“In the name of all the devils in the printing office, why don’t you write to acknowledge the receipt of the second, third, and fourth packets, viz. the Pulci translation and original, the Danticles, the Observations on, &c.? You forget that you keep me in hot water till I know whether they are arrived, or if I must have the bore of recopying.
“Have you gotten the cream of translations, Francesca of Rimini, from the Inferno? Why, I have sent you a warehouse of trash within the last month, and you have no sort of feeling about you: a pastrycook would have had twice the gratitude, and thanked me at least for the quantity.
“To make the letter heavier, I enclose you the Cardinal Legate’s (our Campeius) circular for his conversazione this evening. It is the anniversary of the Pope’s tiara-tion, and all polite christians, even of the Lutheran creed, must go and be civil. And there will be a circle, and a faro-table (for shillings, that is, they don’t allow high play), and all the beauty, nobility, and sanctity of Ravenna present. The Cardinal himself is a very good-natured little fellow, bishop of Muda, and legate here,—a decent believer in all the doctrines of the church. He has kept his housekeeper these forty years * * * *; but is reckoned a pious man, and a moral liver.
“I am not quite sure that I won’t be among you this autumn, for I find that business don’t go on—what with trustees and lawyers—as it should do, ‘with all deliberate speed.’ They differ about investments in Ireland.
“Between the devil and deep sea, Between the lawyer and trustee, |
| 316 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1820. |
“P.S. I have begun a tragedy on the subject of Marino Faliero, the Doge of Venice; but you shan’t see it these six years, if you don’t acknowledge my packets with more quickness and precision. Always write, if but a line, by return of post, when any thing arrives, which is not a mere letter.
“Address direct to Ravenna; it saves a week’s time, and much postage.”
