"For the sake of my personal comfort, I pray you send me immediately _to Venice_--_mind, Venice_--viz. _Waites' tooth-powder_, _red_, a quantity; _calcined magnesia_, of the best quality, a quantity; and all this by safe, sure, and speedy means; and, by the Lord! do it. "I have done nothing at Manfred's third Act. You must wait; I'll have at it in a week or two, or so. Yours ever," &c. * * * * * LETTER 277. TO MR. MURRAY. "Rome, May 5. 1817. "By this post, (or next at farthest) I send you in two _other_ covers, the new third Act of 'Manfred.' I have re-written the greater part, and returned what is not altered in the _proof_ you sent me. The Abbot is become a good man, and the Spirits are brought in at the death. You will find I think, some good poetry in this new act, here and there; and if so, print it, without sending me farther proofs, _under Mr. Gifford's correction_, if he will have the goodness to overlook it. Address all answers to Venice, as usual; I mean to return there in ten days. "'The Lament of Tasso,' which I sent from Florence, has, I trust, arrived: I look upon it as a 'these be good rhymes,' as Pope's papa said to him when he was a boy. For the two--it and the Drama--you will disburse to me (_via_ Kinnaird) _six_ hundred guineas. You will perhaps be surprised that I set the same price upon this as upon the Drama; but, besides that I look upon it as _good_, I won't take less than three hundred guineas for any thing. The two together will make you a larger publication than the 'Siege' and 'Parisina;' so you may think yourself let off very easy: that is to say, if these poems are good for any thing, which I hope and believe. "I have been some days in Rome the Wonderful. I am seeing sights, and have done nothing else, except the new third Act for you. I have this morning seen a live pope and a dead cardinal: Pius VII. has been burying Cardinal Bracchi, whose body I saw in state at the Chiesa Nuova. Rome has delighted me beyond every thing, since Athens and Constantinople. But I shall not remain long this visit. Address to Venice. "Ever, &c. "P.S. I have got my saddle-horses here, and have ridden, and am riding, all about the country." * * * * *