“Since my last, which I hope that you have received, I have
had a letter from our friend Samuel. He talks of
Italy this summer—won’t
| A. D. 1818. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 169 |
They are an odd people. The other day I was telling a girl, ‘you must not come to-morrow, because Marguerita is coming at such a time,’—(they are both about five feet ten inches high, with great black eyes and fine figures—fit to breed gladiators from—and I had some difficulty to prevent a battle upon a rencontre once before),—unless you promise to be friends, and’—the answer was an interruption, by a declaration of war against the other, which she said would be a ‘Guerra di Candia.’ Is it not odd, that the lower order of Venetians should still allude proverbially to that famous contest, so glorious and so fatal to the Republic?
“They have singular expressions, like all the Italians. For example. ‘Viscere’—as we would say, ‘my love,’ or ‘my heart’ as an expression of tenderness. Also, ‘I would go for you into the midst of a hundred knives.’—‘Mazza ben,’ excessive attachment,—literally, ‘I wish you well even to killing.’ Then they say, (instead of our way, ‘do you think I would 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.
