“I have perused the ‘Nurse’ with attention, and upon the
whole with much pleasure; and I see nothing either in the general impression it
is likely to produce, or in the effect of particular passages, that should
prevent your publishing it, or indeed render the measure doubtful. You must
not, however, expect that it will increase the reputation of the biographer of
‘Lorenzo de’
Medici.’ It is enough that it is not unworthy of him, and that
you give it to the world, as the truth is, not as a laboured effort of your
talents, but as the occasional occupation and amusement of a vacant hour, in
the midst of more serious engagements. The versification is easy and flowing,
and possesses considerable variety. Your numbers rise and fall with the
sentiment they embody, which is generally, but not always, distinctly
expressed. I think you have a few lines which might have been improved with a
little care; but it is perhaps well to exhibit, in some cases, the marks of a
little negligence to heighten the
| 224 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
“The prose in your preface and notes is, as usual, easy, luminous, and correct. I see nothing to object to as to sentiment, and little or nothing as to style. Yet you have, I think, got one or two Latinisms. Why should Ranza concede the MSS. It might have been as well to deliver them, or perhaps still better to have given them up, p. 10. In the same page, line 10., you use adverts to, as I suspect, for mentions; and in p. 14. adverted to is certainly employed for detailed, examined, or discussed. You are very fond of adverting.
“I have only farther to observe, that it will be wished by the ladies that you had translated the quotations in the notes as well as in he preface. I have no doubt the ‘Nurse’ will make some noise.”*
