"Venice, February 1. 1819.
"After one of the concluding stanzas of the first Canto of 'Don
Juan,' which ends with (I forget the number)--
"To have ...
... when the original is dust,
A book, a d----d bad picture, and worse bust,
insert the following stanza:--
"What are the hopes of man, &c.
"I have written to you several letters, some with additions, and
some upon the subject of the poem itself, which my cursed
puritanical committee have protested against publishing. But we
will circumvent them on that point. I have not yet begun to copy
out the second Canto, which is finished, from natural laziness, and
the discouragement of the milk and water they have thrown upon the
first. I say all this to them as to you, that is, for _you_ to say
to _them_, for I will have nothing underhand. If they had told me
the poetry was bad, I would have acquiesced; but they say the
contrary, and then talk to me about morality--the first time I ever
heard the word from any body who was not a rascal that used it for
a purpose. I maintain that it is the most moral of poems; but if
people won't discover the moral, that is their fault, not mine. I
have already written to beg that in any case you will print _fifty_
for private distribution. I will send you the list of persons to
whom it is to be sent afterwards.
"Within this last fortnight I have been rather indisposed with a
rebellion of stomach, which would retain nothing, (liver, I
suppose,) and an inability, or fantasy, not to be able to eat of
any thing with relish but a kind of Adriatic fish called 'scampi,'
which happens to be the most indigestible of marine viands.
However, within these last two days, I am better, and very truly
yours."
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