Over leaf, however, shall
go the translation, which happens to be done very closely, and the
last stanza is particularly exact. I must put it down while I
remember it:
1.
"'Favoured of Britain's pensive sons,
Though still thy name be found,
Though royal Thames where'er he runs
Returns the flattering sound,
2.
Though absent thou, on every joy
Her gloom privation flings,
And Pleasure, pining for employ,
Now droops her nerveless wings,
3.
Yet since kind Fates thy voice restore
To charm our land again[2],--
Return not to their rocky shore,
Nor tempt the angry main.
4.
Nor is their praise of so much worth,
Nor is it justly given,
That angels sing to them on earth
Who slight the road to heaven.'
"He tells me--Piozzi does--that his own country manners greatly
disgusted him, after having been used to ours; but Milan is a
comfortable place, I find. If he does not fix himself for life here,
he will settle to lay his bones at Milan. The Marquis D'Araciel, his
friend and patron, who resides there, divides and disputes his heart
with me: I shall be loth to resign it."
[Footnote 1: This mode of expression did not imply then what it might
now. See _ante_, p. 92, where Johnson writes to "my Baretti."]
[Footnote 2: "Capello is a Venetian poet."]
"_17th December, 1781._--Dear Mr. Johnson is at last returned; he has
been a vast while away to see his country folks at Litchfield.
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