"Have you gotten the cream of translations, Francesca of Rimini, from the Inferno? Why, I have sent you a warehouse of trash within the last month, and you have no sort of feeling about you: a pastry-cook would have had twice the gratitude, and thanked me at least for the quantity. "To make the letter heavier, I enclose you the Cardinal Legate's (our Campeius) circular for his conversazione this evening. It is the anniversary of the Pope's _tiara_-tion, and all polite Christians, even of the Lutheran creed, must go and be civil. And there will be a circle, and a faro-table, (for shillings, that is, they don't allow high play,) and all the beauty, nobility, and sanctity of Ravenna present. The Cardinal himself is a very good-natured little fellow, bishop of Muda, and legate here,--a decent believer in all the doctrines of the church. He has kept his housekeeper these forty years * * * *; but is reckoned a pious man, and a moral liver. "I am not quite sure that I won't be among you this autumn, for I find that business don't go on--what with trustees and lawyers--as it should do, 'with all deliberate speed.' They differ about investments in Ireland. "Between the devil and deep sea, Between the lawyer and trustee, I am puzzled; and so much time is lost by my not being upon the spot, what with answers, demurs, rejoinders, that it may be I must come and look to it; for one says do, and t'other don't, so that I know not which way to turn: but perhaps they can manage without me. "Yours, &c. "P.S. I have begun a tragedy on the subject of Marino Faliero, the Doge of Venice; but you sha'n't see it these six years, if you don't acknowledge my packets with more quickness and precision. _Always write, if but a line_, by return of post, when any thing arrives, which is not a mere letter. "Address direct to Ravenna; it saves a week's time, and much postage." * * * * * LETTER 368. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, April 16. 1820.