should not readily lay hands on the
Morgante Maggiore, I send you the original text of the first Canto,
to correspond with the translation which I sent you a few days ago.
It is from the Naples edition in quarto of 1732,--_dated Florence_,
however, by a trick of _the trade_, which you, as one of the allied
sovereigns of the profession, will perfectly understand without any
further spiegazione.

"It is strange that here nobody understands the real precise
meaning of 'sbergo,' or 'usbergo[68],' an old Tuscan word, which I
have rendered _cuirass_ (but am not sure it is not _helmet_). I
have asked at least twenty people, learned and ignorant, male and
female, including poets, and officers civil and military. The
dictionary says _cuirass_, but gives no authority; and a female
friend of mine says _positively cuirass_, which makes me doubt the
fact still more than before. Ginguene says 'bonnet de fer,' with
the usual superficial decision of a Frenchman, so that I can't
believe him: and what between the dictionary, the Italian woman,
and the Frenchman, there's no trusting to a word they say. The
context, too, which should decide, admits equally of either
meaning, as you will perceive. Ask Rose, Hobhouse, Merivale, and
Foscolo, and vote with the majority. Is Frere a good Tuscan? if he
be, bother him too. I have tried, you see, to be as accurate as I
well could. This is my third or fourth letter, or packet, within
the last twenty days."

[Footnote 68: It has been suggested to me that usbergo is obviously the
same as hauberk, habergeon, &c. all from the German _halsberg_, or
covering of the neck.]

* * * * *

LETTER 361. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, March 14. 1820.

"Enclosed is Dante's Prophecy--Vision--or what not.[69] Where I
have left more than one reading (which I have done often), you may
adopt that which Gifford, Frere, Rose, and Hobhouse, and others of
your Utican Senate think the best or least bad. The preface will
explain all that is explicable. These are but the four first
cantos: if approved, I will go on.

"Pray mind in printing; and let some good Italian scholar correct
the Italian quotations.

"Four days ago I was overturned in an open carriage between the
river and a steep bank:--wheels dashed to pieces, slight