This letter appears to have been written in 1843, which was the date of the privately-printed volume by my grandfather (_La Magion del Terrore_, etc.) containing the lyric, _A Clori_. The first verse of the lyric is “Quante stelle cancella la luna.” Polidori’s reply is not forthcoming; but there can be little doubt that Dante Rossetti was right in considering that the Italian poem is a free adaptation of the English one. 50 Charlotte Street, London. [? 1843.] Dear Grandpapa, On returning home yesterday and looking over your volume of poetry, I was greatly surprised at discovering in your ode, _A Clori_, at page 136, a most singular resemblance to a little poem contained in Percy’s _Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_, it being the same, verse by verse, and sometimes almost word for word. The poem to which I allude is written by Sir Henry Wotton, who lived in the reign of James 1st, and is intended as an expression of his admiration for Elizabeth, daughter of that monarch. It runs as follows: You meaner beauties of the night, That poorlie satisfie our eyes More by your number than your light, You common people of the skies-- What are you when the moon shall rise? Ye violets that first appeare, By your pure purple mantles known Like the proud virgins of the yeare, As if the Spring were all your own-- What are you when the rose is blown? Ye curious chanters of the wood, That warble forth Dame Nature’s layes, Thinking your passion understood By your weak accents, what’s your praise When Philomel her voyce shall raise? So when my mistress shall be seene In sweetness of her looks and mind; By virtue first, then choyce, a queene; Tell me if she was not designed Th’ eclypse and glory of her kind. The only difference between your composition and the above is, as you perceive, the addition by you of two stanzas--judiciously, I think, inasmuch as they complete the idea. Now I do not for a moment suppose that you have translated these lines and afterwards intentionally inserted them among your original poems; but I should think it possible that you might have rendered them into Italian some years ago, and that, on looking over your manuscripts in order to compile the volume in question, you might have found them, and, forgetting their origin, placed them with the rest among your _Versi Lirici_. Should this idea of mine, however, not be founded on fact, it is certainly a most singular literary coincidence. I remain, dear Grandpapa, Your affectionate Grandson, GABRIEL CHAS. ROSSETTI.