shall return to Venice, where you may expect me about
the eleventh, or perhaps sooner. Pray make my thanks acceptable to
Mengaldo: my respects to the Consuless, and to Mr. Scott. I hope my
daughter is well.

"Ever yours, and truly.

"P.S. I went over the Ariosto MS. &c. &c. again at Ferrara, with
the castle, and cell, and house, &c. &c.

"One of the Ferrarese asked me if I knew 'Lord Byron,' an
acquaintance of his, _now_ at Naples. I told him '_No!_' which was
true both ways; for I knew not the impostor, and in the other, no
one knows himself. He stared when told that I was 'the real Simon
Pure.' Another asked me if I had _not translated_ 'Tasso.' You see
what _fame_ is! how _accurate!_ how _boundless!_ I don't know how
others feel, but I am always the lighter and the better looked on
when I have got rid of mine; it sits on me like armour on the Lord
Mayor's champion; and I got rid of all the husk of literature, and
the attendant babble, by answering, that I had not translated
Tasso, but a namesake had; and by the blessing of Heaven, I looked
so little like a poet, that every body believed me."

* * * * *

LETTER 331. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Bologna, June 7. 1819.

"Tell Mr. Hobhouse that I wrote to him a few days ago from Ferrara.
It will therefore be idle in him or you to wait for any further
answers or returns of proofs from Venice, as I have directed that
no English letters be sent after me. The publication can be
proceeded in without, and I am already sick of your remarks, to
which I think not the least attention ought to be paid.

"Tell Mr. Hobhouse that, since I wrote to him, I had availed myself
of my Ferrara letters, and found the society much younger and
better there than at Venice. I am very much pleased with the little
the shortness of my stay permitted me to see of the Gonfaloniere
Count Mosti, and his family and friends in general.

"I have been picture-gazing this morning at the famous Domenichino
and Guido, both of which are superlative. I afterwards went to the
beautiful cemetery of Bologna, beyond the walls, and found, besides
the superb burial-ground, an original of a Custode, who reminded
one of the grave-digger in Hamlet. He has a collection of
capuchins' skulls, labelled on the forehead,