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1
2
3DEDICATION
4
5     Bob Southey! You're a poet, poet laureate,
6       And representative of all the race.
7     Although 'tis true that you turned out a Tory at
8       Last, yours has lately been a common case.
9     And now my epic renegade, what are ye at
10       With all the lakers, in and out of place?
11     A nest of tuneful persons, to my eye
12     Like four and twenty blackbirds in a pye,
13
14     Which pye being opened they began to sing'
15       (This old song and new simile holds good),
16     'A dainty dish to set before the King'
17       Or Regent, who admires such kind of food.
18     And Coleridge too has lately taken wing,
19       But like a hawk encumbered with his hood,
20     Explaining metaphysics to the nation.
21     I wish he would explain his explanation.
22
23     You, Bob, are rather insolent, you know,
24       At being disappointed in your wish
25     To supersede all warblers here below,
26       And be the only blackbird in the dish.
27     And then you overstrain yourself, or so,
28       And tumble downward like the flying fish
29     Gasping on deck, because you soar too high,
30     Bob, And fall for lack of moisture quite a dry Bob.
31
32     And Wordsworth in a rather long Excursion
33       (I think the quarto holds five hundred pages)
34     Has given a sample from the vasty version
35       Of his new system to perplex the sages.
36     'Tis poetry, at least by his assertion,
37       And may appear so when the Dog Star rages,
38     And he who understands it would be able
39     To add a story to the tower of Babel.
40
41     You gentlemen, by dint of long seclusion
42       From better company, have kept your own
43     At Keswick, and through still continued fusion
44       Of one another's minds at last have grown
45     To deem, as a most logical conclusion,
46       That poesy has wreaths for you alone.
47     There is a narrowness in such a notion,
48     Which makes me wish you'd change your lakes for ocean.
49
50     I would not imitate the petty thought,
51       Nor coin my self-love to so base a vice,
52     For all the glory your conversion brought,
53       Since gold alone should not have been its price.
54     You have your salary; was't for that you wrought?
55       And Wordsworth has his place in the Excise.
56     You're shabby fellows--true--but poets still
57     And duly seated on the immortal hill.
58
59     Your bays may hide the baldness of your brows,
60       Perhaps some virtuous blushes; let them go.
61     To you I envy neither fruit nor boughs,
62       And for the fame you would engross below,
63     The field is universal and allows
64       Scope to all such as feel the inherent glow.
65     Scott, Rogers, Campbell, Moore, and Crabbe will try
66     'Gainst you the question with posterity.
67
68     For me, who, wandering with pedestrian Muses,
69       Contend not with you on the winged' steed,
70     I wish your fate may yield ye, when she chooses,
71       The fame you envy and the skill you need.
72     And recollect a poet nothing loses
73       In giving to his brethren their full meed
74     Of merit, and complaint of present days
75     Is not the certain path to future praise.
76
77     He that reserves his laurels for posterity
78       (Who does not often claim the bright reversion)
79     Has generally no great crop to spare it, he
80       Being only injured by his own assertion.
81     And although here and there some glorious rarity
82       Arise like Titan from the sea's immersion,
83     The major part of such appellants go
84     To--God knows where--for no one else can know.
85
86     If fallen in evil days on evil tongues,
87       Milton appealed to the avenger, Time,
88     If Time, the avenger, execrates his wrongs
89       And makes the word Miltonic mean sublime,
90     He deigned not to belie his soul in songs,
91       Nor turn his very talent to a crime.
92     He did not loathe the sire to laud the son,
93     But closed the tyrant-hater he begun.
94
95     Think'st thou, could he, the blind old man, arise
96       Like Samuel from the grave to freeze once more
97     The blood of monarchs with his prophecies,
98        Or be alive again--again all hoar
99     With time and trials, and those helpless eyes
100       And heartless daughters--worn and pale and poor,
101     Would he adore a sultan? He obey
102     The intellectual eunuch Castlereagh?
103
104     Cold-blooded, smooth-faced, placid miscreant!
105       Dabbling its sleek young hands in Erin's gore,
106     And thus for wider carnage taught to pant,
107       Transferred to gorge upon a sister shore,
108     The vulgarest tool that tyranny could want,
109       With just enough of talent and no more,
110     To lengthen fetters by another fixed
111     And offer poison long already mixed.
112
113     An orator of such set trash of phrase,
114       Ineffably, legitimately vile,
115     That even its grossest flatterers dare not praise,
116       Nor foes--all nations--condescend to smile.
117     Not even a sprightly blunder's spark can blaze
118       From that Ixion grindstone's ceaseless toil,
119     That turns and turns to give the world a notion
120     Of endless torments and perpetual motion.
121
122     A bungler even in its disgusting trade,
123       And botching, patching, leaving still behind
124     Something of which its masters are afraid,
125       States to be curbed and thoughts to be confined,
126     Conspiracy or congress to be made,
127       Cobbling at manacles for all mankind,
128     A tinkering slave-maker, who mends old chains,
129     With God and man's abhorrence for its gains.
130
131     If we may judge of matter by the mind,
132     Emasculated to the marrow, it
133     Hath but two objects, how to serve and bind,
134     Deeming the chain it wears even men may fit,
135     Eutropius of its many masters, blind
136     To worth as freedom, wisdom as to wit,
137     Fearless, because no feeling dwells in ice;
138     Its very courage stagnates to a vice.
139
140     Where shall I turn me not to view its bonds,
141       For I will never feel them. Italy,
142     Thy late reviving Roman soul desponds
143       Beneath the lie this state-thing breathed o'er thee.
144     Thy clanking chain and Erin's yet green wounds
145       Have voices, tongues to cry aloud for me.
146     Europe has slaves, allies, kings, armies still,
147     And Southey lives to sing them very ill.
148
149     Meantime, Sir Laureate, I proceed to dedicate
150       In honest simple verse this song to you.
151     And if in flattering strains I do not predicate,
152       'Tis that I still retain my buff and blue;
153     My politics as yet are all to educate.
154       Apostasy's so fashionable too,
155     To keep one creed's a task grown quite
156     Herculean Is it not so, my Tory, ultra-Julian?
157
158
159
160
161CANTO THE FIRST
162
163     I want a hero: an uncommon want,
164       When every year and month sends forth a new one,
165     Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
166       The age discovers he is not the true one;
167     Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
168       I 'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan--
169     We all have seen him, in the pantomime,
170     Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time.
171
172     Vernon, the butcher Cumberland, Wolfe, Hawke,
173       Prince Ferdinand, Granby, Burgoyne, Keppel, Howe,
174     Evil and good, have had their tithe of talk,
175       And fill'd their sign posts then, like Wellesley now;
176     Each in their turn like Banquo's monarchs stalk,
177       Followers of fame, 'nine farrow' of that sow:
178     France, too, had Buonaparte and Dumourier
179     Recorded in the Moniteur and Courier.
180
181     Barnave, Brissot, Condorcet, Mirabeau,
182       Petion, Clootz, Danton, Marat, La Fayette,
183     Were French, and famous people, as we know:
184       And there were others, scarce forgotten yet,
185     Joubert, Hoche, Marceau, Lannes, Desaix, Moreau,
186       With many of the military set,
187     Exceedingly remarkable at times,
188     But not at all adapted to my rhymes.
189
190     Nelson was once Britannia's god of war,
191       And still should be so, but the tide is turn'd;
192     There 's no more to be said of Trafalgar,
193       'T is with our hero quietly inurn'd;
194     Because the army 's grown more popular,
195       At which the naval people are concern'd;
196     Besides, the prince is all for the land-service,
197     Forgetting Duncan, Nelson, Howe, and Jervis.
198
199     Brave men were living before Agamemnon
200       And since, exceeding valorous and sage,
201     A good deal like him too, though quite the same none;
202       But then they shone not on the poet's page,
203     And so have been forgotten:--I condemn none,
204       But can't find any in the present age
205     Fit for my poem (that is, for my new one);
206     So, as I said, I 'll take my friend Don Juan.
207
208     Most epic poets plunge 'in medias res'
209       (Horace makes this the heroic turnpike road),
210     And then your hero tells, whene'er you please,
211       What went before--by way of episode,
212     While seated after dinner at his ease,
213       Beside his mistress in some soft abode,
214     Palace, or garden, paradise, or cavern,
215     Which serves the happy couple for a tavern.
216
217     That is the usual method, but not mine--
218       My way is to begin with the beginning;
219     The regularity of my design
220       Forbids all wandering as the worst of sinning,
221     And therefore I shall open with a line
222       (Although it cost me half an hour in spinning)
223     Narrating somewhat of Don Juan's father,
224     And also of his mother, if you 'd rather.
225
226     In Seville was he born, a pleasant city,
227       Famous for oranges and women--he
228     Who has not seen it will be much to pity,
229       So says the proverb--and I quite agree;
230     Of all the Spanish towns is none more pretty,
231       Cadiz perhaps--but that you soon may see;
232     Don Juan's parents lived beside the river,
233     A noble stream, and call'd the Guadalquivir.
234
235     His father's name was Jose--Don, of course,--
236       A true Hidalgo, free from every stain
237     Of Moor or Hebrew blood, he traced his source
238       Through the most Gothic gentlemen of Spain;
239     A better cavalier ne'er mounted horse,
240       Or, being mounted, e'er got down again,
241     Than Jose, who begot our hero, who
242     Begot--but that 's to come--Well, to renew:
243
244     His mother was a learned lady, famed
245       For every branch of every science known
246     In every Christian language ever named,
247       With virtues equall'd by her wit alone,
248     She made the cleverest people quite ashamed,
249       And even the good with inward envy groan,
250     Finding themselves so very much exceeded
251     In their own way by all the things that she did.
252
253     Her memory was a mine: she knew by heart
254       All Calderon and greater part of Lope,
255     So that if any actor miss'd his part
256       She could have served him for the prompter's copy;
257     For her Feinagle's were an useless art,
258       And he himself obliged to shut up shop--he
259     Could never make a memory so fine as
260     That which adorn'd the brain of Donna Inez.
261
262     Her favourite science was the mathematical,
263       Her noblest virtue was her magnanimity,
264     Her wit (she sometimes tried at wit) was Attic all,
265       Her serious sayings darken'd to sublimity;
266     In short, in all things she was fairly what I call
267       A prodigy--her morning dress was dimity,
268     Her evening silk, or, in the summer, muslin,
269     And other stuffs, with which I won't stay puzzling.
270
271     She knew the Latin--that is, 'the Lord's prayer,'
272       And Greek--the alphabet--I 'm nearly sure;
273     She read some French romances here and there,
274       Although her mode of speaking was not pure;
275     For native Spanish she had no great care,
276       At least her conversation was obscure;
277     Her thoughts were theorems, her words a problem,
278     As if she deem'd that mystery would ennoble 'em.
279
280     She liked the English and the Hebrew tongue,
281       And said there was analogy between 'em;
282     She proved it somehow out of sacred song,
283       But I must leave the proofs to those who 've seen 'em;
284     But this I heard her say, and can't be wrong
285       And all may think which way their judgments lean 'em,
286     ''T is strange--the Hebrew noun which means "I am,"
287     The English always use to govern d--n.'
288
289     Some women use their tongues--she look'd a lecture,
290       Each eye a sermon, and her brow a homily,
291     An all-in-all sufficient self-director,
292       Like the lamented late Sir Samuel Romilly,
293     The Law's expounder, and the State's corrector,
294       Whose suicide was almost an anomaly--
295     One sad example more, that 'All is vanity'
296     (The jury brought their verdict in 'Insanity').
297
298     In short, she was a walking calculation,
299       Miss Edgeworth's novels stepping from their covers,
300     Or Mrs. Trimmer's books on education,
301       Or 'Coelebs' Wife' set out in quest of lovers,
302     Morality's prim personification,
303       In which not Envy's self a flaw discovers;
304     To others' share let 'female errors fall,'
305     For she had not even one--the worst of all.
306
307     O! she was perfect past all parallel--
308       Of any modern female saint's comparison;
309     So far above the cunning powers of hell,
310       Her guardian angel had given up his garrison;
311     Even her minutest motions went as well
312       As those of the best time-piece made by Harrison:
313     In virtues nothing earthly could surpass her,
314     Save thine 'incomparable oil,' Macassar!
315
316     Perfect she was, but as perfection is
317       Insipid in this naughty world of ours,
318     Where our first parents never learn'd to kiss
319       Till they were exiled from their earlier bowers,
320     Where all was peace, and innocence, and bliss
321       (I wonder how they got through the twelve hours),
322     Don Jose, like a lineal son of Eve,
323     Went plucking various fruit without her leave.
324
325     He was a mortal of the careless kind,
326       With no great love for learning, or the learn'd,
327     Who chose to go where'er he had a mind,
328       And never dream'd his lady was concern'd;
329     The world, as usual, wickedly inclined
330       To see a kingdom or a house o'erturn'd,
331     Whisper'd he had a mistress, some said two--
332     But for domestic quarrels one will do.
333
334     Now Donna Inez had, with all her merit,
335       A great opinion of her own good qualities;
336     Neglect, indeed, requires a saint to bear it,
337       And such, indeed, she was in her moralities;
338     But then she had a devil of a spirit,
339       And sometimes mix'd up fancies with realities,
340     And let few opportunities escape
341     Of getting her liege lord into a scrape.
342
343     This was an easy matter with a man
344       Oft in the wrong, and never on his guard;
345     And even the wisest, do the best they can,
346       Have moments, hours, and days, so unprepared,
347     That you might 'brain them with their lady's fan;'
348       And sometimes ladies hit exceeding hard,
349     And fans turn into falchions in fair hands,
350     And why and wherefore no one understands.
351
352     'T is pity learned virgins ever wed
353       With persons of no sort of education,
354     Or gentlemen, who, though well born and bred,
355       Grow tired of scientific conversation:
356     I don't choose to say much upon this head,
357       I 'm a plain man, and in a single station,
358     But--Oh! ye lords of ladies intellectual,
359     Inform us truly, have they not hen-peck'd you all?
360
361     Don Jose and his lady quarrell'd--why,
362       Not any of the many could divine,
363     Though several thousand people chose to try,
364       'T was surely no concern of theirs nor mine;
365     I loathe that low vice--curiosity;
366       But if there 's anything in which I shine,
367     'T is in arranging all my friends' affairs,
368     Not having of my own domestic cares.
369
370     And so I interfered, and with the best
371       Intentions, but their treatment was not kind;
372     I think the foolish people were possess'd,
373       For neither of them could I ever find,
374     Although their porter afterwards confess'd--
375       But that 's no matter, and the worst 's behind,
376     For little Juan o'er me threw, down stairs,
377     A pail of housemaid's water unawares.
378
379     A little curly-headed, good-for-nothing,
380       And mischief-making monkey from his birth;
381     His parents ne'er agreed except in doting
382       Upon the most unquiet imp on earth;
383     Instead of quarrelling, had they been but both in
384       Their senses, they 'd have sent young master forth
385     To school, or had him soundly whipp'd at home,
386     To teach him manners for the time to come.
387
388     Don Jose and the Donna Inez led
389       For some time an unhappy sort of life,
390     Wishing each other, not divorced, but dead;
391       They lived respectably as man and wife,
392     Their conduct was exceedingly well-bred,
393       And gave no outward signs of inward strife,
394     Until at length the smother'd fire broke out,
395     And put the business past all kind of doubt.
396
397     For Inez call'd some druggists and physicians,
398       And tried to prove her loving lord was mad;
399     But as he had some lucid intermissions,
400       She next decided he was only bad;
401     Yet when they ask'd her for her depositions,
402       No sort of explanation could be had,
403     Save that her duty both to man and God
404     Required this conduct--which seem'd very odd.
405
406     She kept a journal, where his faults were noted,
407       And open'd certain trunks of books and letters,
408     All which might, if occasion served, be quoted;
409       And then she had all Seville for abettors,
410     Besides her good old grandmother (who doted);
411       The hearers of her case became repeaters,
412     Then advocates, inquisitors, and judges,
413     Some for amusement, others for old grudges.
414
415     And then this best and weakest woman bore
416       With such serenity her husband's woes,
417     Just as the Spartan ladies did of yore,
418       Who saw their spouses kill'd, and nobly chose
419     Never to say a word about them more--
420       Calmly she heard each calumny that rose,
421     And saw his agonies with such sublimity,
422     That all the world exclaim'd, 'What magnanimity!'
423
424     No doubt this patience, when the world is damning us,
425       Is philosophic in our former friends;
426     'T is also pleasant to be deem'd magnanimous,
427       The more so in obtaining our own ends;
428     And what the lawyers call a 'malus animus'
429       Conduct like this by no means comprehends;
430     Revenge in person 's certainly no virtue,
431     But then 't is not my fault, if others hurt you.
432
433     And if your quarrels should rip up old stories,
434       And help them with a lie or two additional,
435     I 'm not to blame, as you well know--no more is
436       Any one else--they were become traditional;
437     Besides, their resurrection aids our glories
438       By contrast, which is what we just were wishing all:
439     And science profits by this resurrection--
440     Dead scandals form good subjects for dissection.
441
442     Their friends had tried at reconciliation,
443       Then their relations, who made matters worse.
444     ('T were hard to tell upon a like occasion
445       To whom it may be best to have recourse--
446     I can't say much for friend or yet relation):
447       The lawyers did their utmost for divorce,
448     But scarce a fee was paid on either side
449     Before, unluckily, Don Jose died.
450
451     He died: and most unluckily, because,
452       According to all hints I could collect
453     From counsel learned in those kinds of laws
454       (Although their talk 's obscure and circumspect),
455     His death contrived to spoil a charming cause;
456       A thousand pities also with respect
457     To public feeling, which on this occasion
458     Was manifested in a great sensation.
459
460     But, ah! he died; and buried with him lay
461       The public feeling and the lawyers' fees:
462     His house was sold, his servants sent away,
463       A Jew took one of his two mistresses,
464     A priest the other--at least so they say:
465       I ask'd the doctors after his disease--
466     He died of the slow fever call'd the tertian,
467     And left his widow to her own aversion.
468
469     Yet Jose was an honourable man,
470       That I must say who knew him very well;
471     Therefore his frailties I 'll no further scan
472       Indeed there were not many more to tell;
473     And if his passions now and then outran
474       Discretion, and were not so peaceable
475     As Numa's (who was also named Pompilius),
476     He had been ill brought up, and was born bilious.
477
478     Whate'er might be his worthlessness or worth,
479       Poor fellow! he had many things to wound him.
480     Let 's own--since it can do no good on earth--
481       It was a trying moment that which found him
482     Standing alone beside his desolate hearth,
483       Where all his household gods lay shiver'd round him:
484     No choice was left his feelings or his pride,
485     Save death or Doctors' Commons--so he died.
486
487     Dying intestate, Juan was sole heir
488       To a chancery suit, and messuages, and lands,
489     Which, with a long minority and care,
490       Promised to turn out well in proper hands:
491     Inez became sole guardian, which was fair,
492       And answer'd but to nature's just demands;
493     An only son left with an only mother
494     Is brought up much more wisely than another.
495
496     Sagest of women, even of widows, she
497       Resolved that Juan should be quite a paragon,
498     And worthy of the noblest pedigree
499       (His sire was of Castile, his dam from Aragon):
500     Then for accomplishments of chivalry,
501       In case our lord the king should go to war again,
502     He learn'd the arts of riding, fencing, gunnery,
503     And how to scale a fortress--or a nunnery.
504
505     But that which Donna Inez most desired,
506       And saw into herself each day before all
507     The learned tutors whom for him she hired,
508       Was, that his breeding should be strictly moral;
509     Much into all his studies she inquired,
510       And so they were submitted first to her, all,
511     Arts, sciences, no branch was made a mystery
512     To Juan's eyes, excepting natural history.
513
514     The languages, especially the dead,
515       The sciences, and most of all the abstruse,
516     The arts, at least all such as could be said
517       To be the most remote from common use,
518     In all these he was much and deeply read;
519       But not a page of any thing that 's loose,
520     Or hints continuation of the species,
521     Was ever suffer'd, lest he should grow vicious.
522
523     His classic studies made a little puzzle,
524       Because of filthy loves of gods and goddesses,
525     Who in the earlier ages raised a bustle,
526       But never put on pantaloons or bodices;
527     His reverend tutors had at times a tussle,
528       And for their AEneids, Iliads, and Odysseys,
529     Were forced to make an odd sort! of apology,
530     For Donna Inez dreaded the Mythology.
531
532     Ovid 's a rake, as half his verses show him,
533       Anacreon's morals are a still worse sample,
534     Catullus scarcely has a decent poem,
535       I don't think Sappho's Ode a good example,
536     Although Longinus tells us there is no hymn
537       Where the sublime soars forth on wings more ample:
538     But Virgil's songs are pure, except that horrid one
539     Beginning with 'Formosum Pastor Corydon.'
540
541     Lucretius' irreligion is too strong,
542       For early stomachs, to prove wholesome food;
543     I can't help thinking Juvenal was wrong,
544       Although no doubt his real intent was good,
545     For speaking out so plainly in his song,
546       So much indeed as to be downright rude;
547     And then what proper person can be partial
548     To all those nauseous epigrams of Martial?
549
550     Juan was taught from out the best edition,
551       Expurgated by learned men, who place
552     Judiciously, from out the schoolboy's vision,
553       The grosser parts; but, fearful to deface
554     Too much their modest bard by this omission,
555       And pitying sore his mutilated case,
556     They only add them all in an appendix,
557     Which saves, in fact, the trouble of an index;
558
559     For there we have them all 'at one fell swoop,'
560       Instead of being scatter'd through the Pages;
561     They stand forth marshall'd in a handsome troop,
562       To meet the ingenuous youth of future ages,
563     Till some less rigid editor shall stoop
564       To call them back into their separate cages,
565     Instead of standing staring all together,
566     Like garden gods--and not so decent either.
567
568     The Missal too (it was the family Missal)
569       Was ornamented in a sort of way
570     Which ancient mass-books often are, and this all
571       Kinds of grotesques illumined; and how they,
572     Who saw those figures on the margin kiss all,
573       Could turn their optics to the text and pray,
574     Is more than I know--But Don Juan's mother
575     Kept this herself, and gave her son another.
576
577     Sermons he read, and lectures he endured,
578       And homilies, and lives of all the saints;
579     To Jerome and to Chrysostom inured,
580       He did not take such studies for restraints;
581     But how faith is acquired, and then ensured,
582       So well not one of the aforesaid paints
583     As Saint Augustine in his fine Confessions,
584     Which make the reader envy his transgressions.
585
586     This, too, was a seal'd book to little Juan--
587       I can't but say that his mamma was right,
588     If such an education was the true one.
589       She scarcely trusted him from out her sight;
590     Her maids were old, and if she took a new one,
591       You might be sure she was a perfect fright;
592     She did this during even her husband's life--
593     I recommend as much to every wife.
594
595     Young Juan wax'd in goodliness and grace;
596       At six a charming child, and at eleven
597     With all the promise of as fine a face
598       As e'er to man's maturer growth was given:
599     He studied steadily, and grew apace,
600       And seem'd, at least, in the right road to heaven,
601     For half his days were pass'd at church, the other
602     Between his tutors, confessor, and mother.
603
604     At six, I said, he was a charming child,
605       At twelve he was a fine, but quiet boy;
606     Although in infancy a little wild,
607       They tamed him down amongst them: to destroy
608     His natural spirit not in vain they toil'd,
609       At least it seem'd so; and his mother's joy
610     Was to declare how sage, and still, and steady,
611     Her young philosopher was grown already.
612
613     I had my doubts, perhaps I have them still,
614       But what I say is neither here nor there:
615     I knew his father well, and have some skill
616       In character--but it would not be fair
617     From sire to son to augur good or ill:
618       He and his wife were an ill-sorted pair--
619     But scandal 's my aversion--I protest
620     Against all evil speaking, even in jest.
621
622     For my part I say nothing--nothing--but
623       This I will say--my reasons are my own--
624     That if I had an only son to put
625       To school (as God be praised that I have none),
626     'T is not with Donna Inez I would shut
627       Him up to learn his catechism alone,
628     No--no--I 'd send him out betimes to college,
629     For there it was I pick'd up my own knowledge.
630
631     For there one learns--'t is not for me to boast,
632       Though I acquired--but I pass over that,
633     As well as all the Greek I since have lost:
634       I say that there 's the place--but 'Verbum sat.'
635     I think I pick'd up too, as well as most,
636       Knowledge of matters--but no matter what--
637     I never married--but, I think, I know
638     That sons should not be educated so.
639
640     Young Juan now was sixteen years of age,
641       Tall, handsome, slender, but well knit: he seem'd
642     Active, though not so sprightly, as a page;
643       And everybody but his mother deem'd
644     Him almost man; but she flew in a rage
645       And bit her lips (for else she might have scream'd)
646     If any said so, for to be precocious
647     Was in her eyes a thing the most atrocious.
648
649     Amongst her numerous acquaintance, all
650       Selected for discretion and devotion,
651     There was the Donna Julia, whom to call
652       Pretty were but to give a feeble notion
653     Of many charms in her as natural
654       As sweetness to the flower, or salt to ocean,
655     Her zone to Venus, or his bow to Cupid
656     (But this last simile is trite and stupid).
657
658     The darkness of her Oriental eye
659       Accorded with her Moorish origin
660     (Her blood was not all Spanish, by the by;
661       In Spain, you know, this is a sort of sin);
662     When proud Granada fell, and, forced to fly,
663       Boabdil wept, of Donna Julia's kin
664     Some went to Africa, some stay'd in Spain,
665     Her great-great-grandmamma chose to remain.
666
667     She married (I forget the pedigree)
668       With an Hidalgo, who transmitted down
669     His blood less noble than such blood should be;
670       At such alliances his sires would frown,
671     In that point so precise in each degree
672       That they bred in and in, as might be shown,
673     Marrying their cousins--nay, their aunts, and nieces,
674     Which always spoils the breed, if it increases.
675
676     This heathenish cross restored the breed again,
677       Ruin'd its blood, but much improved its flesh;
678     For from a root the ugliest in Old Spain
679       Sprung up a branch as beautiful as fresh;
680     The sons no more were short, the daughters plain:
681       But there 's a rumour which I fain would hush,
682     'T is said that Donna Julia's grandmamma
683     Produced her Don more heirs at love than law.
684
685     However this might be, the race went on
686       Improving still through every generation,
687     Until it centred in an only son,
688       Who left an only daughter; my narration
689     May have suggested that this single one
690       Could be but Julia (whom on this occasion
691     I shall have much to speak about), and she
692     Was married, charming, chaste, and twenty-three.
693
694     Her eye (I 'm very fond of handsome eyes)
695       Was large and dark, suppressing half its fire
696     Until she spoke, then through its soft disguise
697       Flash'd an expression more of pride than ire,
698     And love than either; and there would arise
699       A something in them which was not desire,
700     But would have been, perhaps, but for the soul
701     Which struggled through and chasten'd down the whole.
702
703     Her glossy hair was cluster'd o'er a brow
704       Bright with intelligence, and fair, and smooth;
705     Her eyebrow's shape was like th' aerial bow,
706       Her cheek all purple with the beam of youth,
707     Mounting at times to a transparent glow,
708       As if her veins ran lightning; she, in sooth,
709     Possess'd an air and grace by no means common:
710     Her stature tall--I hate a dumpy woman.
711
712     Wedded she was some years, and to a man
713       Of fifty, and such husbands are in plenty;
714     And yet, I think, instead of such a ONE
715       'T were better to have TWO of five-and-twenty,
716     Especially in countries near the sun:
717       And now I think on 't, 'mi vien in mente,'
718     Ladies even of the most uneasy virtue
719     Prefer a spouse whose age is short of thirty.
720
721     'T is a sad thing, I cannot choose but say,
722       And all the fault of that indecent sun,
723     Who cannot leave alone our helpless clay,
724       But will keep baking, broiling, burning on,
725     That howsoever people fast and pray,
726       The flesh is frail, and so the soul undone:
727     What men call gallantry, and gods adultery,
728     Is much more common where the climate 's sultry.
729
730     Happy the nations of the moral North!
731       Where all is virtue, and the winter season
732     Sends sin, without a rag on, shivering forth
733       ('T was snow that brought St. Anthony to reason);
734     Where juries cast up what a wife is worth,
735       By laying whate'er sum in mulct they please on
736     The lover, who must pay a handsome price,
737     Because it is a marketable vice.
738
739     Alfonso was the name of Julia's lord,
740       A man well looking for his years, and who
741     Was neither much beloved nor yet abhorr'd:
742       They lived together, as most people do,
743     Suffering each other's foibles by accord,
744       And not exactly either one or two;
745     Yet he was jealous, though he did not show it,
746     For jealousy dislikes the world to know it.
747
748     Julia was--yet I never could see why--
749       With Donna Inez quite a favourite friend;
750     Between their tastes there was small sympathy,
751       For not a line had Julia ever penn'd:
752     Some people whisper but no doubt they lie,
753       For malice still imputes some private end,
754     That Inez had, ere Don Alfonso's marriage,
755     Forgot with him her very prudent carriage;
756
757     And that still keeping up the old connection,
758       Which time had lately render'd much more chaste,
759     She took his lady also in affection,
760       And certainly this course was much the best:
761     She flatter'd Julia with her sage protection,
762       And complimented Don Alfonso's taste;
763     And if she could not (who can?) silence scandal,
764     At least she left it a more slender handle.
765
766     I can't tell whether Julia saw the affair
767       With other people's eyes, or if her own
768     Discoveries made, but none could be aware
769       Of this, at least no symptom e'er was shown;
770     Perhaps she did not know, or did not care,
771       Indifferent from the first or callous grown:
772     I 'm really puzzled what to think or say,
773     She kept her counsel in so close a way.
774
775     Juan she saw, and, as a pretty child,
776       Caress'd him often--such a thing might be
777     Quite innocently done, and harmless styled,
778       When she had twenty years, and thirteen he;
779     But I am not so sure I should have smiled
780       When he was sixteen, Julia twenty-three;
781     These few short years make wondrous alterations,
782     Particularly amongst sun-burnt nations.
783
784     Whate'er the cause might be, they had become
785       Changed; for the dame grew distant, the youth shy,
786     Their looks cast down, their greetings almost dumb,
787       And much embarrassment in either eye;
788     There surely will be little doubt with some
789       That Donna Julia knew the reason why,
790     But as for Juan, he had no more notion
791     Than he who never saw the sea of ocean.
792
793     Yet Julia's very coldness still was kind,
794       And tremulously gentle her small hand
795     Withdrew itself from his, but left behind
796       A little pressure, thrilling, and so bland
797     And slight, so very slight, that to the mind
798       'T was but a doubt; but ne'er magician's wand
799     Wrought change with all Armida's fairy art
800     Like what this light touch left on Juan's heart.
801
802     And if she met him, though she smiled no more,
803       She look'd a sadness sweeter than her smile,
804     As if her heart had deeper thoughts in store
805       She must not own, but cherish'd more the while
806     For that compression in its burning core;
807       Even innocence itself has many a wile,
808     And will not dare to trust itself with truth,
809     And love is taught hypocrisy from youth.
810
811     But passion most dissembles, yet betrays
812       Even by its darkness; as the blackest sky
813     Foretells the heaviest tempest, it displays
814       Its workings through the vainly guarded eye,
815     And in whatever aspect it arrays
816       Itself, 't is still the same hypocrisy;
817     Coldness or anger, even disdain or hate,
818     Are masks it often wears, and still too late.
819
820     Then there were sighs, the deeper for suppression,
821       And stolen glances, sweeter for the theft,
822     And burning blushes, though for no transgression,
823       Tremblings when met, and restlessness when left;
824     All these are little preludes to possession,
825       Of which young passion cannot be bereft,
826     And merely tend to show how greatly love is
827     Embarrass'd at first starting with a novice.
828
829     Poor Julia's heart was in an awkward state;
830       She felt it going, and resolved to make
831     The noblest efforts for herself and mate,
832       For honour's, pride's, religion's, virtue's sake;
833     Her resolutions were most truly great,
834       And almost might have made a Tarquin quake:
835     She pray'd the Virgin Mary for her grace,
836     As being the best judge of a lady's case.
837
838     She vow'd she never would see Juan more,
839       And next day paid a visit to his mother,
840     And look'd extremely at the opening door,
841       Which, by the Virgin's grace, let in another;
842     Grateful she was, and yet a little sore--
843       Again it opens, it can be no other,
844     'T is surely Juan now--No! I 'm afraid
845     That night the Virgin was no further pray'd.
846
847     She now determined that a virtuous woman
848       Should rather face and overcome temptation,
849     That flight was base and dastardly, and no man
850       Should ever give her heart the least sensation;
851     That is to say, a thought beyond the common
852       Preference, that we must feel upon occasion
853     For people who are pleasanter than others,
854     But then they only seem so many brothers.
855
856     And even if by chance--and who can tell?
857       The devil 's so very sly--she should discover
858     That all within was not so very well,
859       And, if still free, that such or such a lover
860     Might please perhaps, a virtuous wife can quell
861       Such thoughts, and be the better when they 're over;
862     And if the man should ask, 't is but denial:
863     I recommend young ladies to make trial.
864
865     And then there are such things as love divine,
866       Bright and immaculate, unmix'd and pure,
867     Such as the angels think so very fine,
868       And matrons who would be no less secure,
869     Platonic, perfect, 'just such love as mine;'
870       Thus Julia said--and thought so, to be sure;
871     And so I 'd have her think, were I the man
872     On whom her reveries celestial ran.
873
874     Such love is innocent, and may exist
875       Between young persons without any danger.
876     A hand may first, and then a lip be kist;
877       For my part, to such doings I 'm a stranger,
878     But hear these freedoms form the utmost list
879       Of all o'er which such love may be a ranger:
880     If people go beyond, 't is quite a crime,
881     But not my fault--I tell them all in time.
882
883     Love, then, but love within its proper limits,
884       Was Julia's innocent determination
885     In young Don Juan's favour, and to him its
886       Exertion might be useful on occasion;
887     And, lighted at too pure a shrine to dim its
888       Ethereal lustre, with what sweet persuasion
889     He might be taught, by love and her together--
890     I really don't know what, nor Julia either.
891
892     Fraught with this fine intention, and well fenced
893       In mail of proof--her purity of soul--
894     She, for the future of her strength convinced.
895       And that her honour was a rock, or mole,
896     Exceeding sagely from that hour dispensed
897       With any kind of troublesome control;
898     But whether Julia to the task was equal
899     Is that which must be mention'd in the sequel.
900
901     Her plan she deem'd both innocent and feasible,
902       And, surely, with a stripling of sixteen
903     Not scandal's fangs could fix on much that 's seizable,
904       Or if they did so, satisfied to mean
905     Nothing but what was good, her breast was peaceable--
906       A quiet conscience makes one so serene!
907     Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded
908     That all the Apostles would have done as they did.
909
910     And if in the mean time her husband died,
911       But Heaven forbid that such a thought should cross
912     Her brain, though in a dream! (and then she sigh'd)
913       Never could she survive that common loss;
914     But just suppose that moment should betide,
915       I only say suppose it--inter nos.
916     (This should be entre nous, for Julia thought
917     In French, but then the rhyme would go for naught.)
918
919     I only say suppose this supposition:
920       Juan being then grown up to man's estate
921     Would fully suit a widow of condition,
922       Even seven years hence it would not be too late;
923     And in the interim (to pursue this vision)
924       The mischief, after all, could not be great,
925     For he would learn the rudiments of love,
926     I mean the seraph way of those above.
927
928     So much for Julia. Now we 'll turn to Juan.
929       Poor little fellow! he had no idea
930     Of his own case, and never hit the true one;
931       In feelings quick as Ovid's Miss Medea,
932     He puzzled over what he found a new one,
933       But not as yet imagined it could be
934     Thing quite in course, and not at all alarming,
935     Which, with a little patience, might grow charming.
936
937     Silent and pensive, idle, restless, slow,
938       His home deserted for the lonely wood,
939     Tormented with a wound he could not know,
940       His, like all deep grief, plunged in solitude:
941     I 'm fond myself of solitude or so,
942       But then, I beg it may be understood,
943     By solitude I mean a sultan's, not
944     A hermit's, with a haram for a grot.
945
946     'Oh Love! in such a wilderness as this,
947       Where transport and security entwine,
948     Here is the empire of thy perfect bliss,
949       And here thou art a god indeed divine.'
950     The bard I quote from does not sing amiss,
951       With the exception of the second line,
952     For that same twining 'transport and security'
953     Are twisted to a phrase of some obscurity.
954
955     The poet meant, no doubt, and thus appeals
956       To the good sense and senses of mankind,
957     The very thing which every body feels,
958       As all have found on trial, or may find,
959     That no one likes to be disturb'd at meals
960       Or love.--I won't say more about 'entwined'
961     Or 'transport,' as we knew all that before,
962     But beg 'Security' will bolt the door.
963
964     Young Juan wander'd by the glassy brooks,
965       Thinking unutterable things; he threw
966     Himself at length within the leafy nooks
967       Where the wild branch of the cork forest grew;
968     There poets find materials for their books,
969       And every now and then we read them through,
970     So that their plan and prosody are eligible,
971     Unless, like Wordsworth, they prove unintelligible.
972
973     He, Juan (and not Wordsworth), so pursued
974       His self-communion with his own high soul,
975     Until his mighty heart, in its great mood,
976       Had mitigated part, though not the whole
977     Of its disease; he did the best he could
978       With things not very subject to control,
979
980     And turn'd, without perceiving his condition,
981     Like Coleridge, into a metaphysician.
982
983     He thought about himself, and the whole earth
984       Of man the wonderful, and of the stars,
985     And how the deuce they ever could have birth;
986       And then he thought of earthquakes, and of wars,
987     How many miles the moon might have in girth,
988       Of air-balloons, and of the many bars
989     To perfect knowledge of the boundless skies;--
990     And then he thought of Donna Julia's eyes.
991
992     In thoughts like these true wisdom may discern
993       Longings sublime, and aspirations high,
994     Which some are born with, but the most part learn
995       To plague themselves withal, they know not why:
996     'T was strange that one so young should thus concern
997       His brain about the action of the sky;
998     If you think 't was philosophy that this did,
999     I can't help thinking puberty assisted.
1000
1001     He pored upon the leaves, and on the flowers,
1002       And heard a voice in all the winds; and then
1003     He thought of wood-nymphs and immortal bowers,
1004       And how the goddesses came down to men:
1005     He miss'd the pathway, he forgot the hours,
1006       And when he look'd upon his watch again,
1007     He found how much old Time had been a winner--
1008     He also found that he had lost his dinner.
1009
1010     Sometimes he turn'd to gaze upon his book,
1011       Boscan, or Garcilasso;--by the wind
1012     Even as the page is rustled while we look,
1013       So by the poesy of his own mind
1014     Over the mystic leaf his soul was shook,
1015       As if 't were one whereon magicians bind
1016     Their spells, and give them to the passing gale,
1017     According to some good old woman's tale.
1018
1019     Thus would he while his lonely hours away
1020       Dissatisfied, nor knowing what he wanted;
1021     Nor glowing reverie, nor poet's lay,
1022       Could yield his spirit that for which it panted,
1023     A bosom whereon he his head might lay,
1024       And hear the heart beat with the love it granted,
1025     With--several other things, which I forget,
1026     Or which, at least, I need not mention yet.
1027
1028     Those lonely walks, and lengthening reveries,
1029       Could not escape the gentle Julia's eyes;
1030     She saw that Juan was not at his ease;
1031       But that which chiefly may, and must surprise,
1032     Is, that the Donna Inez did not tease
1033       Her only son with question or surmise:
1034     Whether it was she did not see, or would not,
1035     Or, like all very clever people, could not.
1036
1037     This may seem strange, but yet 't is very common;
1038       For instance--gentlemen, whose ladies take
1039     Leave to o'erstep the written rights of woman,
1040       And break the--Which commandment is 't they break?
1041     (I have forgot the number, and think no man
1042       Should rashly quote, for fear of a mistake.)
1043     I say, when these same gentlemen are jealous,
1044     They make some blunder, which their ladies tell us.
1045
1046     A real husband always is suspicious,
1047       But still no less suspects in the wrong place,
1048     Jealous of some one who had no such wishes,
1049       Or pandering blindly to his own disgrace,
1050     By harbouring some dear friend extremely vicious;
1051       The last indeed 's infallibly the case:
1052     And when the spouse and friend are gone off wholly,
1053     He wonders at their vice, and not his folly.
1054
1055     Thus parents also are at times short-sighted;
1056       Though watchful as the lynx, they ne'er discover,
1057     The while the wicked world beholds delighted,
1058       Young Hopeful's mistress, or Miss Fanny's lover,
1059     Till some confounded escapade has blighted
1060       The plan of twenty years, and all is over;
1061     And then the mother cries, the father swears,
1062     And wonders why the devil he got heirs.
1063
1064     But Inez was so anxious, and so clear
1065       Of sight, that I must think, on this occasion,
1066     She had some other motive much more near
1067       For leaving Juan to this new temptation;
1068     But what that motive was, I sha'n't say here;
1069       Perhaps to finish Juan's education,
1070     Perhaps to open Don Alfonso's eyes,
1071     In case he thought his wife too great a prize.
1072
1073     It was upon a day, a summer's day;-
1074       Summer's indeed a very dangerous season,
1075     And so is spring about the end of May;
1076       The sun, no doubt, is the prevailing reason;
1077     But whatsoe'er the cause is, one may say,
1078       And stand convicted of more truth than treason,
1079     That there are months which nature grows more merry in,--
1080     March has its hares, and May must have its heroine.
1081
1082     'T was on a summer's day--the sixth of June:--
1083       I like to be particular in dates,
1084     Not only of the age, and year, but moon;
1085       They are a sort of post-house, where the Fates
1086     Change horses, making history change its tune,
1087       Then spur away o'er empires and o'er states,
1088     Leaving at last not much besides chronology,
1089     Excepting the post-obits of theology.
1090
1091     'T was on the sixth of June, about the hour
1092       Of half-past six--perhaps still nearer seven--
1093     When Julia sate within as pretty a bower
1094       As e'er held houri in that heathenish heaven
1095     Described by Mahomet, and Anacreon Moore,
1096       To whom the lyre and laurels have been given,
1097     With all the trophies of triumphant song--
1098     He won them well, and may he wear them long!
1099
1100     She sate, but not alone; I know not well
1101       How this same interview had taken place,
1102     And even if I knew, I should not tell--
1103       People should hold their tongues in any case;
1104     No matter how or why the thing befell,
1105       But there were she and Juan, face to face--
1106     When two such faces are so, 't would be wise,
1107     But very difficult, to shut their eyes.
1108
1109     How beautiful she look'd! her conscious heart
1110       Glow'd in her cheek, and yet she felt no wrong.
1111     O Love! how perfect is thy mystic art,
1112       Strengthening the weak, and trampling on the strong,
1113     How self-deceitful is the sagest part
1114       Of mortals whom thy lure hath led along--
1115     The precipice she stood on was immense,
1116     So was her creed in her own innocence.
1117
1118     She thought of her own strength, and Juan's youth,
1119       And of the folly of all prudish fears,
1120     Victorious virtue, and domestic truth,
1121       And then of Don Alfonso's fifty years:
1122     I wish these last had not occurr'd, in sooth,
1123       Because that number rarely much endears,
1124     And through all climes, the snowy and the sunny,
1125     Sounds ill in love, whate'er it may in money.
1126
1127     When people say, 'I've told you fifty times,'
1128       They mean to scold, and very often do;
1129     When poets say, 'I've written fifty rhymes,'
1130       They make you dread that they 'll recite them too;
1131     In gangs of fifty, thieves commit their crimes;
1132       At fifty love for love is rare, 't is true,
1133     But then, no doubt, it equally as true is,
1134     A good deal may be bought for fifty Louis.
1135
1136     Julia had honour, virtue, truth, and love,
1137       For Don Alfonso; and she inly swore,
1138     By all the vows below to powers above,
1139       She never would disgrace the ring she wore,
1140     Nor leave a wish which wisdom might reprove;
1141       And while she ponder'd this, besides much more,
1142     One hand on Juan's carelessly was thrown,
1143     Quite by mistake--she thought it was her own;
1144
1145     Unconsciously she lean'd upon the other,
1146       Which play'd within the tangles of her hair:
1147     And to contend with thoughts she could not smother
1148       She seem'd by the distraction of her air.
1149     'T was surely very wrong in Juan's mother
1150       To leave together this imprudent pair,
1151     She who for many years had watch'd her son so--
1152     I 'm very certain mine would not have done so.
1153
1154     The hand which still held Juan's, by degrees
1155       Gently, but palpably confirm'd its grasp,
1156     As if it said, 'Detain me, if you please;'
1157       Yet there 's no doubt she only meant to clasp
1158     His fingers with a pure Platonic squeeze:
1159       She would have shrunk as from a toad, or asp,
1160     Had she imagined such a thing could rouse
1161     A feeling dangerous to a prudent spouse.
1162
1163     I cannot know what Juan thought of this,
1164       But what he did, is much what you would do;
1165     His young lip thank'd it with a grateful kiss,
1166       And then, abash'd at its own joy, withdrew
1167     In deep despair, lest he had done amiss,--
1168       Love is so very timid when 't is new:
1169     She blush'd, and frown'd not, but she strove to speak,
1170     And held her tongue, her voice was grown so weak.
1171
1172     The sun set, and up rose the yellow moon:
1173       The devil 's in the moon for mischief; they
1174     Who call'd her CHASTE, methinks, began too soon
1175       Their nomenclature; there is not a day,
1176     The longest, not the twenty-first of June,
1177       Sees half the business in a wicked way
1178     On which three single hours of moonshine smile--
1179     And then she looks so modest all the while.
1180
1181     There is a dangerous silence in that hour,
1182       A stillness, which leaves room for the full soul
1183     To open all itself, without the power
1184       Of calling wholly back its self-control;
1185     The silver light which, hallowing tree and tower,
1186       Sheds beauty and deep softness o'er the whole,
1187     Breathes also to the heart, and o'er it throws
1188     A loving languor, which is not repose.
1189
1190     And Julia sate with Juan, half embraced
1191       And half retiring from the glowing arm,
1192     Which trembled like the bosom where 't was placed;
1193       Yet still she must have thought there was no harm,
1194     Or else 't were easy to withdraw her waist;
1195       But then the situation had its charm,
1196     And then--God knows what next--I can't go on;
1197     I 'm almost sorry that I e'er begun.
1198
1199     O Plato! Plato! you have paved the way,
1200       With your confounded fantasies, to more
1201     Immoral conduct by the fancied sway
1202       Your system feigns o'er the controulless core
1203     Of human hearts, than all the long array
1204       Of poets and romancers:--You 're a bore,
1205     A charlatan, a coxcomb--and have been,
1206     At best, no better than a go-between.
1207
1208     And Julia's voice was lost, except in sighs,
1209       Until too late for useful conversation;
1210     The tears were gushing from her gentle eyes,
1211       I wish indeed they had not had occasion,
1212     But who, alas! can love, and then be wise?
1213       Not that remorse did not oppose temptation;
1214     A little still she strove, and much repented
1215     And whispering 'I will ne'er consent'--consented.
1216
1217     'T is said that Xerxes offer'd a reward
1218       To those who could invent him a new pleasure:
1219     Methinks the requisition 's rather hard,
1220       And must have cost his majesty a treasure:
1221     For my part, I 'm a moderate-minded bard,
1222       Fond of a little love (which I call leisure);
1223     I care not for new pleasures, as the old
1224     Are quite enough for me, so they but hold.
1225
1226     O Pleasure! you are indeed a pleasant thing,
1227       Although one must be damn'd for you, no doubt:
1228     I make a resolution every spring
1229       Of reformation, ere the year run out,
1230     But somehow, this my vestal vow takes wing,
1231       Yet still, I trust it may be kept throughout:
1232     I 'm very sorry, very much ashamed,
1233     And mean, next winter, to be quite reclaim'd.
1234
1235     Here my chaste Muse a liberty must take--
1236       Start not! still chaster reader--she 'll be nice hence--
1237     Forward, and there is no great cause to quake;
1238       This liberty is a poetic licence,
1239     Which some irregularity may make
1240       In the design, and as I have a high sense
1241     Of Aristotle and the Rules, 't is fit
1242     To beg his pardon when I err a bit.
1243
1244     This licence is to hope the reader will
1245       Suppose from June the sixth (the fatal day,
1246     Without whose epoch my poetic skill
1247       For want of facts would all be thrown away),
1248     But keeping Julia and Don Juan still
1249       In sight, that several months have pass'd; we 'll say
1250     'T was in November, but I 'm not so sure
1251     About the day--the era 's more obscure.
1252
1253     We 'll talk of that anon.--'T is sweet to hear
1254       At midnight on the blue and moonlit deep
1255     The song and oar of Adria's gondolier,
1256       By distance mellow'd, o'er the waters sweep;
1257     'T is sweet to see the evening star appear;
1258       'T is sweet to listen as the night-winds creep
1259     From leaf to leaf; 't is sweet to view on high
1260     The rainbow, based on ocean, span the sky.
1261
1262     'T is sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark
1263       Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as we draw near home;
1264     'T is sweet to know there is an eye will mark
1265       Our coming, and look brighter when we come;
1266     'T is sweet to be awaken'd by the lark,
1267       Or lull'd by falling waters; sweet the hum
1268     Of bees, the voice of girls, the song of birds,
1269     The lisp of children, and their earliest words.
1270
1271     Sweet is the vintage, when the showering grapes
1272       In Bacchanal profusion reel to earth,
1273     Purple and gushing: sweet are our escapes
1274       From civic revelry to rural mirth;
1275     Sweet to the miser are his glittering heaps,
1276       Sweet to the father is his first-born's birth,
1277     Sweet is revenge--especially to women,
1278     Pillage to soldiers, prize-money to seamen.
1279
1280     Sweet is a legacy, and passing sweet
1281       The unexpected death of some old lady
1282     Or gentleman of seventy years complete,
1283       Who 've made 'us youth' wait too--too long already
1284     For an estate, or cash, or country seat,
1285       Still breaking, but with stamina so steady
1286     That all the Israelites are fit to mob its
1287     Next owner for their double-damn'd post-obits.
1288
1289     'T is sweet to win, no matter how, one's laurels,
1290       By blood or ink; 't is sweet to put an end
1291     To strife; 't is sometimes sweet to have our quarrels,
1292       Particularly with a tiresome friend:
1293     Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels;
1294       Dear is the helpless creature we defend
1295     Against the world; and dear the schoolboy spot
1296     We ne'er forget, though there we are forgot.
1297
1298     But sweeter still than this, than these, than all,
1299       Is first and passionate love--it stands alone,
1300     Like Adam's recollection of his fall;
1301       The tree of knowledge has been pluck'd--all 's known--
1302     And life yields nothing further to recall
1303       Worthy of this ambrosial sin, so shown,
1304     No doubt in fable, as the unforgiven
1305     Fire which Prometheus filch'd for us from heaven.
1306
1307     Man 's a strange animal, and makes strange use
1308       Of his own nature, and the various arts,
1309     And likes particularly to produce
1310       Some new experiment to show his parts;
1311     This is the age of oddities let loose,
1312       Where different talents find their different marts;
1313     You 'd best begin with truth, and when you 've lost your
1314     Labour, there 's a sure market for imposture.
1315
1316     What opposite discoveries we have seen!
1317       (Signs of true genius, and of empty pockets.)
