—— than be put
To drown with Clarence in his Malmsey butt.—[MS.]
[AH] And reckon up our balance with the devil.—[MS.]
[79] {62}["Carissimo, do review the whole scene, and think what you would say of it, if written by another."—[H.] "I would say, read 'The Miracle' ['A Tale from Boccace'] in Hobhouse's poems, and 'January and May,' and 'Paulo Purganti,' and 'Hans Carvel,' and 'Joconde.' These are laughable: it is the serious—Little's poems and Lalla Rookh—that affect seriously. Now Lust is a serious passion, and cannot be excited by the ludicrous."—[B.]—Marginal Notes in Revise.]
For the "Miracle," see Imitations and Translations, 1809, pp. 111-128. "January and May" is Pope's version of Chaucer's Merchant's Tale. "Paulo Purganti" and "Hans Carvel" are by Matthew Prior; and for "Joconde" (Nouvelle Tirée de L'Ariosto, canto xxviii.) see Contes et Nouvelles en Vers, de Mr. de la Fontaine, 1691, i. 1-19.]
[80] {63}[Compare "The use made in the French tongue of the word tact, to denote that delicate sense of propriety, which enables a man to feel his way in the difficult intercourse of polished society, seems to have been suggested by similar considerations (i.e. similar to those which suggested the use of the word taste)."—Outlines of Moral Philosophy, by Dugald Stewart, Part I. sect. x. ed. 1855, p. 48. For D'Alembert's use of tact, to denote "that peculiar delicacy of perception (which, like the nice touch of a blind man) arises from habits of close attention to those slighter feelings which escape general notice," see Philosophical Essays, by Dugald Stewart, 1818, p. 603.]
[AI] {64}With base suspicion now no longer haunted.—[MS.]
[81] [For the incident of the shoes, Lord Byron was probably indebted to the Scottish ballad—
"Our goodman came hame at e'en, and hame came he;
He spy'd a pair of jack-boots, where nae boots should be,