Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to William Bankes, 19 February 1820
“Ravenna, February 19th, 1820.
“l have room for you in the house here, as I had in Venice,
if you think fit to make use of it; but do not expect to find the same gorgeous suite of
tapestried halls. Neither dangers nor tropical heats have ever prevented your
penetrating wherever you had a mind to it, and why should the snow now?—Italian snow—fie
on it!—so pray come. Tita’s heart yearns
for you, and mayhap for your silver broad pieces; and your playfellow, the monkey, is
alone and inconsolable.
“I forget whether you admire or tolerate red hair, so that I
rather dread showing you all that I have about me and around me in this city. Come,
nevertheless,—you can pay Dante a morning visit, and
I will undertake that Theodore and Honoria will be most happy to see you in the forest hard
by. We Goths, also, of Ravenna hope you will not ![]()
| A. D. 1820. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 301 |
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despise
our arch-Goth, Theodoric. I must leave it to these
worthies to entertain you all the fore part of the day, seeing that I have none at all
myself—the lark, that rouses me from my slumbers, being an afternoon bird. But, then,
all your evenings, and as much as you can give me of your nights, will be mine. Ay! and
you will find me eating flesh, too, like yourself or any other cannibal, except it be
upon Fridays. Then, there are more Cantos (and be d—d to them) of what the courteous
reader, Mr. S——, calls Grub-street, in my drawer, which I have a
little scheme to commit to your charge for England; only I must first cut up (or cut
down) two aforesaid Cantos into three, because I am grown base and mercenary, and it is
an ill precedent to let my Mecænas, Murray, get
too much for his money. I am busy, also, with Pulci—translating—servilely translating, stanza for stanza, and line for
line—two octaves every night,—the same allowance as at Venice.
“Would you call at your banker’s at Bologna, and ask
him for some letters lying there for me, and burn them?—or I will—so do not burn them,
but bring them,—and believe me ever and very affectionately
“Yours,
“Byron.
“P.S. I have a particular wish to hear from yourself
something about Cyprus, so pray recollect all that you can.—Good night.”
William John Bankes (1786-1855)
Byron's Cambridge friend; the son of Henry Bankes, MP, he was MP for Truro, Cambridge,
Marlborough, and Dorset, and an Egyptian traveller who translated
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Giovanni Finati 2 vols (1830).
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Florentine poet, the author of the
Divine Comedy and other
works.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
Luigi Pulci (1432-1484)
Italian poet patronized by the Medici family; author of the
Il
Morgante (1483).
