“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, 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.
