clerk with conveyances to sign (Newstead being sold in
November last for ninety-four thousand five hundred pounds), in
which case I supplicate supplies of articles as usual, for which,
desire Mr. Kinnaird to settle from funds in their bank, and deduct
from my account with him.

"P.S. To-morrow night I am going to see 'Otello,' an opera from our
'Othello,' and one of Rossini's best, it is said. It will be
curious to see in Venice the Venetian story itself represented,
besides to discover what they will make of Shakspeare in music."

[Footnote 15: On the birth of this child, who was christened John
William Rizzo, Lord Byron wrote the four following lines, which are in
no other respect remarkable than that they were thought worthy of being
metrically translated into no less than ten different languages; namely,
Greek, Latin, Italian (also in the Venetian dialect), German, French,
Spanish, Illyrian, Hebrew, Armenian, and Samaritan:--

"His father's sense, his mother's grace
In him, I hope, will always fit so;
With (still to keep him in good case)
The health and appetite of Rizzo."

The original lines, with the different versions just mentioned, were
printed, in a small neat volume (which now lies before me), in the
seminary of Padua.]

* * * * *

LETTER 309. TO MR. HOPPNER.

"Venice, February 28. 1818.

"My dear Sir,

"Our friend, il Conte M., threw me into a cold sweat last night, by
telling me of a menaced version of Manfred (in Venetian, I hope, to
complete the thing) by some Italian, who had sent it to you for
correction, which is the reason why I take the liberty of troubling
you on the subject. If you have any means of communication with the
man, would you permit me to convey to him the offer of any price he
may obtain or think to obtain for his project, provided he will
throw his translation into the fire[16], and promise not to
undertake any other of that or any other of _my_ things: I will
send his money immediately on this condition.

"As I did not write _to_ the Italians, nor _for_ the Italians, nor
_of_ the Italians, (except in a poem not yet published, where I
have said all the good I know or do not know of them, and none of
the harm,) I confess I wish that they would let me alone, and not
drag me into their arena as one of