1318     One makes new noses, one a guillotine,
1319       One breaks your bones, one sets them in their sockets;
1320     But vaccination certainly has been
1321       A kind antithesis to Congreve's rockets,
1322     With which the Doctor paid off an old pox,
1323     By borrowing a new one from an ox.
1324
1325     Bread has been made (indifferent) from potatoes;
1326       And galvanism has set some corpses grinning,
1327     But has not answer'd like the apparatus
1328       Of the Humane Society's beginning
1329     By which men are unsuffocated gratis:
1330       What wondrous new machines have late been spinning!
1331     I said the small-pox has gone out of late;
1332     Perhaps it may be follow'd by the great.
1333
1334     'T is said the great came from America;
1335       Perhaps it may set out on its return,--
1336     The population there so spreads, they say
1337       'T is grown high time to thin it in its turn,
1338     With war, or plague, or famine, any way,
1339       So that civilisation they may learn;
1340     And which in ravage the more loathsome evil is--
1341     Their real lues, or our pseudo-syphilis?
1342
1343     This is the patent-age of new inventions
1344       For killing bodies, and for saving souls,
1345     All propagated with the best intentions;
1346       Sir Humphry Davy's lantern, by which coals
1347     Are safely mined for in the mode he mentions,
1348       Tombuctoo travels, voyages to the Poles,
1349     Are ways to benefit mankind, as true,
1350     Perhaps, as shooting them at Waterloo.
1351
1352     Man 's a phenomenon, one knows not what,
1353       And wonderful beyond all wondrous measure;
1354     'T is pity though, in this sublime world, that
1355       Pleasure 's a sin, and sometimes sin 's a pleasure;
1356     Few mortals know what end they would be at,
1357       But whether glory, power, or love, or treasure,
1358     The path is through perplexing ways, and when
1359     The goal is gain'd, we die, you know--and then--
1360
1361     What then?--I do not know, no more do you--
1362       And so good night.--Return we to our story:
1363     'T was in November, when fine days are few,
1364       And the far mountains wax a little hoary,
1365     And clap a white cape on their mantles blue;
1366       And the sea dashes round the promontory,
1367     And the loud breaker boils against the rock,
1368     And sober suns must set at five o'clock.
1369
1370     'T was, as the watchmen say, a cloudy night;
1371       No moon, no stars, the wind was low or loud
1372     By gusts, and many a sparkling hearth was bright
1373       With the piled wood, round which the family crowd;
1374     There 's something cheerful in that sort of light,
1375       Even as a summer sky 's without a cloud:
1376     I 'm fond of fire, and crickets, and all that,
1377     A lobster salad, and champagne, and chat.
1378
1379     'T was midnight--Donna Julia was in bed,
1380       Sleeping, most probably,--when at her door
1381     Arose a clatter might awake the dead,
1382       If they had never been awoke before,
1383     And that they have been so we all have read,
1384       And are to be so, at the least, once more;--
1385     The door was fasten'd, but with voice and fist
1386     First knocks were heard, then 'Madam--Madam--hist!
1387
1388     'For God's sake, Madam--Madam--here 's my master,
1389       With more than half the city at his back--
1390     Was ever heard of such a curst disaster!
1391       'T is not my fault--I kept good watch--Alack!
1392     Do pray undo the bolt a little faster--
1393       They 're on the stair just now, and in a crack
1394     Will all be here; perhaps he yet may fly--
1395     Surely the window 's not so very high!'
1396
1397     By this time Don Alfonso was arrived,
1398       With torches, friends, and servants in great number;
1399     The major part of them had long been wived,
1400       And therefore paused not to disturb the slumber
1401     Of any wicked woman, who contrived
1402       By stealth her husband's temples to encumber:
1403     Examples of this kind are so contagious,
1404     Were one not punish'd, all would be outrageous.
1405
1406     I can't tell how, or why, or what suspicion
1407       Could enter into Don Alfonso's head;
1408     But for a cavalier of his condition
1409       It surely was exceedingly ill-bred,
1410     Without a word of previous admonition,
1411       To hold a levee round his lady's bed,
1412     And summon lackeys, arm'd with fire and sword,
1413     To prove himself the thing he most abhorr'd.
1414
1415     Poor Donna Julia, starting as from sleep
1416       (Mind--that I do not say--she had not slept),
1417     Began at once to scream, and yawn, and weep;
1418       Her maid Antonia, who was an adept,
1419     Contrived to fling the bed-clothes in a heap,
1420       As if she had just now from out them crept:
1421     I can't tell why she should take all this trouble
1422     To prove her mistress had been sleeping double.
1423
1424     But Julia mistress, and Antonia maid,
1425       Appear'd like two poor harmless women, who
1426     Of goblins, but still more of men afraid,
1427       Had thought one man might be deterr'd by two,
1428     And therefore side by side were gently laid,
1429       Until the hours of absence should run through,
1430     And truant husband should return, and say,
1431     'My dear, I was the first who came away.'
1432
1433     Now Julia found at length a voice, and cried,
1434       'In heaven's name, Don Alfonso, what d' ye mean?
1435     Has madness seized you? would that I had died
1436       Ere such a monster's victim I had been!
1437     What may this midnight violence betide,
1438       A sudden fit of drunkenness or spleen?
1439     Dare you suspect me, whom the thought would kill?
1440     Search, then, the room!'--Alfonso said, 'I will.'
1441
1442     He search'd, they search'd, and rummaged everywhere,
1443       Closet and clothes' press, chest and window-seat,
1444     And found much linen, lace, and several pair
1445       Of stockings, slippers, brushes, combs, complete,
1446     With other articles of ladies fair,
1447       To keep them beautiful, or leave them neat:
1448     Arras they prick'd and curtains with their swords,
1449     And wounded several shutters, and some boards.
1450
1451     Under the bed they search'd, and there they found--
1452       No matter what--it was not that they sought;
1453     They open'd windows, gazing if the ground
1454       Had signs or footmarks, but the earth said nought;
1455     And then they stared each other's faces round:
1456       'T is odd, not one of all these seekers thought,
1457     And seems to me almost a sort of blunder,
1458     Of looking in the bed as well as under.
1459
1460     During this inquisition, Julia's tongue
1461       Was not asleep--'Yes, search and search,' she cried,
1462     'Insult on insult heap, and wrong on wrong!
1463       It was for this that I became a bride!
1464     For this in silence I have suffer'd long
1465       A husband like Alfonso at my side;
1466     But now I 'll bear no more, nor here remain,
1467     If there be law or lawyers in all Spain.
1468
1469     'Yes, Don Alfonso! husband now no more,
1470       If ever you indeed deserved the name,
1471     Is 't worthy of your years?--you have threescore--
1472       Fifty, or sixty, it is all the same--
1473     Is 't wise or fitting, causeless to explore
1474       For facts against a virtuous woman's fame?
1475     Ungrateful, perjured, barbarous Don Alfonso,
1476     How dare you think your lady would go on so?
1477
1478     'Is it for this I have disdain'd to hold
1479       The common privileges of my sex?
1480     That I have chosen a confessor so old
1481       And deaf, that any other it would vex,
1482     And never once he has had cause to scold,
1483       But found my very innocence perplex
1484     So much, he always doubted I was married--
1485     How sorry you will be when I 've miscarried!
1486
1487     'Was it for this that no Cortejo e'er
1488       I yet have chosen from out the youth of Seville?
1489     Is it for this I scarce went anywhere,
1490       Except to bull-fights, mass, play, rout, and revel?
1491     Is it for this, whate'er my suitors were,
1492       I favor'd none--nay, was almost uncivil?
1493     Is it for this that General Count O'Reilly,
1494     Who took Algiers, declares I used him vilely?
1495
1496     'Did not the Italian Musico Cazzani
1497       Sing at my heart six months at least in vain?
1498     Did not his countryman, Count Corniani,
1499       Call me the only virtuous wife in Spain?
1500     Were there not also Russians, English, many?
1501       The Count Strongstroganoff I put in pain,
1502     And Lord Mount Coffeehouse, the Irish peer,
1503     Who kill'd himself for love (with wine) last year.
1504
1505     'Have I not had two bishops at my feet,
1506       The Duke of Ichar, and Don Fernan Nunez?
1507     And is it thus a faithful wife you treat?
1508       I wonder in what quarter now the moon is:
1509     I praise your vast forbearance not to beat
1510       Me also, since the time so opportune is--
1511     O, valiant man! with sword drawn and cock'd trigger,
1512     Now, tell me, don't you cut a pretty figure?
1513
1514     'Was it for this you took your sudden journey.
1515       Under pretence of business indispensable
1516     With that sublime of rascals your attorney,
1517       Whom I see standing there, and looking sensible
1518     Of having play'd the fool? though both I spurn, he
1519       Deserves the worst, his conduct 's less defensible,
1520     Because, no doubt, 't was for his dirty fee,
1521     And not from any love to you nor me.
1522
1523     'If he comes here to take a deposition,
1524       By all means let the gentleman proceed;
1525     You 've made the apartment in a fit condition:
1526       There 's pen and ink for you, sir, when you need--
1527     Let every thing be noted with precision,
1528       I would not you for nothing should be fee'd--
1529     But, as my maid 's undrest, pray turn your spies out.'
1530     'Oh!' sobb'd Antonia, 'I could tear their eyes out.'
1531
1532     'There is the closet, there the toilet, there
1533       The antechamber--search them under, over;
1534     There is the sofa, there the great arm-chair,
1535       The chimney--which would really hold a lover.
1536     I wish to sleep, and beg you will take care
1537       And make no further noise, till you discover
1538     The secret cavern of this lurking treasure--
1539     And when 't is found, let me, too, have that pleasure.
1540
1541     'And now, Hidalgo! now that you have thrown
1542       Doubt upon me, confusion over all,
1543     Pray have the courtesy to make it known
1544       Who is the man you search for? how d' ye cal
1545     Him? what 's his lineage? let him but be shown--
1546       I hope he 's young and handsome--is he tall?
1547     Tell me--and be assured, that since you stain
1548     My honour thus, it shall not be in vain.
1549
1550     'At least, perhaps, he has not sixty years,
1551       At that age he would be too old for slaughter,
1552     Or for so young a husband's jealous fears
1553       (Antonia! let me have a glass of water).
1554     I am ashamed of having shed these tears,
1555       They are unworthy of my father's daughter;
1556     My mother dream'd not in my natal hour
1557     That I should fall into a monster's power.
1558
1559     'Perhaps 't is of Antonia you are jealous,
1560       You saw that she was sleeping by my side
1561     When you broke in upon us with your fellows:
1562       Look where you please--we 've nothing, sir, to hide;
1563     Only another time, I trust, you 'll tell us,
1564       Or for the sake of decency abide
1565     A moment at the door, that we may be
1566     Drest to receive so much good company.
1567
1568     'And now, sir, I have done, and say no more;
1569       The little I have said may serve to show
1570     The guileless heart in silence may grieve o'er
1571       The wrongs to whose exposure it is slow:
1572     I leave you to your conscience as before,
1573       'T will one day ask you why you used me so?
1574     God grant you feel not then the bitterest grief!-
1575     Antonia! where 's my pocket-handkerchief?'
1576
1577     She ceased, and turn'd upon her pillow; pale
1578       She lay, her dark eyes flashing through their tears,
1579     Like skies that rain and lighten; as a veil,
1580       Waved and o'ershading her wan cheek, appears
1581     Her streaming hair; the black curls strive, but fail,
1582       To hide the glossy shoulder, which uprears
1583     Its snow through all;--her soft lips lie apart,
1584     And louder than her breathing beats her heart.
1585
1586     The Senhor Don Alfonso stood confused;
1587       Antonia bustled round the ransack'd room,
1588     And, turning up her nose, with looks abused
1589       Her master and his myrmidons, of whom
1590     Not one, except the attorney, was amused;
1591       He, like Achates, faithful to the tomb,
1592     So there were quarrels, cared not for the cause,
1593     Knowing they must be settled by the laws.
1594
1595     With prying snub-nose, and small eyes, he stood,
1596       Following Antonia's motions here and there,
1597     With much suspicion in his attitude;
1598       For reputations he had little care;
1599     So that a suit or action were made good,
1600       Small pity had he for the young and fair,
1601     And ne'er believed in negatives, till these
1602     Were proved by competent false witnesses.
1603
1604     But Don Alfonso stood with downcast looks,
1605       And, truth to say, he made a foolish figure;
1606     When, after searching in five hundred nooks,
1607       And treating a young wife with so much rigour,
1608     He gain'd no point, except some self-rebukes,
1609       Added to those his lady with such vigour
1610     Had pour'd upon him for the last half-hour,
1611     Quick, thick, and heavy--as a thunder-shower.
1612
1613     At first he tried to hammer an excuse,
1614       To which the sole reply was tears and sobs,
1615     And indications of hysterics, whose
1616       Prologue is always certain throes, and throbs,
1617     Gasps, and whatever else the owners choose:
1618       Alfonso saw his wife, and thought of Job's;
1619     He saw too, in perspective, her relations,
1620     And then he tried to muster all his patience.
1621
1622     He stood in act to speak, or rather stammer,
1623       But sage Antonia cut him short before
1624     The anvil of his speech received the hammer,
1625       With 'Pray, sir, leave the room, and say no more,
1626     Or madam dies.'--Alfonso mutter'd, 'D--n her,'
1627       But nothing else, the time of words was o'er;
1628     He cast a rueful look or two, and did,
1629     He knew not wherefore, that which he was bid.
1630
1631     With him retired his 'posse comitatus,'
1632       The attorney last, who linger'd near the door
1633     Reluctantly, still tarrying there as late as
1634       Antonia let him--not a little sore
1635     At this most strange and unexplain'd 'hiatus'
1636       In Don Alfonso's facts, which just now wore
1637     An awkward look; as he revolved the case,
1638     The door was fasten'd in his legal face.
1639
1640     No sooner was it bolted, than--Oh shame!
1641       O sin! Oh sorrow! and oh womankind!
1642     How can you do such things and keep your fame,
1643       Unless this world, and t' other too, be blind?
1644     Nothing so dear as an unfilch'd good name!
1645       But to proceed--for there is more behind:
1646     With much heartfelt reluctance be it said,
1647     Young Juan slipp'd half-smother'd, from the bed.
1648
1649     He had been hid--I don't pretend to say
1650       How, nor can I indeed describe the where--
1651     Young, slender, and pack'd easily, he lay,
1652       No doubt, in little compass, round or square;
1653     But pity him I neither must nor may
1654       His suffocation by that pretty pair;
1655     'T were better, sure, to die so, than be shut
1656     With maudlin Clarence in his Malmsey butt.
1657
1658     And, secondly, I pity not, because
1659       He had no business to commit a sin,
1660     Forbid by heavenly, fined by human laws,
1661       At least 't was rather early to begin;
1662     But at sixteen the conscience rarely gnaws
1663       So much as when we call our old debts in
1664     At sixty years, and draw the accompts of evil,
1665     And find a deuced balance with the devil.
1666
1667     Of his position I can give no notion:
1668       'T is written in the Hebrew Chronicle,
1669     How the physicians, leaving pill and potion,
1670       Prescribed, by way of blister, a young belle,
1671     When old King David's blood grew dull in motion,
1672       And that the medicine answer'd very well;
1673     Perhaps 't was in a different way applied,
1674     For David lived, but Juan nearly died.
1675
1676     What 's to be done? Alfonso will be back
1677       The moment he has sent his fools away.
1678     Antonia's skill was put upon the rack,
1679       But no device could be brought into play--
1680     And how to parry the renew'd attack?
1681       Besides, it wanted but few hours of day:
1682     Antonia puzzled; Julia did not speak,
1683     But press'd her bloodless lip to Juan's cheek.
1684
1685     He turn'd his lip to hers, and with his hand
1686       Call'd back the tangles of her wandering hair;
1687     Even then their love they could not all command,
1688       And half forgot their danger and despair:
1689     Antonia's patience now was at a stand--
1690       'Come, come, 't is no time now for fooling there,'
1691     She whisper'd, in great wrath--'I must deposit
1692     This pretty gentleman within the closet:
1693
1694     'Pray, keep your nonsense for some luckier night--
1695       Who can have put my master in this mood?
1696     What will become on 't--I 'm in such a fright,
1697       The devil 's in the urchin, and no good--
1698     Is this a time for giggling? this a plight?
1699       Why, don't you know that it may end in blood?
1700     You 'll lose your life, and I shall lose my place,
1701     My mistress all, for that half-girlish face.
1702
1703     'Had it but been for a stout cavalier
1704       Of twenty-five or thirty (come, make haste)--
1705     But for a child, what piece of work is here!
1706       I really, madam, wonder at your taste
1707     (Come, sir, get in)--my master must be near:
1708       There, for the present, at the least, he's fast,
1709     And if we can but till the morning keep
1710     Our counsel--(Juan, mind, you must not sleep).'
1711
1712     Now, Don Alfonso entering, but alone,
1713       Closed the oration of the trusty maid:
1714     She loiter'd, and he told her to be gone,
1715       An order somewhat sullenly obey'd;
1716     However, present remedy was none,
1717       And no great good seem'd answer'd if she stay'd:
1718     Regarding both with slow and sidelong view,
1719     She snuff'd the candle, curtsied, and withdrew.
1720
1721     Alfonso paused a minute--then begun
1722       Some strange excuses for his late proceeding;
1723     He would not justify what he had done,
1724       To say the best, it was extreme ill-breeding;
1725     But there were ample reasons for it, none
1726       Of which he specified in this his pleading:
1727     His speech was a fine sample, on the whole,
1728     Of rhetoric, which the learn'd call 'rigmarole.'
1729
1730     Julia said nought; though all the while there rose
1731       A ready answer, which at once enables
1732     A matron, who her husband's foible knows,
1733       By a few timely words to turn the tables,
1734     Which, if it does not silence, still must pose,--
1735       Even if it should comprise a pack of fables;
1736     'T is to retort with firmness, and when he
1737     Suspects with one, do you reproach with three.
1738
1739     Julia, in fact, had tolerable grounds,--
1740       Alfonso's loves with Inez were well known,
1741     But whether 't was that one's own guilt confounds--
1742       But that can't be, as has been often shown,
1743     A lady with apologies abounds;--
1744       It might be that her silence sprang alone
1745     From delicacy to Don Juan's ear,
1746     To whom she knew his mother's fame was dear.
1747
1748     There might be one more motive, which makes two;
1749       Alfonso ne'er to Juan had alluded,--
1750     Mention'd his jealousy but never who
1751       Had been the happy lover, he concluded,
1752     Conceal'd amongst his premises; 't is true,
1753       His mind the more o'er this its mystery brooded;
1754     To speak of Inez now were, one may say,
1755     Like throwing Juan in Alfonso's way.
1756
1757     A hint, in tender cases, is enough;
1758       Silence is best, besides there is a tact
1759     (That modern phrase appears to me sad stuff,
1760       But it will serve to keep my verse compact)-
1761     Which keeps, when push'd by questions rather rough,
1762       A lady always distant from the fact:
1763     The charming creatures lie with such a grace,
1764     There 's nothing so becoming to the face.
1765
1766     They blush, and we believe them; at least I
1767       Have always done so; 't is of no great use,
1768     In any case, attempting a reply,
1769       For then their eloquence grows quite profuse;
1770     And when at length they 're out of breath, they sigh,
1771       And cast their languid eyes down, and let loose
1772     A tear or two, and then we make it up;
1773     And then--and then--and then--sit down and sup.
1774
1775     Alfonso closed his speech, and begg'd her pardon,
1776       Which Julia half withheld, and then half granted,
1777     And laid conditions he thought very hard on,
1778       Denying several little things he wanted:
1779     He stood like Adam lingering near his garden,
1780       With useless penitence perplex'd and haunted,
1781     Beseeching she no further would refuse,
1782     When, lo! he stumbled o'er a pair of shoes.
1783
1784     A pair of shoes!--what then? not much, if they
1785       Are such as fit with ladies' feet, but these
1786     (No one can tell how much I grieve to say)
1787       Were masculine; to see them, and to seize,
1788     Was but a moment's act.--Ah! well-a-day!
1789       My teeth begin to chatter, my veins freeze--
1790     Alfonso first examined well their fashion,
1791     And then flew out into another passion.
1792
1793     He left the room for his relinquish'd sword,
1794       And Julia instant to the closet flew.
1795     'Fly, Juan, fly! for heaven's sake--not a word--
1796       The door is open--you may yet slip through
1797     The passage you so often have explored--
1798       Here is the garden-key--Fly--fly--Adieu!
1799     Haste--haste! I hear Alfonso's hurrying feet--
1800     Day has not broke--there 's no one in the street:
1801
1802     None can say that this was not good advice,
1803       The only mischief was, it came too late;
1804     Of all experience 't is the usual price,
1805       A sort of income-tax laid on by fate:
1806     Juan had reach'd the room-door in a. trice,
1807       And might have done so by the garden-gate,
1808     But met Alfonso in his dressing-gown,
1809     Who threaten'd death--so Juan knock'd him down.
1810
1811     Dire was the scuffle, and out went the light;
1812       Antonia cried out 'Rape!' and Julia 'Fire!'
1813     But not a servant stirr'd to aid the fight.
1814       Alfonso, pommell'd to his heart's desire,
1815     Swore lustily he'd be revenged this night;
1816       And Juan, too, blasphemed an octave higher;
1817     His blood was up: though young, he was a Tartar,
1818     And not at all disposed to prove a martyr.
1819
1820     Alfonso's sword had dropp'd ere he could draw it,
1821       And they continued battling hand to hand,
1822     For Juan very luckily ne'er saw it;
1823       His temper not being under great command,
1824     If at that moment he had chanced to claw it,
1825       Alfonso's days had not been in the land
1826     Much longer.--Think of husbands', lovers' lives!
1827     And how ye may be doubly widows--wives!
1828
1829     Alfonso grappled to detain the foe,
1830       And Juan throttled him to get away,
1831     And blood ('t was from the nose) began to flow;
1832       At last, as they more faintly wrestling lay,
1833     Juan contrived to give an awkward blow,
1834       And then his only garment quite gave way;
1835     He fled, like Joseph, leaving it; but there,
1836     I doubt, all likeness ends between the pair.
1837
1838     Lights came at length, and men, and maids, who found
1839       An awkward spectacle their eyes before;
1840     Antonia in hysterics, Julia swoon'd,
1841       Alfonso leaning, breathless, by the door;
1842     Some half-torn drapery scatter'd on the ground,
1843       Some blood, and several footsteps, but no more:
1844     Juan the gate gain'd, turn'd the key about,
1845     And liking not the inside, lock'd the out.
1846
1847     Here ends this canto.--Need I sing, or say,
1848       How Juan naked, favour'd by the night,
1849     Who favours what she should not, found his way,
1850       And reach'd his home in an unseemly plight?
1851     The pleasant scandal which arose next day,
1852       The nine days' wonder which was brought to light,
1853     And how Alfonso sued for a divorce,
1854     Were in the English newspapers, of course.
1855
1856     If you would like to see the whole proceedings,
1857       The depositions, and the cause at full,
1858     The names of all the witnesses, the pleadings
1859       Of counsel to nonsuit, or to annul,
1860     There 's more than one edition, and the readings
1861       Are various, but they none of them are dull;
1862     The best is that in short-hand ta'en by Gurney,
1863     Who to Madrid on purpose made a journey.
1864
1865     But Donna Inez, to divert the train
1866       Of one of the most circulating scandals
1867     That had for centuries been known in Spain,
1868       At least since the retirement of the Vandals,
1869     First vow'd (and never had she vow'd in vain)
1870       To Virgin Mary several pounds of candles;
1871     And then, by the advice of some old ladies,
1872     She sent her son to be shipp'd off from Cadiz.
1873
1874     She had resolved that he should travel through
1875       All European climes, by land or sea,
1876     To mend his former morals, and get new,
1877       Especially in France and Italy
1878     (At least this is the thing most people do).
1879       Julia was sent into a convent: she
1880     Grieved, but, perhaps, her feelings may be better
1881     Shown in the following copy of her Letter:--
1882
1883     'They tell me 't is decided; you depart:
1884       'T is wise--'t is well, but not the less a pain;
1885     I have no further claim on your young heart,
1886       Mine is the victim, and would be again;
1887     To love too much has been the only art
1888       I used;--I write in haste, and if a stain
1889     Be on this sheet, 't is not what it appears;
1890     My eyeballs burn and throb, but have no tears.
1891
1892     'I loved, I love you, for this love have lost
1893       State, station, heaven, mankind's, my own esteem,
1894     And yet can not regret what it hath cost,
1895       So dear is still the memory of that dream;
1896     Yet, if I name my guilt, 't is not to boast,
1897       None can deem harshlier of me than I deem:
1898     I trace this scrawl because I cannot rest--
1899     I 've nothing to reproach, or to request.
1900
1901     'Man's love is of man's life a thing apart,
1902       'T is woman's whole existence; man may range
1903     The court, camp, church, the vessel, and the mart;
1904       Sword, gown, gain, glory, offer in exchange
1905     Pride, fame, ambition, to fill up his heart,
1906       And few there are whom these cannot estrange;
1907     Men have all these resources, we but one,
1908     To love again, and be again undone.
1909
1910     'You will proceed in pleasure, and in pride,
1911       Beloved and loving many; all is o'er
1912     For me on earth, except some years to hide
1913       My shame and sorrow deep in my heart's core;
1914     These I could bear, but cannot cast aside
1915       The passion which still rages as before--
1916     And so farewell--forgive me, love me--No,
1917     That word is idle now--but let it go.
1918
1919     'My breast has been all weakness, is so yet;
1920       But still I think I can collect my mind;
1921     My blood still rushes where my spirit 's set,
1922       As roll the waves before the settled wind;
1923     My heart is feminine, nor can forget--
1924       To all, except one image, madly blind;
1925     So shakes the needle, and so stands the pole,
1926     As vibrates my fond heart to my fix'd soul.
1927
1928     'I have no more to say, but linger still,
1929       And dare not set my seal upon this sheet,
1930     And yet I may as well the task fulfil,
1931       My misery can scarce be more complete:
1932     I had not lived till now, could sorrow kill;
1933       Death shuns the wretch who fain the blow would meet,
1934     And I must even survive this last adieu,
1935     And bear with life, to love and pray for you!'
1936
1937     This note was written upon gilt-edged paper
1938       With a neat little crow-quill, slight and new:
1939     Her small white hand could hardly reach the taper,
1940       It trembled as magnetic needles do,
1941     And yet she did not let one tear escape her;
1942       The seal a sun-flower; 'Elle vous suit partout,'
1943     The motto cut upon a white cornelian;
1944     The wax was superfine, its hue vermilion.
1945
1946     This was Don Juan's earliest scrape; but whether
1947       I shall proceed with his adventures is
1948     Dependent on the public altogether;
1949       We 'll see, however, what they say to this:
1950     Their favour in an author's cap 's a feather,
1951       And no great mischief 's done by their caprice;
1952     And if their approbation we experience,
1953     Perhaps they 'll have some more about a year hence.
1954
1955     My poem 's epic, and is meant to be
1956       Divided in twelve books; each book containing,
1957     With love, and war, a heavy gale at sea,
1958       A list of ships, and captains, and kings reigning,
1959     New characters; the episodes are three:
1960       A panoramic view of hell 's in training,
1961     After the style of Virgil and of Homer,
1962     So that my name of Epic 's no misnomer.
1963
1964     All these things will be specified in time,
1965       With strict regard to Aristotle's rules,
1966     The Vade Mecum of the true sublime,
1967       Which makes so many poets, and some fools:
1968     Prose poets like blank-verse, I 'm fond of rhyme,
1969       Good workmen never quarrel with their tools;
1970     I 've got new mythological machinery,
1971     And very handsome supernatural scenery.
1972
1973     There 's only one slight difference between
1974       Me and my epic brethren gone before,
1975     And here the advantage is my own, I ween
1976       (Not that I have not several merits more,
1977     But this will more peculiarly be seen);
1978       They so embellish, that 't is quite a bore
1979     Their labyrinth of fables to thread through,
1980     Whereas this story 's actually true.
1981
1982     If any person doubt it, I appeal
1983       To history, tradition, and to facts,
1984     To newspapers, whose truth all know and feel,
1985       To plays in five, and operas in three acts;
1986     All these confirm my statement a good deal,
1987       But that which more completely faith exacts
1988     Is that myself, and several now in Seville,
1989     Saw Juan's last elopement with the devil.
1990
1991     If ever I should condescend to prose,
1992       I 'll write poetical commandments, which
1993     Shall supersede beyond all doubt all those
1994       That went before; in these I shall enrich
1995     My text with many things that no one knows,
1996       And carry precept to the highest pitch:
1997     I 'll call the work 'Longinus o'er a Bottle,
1998     Or, Every Poet his own Aristotle.'
1999
2000     Thou shalt believe in Milton, Dryden, Pope;
2001       Thou shalt not set up Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey;
2002     Because the first is crazed beyond all hope,
2003       The second drunk, the third so quaint and mouthy:
2004     With Crabbe it may be difficult to cope,
2005       And Campbell's Hippocrene is somewhat drouthy:
2006     Thou shalt not steal from Samuel Rogers, nor
2007     Commit--flirtation with the muse of Moore.
2008
2009     Thou shalt not covet Mr. Sotheby's Muse,
2010       His Pegasus, nor anything that 's his;
2011     Thou shalt not bear false witness like 'the Blues'
2012       (There 's one, at least, is very fond of this);
2013     Thou shalt not write, in short, but what I choose:
2014       This is true criticism, and you may kiss--
2015     Exactly as you please, or not,--the rod;
2016
2017     If any person should presume to assert
2018       This story is not moral, first, I pray,
2019     That they will not cry out before they 're hurt,
2020       Then that they 'll read it o'er again, and say
2021     (But, doubtless, nobody will be so pert)
2022       That this is not a moral tale, though gay;
2023     Besides, in Canto Twelfth, I mean to show
2024     The very place where wicked people go.
2025
2026     If, after all, there should be some so blind
2027       To their own good this warning to despise,
2028     Led by some tortuosity of mind,
2029       Not to believe my verse and their own eyes,
2030     And cry that they 'the moral cannot find,'
2031       I tell him, if a clergyman, he lies;
2032     Should captains the remark, or critics, make,
2033     They also lie too--under a mistake.
2034
2035     The public approbation I expect,
2036       And beg they 'll take my word about the moral,
2037     Which I with their amusement will connect
2038       (So children cutting teeth receive a coral);
2039     Meantime, they 'll doubtless please to recollect
2040       My epical pretensions to the laurel:
2041     For fear some prudish readers should grow skittish,
2042     I 've bribed my grandmother's review--the British.
2043
2044     I sent it in a letter to the Editor,
2045       Who thank'd me duly by return of post--
2046     I 'm for a handsome article his creditor;
2047       Yet, if my gentle Muse he please to roast,
2048     And break a promise after having made it her,
2049       Denying the receipt of what it cost,
2050     And smear his page with gall instead of honey,
2051     All I can say is--that he had the money.
2052
2053     I think that with this holy new alliance
2054       I may ensure the public, and defy
2055     All other magazines of art or science,
2056       Daily, or monthly, or three monthly; I
2057     Have not essay'd to multiply their clients,
2058       Because they tell me 't were in vain to try,
2059     And that the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly
2060     Treat a dissenting author very martyrly.
2061
2062     'Non ego hoc ferrem calida juventa
2063       Consule Planco,' Horace said, and so
2064     Say I; by which quotation there is meant a
2065       Hint that some six or seven good years ago
2066     (Long ere I dreamt of dating from the Brenta)
2067       I was most ready to return a blow,
2068     And would not brook at all this sort of thing
2069     In my hot youth--when George the Third was King.
2070
2071     But now at thirty years my hair is grey
2072       (I wonder what it will be like at forty?
2073     I thought of a peruke the other day)--
2074       My heart is not much greener; and, in short, I
2075     Have squander'd my whole summer while 't was May,
2076       And feel no more the spirit to retort; I
2077     Have spent my life, both interest and principal,
2078     And deem not, what I deem'd, my soul invincible.
2079
2080     No more--no more--Oh! never more on me
2081       The freshness of the heart can fall like dew,
2082     Which out of all the lovely things we see
2083       Extracts emotions beautiful and new,
2084     Hived in our bosoms like the bag o' the bee:
2085       Think'st thou the honey with those objects grew?
2086     Alas! 't was not in them, but in thy power
2087     To double even the sweetness of a flower.
2088
2089     No more--no more--Oh! never more, my heart,
2090       Canst thou be my sole world, my universe!
2091     Once all in all, but now a thing apart,
2092       Thou canst not be my blessing or my curse:
2093     The illusion 's gone for ever, and thou art
2094       Insensible, I trust, but none the worse,
2095     And in thy stead I 've got a deal of judgment,
2096     Though heaven knows how it ever found a lodgment.
2097
2098     My days of love are over; me no more
2099       The charms of maid, wife, and still less of widow,
2100     Can make the fool of which they made before,--
2101       In short, I must not lead the life I did do;
2102     The credulous hope of mutual minds is o'er,
2103       The copious use of claret is forbid too,
2104     So for a good old-gentlemanly vice,
2105     I think I must take up with avarice.
2106
2107     Ambition was my idol, which was broken
2108       Before the shrines of Sorrow, and of Pleasure;
2109     And the two last have left me many a token
2110       O'er which reflection may be made at leisure:
2111     Now, like Friar Bacon's brazen head, I 've spoken,
2112       'Time is, Time was, Time 's past:'--a chymic treasure
2113     Is glittering youth, which I have spent betimes--
2114     My heart in passion, and my head on rhymes.
2115
2116     What is the end of Fame? 't is but to fill
2117       A certain portion of uncertain paper:
2118     Some liken it to climbing up a hill,
2119       Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour;
2120     For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill,
2121       And bards burn what they call their 'midnight taper,'
2122     To have, when the original is dust,
2123     A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust.
2124
2125     What are the hopes of man? Old Egypt's King
2126       Cheops erected the first pyramid
2127     And largest, thinking it was just the thing
2128       To keep his memory whole, and mummy hid;
2129     But somebody or other rummaging,
2130       Burglariously broke his coffin's lid:
2131     Let not a monument give you or me hopes,
2132     Since not a pinch of dust remains of Cheops.
2133
2134     But I being fond of true philosophy,
2135       Say very often to myself, 'Alas!
2136     All things that have been born were born to die,
2137       And flesh (which Death mows down to hay) is grass;
2138     You 've pass'd your youth not so unpleasantly,
2139       And if you had it o'er again--'t would pass--
2140     So thank your stars that matters are no worse,
2141     And read your Bible, sir, and mind your purse.'
2142
2143     But for the present, gentle reader! and
2144       Still gentler purchaser! the bard--that 's I--
2145     Must, with permission, shake you by the hand,
2146       And so 'Your humble servant, and good-b'ye!'
2147     We meet again, if we should understand
2148       Each other; and if not, I shall not try
2149     Your patience further than by this short sample--
2150     'T were well if others follow'd my example.
2151
2152     'Go, little book, from this my solitude!
2153       I cast thee on the waters--go thy ways!
2154     And if, as I believe, thy vein be good,
2155       The world will find thee after many days.'
2156     When Southey's read, and Wordsworth understood,
2157       I can't help putting in my claim to praise--
2158     The four first rhymes are Southey's every line:
2159     For God's sake, reader! take them not for mine.
2160
2161
2162
2163CANTO THE SECOND.
2164
2165     O ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations,
2166       Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain,
2167     I pray ye flog them upon all occasions,
2168       It mends their morals, never mind the pain:
2169     The best of mothers and of educations
2170       In Juan's case were but employ'd in vain,
2171     Since, in a way that 's rather of the oddest, he
2172     Became divested of his native modesty.
2173
2174     Had he but been placed at a public school,
2175       In the third form, or even in the fourth,
2176     His daily task had kept his fancy cool,
2177       At least, had he been nurtured in the north;
2178     Spain may prove an exception to the rule,
2179       But then exceptions always prove its worth--
2180     A lad of sixteen causing a divorce
2181     Puzzled his tutors very much, of course.
2182
2183     I can't say that it puzzles me at all,
2184       If all things be consider'd: first, there was
2185     His lady--mother, mathematical,
2186       A--never mind; his tutor, an old ass;
2187     A pretty woman (that 's quite natural,
2188       Or else the thing had hardly come to pass);
2189     A husband rather old, not much in unity
2190     With his young wife--a time, and opportunity.
2191
2192     Well--well, the world must turn upon its axis,
2193       And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails,
2194     And live and die, make love and pay our taxes,
2195       And as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails;
2196     The king commands us, and the doctor quacks us,
2197       The priest instructs, and so our life exhales,
2198     A little breath, love, wine, ambition, fame,
2199     Fighting, devotion, dust,--perhaps a name.
2200
2201     I said that Juan had been sent to Cadiz--
2202       A pretty town, I recollect it well--
2203     'T is there the mart of the colonial trade is
2204       (Or was, before Peru learn'd to rebel),
2205     And such sweet girls--I mean, such graceful ladies,
2206       Their very walk would make your bosom swell;
2207     I can't describe it, though so much it strike,
2208     Nor liken it--I never saw the like:
2209
2210     An Arab horse, a stately stag, a barb
2211       New broke, a cameleopard, a gazelle,
2212     No--none of these will do;--and then their garb!
2213       Their veil and petticoat--Alas! to dwell
2214     Upon such things would very near absorb
2215       A canto--then their feet and ankles,--well,
2216     Thank Heaven I 've got no metaphor quite ready
2217     (And so, my sober Muse--come, let 's be steady--
2218
2219     Chaste Muse!--well, if you must, you must)--the veil
2220       Thrown back a moment with the glancing hand,
2221     While the o'erpowering eye, that turns you pale,
2222       Flashes into the heart:--All sunny land
2223     Of love! when I forget you, may I fail
2224       To--say my prayers--but never was there plann'd
2225     A dress through which the eyes give such a volley,
2226     Excepting the Venetian Fazzioli.
2227
2228     But to our tale: the Donna Inez sent
2229       Her son to Cadiz only to embark;
2230     To stay there had not answer'd her intent,
2231       But why?--we leave the reader in the dark--
2232     'T was for a voyage that the young man was meant,
2233       As if a Spanish ship were Noah's ark,
2234     To wean him from the wickedness of earth,
2235     And send him like a dove of promise forth.
2236
2237     Don Juan bade his valet pack his things
2238       According to direction, then received
2239     A lecture and some money: for four springs
2240       He was to travel; and though Inez grieved
2241     (As every kind of parting has its stings),
2242       She hoped he would improve--perhaps believed:
2243     A letter, too, she gave (he never read it)
2244     Of good advice--and two or three of credit.
2245
2246     In the mean time, to pass her hours away,
2247       Brave Inez now set up a Sunday school
2248     For naughty children, who would rather play
2249       (Like truant rogues) the devil, or the fool;
2250     Infants of three years old were taught that day,
2251       Dunces were whipt, or set upon a stool:
2252     The great success of Juan's education,
2253     Spurr'd her to teach another generation.
2254
2255     Juan embark'd--the ship got under way,
2256       The wind was fair, the water passing rough:
2257     A devil of a sea rolls in that bay,
2258       As I, who 've cross'd it oft, know well enough;
2259     And, standing upon deck, the dashing spray
2260       Flies in one's face, and makes it weather-tough:
2261     And there he stood to take, and take again,
2262     His first--perhaps his last--farewell of Spain.
2263
2264     I can't but say it is an awkward sight
2265       To see one's native land receding through
2266     The growing waters; it unmans one quite,
2267       Especially when life is rather new:
2268     I recollect Great Britain's coast looks white,
2269       But almost every other country 's blue,
2270     When gazing on them, mystified by distance,
2271     We enter on our nautical existence.
2272
2273     So Juan stood, bewilder'd on the deck:
2274       The wind sung, cordage strain'd, and sailors swore,
2275     And the ship creak'd, the town became a speck,
2276       From which away so fair and fast they bore.
2277     The best of remedies is a beef-steak
2278       Against sea-sickness: try it, sir, before
2279     You sneer, and I assure you this is true,
2280     For I have found it answer--so may you.
2281
2282     Don Juan stood, and, gazing from the stern,
2283       Beheld his native Spain receding far:
2284     First partings form a lesson hard to learn,
2285       Even nations feel this when they go to war;
2286     There is a sort of unexprest concern,
2287       A kind of shock that sets one's heart ajar:
2288     At leaving even the most unpleasant people
2289     And places, one keeps looking at the steeple.
2290
2291     But Juan had got many things to leave,
2292       His mother, and a mistress, and no wife,
2293     So that he had much better cause to grieve
2294       Than many persons more advanced in life;
2295     And if we now and then a sigh must heave
2296       At quitting even those we quit in strife,
2297     No doubt we weep for those the heart endears--
2298     That is, till deeper griefs congeal our tears.
2299
2300     So Juan wept, as wept the captive Jews
2301       By Babel's waters, still remembering Sion:
2302     I 'd weep,--but mine is not a weeping Muse,
2303       And such light griefs are not a thing to die on;
2304     Young men should travel, if but to amuse
2305       Themselves; and the next time their servants tie on
2306     Behind their carriages their new portmanteau,
2307     Perhaps it may be lined with this my canto.
2308
2309     And Juan wept, and much he sigh'd and thought,
2310       While his salt tears dropp'd into the salt sea,
2311     'Sweets to the sweet' (I like so much to quote;
2312       You must excuse this extract, 't is where she,
2313     The Queen of Denmark, for Ophelia brought
2314       Flowers to the grave); and, sobbing often, he
2315     Reflected on his present situation,
2316     And seriously resolved on reformation.
2317
2318     'Farewell, my Spain! a long farewell!' he cried,
2319       'Perhaps I may revisit thee no more,
2320     But die, as many an exiled heart hath died,
2321       Of its own thirst to see again thy shore:
2322     Farewell, where Guadalquivir's waters glide!
2323       Farewell, my mother! and, since all is o'er,
2324     Farewell, too, dearest Julia!--(Here he drew
2325     Her letter out again, and read it through.)
2326
2327     'And, oh! if e'er I should forget, I swear--
2328       But that 's impossible, and cannot be--
2329     Sooner shall this blue ocean melt to air,
2330       Sooner shall earth resolve itself to sea,
2331     Than I resign thine image, oh, my fair!
2332       Or think of any thing excepting thee;
2333     A mind diseased no remedy can physic
2334     (Here the ship gave a lurch, and he grew sea-sick).
2335
2336     'Sooner shall heaven kiss earth (here he fell sicker),
2337       O, Julia! what is every other wo?
2338     (For God's sake let me have a glass of liquor;
2339       Pedro, Battista, help me down below.)
2340     Julia, my love! (you rascal, Pedro, quicker)--
2341       O, Julia! (this curst vessel pitches so)--
2342     Beloved Julia, hear me still beseeching!'
2343     (Here he grew inarticulate with retching.)
2344
2345     He felt that chilling heaviness of heart,
2346       Or rather stomach, which, alas! attends,
2347     Beyond the best apothecary's art,
2348       The loss of love, the treachery of friends,
2349     Or death of those we dote on, when a part
2350       Of us dies with them as each fond hope ends:
2351     No doubt he would have been much more pathetic,
2352     But the sea acted as a strong emetic. I
2353
2354     Love 's a capricious power: I 've known it hold
2355       Out through a fever caused by its own heat,
2356     But be much puzzled by a cough and cold,
2357       And find a quincy very hard to treat;
2358     Against all noble maladies he 's bold,
2359       But vulgar illnesses don't like to meet,
2360     Nor that a sneeze should interrupt his sigh,
2361     Nor inflammations redden his blind eye.
2362
2363     But worst of all is nausea, or a pain
2364       About the lower region of the bowels;
2365     Love, who heroically breathes a vein,
2366       Shrinks from the application of hot towels,
2367     And purgatives are dangerous to his reign,
2368       Sea-sickness death: his love was perfect, how else
2369     Could Juan's passion, while the billows roar,
2370     Resist his stomach, ne'er at sea before?
2371
2372     The ship, call'd the most holy 'Trinidada,'
2373       Was steering duly for the port Leghorn;
2374     For there the Spanish family Moncada
2375       Were settled long ere Juan's sire was born:
2376     They were relations, and for them he had a
2377       Letter of introduction, which the morn
2378     Of his departure had been sent him by
2379     His Spanish friends for those in Italy.
2380
2381     His suite consisted of three servants and
2382       A tutor, the licentiate Pedrillo,
2383     Who several languages did understand,
2384       But now lay sick and speechless on his pillow,
2385     And rocking in his hammock, long'd for land,
2386       His headache being increased by every billow;
2387     And the waves oozing through the port-hole made
2388     His berth a little damp, and him afraid.
2389
2390     'T was not without some reason, for the wind
2391       Increased at night, until it blew a gale;
2392     And though 't was not much to a naval mind,
2393       Some landsmen would have look'd a little pale,
2394     For sailors are, in fact, a different kind:
2395       At sunset they began to take in sail,
2396     For the sky show'd it would come on to blow,
2397     And carry away, perhaps, a mast or so.
2398
2399     At one o'clock the wind with sudden shift
2400       Threw the ship right into the trough of the sea,
2401     Which struck her aft, and made an awkward rift,
2402       Started the stern-post, also shatter'd the
2403     Whole of her stern-frame, and, ere she could lift
2404       Herself from out her present jeopardy,
2405     The rudder tore away: 't was time to sound
2406     The pumps, and there were four feet water found.
2407
2408     One gang of people instantly was put
2409       Upon the pumps and the remainder set
2410     To get up part of the cargo, and what not;
2411       But they could not come at the leak as yet;
2412     At last they did get at it really, but
2413       Still their salvation was an even bet:
2414     The water rush'd through in a way quite puzzling,
2415     While they thrust sheets, shirts, jackets, bales of muslin,
2416
2417     Into the opening; but all such ingredients
2418       Would have been vain, and they must have gone down,
2419     Despite of all their efforts and expedients,
2420       But for the pumps: I 'm glad to make them known
2421     To all the brother tars who may have need hence,
2422       For fifty tons of water were upthrown
2423     By them per hour, and they had all been undone,
2424     But for the maker, Mr. Mann, of London.
2425
2426     As day advanced the weather seem'd to abate,
2427       And then the leak they reckon'd to reduce,
2428     And keep the ship afloat, though three feet yet
2429       Kept two hand and one chain-pump still in use.
2430     The wind blew fresh again: as it grew late
2431       A squall came on, and while some guns broke loose,
2432     A gust--which all descriptive power transcends--
2433     Laid with one blast the ship on her beam ends.
2434
2435     There she lay motionless, and seem'd upset;
2436       The water left the hold, and wash'd the decks,
2437     And made a scene men do not soon forget;
2438       For they remember battles, fires, and wrecks,
2439     Or any other thing that brings regret,
2440       Or breaks their hopes, or hearts, or heads, or necks:
2441     Thus drownings are much talk'd of by the divers,
2442     And swimmers, who may chance to be survivors.
2443
2444     Immediately the masts were cut away,
2445       Both main and mizen; first the mizen went,
2446     The main-mast follow'd: but the ship still lay
2447       Like a mere log, and baffled our intent.
2448     Foremast and bowsprit were cut down, and they
2449       Eased her at last (although we never meant
2450     To part with all till every hope was blighted),
2451     And then with violence the old ship righted.
2452
2453     It may be easily supposed, while this
2454       Was going on, some people were unquiet,
2455     That passengers would find it much amiss
2456       To lose their lives, as well as spoil their diet;
2457     That even the able seaman, deeming his
2458       Days nearly o'er, might be disposed to riot,
2459     As upon such occasions tars will ask
2460     For grog, and sometimes drink rum from the cask.
2461
2462     There 's nought, no doubt, so much the spirit calms
2463       As rum and true religion: thus it was,
2464     Some plunder'd, some drank spirits, some sung psalms,
2465       The high wind made the treble, and as bas
2466     The hoarse harsh waves kept time; fright cured the qualms
2467       Of all the luckless landsmen's sea-sick maws:
2468     Strange sounds of wailing, blasphemy, devotion,
2469     Clamour'd in chorus to the roaring ocean.
2470
2471     Perhaps more mischief had been done, but for
2472       Our Juan, who, with sense beyond his years,
2473     Got to the spirit-room, and stood before
2474       It with a pair of pistols; and their fears,
2475     As if Death were more dreadful by his door
2476       Of fire than water, spite of oaths and tears,
2477     Kept still aloof the crew, who, ere they sunk,
2478     Thought it would be becoming to die drunk.
2479
2480     'Give us more grog,' they cried, 'for it will be
2481       All one an hour hence.' Juan answer'd, 'No!
2482     'T is true that death awaits both you and me,
2483       But let us die like men, not sink below
2484     Like brutes;'--and thus his dangerous post kept he,
2485       And none liked to anticipate the blow;
2486     And even Pedrillo, his most reverend tutor,
2487     Was for some rum a disappointed suitor.
2488
2489     The good old gentleman was quite aghast,
2490       And made a loud and pious lamentation;
2491     Repented all his sins, and made a last
2492       Irrevocable vow of reformation;
2493     Nothing should tempt him more (this peril past)
2494       To quit his academic occupation,
2495     In cloisters of the classic Salamanca,
2496     To follow Juan's wake, like Sancho Panca.
2497
2498     But now there came a flash of hope once more;
2499       Day broke, and the wind lull'd: the masts were gone,
2500     The leak increased; shoals round her, but no shore,
2501       The vessel swam, yet still she held her own.
2502     They tried the pumps again, and though before
2503       Their desperate efforts seem'd all useless grown,
2504     A glimpse of sunshine set some hands to bale--
2505     The stronger pump'd, the weaker thrumm'd a sail.
2506
2507     Under the vessel's keel the sail was past,
2508       And for the moment it had some effect;
2509     But with a leak, and not a stick of mast,
2510       Nor rag of canvas, what could they expect?
2511     But still 't is best to struggle to the last,
2512       'T is never too late to be wholly wreck'd:
2513     And though 't is true that man can only die once,
2514     'T is not so pleasant in the Gulf of Lyons.
