[3] This fine soliloquy, and a great part of the subsequent scene, have, it is hardly necessary to remark been retained in the present form of the Drama.
[4] Altered in the present form, to "some strange things in them, Herman."
[5] An allusion (such as often occurs in these letters) to an anecdote with which he had been amused.
[6] A tragedy, by the Rev. Mr. Maturin.
[7] A country-house on the Euganean hills, near Este, which Mr. Hoppner, who was then the English Consul-General at Venice, had for some time occupied, and which Lord Byron afterwards rented of him, but never resided in it.
[8] So great was the demand for horses, on the line of march of the Austrians, that all those belonging to private individuals were put in requisition for their use, and Lord Byron himself received an order to send his for the same purpose. This, however, he positively refused to do, adding, that if an attempt were made to take them by force, he would shoot them through the head in the middle of the road, rather than submit to such an act of tyranny upon a foreigner who was merely a temporary resident in the country. Whether his answer was ever reported to the higher authorities I know not; but his horses were suffered to remain unmolested in his stables.
[9] On this paragraph, in the MS. copy of the above letter, I find the following note, in the handwriting of Mr. Gifford:—
"There is more good sense, and feeling, and judgment in this passage, than in any other I ever read, or Lord Byron wrote."
[10] A paper in the Edinburgh Magazine, in which it was suggested that the general conception of Manfred, and much of what is excellent in the manner of its execution, had been borrowed from "The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus," of Marlow.
[11] "Vide your letter."