Thus He Will, At A Minute's
Warning, Recite Two Or Three Hundred Verses, Well Turned, And
Well Adapted, And Generally Mingled With An Elegant Compliment To
The Company.
The Italians are so fond of poetry, that many of
them, have the best part of Ariosto, Tasso, and Petrarch, by
heart; and these are the great sources from which the
Improvisatori draw their rhimes, cadence, and turns of
expression.
But, lest you should think there is neither rhime nor
reason in protracting this tedious epistle, I shall conclude it
with the old burden of my song, that I am always - Your
affectionate humble servant.
LETTER XXVIII
NICE, February 5, 1765.
DEAR SIR, - Your entertaining letter of the fifth of last month,
was a very charitable and a very agreeable donation: but your
suspicion is groundless. I assure you, upon my honour, I have no
share whatever in any of the disputes which agitate the public:
nor do I know any thing of your political transactions, except
what I casually see in one of your newspapers, with the perusal
of which I am sometimes favoured by our consul at Villefranche.
You insist upon my being more particular in my remarks on what I
saw at Florence, and I shall obey the injunction. The famous
gallery which contains the antiquities, is the third story of a
noble stone-edifice, built in the form of the Greek Pi, the upper
part fronting the river Arno, and one of the legs adjoining to
the ducal-palace, where the courts of justice are held.
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