“Ravenna, February 7. 1820.

“I have had no letter from you these two months; but since I came here in December, 1819, I sent you a letter for Moore, who is God knows where—­in Paris or London, I presume.  I have copied and cut the third Canto of Don Juan into two, because it was too long; and I tell you this beforehand, because in case of any reckoning between you and me, these two are only to go for one, as this was the original form, and, in fact, the two together are not longer than one of the first:  so remember that I have not made this division to double upon you; but merely to suppress some tediousness in the aspect of the thing.  I should have served you a pretty trick if I had sent you, for example, cantos of 50 stanzas each.

     “I am translating the first Canto of Pulci’s Morgante Maggiore, and
     have half done it; but these last days of the Carnival confuse and
     interrupt every thing.

“I have not yet sent off the Cantos, and have some doubt whether they ought to be published, for they have not the spirit of the first.  The outcry has not frightened but it has hurt me, and I have not written con amore this time.  It is very decent, however, and as dull as ‘the last new comedy.’

“I think my translations of Pulci will make you stare.  It must be put by the original, stanza for stanza, and verse for verse; and you will see what was permitted in a Catholic country and a bigoted age to a churchman, on the score of religion;—­and so tell those buffoons who accuse me of attacking the Liturgy.

“I write in the greatest haste, it being the hour of the Corso, and I must go and buffoon with the rest.  My daughter Allegra is just gone with the Countess G. in Count G.’s coach and six to join the cavalcade, and I must follow with all the rest of the Ravenna world.  Our old Cardinal is dead, and the new one not appointed yet; but the masquing goes on the same, the vice-legate being a good governor.  We have had hideous frost and snow, but all is mild again.

     “Yours,” &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 356.  TO MR. BANKES.

     “Ravenna, February 19. 1820.

“I have room for you in the house here, as I had in Venice, if you think fit to make use of it; but do not expect to find the same gorgeous suite of tapestried halls.  Neither dangers nor tropical heats have ever prevented your penetrating wherever you had a mind to it, and why should the snow now?—­Italian snow—­fie on it!—­so pray come.  Tita’s heart yearns for you, and mayhap for your silver broad pieces; and your playfellow, the monkey, is alone and inconsolable.

“I forget whether you admire or tolerate red hair, so that I rather dread showing you all that I have about me and around me