seen and become (pars magna fui) a portion of their hopes, and fears, and passions, and am almost inoculated into a family.  This is to see men and things as they are.

     “You say that I called you ’quiet [80]’—­I don’t recollect any
     thing of the sort.  On the contrary, you are always in scrapes.

     “What think you of the Queen?  I hear Mr. Hoby says, ’that it makes
     him weep to see her, she reminds him so much of Jane Shore.’

        “Mr. Hoby the bootmaker’s heart is quite sore,
        For seeing the Queen makes him think of Jane Shore;
        And, in fact, * *

     Pray excuse this ribaldry.  What is your poem about?  Write and tell
     me all about it and you.

     “Yours, &c.

     “P.S.  Did you write the lively quiz on Peter Bell?  It has wit
     enough to be yours, and almost too much to be any body else’s now
     going.  It was in Galignani the other day or week.”

[Footnote 79:  I had congratulated him upon arriving at what Dante calls the “mezzo cammin” of life, the age of thirty-three.]

[Footnote 80:  I had mistaken the concluding words of his letter of the 9th of June.]

* * * * *

LETTER 383.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “Ravenna, September 7. 1820.

“In correcting the proofs you must refer to the manuscript, because there are in it various readings.  Pray attend to this, and choose what Gifford thinks best, Let me hear what he thinks of the whole.

“You speak of Lady * ’s illness; she is not of those who die:—­the amiable only do; and those whose death would _do good_ live.  Whenever she is pleased to return, it may be presumed she will take her ‘divining rod’ along with her:  it may be of use to her at home, as well as to the ‘rich man’ of the Evangelists.

     “Pray do not let the papers paragraph me back to England.  They may
     say what they please, any loathsome abuse but that.  Contradict it.

“My last letters will have taught you to expect an explosion here:  it was primed and loaded, but they hesitated to fire the train.  One of the cities shirked from the league.  I cannot write more at large for a thousand reasons.  Our ‘puir hill folk’ offered to strike, and raise the first banner, but Bologna paused; and now ’tis autumn, and the season half over.  ‘O Jerusalem!  Jerusalem!’ The Huns are on the Po; but if once they pass it on their way to Naples, all Italy will be behind them.  The dogs—­the wolves—­may they perish like the host of Sennacherib!  If you want to publish the Prophecy of Dante, you never will have a better time.”

* * * * *

LETTER 384.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “Ravenna, Sept. 11. 1820.