2515
2516     There winds and waves had hurl'd them, and from thence,
2517       Without their will, they carried them away;
2518     For they were forced with steering to dispense,
2519       And never had as yet a quiet day
2520     On which they might repose, or even commence
2521       A jurymast or rudder, or could say
2522     The ship would swim an hour, which, by good luck,
2523     Still swam--though not exactly like a duck.
2524
2525     The wind, in fact, perhaps was rather less,
2526       But the ship labour'd so, they scarce could hope
2527     To weather out much longer; the distress
2528       Was also great with which they had to cope
2529     For want of water, and their solid mess
2530       Was scant enough: in vain the telescope
2531     Was used--nor sail nor shore appear'd in sight,
2532     Nought but the heavy sea, and coming night.
2533
2534     Again the weather threaten'd,--again blew
2535       A gale, and in the fore and after hold
2536     Water appear'd; yet, though the people knew
2537       All this, the most were patient, and some bold,
2538     Until the chains and leathers were worn through
2539       Of all our pumps:--a wreck complete she roll'd,
2540     At mercy of the waves, whose mercies are
2541     Like human beings during civil war.
2542
2543     Then came the carpenter, at last, with tears
2544       In his rough eyes, and told the captain he
2545     Could do no more: he was a man in years,
2546       And long had voyaged through many a stormy sea,
2547     And if he wept at length, they were not fears
2548       That made his eyelids as a woman's be,
2549     But he, poor fellow, had a wife and children,--
2550     Two things for dying people quite bewildering.
2551
2552     The ship was evidently settling now
2553       Fast by the head; and, all distinction gone,
2554     Some went to prayers again, and made a vow
2555       Of candles to their saints--but there were none
2556     To pay them with; and some look'd o'er the bow;
2557       Some hoisted out the boats; and there was one
2558     That begg'd Pedrillo for an absolution,
2559     Who told him to be damn'd--in his confusion.
2560
2561     Some lash'd them in their hammocks; some put on
2562       Their best clothes, as if going to a fair;
2563     Some cursed the day on which they saw the sun,
2564       And gnash'd their teeth, and, howling, tore their hair;
2565     And others went on as they had begun,
2566       Getting the boats out, being well aware
2567     That a tight boat will live in a rough sea,
2568     Unless with breakers close beneath her lee.
2569
2570     The worst of all was, that in their condition,
2571       Having been several days in great distress,
2572     'T was difficult to get out such provision
2573       As now might render their long suffering less:
2574     Men, even when dying, dislike inanition;
2575       Their stock was damaged by the weather's stress:
2576     Two casks of biscuit and a keg of butter
2577     Were all that could be thrown into the cutter.
2578
2579     But in the long-boat they contrived to stow
2580       Some pounds of bread, though injured by the wet;
2581     Water, a twenty-gallon cask or so;
2582       Six flasks of wine; and they contrived to get
2583     A portion of their beef up from below,
2584       And with a piece of pork, moreover, met,
2585     But scarce enough to serve them for a luncheon--
2586     Then there was rum, eight gallons in a puncheon.
2587
2588     The other boats, the yawl and pinnace, had
2589       Been stove in the beginning of the gale;
2590     And the long-boat's condition was but bad,
2591       As there were but two blankets for a sail,
2592     And one oar for a mast, which a young lad
2593       Threw in by good luck over the ship's rail;
2594     And two boats could not hold, far less be stored,
2595     To save one half the people then on board.
2596
2597     'T was twilight, and the sunless day went down
2598       Over the waste of waters; like a veil,
2599     Which, if withdrawn, would but disclose the frown
2600       Of one whose hate is mask'd but to assail,
2601     Thus to their hopeless eyes the night was shown,
2602       And grimly darkled o'er the faces pale,
2603     And the dim desolate deep: twelve days had Fear
2604     Been their familiar, and now Death was here.
2605
2606     Some trial had been making at a raft,
2607       With little hope in such a rolling sea,
2608     A sort of thing at which one would have laugh'd,
2609       If any laughter at such times could be,
2610     Unless with people who too much have quaff'd,
2611       And have a kind of wild and horrid glee,
2612     Half epileptical and half hysterical:--
2613     Their preservation would have been a miracle.
2614
2615     At half-past eight o'clock, booms, hencoops, spars,
2616       And all things, for a chance, had been cast loose,
2617     That still could keep afloat the struggling tars,
2618       For yet they strove, although of no great use:
2619     There was no light in heaven but a few stars,
2620       The boats put off o'ercrowded with their crews;
2621     She gave a heel, and then a lurch to port,
2622     And, going down head foremost--sunk, in short.
2623
2624     Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell--
2625       Then shriek'd the timid, and stood still the brave,
2626     Then some leap'd overboard with dreadful yell,
2627       As eager to anticipate their grave;
2628     And the sea yawn'd around her like a hell,
2629       And down she suck'd with her the whirling wave,
2630     Like one who grapples with his enemy,
2631     And strives to strangle him before he die.
2632
2633     And first one universal shriek there rush'd,
2634       Louder than the loud ocean, like a crash
2635     Of echoing thunder; and then all was hush'd,
2636       Save the wild wind and the remorseless dash
2637     Of billows; but at intervals there gush'd,
2638       Accompanied with a convulsive splash,
2639     A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry
2640     Of some strong swimmer in his agony.
2641
2642     The boats, as stated, had got off before,
2643       And in them crowded several of the crew;
2644     And yet their present hope was hardly more
2645       Than what it had been, for so strong it blew
2646     There was slight chance of reaching any shore;
2647       And then they were too many, though so few--
2648     Nine in the cutter, thirty in the boat,
2649     Were counted in them when they got afloat.
2650
2651     All the rest perish'd; near two hundred souls
2652       Had left their bodies; and what 's worse, alas!
2653     When over Catholics the ocean rolls,
2654       They must wait several weeks before a mass
2655     Takes off one peck of purgatorial coals,
2656       Because, till people know what 's come to pass,
2657     They won't lay out their money on the dead--
2658     It costs three francs for every mass that 's said.
2659
2660     Juan got into the long-boat, and there
2661       Contrived to help Pedrillo to a place;
2662     It seem'd as if they had exchanged their care,
2663       For Juan wore the magisterial face
2664     Which courage gives, while poor Pedrillo's pair
2665       Of eyes were crying for their owner's case:
2666     Battista; though (a name call'd shortly Tita),
2667     Was lost by getting at some aqua-vita.
2668
2669     Pedro, his valet, too, he tried to save,
2670       But the same cause, conducive to his loss,
2671     Left him so drunk, he jump'd into the wave
2672       As o'er the cutter's edge he tried to cross,
2673     And so he found a wine-and-watery grave;
2674       They could not rescue him although so close,
2675     Because the sea ran higher every minute,
2676     And for the boat--the crew kept crowding in it.
2677
2678     A small old spaniel,--which had been Don Jose's,
2679       His father's, whom he loved, as ye may think,
2680     For on such things the memory reposes
2681       With tenderness--stood howling on the brink,
2682     Knowing (dogs have such intellectual noses!),
2683       No doubt, the vessel was about to sink;
2684     And Juan caught him up, and ere he stepp'd
2685     Off, threw him in, then after him he leap'd.
2686
2687     He also stuff'd his money where he could
2688       About his person, and Pedrillo's too,
2689     Who let him do, in fact, whate'er he would,
2690       Not knowing what himself to say, or do,
2691     As every rising wave his dread renew'd;
2692       But Juan, trusting they might still get through,
2693     And deeming there were remedies for any ill,
2694     Thus re-embark'd his tutor and his spaniel.
2695
2696     'T was a rough night, and blew so stiffly yet,
2697       That the sail was becalm'd between the seas,
2698     Though on the wave's high top too much to set,
2699       They dared not take it in for all the breeze:
2700     Each sea curl'd o'er the stern, and kept them wet,
2701       And made them bale without a moment's ease,
2702     So that themselves as well as hopes were damp'd,
2703     And the poor little cutter quickly swamp'd.
2704
2705     Nine souls more went in her: the long-boat still
2706       Kept above water, with an oar for mast,
2707     Two blankets stitch'd together, answering ill
2708       Instead of sail, were to the oar made fast:
2709     Though every wave roll'd menacing to fill,
2710       And present peril all before surpass'd,
2711     They grieved for those who perish'd with the cutter,
2712     And also for the biscuit-casks and butter.
2713
2714     The sun rose red and fiery, a sure sign
2715       Of the continuance of the gale: to run
2716     Before the sea until it should grow fine,
2717       Was all that for the present could be done:
2718     A few tea-spoonfuls of their rum and wine
2719       Were served out to the people, who begun
2720     To faint, and damaged bread wet through the bags,
2721     And most of them had little clothes but rags.
2722
2723     They counted thirty, crowded in a space
2724       Which left scarce room for motion or exertion;
2725     They did their best to modify their case,
2726       One half sate up, though numb'd with the immersion,
2727     While t'other half were laid down in their place
2728       At watch and watch; thus, shivering like the tertian
2729     Ague in its cold fit, they fill'd their boat,
2730     With nothing but the sky for a great coat.
2731
2732     'T is very certain the desire of life
2733       Prolongs it: this is obvious to physicians,
2734     When patients, neither plagued with friends nor wife,
2735       Survive through very desperate conditions,
2736     Because they still can hope, nor shines the knife
2737       Nor shears of Atropos before their visions:
2738     Despair of all recovery spoils longevity,
2739     And makes men miseries miseries of alarming brevity.
2740
2741     'T is said that persons living on annuities
2742       Are longer lived than others,--God knows why,
2743     Unless to plague the grantors,--yet so true it is,
2744       That some, I really think, do never die;
2745     Of any creditors the worst a Jew it is,
2746       And that 's their mode of furnishing supply:
2747     In my young days they lent me cash that way,
2748     Which I found very troublesome to pay.
2749
2750     'T is thus with people in an open boat,
2751       They live upon the love of life, and bear
2752     More than can be believed, or even thought,
2753       And stand like rocks the tempest's wear and tear;
2754     And hardship still has been the sailor's lot,
2755       Since Noah's ark went cruising here and there;
2756     She had a curious crew as well as cargo,
2757     Like the first old Greek privateer, the Argo.
2758
2759     But man is a carnivorous production,
2760       And must have meals, at least one meal a day;
2761     He cannot live, like woodcocks, upon suction,
2762       But, like the shark and tiger, must have prey;
2763     Although his anatomical construction
2764       Bears vegetables, in a grumbling way,
2765     Your labouring people think beyond all question,
2766     Beef, veal, and mutton, better for digestion.
2767
2768     And thus it was with this our hapless crew;
2769       For on the third day there came on a calm,
2770     And though at first their strength it might renew,
2771       And lying on their weariness like balm,
2772     Lull'd them like turtles sleeping on the blue
2773       Of ocean, when they woke they felt a qualm,
2774     And fell all ravenously on their provision,
2775     Instead of hoarding it with due precision.
2776
2777     The consequence was easily foreseen--
2778       They ate up all they had, and drank their wine,
2779     In spite of all remonstrances, and then
2780       On what, in fact, next day were they to dine?
2781     They hoped the wind would rise, these foolish men!
2782       And carry them to shore; these hopes were fine,
2783     But as they had but one oar, and that brittle,
2784     It would have been more wise to save their victual.
2785
2786     The fourth day came, but not a breath of air,
2787       And Ocean slumber'd like an unwean'd child:
2788     The fifth day, and their boat lay floating there,
2789       The sea and sky were blue, and clear, and mild--
2790     With their one oar (I wish they had had a pair)
2791       What could they do? and hunger's rage grew wild:
2792     So Juan's spaniel, spite of his entreating,
2793     Was kill'd and portion'd out for present eating.
2794
2795     On the sixth day they fed upon his hide,
2796       And Juan, who had still refused, because
2797     The creature was his father's dog that died,
2798       Now feeling all the vulture in his jaws,
2799     With some remorse received (though first denied)
2800       As a great favour one of the fore-paws,
2801     Which he divided with Pedrillo, who
2802     Devour'd it, longing for the other too.
2803
2804     The seventh day, and no wind--the burning sun
2805       Blister'd and scorch'd, and, stagnant on the sea,
2806     They lay like carcasses; and hope was none,
2807       Save in the breeze that came not; savagely
2808     They glared upon each other--all was done,
2809       Water, and wine, and food,--and you might see
2810     The longings of the cannibal arise
2811     (Although they spoke not) in their wolfish eyes.
2812
2813     At length one whisper'd his companion, who
2814       Whisper'd another, and thus it went round,
2815     And then into a hoarser murmur grew,
2816       An ominous, and wild, and desperate sound;
2817     And when his comrade's thought each sufferer knew,
2818       'T was but his own, suppress'd till now, he found:
2819     And out they spoke of lots for flesh and blood,
2820     And who should die to be his fellow's food.
2821
2822     But ere they came to this, they that day shared
2823       Some leathern caps, and what remain'd of shoes;
2824     And then they look'd around them and despair'd,
2825       And none to be the sacrifice would choose;
2826     At length the lots were torn up, and prepared,
2827       But of materials that much shock the Muse--
2828     Having no paper, for the want of better,
2829     They took by force from Juan Julia's letter.
2830
2831     The lots were made, and mark'd, and mix'd, and handed,
2832       In silent horror, and their distribution
2833     Lull'd even the savage hunger which demanded,
2834       Like the Promethean vulture, this pollution;
2835     None in particular had sought or plann'd it,
2836       'T was nature gnaw'd them to this resolution,
2837     By which none were permitted to be neuter--
2838     And the lot fell on Juan's luckless tutor.
2839
2840     He but requested to be bled to death:
2841       The surgeon had his instruments, and bled
2842     Pedrillo, and so gently ebb'd his breath,
2843       You hardly could perceive when he was dead.
2844     He died as born, a Catholic in faith,
2845       Like most in the belief in which they 're bred,
2846     And first a little crucifix he kiss'd,
2847     And then held out his jugular and wrist.
2848
2849     The surgeon, as there was no other fee,
2850       Had his first choice of morsels for his pains;
2851     But being thirstiest at the moment, he
2852       Preferr'd a draught from the fast-flowing veins:
2853     Part was divided, part thrown in the sea,
2854       And such things as the entrails and the brains
2855     Regaled two sharks, who follow'd o'er the billow--
2856     The sailors ate the rest of poor Pedrillo.
2857
2858     The sailors ate him, all save three or four,
2859       Who were not quite so fond of animal food;
2860     To these was added Juan, who, before
2861       Refusing his own spaniel, hardly could
2862     Feel now his appetite increased much more;
2863       'T was not to be expected that he should,
2864     Even in extremity of their disaster,
2865     Dine with them on his pastor and his master.
2866
2867     'T was better that he did not; for, in fact,
2868       The consequence was awful in the extreme;
2869     For they, who were most ravenous in the act,
2870       Went raging mad--Lord! how they did blaspheme!
2871     And foam and roll, with strange convulsions rack'd,
2872       Drinking salt water like a mountain-stream,
2873     Tearing, and grinning, howling, screeching, swearing,
2874     And, with hyaena-laughter, died despairing.
2875
2876     Their numbers were much thinn'd by this infliction,
2877       And all the rest were thin enough, Heaven knows;
2878     And some of them had lost their recollection,
2879       Happier than they who still perceived their woes;
2880     But others ponder'd on a new dissection,
2881       As if not warn'd sufficiently by those
2882     Who had already perish'd, suffering madly,
2883     For having used their appetites so sadly.
2884
2885     And next they thought upon the master's mate,
2886       As fattest; but he saved himself, because,
2887     Besides being much averse from such a fate,
2888       There were some other reasons: the first was,
2889     He had been rather indisposed of late;
2890       And that which chiefly proved his saving clause
2891     Was a small present made to him at Cadiz,
2892     By general subscription of the ladies.
2893
2894     Of poor Pedrillo something still remain'd,
2895       But was used sparingly,--some were afraid,
2896     And others still their appetites constrain'd,
2897       Or but at times a little supper made;
2898     All except Juan, who throughout abstain'd,
2899       Chewing a piece of bamboo and some lead:
2900     At length they caught two boobies and a noddy,
2901     And then they left off eating the dead body.
2902
2903     And if Pedrillo's fate should shocking be,
2904       Remember Ugolino condescends
2905     To eat the head of his arch-enemy
2906       The moment after he politely ends
2907     His tale: if foes be food in hell, at sea
2908       'T is surely fair to dine upon our friends,
2909     When shipwreck's short allowance grows too scanty,
2910     Without being much more horrible than Dante.
2911
2912     And the same night there fell a shower of rain,
2913       For which their mouths gaped, like the cracks of earth
2914     When dried to summer dust; till taught by pain
2915       Men really know not what good water 's worth;
2916     If you had been in Turkey or in Spain,
2917       Or with a famish'd boat's-crew had your berth,
2918     Or in the desert heard the camel's bell,
2919     You 'd wish yourself where Truth is--in a well.
2920
2921     It pour'd down torrents, but they were no richer
2922       Until they found a ragged piece of sheet,
2923     Which served them as a sort of spongy pitcher,
2924       And when they deem'd its moisture was complete
2925     They wrung it out, and though a thirsty ditcher
2926       Might not have thought the scanty draught so sweet
2927     As a full pot of porter, to their thinking
2928     They ne'er till now had known the joys of drinking.
2929
2930     And their baked lips, with many a bloody crack,
2931       Suck'd in the moisture, which like nectar stream'd;
2932     Their throats were ovens, their swoln tongues were black,
2933       As the rich man's in hell, who vainly scream'd
2934     To beg the beggar, who could not rain back
2935       A drop of dew, when every drop had seem'd
2936     To taste of heaven--If this be true, indeed
2937     Some Christians have a comfortable creed.
2938
2939     There were two fathers in this ghastly crew,
2940       And with them their two sons, of whom the one
2941     Was more robust and hardy to the view,
2942       But he died early; and when he was gone,
2943     His nearest messmate told his sire, who threw
2944       One glance at him, and said, 'Heaven's will be done!
2945     I can do nothing,' and he saw him thrown
2946     Into the deep without a tear or groan.
2947
2948     The other father had a weaklier child,
2949       Of a soft cheek and aspect delicate;
2950     But the boy bore up long, and with a mild
2951       And patient spirit held aloof his fate;
2952     Little he said, and now and then he smiled,
2953       As if to win a part from off the weight
2954     He saw increasing on his father's heart,
2955     With the deep deadly thought that they must part.
2956
2957     And o'er him bent his sire, and never raised
2958       His eyes from off his face, but wiped the foam
2959     From his pale lips, and ever on him gazed,
2960       And when the wish'd-for shower at length was come,
2961     And the boy's eyes, which the dull film half glazed,
2962       Brighten'd, and for a moment seem'd to roam,
2963     He squeezed from out a rag some drops of rain
2964     Into his dying child's mouth--but in vain.
2965
2966     The boy expired--the father held the clay,
2967       And look'd upon it long, and when at last
2968     Death left no doubt, and the dead burthen lay
2969       Stiff on his heart, and pulse and hope were past,
2970     He watch'd it wistfully, until away
2971       'T was borne by the rude wave wherein 't was cast;
2972     Then he himself sunk down all dumb and shivering,
2973     And gave no sign of life, save his limbs quivering.
2974
2975     Now overhead a rainbow, bursting through
2976       The scattering clouds, shone, spanning the dark sea,
2977     Resting its bright base on the quivering blue;
2978       And all within its arch appear'd to be
2979     Clearer than that without, and its wide hue
2980       Wax'd broad and waving, like a banner free,
2981     Then changed like to a bow that 's bent, and then
2982     Forsook the dim eyes of these shipwreck'd men.
2983
2984     It changed, of course; a heavenly chameleon,
2985       The airy child of vapour and the sun,
2986     Brought forth in purple, cradled in vermilion,
2987       Baptized in molten gold, and swathed in dun,
2988     Glittering like crescents o'er a Turk's pavilion,
2989       And blending every colour into one,
2990     Just like a black eye in a recent scuffle
2991     (For sometimes we must box without the muffle).
2992
2993     Our shipwreck'd seamen thought it a good omen--
2994       It is as well to think so, now and then;
2995     'T was an old custom of the Greek and Roman,
2996       And may become of great advantage when
2997     Folks are discouraged; and most surely no men
2998       Had greater need to nerve themselves again
2999     Than these, and so this rainbow look'd like hope--
3000     Quite a celestial kaleidoscope.
3001
3002     About this time a beautiful white bird,
3003       Webfooted, not unlike a dove in size
3004     And plumage (probably it might have err'd
3005       Upon its course), pass'd oft before their eyes,
3006     And tried to perch, although it saw and heard
3007       The men within the boat, and in this guise
3008     It came and went, and flutter'd round them till
3009     Night fell: this seem'd a better omen still.
3010
3011     But in this case I also must remark,
3012       'T was well this bird of promise did not perch,
3013     Because the tackle of our shatter'd bark
3014       Was not so safe for roosting as a church;
3015     And had it been the dove from Noah's ark,
3016       Returning there from her successful search,
3017     Which in their way that moment chanced to fall,
3018     They would have eat her, olive-branch and all.
3019
3020     With twilight it again came on to blow,
3021       But not with violence; the stars shone out,
3022     The boat made way; yet now they were so low,
3023       They knew not where nor what they were about;
3024     Some fancied they saw land, and some said 'No!'
3025       The frequent fog-banks gave them cause to doubt--
3026     Some swore that they heard breakers, others guns,
3027     And all mistook about the latter once.
3028
3029     As morning broke, the light wind died away,
3030       When he who had the watch sung out and swore,
3031     If 't was not land that rose with the sun's ray,
3032       He wish'd that land he never might see more;
3033     And the rest rubb'd their eyes and saw a bay,
3034       Or thought they saw, and shaped their course for shore;
3035     For shore it was, and gradually grew
3036     Distinct, and high, and palpable to view.
3037
3038     And then of these some part burst into tears,
3039       And others, looking with a stupid stare,
3040     Could not yet separate their hopes from fears,
3041       And seem'd as if they had no further care;
3042     While a few pray'd (the first time for some years)--
3043       And at the bottom of the boat three were
3044     Asleep: they shook them by the hand and head,
3045     And tried to awaken them, but found them dead.
3046
3047     The day before, fast sleeping on the water,
3048       They found a turtle of the hawk's-bill kind,
3049     And by good fortune, gliding softly, caught her,
3050       Which yielded a day's life, and to their mind
3051     Proved even still a more nutritious matter,
3052       Because it left encouragement behind:
3053     They thought that in such perils, more than chance
3054     Had sent them this for their deliverance.
3055
3056     The land appear'd a high and rocky coast,
3057       And higher grew the mountains as they drew,
3058     Set by a current, toward it: they were lost
3059       In various conjectures, for none knew
3060     To what part of the earth they had been tost,
3061       So changeable had been the winds that blew;
3062     Some thought it was Mount AEtna, some the highlands,
3063     Of Candia, Cyprus, Rhodes, or other islands.
3064
3065     Meantime the current, with a rising gale,
3066       Still set them onwards to the welcome shore,
3067     Like Charon's bark of spectres, dull and pale:
3068       Their living freight was now reduced to four,
3069     And three dead, whom their strength could not avail
3070       To heave into the deep with those before,
3071     Though the two sharks still follow'd them, and dash'd
3072     The spray into their faces as they splash'd.
3073
3074     Famine, despair, cold, thirst, and heat, had done
3075       Their work on them by turns, and thinn'd them to
3076     Such things a mother had not known her son
3077       Amidst the skeletons of that gaunt crew;
3078     By night chill'd, by day scorch'd, thus one by one
3079       They perish'd, until wither'd to these few,
3080     But chiefly by a species of self-slaughter,
3081     In washing down Pedrillo with salt water.
3082
3083     As they drew nigh the land, which now was seen
3084       Unequal in its aspect here and there,
3085     They felt the freshness of its growing green,
3086       That waved in forest-tops, and smooth'd the air,
3087     And fell upon their glazed eyes like a screen
3088       From glistening waves, and skies so hot and bare--
3089     Lovely seem'd any object that should sweep
3090     Away the vast, salt, dread, eternal deep.
3091
3092     The shore look'd wild, without a trace of man,
3093       And girt by formidable waves; but they
3094     Were mad for land, and thus their course they ran,
3095       Though right ahead the roaring breakers lay:
3096     A reef between them also now began
3097       To show its boiling surf and bounding spray,
3098     But finding no place for their landing better,
3099     They ran the boat for shore,--and overset her.
3100
3101     But in his native stream, the Guadalquivir,
3102       Juan to lave his youthful limbs was wont;
3103     And having learnt to swim in that sweet river,
3104       Had often turn'd the art to some account:
3105     A better swimmer you could scarce see ever,
3106       He could, perhaps, have pass'd the Hellespont,
3107     As once (a feat on which ourselves we prided)
3108     Leander, Mr. Ekenhead, and I did.
3109
3110     So here, though faint, emaciated, and stark,
3111       He buoy'd his boyish limbs, and strove to ply
3112     With the quick wave, and gain, ere it was dark,
3113       The beach which lay before him, high and dry:
3114     The greatest danger here was from a shark,
3115       That carried off his neighbour by the thigh;
3116     As for the other two, they could not swim,
3117     So nobody arrived on shore but him.
3118
3119     Nor yet had he arrived but for the oar,
3120       Which, providentially for him, was wash'd
3121     Just as his feeble arms could strike no more,
3122       And the hard wave o'erwhelm'd him as 't was dash'd
3123     Within his grasp; he clung to it, and sore
3124       The waters beat while he thereto was lash'd;
3125     At last, with swimming, wading, scrambling, he
3126     Roll'd on the beach, half-senseless, from the sea:
3127
3128     There, breathless, with his digging nails he clung
3129       Fast to the sand, lest the returning wave,
3130     From whose reluctant roar his life he wrung,
3131       Should suck him back to her insatiate grave:
3132     And there he lay, full length, where he was flung,
3133       Before the entrance of a cliff-worn cave,
3134     With just enough of life to feel its pain,
3135     And deem that it was saved, perhaps in vain.
3136
3137     With slow and staggering effort he arose,
3138       But sunk again upon his bleeding knee
3139     And quivering hand; and then he look'd for those
3140       Who long had been his mates upon the sea;
3141     But none of them appear'd to share his woes,
3142       Save one, a corpse, from out the famish'd three,
3143     Who died two days before, and now had found
3144     An unknown barren beach for burial ground.
3145
3146     And as he gazed, his dizzy brain spun fast,
3147       And down he sunk; and as he sunk, the sand
3148     Swam round and round, and all his senses pass'd:
3149       He fell upon his side, and his stretch'd hand
3150     Droop'd dripping on the oar (their jurymast),
3151       And, like a wither'd lily, on the land
3152     His slender frame and pallid aspect lay,
3153     As fair a thing as e'er was form'd of clay.
3154
3155     How long in his damp trance young Juan lay
3156       He knew not, for the earth was gone for him,
3157     And Time had nothing more of night nor day
3158       For his congealing blood, and senses dim;
3159     And how this heavy faintness pass'd away
3160       He knew not, till each painful pulse and limb,
3161     And tingling vein, seem'd throbbing back to life,
3162     For Death, though vanquish'd, still retired with strife.
3163
3164     His eyes he open'd, shut, again unclosed,
3165       For all was doubt and dizziness; he thought
3166     He still was in the boat and had but dozed,
3167       And felt again with his despair o'erwrought,
3168     And wish'd it death in which he had reposed;
3169       And then once more his feelings back were brought,
3170     And slowly by his swimming eyes was seen
3171     A lovely female face of seventeen.
3172
3173     'T was bending dose o'er his, and the small mouth
3174       Seem'd almost prying into his for breath;
3175     And chafing him, the soft warm hand of youth
3176       Recall'd his answering spirits back from death;
3177     And, bathing his chill temples, tried to soothe
3178       Each pulse to animation, till beneath
3179     Its gentle touch and trembling care, a sigh
3180     To these kind efforts made a low reply.
3181
3182     Then was the cordial pour'd, and mantle flung
3183       Around his scarce-clad limbs; and the fair arm
3184     Raised higher the faint head which o'er it hung;
3185       And her transparent cheek, all pure and warm,
3186     Pillow'd his death-like forehead; then she wrung
3187       His dewy curls, long drench'd by every storm;
3188     And watch'd with eagerness each throb that drew
3189     A sigh from his heaved bosom--and hers, too.
3190
3191     And lifting him with care into the cave,
3192       The gentle girl and her attendant,--one
3193     Young, yet her elder, and of brow less grave,
3194       And more robust of figure,--then begun
3195     To kindle fire, and as the new flames gave
3196       Light to the rocks that roof'd them, which the sun
3197     Had never seen, the maid, or whatsoe'er
3198     She was, appear'd distinct, and tall, and fair.
3199
3200     Her brow was overhung with coins of gold,
3201       That sparkled o'er the auburn of her hair--
3202     Her clustering hair, whose longer locks were roll'd
3203       In braids behind; and though her stature were
3204     Even of the highest for a female mould,
3205       They nearly reach'd her heel; and in her air
3206     There was a something which bespoke command,
3207     As one who was a lady in the land.
3208
3209     Her hair, I said, was auburn; but her eyes
3210       Were black as death, their lashes the same hue,
3211     Of downcast length, in whose silk shadow lies
3212       Deepest attraction; for when to the view
3213     Forth from its raven fringe the full glance flies,
3214       Ne'er with such force the swiftest arrow flew;
3215     'T is as the snake late coil'd, who pours his length,
3216     And hurls at once his venom and his strength.
3217
3218     Her brow was white and low, her cheek's pure dye
3219       Like twilight rosy still with the set sun;
3220     Short upper lip--sweet lips! that make us sigh
3221       Ever to have seen such; for she was one
3222     Fit for the model of a statuary
3223       (A race of mere impostors, when all 's done--
3224     I 've seen much finer women, ripe and real,
3225     Than all the nonsense of their stone ideal).
3226
3227     I 'll tell you why I say so, for 't is just
3228       One should not rail without a decent cause:
3229     There was an Irish lady, to whose bust
3230       I ne'er saw justice done, and yet she was
3231     A frequent model; and if e'er she must
3232       Yield to stern Time and Nature's wrinkling laws,
3233     They will destroy a face which mortal thought
3234     Ne'er compass'd, nor less mortal chisel wrought.
3235
3236     And such was she, the lady of the cave:
3237       Her dress was very different from the Spanish,
3238     Simpler, and yet of colours not so grave;
3239       For, as you know, the Spanish women banish
3240     Bright hues when out of doors, and yet, while wave
3241       Around them (what I hope will never vanish)
3242     The basquina and the mantilla, they
3243     Seem at the same time mystical and gay.
3244
3245     But with our damsel this was not the case:
3246       Her dress was many-colour'd, finely spun;
3247     Her locks curl'd negligently round her face,
3248       But through them gold and gems profusely shone:
3249     Her girdle sparkled, and the richest lace
3250       Flow'd in her veil, and many a precious stone
3251     Flash'd on her little hand; but, what was shocking,
3252     Her small snow feet had slippers, but no stocking.
3253
3254     The other female's dress was not unlike,
3255       But of inferior materials: she
3256     Had not so many ornaments to strike,
3257       Her hair had silver only, bound to be
3258     Her dowry; and her veil, in form alike,
3259       Was coarser; and her air, though firm, less free;
3260     Her hair was thicker, but less long; her eyes
3261     As black, but quicker, and of smaller size.
3262
3263     And these two tended him, and cheer'd him both
3264       With food and raiment, and those soft attentions,
3265     Which are (as I must own) of female growth,
3266       And have ten thousand delicate inventions:
3267     They made a most superior mess of broth,
3268       A thing which poesy but seldom mentions,
3269     But the best dish that e'er was cook'd since Homer's
3270     Achilles ordered dinner for new comers.
3271
3272     I 'll tell you who they were, this female pair,
3273       Lest they should seem princesses in disguise;
3274     Besides, I hate all mystery, and that air
3275       Of clap-trap which your recent poets prize;
3276     And so, in short, the girls they really were
3277       They shall appear before your curious eyes,
3278     Mistress and maid; the first was only daughter
3279     Of an old man who lived upon the water.
3280
3281     A fisherman he had been in his youth,
3282       And still a sort of fisherman was he;
3283     But other speculations were, in sooth,
3284       Added to his connection with the sea,
3285     Perhaps not so respectable, in truth:
3286       A little smuggling, and some piracy,
3287     Left him, at last, the sole of many masters
3288     Of an ill-gotten million of piastres.
3289
3290     A fisher, therefore, was he,--though of men,
3291       Like Peter the Apostle,--and he fish'd
3292     For wandering merchant-vessels, now and then,
3293       And sometimes caught as many as he wish'd;
3294     The cargoes he confiscated, and gain
3295       He sought in the slave-market too, and dish'd
3296     Full many a morsel for that Turkish trade,
3297     By which, no doubt, a good deal may be made.
3298
3299     He was a Greek, and on his isle had built
3300       (One of the wild and smaller Cyclades)
3301     A very handsome house from out his guilt,
3302       And there he lived exceedingly at ease;
3303     Heaven knows what cash he got or blood he spilt,
3304       A sad old fellow was he, if you please;
3305     But this I know, it was a spacious building,
3306     Full of barbaric carving, paint, and gilding.
3307
3308     He had an only daughter, call'd Haidee,
3309       The greatest heiress of the Eastern Isles;
3310     Besides, so very beautiful was she,
3311       Her dowry was as nothing to her smiles:
3312     Still in her teens, and like a lovely tree
3313       She grew to womanhood, and between whiles
3314     Rejected several suitors, just to learn
3315     How to accept a better in his turn.
3316
3317     And walking out upon the beach, below
3318       The cliff, towards sunset, on that day she found,
3319     Insensible,--not dead, but nearly so,--
3320       Don Juan, almost famish'd, and half drown'd;
3321     But being naked, she was shock'd, you know,
3322       Yet deem'd herself in common pity bound,
3323     As far as in her lay, 'to take him in,
3324     A stranger' dying, with so white a skin.
3325
3326     But taking him into her father's house
3327       Was not exactly the best way to save,
3328     But like conveying to the cat the mouse,
3329       Or people in a trance into their grave;
3330     Because the good old man had so much 'nous,'
3331       Unlike the honest Arab thieves so brave,
3332     He would have hospitably cured the stranger,
3333     And sold him instantly when out of danger.
3334
3335     And therefore, with her maid, she thought it best
3336       (A virgin always on her maid relies)
3337     To place him in the cave for present rest:
3338       And when, at last, he open'd his black eyes,
3339     Their charity increased about their guest;
3340       And their compassion grew to such a size,
3341     It open'd half the turnpike-gates to heaven
3342     (St. Paul says, 't is the toll which must be given).
