One, and leaving to myself the choice of one from Schiller, I
represented the extreme difficulty of the task, but as she had read a
sonnet of mine on Lord Guildford's project of establishing an University in
the Italian language, she would not hear of any excuse. To work then I set,
and completed the translation of Leonora, together with one of Schiller's
Feast of Eleusis. These and my sonnet were the cause of my being
recommended for admission as a member of the Academy degli Arcadi in Rome
and I received the pastoral name of Galeso Itaoense.
The Carnaval is now over and the ladies are all at their Livres d'Heures,
posting masses and prayers to the credit side, to counterbalance the sins
and frailties committed during the carnaval in the account which they keep
in the Ledger of Heaven. Dancing and masquerading are now over and
Requiems and the Miserere the order of the day at the conversazioni.
At Mr K[oelle]'s house I have become acquainted with Thorwaldsen, the famous
Danish sculptor, who is by many considered as the successful rival of
Canova; but their respective styles are so different, that a comparison can
scarce be made between them. Canova excels in the soft and graceful, in the
figures of youthful females and young men; Thorwaldsen in the grave, stern
and terrible.
