“I have received no proofs by the last post, and shall
probably have quitted Venice before the arrival of the next. There wanted a few stanzas
to the termination of Canto First in the last proof; the next will, I presume, contain
them, and the whole or a portion of Canto
Second; but it will be idle to wait for further answers from me, as I have
directed that my letters wait for my return (perhaps in a month, and probably so);
therefore do not wait for further advice from me. You may as well talk to the wind, and
better—for it will at least convey your accents a little farther
than they would otherwise have gone; whereas I shall
| A. D. 1819. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 211 |
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‘Difficile est proprie communia dicere.’—Horace.
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“A few days ago I sent you all I know of Polidori’s Vampire. He may do, say, or write, what he pleases, but I wish he would not attribute to me his own compositions. If he has any thing of mine in his possession, the MS. will put it beyond controversy; but I scarcely think that any one who knows me would believe the thing in the Magazine to be mine, even if they saw it in my own hieroglyphics.
“I write to you in the agonies of a sirocco, which annihilates me; and I have been fool enough to do four things since dinner, which are as well omitted in very hot weather: 1stly, * * * *; 2dly, to play at billiards from 10 to 12, under the influence of lighted lamps, that doubled the heat; 3dly, to go afterwards into a red-hot conversazione of the Countess Benzoni’s; and 4thly, to begin this letter at three in the morning: but being begun, it must be finished.
“P.S. I petition for tooth-brushes, powder, magnesia, Macassar oil (or Russia), the sashes, and Sir Nl. Wraxall’s Memoirs of his own Times. I want, besides, a bull-dog, a terrier, and two Newfoundland dogs; and I want (is it Buck’s?) a life of Richard 3d, advertised by Longman long, long, long ago; I asked for it at least three years since. See Longman’s advertisements.”