3343
3344     They made a fire,--but such a fire as they
3345       Upon the moment could contrive with such
3346     Materials as were cast up round the bay,--
3347       Some broken planks, and oars, that to the touch
3348     Were nearly tinder, since so long they lay
3349       A mast was almost crumbled to a crutch;
3350     But, by God's grace, here wrecks were in such plenty,
3351     That there was fuel to have furnish'd twenty.
3352
3353     He had a bed of furs, and a pelisse,
3354       For Haidee stripped her sables off to make
3355     His couch; and, that he might be more at ease,
3356       And warm, in case by chance he should awake,
3357     They also gave a petticoat apiece,
3358       She and her maid--and promised by daybreak
3359     To pay him a fresh visit, with a dish
3360     For breakfast, of eggs, coffee, bread, and fish.
3361
3362     And thus they left him to his lone repose:
3363       Juan slept like a top, or like the dead,
3364     Who sleep at last, perhaps (God only knows),
3365       Just for the present; and in his lull'd head
3366     Not even a vision of his former woes
3367       Throbb'd in accursed dreams, which sometimes spread
3368     Unwelcome visions of our former years,
3369     Till the eye, cheated, opens thick with tears.
3370
3371     Young Juan slept all dreamless:--but the maid,
3372       Who smooth'd his pillow, as she left the den
3373     Look'd back upon him, and a moment stay'd,
3374       And turn'd, believing that he call'd again.
3375     He slumber'd; yet she thought, at least she said
3376       (The heart will slip, even as the tongue and pen),
3377     He had pronounced her name--but she forgot
3378     That at this moment Juan knew it not.
3379
3380     And pensive to her father's house she went,
3381       Enjoining silence strict to Zoe, who
3382     Better than her knew what, in fact, she meant,
3383       She being wiser by a year or two:
3384     A year or two 's an age when rightly spent,
3385       And Zoe spent hers, as most women do,
3386     In gaining all that useful sort of knowledge
3387     Which is acquired in Nature's good old college.
3388
3389     The morn broke, and found Juan slumbering still
3390       Fast in his cave, and nothing clash'd upon
3391     His rest; the rushing of the neighbouring rill,
3392       And the young beams of the excluded sun,
3393     Troubled him not, and he might sleep his fill;
3394       And need he had of slumber yet, for none
3395     Had suffer'd more--his hardships were comparative
3396     To those related in my grand-dad's 'Narrative.'
3397
3398     Not so Haidee: she sadly toss'd and tumbled,
3399       And started from her sleep, and, turning o'er
3400     Dream'd of a thousand wrecks, o'er which she stumbled,
3401       And handsome corpses strew'd upon the shore;
3402     And woke her maid so early that she grumbled,
3403       And call'd her father's old slaves up, who swore
3404     In several oaths--Armenian, Turk, and Greek--
3405     They knew not what to think of such a freak.
3406
3407     But up she got, and up she made them get,
3408       With some pretence about the sun, that makes
3409     Sweet skies just when he rises, or is set;
3410       And 't is, no doubt, a sight to see when breaks
3411     Bright Phoebus, while the mountains still are wet
3412       With mist, and every bird with him awakes,
3413     And night is flung off like a mourning suit
3414     Worn for a husband,--or some other brute.
3415
3416     I say, the sun is a most glorious sight,
3417       I 've seen him rise full oft, indeed of late
3418     I have sat up on purpose all the night,
3419       Which hastens, as physicians say, one's fate;
3420     And so all ye, who would be in the right
3421       In health and purse, begin your day to date
3422     From daybreak, and when coffin'd at fourscore,
3423     Engrave upon the plate, you rose at four.
3424
3425     And Haidee met the morning face to face;
3426       Her own was freshest, though a feverish flush
3427     Had dyed it with the headlong blood, whose race
3428       From heart to cheek is curb'd into a blush,
3429     Like to a torrent which a mountain's base,
3430       That overpowers some Alpine river's rush,
3431     Checks to a lake, whose waves in circles spread;
3432     Or the Red Sea--but the sea is not red.
3433
3434     And down the cliff the island virgin came,
3435       And near the cave her quick light footsteps drew,
3436     While the sun smiled on her with his first flame,
3437       And young Aurora kiss'd her lips with dew,
3438     Taking her for a sister; just the same
3439       Mistake you would have made on seeing the two,
3440     Although the mortal, quite as fresh and fair,
3441     Had all the advantage, too, of not being air.
3442
3443     And when into the cavern Haidee stepp'd
3444       All timidly, yet rapidly, she saw
3445     That like an infant Juan sweetly slept;
3446       And then she stopp'd, and stood as if in awe
3447     (For sleep is awful), and on tiptoe crept
3448       And wrapt him closer, lest the air, too raw,
3449     Should reach his blood, then o'er him still as death
3450     Bent with hush'd lips, that drank his scarce-drawn breath.
3451
3452     And thus like to an angel o'er the dying
3453       Who die in righteousness, she lean'd; and there
3454     All tranquilly the shipwreck'd boy was lying,
3455       As o'er him the calm and stirless air:
3456     But Zoe the meantime some eggs was frying,
3457       Since, after all, no doubt the youthful pair
3458     Must breakfast--and betimes, lest they should ask it,
3459     She drew out her provision from the basket.
3460
3461     She knew that the best feelings must have victual,
3462       And that a shipwreck'd youth would hungry be;
3463     Besides, being less in love, she yawn'd a little,
3464       And felt her veins chill'd by the neighbouring sea;
3465     And so, she cook'd their breakfast to a tittle;
3466       I can't say that she gave them any tea,
3467     But there were eggs, fruit, coffee, bread, fish, honey,
3468     With Scio wine,--and all for love, not money.
3469
3470     And Zoe, when the eggs were ready, and
3471       The coffee made, would fain have waken'd Juan;
3472     But Haidee stopp'd her with her quick small hand,
3473       And without word, a sign her finger drew on
3474     Her lip, which Zoe needs must understand;
3475       And, the first breakfast spoilt, prepared a new one,
3476     Because her mistress would not let her break
3477     That sleep which seem'd as it would ne'er awake.
3478
3479     For still he lay, and on his thin worn cheek
3480       A purple hectic play'd like dying day
3481     On the snow-tops of distant hills; the streak
3482       Of sufferance yet upon his forehead lay,
3483     Where the blue veins look'd shadowy, shrunk, and weak;
3484       And his black curls were dewy with the spray,
3485     Which weigh'd upon them yet, all damp and salt,
3486     Mix'd with the stony vapours of the vault.
3487
3488     And she bent o'er him, and he lay beneath,
3489       Hush'd as the babe upon its mother's breast,
3490     Droop'd as the willow when no winds can breathe,
3491       Lull'd like the depth of ocean when at rest,
3492     Fair as the crowning rose of the whole wreath,
3493       Soft as the callow cygnet in its nest;
3494     In short, he was a very pretty fellow,
3495     Although his woes had turn'd him rather yellow.
3496
3497     He woke and gazed, and would have slept again,
3498       But the fair face which met his eyes forbade
3499     Those eyes to close, though weariness and pain
3500       Had further sleep a further pleasure made;
3501     For woman's face was never form'd in vain
3502       For Juan, so that even when he pray'd
3503     He turn'd from grisly saints, and martyrs hairy,
3504     To the sweet portraits of the Virgin Mary.
3505
3506     And thus upon his elbow he arose,
3507       And look'd upon the lady, in whose cheek
3508     The pale contended with the purple rose,
3509       As with an effort she began to speak;
3510     Her eyes were eloquent, her words would pose,
3511       Although she told him, in good modern Greek,
3512     With an Ionian accent, low and sweet,
3513     That he was faint, and must not talk, but eat.
3514
3515     Now Juan could not understand a word,
3516       Being no Grecian; but he had an ear,
3517     And her voice was the warble of a bird,
3518       So soft, so sweet, so delicately clear,
3519     That finer, simpler music ne'er was heard;
3520       The sort of sound we echo with a tear,
3521     Without knowing why--an overpowering tone,
3522     Whence Melody descends as from a throne.
3523
3524     And Juan gazed as one who is awoke
3525       By a distant organ, doubting if he be
3526     Not yet a dreamer, till the spell is broke
3527       By the watchman, or some such reality,
3528     Or by one's early valet's cursed knock;
3529       At least it is a heavy sound to me,
3530     Who like a morning slumber--for the night
3531     Shows stars and women in a better light.
3532
3533     And Juan, too, was help'd out from his dream,
3534       Or sleep, or whatso'er it was, by feeling
3535     A most prodigious appetite: the steam
3536       Of Zoe's cookery no doubt was stealing
3537     Upon his senses, and the kindling beam
3538       Of the new fire, which Zoe kept up, kneeling
3539     To stir her viands, made him quite awake
3540     And long for food, but chiefly a beef-steak.
3541
3542     But beef is rare within these oxless isles;
3543       Goat's flesh there is, no doubt, and kid, and mutton;
3544     And, when a holiday upon them smiles,
3545       A joint upon their barbarous spits they put on:
3546     But this occurs but seldom, between whiles,
3547       For some of these are rocks with scarce a hut on;
3548     Others are fair and fertile, among which
3549     This, though not large, was one of the most rich.
3550
3551     I say that beef is rare, and can't help thinking
3552       That the old fable of the Minotaur--
3553     From which our modern morals rightly shrinking
3554       Condemn the royal lady's taste who wore
3555     A cow's shape for a mask--was only (sinking
3556       The allegory) a mere type, no more,
3557     That Pasiphae promoted breeding cattle,
3558     To make the Cretans bloodier in battle.
3559
3560     For we all know that English people are
3561       Fed upon beef--I won't say much of beer,
3562     Because 't is liquor only, and being far
3563       From this my subject, has no business here;
3564     We know, too, they very fond of war,
3565       A pleasure--like all pleasures--rather dear;
3566     So were the Cretans--from which I infer
3567     That beef and battles both were owing to her.
3568
3569     But to resume. The languid Juan raised
3570       His head upon his elbow, and he saw
3571     A sight on which he had not lately gazed,
3572       As all his latter meals had been quite raw,
3573     Three or four things, for which the Lord he praised,
3574       And, feeling still the famish'd vulture gnaw,
3575     He fell upon whate'er was offer'd, like
3576     A priest, a shark, an alderman, or pike.
3577
3578     He ate, and he was well supplied: and she,
3579       Who watch'd him like a mother, would have fed
3580     Him past all bounds, because she smiled to see
3581       Such appetite in one she had deem'd dead;
3582     But Zoe, being older than Haidee,
3583       Knew (by tradition, for she ne'er had read)
3584     That famish'd people must be slowly nurst,
3585     And fed by spoonfuls, else they always burst.
3586
3587     And so she took the liberty to state,
3588       Rather by deeds than words, because the case
3589     Was urgent, that the gentleman, whose fate
3590       Had made her mistress quit her bed to trace
3591     The sea-shore at this hour, must leave his plate,
3592       Unless he wish'd to die upon the place--
3593     She snatch'd it, and refused another morsel,
3594     Saying, he had gorged enough to make a horse ill.
3595
3596     Next they--he being naked, save a tatter'd
3597       Pair of scarce decent trowsers--went to work,
3598     And in the fire his recent rags they scatter'd,
3599       And dress'd him, for the present, like a Turk,
3600     Or Greek--that is, although it not much matter'd,
3601       Omitting turban, slippers, pistols, dirk,--
3602     They furnish'd him, entire, except some stitches,
3603     With a clean shirt, and very spacious breeches.
3604
3605     And then fair Haidee tried her tongue at speaking,
3606       But not a word could Juan comprehend,
3607     Although he listen'd so that the young Greek in
3608       Her earnestness would ne'er have made an end;
3609     And, as he interrupted not, went eking
3610       Her speech out to her protege and friend,
3611     Till pausing at the last her breath to take,
3612     She saw he did not understand Romaic.
3613
3614     And then she had recourse to nods, and signs,
3615       And smiles, and sparkles of the speaking eye,
3616     And read (the only book she could) the lines
3617       Of his fair face, and found, by sympathy,
3618     The answer eloquent, where soul shines
3619       And darts in one quick glance a long reply;
3620     And thus in every look she saw exprest
3621     A world of words, and things at which she guess'd.
3622
3623     And now, by dint of fingers and of eyes,
3624       And words repeated after her, he took
3625     A lesson in her tongue; but by surmise,
3626       No doubt, less of her language than her look:
3627     As he who studies fervently the skies
3628       Turns oftener to the stars than to his book,
3629     Thus Juan learn'd his alpha beta better
3630     From Haidee's glance than any graven letter.
3631
3632     'T is pleasing to be school'd in a strange tongue
3633       By female lips and eyes--that is, I mean,
3634     When both the teacher and the taught are young,
3635       As was the case, at least, where I have been;
3636     They smile so when one 's right, and when one 's wrong
3637       They smile still more, and then there intervene
3638     Pressure of hands, perhaps even a chaste kiss;--
3639     I learn'd the little that I know by this:
3640
3641     That is, some words of Spanish, Turk, and Greek,
3642       Italian not at all, having no teachers;
3643     Much English I cannot pretend to speak,
3644       Learning that language chiefly from its preachers,
3645     Barrow, South, Tillotson, whom every week
3646       I study, also Blair, the highest reachers
3647     Of eloquence in piety and prose--
3648     I hate your poets, so read none of those.
3649
3650     As for the ladies, I have nought to say,
3651       A wanderer from the British world of fashion,
3652     Where I, like other 'dogs, have had my day,'
3653       Like other men, too, may have had my passion--
3654     But that, like other things, has pass'd away,
3655       And all her fools whom I could lay the lash on:
3656     Foes, friends, men, women, now are nought to me
3657     But dreams of what has been, no more to be.
3658
3659     Return we to Don Juan. He begun
3660       To hear new words, and to repeat them; but
3661     Some feelings, universal as the sun,
3662       Were such as could not in his breast be shut
3663     More than within the bosom of a nun:
3664       He was in love,--as you would be, no doubt,
3665     With a young benefactress,--so was she,
3666     Just in the way we very often see.
3667
3668     And every day by daybreak--rather early
3669       For Juan, who was somewhat fond of rest--
3670     She came into the cave, but it was merely
3671       To see her bird reposing in his nest;
3672     And she would softly stir his locks so curly,
3673       Without disturbing her yet slumbering guest,
3674     Breathing all gently o'er his cheek and mouth,
3675     As o'er a bed of roses the sweet south.
3676
3677     And every morn his colour freshlier came,
3678       And every day help'd on his convalescence;
3679     'T was well, because health in the human frame
3680       Is pleasant, besides being true love's essence,
3681     For health and idleness to passion's flame
3682       Are oil and gunpowder; and some good lessons
3683     Are also learnt from Ceres and from Bacchus,
3684     Without whom Venus will not long attack us.
3685
3686     While Venus fills the heart (without heart really
3687       Love, though good always, is not quite so good),
3688     Ceres presents a plate of vermicelli,--
3689       For love must be sustain'd like flesh and blood,--
3690     While Bacchus pours out wine, or hands a jelly:
3691       Eggs, oysters, too, are amatory food;
3692     But who is their purveyor from above
3693     Heaven knows,--it may be Neptune, Pan, or Jove.
3694
3695     When Juan woke he found some good things ready,
3696       A bath, a breakfast, and the finest eyes
3697     That ever made a youthful heart less steady,
3698       Besides her maid's as pretty for their size;
3699     But I have spoken of all this already--
3700       And repetition 's tiresome and unwise,--
3701     Well--Juan, after bathing in the sea,
3702     Came always back to coffee and Haidee.
3703
3704     Both were so young, and one so innocent,
3705       That bathing pass'd for nothing; Juan seem'd
3706     To her, as 'twere, the kind of being sent,
3707       Of whom these two years she had nightly dream'd,
3708     A something to be loved, a creature meant
3709       To be her happiness, and whom she deem'd
3710     To render happy; all who joy would win
3711     Must share it,--Happiness was born a twin.
3712
3713     It was such pleasure to behold him, such
3714       Enlargement of existence to partake
3715     Nature with him, to thrill beneath his touch,
3716       To watch him slumbering, and to see him wake:
3717     To live with him forever were too much;
3718       But then the thought of parting made her quake;
3719     He was her own, her ocean-treasure, cast
3720     Like a rich wreck--her first love, and her last.
3721
3722     And thus a moon roll'd on, and fair Haidee
3723       Paid daily visits to her boy, and took
3724     Such plentiful precautions, that still he
3725       Remain'd unknown within his craggy nook;
3726     At last her father's prows put out to sea
3727       For certain merchantmen upon the look,
3728     Not as of yore to carry off an Io,
3729     But three Ragusan vessels, bound for Scio.
3730
3731     Then came her freedom, for she had no mother,
3732       So that, her father being at sea, she was
3733     Free as a married woman, or such other
3734       Female, as where she likes may freely pass,
3735     Without even the incumbrance of a brother,
3736       The freest she that ever gazed on glass;
3737     I speak of Christian lands in this comparison,
3738     Where wives, at least, are seldom kept in garrison.
3739
3740     Now she prolong'd her visits and her talk
3741       (For they must talk), and he had learnt to say
3742     So much as to propose to take a walk,--
3743       For little had he wander'd since the day
3744     On which, like a young flower snapp'd from the stalk,
3745       Drooping and dewy on the beach he lay,--
3746     And thus they walk'd out in the afternoon,
3747     And saw the sun set opposite the moon.
3748
3749     It was a wild and breaker-beaten coast,
3750       With cliffs above, and a broad sandy shore,
3751     Guarded by shoals and rocks as by an host,
3752       With here and there a creek, whose aspect wore
3753     A better welcome to the tempest-tost;
3754       And rarely ceased the haughty billow's roar,
3755     Save on the dead long summer days, which make
3756     The outstretch'd ocean glitter like a lake.
3757
3758     And the small ripple spilt upon the beach
3759       Scarcely o'erpass'd the cream of your champagne,
3760     When o'er the brim the sparkling bumpers reach,
3761       That spring-dew of the spirit! the heart's rain!
3762     Few things surpass old wine; and they may preach
3763       Who please,--the more because they preach in vain,--
3764     Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
3765     Sermons and soda-water the day after.
3766
3767     Man, being reasonable, must get drunk;
3768       The best of life is but intoxication:
3769     Glory, the grape, love, gold, in these are sunk
3770       The hopes of all men, and of every nation;
3771     Without their sap, how branchless were the trunk
3772       Of life's strange tree, so fruitful on occasion:
3773     But to return,--Get very drunk; and when
3774     You wake with headache, you shall see what then.
3775
3776     Ring for your valet--bid him quickly bring
3777       Some hock and soda-water, then you 'll know
3778     A pleasure worthy Xerxes the great king;
3779       For not the bless'd sherbet, sublimed with snow,
3780     Nor the first sparkle of the desert-spring,
3781       Nor Burgundy in all its sunset glow,
3782     After long travel, ennui, love, or slaughter,
3783     Vie with that draught of hock and soda-water.
3784
3785     The coast--I think it was the coast that
3786       Was just describing--Yes, it was the coast--
3787     Lay at this period quiet as the sky,
3788       The sands untumbled, the blue waves untost,
3789     And all was stillness, save the sea-bird's cry,
3790       And dolphin's leap, and little billow crost
3791     By some low rock or shelve, that made it fret
3792     Against the boundary it scarcely wet.
3793
3794     And forth they wander'd, her sire being gone,
3795       As I have said, upon an expedition;
3796     And mother, brother, guardian, she had none,
3797       Save Zoe, who, although with due precision
3798     She waited on her lady with the sun,
3799       Thought daily service was her only mission,
3800     Bringing warm water, wreathing her long tresses,
3801     And asking now and then for cast-off dresses.
3802
3803     It was the cooling hour, just when the rounded
3804       Red sun sinks down behind the azure hill,
3805     Which then seems as if the whole earth it bounded,
3806       Circling all nature, hush'd, and dim, and still,
3807     With the far mountain-crescent half surrounded
3808       On one side, and the deep sea calm and chill
3809     Upon the other, and the rosy sky,
3810     With one star sparkling through it like an eye.
3811
3812     And thus they wander'd forth, and hand in hand,
3813       Over the shining pebbles and the shells,
3814     Glided along the smooth and harden'd sand,
3815       And in the worn and wild receptacles
3816     Work'd by the storms, yet work'd as it were plann'd,
3817       In hollow halls, with sparry roofs and cells,
3818     They turn'd to rest; and, each clasp'd by an arm,
3819     Yielded to the deep twilight's purple charm.
3820
3821     They look'd up to the sky, whose floating glow
3822       Spread like a rosy ocean, vast and bright;
3823     They gazed upon the glittering sea below,
3824       Whence the broad moon rose circling into sight;
3825     They heard the wave's splash, and the wind so low,
3826       And saw each other's dark eyes darting light
3827     Into each other--and, beholding this,
3828     Their lips drew near, and clung into a kiss;
3829
3830     A long, long kiss, a kiss of youth, and love,
3831       And beauty, all concentrating like rays
3832     Into one focus, kindled from above;
3833       Such kisses as belong to early days,
3834     Where heart, and soul, and sense, in concert move,
3835       And the blood 's lava, and the pulse a blaze,
3836     Each kiss a heart-quake,--for a kiss's strength,
3837     I think, it must be reckon'd by its length.
3838
3839     By length I mean duration; theirs endured
3840       Heaven knows how long--no doubt they never reckon'd;
3841     And if they had, they could not have secured
3842       The sum of their sensations to a second:
3843     They had not spoken; but they felt allured,
3844       As if their souls and lips each other beckon'd,
3845     Which, being join'd, like swarming bees they clung--
3846     Their hearts the flowers from whence the honey sprung.
3847
3848     They were alone, but not alone as they
3849       Who shut in chambers think it loneliness;
3850     The silent ocean, and the starlight bay,
3851       The twilight glow which momently grew less,
3852     The voiceless sands and dropping caves, that lay
3853       Around them, made them to each other press,
3854     As if there were no life beneath the sky
3855     Save theirs, and that their life could never die.
3856
3857     They fear'd no eyes nor ears on that lone beach,
3858       They felt no terrors from the night, they were
3859     All in all to each other: though their speech
3860       Was broken words, they thought a language there,--
3861     And all the burning tongues the passions teach
3862       Found in one sigh the best interpreter
3863     Of nature's oracle--first love,--that all
3864     Which Eve has left her daughters since her fall.
3865
3866     Haidde spoke not of scruples, ask'd no vows,
3867       Nor offer'd any; she had never heard
3868     Of plight and promises to be a spouse,
3869       Or perils by a loving maid incurr'd;
3870     She was all which pure ignorance allows,
3871       And flew to her young mate like a young bird;
3872     And, never having dreamt of falsehood, she
3873     Had not one word to say of constancy.
3874
3875     She loved, and was beloved--she adored,
3876       And she was worshipp'd; after nature's fashion,
3877     Their intense souls, into each other pour'd,
3878       If souls could die, had perish'd in that passion,--
3879     But by degrees their senses were restored,
3880       Again to be o'ercome, again to dash on;
3881     And, beating 'gainst his bosom, Haidee's heart
3882     Felt as if never more to beat apart.
3883
3884     Alas! they were so young, so beautiful,
3885       So lonely, loving, helpless, and the hour
3886     Was that in which the heart is always full,
3887       And, having o'er itself no further power,
3888     Prompts deeds eternity can not annul,
3889       But pays off moments in an endless shower
3890     Of hell-fire--all prepared for people giving
3891     Pleasure or pain to one another living.
3892
3893     Alas! for Juan and Haidee! they were
3894       So loving and so lovely--till then never,
3895     Excepting our first parents, such a pair
3896       Had run the risk of being damn'd for ever;
3897     And Haidee, being devout as well as fair,
3898       Had, doubtless, heard about the Stygian river,
3899     And hell and purgatory--but forgot
3900     Just in the very crisis she should not.
3901
3902     They look upon each other, and their eyes
3903       Gleam in the moonlight; and her white arm clasps
3904     Round Juan's head, and his around her lies
3905       Half buried in the tresses which it grasps;
3906     She sits upon his knee, and drinks his sighs,
3907       He hers, until they end in broken gasps;
3908     And thus they form a group that 's quite antique,
3909     Half naked, loving, natural, and Greek.
3910
3911     And when those deep and burning moments pass'd,
3912       And Juan sunk to sleep within her arms,
3913     She slept not, but all tenderly, though fast,
3914       Sustain'd his head upon her bosom's charms;
3915     And now and then her eye to heaven is cast,
3916       And then on the pale cheek her breast now warms,
3917     Pillow'd on her o'erflowing heart, which pants
3918     With all it granted, and with all it grants.
3919
3920     An infant when it gazes on a light,
3921       A child the moment when it drains the breast,
3922     A devotee when soars the Host in sight,
3923       An Arab with a stranger for a guest,
3924     A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,
3925       A miser filling his most hoarded chest,
3926     Feel rapture; but not such true joy are reaping
3927     As they who watch o'er what they love while sleeping.
3928
3929     For there it lies so tranquil, so beloved,
3930       All that it hath of life with us is living;
3931     So gentle, stirless, helpless, and unmoved,
3932       And all unconscious of the joy 't is giving;
3933     All it hath felt, inflicted, pass'd, and proved,
3934       Hush'd into depths beyond the watcher's diving:
3935     There lies the thing we love with all its errors
3936     And all its charms, like death without its terrors.
3937
3938     The lady watch'd her lover--and that hour
3939       Of Love's, and Night's, and Ocean's solitude,
3940     O'erflow'd her soul with their united power;
3941       Amidst the barren sand and rocks so rude
3942     She and her wave-worn love had made their bower,
3943       Where nought upon their passion could intrude,
3944     And all the stars that crowded the blue space
3945     Saw nothing happier than her glowing face.
3946
3947     Alas! the love of women! it is known
3948       To be a lovely and a fearful thing;
3949     For all of theirs upon that die is thrown,
3950       And if 't is lost, life hath no more to bring
3951     To them but mockeries of the past alone,
3952       And their revenge is as the tiger's spring,
3953     Deadly, and quick, and crushing; yet, as real
3954     Torture is theirs, what they inflict they feel.
3955
3956     They are right; for man, to man so oft unjust,
3957       Is always so to women; one sole bond
3958     Awaits them, treachery is all their trust;
3959       Taught to conceal, their bursting hearts despond
3960     Over their idol, till some wealthier lust
3961       Buys them in marriage--and what rests beyond?
3962     A thankless husband, next a faithless lover,
3963     Then dressing, nursing, praying, and all 's over.
3964
3965     Some take a lover, some take drams or prayers,
3966       Some mind their household, others dissipation,
3967     Some run away, and but exchange their cares,
3968       Losing the advantage of a virtuous station;
3969     Few changes e'er can better their affairs,
3970       Theirs being an unnatural situation,
3971     From the dull palace to the dirty hovel:
3972     Some play the devil, and then write a novel.
3973
3974     Haidee was Nature's bride, and knew not this;
3975       Haidee was Passion's child, born where the sun
3976     Showers triple light, and scorches even the kiss
3977       Of his gazelle-eyed daughters; she was one
3978     Made but to love, to feel that she was his
3979       Who was her chosen: what was said or done
3980     Elsewhere was nothing. She had naught to fear,
3981     Hope, care, nor love, beyond, her heart beat here.
3982
3983     And oh! that quickening of the heart, that beat!
3984       How much it costs us! yet each rising throb
3985     Is in its cause as its effect so sweet,
3986       That Wisdom, ever on the watch to rob
3987     Joy of its alchymy, and to repeat
3988       Fine truths; even Conscience, too, has a tough job
3989     To make us understand each good old maxim,
3990     So good--I wonder Castlereagh don't tax 'em.
3991
3992     And now 't was done--on the lone shore were plighted
3993       Their hearts; the stars, their nuptial torches, shed
3994     Beauty upon the beautiful they lighted:
3995       Ocean their witness, and the cave their bed,
3996     By their own feelings hallow'd and united,
3997       Their priest was Solitude, and they were wed:
3998     And they were happy, for to their young eyes
3999     Each was an angel, and earth paradise.
4000
4001     O, Love! of whom great Caesar was the suitor,
4002       Titus the master, Antony the slave,
4003     Horace, Catullus, scholars, Ovid tutor,
4004       Sappho the sage blue-stocking, in whose grave
4005     All those may leap who rather would be neuter
4006       (Leucadia's rock still overlooks the wave)--
4007     O, Love! thou art the very god of evil,
4008     For, after all, we cannot call thee devil.
4009
4010     Thou mak'st the chaste connubial state precarious,
4011       And jestest with the brows of mightiest men:
4012     Caesar and Pompey, Mahomet, Belisarius,
4013       Have much employ'd the muse of history's pen;
4014     Their lives and fortunes were extremely various,
4015       Such worthies Time will never see again;
4016     Yet to these four in three things the same luck holds,
4017     They all were heroes, conquerors, and cuckolds.
4018
4019     Thou mak'st philosophers; there 's Epicurus
4020       And Aristippus, a material crew!
4021     Who to immoral courses would allure us
4022       By theories quite practicable too;
4023     If only from the devil they would insure us,
4024       How pleasant were the maxim (not quite new),
4025     'Eat, drink, and love, what can the rest avail us?'
4026     So said the royal sage Sardanapalus.
4027
4028     But Juan! had he quite forgotten Julia?
4029       And should he have forgotten her so soon?
4030     I can't but say it seems to me most truly
4031       Perplexing question; but, no doubt, the moon
4032     Does these things for us, and whenever newly
4033       Strong palpitation rises, 't is her boon,
4034     Else how the devil is it that fresh features
4035     Have such a charm for us poor human creatures?
4036
4037     I hate inconstancy--I loathe, detest,
4038       Abhor, condemn, abjure the mortal made
4039     Of such quicksilver clay that in his breast
4040       No permanent foundation can be laid;
4041     Love, constant love, has been my constant guest,
4042       And yet last night, being at a masquerade,
4043     I saw the prettiest creature, fresh from Milan,
4044     Which gave me some sensations like a villain.
4045
4046     But soon Philosophy came to my aid,
4047       And whisper'd, 'Think of every sacred tie!'
4048     'I will, my dear Philosophy!' I said,
4049       'But then her teeth, and then, oh, Heaven! her eye!
4050     I'll just inquire if she be wife or maid,
4051       Or neither--out of curiosity.'
4052     'Stop!' cried Philosophy, with air so Grecian
4053     (Though she was masqued then as a fair Venetian);
4054
4055     'Stop!' so I stopp'd.--But to return: that which
4056       Men call inconstancy is nothing more
4057     Than admiration due where nature's rich
4058       Profusion with young beauty covers o'er
4059     Some favour'd object; and as in the niche
4060       A lovely statue we almost adore,
4061     This sort of adoration of the real
4062     Is but a heightening of the 'beau ideal.'
4063
4064     'T is the perception of the beautiful,
4065       A fine extension of the faculties,
4066     Platonic, universal, wonderful,
4067       Drawn from the stars, and filter'd through the skies,
4068     Without which life would be extremely dull;
4069       In short, it is the use of our own eyes,
4070     With one or two small senses added, just
4071     To hint that flesh is form'd of fiery dust.
4072
4073     Yet 't is a painful feeling, and unwilling,
4074       For surely if we always could perceive
4075     In the same object graces quite as killing
4076       As when she rose upon us like an Eve,
4077     'T would save us many a heartache, many a shilling
4078       (For we must get them any how or grieve),
4079     Whereas if one sole lady pleased for ever,
4080     How pleasant for the heart as well as liver!
4081
4082     The heart is like the sky, a part of heaven,
4083       But changes night and day, too, like the sky;
4084     Now o'er it clouds and thunder must be driven,
4085       And darkness and destruction as on high:
4086     But when it hath been scorch'd, and pierced, and riven,
4087       Its storms expire in water-drops; the eye
4088     Pours forth at last the heart's blood turn'd to tears,
4089     Which make the English climate of our years.
4090
4091     The liver is the lazaret of bile,
4092       But very rarely executes its function,
4093     For the first passion stays there such a while,
4094       That all the rest creep in and form a junction,
4095     Life knots of vipers on a dunghill's soil,--
4096       Rage, fear, hate, jealousy, revenge, compunction,--
4097     So that all mischiefs spring up from this entrail,
4098     Like earthquakes from the hidden fire call'd 'central,'
4099
4100     In the mean time, without proceeding more
4101       In this anatomy, I 've finish'd now
4102     Two hundred and odd stanzas as before,
4103       That being about the number I 'll allow
4104     Each canto of the twelve, or twenty-four;
4105       And, laying down my pen, I make my bow,
4106     Leaving Don Juan and Haidee to plead
4107     For them and theirs with all who deign to read.
4108
4109
4110CANTO THE THIRD.
4111
4112     Hail, Muse! et cetera.--We left Juan sleeping,
4113       Pillow'd upon a fair and happy breast,
4114     And watch'd by eyes that never yet knew weeping,
4115       And loved by a young heart, too deeply blest
4116     To feel the poison through her spirit creeping,
4117       Or know who rested there, a foe to rest,
4118     Had soil'd the current of her sinless years,
4119     And turn'd her pure heart's purest blood to tears!
4120
4121     O, Love! what is it in this world of ours
4122       Which makes it fatal to be loved? Ah, why
4123     With cypress branches hast thou Wreathed thy bowers,
4124       And made thy best interpreter a sigh?
4125     As those who dote on odours pluck the flowers,
4126       And place them on their breast--but place to die--
4127     Thus the frail beings we would fondly cherish
4128     Are laid within our bosoms but to perish.
4129
4130     In her first passion woman loves her lover,
4131       In all the others all she loves is love,
4132     Which grows a habit she can ne'er get over,
4133       And fits her loosely--like an easy glove,
4134     As you may find, whene'er you like to prove her:
4135       One man alone at first her heart can move;
4136     She then prefers him in the plural number,
4137     Not finding that the additions much encumber.
4138
4139     I know not if the fault be men's or theirs;
4140       But one thing 's pretty sure; a woman planted
4141     (Unless at once she plunge for life in prayers)
4142       After a decent time must be gallanted;
4143     Although, no doubt, her first of love affairs
4144       Is that to which her heart is wholly granted;
4145     Yet there are some, they say, who have had none,
4146     But those who have ne'er end with only one.
4147
4148     'T is melancholy, and a fearful sign
4149       Of human frailty, folly, also crime,
4150     That love and marriage rarely can combine,
4151       Although they both are born in the same clime;
4152     Marriage from love, like vinegar from wine--
4153       A sad, sour, sober beverage--by time
4154     Is sharpen'd from its high celestial flavour
4155     Down to a very homely household savour.
4156
4157     There 's something of antipathy, as 't were,
4158       Between their present and their future state;
4159     A kind of flattery that 's hardly fair
4160       Is used until the truth arrives too late--
4161     Yet what can people do, except despair?
4162       The same things change their names at such a rate;
4163     For instance--passion in a lover 's glorious,
4164     But in a husband is pronounced uxorious.
4165
4166     Men grow ashamed of being so very fond;
4167       They sometimes also get a little tired
4168     (But that, of course, is rare), and then despond:
4169       The same things cannot always be admired,
4170     Yet 't is 'so nominated in the bond,'
4171       That both are tied till one shall have expired.
4172     Sad thought! to lose the spouse that was adorning
4173     Our days, and put one's servants into mourning.
4174
4175     There 's doubtless something in domestic doings
4176       Which forms, in fact, true love's antithesis;
4177     Romances paint at full length people's wooings,
4178       But only give a bust of marriages;
4179     For no one cares for matrimonial cooings,
4180       There 's nothing wrong in a connubial kiss:
4181     Think you, if Laura had been Petrarch's wife,
4182     He would have written sonnets all his life?
4183
4184     All tragedies are finish'd by a death,
4185       All comedies are ended by a marriage;
4186     The future states of both are left to faith,
4187       For authors fear description might disparage
4188     The worlds to come of both, or fall beneath,
4189       And then both worlds would punish their miscarriage;
4190     So leaving each their priest and prayer-book ready,
4191     They say no more of Death or of the Lady.
4192
4193     The only two that in my recollection
4194       Have sung of heaven and hell, or marriage, are
4195     Dante and Milton, and of both the affection
4196       Was hapless in their nuptials, for some bar
4197     Of fault or temper ruin'd the connection
4198       (Such things, in fact, it don't ask much to mar):
4199     But Dante's Beatrice and Milton's Eve
4200     Were not drawn from their spouses, you conceive.
4201
4202     Some persons say that Dante meant theology
4203       By Beatrice, and not a mistress--I,
4204     Although my opinion may require apology,
4205       Deem this a commentator's fantasy,
4206     Unless indeed it was from his own knowledge he
4207       Decided thus, and show'd good reason why;
4208     I think that Dante's more abstruse ecstatics
4209     Meant to personify the mathematics.
4210
4211     Haidee and Juan were not married, but
4212       The fault was theirs, not mine; it is not fair,
4213     Chaste reader, then, in any way to put
4214       The blame on me, unless you wish they were;
4215     Then if you 'd have them wedded, please to shut
4216       The book which treats of this erroneous pair,
4217     Before the consequences grow too awful;
4218     'T is dangerous to read of loves unlawful.
4219
4220     Yet they were happy,--happy in the illicit
4221       Indulgence of their innocent desires;
4222     But more imprudent grown with every visit,
4223       Haidee forgot the island was her sire's;
4224     When we have what we like, 't is hard to miss it,
4225       At least in the beginning, ere one tires;
4226     Thus she came often, not a moment losing,
4227     Whilst her piratical papa was cruising.
4228
4229     Let not his mode of raising cash seem strange,
4230       Although he fleeced the flags of every nation,
4231     For into a prime minister but change
4232       His title, and 't is nothing but taxation;
4233     But he, more modest, took an humbler range
4234       Of life, and in an honester vocation
4235     Pursued o'er the high seas his watery journey,
4236     And merely practised as a sea-attorney.
4237
4238     The good old gentleman had been detain'd
4239       By winds and waves, and some important captures;
4240     And, in the hope of more, at sea remain'd,
4241       Although a squall or two had damp'd his raptures,
4242     By swamping one of the prizes; he had chain'd
4243       His prisoners, dividing them like chapters
4244     In number'd lots; they all had cuffs and collars,
4245     And averaged each from ten to a hundred dollars.
4246
4247     Some he disposed of off Cape Matapan,
4248       Among his friends the Mainots; some he sold
4249     To his Tunis correspondents, save one man
4250       Toss'd overboard unsaleable (being old);
4251     The rest--save here and there some richer one,
4252       Reserved for future ransom--in the hold
4253     Were link'd alike, as for the common people he
4254     Had a large order from the Dey of Tripoli.
4255
4256     The merchandise was served in the same way,
4257       Pieced out for different marts in the Levant;
4258     Except some certain portions of the prey,
4259       Light classic articles of female want,
4260     French stuffs, lace, tweezers, toothpicks, teapot, tray,
4261       Guitars and castanets from Alicant,
4262     All which selected from the spoil he gathers,
4263     Robb'd for his daughter by the best of fathers.
4264
4265     A monkey, a Dutch mastiff, a mackaw,
4266       Two parrots, with a Persian cat and kittens,
4267     He chose from several animals he saw--
4268       A terrier, too, which once had been a Briton's,
4269     Who dying on the coast of Ithaca,
4270       The peasants gave the poor dumb thing a pittance;
4271     These to secure in this strong blowing weather,
4272     He caged in one huge hamper altogether.
4273
4274     Then having settled his marine affairs,
4275       Despatching single cruisers here and there,
4276     His vessel having need of some repairs,
4277       He shaped his course to where his daughter fair
4278     Continued still her hospitable cares;
4279       But that part of the coast being shoal and bare,
4280     And rough with reefs which ran out many a mile,
4281     His port lay on the other side o' the isle.
4282
4283     And there he went ashore without delay,
4284       Having no custom-house nor quarantine
4285     To ask him awkward questions on the way
4286       About the time and place where he had been:
4287     He left his ship to be hove down next day,
4288       With orders to the people to careen;
4289     So that all hands were busy beyond measure,
4290     In getting out goods, ballast, guns, and treasure.
4291
4292     Arriving at the summit of a hill
4293       Which overlook'd the white walls of his home,
4294     He stopp'd.--What singular emotions fill
4295       Their bosoms who have been induced to roam!
4296     With fluttering doubts if all be well or ill--
4297       With love for many, and with fears for some;
4298     All feelings which o'erleap the years long lost,
4299     And bring our hearts back to their starting-post.
4300
4301     The approach of home to husbands and to sires,
4302       After long travelling by land or water,
4303     Most naturally some small doubt inspires--
4304       A female family 's a serious matter
4305     (None trusts the sex more, or so much admires--
4306       But they hate flattery, so I never flatter);
4307     Wives in their husbands' absences grow subtler,
4308     And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.
4309
4310     An honest gentleman at his return
4311       May not have the good fortune of Ulysses;
4312     Not all lone matrons for their husbands mourn,
4313       Or show the same dislike to suitors' kisses;
4314     The odds are that he finds a handsome urn
4315       To his memory--and two or three young misses
4316     Born to some friend, who holds his wife and riches,--
4317     And that his Argus--bites him by the breeches.
4318
4319     If single, probably his plighted fair
4320       Has in his absence wedded some rich miser;
4321     But all the better, for the happy pair
4322       May quarrel, and the lady growing wiser,
4323     He may resume his amatory care
4324       As cavalier servente, or despise her;
4325     And that his sorrow may not be a dumb one,
4326     Write odes on the Inconstancy of Woman.
4327
4328     And oh! ye gentlemen who have already
4329       Some chaste liaison of the kind--I mean
4330     An honest friendship with a married lady--
4331       The only thing of this sort ever seen
4332     To last--of all connections the most steady,
4333       And the true Hymen (the first 's but a screen)--
4334     Yet for all that keep not too long away,
4335     I 've known the absent wrong'd four times a day.
4336
4337     Lambro, our sea-solicitor, who had
4338       Much less experience of dry land than ocean,
4339     On seeing his own chimney-smoke, felt glad;
4340       But not knowing metaphysics, had no notion
4341     Of the true reason of his not being sad,
4342       Or that of any other strong emotion;
4343     He loved his child, and would have wept the loss of her,
4344     But knew the cause no more than a philosopher.
4345
4346     He saw his white walls shining in the sun,
4347       His garden trees all shadowy and green;
4348     He heard his rivulet's light bubbling run,
4349       The distant dog-bark; and perceived between
4350     The umbrage of the wood so cool and dun
4351       The moving figures, and the sparkling sheen
4352     Of arms (in the East all arm)--and various dyes
4353     Of colour'd garbs, as bright as butterflies.
4354
4355     And as the spot where they appear he nears,
4356       Surprised at these unwonted signs of idling,
4357     He hears--alas! no music of the spheres,
4358       But an unhallow'd, earthly sound of fiddling!
4359     A melody which made him doubt his ears,
4360       The cause being past his guessing or unriddling;
4361     A pipe, too, and a drum, and shortly after,
4362     A most unoriental roar of laughter.
4363
4364     And still more nearly to the place advancing,
4365       Descending rather quickly the declivity,
4366     Through the waved branches o'er the greensward glancing,
4367       'Midst other indications of festivity,
4368     Seeing a troop of his domestics dancing
4369       Like dervises, who turn as on a pivot, he
4370     Perceived it was the Pyrrhic dance so martial,
4371     To which the Levantines are very partial.
4372
4373     And further on a group of Grecian girls,
4374       The first and tallest her white kerchief waving,
4375     Were strung together like a row of pearls,
4376       Link'd hand in hand, and dancing; each too having
4377     Down her white neck long floating auburn curls
4378       (The least of which would set ten poets raving);
4379     Their leader sang--and bounded to her song,
4380     With choral step and voice, the virgin throng.
4381
4382     And here, assembled cross-legg'd round their trays,
4383       Small social parties just begun to dine;
4384     Pilaus and meats of all sorts met the gaze,
4385       And flasks of Samian and of Chian wine,
4386     And sherbet cooling in the porous vase;
4387       Above them their dessert grew on its vine,
4388     The orange and pomegranate nodding o'er
4389     Dropp'd in their laps, scarce pluck'd, their mellow store.
4390
4391     A band of children, round a snow-white ram,
4392       There wreathe his venerable horns with flowers;
4393     While peaceful as if still an unwean'd lamb,
4394       The patriarch of the flock all gently cowers
4395     His sober head, majestically tame,
4396       Or eats from out the palm, or playful lowers
4397     His brow, as if in act to butt, and then
4398     Yielding to their small hands, draws back again.
4399
4400     Their classical profiles, and glittering dresses,
4401       Their large black eyes, and soft seraphic cheeks,
4402     Crimson as cleft pomegranates, their long tresses,
4403       The gesture which enchants, the eye that speaks,
4404     The innocence which happy childhood blesses,
4405       Made quite a picture of these little Greeks;
4406     So that the philosophical beholder
4407     Sigh'd for their sakes--that they should e'er grow older.
4408
4409     Afar, a dwarf buffoon stood telling tales
4410       To a sedate grey circle of old smokers,
4411     Of secret treasures found in hidden vales,
4412       Of wonderful replies from Arab jokers,
4413     Of charms to make good gold and cure bad ails,
4414       Of rocks bewitch'd that open to the knockers,
4415     Of magic ladies who, by one sole act,
4416     Transform'd their lords to beasts (but that 's a fact).
4417
4418     Here was no lack of innocent diversion
4419       For the imagination or the senses,
4420     Song, dance, wine, music, stories from the Persian,
4421       All pretty pastimes in which no offence is;
4422     But Lambro saw all these things with aversion,
4423       Perceiving in his absence such expenses,
4424     Dreading that climax of all human ills,
4425     The inflammation of his weekly bills.
4426
4427     Ah! what is man? what perils still environ
4428       The happiest mortals even after dinner--
4429     A day of gold from out an age of iron
4430       Is all that life allows the luckiest sinner;
4431     Pleasure (whene'er she sings, at least) 's a siren,
4432       That lures, to flay alive, the young beginner;
4433     Lambro's reception at his people's banquet
4434     Was such as fire accords to a wet blanket.
4435
4436     He--being a man who seldom used a word
4437       Too much, and wishing gladly to surprise
4438     (In general he surprised men with the sword)
4439       His daughter--had not sent before to advise
4440     Of his arrival, so that no one stirr'd;
4441       And long he paused to re-assure his eyes
4442     In fact much more astonish'd than delighted,
4443     To find so much good company invited.
4444
4445     He did not know (alas! how men will lie)
4446       That a report (especially the Greeks)
4447     Avouch'd his death (such people never die),
4448       And put his house in mourning several weeks,--
4449     But now their eyes and also lips were dry;
4450       The bloom, too, had return'd to Haidee's cheeks,
4451     Her tears, too, being return'd into their fount,
4452     She now kept house upon her own account.
4453
4454     Hence all this rice, meat, dancing, wine, and fiddling,
4455       Which turn'd the isle into a place of pleasure;
4456     The servants all were getting drunk or idling,
4457       A life which made them happy beyond measure.
4458     Her father's hospitality seem'd middling,
4459       Compared with what Haidee did with his treasure;
4460     'T was wonderful how things went on improving,
4461     While she had not one hour to spare from loving.
4462
4463     Perhaps you think in stumbling on this feast
4464       He flew into a passion, and in fact
4465     There was no mighty reason to be pleased;
4466       Perhaps you prophesy some sudden act,
4467     The whip, the rack, or dungeon at the least,
4468       To teach his people to be more exact,
4469     And that, proceeding at a very high rate,
4470     He show'd the royal penchants of a pirate.
4471
4472     You 're wrong.--He was the mildest manner'd man
4473       That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat:
4474     With such true breeding of a gentleman,
4475       You never could divine his real thought;
4476     No courtier could, and scarcely woman can
4477       Gird more deceit within a petticoat;
4478     Pity he loved adventurous life's variety,
4479     He was so great a loss to good society.
4480
4481     Advancing to the nearest dinner tray,
4482       Tapping the shoulder of the nighest guest,
4483     With a peculiar smile, which, by the way,
4484       Boded no good, whatever it express'd,
4485     He ask'd the meaning of this holiday;
4486       The vinous Greek to whom he had address'd
4487     His question, much too merry to divine
4488     The questioner, fill'd up a glass of wine,
4489
4490     And without turning his facetious head,
4491       Over his shoulder, with a Bacchant air,
4492     Presented the o'erflowing cup, and said,
4493       'Talking 's dry work, I have no time to spare.'
4494     A second hiccup'd, 'Our old master 's dead,
4495       You 'd better ask our mistress who 's his heir.'
4496     'Our mistress!' quoth a third: 'Our mistress!--pooh!-
4497     You mean our master--not the old, but new.'
4498
4499     These rascals, being new comers, knew not whom
4500       They thus address'd--and Lambro's visage fell--
4501     And o'er his eye a momentary gloom
4502       Pass'd, but he strove quite courteously to quell
4503     The expression, and endeavouring to resume
4504       His smile, requested one of them to tell
4505     The name and quality of his new patron,
4506     Who seem'd to have turn'd Haidee into a matron.
4507
4508     'I know not,' quoth the fellow, 'who or what
4509       He is, nor whence he came--and little care;
4510     But this I know, that this roast capon 's fat,
4511       And that good wine ne'er wash'd down better fare;
4512     And if you are not satisfied with that,
4513       Direct your questions to my neighbour there;
4514     He 'll answer all for better or for worse,
4515     For none likes more to hear himself converse.'
4516
4517     I said that Lambro was a man of patience,
4518       And certainly he show'd the best of breeding,
4519     Which scarce even France, the paragon of nations,
4520       E'er saw her most polite of sons exceeding;
4521     He bore these sneers against his near relations,
4522       His own anxiety, his heart, too, bleeding,
4523     The insults, too, of every servile glutton,
4524     Who all the time was eating up his mutton.
4525
4526     Now in a person used to much command--
4527       To bid men come, and go, and come again--
4528     To see his orders done, too, out of hand--
4529       Whether the word was death, or but the chain--
4530     It may seem strange to find his manners bland;
4531       Yet such things are, which I can not explain,
4532     Though doubtless he who can command himself
4533     Is good to govern--almost as a Guelf.
4534
4535     Not that he was not sometimes rash or so,
4536       But never in his real and serious mood;
4537     Then calm, concentrated, and still, and slow,
4538       He lay coil'd like the boa in the wood;
4539     With him it never was a word and blow,
4540       His angry word once o'er, he shed no blood,
4541     But in his silence there was much to rue,
4542     And his one blow left little work for two.
4543
4544     He ask'd no further questions, and proceeded
4545       On to the house, but by a private way,
4546     So that the few who met him hardly heeded,
4547       So little they expected him that day;
4548     If love paternal in his bosom pleaded
4549       For Haidee's sake, is more than I can say,
4550     But certainly to one deem'd dead, returning,
4551     This revel seem'd a curious mode of mourning.
4552
4553     If all the dead could now return to life
4554       (Which God forbid!) or some, or a great many,
4555     For instance, if a husband or his wife
4556       (Nuptial examples are as good as any),
4557     No doubt whate'er might be their former strife,
4558       The present weather would be much more rainy--
4559     Tears shed into the grave of the connection
4560     Would share most probably its resurrection.
4561
4562     He enter'd in the house no more his home,
4563       A thing to human feelings the most trying,
4564     And harder for the heart to overcome,
4565       Perhaps, than even the mental pangs of dying;
4566     To find our hearthstone turn'd into a tomb,
4567       And round its once warm precincts palely lying
4568     The ashes of our hopes, is a deep grief,
4569     Beyond a single gentleman's belief.
4570
4571     He enter'd in the house--his home no more,
4572       For without hearts there is no home; and felt
4573     The solitude of passing his own door
4574       Without a welcome; there he long had dwelt,
4575     There his few peaceful days Time had swept o'er,
4576       There his worn bosom and keen eye would melt
4577     Over the innocence of that sweet child,
4578     His only shrine of feelings undefiled.
4579
4580     He was a man of a strange temperament,
4581       Of mild demeanour though of savage mood,
4582     Moderate in all his habits, and content
4583       With temperance in pleasure, as in food,
4584     Quick to perceive, and strong to bear, and meant
4585       For something better, if not wholly good;
4586     His country's wrongs and his despair to save her
4587     Had stung him from a slave to an enslaver.
4588
4589     The love of power, and rapid gain of gold,
4590       The hardness by long habitude produced,
4591     The dangerous life in which he had grown old,
4592       The mercy he had granted oft abused,
4593     The sights he was accustom'd to behold,
4594       The wild seas, and wild men with whom he cruised,
4595     Had cost his enemies a long repentance,
4596     And made him a good friend, but bad acquaintance.
4597
4598     But something of the spirit of old Greece
4599       Flash'd o'er his soul a few heroic rays,
4600     Such as lit onward to the Golden Fleece
4601       His predecessors in the Colchian days;
4602     T is true he had no ardent love for peace--
4603       Alas! his country show'd no path to praise:
4604     Hate to the world and war with every nation
4605     He waged, in vengeance of her degradation.
4606
4607     Still o'er his mind the influence of the clime
4608       Shed its Ionian elegance, which show'd
4609     Its power unconsciously full many a time,--
4610       A taste seen in the choice of his abode,
4611     A love of music and of scenes sublime,
4612       A pleasure in the gentle stream that flow'd
4613     Past him in crystal, and a joy in flowers,
4614     Bedew'd his spirit in his calmer hours.
4615
4616     But whatsoe'er he had of love reposed
4617       On that beloved daughter; she had been
4618     The only thing which kept his heart unclosed
4619       Amidst the savage deeds he had done and seen;
4620     A lonely pure affection unopposed:
4621       There wanted but the loss of this to wean
4622     His feelings from all milk of human kindness,
4623     And turn him like the Cyclops mad with blindness.
4624
4625     The cubless tigress in her jungle raging
4626       Is dreadful to the shepherd and the flock;
4627     The ocean when its yeasty war is waging
4628       Is awful to the vessel near the rock;
4629     But violent things will sooner bear assuaging,
4630       Their fury being spent by its own shock,
4631     Than the stern, single, deep, and wordless ire
4632     Of a strong human heart, and in a sire.
4633
4634     It is a hard although a common case
4635       To find our children running restive--they
4636     In whom our brightest days we would retrace,
4637       Our little selves re-form'd in finer clay,
4638     Just as old age is creeping on apace,
4639       And clouds come o'er the sunset of our day,
4640     They kindly leave us, though not quite alone,
4641     But in good company--the gout or stone.
4642
4643     Yet a fine family is a fine thing
4644       (Provided they don't come in after dinner);
4645     'T is beautiful to see a matron bring
4646       Her children up (if nursing them don't thin her);
4647     Like cherubs round an altar-piece they cling
4648       To the fire-side (a sight to touch a sinner).
4649     A lady with her daughters or her nieces
4650     Shines like a guinea and seven-shilling pieces.
4651
4652     Old Lambro pass'd unseen a private gate,
4653       And stood within his hall at eventide;
4654     Meantime the lady and her lover sate
4655       At wassail in their beauty and their pride:
4656     An ivory inlaid table spread with state
4657       Before them, and fair slaves on every side;
4658     Gems, gold, and silver, form'd the service mostly,
4659     Mother of pearl and coral the less costly.
4660
4661     The dinner made about a hundred dishes;
4662       Lamb and pistachio nuts--in short, all meats,
4663     And saffron soups, and sweetbreads; and the fishes
4664       Were of the finest that e'er flounced in nets,
4665     Drest to a Sybarite's most pamper'd wishes;
4666       The beverage was various sherbets
4667     Of raisin, orange, and pomegranate juice,
4668     Squeezed through the rind, which makes it best for use.
4669
4670     These were ranged round, each in its crystal ewer,
4671       And fruits, and date-bread loaves closed the repast,
4672     And Mocha's berry, from Arabia pure,
4673       In small fine China cups, came in at last;
4674     Gold cups of filigree made to secure
4675       The hand from burning underneath them placed,
4676     Cloves, cinnamon, and saffron too were boil'd
4677     Up with the coffee, which (I think) they spoil'd.
4678
4679     The hangings of the room were tapestry, made
4680       Of velvet panels, each of different hue,
4681     And thick with damask flowers of silk inlaid;
4682       And round them ran a yellow border too;
4683     The upper border, richly wrought, display'd,
4684       Embroider'd delicately o'er with blue,
4685     Soft Persian sentences, in lilac letters,
4686     From poets, or the moralists their betters.
4687
4688     These Oriental writings on the wall,
4689       Quite common in those countries, are a kind
4690     Of monitors adapted to recall,
4691       Like skulls at Memphian banquets, to the mind
4692     The words which shook Belshazzar in his hall,
4693       And took his kingdom from him: You will find,
4694     Though sages may pour out their wisdom's treasure,
4695     There is no sterner moralist than Pleasure.
4696
4697     A beauty at the season's close grown hectic,
4698       A genius who has drunk himself to death,
4699     A rake turn'd methodistic, or Eclectic
4700       (For that 's the name they like to pray beneath)--
4701     But most, an alderman struck apoplectic,
4702       Are things that really take away the breath,--
4703     And show that late hours, wine, and love are able
4704     To do not much less damage than the table.
4705
4706     Haidee and Juan carpeted their feet
4707       On crimson satin, border'd with pale blue;
4708     Their sofa occupied three parts complete
4709       Of the apartment--and appear'd quite new;
4710     The velvet cushions (for a throne more meet)
4711       Were scarlet, from whose glowing centre grew
4712     A sun emboss'd in gold, whose rays of tissue,
4713     Meridian-like, were seen all light to issue.
4714
4715     Crystal and marble, plate and porcelain,
4716       Had done their work of splendour; Indian mats
4717     And Persian carpets, which the heart bled to stain,
4718       Over the floors were spread; gazelles and cats,
4719     And dwarfs and blacks, and such like things, that gain
4720       Their bread as ministers and favourites (that 's
4721     To say, by degradation) mingled there
4722     As plentiful as in a court, or fair.
4723
4724     There was no want of lofty mirrors, and
4725       The tables, most of ebony inlaid
4726     With mother of pearl or ivory, stood at hand,
4727       Or were of tortoise-shell or rare woods made,
4728     Fretted with gold or silver:--by command,
4729       The greater part of these were ready spread
4730     With viands and sherbets in ice--and wine--
4731     Kept for all comers at all hours to dine.
4732
4733     Of all the dresses I select Haidee's:
4734       She wore two jelicks--one was of pale yellow;
4735     Of azure, pink, and white was her chemise--
4736       'Neath which her breast heaved like a little billow;
4737     With buttons form'd of pearls as large as peas,
4738       All gold and crimson shone her jelick's fellow,
4739     And the striped white gauze baracan that bound her,
4740     Like fleecy clouds about the moon, flow'd round her.
4741
4742     One large gold bracelet clasp'd each lovely arm,
4743       Lockless--so pliable from the pure gold
4744     That the hand stretch'd and shut it without harm,
4745       The limb which it adorn'd its only mould;
4746     So beautiful--its very shape would charm;
4747       And, clinging as if loath to lose its hold,
4748     The purest ore enclosed the whitest skin
4749     That e'er by precious metal was held in.
4750
4751     Around, as princess of her father's land,
4752       A like gold bar above her instep roll'd
4753     Announced her rank; twelve rings were on her hand;
4754       Her hair was starr'd with gems; her veil's fine fold
4755     Below her breast was fasten'd with a band
4756       Of lavish pearls, whose worth could scarce be told;
4757     Her orange silk full Turkish trousers furl'd
4758     About the prettiest ankle in the world.
4759
4760     Her hair's long auburn waves down to her heel
4761       Flow'd like an Alpine torrent which the sun
4762     Dyes with his morning light,--and would conceal
4763       Her person if allow'd at large to run,
4764     And still they seem resentfully to feel
4765       The silken fillet's curb, and sought to shun
4766     Their bonds whene'er some Zephyr caught began
4767     To offer his young pinion as her fan.
4768
4769     Round her she made an atmosphere of life,
4770       The very air seem'd lighter from her eyes,
4771     They were so soft and beautiful, and rife
4772       With all we can imagine of the skies,
4773     And pure as Psyche ere she grew a wife--
4774       Too pure even for the purest human ties;
4775     Her overpowering presence made you feel
4776     It would not be idolatry to kneel.
4777
4778     Her eyelashes, though dark as night, were tinged
4779       (It is the country's custom), but in vain;
4780     For those large black eyes were so blackly fringed,
4781       The glossy rebels mock'd the jetty stain,
4782     And in their native beauty stood avenged:
4783       Her nails were touch'd with henna; but again
4784     The power of art was turn'd to nothing, for
4785     They could not look more rosy than before.
4786
4787     The henna should be deeply dyed to make
4788       The skin relieved appear more fairly fair;
4789     She had no need of this, day ne'er will break
4790       On mountain tops more heavenly white than her:
4791     The eye might doubt if it were well awake,
4792       She was so like a vision; I might err,
4793     But Shakspeare also says, 't is very silly
4794     'To gild refined gold, or paint the lily'
4795
4796     Juan had on a shawl of black and gold,
4797       But a white baracan, and so transparent
4798     The sparkling gems beneath you might behold,
4799       Like small stars through the milky way apparent;
4800     His turban, furl'd in many a graceful fold,
4801       An emerald aigrette with Haidee's hair in 't
4802     Surmounted as its clasp--a glowing crescent,
4803     Whose rays shone ever trembling, but incessant.
4804
4805     And now they were diverted by their suite,
4806       Dwarfs, dancing girls, black eunuchs, and a poet,
4807     Which made their new establishment complete;
4808       The last was of great fame, and liked to show it:
4809     His verses rarely wanted their due feet;
4810       And for his theme--he seldom sung below it,
4811     He being paid to satirize or flatter,
4812     As the psalm says, 'inditing a good matter.'
4813
4814     He praised the present, and abused the past,
4815       Reversing the good custom of old days,
4816     An Eastern anti-jacobin at last
4817       He turn'd, preferring pudding to no praise--
4818     For some few years his lot had been o'ercast
4819       By his seeming independent in his lays,
4820     But now he sung the Sultan and the Pacha
4821     With truth like Southey, and with verse like Crashaw.
4822
4823     He was a man who had seen many changes,
4824       And always changed as true as any needle;
4825     His polar star being one which rather ranges,
4826       And not the fix'd--he knew the way to wheedle:
4827     So vile he 'scaped the doom which oft avenges;
4828       And being fluent (save indeed when fee'd ill),
4829     He lied with such a fervour of intention--
4830     There was no doubt he earn'd his laureate pension.
4831
4832     But he had genius,--when a turncoat has it,
4833       The 'Vates irritabilis' takes care
4834     That without notice few full moons shall pass it;
4835       Even good men like to make the public stare:--
4836     But to my subject--let me see--what was it?-
4837       O!--the third canto--and the pretty pair--
4838     Their loves, and feasts, and house, and dress, and mode
4839     Of living in their insular abode.
4840
4841     Their poet, a sad trimmer, but no less
4842       In company a very pleasant fellow,
4843     Had been the favourite of full many a mess
4844       Of men, and made them speeches when half mellow;
4845     And though his meaning they could rarely guess,
4846       Yet still they deign'd to hiccup or to bellow
4847     The glorious meed of popular applause,
4848     Of which the first ne'er knows the second cause.
4849
4850     But now being lifted into high society,
4851       And having pick'd up several odds and ends
4852     Of free thoughts in his travels for variety,
4853       He deem'd, being in a lone isle, among friends,
4854     That, without any danger of a riot, he
4855       Might for long lying make himself amends;
4856     And, singing as he sung in his warm youth,
4857     Agree to a short armistice with truth.
4858
4859     He had travell'd 'mongst the Arabs, Turks, and Franks,
4860       And knew the self-loves of the different nations;
4861     And having lived with people of all ranks,
4862       Had something ready upon most occasions--
4863     Which got him a few presents and some thanks.
4864       He varied with some skill his adulations;
4865     To 'do at Rome as Romans do,' a piece
4866     Of conduct was which he observed in Greece.
4867
4868     Thus, usually, when he was ask'd to sing,
4869       He gave the different nations something national;
4870     'T was all the same to him--'God save the king,'
4871       Or 'Ca ira,' according to the fashion all:
4872     His muse made increment of any thing,
4873       From the high lyric down to the low rational:
4874     If Pindar sang horse-races, what should hinder
4875     Himself from being as pliable as Pindar?
4876
4877     In France, for instance, he would write a chanson;
4878       In England a six canto quarto tale;
4879     In Spain, he'd make a ballad or romance on
4880       The last war--much the same in Portugal;
4881     In Germany, the Pegasus he 'd prance on
4882       Would be old Goethe's (see what says De Stael);
4883     In Italy he 'd ape the 'Trecentisti;'
4884     In Greece, he sing some sort of hymn like this t' ye:
4885
4886                     THE ISLES OF GREECE.
4887
4888           The isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece!
4889             Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
4890           Where grew the arts of war and peace,
4891             Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
4892           Eternal summer gilds them yet,
4893           But all, except their sun, is set.
4894
4895           The Scian and the Teian muse,
4896             The hero's harp, the lover's lute,
4897           Have found the fame your shores refuse;
4898             Their place of birth alone is mute
4899           To sounds which echo further west
4900           Than your sires' 'Islands of the Blest.'
4901
4902           The mountains look on Marathon--
4903             And Marathon looks on the sea;
4904           And musing there an hour alone,
4905             I dream'd that Greece might still be free;
4906           For standing on the Persians' grave,
4907           I could not deem myself a slave.
4908
4909           A king sate on the rocky brow
4910             Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis;
4911           And ships, by thousands, lay below,
4912             And men in nations;--all were his!
4913           He counted them at break of day--
4914           And when the sun set where were they?
4915
4916           And where are they? and where art thou,
4917             My country? On thy voiceless shore
4918           The heroic lay is tuneless now--
4919             The heroic bosom beats no more!
4920           And must thy lyre, so long divine,
4921           Degenerate into hands like mine?
4922
4923           'T is something, in the dearth of fame,
4924             Though link'd among a fetter'd race,
4925           To feel at least a patriot's shame,
4926             Even as I sing, suffuse my face;
4927           For what is left the poet here?
4928           For Greeks a blush--for Greece a tear.
4929
4930           Must we but weep o'er days more blest?
4931             Must we but blush?--Our fathers bled.
4932           Earth! render back from out thy breast
4933             A remnant of our Spartan dead!
4934           Of the three hundred grant but three,
4935           To make a new Thermopylae!
4936
4937           What, silent still? and silent all?
4938             Ah! no;--the voices of the dead
4939           Sound like a distant torrent's fall,
4940             And answer, 'Let one living head,
4941           But one arise,--we come, we come!'
4942           'T is but the living who are dumb.
