... able not only to speak French fluently but also to write it with ease. I was fourteen years of age when I besought my father to allow me to have some lessons in Italian. These were given me by Professor Lorenzo Da Ponte , son of the veteran of whom I have already spoken. With him I read the dramas of Metastasio and of Alfieri. Through all these years there went with me the vision of some great work or works whi...