, or so successful a man. When tyrants are great men
they should miscarry; if they are fools, they will miscarry of course.
Pray, is there any picture of Camilla Martelli, Cosmo's last wife? I had
never heard of her. The dolt, his son, I find used her ill, and then did
the same thing. Our friend, Bianca Capello, it seems, was a worthless
creature. I don't expect much entertainment but from the Life of
Ferdinand the Great. It is true I have dipped into the others,
particularly into the story of Cosmo the Third's wife, of whom I had
read much in French Memoires; and into that of John Gaston, which was so
fresh when I was at Florence; but as the author, in spite of the Great
Duke's injunctions, has tried to palliate some of the worst imputations
on Cosmo and his son Ferdinand, so he has been mighty modest about the
Caprean amours of John Gaston and his eldest brother. Adieu! I have
been writing a volume here myself. Pray remember to answer me about
Camilla Martelli.

P.S.--Is there any china left in the Great Duke's collection, made by
Duke Francis the First himself? Perhaps it was lately sold with what was
called the refuse of the wardrobe, whence I hear some charming things
were purchased, particularly the Medallions of the Medici, by Benvenuto
Cellini. That sale and the "History" are enough to make the old
Electress[1] shudder in her coffin.

[Footnote 1: The Electress Palatine Dowager was sister of John Gaston,
the last Grand Duke of the House of Medici; after her husband's death
she returned to Florence and died there.]

_THE LANGUAGE PROPER FOR INSCRIPTIONS IN ENGLAND--FALL OF LORD NORTH'S
MINISTRY--BRYANT._

TO THE REV. WILLIAM COLE.

_April_ 13, 1782.

Your partiality to me, my good Sir, is much overseen, if you think me
fit to correct your Latin. Alas! I have not skimmed ten pages of Latin
these dozen years. I have dealt in nothing but English, French, and a
little Italian; and do not think, if my life depended on it, I could
write four lines of pure Latin. I have had occasion once or twice to
speak that language, and soon found that all my verbs were Italian with
Roman terminations. I would not on any account draw you into a scrape,
by depending on my skill in what I have half forgotten. But you are in
the metropolis of Latium. If you distrust your own knowledge, which I
do not, especially from the specimen you have sent me, surely you must
have good critics at your elbow to consult.

In truth, I do no