4943
4944           In vain--in vain: strike other chords;
4945             Fill high the cup with Samian wine!
4946           Leave battles to the Turkish hordes,
4947             And shed the blood of Scio's vine!
4948           Hark! rising to the ignoble call--
4949           How answers each bold Bacchanal!
4950
4951           You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet,
4952             Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone?
4953           Of two such lessons, why forget
4954             The nobler and the manlier one?
4955           You have the letters Cadmus gave--
4956           Think ye he meant them for a slave?
4957
4958           Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!
4959             We will not think of themes like these!
4960           It made Anacreon's song divine:
4961             He served--but served Polycrates--
4962           A tyrant; but our masters then
4963           Were still, at least, our countrymen.
4964
4965           The tyrant of the Chersonese
4966             Was freedom's best and bravest friend;
4967           That tyrant was Miltiades!
4968             O! that the present hour would lend
4969           Another despot of the kind!
4970           Such chains as his were sure to bind.
4971
4972           Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!
4973             On Suli's rock, and Parga's shore,
4974           Exists the remnant of a line
4975             Such as the Doric mothers bore;
4976           And there, perhaps, some seed is sown,
4977           The Heracleidan blood might own.
4978
4979           Trust not for freedom to the Franks--
4980             They have a king who buys and sells;
4981           In native swords, and native ranks,
4982             The only hope of courage dwells;
4983           But Turkish force, and Latin fraud,
4984           Would break your shield, however broad.
4985
4986           Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!
4987             Our virgins dance beneath the shade--
4988           I see their glorious black eyes shine;
4989             But gazing on each glowing maid,
4990           My own the burning tear-drop laves,
4991           To think such breasts must suckle slaves
4992
4993           Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,
4994             Where nothing, save the waves and I,
4995           May hear our mutual murmurs sweep;
4996             There, swan-like, let me sing and die:
4997           A land of slaves shall ne'er be mine--
4998           Dash down yon cup of Samian wine!
4999
5000     Thus sung, or would, or could, or should have sung,
5001       The modern Greek, in tolerable verse;
5002     If not like Orpheus quite, when Greece was young,
5003       Yet in these times he might have done much worse:
5004     His strain display'd some feeling--right or wrong;
5005       And feeling, in a poet, is the source
5006     Of others' feeling; but they are such liars,
5007     And take all colours--like the hands of dyers.
5008
5009     But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
5010       Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces
5011     That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think;
5012       'T is strange, the shortest letter which man uses
5013     Instead of speech, may form a lasting link
5014       Of ages; to what straits old Time reduces
5015     Frail man, when paper--even a rag like this,
5016     Survives himself, his tomb, and all that 's his.
5017
5018     And when his bones are dust, his grave a blank,
5019       His station, generation, even his nation,
5020     Become a thing, or nothing, save to rank
5021       In chronological commemoration,
5022     Some dull MS. oblivion long has sank,
5023       Or graven stone found in a barrack's station
5024     In digging the foundation of a closet,
5025     May turn his name up, as a rare deposit.
5026
5027     And glory long has made the sages smile;
5028       'T is something, nothing, words, illusion, wind--
5029     Depending more upon the historian's style
5030       Than on the name a person leaves behind:
5031     Troy owes to Homer what whist owes to Hoyle:
5032       The present century was growing blind
5033     To the great Marlborough's skill in giving knocks,
5034     Until his late life by Archdeacon Coxe.
5035
5036     Milton 's the prince of poets--so we say;
5037       A little heavy, but no less divine:
5038     An independent being in his day--
5039       Learn'd, pious, temperate in love and wine;
5040     But, his life falling into Johnson's way,
5041       We 're told this great high priest of all the Nine
5042     Was whipt at college--a harsh sire--odd spouse,
5043     For the first Mrs. Milton left his house.
5044
5045     All these are, certes, entertaining facts,
5046       Like Shakspeare's stealing deer, Lord Bacon's bribes;
5047     Like Titus' youth, and Caesar's earliest acts;
5048       Like Burns (whom Doctor Currie well describes);
5049     Like Cromwell's pranks;--but although truth exacts
5050       These amiable descriptions from the scribes,
5051     As most essential to their hero's story,
5052     They do not much contribute to his glory.
5053
5054     All are not moralists, like Southey, when
5055       He prated to the world of 'Pantisocracy;'
5056     Or Wordsworth unexcised, unhired, who then
5057       Season'd his pedlar poems with democracy;
5058     Or Coleridge, long before his flighty pen
5059       Let to the Morning Post its aristocracy;
5060     When he and Southey, following the same path,
5061     Espoused two partners (milliners of Bath).
5062
5063     Such names at present cut a convict figure,
5064       The very Botany Bay in moral geography;
5065     Their loyal treason, renegado rigour,
5066       Are good manure for their more bare biography.
5067     Wordsworth's last quarto, by the way, is bigger
5068       Than any since the birthday of typography;
5069     A drowsy frowzy poem, call'd the 'Excursion.'
5070     Writ in a manner which is my aversion.
5071
5072     He there builds up a formidable dyke
5073       Between his own and others' intellect;
5074     But Wordsworth's poem, and his followers, like
5075       Joanna Southcote's Shiloh, and her sect,
5076     Are things which in this century don't strike
5077       The public mind,--so few are the elect;
5078     And the new births of both their stale virginities
5079     Have proved but dropsies, taken for divinities.
5080
5081     But let me to my story: I must own,
5082       If I have any fault, it is digression--
5083     Leaving my people to proceed alone,
5084       While I soliloquize beyond expression;
5085     But these are my addresses from the throne,
5086       Which put off business to the ensuing session:
5087     Forgetting each omission is a loss to
5088     The world, not quite so great as Ariosto.
5089
5090     I know that what our neighbours call 'longueurs'
5091       (We 've not so good a word, but have the thing
5092     In that complete perfection which ensures
5093       An epic from Bob Southey every spring),
5094     Form not the true temptation which allures
5095       The reader; but 't would not be hard to bring
5096     Some fine examples of the epopee,
5097     To prove its grand ingredient is ennui.
5098
5099     We learn from Horace, 'Homer sometimes sleeps;'
5100       We feel without him, Wordsworth sometimes wakes,--
5101     To show with what complacency he creeps,
5102       With his dear 'Waggoners,' around his lakes.
5103     He wishes for 'a boat' to sail the deeps--
5104       Of ocean?--No, of air; and then he makes
5105     Another outcry for 'a little boat,'
5106     And drivels seas to set it well afloat.
5107
5108     If he must fain sweep o'er the ethereal plain,
5109       And Pegasus runs restive in his 'Waggon,'
5110     Could he not beg the loan of Charles's Wain?
5111       Or pray Medea for a single dragon?
5112     Or if, too classic for his vulgar brain,
5113       He fear'd his neck to venture such a nag on,
5114     And he must needs mount nearer to the moon,
5115     Could not the blockhead ask for a balloon?
5116
5117     'Pedlars,' and 'Boats,' and 'Waggons!' Oh! ye shades
5118       Of Pope and Dryden, are we come to this?
5119     That trash of such sort not alone evades
5120       Contempt, but from the bathos' vast abyss
5121     Floats scumlike uppermost, and these Jack Cades
5122       Of sense and song above your graves may hiss--
5123     The 'little boatman' and his 'Peter Bell'
5124     Can sneer at him who drew 'Achitophel'!
5125
5126     T' our tale.--The feast was over, the slaves gone,
5127       The dwarfs and dancing girls had all retired;
5128     The Arab lore and poet's song were done,
5129       And every sound of revelry expired;
5130     The lady and her lover, left alone,
5131       The rosy flood of twilight's sky admired;--
5132     Ave Maria! o'er the earth and sea,
5133     That heavenliest hour of Heaven is worthiest thee!
5134
5135     Ave Maria! blessed be the hour!
5136       The time, the clime, the spot, where I so oft
5137     Have felt that moment in its fullest power
5138       Sink o'er the earth so beautiful and soft,
5139     While swung the deep bell in the distant tower,
5140       Or the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft,
5141     And not a breath crept through the rosy air,
5142     And yet the forest leaves seem'd stirr'd with prayer.
5143
5144     Ave Maria! 't is the hour of prayer!
5145       Ave Maria! 't is the hour of love!
5146     Ave Maria! may our spirits dare
5147       Look up to thine and to thy Son's above!
5148     Ave Maria! oh that face so fair!
5149       Those downcast eyes beneath the Almighty dove--
5150     What though 't is but a pictured image?--strike--
5151     That painting is no idol,--'t is too like.
5152
5153     Some kinder casuists are pleased to say,
5154       In nameless print--that I have no devotion;
5155     But set those persons down with me to pray,
5156       And you shall see who has the properest notion
5157     Of getting into heaven the shortest way;
5158       My altars are the mountains and the ocean,
5159     Earth, air, stars,--all that springs from the great Whole,
5160     Who hath produced, and will receive the soul.
5161
5162     Sweet hour of twilight!--in the solitude
5163       Of the pine forest, and the silent shore
5164     Which bounds Ravenna's immemorial wood,
5165       Rooted where once the Adrian wave flow'd o'er,
5166     To where the last Caesarean fortress stood,
5167       Evergreen forest! which Boccaccio's lore
5168     And Dryden's lay made haunted ground to me,
5169     How have I loved the twilight hour and thee!
5170
5171     The shrill cicadas, people of the pine,
5172       Making their summer lives one ceaseless song,
5173     Were the sole echoes, save my steed's and mine,
5174       And vesper bell's that rose the boughs along;
5175     The spectre huntsman of Onesti's line,
5176       His hell-dogs, and their chase, and the fair throng
5177     Which learn'd from this example not to fly
5178     From a true lover,--shadow'd my mind's eye.
5179
5180     O, Hesperus! thou bringest all good things--
5181       Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer,
5182     To the young bird the parent's brooding wings,
5183       The welcome stall to the o'erlabour'd steer;
5184     Whate'er of peace about our hearthstone clings,
5185       Whate'er our household gods protect of dear,
5186     Are gather'd round us by thy look of rest;
5187     Thou bring'st the child, too, to the mother's breast.
5188
5189     Soft hour! which wakes the wish and melts the heart
5190       Of those who sail the seas, on the first day
5191     When they from their sweet friends are torn apart;
5192       Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way
5193     As the far bell of vesper makes him start,
5194       Seeming to weep the dying day's decay;
5195     Is this a fancy which our reason scorns?
5196     Ah! surely nothing dies but something mourns!
5197
5198     When Nero perish'd by the justest doom
5199       Which ever the destroyer yet destroy'd,
5200     Amidst the roar of liberated Rome,
5201       Of nations freed, and the world overjoy'd,
5202     Some hands unseen strew'd flowers upon his tomb:
5203       Perhaps the weakness of a heart not void
5204     Of feeling for some kindness done, when power
5205     Had left the wretch an uncorrupted hour.
5206
5207     But I 'm digressing; what on earth has Nero,
5208       Or any such like sovereign buffoons,
5209     To do with the transactions of my hero,
5210       More than such madmen's fellow man--the moon's?
5211     Sure my invention must be down at zero,
5212       And I grown one of many 'wooden spoons'
5213     Of verse (the name with which we Cantabs please
5214     To dub the last of honours in degrees).
5215
5216     I feel this tediousness will never do--
5217       'T is being too epic, and I must cut down
5218     (In copying) this long canto into two;
5219       They 'll never find it out, unless I own
5220     The fact, excepting some experienced few;
5221       And then as an improvement 't will be shown:
5222     I 'll prove that such the opinion of the critic is
5223     From Aristotle passim.--See poietikes.
5224
5225
5226
5227
5228CANTO THE FOURTH.
5229
5230     Nothing so difficult as a beginning
5231       In poesy, unless perhaps the end;
5232     For oftentimes when Pegasus seems winning
5233       The race, he sprains a wing, and down we tend,
5234     Like Lucifer when hurl'd from heaven for sinning;
5235       Our sin the same, and hard as his to mend,
5236     Being pride, which leads the mind to soar too far,
5237     Till our own weakness shows us what we are.
5238
5239     But Time, which brings all beings to their level,
5240       And sharp Adversity, will teach at last
5241     Man,--and, as we would hope,--perhaps the devil,
5242       That neither of their intellects are vast:
5243     While youth's hot wishes in our red veins revel,
5244       We know not this--the blood flows on too fast;
5245     But as the torrent widens towards the ocean,
5246     We ponder deeply on each past emotion.
5247
5248     As boy, I thought myself a clever fellow,
5249       And wish'd that others held the same opinion;
5250     They took it up when my days grew more mellow,
5251       And other minds acknowledged my dominion:
5252     Now my sere fancy 'falls into the yellow
5253       Leaf,' and Imagination droops her pinion,
5254     And the sad truth which hovers o'er my desk
5255     Turns what was once romantic to burlesque.
5256
5257     And if I laugh at any mortal thing,
5258       'T is that I may not weep; and if I weep,
5259     'T is that our nature cannot always bring
5260       Itself to apathy, for we must steep
5261     Our hearts first in the depths of Lethe's spring,
5262       Ere what we least wish to behold will sleep:
5263     Thetis baptized her mortal son in Styx;
5264     A mortal mother would on Lethe fix.
5265
5266     Some have accused me of a strange design
5267       Against the creed and morals of the land,
5268     And trace it in this poem every line:
5269       I don't pretend that I quite understand
5270     My own meaning when I would be very fine;
5271       But the fact is that I have nothing plann'd,
5272     Unless it were to be a moment merry,
5273     A novel word in my vocabulary.
5274
5275     To the kind reader of our sober clime
5276       This way of writing will appear exotic;
5277     Pulci was sire of the half-serious rhyme,
5278       Who sang when chivalry was more Quixotic,
5279     And revell'd in the fancies of the time,
5280       True knights, chaste dames, huge giants, kings despotic:
5281     But all these, save the last, being obsolete,
5282     I chose a modern subject as more meet.
5283
5284     How I have treated it, I do not know;
5285       Perhaps no better than they have treated me
5286     Who have imputed such designs as show
5287       Not what they saw, but what they wish'd to see:
5288     But if it gives them pleasure, be it so;
5289       This is a liberal age, and thoughts are free:
5290     Meantime Apollo plucks me by the ear,
5291     And tells me to resume my story here.
5292
5293     Young Juan and his lady-love were left
5294       To their own hearts' most sweet society;
5295     Even Time the pitiless in sorrow cleft
5296       With his rude scythe such gentle bosoms; he
5297     Sigh'd to behold them of their hours bereft,
5298       Though foe to love; and yet they could not be
5299     Meant to grow old, but die in happy spring,
5300     Before one charm or hope had taken wing.
5301
5302     Their faces were not made for wrinkles, their
5303       Pure blood to stagnate, their great hearts to fail;
5304     The blank grey was not made to blast their hair,
5305       But like the climes that know nor snow nor hail
5306     They were all summer: lightning might assail
5307       And shiver them to ashes, but to trail
5308     A long and snake-like life of dull decay
5309     Was not for them--they had too little day.
5310
5311     They were alone once more; for them to be
5312       Thus was another Eden; they were never
5313     Weary, unless when separate: the tree
5314       Cut from its forest root of years--the river
5315     Damm'd from its fountain--the child from the knee
5316       And breast maternal wean'd at once for ever,--
5317     Would wither less than these two torn apart;
5318     Alas! there is no instinct like the heart--
5319
5320     The heart--which may be broken: happy they!
5321       Thrice fortunate! who of that fragile mould,
5322     The precious porcelain of human clay,
5323       Break with the first fall: they can ne'er behold
5324     The long year link'd with heavy day on day,
5325       And all which must be borne, and never told;
5326     While life's strange principle will often lie
5327     Deepest in those who long the most to die.
5328
5329     'Whom the gods love die young,' was said of yore,
5330       And many deaths do they escape by this:
5331     The death of friends, and that which slays even more--
5332       The death of friendship, love, youth, all that is,
5333     Except mere breath; and since the silent shore
5334       Awaits at last even those who longest miss
5335     The old archer's shafts, perhaps the early grave
5336     Which men weep over may be meant to save.
5337
5338     Haidee and Juan thought not of the dead--
5339       The heavens, and earth, and air, seem'd made for them:
5340     They found no fault with Time, save that he fled;
5341       They saw not in themselves aught to condemn:
5342     Each was the other's mirror, and but read
5343       Joy sparkling in their dark eyes like a gem,
5344     And knew such brightness was but the reflection
5345     Of their exchanging glances of affection.
5346
5347     The gentle pressure, and the thrilling touch,
5348       The least glance better understood than words,
5349     Which still said all, and ne'er could say too much;
5350       A language, too, but like to that of birds,
5351     Known but to them, at least appearing such
5352       As but to lovers a true sense affords;
5353     Sweet playful phrases, which would seem absurd
5354     To those who have ceased to hear such, or ne'er heard,--
5355
5356     All these were theirs, for they were children still,
5357       And children still they should have ever been;
5358     They were not made in the real world to fill
5359       A busy character in the dull scene,
5360     But like two beings born from out a rill,
5361       A nymph and her beloved, all unseen
5362     To pass their lives in fountains and on flowers,
5363     And never know the weight of human hours.
5364
5365     Moons changing had roll'd on, and changeless found
5366       Those their bright rise had lighted to such joys
5367     As rarely they beheld throughout their round;
5368       And these were not of the vain kind which cloys,
5369     For theirs were buoyant spirits, never bound
5370       By the mere senses; and that which destroys
5371     Most love, possession, unto them appear'd
5372     A thing which each endearment more endear'd.
5373
5374     O beautiful! and rare as beautiful
5375       But theirs was love in which the mind delights
5376     To lose itself when the old world grows dull,
5377       And we are sick of its hack sounds and sights,
5378     Intrigues, adventures of the common school,
5379       Its petty passions, marriages, and flights,
5380     Where Hymen's torch but brands one strumpet more,
5381     Whose husband only knows her not a wh--re.
5382
5383     Hard words; harsh truth; a truth which many know.
5384       Enough.--The faithful and the fairy pair,
5385     Who never found a single hour too slow,
5386       What was it made them thus exempt from care?
5387     Young innate feelings all have felt below,
5388       Which perish in the rest, but in them were
5389     Inherent--what we mortals call romantic,
5390     And always envy, though we deem it frantic.
5391
5392     This is in others a factitious state,
5393       An opium dream of too much youth and reading,
5394     But was in them their nature or their fate:
5395       No novels e'er had set their young hearts bleeding,
5396     For Haidee's knowledge was by no means great,
5397       And Juan was a boy of saintly breeding;
5398     So that there was no reason for their loves
5399     More than for those of nightingales or doves.
5400
5401     They gazed upon the sunset; 't is an hour
5402       Dear unto all, but dearest to their eyes,
5403     For it had made them what they were: the power
5404       Of love had first o'erwhelm'd them from such skies,
5405     When happiness had been their only dower,
5406       And twilight saw them link'd in passion's ties;
5407     Charm'd with each other, all things charm'd that brought
5408     The past still welcome as the present thought.
5409
5410     I know not why, but in that hour to-night,
5411       Even as they gazed, a sudden tremor came,
5412     And swept, as 't were, across their hearts' delight,
5413       Like the wind o'er a harp-string, or a flame,
5414     When one is shook in sound, and one in sight;
5415       And thus some boding flash'd through either frame,
5416     And call'd from Juan's breast a faint low sigh,
5417     While one new tear arose in Haidee's eye.
5418
5419     That large black prophet eye seem'd to dilate
5420       And follow far the disappearing sun,
5421     As if their last day! of a happy date
5422       With his broad, bright, and dropping orb were gone;
5423     Juan gazed on her as to ask his fate--
5424       He felt a grief, but knowing cause for none,
5425     His glance inquired of hers for some excuse
5426     For feelings causeless, or at least abstruse.
5427
5428     She turn'd to him, and smiled, but in that sort
5429       Which makes not others smile; then turn'd aside:
5430     Whatever feeling shook her, it seem'd short,
5431       And master'd by her wisdom or her pride;
5432     When Juan spoke, too--it might be in sport--
5433       Of this their mutual feeling, she replied--
5434     'If it should be so,--but--it cannot be--
5435     Or I at least shall not survive to see.'
5436
5437     Juan would question further, but she press'd
5438       His lip to hers, and silenced him with this,
5439     And then dismiss'd the omen from her breast,
5440       Defying augury with that fond kiss;
5441     And no doubt of all methods 't is the best:
5442       Some people prefer wine--'t is not amiss;
5443     I have tried both; so those who would a part take
5444     May choose between the headache and the heartache.
5445
5446     One of the two, according to your choice,
5447       Woman or wine, you 'll have to undergo;
5448     Both maladies are taxes on our joys:
5449       But which to choose, I really hardly know;
5450     And if I had to give a casting voice,
5451       For both sides I could many reasons show,
5452     And then decide, without great wrong to either,
5453     It were much better to have both than neither.
5454
5455     Juan and Haidee gazed upon each other
5456       With swimming looks of speechless tenderness,
5457     Which mix'd all feelings, friend, child, lover, brother,
5458       All that the best can mingle and express
5459     When two pure hearts are pour'd in one another,
5460       And love too much, and yet can not love less;
5461     But almost sanctify the sweet excess
5462     By the immortal wish and power to bless.
5463
5464     Mix'd in each other's arms, and heart in heart,
5465       Why did they not then die?--they had lived too long
5466     Should an hour come to bid them breathe apart;
5467       Years could but bring them cruel things or wrong;
5468     The world was not for them, nor the world's art
5469       For beings passionate as Sappho's song;
5470     Love was born with them, in them, so intense,
5471     It was their very spirit--not a sense.
5472
5473     They should have lived together deep in woods,
5474       Unseen as sings the nightingale; they were
5475     Unfit to mix in these thick solitudes
5476       Call'd social, haunts of Hate, and Vice, and Care:
5477     How lonely every freeborn creature broods!
5478       The sweetest song-birds nestle in a pair;
5479     The eagle soars alone; the gull and crow
5480     Flock o'er their carrion, just like men below.
5481
5482     Now pillow'd cheek to cheek, in loving sleep,
5483       Haidee and Juan their siesta took,
5484     A gentle slumber, but it was not deep,
5485       For ever and anon a something shook
5486     Juan, and shuddering o'er his frame would creep;
5487       And Haidee's sweet lips murmur'd like a brook
5488     A wordless music, and her face so fair
5489     Stirr'd with her dream, as rose-leaves with the air.
5490
5491     Or as the stirring of a deep dear stream
5492       Within an Alpine hollow, when the wind
5493     Walks o'er it, was she shaken by the dream,
5494       The mystical usurper of the mind--
5495     O'erpowering us to be whate'er may seem
5496       Good to the soul which we no more can bind;
5497     Strange state of being! (for 't is still to be)
5498     Senseless to feel, and with seal'd eyes to see.
5499
5500     She dream'd of being alone on the sea-shore,
5501       Chain'd to a rock; she knew not how, but stir
5502     She could not from the spot, and the loud roar
5503       Grew, and each wave rose roughly, threatening her;
5504     And o'er her upper lip they seem'd to pour,
5505       Until she sobb'd for breath, and soon they were
5506     Foaming o'er her lone head, so fierce and high--
5507     Each broke to drown her, yet she could not die.
5508
5509     Anon--she was released, and then she stray'd
5510       O'er the sharp shingles with her bleeding feet,
5511     And stumbled almost every step she made;
5512       And something roll'd before her in a sheet,
5513     Which she must still pursue howe'er afraid:
5514       'T was white and indistinct, nor stopp'd to meet
5515     Her glance nor grasp, for still she gazed, and grasp'd,
5516     And ran, but it escaped her as she clasp'd.
5517
5518     The dream changed:--in a cave she stood, its walls
5519       Were hung with marble icicles, the work
5520     Of ages on its water-fretted halls,
5521       Where waves might wash, and seals might breed and lurk;
5522     Her hair was dripping, and the very balls
5523       Of her black eyes seem'd turn'd to tears, and mirk
5524     The sharp rocks look'd below each drop they caught,
5525     Which froze to marble as it fell,--she thought.
5526
5527     And wet, and cold, and lifeless at her feet,
5528       Pale as the foam that froth'd on his dead brow,
5529     Which she essay'd in vain to clear (how sweet
5530       Were once her cares, how idle seem'd they now!),
5531     Lay Juan, nor could aught renew the beat
5532       Of his quench'd heart; and the sea dirges low
5533     Rang in her sad ears like a mermaid's song,
5534     And that brief dream appear'd a life too long.
5535
5536     And gazing on the dead, she thought his face
5537       Faded, or alter'd into something new--
5538     Like to her father's features, till each trace--
5539       More like and like to Lambro's aspect grew--
5540     With all his keen worn look and Grecian grace;
5541       And starting, she awoke, and what to view?
5542     O! Powers of Heaven! what dark eye meets she there?
5543     'T is--'t is her father's--fix'd upon the pair!
5544
5545     Then shrieking, she arose, and shrieking fell,
5546       With joy and sorrow, hope and fear, to see
5547     Him whom she deem'd a habitant where dwell
5548       The ocean-buried, risen from death, to be
5549     Perchance the death of one she loved too well:
5550       Dear as her father had been to Haidee,
5551     It was a moment of that awful kind--
5552     I have seen such--but must not call to mind.
5553
5554     Up Juan sprung to Haidee's bitter shriek,
5555       And caught her falling, and from off the wall
5556     Snatch'd down his sabre, in hot haste to wreak
5557       Vengeance on him who was the cause of all:
5558     Then Lambro, who till now forbore to speak,
5559       Smiled scornfully, and said, 'Within my call,
5560     A thousand scimitars await the word;
5561     Put up, young man, put up your silly sword.'
5562
5563     And Haidee clung around him; 'Juan, 't is--
5564       'T is Lambro--'t is my father! Kneel with me--
5565     He will forgive us--yes--it must be--yes.
5566       O! dearest father, in this agony
5567     Of pleasure and of pain--even while I kiss
5568       Thy garment's hem with transport, can it be
5569     That doubt should mingle with my filial joy?
5570     Deal with me as thou wilt, but spare this boy.'
5571
5572     High and inscrutable the old man stood,
5573       Calm in his voice, and calm within his eye--
5574     Not always signs with him of calmest mood:
5575       He look'd upon her, but gave no reply;
5576     Then turn'd to Juan, in whose cheek the blood
5577       Oft came and went, as there resolved to die;
5578     In arms, at least, he stood, in act to spring
5579     On the first foe whom Lambro's call might bring.
5580
5581     'Young man, your sword;' so Lambro once more said:
5582       Juan replied, 'Not while this arm is free.'
5583     The old man's cheek grew pale, but not with dread,
5584       And drawing from his belt a pistol, he
5585     Replied, 'Your blood be then on your own head.'
5586       Then look'd dose at the flint, as if to see
5587     'T was fresh--for he had lately used the lock--
5588     And next proceeded quietly to cock.
5589
5590     It has a strange quick jar upon the ear,
5591       That cocking of a pistol, when you know
5592     A moment more will bring the sight to bear
5593       Upon your person, twelve yards off, or so;
5594     A gentlemanly distance, not too near,
5595       If you have got a former friend for foe;
5596     But after being fired at once or twice,
5597     The ear becomes more Irish, and less nice.
5598
5599     Lambro presented, and one instant more
5600       Had stopp'd this Canto, and Don Juan's breath,
5601     When Haidee threw herself her boy before;
5602       Stern as her sire: 'On me,' she cried, 'let death
5603     Descend--the fault is mine; this fatal shore
5604       He found--but sought not. I have pledged my faith;
5605     I love him--I will die with him: I knew
5606     Your nature's firmness--know your daughter's too.'
5607
5608     A minute past, and she had been all tears,
5609       And tenderness, and infancy; but now
5610     She stood as one who champion'd human fears--
5611       Pale, statue-like, and stern, she woo'd the blow;
5612     And tall beyond her sex, and their compeers,
5613       She drew up to her height, as if to show
5614     A fairer mark; and with a fix'd eye scann'd
5615     Her father's face--but never stopp'd his hand.
5616
5617     He gazed on her, and she on him; 't was strange
5618       How like they look'd! the expression was the same;
5619     Serenely savage, with a little change
5620       In the large dark eye's mutual-darted flame;
5621     For she, too, was as one who could avenge,
5622       If cause should be--a lioness, though tame.
5623     Her father's blood before her father's face
5624     Boil'd up, and proved her truly of his race.
5625
5626     I said they were alike, their features and
5627       Their stature, differing but in sex and years;
5628     Even to the delicacy of their hand
5629       There was resemblance, such as true blood wears;
5630     And now to see them, thus divided, stand
5631       In fix'd ferocity, when joyous tears
5632     And sweet sensations should have welcomed both,
5633     Show what the passions are in their full growth.
5634
5635     The father paused a moment, then withdrew
5636       His weapon, and replaced it; but stood still,
5637     And looking on her, as to look her through,
5638       'Not I,' he said, 'have sought this stranger's ill;
5639     Not I have made this desolation: few
5640       Would bear such outrage, and forbear to kill;
5641     But I must do my duty--how thou hast
5642     Done thine, the present vouches for the past.
5643
5644     'Let him disarm; or, by my father's head,
5645       His own shall roll before you like a ball!'
5646     He raised his whistle, as the word he said,
5647       And blew; another answer'd to the call,
5648     And rushing in disorderly, though led,
5649       And arm'd from boot to turban, one and all,
5650     Some twenty of his train came, rank on rank;
5651     He gave the word,--'Arrest or slay the Frank.'
5652
5653     Then, with a sudden movement, he withdrew
5654       His daughter; while compress'd within his clasp,
5655     'Twixt her and Juan interposed the crew;
5656       In vain she struggled in her father's grasp--
5657     His arms were like a serpent's coil: then flew
5658       Upon their prey, as darts an angry asp,
5659     The file of pirates; save the foremost, who
5660     Had fallen, with his right shoulder half cut through.
5661
5662     The second had his cheek laid open; but
5663       The third, a wary, cool old sworder, took
5664     The blows upon his cutlass, and then put
5665       His own well in; so well, ere you could look,
5666     His man was floor'd, and helpless at his foot,
5667       With the blood running like a little brook
5668     From two smart sabre gashes, deep and red--
5669     One on the arm, the other on the head.
5670
5671     And then they bound him where he fell, and bore
5672       Juan from the apartment: with a sign
5673     Old Lambro bade them take him to the shore,
5674       Where lay some ships which were to sail at nine.
5675     They laid him in a boat, and plied the oar
5676       Until they reach'd some galliots, placed in line;
5677     On board of one of these, and under hatches,
5678     They stow'd him, with strict orders to the watches.
5679
5680     The world is full of strange vicissitudes,
5681       And here was one exceedingly unpleasant:
5682     A gentleman so rich in the world's goods,
5683       Handsome and young, enjoying all the present,
5684     Just at the very time when he least broods
5685       On such a thing is suddenly to sea sent,
5686     Wounded and chain'd, so that he cannot move,
5687     And all because a lady fell in love.
5688
5689     Here I must leave him, for I grow pathetic,
5690       Moved by the Chinese nymph of tears, green tea!
5691     Than whom Cassandra was not more prophetic;
5692       For if my pure libations exceed three,
5693     I feel my heart become so sympathetic,
5694       That I must have recourse to black Bohea:
5695     'T is pity wine should be so deleterious,
5696     For tea and coffee leave us much more serious,
5697
5698     Unless when qualified with thee, Cogniac!
5699       Sweet Naiad of the Phlegethontic rill!
5700     Ah! why the liver wilt thou thus attack,
5701       And make, like other nymphs, thy lovers ill?
5702     I would take refuge in weak punch, but rack
5703       (In each sense of the word), whene'er I fill
5704     My mild and midnight beakers to the brim,
5705     Wakes me next morning with its synonym.
5706
5707     I leave Don Juan for the present, safe--
5708       Not sound, poor fellow, but severely wounded;
5709     Yet could his corporal pangs amount to half
5710       Of those with which his Haidee's bosom bounded?
5711     She was not one to weep, and rave, and chafe,
5712       And then give way, subdued because surrounded;
5713     Her mother was a Moorish maid, from Fez,
5714     Where all is Eden, or a wilderness.
5715
5716     There the large olive rains its amber store
5717       In marble fonts; there grain, and flower, and fruit,
5718     Gush from the earth until the land runs o'er;
5719       But there, too, many a poison-tree has root,
5720     And midnight listens to the lion's roar,
5721       And long, long deserts scorch the camel's foot,
5722     Or heaving whelm the helpless caravan;
5723     And as the soil is, so the heart of man.
5724
5725     Afric is all the sun's, and as her earth
5726       Her human day is kindled; full of power
5727     For good or evil, burning from its birth,
5728       The Moorish blood partakes the planet's hour,
5729     And like the soil beneath it will bring forth:
5730       Beauty and love were Haidee's mother's dower;
5731     But her large dark eye show'd deep Passion's force,
5732     Though sleeping like a lion near a source.
5733
5734     Her daughter, temper'd with a milder ray,
5735       Like summer clouds all silvery, smooth, and fair,
5736     Till slowly charged with thunder they display
5737       Terror to earth, and tempest to the air,
5738     Had held till now her soft and milky way;
5739       But overwrought with passion and despair,
5740     The fire burst forth from her Numidian veins,
5741     Even as the Simoom sweeps the blasted plains.
5742
5743     The last sight which she saw was Juan's gore,
5744       And he himself o'ermaster'd and cut down;
5745     His blood was running on the very floor
5746       Where late he trod, her beautiful, her own;
5747     Thus much she view'd an instant and no more,--
5748       Her struggles ceased with one convulsive groan;
5749     On her sire's arm, which until now scarce held
5750     Her writhing, fell she like a cedar fell'd.
5751
5752     A vein had burst, and her sweet lips' pure dyes
5753       Were dabbled with the deep blood which ran o'er;
5754     And her head droop'd as when the lily lies
5755       O'ercharged with rain: her summon'd handmaids bore
5756     Their lady to her couch with gushing eyes;
5757       Of herbs and cordials they produced their store,
5758     But she defied all means they could employ,
5759     Like one life could not hold, nor death destroy.
5760
5761     Days lay she in that state unchanged, though chill--
5762       With nothing livid, still her lips were red;
5763     She had no pulse, but death seem'd absent still;
5764       No hideous sign proclaim'd her surely dead;
5765     Corruption came not in each mind to kill
5766       All hope; to look upon her sweet face bred
5767     New thoughts of life, for it seem'd full of soul--
5768     She had so much, earth could not claim the whole.
5769
5770     The ruling passion, such as marble shows
5771       When exquisitely chisell'd, still lay there,
5772     But fix'd as marble's unchanged aspect throws
5773       O'er the fair Venus, but for ever fair;
5774     O'er the Laocoon's all eternal throes,
5775       And ever-dying Gladiator's air,
5776     Their energy like life forms all their fame,
5777     Yet looks not life, for they are still the same.
5778
5779     She woke at length, but not as sleepers wake,
5780       Rather the dead, for life seem'd something new,
5781     A strange sensation which she must partake
5782       Perforce, since whatsoever met her view
5783     Struck not on memory, though a heavy ache
5784       Lay at her heart, whose earliest beat still true
5785     Brought back the sense of pain without the cause,
5786     For, for a while, the furies made a pause.
5787
5788     She look'd on many a face with vacant eye,
5789       On many a token without knowing what;
5790     She saw them watch her without asking why,
5791       And reck'd not who around her pillow sat;
5792     Not speechless, though she spoke not; not a sigh
5793       Relieved her thoughts; dull silence and quick chat
5794     Were tried in vain by those who served; she gave
5795     No sign, save breath, of having left the grave.
5796
5797     Her handmaids tended, but she heeded not;
5798       Her father watch'd, she turn'd her eyes away;
5799     She recognized no being, and no spot,
5800       However dear or cherish'd in their day;
5801     They changed from room to room--but all forgot--
5802       Gentle, but without memory she lay;
5803     At length those eyes, which they would fain be weaning
5804     Back to old thoughts, wax'd full of fearful meaning.
5805
5806     And then a slave bethought her of a harp;
5807       The harper came, and tuned his instrument;
5808     At the first notes, irregular and sharp,
5809       On him her flashing eyes a moment bent,
5810     Then to the wall she turn'd as if to warp
5811       Her thoughts from sorrow through her heart re-sent;
5812     And he begun a long low island song
5813     Of ancient days, ere tyranny grew strong.
5814
5815     Anon her thin wan fingers beat the wall
5816       In time to his old tune; he changed the theme,
5817     And sung of love; the fierce name struck through all
5818       Her recollection; on her flash'd the dream
5819     Of what she was, and is, if ye could call
5820       To be so being; in a gushing stream
5821     The tears rush'd forth from her o'erclouded brain,
5822     Like mountain mists at length dissolved in rain.
5823
5824     Short solace, vain relief!--thought came too quick,
5825       And whirl'd her brain to madness; she arose
5826     As one who ne'er had dwelt among the sick,
5827       And flew at all she met, as on her foes;
5828     But no one ever heard her speak or shriek,
5829       Although her paroxysm drew towards its dose;--
5830     Hers was a phrensy which disdain'd to rave,
5831     Even when they smote her, in the hope to save.
5832
5833     Yet she betray'd at times a gleam of sense;
5834       Nothing could make her meet her father's face,
5835     Though on all other things with looks intense
5836       She gazed, but none she ever could retrace;
5837     Food she refused, and raiment; no pretence
5838       Avail'd for either; neither change of place,
5839     Nor time, nor skill, nor remedy, could give her
5840     Senses to sleep--the power seem'd gone for ever.
5841
5842     Twelve days and nights she wither'd thus; at last,
5843       Without a groan, or sigh, or glance, to show
5844     A parting pang, the spirit from her past:
5845       And they who watch'd her nearest could not know
5846     The very instant, till the change that cast
5847       Her sweet face into shadow, dull and slow,
5848     Glazed o'er her eyes--the beautiful, the black--
5849     O! to possess such lustre--and then lack!
5850
5851     She died, but not alone; she held within
5852       A second principle of life, which might
5853     Have dawn'd a fair and sinless child of sin;
5854       But closed its little being without light,
5855     And went down to the grave unborn, wherein
5856       Blossom and bough lie wither'd with one blight;
5857     In vain the dews of Heaven descend above
5858     The bleeding flower and blasted fruit of love.
5859
5860     Thus lived--thus died she; never more on her
5861       Shall sorrow light, or shame. She was not made
5862     Through years or moons the inner weight to bear,
5863       Which colder hearts endure till they are laid
5864     By age in earth: her days and pleasures were
5865       Brief, but delightful--such as had not staid
5866     Long with her destiny; but she sleeps well
5867     By the sea-shore, whereon she loved to dwell.
5868
5869     That isle is now all desolate and bare,
5870       Its dwellings down, its tenants pass'd away;
5871     None but her own and father's grave is there,
5872       And nothing outward tells of human clay;
5873     Ye could not know where lies a thing so fair,
5874       No stone is there to show, no tongue to say
5875     What was; no dirge, except the hollow sea's,
5876     Mourns o'er the beauty of the Cyclades.
5877
5878     But many a Greek maid in a loving song
5879       Sighs o'er her name; and many an islander
5880     With her sire's story makes the night less long;
5881       Valour was his, and beauty dwelt with her:
5882     If she loved rashly, her life paid for wrong--
5883       A heavy price must all pay who thus err,
5884     In some shape; let none think to fly the danger,
5885     For soon or late Love is his own avenger.
5886
5887     But let me change this theme which grows too sad,
5888       And lay this sheet of sorrows on the shelf;
5889     I don't much like describing people mad,
5890       For fear of seeming rather touch'd myself--
5891     Besides, I 've no more on this head to add;
5892       And as my Muse is a capricious elf,
5893     We 'll put about, and try another tack
5894     With Juan, left half-kill'd some stanzas back.
5895
5896     Wounded and fetter'd, 'cabin'd, cribb'd, confined,'
5897       Some days and nights elapsed before that he
5898     Could altogether call the past to mind;
5899       And when he did, he found himself at sea,
5900     Sailing six knots an hour before the wind;
5901       The shores of Ilion lay beneath their lee--
5902     Another time he might have liked to see 'em,
5903     But now was not much pleased with Cape Sigaeum.
5904
5905     There, on the green and village-cotted hill, is
5906       (Flank'd by the Hellespont and by the sea)
5907     Entomb'd the bravest of the brave, Achilles;
5908       They say so (Bryant says the contrary):
5909     And further downward, tall and towering still, is
5910       The tumulus--of whom? Heaven knows! 't may be
5911     Patroclus, Ajax, or Protesilaus--
5912     All heroes, who if living still would slay us.
5913
5914     High barrows, without marble or a name,
5915       A vast, untill'd, and mountain-skirted plain,
5916     And Ida in the distance, still the same,
5917       And old Scamander (if 't is he) remain;
5918     The situation seems still form'd for fame--
5919       A hundred thousand men might fight again
5920     With case; but where I sought for Ilion's walls,
5921     The quiet sheep feeds, and the tortoise crawls;
5922
5923     Troops of untended horses; here and there
5924       Some little hamlets, with new names uncouth;
5925     Some shepherds (unlike Paris) led to stare
5926       A moment at the European youth
5927     Whom to the spot their school-boy feelings bear;
5928       A turk, with beads in hand and pipe in mouth,
5929     Extremely taken with his own religion,
5930     Are what I found there--but the devil a Phrygian.
5931
5932     Don Juan, here permitted to emerge
5933       From his dull cabin, found himself a slave;
5934     Forlorn, and gazing on the deep blue surge,
5935       O'ershadow'd there by many a hero's grave;
5936     Weak still with loss of blood, he scarce could urge
5937       A few brief questions; and the answers gave
5938     No very satisfactory information
5939     About his past or present situation.
5940
5941     He saw some fellow captives, who appear'd
5942       To be Italians, as they were in fact;
5943     From them, at least, their destiny he heard,
5944       Which was an odd one; a troop going to act
5945     In Sicily (all singers, duly rear'd
5946       In their vocation) had not been attack'd
5947     In sailing from Livorno by the pirate,
5948     But sold by the impresario at no high rate.
5949
5950     By one of these, the buffo of the party,
5951       Juan was told about their curious case;
5952     For although destined to the Turkish mart, he
5953       Still kept his spirits up--at least his face;
5954     The little fellow really look'd quite hearty,
5955       And bore him with some gaiety and grace,
5956     Showing a much more reconciled demeanour,
5957     Than did the prima donna and the tenor.
5958
5959     In a few words he told their hapless story,
5960       Saying, 'Our Machiavellian impresario,
5961     Making a signal off some promontory,
5962       Hail'd a strange brig--Corpo di Caio Mario!
5963     We were transferr'd on board her in a hurry,
5964       Without a Single scudo of salario;
5965     But if the Sultan has a taste for song,
5966     We will revive our fortunes before long.
5967
5968     'The prima donna, though a little old,
5969       And haggard with a dissipated life,
5970     And subject, when the house is thin, to cold,
5971       Has some good notes; and then the tenor's wife,
5972     With no great voice, is pleasing to behold;
5973       Last carnival she made a deal of strife
5974     By carrying off Count Cesare Cicogna
5975     From an old Roman princess at Bologna.
5976
5977     'And then there are the dancers; there 's the Nini,
5978       With more than one profession, gains by all;
5979     Then there 's that laughing slut the Pelegrini,
5980       She, too, was fortunate last carnival,
5981     And made at least five hundred good zecchini,
5982       But spends so fast, she has not now a paul;
5983     And then there 's the Grotesca--such a dancer!
5984     Where men have souls or bodies she must answer.
5985
5986     'As for the figuranti, they are like
5987       The rest of all that tribe; with here and there
5988     A pretty person, which perhaps may strike,
5989       The rest are hardly fitted for a fair;
5990     There 's one, though tall and stiffer than a pike,
5991       Yet has a sentimental kind of air
5992     Which might go far, but she don't dance with vigour;
5993     The more 's the pity, with her face and figure.
5994
5995     'As for the men, they are a middling set;
5996       The musico is but a crack'd old basin,
5997     But being qualified in one way yet,
5998       May the seraglio do to set his face in,
5999     And as a servant some preferment get;
6000       His singing I no further trust can place in:
6001     From all the Pope makes yearly 't would perplex
6002     To find three perfect pipes of the third sex.
6003
6004     'The tenor's voice is spoilt by affectation,
6005       And for the bass, the beast can only bellow;
6006     In fact, he had no singing education,
6007       An ignorant, noteless, timeless, tuneless fellow;
6008     But being the prima donna's near relation,
6009       Who swore his voice was very rich and mellow,
6010     They hired him, though to hear him you 'd believe
6011     An ass was practising recitative.
6012
6013     ''T would not become myself to dwell upon
6014       My own merits, and though young--I see, Sir--you
6015     Have got a travell'd air, which speaks you one
6016       To whom the opera is by no means new:
6017     You 've heard of Raucocanti?--I 'm the man;
6018       The time may come when you may hear me too;
6019     You was not last year at the fair of Lugo,
6020     But next, when I 'm engaged to sing there--do go.
6021
6022     'Our baritone I almost had forgot,
6023       A pretty lad, but bursting with conceit;
6024     With graceful action, science not a jot,
6025       A voice of no great compass, and not sweet,
6026     He always is complaining of his lot,
6027       Forsooth, scarce fit for ballads in the street;
6028     In lovers' parts his passion more to breathe,
6029     Having no heart to show, he shows his teeth.'
6030
6031     Here Raucocanti's eloquent recital
6032       Was interrupted by the pirate crew,
6033     Who came at stated moments to invite all
6034       The captives back to their sad berths; each threw
6035     A rueful glance upon the waves (which bright all
6036       From the blue skies derived a double blue,
6037     Dancing all free and happy in the sun),
6038     And then went down the hatchway one by one.
6039
6040     They heard next day--that in the Dardanelles,
6041       Waiting for his Sublimity's firman,
6042     The most imperative of sovereign spells,
6043       Which every body does without who can,
6044     More to secure them in their naval cells,
6045       Lady to lady, well as man to man,
6046     Were to be chain'd and lotted out per couple,
6047     For the slave market of Constantinople.
6048
6049     It seems when this allotment was made out,
6050       There chanced to be an odd male, and odd female,
6051     Who (after some discussion and some doubt,
6052       If the soprano might be deem'd to be male,
6053     They placed him o'er the women as a scout)
6054       Were link'd together, and it happen'd the male
6055     Was Juan,--who, an awkward thing at his age,
6056     Pair'd off with a Bacchante blooming visage.
6057
6058     With Raucocanti lucklessly was chain'd
6059       The tenor; these two hated with a hate
6060     Found only on the stage, and each more pain'd
6061       With this his tuneful neighbour than his fate;
6062     Sad strife arose, for they were so cross-grain'd,
6063       Instead of bearing up without debate,
6064     That each pull'd different ways with many an oath,
6065     'Arcades ambo,' id est--blackguards both.
