Chapter 118

"Ravenna, Sept. 28. 1820.

"I thought that I had told you long ago, that it never was intended nor written with any view to the stage. I have said so in the preface too. It is too long and too regular for your stage, the persons too few, and the _unity_ too much observed. It is more like a play of Alfieri's than of your stage (I say this humbly in speaking of that great man); but there is poetry, and it is equal to Manfred, though I know not what esteem is held of Manfred.

"I have now been nearly as long _out_ of England as I was there during the time I saw you frequently. I came home July 14th, 1811, and left again April 25th, 1816: so that Sept. 28th, 1820, brings me within a very few months of the same duration of time of my stay and my absence. In course, I can know nothing of the public taste and feelings, but from what I glean from letters, &c. Both seem to be as bad as possible.

"I thought _Anastasius excellent_: did I not say so? Matthews's Diary most excellent; it, and Forsyth, and parts of Hobhouse, are all we have of truth or sense upon Italy. The Letter to Julia very good indeed, I do not despise * * * * * *; but if she knit blue stockings instead of wearing them, it would be better. _You_ are taken in by that false stilted trashy style, which is a mixture of all the styles of the day, which are _all bombastic_ (I don't except my _own_--no one has done more through negligence to corrupt the language); but it is neither English nor poetry. Time will show.

"I am sorry Gifford has made no further remarks beyond the first Act: does he think all the English equally sterling as he thought the first? You did right to send the proofs: I was a fool; but I do really detest the sight of proofs: it is an absurdity; but comes from laziness.

"You can steal the two Juans into the world quietly, tagged to the others. The play as you will--the Dante too; but the _Pulci_ I am proud of: it is superb; you have no such translation. It is the best thing I ever did in my life. I wrote the play from beginning to end, and not a _single scene without interruption_, and being obliged to break off in the middle; for I had my hands full, and my head, too, just then; so it can be no great shakes--I mean the play; and the head too, if you like.

"P.S. Politics here still savage and uncertain. However, we are all in our 'bandaliers,' to join the 'Highlanders if they cross the Forth,' _i.e._ to crush the Austrians if they cross the Po. The rascals!--and that dog Liverpool, to say their subjects are _happy_! If ever I come back, I'll work some of these ministers.

"Sept. 29.

"I opened my letter to say, that on reading _more_ of the four volumes on Italy, where the author says 'declined an introduction,' I perceive (_horresco referens_) it is written by a WOMAN!!! In that case you must suppress my note and answer, and all I have said about the book and the writer. I never dreamed of it until now, in my extreme wrath at that precious note. I can only say that I am sorry that a lady should say any thing of the kind. What I would have said to one of the other sex you know already. Her book too (as a _she_ book) is not a bad one; but she evidently don't know the Italians, or rather don't like them, and forgets the _causes_ of their misery and profligacy (_Matthews_ and _Forsyth_ are your men for truth and tact), and has gone over Italy in _company_--_always_ a _bad_ plan: you must be _alone_ with people to know them well. Ask her, who was the '_descendant of Lady M.W. Montague_,' and by whom? by Algarotti?

"I suspect that, in Marino Faliero, you and yours won't like the _politics_, which are perilous to you in these times; but recollect that it is _not a political_ play, and that I was obliged to put into the mouths of the characters the sentiments upon which they acted. I hate all things written like Pizarro, to represent France, England, and so forth. All I have done is meant to be purely Venetian, even to the very prophecy of its present state.

"Your Angles in general know little of the _Italians_, who detest them for their numbers and their GENOA treachery. Besides, the English travellers have not been composed of the best company. How could they?--out of 100,000, how many gentlemen were there, or honest men?

"Mitchell's Aristophanes is excellent. Send me the rest of it.

"These fools will force me to write a book about Italy myself, to give them 'the loud lie.' They prate about assassination; what is it but the origin of duelling--and '_a wild justice_,' as Lord Bacon calls it? It is the fount of the modern point of honour in what the laws can't or _won't_ reach. Every man is liable to it more or less, according to circumstances or place. For instance, I am living here exposed to it daily, for I have happened to make a powerful and unprincipled man my enemy;--and I never sleep the worse for it, or ride in less solitary places, because precaution is useless, and one thinks of it as of a disease which may or may not strike. It is true that there are those here, who, if he did, would 'live to think on't;' but that would not awake my bones: I should be sorry if it would, were they once at rest."

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