Chapter XX: Letter 412: To Mr. Murray

"Ravenna, February 16, 1821.

"In the month of March will arrive from Barcelona _Signor Curioni_,
engaged for the Opera. He is an acquaintance of mine, and a
gentlemanly young man, high in his profession. I must request your
personal kindness and patronage in his favour. Pray introduce him
to such of the theatrical people, editors of papers, and others, as
may be useful to him in his profession, publicly and privately.

"The fifth is so far from being the last of Don Juan, that it is
hardly the beginning. I meant to take him the tour of Europe, with
a proper mixture of siege, battle, and adventure, and to make him
finish as _Anacharsis Cloots_, in the French Revolution. To how
many cantos this may extend, I know not, nor whether (even if I
live) I shall complete it: but this was my notion. I meant to have
made him a cavalier servente in Italy, and a cause for a divorce in
England, and a sentimental 'Werter-faced man' in Germany, so as to
show the different ridicules of the society in each of those
countries, and to have displayed him gradually _gâté_ and _blasé_
as he grew older, as is natural. But I had not quite fixed whether
to make him end in hell, or in an unhappy marriage, not knowing
which would be the severest: the Spanish tradition says hell: but
it is probably only an allegory of the other state. You are now in
possession of my notions on the subject.

"You say the Doge will not be popular: did I ever write for
_popularity_? I defy you to show a work of mine (except a tale or
two) of a popular style or complexion. It appears to me that there
is room for a different style of the drama; neither a servile
following of the old drama, which is a grossly erroneous one, nor
yet _too French_, like those who succeded the older writers. It
appears to me, that good English, and a severer approach to the
rules, might combine something not dishonourable to our literature.
I have also attempted to make a play without love; and there are
neither rings, nor mistakes, nor starts, nor outrageous ranting
villains, nor melodrame in it. All this will prevent its
popularity, but does not persuade me that it is _therefore_ faulty.
Whatever faults it has will arise from deficiency in the conduct,
rather than in the conception, which is simple and severe.

"So _you epigrammatise_ upon _my epigram_? I will _pay_ you for
_that_, mind if I don't, some day. I never let any one off in the
long run (_who first begins_). Remember * * *, and see if I don't
do you as good a turn. You unnatural publisher! what! quiz your own
authors? you are a paper cannibal!

"In the Letter on Bowles (which I sent by Tuesday's post) after the
words '_attempts had been made_' (alluding to the republication of
'English Bards'), add the words, '_in Ireland_;' for I believe that
English pirates did not begin their attempts till after I had left
England the second time. Pray attend to this. Let me know what you
and your synod think on Bowles.

"I did not think the second _seal_ so bad; surely it is far better
than the Saracen's head with which you have sealed your _last
letter_; the larger, in _profile_, was surely much better than
that.

"So Foscolo says he will get you a _seal cut_ better in Italy? he
means a _throat_--that is the only thing they do dexterously. The
Arts--all but Canova's, and Morghen's, and _Ovid_'s (I don't _mean
poetry_),--are as low as need be: look at the seal which I gave to
William Bankes, and own it. How came George Bankes to quote
'English Bards' in the House of Commons? All the world keep
flinging that poem in my face.

"Belzoni _is_ a grand traveller, and his English is very prettily
broken.

"As for news, the Barbarians are marching on Naples, and if they
lose a single battle, all Italy will be up. It will be like the
Spanish row, if they have any bottom.

"'Letters opened?--to be sure they are, and that's the reason why I
always put in my opinion of the German Austrian scoundrels. There
is not an Italian who loathes them more than I do; and whatever I
could do to scour Italy and the earth of their infamous oppression
would be done _con amore_.

"Yours," &c.

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