'(the governor's wife here) told me that there is still a ' ruined castle of the Montecchi between Verona and 'Vicenza. I have been at Venice since November, but 'shall proceed to Rome shortly. For my deeds here, ' are they not written in my letters to the unreplying 'Thomas Moore? to him I refer you: he has received ' them all, and not answered one.

'Will you remember me to Lord and Lady Holland? 'I have to thank the former for a book which I have 'not yet received, but expect to reperuse with great 'pleasure on my return, viz. the 2d edition of Lope de Vega. I have heard of Moore's forthcoming poem: 'he cannot wish himself more success than I wish and augur for him. for him. I have also heard great things of "Tales of my Landlord," but I have not yet received them; by all accounts they beat even Waverley, &c., and are by the same author. Maturin's second tragedy has, it seems, failed, for which I should think anybody would be sorry. My health was very vic'torious till within the last month, when I had a fever. There is a typhus in these parts, but I don't think it was that. However, I got well without a physician 'or drugs.

'I forgot to tell you that, last autumn, I furnished "Lewis with" bread and salt" for some days at Diodati, in reward for which (besides his conversation) 'he translated "Goethe's Faust" to me by word of mouth, and I set him by the ears with Madame de 'Staël about the slave trade. I am indebted for many ' and kind courtesies to our Lady of Copet, and I now 'love her as much as I always did her works, of which 'I was and am a great admirer. When are you to begin with Sheridan? what are you doing, and how do? Ever very truly, &c.'

• do

you

Your letters of the 18th and 20th are arrived. In my own I have given you the rise, progress, de'cline, and fall, of my recent malady. It is gone to 'the devil: I won't pay him so bad a compliment as to

say it came from him; he is too much of a gentle'man. It was nothing but a slow fever, which quick'ened its pace towards the end of its journey. I had 'been bored with it some weeks-with nocturnal burn'ings and morning perspirations; but I am quite well again, which I attribute to having had neither medi'cine nor doctor thereof.

6

In a few days I set off for Rome: such is my purpose. I shall change it very often before Monday next, but do you continue to direct and address to Venice, as heretofore. If I go, letters will be for'warded: I say "if," because I never know what I 'shall do till it is done; and as I mean most firmly to set out for Rome, it is not unlikely I may find myself ' at St. Petersburg.

"You tell me to "take care of myself;"-faith, and 'I will. I won't be posthumous yet, if I can help it. 'Notwithstanding, only think what a "Life and Adventures," while I am in full scandal, would be worth, together with the "membra" of my writing-desk, the sixteen beginnings of poems never to be finished! 'Do you think I would not have shot myself last year, ' had I not luckily recollected that Mrs. C ** and Lady N**, and all the old women in England would have 'been delighted;-besides the agreeable" Lunacy," of the "Crowner's Quest," and the regrets of two or 'three or half a dozen? Be assured that I would live 'for two reasons, or more;-there are one or two peo

ple whom I have to put out of the world, "and as many into it, before I can "depart in peace;" if I do so before, I have not fulfilled my mission. Besides, 'when I turn thirty, I will turn devout; I feel a great ' vocation that way in Catholic churches, and when I hear the organ.

So** is writing again! Is there no Bedlam in 'Scotland? nor thumb-screw? nor gag? nor handcuff? 'I went upon my knees to him almost, some years ago, to prevent him from publishing a political pamphlet, which would have given him a livelier 'idea of “Habeas Corpus" than the world will derive 'from his present production upon that suspended subject, which will doubtless be followed by the suspension of other of his majesty's subjects.

.

'I condole with Drury-lane and rejoice with ** 'that is, in a modest way,—on the tragical end of the 'new tragedy.

'You and Leigh Hunt have quarrelled then, it seems? I introduce him and his poem to you, in 'the hope that (malgré politics) the union would be beneficial to both, and the end is eternal enmity; ' and yet I did this with the best intentions: I introduce ***, and *** runs away with your money: my 'friend Hobhouse quarrels, too, with the Quarterly: and (except the last) I am the innocent Istmhus (damn the word! I can't spell it, though I have 'crossed that of Corinth a dozen times) of these ' enmities.

I will tell you something about Chillon.-A Mr. 'De Luc, ninety years old, a Swiss, had it read to him, and is pleased with it,-so my sister writes. He 'said that he was with Rousseau at Chillon, and that the description is perfectly correct. But this is not

all: I recollected something of the name, and find 'the following passage in "The Confessions,” vol. iii., page 247, liv. viii.

"De tous ces amusemens celui qui me plût davantage fut une promenade autour du Lac, que je fis en 'bateau avec De Luc père, sa bru, ses deux fils, et ma "Therése. Nous mîmes sept jours a cette tournée par 'le plus beau temps du monde. J'en gardai le vif 'souvenir des sites qui m'avoient frappé a l'autre ex'tremité du Lac, et dont je fis la description, quelques 'années après, dans la Nouvelle Heloise."

'This nonagenarian, De Luc, must be one of the "deux fils." He is in England-infirm, but still in faculty. It is odd that he should have lived so long, and not wanting in oddness, that he should have 'made this voyage with Jean Jacques, and afterwards, 'at such an interval, read a poem by an Englishman (who had made precisely the same circumnavigation) upon the same scenery.

As for "Manfred," it is of no use sending proofs; 'nothing of that kind comes. I sent the whole at dif'ferent times. The two first Acts are the best; the 'third so so; but I was blown with the first and second 'heats. You must call it "a Poem," for it is no Drama, and I do not choose to have it called by so ** a name—a "Poem in dialogue," or-Pantomime, if you will; anything but a green-room synonyme; and this is your motto

'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Yours ever, &c.

My love and thanks to Mr. Gifford.'

'Venice, April 11th, 1817.

'I shall continue to write to you while the fit is on me, by way of penance upon you for your former ' complaints of long silence. I dare say you would blush, if you could, for not answering. Next week I 'set out for Rome. Having seen Constantinople, I 'should like to look at t'other fellow. Besides, I want 'to see the Pope, and shall take care to tell him that 'I vote for the Catholics and no Veto.

I sha'n't go to Naples. It is but the second best sea-view, and I have seen the first and third, viz.— 'Constantinople and Lisbon (by the way, the last is 'but a river-view; however, they reckon it after 'Stamboul and Naples, and before Genoa), and Vesu'vius is silent, and I have passed by Etna. So I 'shall e'en return to Venice in July; and if you write, pray you to address to Venice, which is my head, or rather my heart-quarters.

'I

'My late physician, Doctor Polidori, is here, on his way to England, with the present Lord G ** and the widow of the late earl. Doctor Polidori has, just now, no more patients, because his patients are no 'more. He had lately three, who are now all dead'one embalmed. Horner and a child of Thomas Hope's are interred at Pisa and Rome. Lord G** 'died of an inflammation of the bowels; so they took 'them out, and sent them (on account of their discrepancies), separately from the carcass, to England. Conceive a man going one way, and his intestines another, and his immortal soul a third !—was there ' ever such a distribution? One certainly has a soul; 'but how it came to allow itself to be enclosed in a body is more than I can imagine. I only know if