6066
6067     Juan's companion was a Romagnole,
6068       But bred within the March of old Ancona,
6069     With eyes that look'd into the very soul
6070       (And other chief points of a 'bella donna'),
6071     Bright--and as black and burning as a coal;
6072       And through her dear brunette complexion shone
6073     Great wish to please--a most attractive dower,
6074     Especially when added to the power.
6075
6076     But all that power was wasted upon him,
6077       For sorrow o'er each sense held stern command;
6078     Her eye might flash on his, but found it dim;
6079       And though thus chain'd, as natural her hand
6080     Touch'd his, nor that--nor any handsome limb
6081       (And she had some not easy to withstand)
6082     Could stir his pulse, or make his faith feel brittle;
6083     Perhaps his recent wounds might help a little.
6084
6085     No matter; we should ne'er too much enquire,
6086       But facts are facts: no knight could be more true,
6087     And firmer faith no ladye--love desire;
6088       We will omit the proofs, save one or two:
6089     'T is said no one in hand 'can hold a fire
6090       By thought of frosty Caucasus;' but few,
6091     I really think; yet Juan's then ordeal
6092     Was more triumphant, and not much less real.
6093
6094     Here I might enter on a chaste description,
6095       Having withstood temptation in my youth,
6096     But hear that several people take exception
6097       At the first two books having too much truth;
6098     Therefore I 'll make Don Juan leave the ship soon,
6099       Because the publisher declares, in sooth,
6100     Through needles' eyes it easier for the camel is
6101     To pass, than those two cantos into families.
6102
6103     'T is all the same to me; I 'm fond of yielding,
6104       And therefore leave them to the purer page
6105     Of Smollett, Prior, Ariosto, Fielding,
6106       Who say strange things for so correct an age;
6107     I once had great alacrity in wielding
6108       My pen, and liked poetic war to wage,
6109     And recollect the time when all this cant
6110     Would have provoked remarks which now it shan't.
6111
6112     As boys love rows, my boyhood liked a squabble;
6113       But at this hour I wish to part in peace,
6114     Leaving such to the literary rabble:
6115       Whether my verse's fame be doom'd to cease
6116     While the right hand which wrote it still is able,
6117       Or of some centuries to take a lease,
6118     The grass upon my grave will grow as long,
6119     And sigh to midnight winds, but not to song.
6120
6121     Of poets who come down to us through distance
6122       Of time and tongues, the foster-babes of Fame,
6123     Life seems the smallest portion of existence;
6124       Where twenty ages gather o'er a name,
6125     'T is as a snowball which derives assistance
6126       From every flake, and yet rolls on the same,
6127     Even till an iceberg it may chance to grow;
6128     But, after all, 't is nothing but cold snow.
6129
6130     And so great names are nothing more than nominal,
6131       And love of glory 's but an airy lust,
6132     Too often in its fury overcoming all
6133       Who would as 't were identify their dust
6134     From out the wide destruction, which, entombing all,
6135       Leaves nothing till 'the coming of the just'-
6136     Save change: I 've stood upon Achilles' tomb,
6137     And heard Troy doubted; time will doubt of Rome.
6138
6139     The very generations of the dead
6140       Are swept away, and tomb inherits tomb,
6141     Until the memory of an age is fled,
6142       And, buried, sinks beneath its offspring's doom:
6143     Where are the epitaphs our fathers read?
6144       Save a few glean'd from the sepulchral gloom
6145     Which once-named myriads nameless lie beneath,
6146     And lose their own in universal death.
6147
6148     I canter by the spot each afternoon
6149       Where perish'd in his fame the hero-boy,
6150     Who lived too long for men, but died too soon
6151       For human vanity, the young De Foix!
6152     A broken pillar, not uncouthly hewn,
6153       But which neglect is hastening to destroy,
6154     Records Ravenna's carnage on its face,
6155     While weeds and ordure rankle round the base.
6156
6157     I pass each day where Dante's bones are laid:
6158       A little cupola, more neat than solemn,
6159     Protects his dust, but reverence here is paid
6160       To the bard's tomb, and not the warrior's column.
6161     The time must come, when both alike decay'd,
6162       The chieftain's trophy, and the poet's volume,
6163     Will sink where lie the songs and wars of earth,
6164     Before Pelides' death, or Homer's birth.
6165
6166     With human blood that column was cemented,
6167       With human filth that column is defiled,
6168     As if the peasant's coarse contempt were vented
6169       To show his loathing of the spot he soil'd:
6170     Thus is the trophy used, and thus lamented
6171       Should ever be those blood-hounds, from whose wild
6172     Instinct of gore and glory earth has known
6173     Those sufferings Dante saw in hell alone.
6174
6175     Yet there will still be bards: though fame is smoke,
6176       Its fumes are frankincense to human thought;
6177     And the unquiet feelings, which first woke
6178       Song in the world, will seek what then they sought;
6179     As on the beach the waves at last are broke,
6180       Thus to their extreme verge the passions brought
6181     Dash into poetry, which is but passion,
6182     Or at least was so ere it grew a fashion.
6183
6184     If in the course of such a life as was
6185       At once adventurous and contemplative,
6186     Men, who partake all passions as they pass,
6187       Acquire the deep and bitter power to give
6188     Their images again as in a glass,
6189       And in such colours that they seem to live;
6190     You may do right forbidding them to show 'em,
6191     But spoil (I think) a very pretty poem.
6192
6193     O! ye, who make the fortunes of all books!
6194       Benign Ceruleans of the second sex!
6195     Who advertise new poems by your looks,
6196       Your 'imprimatur' will ye not annex?
6197     What! must I go to the oblivious cooks,
6198       Those Cornish plunderers of Parnassian wrecks?
6199     Ah! must I then the only minstrel be,
6200     Proscribed from tasting your Castalian tea!
6201
6202     What! can I prove 'a lion' then no more?
6203       A ball-room bard, a foolscap, hot-press darling?
6204     To bear the compliments of many a bore,
6205       And sigh, 'I can't get out,' like Yorick's starling;
6206     Why then I 'll swear, as poet Wordy swore
6207       (Because the world won't read him, always snarling),
6208     That taste is gone, that fame is but a lottery,
6209     Drawn by the blue-coat misses of a coterie.
6210
6211     O! 'darkly, deeply, beautifully blue,'
6212       As some one somewhere sings about the sky,
6213     And I, ye learned ladies, say of you;
6214       They say your stockings are so (Heaven knows why,
6215     I have examined few pair of that hue);
6216       Blue as the garters which serenely lie
6217     Round the Patrician left-legs, which adorn
6218     The festal midnight, and the levee morn.
6219
6220     Yet some of you are most seraphic creatures--
6221       But times are alter'd since, a rhyming lover,
6222     You read my stanzas, and I read your features:
6223       And--but no matter, all those things are over;
6224     Still I have no dislike to learned natures,
6225       For sometimes such a world of virtues cover;
6226     I knew one woman of that purple school,
6227     The loveliest, chastest, best, but--quite a fool.
6228
6229     Humboldt, 'the first of travellers,' but not
6230       The last, if late accounts be accurate,
6231     Invented, by some name I have forgot,
6232       As well as the sublime discovery's date,
6233     An airy instrument, with which he sought
6234       To ascertain the atmospheric state,
6235     By measuring 'the intensity of blue:'
6236     O, Lady Daphne! let me measure you!
6237
6238     But to the narrative:--The vessel bound
6239       With slaves to sell off in the capital,
6240     After the usual process, might be found
6241       At anchor under the seraglio wall;
6242     Her cargo, from the plague being safe and sound,
6243       Were landed in the market, one and all,
6244     And there with Georgians, Russians, and Circassians,
6245     Bought up for different purposes and passions.
6246
6247     Some went off dearly; fifteen hundred dollars
6248       For one Circassian, a sweet girl, were given,
6249     Warranted virgin; beauty's brightest colours
6250       Had deck'd her out in all the hues of heaven:
6251     Her sale sent home some disappointed bawlers,
6252       Who bade on till the hundreds reach'd eleven;
6253     But when the offer went beyond, they knew
6254     'T was for the Sultan, and at once withdrew.
6255
6256     Twelve negresses from Nubia brought a price
6257       Which the West Indian market scarce would bring;
6258     Though Wilberforce, at last, has made it twice
6259       What 't was ere Abolition; and the thing
6260     Need not seem very wonderful, for vice
6261       Is always much more splendid than a king:
6262     The virtues, even the most exalted, Charity,
6263     Are saving--vice spares nothing for a rarity.
6264
6265     But for the destiny of this young troop,
6266       How some were bought by pachas, some by Jews,
6267     How some to burdens were obliged to stoop,
6268       And others rose to the command of crews
6269     As renegadoes; while in hapless group,
6270       Hoping no very old vizier might choose,
6271     The females stood, as one by one they pick'd 'em,
6272     To make a mistress, or fourth wife, or victim:
6273
6274     All this must be reserved for further song;
6275       Also our hero's lot, howe'er unpleasant
6276     (Because this Canto has become too long),
6277       Must be postponed discreetly for the present;
6278     I 'm sensible redundancy is wrong,
6279       But could not for the muse of me put less in 't:
6280     And now delay the progress of Don Juan,
6281     Till what is call'd in Ossian the fifth Juan.
6282
6283
6284CANTO THE FIFTH.
6285
6286     When amatory poets sing their loves
6287       In liquid lines mellifluously bland,
6288     And pair their rhymes as Venus yokes her doves,
6289       They little think what mischief is in hand;
6290     The greater their success the worse it proves,
6291       As Ovid's verse may give to understand;
6292     Even Petrarch's self, if judged with due severity,
6293     Is the Platonic pimp of all posterity.
6294
6295     I therefore do denounce all amorous writing,
6296       Except in such a way as not to attract;
6297     Plain--simple--short, and by no means inviting,
6298       But with a moral to each error tack'd,
6299     Form'd rather for instructing than delighting,
6300       And with all passions in their turn attack'd;
6301     Now, if my Pegasus should not be shod ill,
6302     This poem will become a moral model.
6303
6304     The European with the Asian shore
6305       Sprinkled with palaces; the ocean stream
6306     Here and there studded with a seventy-four;
6307       Sophia's cupola with golden gleam;
6308     The cypress groves; Olympus high and hoar;
6309       The twelve isles, and the more than I could dream,
6310     Far less describe, present the very view
6311     Which charm'd the charming Mary Montagu.
6312
6313     I have a passion for the name of 'Mary,'
6314       For once it was a magic sound to me;
6315     And still it half calls up the realms of fairy,
6316       Where I beheld what never was to be;
6317     All feelings changed, but this was last to vary,
6318       A spell from which even yet I am not quite free:
6319     But I grow sad--and let a tale grow cold,
6320     Which must not be pathetically told.
6321
6322     The wind swept down the Euxine, and the wave
6323       Broke foaming o'er the blue Symplegades;
6324     'T is a grand sight from off 'the Giant's Grave
6325       To watch the progress of those rolling seas
6326     Between the Bosphorus, as they lash and lave
6327       Europe and Asia, you being quite at ease;
6328     There 's not a sea the passenger e'er pukes in,
6329     Turns up more dangerous breakers than the Euxine.
6330
6331     'T was a raw day of Autumn's bleak beginning,
6332       When nights are equal, but not so the days;
6333     The Parcae then cut short the further spinning
6334       Of seamen's fates, and the loud tempests raise
6335     The waters, and repentance for past sinning
6336       In all, who o'er the great deep take their ways:
6337     They vow to amend their lives, and yet they don't;
6338     Because if drown'd, they can't--if spared, they won't.
6339
6340     A crowd of shivering slaves of every nation,
6341       And age, and sex, were in the market ranged;
6342     Each bevy with the merchant in his station:
6343       Poor creatures! their good looks were sadly changed.
6344     All save the blacks seem'd jaded with vexation,
6345       From friends, and home, and freedom far estranged;
6346     The negroes more philosophy display'd,--
6347     Used to it, no doubt, as eels are to be flay'd.
6348
6349     Juan was juvenile, and thus was full,
6350       As most at his age are, of hope and health;
6351     Yet I must own he looked a little dull,
6352       And now and then a tear stole down by stealth;
6353     Perhaps his recent loss of blood might pull
6354       His spirit down; and then the loss of wealth,
6355     A mistress, and such comfortable quarters,
6356     To be put up for auction amongst Tartars,
6357
6358     Were things to shake a stoic; ne'ertheless,
6359       Upon the whole his carriage was serene:
6360     His figure, and the splendour of his dress,
6361       Of which some gilded remnants still were seen,
6362     Drew all eyes on him, giving them to guess
6363       He was above the vulgar by his mien;
6364     And then, though pale, he was so very handsome;
6365     And then--they calculated on his ransom.
6366
6367     Like a backgammon board the place was dotted
6368       With whites and blacks, in groups on show for sale,
6369     Though rather more irregularly spotted:
6370       Some bought the jet, while others chose the pale.
6371     It chanced amongst the other people lotted,
6372       A man of thirty rather stout and hale,
6373     With resolution in his dark grey eye,
6374     Next Juan stood, till some might choose to buy.
6375
6376     He had an English look; that is, was square
6377       In make, of a complexion white and ruddy,
6378     Good teeth, with curling rather dark brown hair,
6379       And, it might be from thought or toil or study,
6380     An open brow a little mark'd with care:
6381       One arm had on a bandage rather bloody;
6382     And there he stood with such sang-froid, that greater
6383     Could scarce be shown even by a mere spectator.
6384
6385     But seeing at his elbow a mere lad,
6386       Of a high spirit evidently, though
6387     At present weigh'd down by a doom which had
6388       O'erthrown even men, he soon began to show
6389     A kind of blunt compassion for the sad
6390       Lot of so young a partner in the woe,
6391     Which for himself he seem'd to deem no worse
6392     Than any other scrape, a thing of course.
6393
6394     'My boy!' said he, 'amidst this motley crew
6395       Of Georgians, Russians, Nubians, and what not,
6396     All ragamuffins differing but in hue,
6397       With whom it is our luck to cast our lot,
6398     The only gentlemen seem I and you;
6399       So let us be acquainted, as we ought:
6400     If I could yield you any consolation,
6401     'T would give me pleasure.--Pray, what is your nation?'
6402
6403     When Juan answer'd--'Spanish!' he replied,
6404       'I thought, in fact, you could not be a Greek;
6405     Those servile dogs are not so proudly eyed:
6406       Fortune has play'd you here a pretty freak,
6407     But that 's her way with all men, till they 're tried;
6408       But never mind,--she 'll turn, perhaps, next week;
6409     She has served me also much the same as you,
6410     Except that I have found it nothing new.'
6411
6412     'Pray, sir,' said Juan, 'if I may presume,
6413       What brought you here?'--'Oh! nothing very rare--
6414     Six Tartars and a drag-chain.'--'To this doom
6415       But what conducted, if the question's fair,
6416     Is that which I would learn.'--'I served for some
6417       Months with the Russian army here and there,
6418     And taking lately, by Suwarrow's bidding,
6419     A town, was ta'en myself instead of Widdin.'
6420
6421     'Have you no friends?'--'I had--but, by God's blessing,
6422       Have not been troubled with them lately. Now
6423     I have answer'd all your questions without pressing,
6424       And you an equal courtesy should show.'
6425     'Alas!' said Juan, ''t were a tale distressing,
6426       And long besides.'--'Oh! if 't is really so,
6427     You 're right on both accounts to hold your tongue;
6428     A sad tale saddens doubly, when 't is long.
6429
6430     'But droop not: Fortune at your time of life,
6431       Although a female moderately fickle,
6432     Will hardly leave you (as she 's not your wife)
6433       For any length of days in such a pickle.
6434     To strive, too, with our fate were such a strife
6435       As if the corn-sheaf should oppose the sickle:
6436     Men are the sport of circumstances, when
6437     The circumstances seem the sport of men.'
6438
6439     ''T is not,' said Juan, 'for my present doom
6440       I mourn, but for the past;--I loved a maid:'-
6441     He paused, and his dark eye grew full of gloom;
6442       A single tear upon his eyelash staid
6443     A moment, and then dropp'd; 'but to resume,
6444       'T is not my present lot, as I have said,
6445     Which I deplore so much; for I have borne
6446     Hardships which have the hardiest overworn,
6447
6448     'On the rough deep. But this last blow-' and here
6449       He stopp'd again, and turn'd away his face.
6450     'Ay,' quoth his friend, 'I thought it would appear
6451       That there had been a lady in the case;
6452     And these are things which ask a tender tear,
6453       Such as I, too, would shed if in your place:
6454     I cried upon my first wife's dying day,
6455     And also when my second ran away:
6456
6457     'My third-'--'Your third!' quoth Juan, turning round;
6458       'You scarcely can be thirty: have you three?'
6459     'No--only two at present above ground:
6460       Surely 't is nothing wonderful to see
6461     One person thrice in holy wedlock bound!'
6462       'Well, then, your third,' said Juan; 'what did she?
6463     She did not run away, too,--did she, sir?'
6464     'No, faith.'--'What then?'--'I ran away from her.'
6465
6466     'You take things coolly, sir,' said Juan. 'Why,'
6467       Replied the other, 'what can a man do?
6468     There still are many rainbows in your sky,
6469       But mine have vanish'd. All, when life is new,
6470     Commence with feelings warm, and prospects high;
6471       But time strips our illusions of their hue,
6472     And one by one in turn, some grand mistake
6473     Casts off its bright skin yearly like the snake.
6474
6475     ''T is true, it gets another bright and fresh,
6476       Or fresher, brighter; but the year gone through,
6477     This skin must go the way, too, of all flesh,
6478       Or sometimes only wear a week or two;--
6479     Love 's the first net which spreads its deadly mesh;
6480       Ambition, Avarice, Vengeance, Glory, glue
6481     The glittering lime-twigs of our latter days,
6482     Where still we flutter on for pence or praise.'
6483
6484     'All this is very fine, and may be true,'
6485       Said Juan; 'but I really don't see how
6486     It betters present times with me or you.'
6487       'No?' quoth the other; 'yet you will allow
6488     By setting things in their right point of view,
6489       Knowledge, at least, is gain'd; for instance, now,
6490     We know what slavery is, and our disasters
6491     May teach us better to behave when masters.'
6492
6493     'Would we were masters now, if but to try
6494       Their present lessons on our Pagan friends here,'
6495     Said Juan,--swallowing a heart-burning sigh:
6496       'Heaven help the scholar whom his fortune sends here!'
6497     'Perhaps we shall be one day, by and by,'
6498       Rejoin'd the other, when our bad luck mends here;
6499     Meantime (yon old black eunuch seems to eye us)
6500
6501     'But after all, what is our present state?
6502       'T is bad, and may be better--all men's lot:
6503     Most men are slaves, none more so than the great,
6504       To their own whims and passions, and what not;
6505     Society itself, which should create
6506       Kindness, destroys what little we had got:
6507     To feel for none is the true social art
6508     Of the world's stoics--men without a heart.'
6509
6510     Just now a black old neutral personage
6511       Of the third sex stept up, and peering over
6512     The captives, seem'd to mark their looks and age,
6513       And capabilities, as to discover
6514     If they were fitted for the purposed cage:
6515       No lady e'er is ogled by a lover,
6516     Horse by a blackleg, broadcloth by a tailor,
6517     Fee by a counsel, felon by a jailor,
6518
6519     As is a slave by his intended bidder.
6520       'T is pleasant purchasing our fellow-creatures;
6521     And all are to be sold, if you consider
6522       Their passions, and are dext'rous; some by features
6523     Are bought up, others by a warlike leader,
6524       Some by a place--as tend their years or natures;
6525     The most by ready cash--but all have prices,
6526     From crowns to kicks, according to their vices.
6527
6528     The eunuch, having eyed them o'er with care,
6529       Turn'd to the merchant, and begun to bid
6530     First but for one, and after for the pair;
6531       They haggled, wrangled, swore, too--so they did!
6532     As though they were in a mere Christian fair
6533       Cheapening an ox, an ass, a lamb, or kid;
6534     So that their bargain sounded like a battle
6535     For this superior yoke of human cattle.
6536
6537     At last they settled into simple grumbling,
6538       And pulling out reluctant purses, and
6539     Turning each piece of silver o'er, and tumbling
6540       Some down, and weighing others in their hand,
6541     And by mistake sequins with paras jumbling,
6542       Until the sum was accurately scann'd,
6543     And then the merchant giving change, and signing
6544     Receipts in full, began to think of dining.
6545
6546     I wonder if his appetite was good?
6547       Or, if it were, if also his digestion?
6548     Methinks at meals some odd thoughts might intrude,
6549       And conscience ask a curious sort of question,
6550     About the right divine how far we should
6551       Sell flesh and blood. When dinner has opprest one,
6552     I think it is perhaps the gloomiest hour
6553     Which turns up out of the sad twenty-four.
6554
6555     Voltaire says 'No:' he tells you that Candide
6556       Found life most tolerable after meals;
6557     He 's wrong--unless man were a pig, indeed,
6558       Repletion rather adds to what he feels,
6559     Unless he 's drunk, and then no doubt he 's freed
6560       From his own brain's oppression while it reels.
6561     Of food I think with Philip's son, or rather
6562     Ammon's (ill pleased with one world and one father);
6563
6564     I think with Alexander, that the act
6565       Of eating, with another act or two,
6566     Makes us feel our mortality in fact
6567       Redoubled; when a roast and a ragout,
6568     And fish, and soup, by some side dishes back'd,
6569       Can give us either pain or pleasure, who
6570     Would pique himself on intellects, whose use
6571     Depends so much upon the gastric juice?
6572
6573     The other evening ('t was on Friday last)--
6574       This is a fact and no poetic fable--
6575     Just as my great coat was about me cast,
6576       My hat and gloves still lying on the table,
6577     I heard a shot--'t was eight o'clock scarce past--
6578       And, running out as fast as I was able,
6579     I found the military commandant
6580     Stretch'd in the street, and able scarce to pant.
6581
6582     Poor fellow! for some reason, surely bad,
6583       They had slain him with five slugs; and left him there
6584     To perish on the pavement: so I had
6585       Him borne into the house and up the stair,
6586     And stripp'd and look'd to--But why should I ad
6587       More circumstances? vain was every care;
6588     The man was gone: in some Italian quarrel
6589     Kill'd by five bullets from an old gun-barrel.
6590
6591     I gazed upon him, for I knew him well;
6592       And though I have seen many corpses, never
6593     Saw one, whom such an accident befell,
6594       So calm; though pierced through stomach, heart, and liver,
6595     He seem'd to sleep,--for you could scarcely tell
6596       (As he bled inwardly, no hideous river
6597     Of gore divulged the cause) that he was dead:
6598     So as I gazed on him, I thought or said--
6599
6600     'Can this be death? then what is life or death?
6601       Speak!' but he spoke not: 'Wake!' but still he slept:--
6602     'But yesterday and who had mightier breath?
6603       A thousand warriors by his word were kept
6604     In awe: he said, as the centurion saith,
6605       "Go," and he goeth; "come," and forth he stepp'd.
6606     The trump and bugle till he spake were dumb--
6607     And now nought left him but the muffled drum.'
6608
6609     And they who waited once and worshipp'd--they
6610       With their rough faces throng'd about the bed
6611     To gaze once more on the commanding clay
6612       Which for the last, though not the first, time bled:
6613     And such an end! that he who many a day
6614       Had faced Napoleon's foes until they fled,--
6615     The foremost in the charge or in the sally,
6616     Should now be butcher'd in a civic alley.
6617
6618     The scars of his old wounds were near his new,
6619       Those honourable scars which brought him fame;
6620     And horrid was the contrast to the view--
6621       But let me quit the theme; as such things claim
6622     Perhaps even more attention than is due
6623       From me: I gazed (as oft I have gazed the same)
6624     To try if I could wrench aught out of death
6625     Which should confirm, or shake, or make a faith;
6626
6627     But it was all a mystery. Here we are,
6628       And there we go:--but where? five bits of lead,
6629     Or three, or two, or one, send very far!
6630       And is this blood, then, form'd but to be shed?
6631     Can every element our elements mar?
6632       And air--earth--water--fire live--and we dead?
6633     We whose minds comprehend all things? No more;
6634     But let us to the story as before.
6635
6636     The purchaser of Juan and acquaintance
6637       Bore off his bargains to a gilded boat,
6638     Embark'd himself and them, and off they went thence
6639       As fast as oars could pull and water float;
6640     They look'd like persons being led to sentence,
6641       Wondering what next, till the caique was brought
6642     Up in a little creek below a wall
6643     O'ertopp'd with cypresses, dark-green and tall.
6644
6645     Here their conductor tapping at the wicket
6646       Of a small iron door, 't was open'd, and
6647     He led them onward, first through a low thicket
6648       Flank'd by large groves, which tower'd on either hand:
6649     They almost lost their way, and had to pick it--
6650       For night was dosing ere they came to land.
6651     The eunuch made a sign to those on board,
6652     Who row'd off, leaving them without a word.
6653
6654     As they were plodding on their winding way
6655       Through orange bowers, and jasmine, and so forth
6656     (Of which I might have a good deal to say,
6657       There being no such profusion in the North
6658     Of oriental plants, 'et cetera,'
6659       But that of late your scribblers think it worth
6660     Their while to rear whole hotbeds in their works
6661     Because one poet travell'd 'mongst the Turks)--
6662
6663     As they were threading on their way, there came
6664       Into Don Juan's head a thought, which he
6665     Whisper'd to his companion:--'t was the same
6666       Which might have then occurr'd to you or me.
6667     'Methinks,' said he, 'it would be no great shame
6668       If we should strike a stroke to set us free;
6669     Let 's knock that old black fellow on the head,
6670     And march away--'t were easier done than said.'
6671
6672     'Yes,' said the other, 'and when done, what then?
6673       How get out? how the devil got we in?
6674     And when we once were fairly out, and when
6675       From Saint Bartholomew we have saved our skin,
6676     To-morrow 'd see us in some other den,
6677       And worse off than we hitherto have been;
6678     Besides, I 'm hungry, and just now would take,
6679     Like Esau, for my birthright a beef-steak.
6680
6681     'We must be near some place of man's abode;--
6682       For the old negro's confidence in creeping,
6683     With his two captives, by so queer a road,
6684       Shows that he thinks his friends have not been sleeping;
6685     A single cry would bring them all abroad:
6686       'T is therefore better looking before leaping--
6687     And there, you see, this turn has brought us through,
6688     By Jove, a noble palace!--lighted too.'
6689
6690     It was indeed a wide extensive building
6691       Which open'd on their view, and o'er the front
6692     There seem'd to be besprent a deal of gilding
6693       And various hues, as is the Turkish wont,--
6694     A gaudy taste; for they are little skill'd in
6695       The arts of which these lands were once the font:
6696     Each villa on the Bosphorus looks a screen
6697     New painted, or a pretty opera-scene.
6698
6699     And nearer as they came, a genial savour
6700       Of certain stews, and roast-meats, and pilaus,
6701     Things which in hungry mortals' eyes find favour,
6702       Made Juan in his harsh intentions pause,
6703     And put himself upon his good behaviour:
6704       His friend, too, adding a new saving clause,
6705     Said, 'In Heaven's name let's get some supper now,
6706     And then I 'm with you, if you 're for a row.'
6707
6708     Some talk of an appeal unto some passion,
6709       Some to men's feelings, others to their reason;
6710     The last of these was never much the fashion,
6711       For reason thinks all reasoning out of season.
6712     Some speakers whine, and others lay the lash on,
6713       But more or less continue still to tease on,
6714     With arguments according to their 'forte;'
6715     But no one dreams of ever being short.-
6716
6717     But I digress: of all appeals,--although
6718       I grant the power of pathos, and of gold,
6719     Of beauty, flattery, threats, a shilling,--no
6720       Method 's more sure at moments to take hold
6721     Of the best feelings of mankind, which grow
6722       More tender, as we every day behold,
6723     Than that all-softening, overpowering knell,
6724     The tocsin of the soul--the dinner-bell.
6725
6726     Turkey contains no bells, and yet men dine;
6727       And Juan and his friend, albeit they heard
6728     No Christian knoll to table, saw no line
6729       Of lackeys usher to the feast prepared,
6730     Yet smelt roast-meat, beheld a huge fire shine,
6731       And cooks in motion with their clean arms bared,
6732     And gazed around them to the left and right
6733     With the prophetic eye of appetite.
6734
6735     And giving up all notions of resistance,
6736       They follow'd close behind their sable guide,
6737     Who little thought that his own crack'd existence
6738       Was on the point of being set aside:
6739     He motion'd them to stop at some small distance,
6740       And knocking at the gate, 't was open'd wide,
6741     And a magnificent large hall display'd
6742     The Asian pomp of Ottoman parade.
6743
6744     I won't describe; description is my forte,
6745       But every fool describes in these bright days
6746     His wondrous journey to some foreign court,
6747       And spawns his quarto, and demands your praise--
6748     Death to his publisher, to him 't is sport;
6749       While Nature, tortured twenty thousand ways,
6750     Resigns herself with exemplary patience
6751     To guide-books, rhymes, tours, sketches, illustrations.
6752
6753     Along this hall, and up and down, some, squatted
6754       Upon their hams, were occupied at chess;
6755     Others in monosyllable talk chatted,
6756       And some seem'd much in love with their own dress.
6757     And divers smoked superb pipes decorated
6758       With amber mouths of greater price or less;
6759     And several strutted, others slept, and some
6760     Prepared for supper with a glass of rum.
6761
6762     As the black eunuch enter'd with his brace
6763       Of purchased Infidels, some raised their eyes
6764     A moment without slackening from their pace;
6765       But those who sate ne'er stirr'd in anywise:
6766     One or two stared the captives in the face,
6767       Just as one views a horse to guess his price;
6768     Some nodded to the negro from their station,
6769     But no one troubled him with conversation.
6770
6771     He leads them through the hall, and, without stopping,
6772       On through a farther range of goodly rooms,
6773     Splendid but silent, save in one, where, dropping,
6774       A marble fountain echoes through the glooms
6775     Of night which robe the chamber, or where popping
6776       Some female head most curiously presumes
6777     To thrust its black eyes through the door or lattice,
6778     As wondering what the devil a noise that is.
6779
6780     Some faint lamps gleaming from the lofty walls
6781       Gave light enough to hint their farther way,
6782     But not enough to show the imperial halls,
6783       In all the flashing of their full array;
6784     Perhaps there 's nothing--I 'll not say appals,
6785       But saddens more by night as well as day,
6786     Than an enormous room without a soul
6787     To break the lifeless splendour of the whole.
6788
6789     Two or three seem so little, one seems nothing:
6790       In deserts, forests, crowds, or by the shore,
6791     There solitude, we know, has her full growth in
6792       The spots which were her realms for evermore;
6793     But in a mighty hall or gallery, both in
6794       More modern buildings and those built of yore,
6795     A kind of death comes o'er us all alone,
6796     Seeing what 's meant for many with but one.
6797
6798     A neat, snug study on a winter's night,
6799       A book, friend, single lady, or a glass
6800     Of claret, sandwich, and an appetite,
6801       Are things which make an English evening pass;
6802     Though certes by no means so grand a sight
6803       As is a theatre lit up by gas.
6804     I pass my evenings in long galleries solely,
6805     And that 's the reason I 'm so melancholy.
6806
6807     Alas! man makes that great which makes him little:
6808       I grant you in a church 't is very well:
6809     What speaks of Heaven should by no means be brittle,
6810       But strong and lasting, till no tongue can tell
6811     Their names who rear'd it; but huge houses fit ill--
6812       And huge tombs worse--mankind, since Adam fell:
6813     Methinks the story of the tower of Babel
6814     Might teach them this much better than I 'm able.
6815
6816     Babel was Nimrod's hunting-box, and then
6817       A town of gardens, walls, and wealth amazing,
6818     Where Nabuchadonosor, king of men,
6819       Reign'd, till one summer's day he took to grazing,
6820     And Daniel tamed the lions in their den,
6821       The people's awe and admiration raising;
6822     'T was famous, too, for Thisbe and for Pyramus,
6823     And the calumniated queen Semiramis.
6824
6825     That injured Queen by chroniclers so coarse
6826       Has been accused (I doubt not by conspiracy)
6827     Of an improper friendship for her horse
6828       (Love, like religion, sometimes runs to heresy):
6829     This monstrous tale had probably its source
6830       (For such exaggerations here and there I see)
6831     In writing 'Courser' by mistake for 'Courier:'
6832     I wish the case could come before a jury here.
6833
6834     But to resume,--should there be (what may not
6835       Be in these days?) some infidels, who don't,
6836     Because they can't find out the very spot
6837       Of that same Babel, or because they won't
6838     (Though Claudius Rich, Esquire, some bricks has got,
6839       And written lately two memoirs upon't),
6840     Believe the Jews, those unbelievers, who
6841     Must be believed, though they believe not you,
6842
6843     Yet let them think that Horace has exprest
6844       Shortly and sweetly the masonic folly
6845     Of those, forgetting the great place of rest,
6846       Who give themselves to architecture wholly;
6847     We know where things and men must end at best:
6848       A moral (like all morals) melancholy,
6849     And 'Et sepulchri immemor struis domos'
6850     Shows that we build when we should but entomb us.
6851
6852     At last they reach'd a quarter most retired,
6853       Where echo woke as if from a long slumber;
6854     Though full of all things which could be desired,
6855       One wonder'd what to do with such a number
6856     Of articles which nobody required;
6857       Here wealth had done its utmost to encumber
6858     With furniture an exquisite apartment,
6859     Which puzzled Nature much to know what Art meant.
6860
6861     It seem'd, however, but to open on
6862       A range or suite of further chambers, which
6863     Might lead to heaven knows where; but in this one
6864       The movables were prodigally rich:
6865     Sofas 't was half a sin to sit upon,
6866       So costly were they; carpets every stitch
6867     Of workmanship so rare, they made you wish
6868     You could glide o'er them like a golden fish.
6869
6870     The black, however, without hardly deigning
6871       A glance at that which wrapt the slaves in wonder,
6872     Trampled what they scarce trod for fear of staining,
6873       As if the milky way their feet was under
6874     With all its stars; and with a stretch attaining
6875       A certain press or cupboard niched in yonder--
6876     In that remote recess which you may see--
6877     Or if you don't the fault is not in me,--
6878
6879     I wish to be perspicuous; and the black,
6880       I say, unlocking the recess, pull'd forth
6881     A quantity of clothes fit for the back
6882       Of any Mussulman, whate'er his worth;
6883     And of variety there was no lack--
6884       And yet, though I have said there was no dearth,
6885     He chose himself to point out what he thought
6886     Most proper for the Christians he had bought.
6887
6888     The suit he thought most suitable to each
6889       Was, for the elder and the stouter, first
6890     A Candiote cloak, which to the knee might reach,
6891       And trousers not so tight that they would burst,
6892     But such as fit an Asiatic breech;
6893       A shawl, whose folds in Cashmire had been nurst,
6894     Slippers of saffron, dagger rich and handy;
6895     In short, all things which form a Turkish Dandy.
6896
6897     While he was dressing, Baba, their black friend,
6898       Hinted the vast advantages which they
6899     Might probably attain both in the end,
6900       If they would but pursue the proper way
6901     Which fortune plainly seem'd to recommend;
6902       And then he added, that he needs must say,
6903     ''T would greatly tend to better their condition,
6904     If they would condescend to circumcision.
6905
6906     'For his own part, he really should rejoice
6907       To see them true believers, but no less
6908     Would leave his proposition to their choice.'
6909       The other, thanking him for this excess
6910     Of goodness, in thus leaving them a voice
6911       In such a trifle, scarcely could express
6912     'Sufficiently' (he said) 'his approbation
6913     Of all the customs of this polish'd nation.
6914
6915     'For his own share--he saw but small objection
6916       To so respectable an ancient rite;
6917     And, after swallowing down a slight refection,
6918       For which he own'd a present appetite,
6919     He doubted not a few hours of reflection
6920       Would reconcile him to the business quite.'
6921     'Will it?' said Juan, sharply: 'Strike me dead,
6922     But they as soon shall circumcise my head!
6923
6924     'Cut off a thousand heads, before-'--'Now, pray,'
6925       Replied the other, 'do not interrupt:
6926     You put me out in what I had to say.
6927       Sir!--as I said, as soon as I have supt,
6928     I shall perpend if your proposal may
6929       Be such as I can properly accept;
6930     Provided always your great goodness still
6931     Remits the matter to our own free-will.'
6932
6933     Baba eyed Juan, and said, 'Be so good
6934       As dress yourself-' and pointed out a suit
6935     In which a Princess with great pleasure would
6936       Array her limbs; but Juan standing mute,
6937     As not being in a masquerading mood,
6938       Gave it a slight kick with his Christian foot;
6939     And when the old negro told him to 'Get ready,'
6940     Replied, 'Old gentleman, I 'm not a lady.'
6941
6942     'What you may be, I neither know nor care,'
6943       Said Baba; 'but pray do as I desire:
6944     I have no more time nor many words to spare.'
6945       'At least,' said Juan, 'sure I may enquire
6946     The cause of this odd travesty?'--'Forbear,'
6947       Said Baba, 'to be curious; 't will transpire,
6948     No doubt, in proper place, and time, and season:
6949     I have no authority to tell the reason.'
6950
6951     'Then if I do,' said Juan, 'I 'll be-'--'Hold!'
6952       Rejoin'd the negro, 'pray be not provoking;
6953     This spirit 's well, but it may wax too bold,
6954       And you will find us not top fond of joking.'
6955     'What, sir!' said Juan, 'shall it e'er be told
6956       That I unsex'd my dress?' But Baba, stroking
6957     The things down, said, 'Incense me, and I call
6958     Those who will leave you of no sex at all.
6959
6960     'I offer you a handsome suit of clothes:
6961       A woman's, true; but then there is a cause
6962     Why you should wear them.'--'What, though my soul loathes
6963       The effeminate garb?'--thus, after a short pause,
6964     Sigh'd Juan, muttering also some slight oaths,
6965       'What the devil shall I do with all this gauze?'
6966     Thus he profanely term'd the finest lace
6967     Which e'er set off a marriage-morning face.
6968
6969     And then he swore; and, sighing, on he slipp'd
6970       A pair of trousers of flesh-colour'd silk;
6971     Next with a virgin zone he was equipp'd,
6972       Which girt a slight chemise as white as milk;
6973     But tugging on his petticoat, he tripp'd,
6974       Which--as we say--or, as the Scotch say, whilk
6975     (The rhyme obliges me to this; sometimes
6976     Monarchs are less imperative than rhymes)--
6977
6978     Whilk, which (or what you please), was owing to
6979       His garment's novelty, and his being awkward:
6980     And yet at last he managed to get through
6981       His toilet, though no doubt a little backward:
6982     The negro Baba help'd a little too,
6983       When some untoward part of raiment stuck hard;
6984     And, wrestling both his arms into a gown,
6985     He paused, and took a survey up and down.
6986
6987     One difficulty still remain'd--his hair
6988       Was hardly long enough; but Baba found
6989     So many false long tresses all to spare,
6990       That soon his head was most completely crown'd,
6991     After the manner then in fashion there;
6992       And this addition with such gems was bound
6993     As suited the ensemble of his toilet,
6994     While Baba made him comb his head and oil it.
6995
6996     And now being femininely all array'd,
6997       With some small aid from scissors, paint, and tweezers,
6998     He look'd in almost all respects a maid,
6999       And Baba smilingly exclaim'd, 'You see, sirs,
7000     A perfect transformation here display'd;
7001       And now, then, you must come along with me, sirs,
7002     That is--the Lady:' clapping his hands twice,
7003     Four blacks were at his elbow in a trice.
7004
7005     'You, sir,' said Baba, nodding to the one,
7006       'Will please to accompany those gentlemen
7007     To supper; but you, worthy Christian nun,
7008       Will follow me: no trifling, sir; for when
7009     I say a thing, it must at once be done.
7010       What fear you? think you this a lion's den?
7011     Why, 't is a palace; where the truly wise
7012     Anticipate the Prophet's paradise.
7013
7014     'You fool! I tell you no one means you harm.'
7015       'So much the better,' Juan said, 'for them;
7016     Else they shall feel the weight of this my arm,
7017       Which is not quite so light as you may deem.
7018     I yield thus far; but soon will break the charm
7019       If any take me for that which I seem:
7020     So that I trust for everybody's sake,
7021     That this disguise may lead to no mistake.'
7022
7023     'Blockhead! come on, and see,' quoth Baba; while
7024       Don Juan, turning to his comrade, who
7025     Though somewhat grieved, could scarce forbear a smile
7026       Upon the metamorphosis in view,--
7027     'Farewell!' they mutually exclaim'd: 'this soil
7028       Seems fertile in adventures strange and new;
7029     One 's turn'd half Mussulman, and one a maid,
7030     By this old black enchanter's unsought aid.'
7031
7032     'Farewell!' said Juan: 'should we meet no more,
7033       I wish you a good appetite.'--'Farewell!'
7034     Replied the other; 'though it grieves me sore;
7035       When we next meet we 'll have a tale to tell:
7036     We needs must follow when Fate puts from shore.
7037       Keep your good name; though Eve herself once fell.'
7038     'Nay,' quoth the maid, 'the Sultan's self shan't carry me,
7039     Unless his highness promises to marry me.
7040
7041     And thus they parted, each by separate doors;
7042       Baba led Juan onward room by room
7043     Through glittering galleries and o'er marble floors,
7044       Till a gigantic portal through the gloom,
7045     Haughty and huge, along the distance lowers;
7046       And wafted far arose a rich perfume:
7047     It seem'd as though they came upon a shrine,
7048     For all was vast, still, fragrant, and divine.
7049
7050     The giant door was broad, and bright, and high,
7051       Of gilded bronze, and carved in curious guise;
7052     Warriors thereon were battling furiously;
7053       Here stalks the victor, there the vanquish'd lies;
7054     There captives led in triumph droop the eye,
7055       And in perspective many a squadron flies:
7056     It seems the work of times before the line
7057     Of Rome transplanted fell with Constantine.
7058
7059     This massy portal stood at the wide close
7060       Of a huge hall, and on its either side
7061     Two little dwarfs, the least you could suppose,
7062       Were sate, like ugly imps, as if allied
7063     In mockery to the enormous gate which rose
7064       O'er them in almost pyramidic pride:
7065     The gate so splendid was in all its features,
7066     You never thought about those little creatures,
7067
7068     Until you nearly trod on them, and then
7069       You started back in horror to survey
7070     The wondrous hideousness of those small men,
7071       Whose colour was not black, nor white, nor grey,
7072     But an extraneous mixture, which no pen
7073       Can trace, although perhaps the pencil may;
7074     They were mis-shapen pigmies, deaf and dumb--
7075     Monsters, who cost a no less monstrous sum.
7076
7077     Their duty was--for they were strong, and though
7078       They look'd so little, did strong things at times--
7079     To ope this door, which they could really do,
7080       The hinges being as smooth as Rogers' rhymes;
7081     And now and then, with tough strings of the bow,
7082       As is the custom of those Eastern climes,
7083     To give some rebel Pacha a cravat;
7084     For mutes are generally used for that.
7085
7086     They spoke by signs--that is, not spoke at all;
7087       And looking like two incubi, they glared
7088     As Baba with his fingers made them fall
7089       To heaving back the portal folds: it scared
7090     Juan a moment, as this pair so small
7091       With shrinking serpent optics on him stared;
7092     It was as if their little looks could poison
7093     Or fascinate whome'er they fix'd their eyes on.
7094
7095     Before they enter'd, Baba paused to hint
7096       To Juan some slight lessons as his guide:
7097     'If you could just contrive,' he said, 'to stint
7098       That somewhat manly majesty of stride,
7099     'T would be as well, and (though there 's not much in 't)
7100       To swing a little less from side to side,
7101     Which has at times an aspect of the oddest;--
7102     And also could you look a little modest,
7103
7104     ''T would be convenient; for these mutes have eyes
7105       Like needles, which may pierce those petticoats;
7106     And if they should discover your disguise,
7107       You know how near us the deep Bosphorus floats;
7108     And you and I may chance, ere morning rise,
7109       To find our way to Marmora without boats,
7110     Stitch'd up in sacks--a mode of navigation
7111     A good deal practised here upon occasion.'
7112
7113     With this encouragement, he led the way
7114       Into a room still nobler than the last;
7115     A rich confusion form'd a disarray
7116       In such sort, that the eye along it cast
7117     Could hardly carry anything away,
7118       Object on object flash'd so bright and fast;
7119     A dazzling mass of gems, and gold, and glitter,
7120     Magnificently mingled in a litter.
7121
7122     Wealth had done wonders--taste not much; such things
7123       Occur in Orient palaces, and even
7124     In the more chasten'd domes of Western kings
7125       (Of which I have also seen some six or seven),
7126     Where I can't say or gold or diamond flings
7127       Great lustre, there is much to be forgiven;
7128     Groups of bad statues, tables, chairs, and pictures,
7129     On which I cannot pause to make my strictures.
7130
7131     In this imperial hall, at distance lay
7132       Under a canopy, and there reclined
7133     Quite in a confidential queenly way,
7134       A lady; Baba stopp'd, and kneeling sign'd
7135     To Juan, who though not much used to pray,
7136       Knelt down by instinct, wondering in his mind,
7137     What all this meant: while Baba bow'd and bended
7138     His head, until the ceremony ended.
7139
7140     The lady rising up with such an air
7141       As Venus rose with from the wave, on them
7142     Bent like an antelope a Paphian pair
7143       Of eyes, which put out each surrounding gem;
7144     And raising up an arm as moonlight fair,
7145       She sign'd to Baba, who first kiss'd the hem
7146     Of her deep purple robe, and speaking low,
7147     Pointed to Juan who remain'd below.
7148
7149     Her presence was as lofty as her state;
7150       Her beauty of that overpowering kind,
7151     Whose force description only would abate:
7152       I 'd rather leave it much to your own mind,
7153     Than lessen it by what I could relate
7154       Of forms and features; it would strike you blind
7155     Could I do justice to the full detail;
7156     So, luckily for both, my phrases fail.
7157
7158     Thus much however I may add,--her years
7159       Were ripe, they might make six-and-twenty springs;
7160     But there are forms which Time to touch forbears,
7161       And turns aside his scythe to vulgar things,
7162     Such as was Mary's Queen of Scots; true--tears
7163       And love destroy; and sapping sorrow wrings
7164     Charms from the charmer, yet some never grow
7165     Ugly; for instance--Ninon de l'Enclos.
7166
7167     She spake some words to her attendants, who
7168       Composed a choir of girls, ten or a dozen,
7169     And were all clad alike; like Juan, too,
7170       Who wore their uniform, by Baba chosen;
7171     They form'd a very nymph-like looking crew,
7172       Which might have call'd Diana's chorus 'cousin,'
7173     As far as outward show may correspond;
7174     I won't be bail for anything beyond.
7175
7176     They bow'd obeisance and withdrew, retiring,
7177       But not by the same door through which came in
7178     Baba and Juan, which last stood admiring,
7179       At some small distance, all he saw within
7180     This strange saloon, much fitted for inspiring
7181       Marvel and praise; for both or none things win;
7182     And I must say, I ne'er could see the very
7183     Great happiness of the 'Nil Admirari.'
7184
7185     'Not to admire is all the art I know
7186       (Plain truth, dear Murray, needs few flowers of speech)
