| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | The Debt of the “Giuli Tre” (I.) | | By Giovanni Battista Casti (1724–1803) |
| | Translated by Leigh Hunt
MY Creditor seems often in a way | |
| Extremely pleasant with me, and polite; | |
| Just like a friend;—you’d fancy, at first sight, | |
| He thought no longer of the giuli tre. 1 | |
| All that he wants to know is, what they say | 5 |
| Of Frederick now; whether his guess was right | |
| About the sailing of the French that night; | |
| Or, what ’s the news of Hanover and D’Estrèe. | |
| But start from whence he may, he comes as truly, | |
| By little and little, to his ancient pass, | 10 |
| And says, “Well—when am I to have the giuli?” | |
| ’Tis the cat’s way. She takes her mouse, alas! | |
| And having purr’d, and eyed, and tapped him duly, | |
| Gives him at length the fatal coup de grace. | |
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