me more than by obtaining me the perusal I request, in French or
English,--all's one for that, though I prefer Italian to either. I
have a French copy of Vathek which I bought at Lausanne. I can read
French with great pleasure and facility, though I neither speak nor
write it. Now Italian I _can_ speak with some fluency, and write
sufficiently for my purposes, but I don't like their _modern_ prose
at all; it is very heavy, and so different from Machiavelli.

"They say Francis is Junius;--I think it looks like it. I remember
meeting him at Earl Grey's at dinner. Has not he lately married a
young woman; and was not he Madame Talleyrand's _cavaliere
servente_ in India years ago?

"I read my death in the papers, which was not true. I see they are
marrying the remaining singleness of the royal family. They have
brought out Fazio with great and deserved success at Covent Garden:
that's a good sign. I tried, during the directory, to have it done
at Drury Lane, but was overruled. If you think of coming into this
country, you will let me know perhaps beforehand. I suppose Moore
won't move. Rose is here. I saw him the other night at Madame
Albrizzi's; he talks of returning in May. My love to the Hollands.

"Ever, &c.

"P.S. They have been crucifying Othello into an opera (_Otello_, by
Rossini): the music good, but lugubrious; but as for the words, all
the real scenes with Iago cut out, and the greatest nonsense
instead; the handkerchief turned into a _billet-doux_, and the
first singer would not _black_ his face, for some exquisite reasons
assigned in the preface. Singing, dresses, and music, very good."