Chapter 90

"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[68],' 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. Ginguené 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's 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."

[Footnote 68: 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.]

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