do you so much harm?’) ’Do you think I would assassinate you in such a manner?’—­’Tempo perfido,’ bad weather; ‘Strade perfide,’ bad roads,—­with a thousand other allusions and metaphors, taken from the state of society and habits in the middle ages.

     “I am not so sure about mazza, whether it don’t mean massa,
     i.e. a great deal, a mass, instead of the interpretation I have
     given it.  But of the other phrases I am sure.

     “Three o’ th’ clock—­I must ‘to bed, to bed, to bed,’ as mother S *
     * (that tragical friend of the mathematical * * *) says.

“Have you ever seen—­I forget what or whom—­no matter.  They tell me Lady Melbourne is very unwell.  I shall be so sorry.  She was my greatest friend, of the feminine gender:—­when I say ‘friend,’ I mean not mistress, for that’s the antipode.  Tell me all about you and every body—­how Sam is—­how you like your neighbours, the Marquis and Marchesa, &c. &c.

     “Ever,” &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 312.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “Venice, March 25. 1818.

     “I have your letter, with the account of ‘Beppo,’ for which I sent
     you four new stanzas a fortnight ago, in case you print, or
     reprint.

“Croker’s is a good guess; but the style is not English, it is Italian;—­Berni is the original of all.  Whistlecraft was my immediate model!  Rose’s ‘Animali’ I never saw till a few days ago,—­they are excellent.  But (as I said above) Berni is the father of that kind of writing, which, I think, suits our language, too, very well;—­we shall see by the experiment.  If it does, I shall send you a volume in a year or two, for I know the Italian way of life well, and in time may know it yet better; and as for the verse and the passions, I have them still in tolerable vigour.

“If you think that it will do you and the work, or works, any good, you may put my name to it; but first consult the knowing ones.  It will, at any rate, show them that I can write cheerfully, and repel the charge of monotony and mannerism.

     “Yours,” &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 313.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “Venice, April 11. 1818.

“Will you send me by letter, packet, or parcel, half a dozen of the coloured prints from Holmes’s miniature (the latter done shortly before I left your country, and the prints about a year ago); I shall be obliged to you, as some people here have asked me for the like.  It is a picture of my upright self done for Scrope B. Davies, Esq.[18]

“Why have you not sent me an answer, and list of subscribers to the translation