Chapter XLVIII: Letter 441: To Mr. Murray

"Ravenna, July 30. 1821.

"Enclosed is the best account of the Doge Faliero, which was only
sent to me from an old MS. the other day. Get it translated, and
append it as a note to the next edition. You will perhaps be
pleased to see that my conceptions of his character were correct,
though I regret not having met with this extract before. You will
perceive that he himself said exactly what he is made to say about
the Bishop of Treviso. You will see also that' he spoke very
little, and those only words of rage and disdain,' _after_ his
arrest, which is the case in the play, except when he breaks out at
the close of Act Fifth. But his speech to the conspirators is
better in the MS. than in the play. I wish that I had met with it
in time. Do not forget this note, with a translation.

"In a former note to the Juans, speaking of Voltaire, I have quoted
his famous 'Zaire, tu pleures,' which is an error; it should be
'Zaire, _vous pleures_.' Recollect this.

"I am so busy here about those poor proscribed exiles, who are
scattered about, and with trying to get some of them recalled, that
I have hardly time or patience to write a short preface, which will
be proper for the two plays. However, I will make it out on
receiving the next proofs.

"Yours ever, &c.

"P.S. Please to append the letter about _the Hellespont_ as a note
to your next opportunity of the verses on Leander, &c. &c. &c. in
Childe Harold. Don't forget it amidst your multitudinous
avocations, which I think of celebrating in a Dithyrambic Ode to
Albemarle Street.

"Are you aware that Shelley has written an Elegy on Keats, and
accuses the Quarterly of killing him?

"'Who kill'd John Keats?"
'I,' says the Quarterly,
So savage and Tartarly;
'Twas one of my feats.'

"'Who shot the arrow?'
The poet-priest Milman
(So ready to kill man),
Or Southey or Barrow.'

"You know very well that I did not approve of Keats's poetry, or
principles of poetry, or of his abuse of Pope; but, as he is dead,
omit _all_ that is said _about him_ in any MSS. of mine, or
publication. His Hyperion is a fine monument, and will keep his
name. I do not envy the man who wrote the article;--you Review
people have no more right to kill than any other footpads. However,
he who would die of an article in a Review would probably have died
of something else equally trivial. The same thing nearly happened
to Kirke White, who died afterwards of a consumption."

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