7187     To make men happy, or to keep them so'
7188       (So take it in the very words of Creech)--
7189     Thus Horace wrote we all know long ago;
7190       And thus Pope quotes the precept to re-teach
7191     From his translation; but had none admired,
7192     Would Pope have sung, or Horace been inspired?
7193
7194     Baba, when all the damsels were withdrawn,
7195       Motion'd to Juan to approach, and then
7196     A second time desired him to kneel down,
7197       And kiss the lady's foot; which maxim when
7198     He heard repeated, Juan with a frown
7199       Drew himself up to his full height again,
7200     And said, 'It grieved him, but he could not stoop
7201     To any shoe, unless it shod the Pope.'
7202
7203     Baba, indignant at this ill-timed pride,
7204       Made fierce remonstrances, and then a threat
7205     He mutter'd (but the last was given aside)
7206       About a bow-string--quite in vain; not yet
7207     Would Juan bend, though 't were to Mahomet's bride:
7208       There 's nothing in the world like etiquette
7209     In kingly chambers or imperial halls,
7210     As also at the race and county balls.
7211
7212     He stood like Atlas, with a world of words
7213       About his ears, and nathless would not bend:
7214     The blood of all his line 's Castilian lords
7215       Boil'd in his veins, and rather than descend
7216     To stain his pedigree a thousand swords
7217       A thousand times of him had made an end;
7218     At length perceiving the 'foot' could not stand,
7219     Baba proposed that he should kiss the hand.
7220
7221     Here was an honourable compromise,
7222       A half-way house of diplomatic rest,
7223     Where they might meet in much more peaceful guise;
7224       And Juan now his willingness exprest
7225     To use all fit and proper courtesies,
7226       Adding, that this was commonest and best,
7227     For through the South the custom still commands
7228     The gentleman to kiss the lady's hands.
7229
7230     And he advanced, though with but a bad grace,
7231       Though on more thorough-bred or fairer fingers
7232     No lips e'er left their transitory trace;
7233       On such as these the lip too fondly lingers,
7234     And for one kiss would fain imprint a brace,
7235       As you will see, if she you love shall bring hers
7236     In contact; and sometimes even a fair stranger's
7237     An almost twelvemonth's constancy endangers.
7238
7239     The lady eyed him o'er and o'er, and bade
7240       Baba retire, which he obey'd in style,
7241     As if well used to the retreating trade;
7242       And taking hints in good part all the while,
7243     He whisper'd Juan not to be afraid,
7244       And looking on him with a sort of smile,
7245     Took leave, with such a face of satisfaction
7246     As good men wear who have done a virtuous action.
7247
7248     When he was gone, there was a sudden change:
7249       I know not what might be the lady's thought,
7250     But o'er her bright brow flash'd a tumult strange,
7251       And into her dear cheek the blood was brought,
7252     Blood-red as sunset summer clouds which range
7253       The verge of Heaven; and in her large eyes wrought,
7254     A mixture of sensations might be scann'd,
7255     Of half voluptuousness and half command.
7256
7257     Her form had all the softness of her sex,
7258       Her features all the sweetness of the devil,
7259     When he put on the cherub to perplex
7260       Eve, and paved (God knows how) the road to evil;
7261     The sun himself was scarce more free from specks
7262       Than she from aught at which the eye could cavil;
7263     Yet, somehow, there was something somewhere wanting,
7264     As if she rather order'd than was granting.
7265
7266     Something imperial, or imperious, threw
7267       A chain o'er all she did; that is, a chain
7268     Was thrown as 't were about the neck of you,--
7269       And rapture's self will seem almost a pain
7270     With aught which looks like despotism in view:
7271       Our souls at least are free, and 't is in vain
7272     We would against them make the flesh obey--
7273     The spirit in the end will have its way.
7274
7275     Her very smile was haughty, though so sweet;
7276       Her very nod was not an inclination;
7277     There was a self-will even in her small feet,
7278       As though they were quite conscious of her station--
7279     They trod as upon necks; and to complete
7280       Her state (it is the custom of her nation),
7281     A poniard deck'd her girdle, as the sign
7282     She was a sultan's bride (thank Heaven, not mine!).
7283
7284     'To hear and to obey' had been from birth
7285       The law of all around her; to fulfill
7286     All phantasies which yielded joy or mirth,
7287       Had been her slaves' chief pleasure, as her will;
7288     Her blood was high, her beauty scarce of earth:
7289       Judge, then, if her caprices e'er stood still;
7290     Had she but been a Christian, I 've a notion
7291     We should have found out the 'perpetual motion.'
7292
7293     Whate'er she saw and coveted was brought;
7294       Whate'er she did not see, if she supposed
7295     It might be seen, with diligence was sought,
7296       And when 't was found straightway the bargain closed;
7297     There was no end unto the things she bought,
7298       Nor to the trouble which her fancies caused;
7299     Yet even her tyranny had such a grace,
7300     The women pardon'd all except her face.
7301
7302     Juan, the latest of her whims, had caught
7303       Her eye in passing on his way to sale;
7304     She order'd him directly to be bought,
7305       And Baba, who had ne'er been known to fail
7306     In any kind of mischief to be wrought,
7307       At all such auctions knew how to prevail:
7308     She had no prudence, but he had; and this
7309     Explains the garb which Juan took amiss.
7310
7311     His youth and features favour'd the disguise,
7312       And, should you ask how she, a sultan's bride,
7313     Could risk or compass such strange phantasies,
7314       This I must leave sultanas to decide:
7315     Emperors are only husbands in wives' eyes,
7316       And kings and consorts oft are mystified,
7317     As we may ascertain with due precision,
7318     Some by experience, others by tradition.
7319
7320     But to the main point, where we have been tending:--
7321       She now conceived all difficulties past,
7322     And deem'd herself extremely condescending
7323       When, being made her property at last,
7324     Without more preface, in her blue eyes blending
7325       Passion and power, a glance on him she cast,
7326     And merely saying, 'Christian, canst thou love?'
7327     Conceived that phrase was quite enough to move
7328
7329     And so it was, in proper time and place;
7330       But Juan, who had still his mind o'erflowing
7331     With Haidee's isle and soft Ionian face,
7332       Felt the warm blood, which in his face was glowing,
7333     Rush back upon his heart, which fill'd apace,
7334       And left his cheeks as pale as snowdrops blowing;
7335     These words went through his soul like Arab-spears,
7336     So that he spoke not, but burst into tears.
7337
7338     She was a good deal shock'd; not shock'd at tears,
7339       For women shed and use them at their liking;
7340     But there is something when man's eye appears
7341       Wet, still more disagreeable and striking;
7342     A woman's tear-drop melts, a man's half sears,
7343       Like molten lead, as if you thrust a pike in
7344     His heart to force it out, for (to be shorter)
7345     To them 't is a relief, to us a torture.
7346
7347     And she would have consoled, but knew not how:
7348       Having no equals, nothing which had e'er
7349     Infected her with sympathy till now,
7350       And never having dreamt what 't was to bear
7351     Aught of a serious, sorrowing kind, although
7352       There might arise some pouting petty care
7353     To cross her brow, she wonder'd how so near
7354     Her eyes another's eye could shed a tear.
7355
7356     But nature teaches more than power can spoil,
7357       And, when a strong although a strange sensation
7358     Moves--female hearts are such a genial soil
7359       For kinder feelings, whatsoe'er their nation,
7360     They naturally pour the 'wine and oil,'
7361       Samaritans in every situation;
7362     And thus Gulbeyaz, though she knew not why,
7363     Felt an odd glistening moisture in her eye.
7364
7365     But tears must stop like all things else; and soon
7366       Juan, who for an instant had been moved
7367     To such a sorrow by the intrusive tone
7368       Of one who dared to ask if 'he had loved,'
7369     Call'd back the stoic to his eyes, which shone
7370       Bright with the very weakness he reproved;
7371     And although sensitive to beauty, he
7372     Felt most indignant still at not being free.
7373
7374     Gulbeyaz, for the first time in her days,
7375       Was much embarrass'd, never having met
7376     In all her life with aught save prayers and praise;
7377       And as she also risk'd her life to get
7378     Him whom she meant to tutor in love's ways
7379       Into a comfortable tete-a-tete,
7380     To lose the hour would make her quite a martyr,
7381     And they had wasted now almost a quarter.
7382
7383     I also would suggest the fitting time
7384       To gentlemen in any such like case,
7385     That is to say in a meridian clime--
7386       With us there is more law given to the chase,
7387     But here a small delay forms a great crime:
7388       So recollect that the extremest grace
7389     Is just two minutes for your declaration--
7390     A moment more would hurt your reputation.
7391
7392     Juan's was good; and might have been still better,
7393       But he had got Haidee into his head:
7394     However strange, he could not yet forget her,
7395       Which made him seem exceedingly ill-bred.
7396     Gulbeyaz, who look'd on him as her debtor
7397       For having had him to her palace led,
7398     Began to blush up to the eyes, and then
7399     Grow deadly pale, and then blush back again.
7400
7401     At length, in an imperial way, she laid
7402       Her hand on his, and bending on him eyes
7403     Which needed not an empire to persuade,
7404       Look'd into his for love, where none replies:
7405     Her brow grew black, but she would not upbraid,
7406       That being the last thing a proud woman tries;
7407     She rose, and pausing one chaste moment, threw
7408     Herself upon his breast, and there she grew.
7409
7410     This was an awkward test, as Juan found,
7411       But he was steel'd by sorrow, wrath, and pride:
7412     With gentle force her white arms he unwound,
7413       And seated her all drooping by his side,
7414     Then rising haughtily he glanced around,
7415       And looking coldly in her face, he cried,
7416     'The prison'd eagle will not pair, nor
7417     Serve a Sultana's sensual phantasy.
7418
7419     'Thou ask'st if I can love? be this the proof
7420       How much I have loved--that I love not thee!
7421     In this vile garb, the distaff, web, and woof,
7422       Were fitter for me: Love is for the free!
7423     I am not dazzled by this splendid roof,
7424       Whate'er thy power, and great it seems to be;
7425     Heads bow, knees bend, eyes watch around a throne,
7426     And hands obey--our hearts are still our own.'
7427
7428     This was a truth to us extremely trite;
7429       Not so to her, who ne'er had heard such things:
7430     She deem'd her least command must yield delight,
7431       Earth being only made for queens and kings.
7432     If hearts lay on the left side or the right
7433       She hardly knew, to such perfection brings
7434     Legitimacy its born votaries, when
7435     Aware of their due royal rights o'er men.
7436
7437     Besides, as has been said, she was so fair
7438       As even in a much humbler lot had made
7439     A kingdom or confusion anywhere,
7440       And also, as may be presumed, she laid
7441     Some stress on charms, which seldom are, if e'er,
7442       By their possessors thrown into the shade:
7443     She thought hers gave a double 'right divine;'
7444     And half of that opinion 's also mine.
7445
7446     Remember, or (if you can not) imagine,
7447       Ye, who have kept your chastity when young,
7448     While some more desperate dowager has been waging
7449       Love with you, and been in the dog-days stung
7450     By your refusal, recollect her raging!
7451       Or recollect all that was said or sung
7452     On such a subject; then suppose the face
7453     Of a young downright beauty in this case.
7454
7455     Suppose,--but you already have supposed,
7456       The spouse of Potiphar, the Lady Booby,
7457     Phaedra, and all which story has disclosed
7458       Of good examples; pity that so few by
7459     Poets and private tutors are exposed,
7460       To educate--ye youth of Europe--you by!
7461     But when you have supposed the few we know,
7462     You can't suppose Gulbeyaz' angry brow.
7463
7464     A tigress robb'd of young, a lioness,
7465       Or any interesting beast of prey,
7466     Are similes at hand for the distress
7467       Of ladies who can not have their own way;
7468     But though my turn will not be served with less,
7469       These don't express one half what I should say:
7470     For what is stealing young ones, few or many,
7471     To cutting short their hopes of having any?
7472
7473     The love of offspring 's nature's general law,
7474       From tigresses and cubs to ducks and ducklings;
7475     There 's nothing whets the beak, or arms the claw
7476       Like an invasion of their babes and sucklings;
7477     And all who have seen a human nursery, saw
7478       How mothers love their children's squalls and chucklings;
7479     This strong extreme effect (to tire no longer
7480     Your patience) shows the cause must still be stronger.
7481
7482     If I said fire flash'd from Gulbeyaz' eyes,
7483       'T were nothing--for her eyes flash'd always fire;
7484     Or said her cheeks assumed the deepest dyes,
7485       I should but bring disgrace upon the dyer,
7486     So supernatural was her passion's rise;
7487       For ne'er till now she knew a check'd desire:
7488     Even ye who know what a check'd woman is
7489     (Enough, God knows!) would much fall short of this.
7490
7491     Her rage was but a minute's, and 't was well--
7492       A moment's more had slain her; but the while
7493     It lasted 't was like a short glimpse of hell:
7494       Nought 's more sublime than energetic bile,
7495     Though horrible to see yet grand to tell,
7496       Like ocean warring 'gainst a rocky isle;
7497     And the deep passions flashing through her form
7498     Made her a beautiful embodied storm.
7499
7500     A vulgar tempest 't were to a typhoon
7501       To match a common fury with her rage,
7502     And yet she did not want to reach the moon,
7503       Like moderate Hotspur on the immortal page;
7504     Her anger pitch'd into a lower tune,
7505       Perhaps the fault of her soft sex and age--
7506     Her wish was but to 'kill, kill, kill,' like Lear's,
7507     And then her thirst of blood was quench'd in tears.
7508
7509     A storm it raged, and like the storm it pass'd,
7510       Pass'd without words--in fact she could not speak;
7511     And then her sex's shame broke in at last,
7512       A sentiment till then in her but weak,
7513     But now it flow'd in natural and fast,
7514       As water through an unexpected leak;
7515     For she felt humbled--and humiliation
7516     Is sometimes good for people in her station
7517
7518     It teaches them that they are flesh and blood,
7519       It also gently hints to them that others,
7520     Although of clay, are yet not quite of mud;
7521       That urns and pipkins are but fragile brothers,
7522     And works of the same pottery, bad or good,
7523       Though not all born of the same sires and mothers:
7524     It teaches--Heaven knows only what it teaches,
7525     But sometimes it may mend, and often reaches.
7526
7527     Her first thought was to cut off Juan's head;
7528       Her second, to cut only his--acquaintance;
7529     Her third, to ask him where he had been bred;
7530       Her fourth, to rally him into repentance;
7531     Her fifth, to call her maids and go to bed;
7532       Her sixth, to stab herself; her seventh, to sentence
7533     The lash to Baba:--but her grand resource
7534     Was to sit down again, and cry of course.
7535
7536     She thought to stab herself, but then she had
7537       The dagger close at hand, which made it awkward;
7538     For Eastern stays are little made to pad,
7539       So that a poniard pierces if 't is stuck hard:
7540     She thought of killing Juan--but, poor lad!
7541       Though he deserved it well for being so backward,
7542     The cutting off his head was not the art
7543     Most likely to attain her aim--his heart.
7544
7545     Juan was moved; he had made up his mind
7546       To be impaled, or quarter'd as a dish
7547     For dogs, or to be slain with pangs refined,
7548       Or thrown to lions, or made baits for fish,
7549     And thus heroically stood resign'd,
7550       Rather than sin--except to his own wish:
7551     But all his great preparatives for dying
7552     Dissolved like snow before a woman crying.
7553
7554     As through his palms Bob Acres' valour oozed,
7555       So Juan's virtue ebb'd, I know not how;
7556     And first he wonder'd why he had refused;
7557       And then, if matters could be made up now;
7558     And next his savage virtue he accused,
7559       Just as a friar may accuse his vow,
7560     Or as a dame repents her of her oath,
7561     Which mostly ends in some small breach of both.
7562
7563     So he began to stammer some excuses;
7564       But words are not enough in such a matter,
7565     Although you borrow'd all that e'er the muses
7566       Have sung, or even a Dandy's dandiest chatter,
7567     Or all the figures Castlereagh abuses;
7568       Just as a languid smile began to flatter
7569     His peace was making, but before he ventured
7570     Further, old Baba rather briskly enter'd.
7571
7572     'Bride of the Sun! and Sister of the Moon!'
7573       ('T was thus he spake) 'and Empress of the Earth!
7574     Whose frown would put the spheres all out of tune,
7575       Whose smile makes all the planets dance with mirth,
7576     Your slave brings tidings--he hopes not too soon--
7577       Which your sublime attention may be worth:
7578     The Sun himself has sent me like a ray,
7579     To hint that he is coming up this way.'
7580
7581     'Is it,' exclaim'd Gulbeyaz, 'as you say?
7582       I wish to heaven he would not shine till morning!
7583     But bid my women form the milky way.
7584       Hence, my old comet! give the stars due warning--
7585     And, Christian! mingle with them as you may,
7586       And as you 'd have me pardon your past scorning-'
7587     Here they were interrupted by a humming
7588     Sound, and then by a cry, 'The Sultan 's coming!'
7589
7590     First came her damsels, a decorous file,
7591       And then his Highness' eunuchs, black and white;
7592     The train might reach a quarter of a mile:
7593       His majesty was always so polite
7594     As to announce his visits a long while
7595       Before he came, especially at night;
7596     For being the last wife of the Emperour,
7597     She was of course the favorite of the four.
7598
7599     His Highness was a man of solemn port,
7600       Shawl'd to the nose, and bearded to the eyes,
7601     Snatch'd from a prison to preside at court,
7602       His lately bowstrung brother caused his rise;
7603     He was as good a sovereign of the sort
7604       As any mention'd in the histories
7605     Of Cantemir, or Knolles, where few shine
7606     Save Solyman, the glory of their line.
7607
7608     He went to mosque in state, and said his prayers
7609       With more than 'Oriental scrupulosity;'
7610     He left to his vizier all state affairs,
7611       And show'd but little royal curiosity:
7612     I know not if he had domestic cares--
7613       No process proved connubial animosity;
7614     Four wives and twice five hundred maids, unseen,
7615     Were ruled as calmly as a Christian queen.
7616
7617     If now and then there happen'd a slight slip,
7618       Little was heard of criminal or crime;
7619     The story scarcely pass'd a single lip--
7620       The sack and sea had settled all in time,
7621     From which the secret nobody could rip:
7622       The Public knew no more than does this rhyme;
7623     No scandals made the daily press a curse--
7624     Morals were better, and the fish no worse.
7625
7626     He saw with his own eyes the moon was round,
7627       Was also certain that the earth was square,
7628     Because he had journey'd fifty miles, and found
7629       No sign that it was circular anywhere;
7630     His empire also was without a bound:
7631       'T is true, a little troubled here and there,
7632     By rebel pachas, and encroaching giaours,
7633     But then they never came to 'the Seven Towers;'
7634
7635     Except in shape of envoys, who were sent
7636       To lodge there when a war broke out, according
7637     To the true law of nations, which ne'er meant
7638       Those scoundrels, who have never had a sword in
7639     Their dirty diplomatic hands, to vent
7640       Their spleen in making strife, and safely wording
7641     Their lies, yclep'd despatches, without risk or
7642     The singeing of a single inky whisker.
7643
7644     He had fifty daughters and four dozen sons,
7645       Of whom all such as came of age were stow'd,
7646     The former in a palace, where like nuns
7647       They lived till some Bashaw was sent abroad,
7648     When she, whose turn it was, was wed at once,
7649       Sometimes at six years old--though it seems odd,
7650     'T is true; the reason is, that the Bashaw
7651     Must make a present to his sire in law.
7652
7653     His sons were kept in prison, till they grew
7654       Of years to fill a bowstring or the throne,
7655     One or the other, but which of the two
7656       Could yet be known unto the fates alone;
7657     Meantime the education they went through
7658       Was princely, as the proofs have always shown:
7659     So that the heir apparent still was found
7660     No less deserving to be hang'd than crown'd.
7661
7662     His majesty saluted his fourth spouse
7663       With all the ceremonies of his rank,
7664     Who clear'd her sparkling eyes and smooth'd her brows,
7665       As suits a matron who has play'd a prank;
7666     These must seem doubly mindful of their vows,
7667       To save the credit of their breaking bank:
7668     To no men are such cordial greetings given
7669     As those whose wives have made them fit for heaven.
7670
7671     His Highness cast around his great black eyes,
7672       And looking, as he always look'd, perceived
7673     Juan amongst the damsels in disguise,
7674       At which he seem'd no whit surprised nor grieved,
7675     But just remark'd with air sedate and wise,
7676       While still a fluttering sigh Gulbeyaz heaved,
7677     'I see you 've bought another girl; 't is pity
7678     That a mere Christian should be half so pretty.'
7679
7680     This compliment, which drew all eyes upon
7681       The new-bought virgin, made her blush and shake.
7682     Her comrades, also, thought themselves undone:
7683       O! Mahomet! that his majesty should take
7684     Such notice of a giaour, while scarce to one
7685       Of them his lips imperial ever spake!
7686     There was a general whisper, toss, and wriggle,
7687     But etiquette forbade them all to giggle.
7688
7689     The Turks do well to shut--at least, sometimes--
7690       The women up, because, in sad reality,
7691     Their chastity in these unhappy climes
7692       Is not a thing of that astringent quality
7693     Which in the North prevents precocious crimes,
7694       And makes our snow less pure than our morality;
7695     The sun, which yearly melts the polar ice,
7696     Has quite the contrary effect on vice.
7697
7698     Thus in the East they are extremely strict,
7699       And Wedlock and a Padlock mean the same;
7700     Excepting only when the former 's pick'd
7701       It ne'er can be replaced in proper frame;
7702     Spoilt, as a pipe of claret is when prick'd:
7703       But then their own Polygamy 's to blame;
7704     Why don't they knead two virtuous souls for life
7705     Into that moral centaur, man and wife?
7706
7707     Thus far our chronicle; and now we pause,
7708       Though not for want of matter; but 't is time
7709     According to the ancient epic laws,
7710       To slacken sail, and anchor with our rhyme.
7711     Let this fifth canto meet with due applause,
7712       The sixth shall have a touch of the sublime;
7713     Meanwhile, as Homer sometimes sleeps, perhaps
7714     You 'll pardon to my muse a few short naps.
7715
7716
7717
7718
7719CANTO THE SIXTH.
7720
7721    'There is a tide in the affairs of men
7722       Which,--taken at the flood,'--you know the rest,
7723     And most of us have found it now and then;
7724       At least we think so, though but few have guess'd
7725     The moment, till too late to come again.
7726       But no doubt every thing is for the best--
7727     Of which the surest sign is in the end:
7728     When things are at the worst they sometimes mend.
7729
7730     There is a tide in the affairs of women
7731       Which, taken at the flood, leads--God knows where:
7732     Those navigators must be able seamen
7733       Whose charts lay down its current to a hair;
7734     Not all the reveries of Jacob Behmen
7735       With its strange whirls and eddies can compare:
7736     Men with their heads reflect on this and that--
7737     But women with their hearts on heaven knows what!
7738
7739     And yet a headlong, headstrong, downright she,
7740       Young, beautiful, and daring--who would risk
7741     A throne, the world, the universe, to be
7742       Beloved in her own way, and rather whisk
7743     The stars from out the sky, than not be free
7744       As are the billows when the breeze is brisk--
7745     Though such a she 's a devil (if that there be one),
7746     Yet she would make full many a Manichean.
7747
7748     Thrones, worlds, et cetera, are so oft upset
7749       By commonest ambition, that when passion
7750     O'erthrows the same, we readily forget,
7751       Or at the least forgive, the loving rash one.
7752     If Antony be well remember'd yet,
7753       'Tis not his conquests keep his name in fashion,
7754     But Actium, lost for Cleopatra's eyes,
7755     Outbalances all Caesar's victories.
7756
7757     He died at fifty for a queen of forty;
7758       I wish their years had been fifteen and twenty,
7759     For then wealth, kingdoms, worlds are but a sport--I
7760       Remember when, though I had no great plenty
7761     Of worlds to lose, yet still, to pay my court, I
7762       Gave what I had--a heart: as the world went, I
7763     Gave what was worth a world; for worlds could never
7764     Restore me those pure feelings, gone forever.
7765
7766     'Twas the boy's 'mite,' and, like the 'widow's,' may
7767       Perhaps be weigh'd hereafter, if not now;
7768     But whether such things do or do not weigh,
7769       All who have loved, or love, will still allow
7770     Life has nought like it. God is love, they say,
7771       And Love 's a god, or was before the brow
7772     Of earth was wrinkled by the sins and tears
7773     Of--but Chronology best knows the years.
7774
7775     We left our hero and third heroine in
7776       A kind of state more awkward than uncommon,
7777     For gentlemen must sometimes risk their skin
7778       For that sad tempter, a forbidden woman:
7779     Sultans too much abhor this sort of sin,
7780       And don't agree at all with the wise Roman,
7781     Heroic, stoic Cato, the sententious,
7782     Who lent his lady to his friend Hortensius.
7783
7784     I know Gulbeyaz was extremely wrong;
7785       I own it, I deplore it, I condemn it;
7786     But I detest all fiction even in song,
7787       And so must tell the truth, howe'er you blame it.
7788     Her reason being weak, her passions strong,
7789       She thought that her lord's heart (even could she claim it)
7790     Was scarce enough; for he had fifty-nine
7791     Years, and a fifteen-hundredth concubine.
7792
7793     I am not, like Cassio, 'an arithmetician,'
7794       But by 'the bookish theoric' it appears,
7795     If 'tis summ'd up with feminine precision,
7796       That, adding to the account his Highness' years,
7797     The fair Sultana err'd from inanition;
7798       For, were the Sultan just to all his dears,
7799     She could but claim the fifteen-hundredth part
7800     Of what should be monopoly--the heart.
7801
7802     It is observed that ladies are litigious
7803       Upon all legal objects of possession,
7804     And not the least so when they are religious,
7805       Which doubles what they think of the transgression:
7806     With suits and prosecutions they besiege us,
7807       As the tribunals show through many a session,
7808     When they suspect that any one goes shares
7809     In that to which the law makes them sole heirs.
7810
7811     Now, if this holds good in a Christian land,
7812       The heathen also, though with lesser latitude,
7813     Are apt to carry things with a high hand,
7814       And take what kings call 'an imposing attitude,'
7815     And for their rights connubial make a stand,
7816       When their liege husbands treat them with ingratitude:
7817     And as four wives must have quadruple claims,
7818     The Tigris hath its jealousies like Thames.
7819
7820     Gulbeyaz was the fourth, and (as I said)
7821       The favourite; but what 's favour amongst four?
7822     Polygamy may well be held in dread,
7823       Not only as a sin, but as a bore:
7824     Most wise men, with one moderate woman wed,
7825       Will scarcely find philosophy for more;
7826     And all (except Mahometans) forbear
7827     To make the nuptial couch a 'Bed of Ware.'
7828
7829     His Highness, the sublimest of mankind,--
7830       So styled according to the usual forms
7831     Of every monarch, till they are consign'd
7832       To those sad hungry jacobins the worms,
7833     Who on the very loftiest kings have dined,--
7834       His Highness gazed upon Gulbeyaz' charms,
7835     Expecting all the welcome of a lover
7836     (A 'Highland welcome' all the wide world over).
7837
7838     Now here we should distinguish; for howe'er
7839       Kisses, sweet words, embraces, and all that,
7840     May look like what is--neither here nor there,
7841       They are put on as easily as a hat,
7842     Or rather bonnet, which the fair sex wear,
7843       Trimm'd either heads or hearts to decorate,
7844     Which form an ornament, but no more part
7845     Of heads, than their caresses of the heart.
7846
7847     A slight blush, a soft tremor, a calm kind
7848       Of gentle feminine delight, and shown
7849     More in the eyelids than the eyes, resign'd
7850       Rather to hide what pleases most unknown,
7851     Are the best tokens (to a modest mind)
7852       Of love, when seated on his loveliest throne,
7853     A sincere woman's breast,--for over-warm
7854     Or over-cold annihilates the charm.
7855
7856     For over-warmth, if false, is worse than truth;
7857       If true, 'tis no great lease of its own fire;
7858     For no one, save in very early youth,
7859       Would like (I think) to trust all to desire,
7860     Which is but a precarious bond, in sooth,
7861       And apt to be transferr'd to the first buyer
7862     At a sad discount: while your over chilly
7863     Women, on t' other hand, seem somewhat silly.
7864
7865     That is, we cannot pardon their bad taste,
7866       For so it seems to lovers swift or slow,
7867     Who fain would have a mutual flame confess'd,
7868       And see a sentimental passion glow,
7869     Even were St. Francis' paramour their guest,
7870       In his monastic concubine of snow;--
7871     In short, the maxim for the amorous tribe is
7872     Horatian, 'Medio tu tutissimus ibis.'
7873
7874     The 'tu' 's too much,--but let it stand,--the verse
7875       Requires it, that 's to say, the English rhyme,
7876     And not the pink of old hexameters;
7877       But, after all, there 's neither tune nor time
7878     In the last line, which cannot well be worse,
7879       And was thrust in to close the octave's chime:
7880     I own no prosody can ever rate it
7881     As a rule, but truth may, if you translate it.
7882
7883     If fair Gulbeyaz overdid her part,
7884       I know not--it succeeded, and success
7885     Is much in most things, not less in the heart
7886       Than other articles of female dress.
7887     Self-love in man, too, beats all female art;
7888       They lie, we lie, all lie, but love no less;
7889     And no one virtue yet, except starvation,
7890     Could stop that worst of vices--propagation.
7891
7892     We leave this royal couple to repose:
7893       A bed is not a throne, and they may sleep,
7894     Whate'er their dreams be, if of joys or woes:
7895       Yet disappointed joys are woes as deep
7896     As any man's day mixture undergoes.
7897       Our least of sorrows are such as we weep;
7898     'Tis the vile daily drop on drop which wears
7899     The soul out (like the stone) with petty cares.
7900
7901     A scolding wife, a sullen son, a bill
7902       To pay, unpaid, protested, or discounted
7903     At a per-centage; a child cross, dog ill,
7904       A favourite horse fallen lame just as he 's mounted,
7905     A bad old woman making a worse will,
7906       Which leaves you minus of the cash you counted
7907     As certain;--these are paltry things, and yet
7908     I 've rarely seen the man they did not fret.
7909
7910     I 'm a philosopher; confound them all!
7911       Bills, beasts, and men, and--no! not womankind!
7912     With one good hearty curse I vent my gall,
7913       And then my stoicism leaves nought behind
7914     Which it can either pain or evil call,
7915       And I can give my whole soul up to mind;
7916     Though what is soul or mind, their birth or growth,
7917     Is more than I know--the deuce take them both!
7918
7919       As after reading Athanasius' curse,
7920     Which doth your true believer so much please:
7921       I doubt if any now could make it worse
7922     O'er his worst enemy when at his knees,
7923       'Tis so sententious, positive, and terse,
7924     And decorates the book of Common Prayer,
7925     As doth a rainbow the just clearing air.
7926
7927     Gulbeyaz and her lord were sleeping, or
7928       At least one of them!--Oh, the heavy night,
7929     When wicked wives, who love some bachelor,
7930       Lie down in dudgeon to sigh for the light
7931     Of the gray morning, and look vainly for
7932       Its twinkle through the lattice dusky quite--
7933     To toss, to tumble, doze, revive, and quake
7934     Lest their too lawful bed-fellow should wake!
7935
7936     These are beneath the canopy of heaven,
7937       Also beneath the canopy of beds
7938     Four-posted and silk curtain'd, which are given
7939       For rich men and their brides to lay their heads
7940     Upon, in sheets white as what bards call 'driven
7941       Snow.' Well! 'tis all hap-hazard when one weds.
7942     Gulbeyaz was an empress, but had been
7943     Perhaps as wretched if a peasant's quean.
7944
7945     Don Juan in his feminine disguise,
7946       With all the damsels in their long array,
7947     Had bow'd themselves before th' imperial eyes,
7948       And at the usual signal ta'en their way
7949     Back to their chambers, those long galleries
7950       In the seraglio, where the ladies lay
7951     Their delicate limbs; a thousand bosoms there
7952     Beating for love, as the caged bird's for air.
7953
7954     I love the sex, and sometimes would reverse
7955       The tyrant's wish, 'that mankind only had
7956     One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce:'
7957       My wish is quite as wide, but not so bad,
7958     And much more tender on the whole than fierce;
7959       It being (not now, but only while a lad)
7960     That womankind had but one rosy mouth,
7961     To kiss them all at once from North to South.
7962
7963     O, enviable Briareus! with thy hands
7964       And heads, if thou hadst all things multiplied
7965     In such proportion!--But my Muse withstands
7966       The giant thought of being a Titan's bride,
7967     Or travelling in Patagonian lands;
7968       So let us back to Lilliput, and guide
7969     Our hero through the labyrinth of love
7970     In which we left him several lines above.
7971
7972     He went forth with the lovely Odalisques,
7973       At the given signal join'd to their array;
7974     And though he certainly ran many risks,
7975       Yet he could not at times keep, by the way
7976     (Although the consequences of such frisks
7977       Are worse than the worst damages men pay
7978     In moral England, where the thing 's a tax),
7979     From ogling all their charms from breasts to backs.
7980
7981     Still he forgot not his disguise:--along
7982       The galleries from room to room they walk'd,
7983     A virgin-like and edifying throng,
7984       By eunuchs flank'd; while at their head there stalk'd
7985     A dame who kept up discipline among
7986       The female ranks, so that none stirr'd or talk'd
7987     Without her sanction on their she-parades:
7988     Her title was 'the Mother of the Maids.'
7989
7990     Whether she was a 'mother,' I know not,
7991       Or whether they were 'maids' who call'd her mother;
7992     But this is her seraglio title, got
7993       I know not how, but good as any other;
7994     So Cantemir can tell you, or De Tott:
7995       Her office was to keep aloof or smother
7996     All bad propensities in fifteen hundred
7997     Young women, and correct them when they blunder'd.
7998
7999     A goodly sinecure, no doubt! but made
8000       More easy by the absence of all men--
8001     Except his majesty, who, with her aid,
8002       And guards, and bolts, and walls, and now and then
8003     A slight example, just to cast a shade
8004       Along the rest, contrived to keep this den
8005     Of beauties cool as an Italian convent,
8006     Where all the passions have, alas! but one vent.
8007
8008     And what is that? Devotion, doubtless--how
8009       Could you ask such a question?--but we will
8010     Continue. As I said, this goodly row
8011       Of ladies of all countries at the will
8012     Of one good man, with stately march and slow,
8013       Like water-lilies floating down a rill--
8014     Or rather lake, for rills do not run slowly--
8015     Paced on most maiden-like and melancholy.
8016
8017     But when they reach'd their own apartments, there,
8018       Like birds, or boys, or bedlamites broke loose,
8019     Waves at spring-tide, or women anywhere
8020       When freed from bonds (which are of no great use
8021     After all), or like Irish at a fair,
8022       Their guards being gone, and as it were a truce
8023     Establish'd between them and bondage, they
8024     Began to sing, dance, chatter, smile, and play.
8025
8026     Their talk, of course, ran most on the new comer;
8027       Her shape, her hair, her air, her everything:
8028     Some thought her dress did not so much become her,
8029       Or wonder'd at her ears without a ring;
8030     Some said her years were getting nigh their summer,
8031       Others contended they were but in spring;
8032     Some thought her rather masculine in height,
8033     While others wish'd that she had been so quite.
8034
8035     But no one doubted on the whole, that she
8036       Was what her dress bespoke, a damsel fair,
8037     And fresh, and 'beautiful exceedingly,'
8038       Who with the brightest Georgians might compare:
8039     They wonder'd how Gulbeyaz, too, could be
8040       So silly as to buy slaves who might share
8041     (If that his Highness wearied of his bride)
8042     Her throne and power, and every thing beside.
8043
8044     But what was strangest in this virgin crew,
8045       Although her beauty was enough to vex,
8046     After the first investigating view,
8047       They all found out as few, or fewer, specks
8048     In the fair form of their companion new,
8049       Than is the custom of the gentle sex,
8050     When they survey, with Christian eyes or Heathen,
8051     In a new face 'the ugliest creature breathing.'
8052
8053     And yet they had their little jealousies,
8054       Like all the rest; but upon this occasion,
8055     Whether there are such things as sympathies
8056       Without our knowledge or our approbation,
8057     Although they could not see through his disguise,
8058       All felt a soft kind of concatenation,
8059     Like magnetism, or devilism, or what
8060     You please--we will not quarrel about that:
8061
8062     But certain 'tis they all felt for their new
8063       Companion something newer still, as 'twere
8064     A sentimental friendship through and through,
8065       Extremely pure, which made them all concur
8066     In wishing her their sister, save a few
8067       Who wish'd they had a brother just like her,
8068     Whom, if they were at home in sweet Circassia,
8069     They would prefer to Padisha or Pacha.
8070
8071     Of those who had most genius for this sort
8072       Of sentimental friendship, there were three,
8073     Lolah, Katinka, and Dudu; in short
8074       (To save description), fair as fair can be
8075     Were they, according to the best report,
8076       Though differing in stature and degree,
8077     And clime and time, and country and complexion;
8078     They all alike admired their new connection.
8079
8080     Lolah was dusk as India and as warm;
8081       Katinka was a Georgian, white and red,
8082     With great blue eyes, a lovely hand and arm,
8083       And feet so small they scarce seem'd made to tread,
8084     But rather skim the earth; while Dudu's form
8085       Look'd more adapted to be put to bed,
8086     Being somewhat large, and languishing, and lazy,
8087     Yet of a beauty that would drive you crazy.
8088
8089     A kind of sleepy Venus seem'd Dudu,
8090       Yet very fit to 'murder sleep' in those
8091     Who gazed upon her cheek's transcendent hue,
8092       Her Attic forehead, and her Phidian nose:
8093     Few angles were there in her form, 'tis true,
8094       Thinner she might have been, and yet scarce lose;
8095     Yet, after all, 'twould puzzle to say where
8096     It would not spoil some separate charm to pare.
8097
8098     She was not violently lively, but
8099       Stole on your spirit like a May-day breaking;
8100     Her eyes were not too sparkling, yet, half-shut,
8101       They put beholders in a tender taking;
8102     She look'd (this simile 's quite new) just cut
8103       From marble, like Pygmalion's statue waking,
8104     The mortal and the marble still at strife,
8105     And timidly expanding into life.
8106
8107     Lolah demanded the new damsel's name--
8108       'Juanna.'--Well, a pretty name enough.
8109     Katinka ask'd her also whence she came--
8110       'From Spain.'--'But where is Spain?'--'Don't ask such stuff,
8111     Nor show your Georgian ignorance--for shame!'
8112       Said Lolah, with an accent rather rough,
8113     To poor Katinka: 'Spain 's an island near
8114     Morocco, betwixt Egypt and Tangier.'
8115
8116     Dudu said nothing, but sat down beside
8117       Juanna, playing with her veil or hair;
8118     And looking at her steadfastly, she sigh'd,
8119       As if she pitied her for being there,
8120     A pretty stranger without friend or guide,
8121       And all abash'd, too, at the general stare
8122     Which welcomes hapless strangers in all places,
8123     With kind remarks upon their mien and faces.
8124
8125     But here the Mother of the Maids drew near,
8126       With, 'Ladies, it is time to go to rest.
8127     I 'm puzzled what to do with you, my dear,'
8128       She added to Juanna, their new guest:
8129     'Your coming has been unexpected here,
8130       And every couch is occupied; you had best
8131     Partake of mine; but by to-morrow early
8132     We will have all things settled for you fairly.'
8133
8134     Here Lolah interposed--'Mamma, you know
8135       You don't sleep soundly, and I cannot bear
8136     That anybody should disturb you so;
8137       I 'll take Juanna; we 're a slenderer pair
8138     Than you would make the half of;--don't say no;
8139       And I of your young charge will take due care.'
8140     But here Katinka interfered, and said,
8141     'She also had compassion and a bed.
8142
8143     'Besides, I hate to sleep alone,' quoth she.
8144       The matron frown'd: 'Why so?'--'For fear of ghosts,'
8145     Replied Katinka; 'I am sure I see
8146       A phantom upon each of the four posts;
8147     And then I have the worst dreams that can be,
8148       Of Guebres, Giaours, and Ginns, and Gouls in hosts.'
8149     The dame replied, 'Between your dreams and you,
8150     I fear Juanna's dreams would be but few.
8151
8152     'You, Lolah, must continue still to lie
8153       Alone, for reasons which don't matter; you
8154     The same, Katinka, until by and by;
8155       And I shall place Juanna with Dudu,
8156     Who 's quiet, inoffensive, silent, shy,
8157       And will not toss and chatter the night through.
8158     What say you, child?'--Dudu said nothing, as
8159     Her talents were of the more silent class;
8160
8161     But she rose up, and kiss'd the matron's brow
8162       Between the eyes, and Lolah on both cheeks,
8163     Katinka, too; and with a gentle bow
8164       (Curt'sies are neither used by Turks nor Greeks)
8165     She took Juanna by the hand to show
8166       Their place of rest, and left to both their piques,
8167     The others pouting at the matron's preference
8168     Of Dudu, though they held their tongues from deference.
8169
8170     It was a spacious chamber (Oda is
8171       The Turkish title), and ranged round the wall
8172     Were couches, toilets--and much more than this
8173       I might describe, as I have seen it all,
8174     But it suffices--little was amiss;
8175       'Twas on the whole a nobly furnish'd hall,
8176     With all things ladies want, save one or two,
8177     And even those were nearer than they knew.
8178
8179     Dudu, as has been said, was a sweet creature,
8180       Not very dashing, but extremely winning,
8181     With the most regulated charms of feature,
8182       Which painters cannot catch like faces sinning
8183     Against proportion--the wild strokes of nature
8184       Which they hit off at once in the beginning,
8185     Full of expression, right or wrong, that strike,
8186     And pleasing or unpleasing, still are like.
8187
8188     But she was a soft landscape of mild earth,
8189       Where all was harmony, and calm, and quiet,
8190     Luxuriant, budding; cheerful without mirth,
8191       Which, if not happiness, is much more nigh it
8192     Than are your mighty passions and so forth,
8193       Which some call 'the sublime:' I wish they 'd try it:
8194     I 've seen your stormy seas and stormy women,
8195     And pity lovers rather more than seamen.
8196
8197     But she was pensive more than melancholy,
8198       And serious more than pensive, and serene,
8199     It may be, more than either--not unholy
8200       Her thoughts, at least till now, appear to have been.
8201     The strangest thing was, beauteous, she was wholly
8202       Unconscious, albeit turn'd of quick seventeen,
8203     That she was fair, or dark, or short, or tall;
8204     She never thought about herself at all.
8205
8206     And therefore was she kind and gentle as
8207       The Age of Gold (when gold was yet unknown,
8208     By which its nomenclature came to pass;
8209       Thus most appropriately has been shown
8210     'Lucus a non lucendo,' not what was,
8211       But what was not; a sort of style that 's grown
8212     Extremely common in this age, whose metal
8213     The devil may decompose, but never settle:
8214
8215     I think it may be of 'Corinthian Brass,'
8216       Which was a mixture of all metals, but
8217     The brazen uppermost). Kind reader! pass
8218       This long parenthesis: I could not shut
8219     It sooner for the soul of me, and class
8220       My faults even with your own! which meaneth, Put
8221     A kind construction upon them and me:
8222     But that you won't--then don't--I am not less free.
8223
8224     'Tis time we should return to plain narration,
8225       And thus my narrative proceeds:--Dudu,
8226     With every kindness short of ostentation,
8227       Show'd Juan, or Juanna, through and through
8228     This labyrinth of females, and each station
8229       Described--what 's strange--in words extremely few:
8230     I have but one simile, and that 's a blunder,
8231     For wordless woman, which is silent thunder.
8232
8233     And next she gave her (I say her, because
8234       The gender still was epicene, at least
8235     In outward show, which is a saving clause)
8236       An outline of the customs of the East,
8237     With all their chaste integrity of laws,
8238       By which the more a haram is increased,
8239     The stricter doubtless grow the vestal duties
8240     Of any supernumerary beauties.
8241
8242     And then she gave Juanna a chaste kiss:
8243       Dudu was fond of kissing--which I 'm sure
8244     That nobody can ever take amiss,
8245       Because 'tis pleasant, so that it be pure,
8246     And between females means no more than this--
8247       That they have nothing better near, or newer.
8248     'Kiss' rhymes to 'bliss' in fact as well as verse--
8249     I wish it never led to something worse.
8250
8251     In perfect innocence she then unmade
8252       Her toilet, which cost little, for she was
8253     A child of Nature, carelessly array'd:
8254       If fond of a chance ogle at her glass,
8255     'Twas like the fawn, which, in the lake display'd,
8256       Beholds her own shy, shadowy image pass,
8257     When first she starts, and then returns to peep,
8258     Admiring this new native of the deep.
8259
8260     And one by one her articles of dress
8261       Were laid aside; but not before she offer'd
8262     Her aid to fair Juanna, whose excess
8263       Of modesty declined the assistance proffer'd:
8264     Which pass'd well off--as she could do no less;
8265       Though by this politesse she rather suffer'd,
8266     Pricking her fingers with those cursed pins,
8267     Which surely were invented for our sins,--
8268
8269     Making a woman like a porcupine,
8270       Not to be rashly touch'd. But still more dread,
8271     O ye! whose fate it is, as once 'twas mine,
8272       In early youth, to turn a lady's maid;--
8273     I did my very boyish best to shine
8274       In tricking her out for a masquerade;
8275     The pins were placed sufficiently, but not
8276     Stuck all exactly in the proper spot.
8277
8278     But these are foolish things to all the wise,
8279       And I love wisdom more than she loves me;
8280     My tendency is to philosophise
8281       On most things, from a tyrant to a tree;
8282     But still the spouseless virgin Knowledge flies.
8283       What are we? and whence came we? what shall be
8284     Our ultimate existence? what 's our present?
8285     Are questions answerless, and yet incessant.
8286
8287     There was deep silence in the chamber: dim
8288       And distant from each other burn'd the lights,
8289     And slumber hover'd o'er each lovely limb
8290       Of the fair occupants: if there be sprites,
8291     They should have walk'd there in their sprightliest trim,
8292       By way of change from their sepulchral sites,
8293     And shown themselves as ghosts of better taste
8294     Than haunting some old ruin or wild waste.
8295
8296     Many and beautiful lay those around,
8297       Like flowers of different hue, and dime, and root,
8298     In some exotic garden sometimes found,
8299       With cost, and care, and warmth induced to shoot.
8300     One with her auburn tresses lightly bound,
8301       And fair brows gently drooping, as the fruit
8302     Nods from the tree, was slumbering with soft breath,
8303     And lips apart, which show'd the pearls beneath.
8304
8305     One with her flush'd cheek laid on her white arm,
8306       And raven ringlets gather'd in dark crowd
8307     Above her brow, lay dreaming soft and warm;
8308       And smiling through her dream, as through a cloud
8309     The moon breaks, half unveil'd each further charm,
8310       As, slightly stirring in her snowy shroud,
8311     Her beauties seized the unconscious hour of night
8312     All bashfully to struggle into light.
8313
8314     This is no bull, although it sounds so; for
8315       'Twas night, but there were lamps, as hath been said.
