182 PRÆTERITA-I

seventeenth year, in a state of majestic imbecility, to write a tragedy on a Venetian subject, in which the sorrows of my soul were to be enshrined in immortal verse,-the fair heroine, Bianca, was to be endowed with the perfections of Desdemona and the brightness of Juliet,-and Venice and Love were to be described, as never had been thought of before.¹ I may note in passing that on my first sight of the Ducal Palace, the year before, I had deliberately announced to my father and mother, and-it seemed to me stupidly incredulous-Mary, that I meant to make such a drawing of the Ducal Palace as never had been made before. This I proceeded to perform by collecting some hasty memoranda on the spot, and finishing my design elaborately out of my head at Treviso. The drawing still exists,-for a wonder, out of perspective, which I had now got too conceited to follow the rules of,²-and with the diaper pattern of the red and white marbles represented as a bold panelling in relief.³ No figure disturbs the solemn tranquillity of the Riva, and the gondolas-each in the shape of a Turkish crescent standing on its back on the water-float about without the aid of gondoliers.

I remember nothing more of that year, 1836, than sitting under the mulberry tree in the back garden, writing my tragedy. I forget whether we went travelling or not, or what I did in the rest of the day. It is all now blank to me, except Venice, Bianca, and looking out over Shooter’s Hill, where I could see the last turn of the road to Paris.

Some Greek, though I don’t know what, must have been read, and some mathematics, for I certainly knew the difference between a square and cube root when I went to Oxford, and was put by my tutor into Herodotus, out of whom I immediately gathered materials enough to write my Scythian drinking song,⁴ in imitation of the Giaour.

¹ [For this piece, entitled “Marcolini,” see Vol. II. pp. 474-516. Compare, below, pp. 223, 614.]

² [For his learning them, see above, pp. 76-77.]

³ [Plate VIII.]

⁴ [See Vol. II. p. 57.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]