y is here, and was last night at the
Cardinal's. As I had been there last Sunday, and yesterday was
warm, I did not go, which I should have done, if I had thought of
meeting the man of chemistry. He called this morning, and I shall
go in search of him at Corso time. I believe to-day, being Monday,
there is no great conversazione, and only the family one at the
Marchese Cavalli's, where I go as a relation sometimes, so that,
unless he stays a day or two, we should hardly meet in public.

"The theatre is to open in May for the fair, if there is not a row
in all Italy by that time,--the Spanish business has set them all a
constitutioning, and what will be the end, no one knows--it is also
necessary thereunto to have a beginning.

"Yours, &c.

"P.S. My benediction to Mrs. Hoppner. How is your little boy?
Allegra is growing, and has increased in good looks and obstinacy."

* * * * *

LETTER 370. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, April 23. 1820.

"The proofs don't contain the _last_ stanzas of Canto second, but
end abruptly with the 105th stanza.

"I told you long ago that the new Cantos[72] were _not_ good, and I
also _told you a reason_. Recollect, I do not oblige you to publish
them; you may suppress them, if you like, but I can alter nothing.
I have erased the six stanzas about those two impostors * * * *
(which I suppose will give you great pleasure), but I can do no
more. I can neither recast, nor replace; but I give you leave to
put it all into the fire, if you like, or _not_ to publish, and I
think that's sufficient.

"I told you that I wrote on with no good will--that I had been,
_not_ frightened, but _hurt_ by the outcry, and, besides, that when
I wrote last November, I was ill in body, and in very great
distress of mind about some private things of my own; but you would
have it: so I sent it to you, and to make it lighter, cut it in
two--but I can't piece it together again. I can't cobble: I must
'either make a spoon or spoil a horn,'--and there's an end; for
there's no remeid: but I leave you free will to suppress the whole,
if you like it.

"About the _Morgante Maggiore, I won't have a line omitted_. It may
circulate, or it may not; but all the criticism on earth sha'n't
touch a line, unless it be