8316     A third's all pallid aspect offer'd more
8317       The traits of sleeping sorrow, and betray'd
8318     Through the heaved breast the dream of some far shore
8319       Beloved and deplored; while slowly stray'd
8320     (As night-dew, on a cypress glittering, tinges
8321     The black bough) tear-drops through her eyes' dark fringes.
8322
8323     A fourth as marble, statue-like and still,
8324       Lay in a breathless, hush'd, and stony sleep;
8325     White, cold, and pure, as looks a frozen rill,
8326       Or the snow minaret on an Alpine steep,
8327     Or Lot's wife done in salt,--or what you will;--
8328       My similes are gather'd in a heap,
8329     So pick and choose--perhaps you 'll be content
8330     With a carved lady on a monument.
8331
8332     And lo! a fifth appears;--and what is she?
8333       A lady of a 'certain age,' which means
8334     Certainly aged--what her years might be
8335       I know not, never counting past their teens;
8336     But there she slept, not quite so fair to see,
8337       As ere that awful period intervenes
8338     Which lays both men and women on the shelf,
8339     To meditate upon their sins and self.
8340
8341     But all this time how slept, or dream'd, Dudu?
8342       With strict inquiry I could ne'er discover,
8343     And scorn to add a syllable untrue;
8344       But ere the middle watch was hardly over,
8345     Just when the fading lamps waned dim and blue,
8346       And phantoms hover'd, or might seem to hover,
8347     To those who like their company, about
8348     The apartment, on a sudden she scream'd out:
8349
8350     And that so loudly, that upstarted all
8351       The Oda, in a general commotion:
8352     Matron and maids, and those whom you may call
8353       Neither, came crowding like the waves of ocean,
8354     One on the other, throughout the whole hall,
8355       All trembling, wondering, without the least notion
8356     More than I have myself of what could make
8357     The calm Dudu so turbulently wake.
8358
8359     But wide awake she was, and round her bed,
8360       With floating draperies and with flying hair,
8361     With eager eyes, and light but hurried tread,
8362       And bosoms, arms, and ankles glancing bare,
8363     And bright as any meteor ever bred
8364       By the North Pole,--they sought her cause of care,
8365     For she seem'd agitated, flush'd, and frighten'd,
8366     Her eye dilated and her colour heighten'd.
8367
8368     But what was strange--and a strong proof how great
8369       A blessing is sound sleep--Juanna lay
8370     As fast as ever husband by his mate
8371       In holy matrimony snores away.
8372     Not all the clamour broke her happy state
8373       Of slumber, ere they shook her,--so they say
8374     At least,--and then she, too, unclosed her eyes,
8375     And yawn'd a good deal with discreet surprise.
8376
8377     And now commenced a strict investigation,
8378       Which, as all spoke at once and more than once,
8379     Conjecturing, wondering, asking a narration,
8380       Alike might puzzle either wit or dunce
8381     To answer in a very clear oration.
8382       Dudu had never pass'd for wanting sense,
8383     But, being 'no orator as Brutus is,'
8384     Could not at first expound what was amiss.
8385
8386     At length she said, that in a slumber sound
8387       She dream'd a dream, of walking in a wood--
8388     A 'wood obscure,' like that where Dante found
8389       Himself in at the age when all grow good;
8390     Life's half-way house, where dames with virtue crown'd
8391       Run much less risk of lovers turning rude;
8392     And that this wood was full of pleasant fruits,
8393     And trees of goodly growth and spreading roots;
8394
8395     And in the midst a golden apple grew,--
8396       A most prodigious pippin,--but it hung
8397     Rather too high and distant; that she threw
8398       Her glances on it, and then, longing, flung
8399     Stones and whatever she could pick up, to
8400       Bring down the fruit, which still perversely clung
8401     To its own bough, and dangled yet in sight,
8402     But always at a most provoking height;--
8403
8404     That on a sudden, when she least had hope,
8405       It fell down of its own accord before
8406     Her feet; that her first movement was to stoop
8407       And pick it up, and bite it to the core;
8408     That just as her young lip began to ope
8409       Upon the golden fruit the vision bore,
8410     A bee flew out and stung her to the heart,
8411     And so--she awoke with a great scream and start.
8412
8413     All this she told with some confusion and
8414       Dismay, the usual consequence of dreams
8415     Of the unpleasant kind, with none at hand
8416       To expound their vain and visionary gleams.
8417     I 've known some odd ones which seem'd really plann'd
8418       Prophetically, or that which one deems
8419     A 'strange coincidence,' to use a phrase
8420     By which such things are settled now-a-days.
8421
8422     The damsels, who had thoughts of some great harm,
8423       Began, as is the consequence of fear,
8424     To scold a little at the false alarm
8425       That broke for nothing on their sleeping car.
8426     The matron, too, was wroth to leave her warm
8427       Bed for the dream she had been obliged to hear,
8428     And chafed at poor Dudu, who only sigh'd,
8429     And said that she was sorry she had cried.
8430
8431     'I 've heard of stories of a cock and bull;
8432       But visions of an apple and a bee,
8433     To take us from our natural rest, and pull
8434       The whole Oda from their beds at half-past three,
8435     Would make us think the moon is at its full.
8436       You surely are unwell, child! we must see,
8437     To-morrow, what his Highness's physician
8438     Will say to this hysteric of a vision.
8439
8440     'And poor Juanna, too--the child's first night
8441       Within these walls to be broke in upon
8442     With such a clamour! I had thought it right
8443       That the young stranger should not lie alone,
8444     And, as the quietest of all, she might
8445       With you, Dudu, a good night's rest have known;
8446     But now I must transfer her to the charge
8447     Of Lolah--though her couch is not so large.'
8448
8449     Lolah's eyes sparkled at the proposition;
8450       But poor Dudu, with large drops in her own,
8451     Resulting from the scolding or the vision,
8452       Implored that present pardon might be shown
8453     For this first fault, and that on no condition
8454       (She added in a soft and piteous tone)
8455     Juanna should be taken from her, and
8456     Her future dreams should all be kept in hand.
8457
8458     She promised never more to have a dream,
8459       At least to dream so loudly as just now;
8460     She wonder'd at herself how she could scream--
8461       'Twas foolish, nervous, as she must allow,
8462     A fond hallucination, and a theme
8463       For laughter--but she felt her spirits low,
8464     And begg'd they would excuse her; she 'd get over
8465     This weakness in a few hours, and recover.
8466
8467     And here Juanna kindly interposed,
8468       And said she felt herself extremely well
8469     Where she then was, as her sound sleep disclosed
8470       When all around rang like a tocsin bell:
8471     She did not find herself the least disposed
8472       To quit her gentle partner, and to dwell
8473     Apart from one who had no sin to show,
8474     Save that of dreaming once 'mal-a-propos.'
8475
8476     As thus Juanna spoke, Dudu turn'd round
8477       And hid her face within Juanna's breast:
8478     Her neck alone was seen, but that was found
8479       The colour of a budding rose's crest.
8480     I can't tell why she blush'd, nor can expound
8481       The mystery of this rupture of their rest;
8482     All that I know is, that the facts I state
8483     Are true as truth has ever been of late.
8484
8485     And so good night to them,--or, if you will,
8486       Good morrow--for the cock had crown, and light
8487     Began to clothe each Asiatic hill,
8488       And the mosque crescent struggled into sight
8489     Of the long caravan, which in the chill
8490       Of dewy dawn wound slowly round each height
8491     That stretches to the stony belt, which girds
8492     Asia, where Kaff looks down upon the Kurds.
8493
8494     With the first ray, or rather grey of morn,
8495       Gulbeyaz rose from restlessness; and pale
8496     As passion rises, with its bosom worn,
8497       Array'd herself with mantle, gem, and veil.
8498     The nightingale that sings with the deep thorn,
8499       Which fable places in her breast of wail,
8500     Is lighter far of heart and voice than those
8501     Whose headlong passions form their proper woes.
8502
8503     And that 's the moral of this composition,
8504       If people would but see its real drift;--
8505     But that they will not do without suspicion,
8506       Because all gentle readers have the gift
8507     Of closing 'gainst the light their orbs of vision;
8508       While gentle writers also love to lift
8509     Their voices 'gainst each other, which is natural,
8510     The numbers are too great for them to flatter all.
8511
8512     Rose the sultana from a bed of splendour,
8513       Softer than the soft Sybarite's, who cried
8514     Aloud because his feelings were too tender
8515       To brook a ruffled rose-leaf by his side,--
8516     So beautiful that art could little mend her,
8517       Though pale with conflicts between love and pride;--
8518     So agitated was she with her error,
8519     She did not even look into the mirror.
8520
8521     Also arose about the self-same time,
8522       Perhaps a little later, her great lord,
8523     Master of thirty kingdoms so sublime,
8524       And of a wife by whom he was abhorr'd;
8525     A thing of much less import in that clime--
8526       At least to those of incomes which afford
8527     The filling up their whole connubial cargo--
8528     Than where two wives are under an embargo.
8529
8530     He did not think much on the matter, nor
8531       Indeed on any other: as a man
8532     He liked to have a handsome paramour
8533       At hand, as one may like to have a fan,
8534     And therefore of Circassians had good store,
8535       As an amusement after the Divan;
8536     Though an unusual fit of love, or duty,
8537     Had made him lately bask in his bride's beauty.
8538
8539     And now he rose; and after due ablutions
8540       Exacted by the customs of the East,
8541     And prayers and other pious evolutions,
8542       He drank six cups of coffee at the least,
8543     And then withdrew to hear about the Russians,
8544       Whose victories had recently increased
8545     In Catherine's reign, whom glory still adores,
8546
8547     But oh, thou grand legitimate Alexander!
8548       Her son's son, let not this last phrase offend
8549     Thine ear, if it should reach--and now rhymes wander
8550       Almost as far as Petersburgh and lend
8551     A dreadful impulse to each loud meander
8552       Of murmuring Liberty's wide waves, which blend
8553     Their roar even with the Baltic's--so you be
8554     Your father's son, 'tis quite enough for me.
8555
8556     To call men love-begotten or proclaim
8557       Their mothers as the antipodes of Timon,
8558     That hater of mankind, would be a shame,
8559       A libel, or whate'er you please to rhyme on:
8560     But people's ancestors are history's game;
8561       And if one lady's slip could leave a crime on
8562     All generations, I should like to know
8563     What pedigree the best would have to show?
8564
8565     Had Catherine and the sultan understood
8566       Their own true interests, which kings rarely know
8567     Until 'tis taught by lessons rather rude,
8568       There was a way to end their strife, although
8569     Perhaps precarious, had they but thought good,
8570       Without the aid of prince or plenipo:
8571     She to dismiss her guards and he his haram,
8572     And for their other matters, meet and share 'em.
8573
8574     But as it was, his Highness had to hold
8575       His daily council upon ways and means
8576     How to encounter with this martial scold,
8577       This modern Amazon and queen of queans;
8578     And the perplexity could not be told
8579       Of all the pillars of the state, which leans
8580     Sometimes a little heavy on the backs
8581     Of those who cannot lay on a new tax.
8582
8583     Meantime Gulbeyaz, when her king was gone,
8584       Retired into her boudoir, a sweet place
8585     For love or breakfast; private, pleasing, lone,
8586       And rich with all contrivances which grace
8587     Those gay recesses:--many a precious stone
8588       Sparkled along its roof, and many a vase
8589     Of porcelain held in the fetter'd flowers,
8590     Those captive soothers of a captive's hours.
8591
8592     Mother of pearl, and porphyry, and marble,
8593       Vied with each other on this costly spot;
8594     And singing birds without were heard to warble;
8595       And the stain'd glass which lighted this fair grot
8596     Varied each ray;--but all descriptions garble
8597       The true effect, and so we had better not
8598     Be too minute; an outline is the best,--
8599     A lively reader's fancy does the rest.
8600
8601     And here she summon'd Baba, and required
8602       Don Juan at his hands, and information
8603     Of what had pass'd since all the slaves retired,
8604       And whether he had occupied their station;
8605     If matters had been managed as desired,
8606       And his disguise with due consideration
8607     Kept up; and above all, the where and how
8608     He had pass'd the night, was what she wish'd to know.
8609
8610     Baba, with some embarrassment, replied
8611       To this long catechism of questions, ask'd
8612     More easily than answer'd,--that he had tried
8613       His best to obey in what he had been task'd;
8614     But there seem'd something that he wish'd to hide,
8615       Which hesitation more betray'd than mask'd;
8616     He scratch'd his ear, the infallible resource
8617     To which embarrass'd people have recourse.
8618
8619     Gulbeyaz was no model of true patience,
8620       Nor much disposed to wait in word or deed;
8621     She liked quick answers in all conversations;
8622       And when she saw him stumbling like a steed
8623     In his replies, she puzzled him for fresh ones;
8624       And as his speech grew still more broken-kneed,
8625     Her cheek began to flush, her eyes to sparkle,
8626     And her proud brow's blue veins to swell and darkle.
8627
8628     When Baba saw these symptoms, which he knew
8629       To bode him no great good, he deprecated
8630     Her anger, and beseech'd she 'd hear him through--
8631       He could not help the thing which he related:
8632     Then out it came at length, that to Dudu
8633       Juan was given in charge, as hath been stated;
8634     But not by Baba's fault, he said, and swore on
8635     The holy camel's hump, besides the Koran.
8636
8637     The chief dame of the Oda, upon whom
8638       The discipline of the whole haram bore,
8639     As soon as they re-enter'd their own room,
8640       For Baba's function stopt short at the door,
8641     Had settled all; nor could he then presume
8642       (The aforesaid Baba) just then to do more,
8643     Without exciting such suspicion as
8644     Might make the matter still worse than it was.
8645
8646     He hoped, indeed he thought, he could be sure
8647       Juan had not betray'd himself; in fact
8648     'Twas certain that his conduct had been pure,
8649       Because a foolish or imprudent act
8650     Would not alone have made him insecure,
8651       But ended in his being found out and sack'd,
8652     And thrown into the sea.--Thus Baba spoke
8653     Of all save Dudu's dream, which was no joke.
8654
8655     This he discreetly kept in the background,
8656       And talk'd away--and might have talk'd till now,
8657     For any further answer that he found,
8658       So deep an anguish wrung Gulbeyaz' brow:
8659     Her cheek turn'd ashes, ears rung, brain whirl'd round,
8660       As if she had received a sudden blow,
8661     And the heart's dew of pain sprang fast and chilly
8662     O'er her fair front, like Morning's on a lily.
8663
8664     Although she was not of the fainting sort,
8665       Baba thought she would faint, but there he err'd--
8666     It was but a convulsion, which though short
8667       Can never be described; we all have heard,
8668     And some of us have felt thus 'all amort,'
8669       When things beyond the common have occurr'd;--
8670     Gulbeyaz proved in that brief agony
8671     What she could ne'er express--then how should I?
8672
8673     She stood a moment as a Pythones
8674       Stands on her tripod, agonised, and full
8675     Of inspiration gather'd from distress,
8676       When all the heart-strings like wild horses pull
8677     The heart asunder;--then, as more or lees
8678       Their speed abated or their strength grew dull,
8679     She sunk down on her seat by slow degrees,
8680     And bow'd her throbbing head o'er trembling knees.
8681
8682     Her face declined and was unseen; her hair
8683       Fell in long tresses like the weeping willow,
8684     Sweeping the marble underneath her chair,
8685       Or rather sofa (for it was all pillow,
8686     A low soft ottoman), and black despair
8687       Stirr'd up and down her bosom like a billow,
8688     Which rushes to some shore whose shingles check
8689     Its farther course, but must receive its wreck.
8690
8691     Her head hung down, and her long hair in stooping
8692       Conceal'd her features better than a veil;
8693     And one hand o'er the ottoman lay drooping,
8694       White, waxen, and as alabaster pale:
8695     Would that I were a painter! to be grouping
8696       All that a poet drags into detail
8697     O that my words were colours! but their tints
8698     May serve perhaps as outlines or slight hints.
8699
8700     Baba, who knew by experience when to talk
8701       And when to hold his tongue, now held it till
8702     This passion might blow o'er, nor dared to balk
8703       Gulbeyaz' taciturn or speaking will.
8704     At length she rose up, and began to walk
8705       Slowly along the room, but silent still,
8706     And her brow clear'd, but not her troubled eye;
8707     The wind was down, but still the sea ran high.
8708
8709     She stopp'd, and raised her head to speak--but paused,
8710       And then moved on again with rapid pace;
8711     Then slacken'd it, which is the march most caused
8712       By deep emotion:--you may sometimes trace
8713     A feeling in each footstep, as disclosed
8714       By Sallust in his Catiline, who, chased
8715     By all the demons of all passions, show'd
8716     Their work even by the way in which he trode.
8717
8718     Gulbeyaz stopp'd and beckon'd Baba:--'Slave!
8719       Bring the two slaves!' she said in a low tone,
8720     But one which Baba did not like to brave,
8721       And yet he shudder'd, and seem'd rather prone
8722     To prove reluctant, and begg'd leave to crave
8723       (Though he well knew the meaning) to be shown
8724     What slaves her highness wish'd to indicate,
8725     For fear of any error, like the late.
8726
8727     'The Georgian and her paramour,' replied
8728       The imperial bride--and added, 'Let the boat
8729     Be ready by the secret portal's side:
8730       You know the rest.' The words stuck in her throat,
8731     Despite her injured love and fiery pride;
8732       And of this Baba willingly took note,
8733     And begg'd by every hair of Mahomet's beard,
8734     She would revoke the order he had heard.
8735
8736     'To hear is to obey,' he said; 'but still,
8737       Sultana, think upon the consequence:
8738     It is not that I shall not all fulfil
8739       Your orders, even in their severest sense;
8740     But such precipitation may end ill,
8741       Even at your own imperative expense:
8742     I do not mean destruction and exposure,
8743     In case of any premature disclosure;
8744
8745     'But your own feelings. Even should all the rest
8746       Be hidden by the rolling waves, which hide
8747     Already many a once love-beaten breast
8748       Deep in the caverns of the deadly tide--
8749     You love this boyish, new, seraglio guest,
8750       And if this violent remedy be tried--
8751     Excuse my freedom, when I here assure you,
8752     That killing him is not the way to cure you.'
8753
8754     'What dost thou know of love or feeling?--Wretch!
8755       Begone!' she cried, with kindling eyes--'and do
8756     My bidding!' Baba vanish'd, for to stretch
8757       His own remonstrance further he well knew
8758     Might end in acting as his own 'Jack Ketch;'
8759       And though he wish'd extremely to get through
8760     This awkward business without harm to others,
8761     He still preferr'd his own neck to another's.
8762
8763     Away he went then upon his commission,
8764       Growling and grumbling in good Turkish phrase
8765     Against all women of whate'er condition,
8766       Especially sultanas and their ways;
8767     Their obstinacy, pride, and indecision,
8768       Their never knowing their own mind two days,
8769     The trouble that they gave, their immorality,
8770     Which made him daily bless his own neutrality.
8771
8772     And then he call'd his brethren to his aid,
8773       And sent one on a summons to the pair,
8774     That they must instantly be well array'd,
8775       And above all be comb'd even to a hair,
8776     And brought before the empress, who had made
8777       Inquiries after them with kindest care:
8778     At which Dudu look'd strange, and Juan silly;
8779     But go they must at once, and will I--nill I.
8780
8781     And here I leave them at their preparation
8782       For the imperial presence, wherein whether
8783     Gulbeyaz show'd them both commiseration,
8784       Or got rid of the parties altogether,
8785     Like other angry ladies of her nation,--
8786       Are things the turning of a hair or feather
8787     May settle; but far be 't from me to anticipate
8788     In what way feminine caprice may dissipate.
8789
8790     I leave them for the present with good wishes,
8791       Though doubts of their well doing, to arrange
8792     Another part of history; for the dishes
8793       Of this our banquet we must sometimes change;
8794     And trusting Juan may escape the fishes,
8795       Although his situation now seems strange
8796     And scarce secure, as such digressions are fair,
8797     The Muse will take a little touch at warfare.
8798
8799
8800CANTO THE SEVENTH.
8801
8802     O Love! O Glory! what are ye who fly
8803       Around us ever, rarely to alight?
8804     There 's not a meteor in the polar sky
8805       Of such transcendent and more fleeting flight.
8806     Chill, and chain'd to cold earth, we lift on high
8807       Our eyes in search of either lovely light;
8808     A thousand and a thousand colours they
8809     Assume, then leave us on our freezing way.
8810
8811     And such as they are, such my present tale is,
8812       A non-descript and ever-varying rhyme,
8813     A versified Aurora Borealis,
8814       Which flashes o'er a waste and icy clime.
8815     When we know what all are, we must bewail us,
8816       But ne'ertheless I hope it is no crime
8817     To laugh at all things--for I wish to know
8818     What, after all, are all things--but a show?
8819
8820     They accuse me--Me--the present writer of
8821       The present poem--of--I know not what--
8822     A tendency to under-rate and scoff
8823       At human power and virtue, and all that;
8824     And this they say in language rather rough.
8825       Good God! I wonder what they would be at!
8826     I say no more than hath been said in Dante's
8827     Verse, and by Solomon and by Cervantes;
8828
8829     By Swift, by Machiavel, by Rochefoucault,
8830       By Fenelon, by Luther, and by Plato;
8831     By Tillotson, and Wesley, and Rousseau,
8832       Who knew this life was not worth a potato.
8833     'T is not their fault, nor mine, if this be so--
8834       For my part, I pretend not to be Cato,
8835     Nor even Diogenes.--We live and die,
8836     But which is best, you know no more than I.
8837
8838     Socrates said, our only knowledge was
8839       'To know that nothing could be known;' a pleasant
8840     Science enough, which levels to an ass
8841       Each man of wisdom, future, past, or present.
8842     Newton (that proverb of the mind), alas!
8843       Declared, with all his grand discoveries recent,
8844     That he himself felt only 'like a youth
8845     Picking up shells by the great ocean--Truth.'
8846
8847     Ecclesiastes said, 'that all is vanity'-
8848       Most modern preachers say the same, or show it
8849     By their examples of true Christianity:
8850       In short, all know, or very soon may know it;
8851     And in this scene of all-confess'd inanity,
8852       By saint, by sage, by preacher, and by poet,
8853     Must I restrain me, through the fear of strife,
8854     From holding up the nothingness of life?
8855
8856     Dogs, or men!--for I flatter you in saying
8857       That ye are dogs--your betters far--ye may
8858     Read, or read not, what I am now essaying
8859       To show ye what ye are in every way.
8860     As little as the moon stops for the baying
8861       Of wolves, will the bright muse withdraw one ray
8862     From out her skies--then howl your idle wrath!
8863     While she still silvers o'er your gloomy path.
8864
8865     'Fierce loves and faithless wars'--I am not sure
8866       If this be the right reading--'t is no matter;
8867     The fact 's about the same, I am secure;
8868       I sing them both, and am about to batter
8869     A town which did a famous siege endure,
8870       And was beleaguer'd both by land and water
8871     By Souvaroff, or Anglice Suwarrow,
8872     Who loved blood as an alderman loves marrow.
8873
8874     The fortress is call'd Ismail, and is placed
8875       Upon the Danube's left branch and left bank,
8876     With buildings in the Oriental taste,
8877       But still a fortress of the foremost rank,
8878     Or was at least, unless 't is since defaced,
8879       Which with your conquerors is a common prank:
8880     It stands some eighty versts from the high sea,
8881     And measures round of toises thousands three.
8882
8883     Within the extent of this fortification
8884       A borough is comprised along the height
8885     Upon the left, which from its loftier station
8886       Commands the city, and upon its site
8887     A Greek had raised around this elevation
8888       A quantity of palisades upright,
8889     So placed as to impede the fire of those
8890     Who held the place, and to assist the foe's.
8891
8892     This circumstance may serve to give a notion
8893       Of the high talents of this new Vauban:
8894     But the town ditch below was deep as ocean,
8895       The rampart higher than you 'd wish to hang:
8896     But then there was a great want of precaution
8897       (Prithee, excuse this engineering slang),
8898     Nor work advanced, nor cover'd way was there,
8899     To hint at least 'Here is no thoroughfare.'
8900
8901     But a stone bastion, with a narrow gorge,
8902       And walls as thick as most skulls born as yet;
8903     Two batteries, cap-a-pie, as our St. George,
8904       Case-mated one, and t' other 'a barbette,'
8905     Of Danube's bank took formidable charge;
8906       While two and twenty cannon duly set
8907     Rose over the town's right side, in bristling tier,
8908     Forty feet high, upon a cavalier.
8909
8910     But from the river the town 's open quite,
8911       Because the Turks could never be persuaded
8912     A Russian vessel e'er would heave in sight;
8913       And such their creed was, till they were invaded,
8914     When it grew rather late to set things right.
8915       But as the Danube could not well be waded,
8916     They look'd upon the Muscovite flotilla,
8917     And only shouted, 'Allah!' and 'Bis Millah!'
8918
8919     The Russians now were ready to attack:
8920       But oh, ye goddesses of war and glory!
8921     How shall I spell the name of each Cossacque
8922       Who were immortal, could one tell their story?
8923     Alas! what to their memory can lack?
8924       Achilles' self was not more grim and gory
8925     Than thousands of this new and polish'd nation,
8926     Whose names want nothing but--pronunciation.
8927
8928     Still I 'll record a few, if but to increase
8929       Our euphony: there was Strongenoff, and Strokonoff,
8930     Meknop, Serge Lwow, Arsniew of modern Greece,
8931       And Tschitsshakoff, and Roguenoff, and Chokenoff,
8932     And others of twelve consonants apiece;
8933       And more might be found out, if I could poke enough
8934     Into gazettes; but Fame (capricious strumpet),
8935     It seems, has got an ear as well as trumpet,
8936
8937     And cannot tune those discords of narration,
8938       Which may be names at Moscow, into rhyme;
8939     Yet there were several worth commemoration,
8940       As e'er was virgin of a nuptial chime;
8941     Soft words, too, fitted for the peroration
8942       Of Londonderry drawling against time,
8943     Ending in 'ischskin,' 'ousckin,' 'iffskchy,' 'ouski:
8944     Of whom we can insert but Rousamouski,
8945
8946     Scherematoff and Chrematoff, Koklophti,
8947       Koclobski, Kourakin, and Mouskin Pouskin,
8948     All proper men of weapons, as e'er scoff'd high
8949       Against a foe, or ran a sabre through skin:
8950     Little cared they for Mahomet or Mufti,
8951       Unless to make their kettle-drums a new skin
8952     Out of their hides, if parchment had grown dear,
8953     And no more handy substitute been near.
8954
8955     Then there were foreigners of much renown,
8956       Of various nations, and all volunteers;
8957     Not fighting for their country or its crown,
8958       But wishing to be one day brigadiers;
8959     Also to have the sacking of a town,--
8960       A pleasant thing to young men at their years.
8961     'Mongst them were several Englishmen of pith,
8962     Sixteen call'd Thomson, and nineteen named Smith.
8963
8964     Jack Thomson and Bill Thomson; all the rest
8965       Had been call'd 'Jemmy,' after the great bard;
8966     I don't know whether they had arms or crest,
8967       But such a godfather 's as good a card.
8968     Three of the Smiths were Peters; but the best
8969       Amongst them all, hard blows to inflict or ward,
8970     Was he, since so renown'd 'in country quarters
8971     At Halifax;' but now he served the Tartars.
8972
8973     The rest were jacks and Gills and Wills and Bills;
8974       But when I 've added that the elder jack Smith
8975     Was born in Cumberland among the hills,
8976       And that his father was an honest blacksmith,
8977     I 've said all I know of a name that fills
8978       Three lines of the despatch in taking 'Schmacksmith,'
8979     A village of Moldavia's waste, wherein
8980     He fell, immortal in a bulletin.
8981
8982     I wonder (although Mars no doubt 's a god
8983       Praise) if a man's name in a bulletin
8984     May make up for a bullet in his body?
8985       I hope this little question is no sin,
8986     Because, though I am but a simple noddy,
8987       I think one Shakspeare puts the same thought in
8988     The mouth of some one in his plays so doting,
8989     Which many people pass for wits by quoting.
8990
8991     Then there were Frenchmen, gallant, young, and gay:
8992       But I 'm too great a patriot to record
8993     Their Gallic names upon a glorious day;
8994       I 'd rather tell ten lies than say a word
8995     Of truth;--such truths are treason; they betray
8996       Their country; and as traitors are abhorr'd
8997     Who name the French in English, save to show
8998     How Peace should make John Bull the Frenchman's foe.
8999
9000     The Russians, having built two batteries on
9001       An isle near Ismail, had two ends in view;
9002     The first was to bombard it, and knock down
9003       The public buildings and the private too,
9004     No matter what poor souls might be undone.
9005       The city's shape suggested this, 't is true;
9006     Form'd like an amphitheatre, each dwelling
9007     Presented a fine mark to throw a shell in.
9008
9009     The second object was to profit by
9010       The moment of the general consternation,
9011     To attack the Turk's flotilla, which lay nigh
9012       Extremely tranquil, anchor'd at its station:
9013     But a third motive was as probably
9014       To frighten them into capitulation;
9015     A phantasy which sometimes seizes warriors,
9016     Unless they are game as bull-dogs and fox-terriers.
9017
9018     A habit rather blamable, which is
9019       That of despising those we combat with,
9020     Common in many cases, was in this
9021       The cause of killing Tchitchitzkoff and Smith;
9022     One of the valorous 'Smiths' whom we shall miss
9023       Out of those nineteen who late rhymed to 'pith;'
9024     But 't is a name so spread o'er 'Sir' and 'Madam,'
9025     That one would think the first who bore it 'Adam.'
9026
9027     The Russian batteries were incomplete,
9028       Because they were constructed in a hurry;
9029     Thus the same cause which makes a verse want feet,
9030       And throws a cloud o'er Longman and John Murray,
9031     When the sale of new books is not so fleet
9032       As they who print them think is necessary,
9033     May likewise put off for a time what story
9034     Sometimes calls 'murder,' and at others 'glory.'
9035
9036     Whether it was their engineer's stupidity,
9037       Their haste, or waste, I neither know nor care,
9038     Or some contractor's personal cupidity,
9039       Saving his soul by cheating in the ware
9040     Of homicide, but there was no solidity
9041       In the new batteries erected there;
9042     They either miss'd, or they were never miss'd,
9043     And added greatly to the missing list.
9044
9045     A sad miscalculation about distance
9046       Made all their naval matters incorrect;
9047     Three fireships lost their amiable existence
9048       Before they reach'd a spot to take effect:
9049     The match was lit too soon, and no assistance
9050       Could remedy this lubberly defect;
9051     They blew up in the middle of the river,
9052     While, though 't was dawn, the Turks slept fast as ever.
9053
9054     At seven they rose, however, and survey'd
9055       The Russ flotilla getting under way;
9056     'T was nine, when still advancing undismay'd,
9057       Within a cable's length their vessels lay
9058     Off Ismail, and commenced a cannonade,
9059       Which was return'd with interest, I may say,
9060     And by a fire of musketry and grape,
9061     And shells and shot of every size and shape.
9062
9063     For six hours bore they without intermission
9064       The Turkish fire, and aided by their own
9065     Land batteries, work'd their guns with great precision:
9066       At length they found mere cannonade alone
9067     By no means would produce the town's submission,
9068       And made a signal to retreat at one.
9069     One bark blew up, a second near the works
9070     Running aground, was taken by the Turks.
9071
9072     The Moslem, too, had lost both ships and men;
9073       But when they saw the enemy retire,
9074     Their Delhis mann'd some boats, and sail'd again,
9075       And gall'd the Russians with a heavy fire,
9076     And tried to make a landing on the main;
9077       But here the effect fell short of their desire:
9078     Count Damas drove them back into the water
9079     Pell-mell, and with a whole gazette of slaughter.
9080
9081     'If' (says the historian here) 'I could report
9082       All that the Russians did upon this day,
9083     I think that several volumes would fall short,
9084       And I should still have many things to say;'
9085     And so he says no more--but pays his court
9086       To some distinguish'd strangers in that fray;
9087     The Prince de Ligne, and Langeron, and Damas,
9088     Names great as any that the roll of Fame has.
9089
9090     This being the case, may show us what Fame is:
9091       For out of these three 'preux Chevaliers,' how
9092     Many of common readers give a guess
9093       That such existed? (and they may live now
9094     For aught we know.) Renown 's all hit or miss;
9095       There 's fortune even in fame, we must allow.
9096     'T is true the Memoirs of the Prince de Ligne
9097     Have half withdrawn from him oblivion's screen.
9098
9099     But here are men who fought in gallant actions
9100       As gallantly as ever heroes fought,
9101     But buried in the heap of such transactions
9102       Their names are rarely found, nor often sought.
9103     Thus even good fame may suffer sad contractions,
9104       And is extinguish'd sooner than she ought:
9105     Of all our modern battles, I will bet
9106     You can't repeat nine names from each Gazette.
9107
9108     In short, this last attack, though rich in glory,
9109       Show'd that somewhere, somehow, there was a fault,
9110     And Admiral Ribas (known in Russian story)
9111       Most strongly recommended an assault;
9112     In which he was opposed by young and hoary,
9113       Which made a long debate; but I must halt,
9114     For if I wrote down every warrior's speech,
9115     I doubt few readers e'er would mount the breach.
9116
9117     There was a man, if that he was a man,
9118       Not that his manhood could be call'd in question,
9119     For had he not been Hercules, his span
9120       Had been as short in youth as indigestion
9121     Made his last illness, when, all worn and wan,
9122       He died beneath a tree, as much unblest on
9123     The soil of the green province he had wasted,
9124     As e'er was locust on the land it blasted.
9125
9126     This was Potemkin--a great thing in days
9127       When homicide and harlotry made great;
9128     If stars and titles could entail long praise,
9129       His glory might half equal his estate.
9130     This fellow, being six foot high, could raise
9131       A kind of phantasy proportionate
9132     In the then sovereign of the Russian people,
9133     Who measured men as you would do a steeple.
9134
9135     While things were in abeyance, Ribas sent
9136       A courier to the prince, and he succeeded
9137     In ordering matters after his own bent;
9138       I cannot tell the way in which he pleaded,
9139     But shortly he had cause to be content.
9140       In the mean time, the batteries proceeded,
9141     And fourscore cannon on the Danube's border
9142     Were briskly fired and answer'd in due order.
9143
9144     But on the thirteenth, when already part
9145       Of the troops were embark'd, the siege to raise,
9146     A courier on the spur inspired new heart
9147       Into all panters for newspaper praise,
9148     As well as dilettanti in war's art,
9149       By his despatches couch'd in pithy phrase;
9150     Announcing the appointment of that lover of
9151     Battles to the command, Field-Marshal Souvaroff.
9152
9153     The letter of the prince to the same marshal
9154       Was worthy of a Spartan, had the cause
9155     Been one to which a good heart could be partial--
9156       Defence of freedom, country, or of laws;
9157     But as it was mere lust of power to o'er-arch all
9158       With its proud brow, it merits slight applause,
9159     Save for its style, which said, all in a trice,
9160     'You will take Ismail at whatever price.'
9161
9162     'Let there be light! said God, and there was light!'
9163       'Let there be blood!' says man, and there 's a seal
9164     The fiat of this spoil'd child of the Night
9165       (For Day ne'er saw his merits) could decree
9166     More evil in an hour, than thirty bright
9167       Summers could renovate, though they should be
9168     Lovely as those which ripen'd Eden's fruit;
9169     For war cuts up not only branch, but root.
9170
9171     Our friends the Turks, who with loud 'Allahs' now
9172       Began to signalise the Russ retreat,
9173     Were damnably mistaken; few are slow
9174       In thinking that their enemy is beat
9175     (Or beaten, if you insist on grammar, though
9176       I never think about it in a heat),
9177     But here I say the Turks were much mistaken,
9178     Who hating hogs, yet wish'd to save their bacon.
9179
9180     For, on the sixteenth, at full gallop, drew
9181       In sight two horsemen, who were deem'd Cossacques
9182     For some time, till they came in nearer view.
9183       They had but little baggage at their backs,
9184     For there were but three shirts between the two;
9185       But on they rode upon two Ukraine hacks,
9186     Till, in approaching, were at length descried
9187     In this plain pair, Suwarrow and his guide.
9188
9189     'Great joy to London now!' says some great fool,
9190       When London had a grand illumination,
9191     Which to that bottle-conjurer, John Bull,
9192       Is of all dreams the first hallucination;
9193     So that the streets of colour'd lamps are full,
9194       That Sage (said john) surrenders at discretion
9195     His purse, his soul, his sense, and even his nonsense,
9196     To gratify, like a huge moth, this one sense.
9197
9198     'T is strange that he should farther 'damn his eyes,'
9199       For they are damn'd; that once all-famous oath
9200     Is to the devil now no farther prize,
9201       Since John has lately lost the use of both.
9202     Debt he calls wealth, and taxes Paradise;
9203       And Famine, with her gaunt and bony growth,
9204     Which stare him in the face, he won't examine,
9205     Or swears that Ceres hath begotten Famine.
9206
9207     But to the tale:--great joy unto the camp!
9208       To Russian, Tartar, English, French, Cossacque,
9209     O'er whom Suwarrow shone like a gas lamp,
9210       Presaging a most luminous attack;
9211     Or like a wisp along the marsh so damp,
9212       Which leads beholders on a boggy walk,
9213     He flitted to and fro a dancing light,
9214     Which all who saw it follow'd, wrong or right.
9215
9216     But certes matters took a different face;
9217       There was enthusiasm and much applause,
9218     The fleet and camp saluted with great grace,
9219       And all presaged good fortune to their cause.
9220     Within a cannon-shot length of the place
9221       They drew, constructed ladders, repair'd flaws
9222     In former works, made new, prepared fascines,
9223     And all kinds of benevolent machines.
9224
9225     'T is thus the spirit of a single mind
9226       Makes that of multitudes take one direction,
9227     As roll the waters to the breathing wind,
9228       Or roams the herd beneath the bull's protection;
9229     Or as a little dog will lead the blind,
9230       Or a bell-wether form the flock's connection
9231     By tinkling sounds, when they go forth to victual;
9232     Such is the sway of your great men o'er little.
9233
9234     The whole camp rung with joy; you would have thought
9235       That they were going to a marriage feast
9236     (This metaphor, I think, holds good as aught,
9237       Since there is discord after both at least):
9238     There was not now a luggage boy but sought
9239       Danger and spoil with ardour much increased;
9240     And why? because a little--odd--old man,
9241     Stript to his shirt, was come to lead the van.
9242
9243     But so it was; and every preparation
9244       Was made with all alacrity: the first
9245     Detachment of three columns took its station,
9246       And waited but the signal's voice to burst
9247     Upon the foe: the second's ordination
9248       Was also in three columns, with a thirst
9249     For glory gaping o'er a sea of slaughter:
9250     The third, in columns two, attack'd by water.
9251
9252     New batteries were erected, and was held
9253       A general council, in which unanimity,
9254     That stranger to most councils, here prevail'd,
9255       As sometimes happens in a great extremity;
9256     And every difficulty being dispell'd,
9257       Glory began to dawn with due sublimity,
9258     While Souvaroff, determined to obtain it,
9259     Was teaching his recruits to use the bayonet
9260
9261     It is an actual fact, that he, commander
9262       In chief, in proper person deign'd to drill
9263     The awkward squad, and could afford to squander
9264       His time, a corporal's duty to fulfil:
9265     Just as you 'd break a sucking salamander
9266       To swallow flame, and never take it ill:
9267     He show'd them how to mount a ladder (which
9268     Was not like Jacob's) or to cross a ditch.
9269
9270     Also he dress'd up, for the nonce, fascines
9271       Like men with turbans, scimitars, and dirks,
9272     And made them charge with bayonet these machines,
9273       By way of lesson against actual Turks:
9274     And when well practised in these mimic scenes,
9275       He judged them proper to assail the works;
9276     At which your wise men sneer'd in phrases witty:
9277     He made no answer; but he took the city.
9278
9279     Most things were in this posture on the eve
9280       Of the assault, and all the camp was in
9281     A stern repose; which you would scarce conceive;
9282       Yet men resolved to dash through thick and thin
9283     Are very silent when they once believe
9284       That all is settled:--there was little din,
9285     For some were thinking of their home and friends,
9286     And others of themselves and latter ends.
9287
9288     Suwarrow chiefly was on the alert,
9289       Surveying, drilling, ordering, jesting, pondering;
9290     For the man was, we safely may assert,
9291       A thing to wonder at beyond most wondering;
9292     Hero, buffoon, half-demon, and half-dirt,
9293       Praying, instructing, desolating, plundering;
9294     Now Mars, now Momus; and when bent to storm
9295     A fortress, Harlequin in uniform.
9296
9297     The day before the assault, while upon drill--
9298       For this great conqueror play'd the corporal--
9299     Some Cossacques, hovering like hawks round a hill,
9300       Had met a party towards the twilight's fall,
9301     One of whom spoke their tongue--or well or ill,
9302       'T was much that he was understood at all;
9303     But whether from his voice, or speech, or manner,
9304     They found that he had fought beneath their banner.
9305
9306     Whereon immediately at his request
9307       They brought him and his comrades to head-quarters;
9308     Their dress was Moslem, but you might have guess'd
9309       That these were merely masquerading Tartars,
9310     And that beneath each Turkish-fashion'd vest
9311       Lurk'd Christianity; which sometimes barters
9312     Her inward grace for outward show, and makes
9313     It difficult to shun some strange mistakes.
9314
9315     Suwarrow, who was standing in his shirt
9316       Before a company of Calmucks, drilling,
9317     Exclaiming, fooling, swearing at the inert,
9318       And lecturing on the noble art of killing,--
9319     For deeming human clay but common dirt,
9320       This great philosopher was thus instilling
9321     His maxims, which to martial comprehension
9322     Proved death in battle equal to a pension;--
9323
9324     Suwarrow, when he saw this company
9325       Of Cossacques and their prey, turn'd round and cast
9326     Upon them his slow brow and piercing eye:--
9327       'Whence come ye?'--'From Constantinople last,
9328     Captives just now escaped,' was the reply.
9329       'What are ye?'--'What you see us.' Briefly pass'd
9330     This dialogue; for he who answer'd knew
9331     To whom he spoke, and made his words but few.
9332
9333     'Your names?'--'Mine 's Johnson, and my comrade 's Juan;
9334       The other two are women, and the third
9335     Is neither man nor woman.' The chief threw on
9336       The party a slight glance, then said, 'I have heard
9337     Your name before, the second is a new one:
9338       To bring the other three here was absurd:
9339     But let that pass:--I think I have heard your name
9340     In the Nikolaiew regiment?'--'The same.'
9341
9342     'You served at Widdin?'--'Yes.'--'You led the attack?'
9343       'I did.'--'What next?'--'I really hardly know.'
9344     'You were the first i' the breach?'--'I was not slack
9345       At least to follow those who might be so.'
9346     'What follow'd?'--'A shot laid me on my back,
9347       And I became a prisoner to the foe.'
9348     'You shall have vengeance, for the town surrounded
9349     Is twice as strong as that where you were wounded.
9350
9351     'Where will you serve?'--'Where'er you please.'--'I know
9352       You like to be the hope of the forlorn,
9353     And doubtless would be foremost on the foe
9354       After the hardships you 've already borne.
9355     And this young fellow--say what can he do?
9356       He with the beardless chin and garments torn?'
9357     'Why, general, if he hath no greater fault
9358     In war than love, he had better lead the assault.'
9359
9360     'He shall if that he dare.' Here Juan bow'd
9361       Low as the compliment deserved. Suwarrow
9362     Continued: 'Your old regiment's allow'd,
9363       By special providence, to lead to-morrow,
9364     Or it may be to-night, the assault: I have vow'd
9365       To several saints, that shortly plough or harrow
9366     Shall pass o'er what was Ismail, and its tusk
9367     Be unimpeded by the proudest mosque.
9368
9369     'So now, my lads, for glory!'--Here he turn'd
9370       And drill'd away in the most classic Russian,
9371     Until each high, heroic bosom burn'd
9372       For cash and conquest, as if from a cushion
9373     A preacher had held forth (who nobly spurn'd
9374       All earthly goods save tithes) and bade them push on
9375     To slay the Pagans who resisted, battering
9376     The armies of the Christian Empress Catherine.
9377
9378     Johnson, who knew by this long colloquy
9379       Himself a favourite, ventured to address
9380     Suwarrow, though engaged with accents high
9381       In his resumed amusement. 'I confess
9382     My debt in being thus allow'd to die
9383       Among the foremost; but if you 'd express
9384     Explicitly our several posts, my friend
9385     And self would know what duty to attend.'
9386
9387     'Right! I was busy, and forgot. Why, you
9388       Will join your former regiment, which should be
9389     Now under arms. Ho! Katskoff, take him to
9390       (Here he call'd up a Polish orderly)
9391     His post, I mean the regiment Nikolaiew:
9392       The stranger stripling may remain with me;
9393     He 's a fine boy. The women may be sent
9394     To the other baggage, or to the sick tent.'
9395
9396     But here a sort of scene began to ensue:
9397       The ladies,--who by no means had been bred
9398     To be disposed of in a way so new,
9399       Although their haram education led
9400     Doubtless to that of doctrines the most true,
9401       Passive obedience,--now raised up the head,
9402     With flashing eyes and starting tears, and flung
9403     Their arms, as hens their wings about their young,
9404
9405     O'er the promoted couple of brave men
9406       Who were thus honour'd by the greatest chief
9407     That ever peopled hell with heroes slain,
9408       Or plunged a province or a realm in grief.
9409     O, foolish mortals! Always taught in vain!
9410       O, glorious laurel! since for one sole leaf
9411     Of thine imaginary deathless tree,
9412     Of blood and tears must flow the unebbing sea.
9413
9414     Suwarrow, who had small regard for tears,
9415       And not much sympathy for blood, survey'd
9416     The women with their hair about their ears
9417       And natural agonies, with a slight shade
9418     Of feeling: for however habit sears
9419       Men's hearts against whole millions, when their trade
9420     Is butchery, sometimes a single sorrow
9421     Will touch even heroes--and such was Suwarrow.
9422
9423     He said,--and in the kindest Calmuck tone,--
9424       'Why, Johnson, what the devil do you mean
9425     By bringing women here? They shall be shown
9426       All the attention possible, and seen
9427     In safety to the waggons, where alone
9428       In fact they can be safe. You should have been
9429     Aware this kind of baggage never thrives:
9430     Save wed a year, I hate recruits with wives.'
9431
9432     'May it please your excellency,' thus replied
9433       Our British friend, 'these are the wives of others,
9434     And not our own. I am too qualified
9435       By service with my military brothers
9436     To break the rules by bringing one's own bride
9437       Into a camp: I know that nought so bothers
9438     The hearts of the heroic on a charge,
9439     As leaving a small family at large.
9440
9441     'But these are but two Turkish ladies, who
9442       With their attendant aided our escape,
9443     And afterwards accompanied us through
9444       A thousand perils in this dubious shape.
9445     To me this kind of life is not so new;
9446       To them, poor things, it is an awkward scrape.
9447     I therefore, if you wish me to fight freely,
9448     Request that they may both be used genteelly.'
9449
9450     Meantime these two poor girls, with swimming eyes,
9451       Look'd on as if in doubt if they could trust
9452     Their own protectors; nor was their surprise
9453       Less than their grief (and truly not less just)
9454     To see an old man, rather wild than wise
9455       In aspect, plainly clad, besmear'd with dust,
9456     Stript to his waistcoat, and that not too clean,
9457     More fear'd than all the sultans ever seen.
9458
9459     For every thing seem'd resting on his nod,
9460       As they could read in all eyes. Now to them,
9461     Who were accustom'd, as a sort of god,
9462       To see the sultan, rich in many a gem,
9463     Like an imperial peacock stalk abroad
9464       (That royal bird, whose tail 's a diadem),
9465     With all the pomp of power, it was a doubt
9466     How power could condescend to do without.
9467
9468     John Johnson, seeing their extreme dismay,
9469       Though little versed in feelings oriental,
9470     Suggested some slight comfort in his way:
9471       Don Juan, who was much more sentimental,
9472     Swore they should see him by the dawn of day,
9473       Or that the Russian army should repent all:
9474     And, strange to say, they found some consolation
9475     In this--for females like exaggeration.
9476
9477     And then with tears, and sighs, and some slight kisses,
9478       They parted for the present--these to await,
9479     According to the artillery's hits or misses,
9480       What sages call Chance, Providence, or Fate
9481     (Uncertainty is one of many blisses,
9482       A mortgage on Humanity's estate)--
9483     While their beloved friends began to arm,
9484     To burn a town which never did them harm.
9485
9486     Suwarrow,--who but saw things in the gross,
9487       Being much too gross to see them in detail,
9488     Who calculated life as so much dross,
9489       And as the wind a widow'd nation's wail,
9490     And cared as little for his army's loss
9491       (So that their efforts should at length prevail)
9492     As wife and friends did for the boils of job,--
9493     What was 't to him to hear two women sob?
9494
9495     Nothing.--The work of glory still went on
9496       In preparations for a cannonade
9497     As terrible as that of Ilion,
9498       If Homer had found mortars ready made;
9499     But now, instead of slaying Priam's son,
9500       We only can but talk of escalade,
9501     Bombs, drums, guns, bastions, batteries, bayonets, bullets,--
9502     Hard words, which stick in the soft Muses' gullets.
9503
9504     O, thou eternal Homer! who couldst charm
9505       All cars, though long; all ages, though so short,
9506     By merely wielding with poetic arm
9507       Arms to which men will never more resort,
9508     Unless gunpowder should be found to harm
9509       Much less than is the hope of every court,
9510     Which now is leagued young Freedom to annoy;
9511     But they will not find Liberty a Troy:--
9512
9513     O, thou eternal Homer! I have now
9514       To paint a siege, wherein more men were slain,
9515     With deadlier engines and a speedier blow,
9516       Than in thy Greek gazette of that campaign;
9517     And yet, like all men else, I must allow,
9518       To vie with thee would be about as vain
9519     As for a brook to cope with ocean's flood;
9520     But still we moderns equal you in blood;
9521
9522     If not in poetry, at least in fact;
9523       And fact is truth, the grand desideratum!
9524     Of which, howe'er the Muse describes each act,
9525       There should be ne'ertheless a slight substratum.
9526     But now the town is going to be attack'd;
9527       Great deeds are doing--how shall I relate 'em?
9528     Souls of immortal generals! Phoebus watches
9529     To colour up his rays from your despatches.
9530
9531     O, ye great bulletins of Bonaparte!
9532       O, ye less grand long lists of kill'd and wounded!
9533     Shade of Leonidas, who fought so hearty,
9534       When my poor Greece was once, as now, surrounded!
9535     O, Caesar's Commentaries! now impart, ye
9536       Shadows of glory! (lest I be confounded)
9537     A portion of your fading twilight hues,
9538     So beautiful, so fleeting, to the Muse.
9539
9540     When I call 'fading' martial immortality,
9541       I mean, that every age and every year,
9542     And almost every day, in sad reality,
9543       Some sucking hero is compell'd to rear,
9544     Who, when we come to sum up the totality
9545       Of deeds to human happiness most dear,
9546     Turns out to be a butcher in great business,
9547     Afflicting young folks with a sort of dizziness.
9548
9549     Medals, rank, ribands, lace, embroidery, scarlet,
9550       Are things immortal to immortal man,
9551     As purple to the Babylonian harlot:
9552       An uniform to boys is like a fan
9553     To women; there is scarce a crimson varlet
9554       But deems himself the first in Glory's van.
9555     But Glory's glory; and if you would find
9556     What that is--ask the pig who sees the wind!
9557
9558     At least he feels it, and some say he sees,
9559       Because he runs before it like a pig;
9560     Or, if that simple sentence should displease,
9561       Say, that he scuds before it like a brig,
9562     A schooner, or--but it is time to ease
9563       This Canto, ere my Muse perceives fatigue.
9564     The next shall ring a peal to shake all people,
9565     Like a bob-major from a village steeple.
9566
9567     Hark! through the silence of the cold, dull night,
9568       The hum of armies gathering rank on rank!
9569     Lo! dusky masses steal in dubious sight
9570       Along the leaguer'd wall and bristling bank
9571     Of the arm'd river, while with straggling light
9572       The stars peep through the vapours dim and dank,
9573     Which curl in curious wreaths:--how soon the smoke
9574     Of Hell shall pall them in a deeper cloak!
9575
9576     Here pause we for the present--as even then
9577       That awful pause, dividing life from death,
9578     Struck for an instant on the hearts of men,
9579       Thousands of whom were drawing their last breath!
9580     A moment--and all will be life again!
9581       The march! the charge! the shouts of either faith!
9582     Hurra! and Allah! and--one moment more,
9583     The death-cry drowning in the battle's roar.