has been since acted upon;-the critic in question having, to the great horror of the French literati, pronounced Molière to be a « farceur."