"If your literary matters prosper let me know. If 'Beppo' pleases,
you shall have more in a year or two in the same mood. And so 'Good
morrow to you, good Master Lieutenant.' Yours," &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 317. TO MR. MOORE.

"Palazzo Mocenigo, Canal Grande,

"Venice, June 1. 1818.

"Your letter is almost the only news, as yet, of Canto fourth, and
it has by no means settled its fate,--at least, does not tell me
how the 'Poeshie' has been received by the public. But I suspect,
no great things,--firstly, from Murray's 'horrid stillness;'
secondly, from what you say about the stanzas running into each
other[21], which I take _not_ to be _yours_, but a notion you have
been dinned with among the Blues. The fact is, that the terza rima
of the Italians, which always _runs_ on and in, may have led me
into experiments, and carelessness into conceit--or conceit into
carelessness--in either of which events failure will be probable,
and my fair woman, 'superne,' end in a fish; so that Childe Harold
will be like the mermaid, my family crest, with the fourth Canto
for a tail thereunto. I won't quarrel with the public, however, for
the 'Bulgars' are generally right; and if I miss now, I may hit
another time:--and so, the 'gods give us joy.'

"You like Beppo, that's right. I have not had the Fudges yet, but