{
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   {
    "text": "“There is a tide in the affairs of men,",
    "indent": 0
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   {
    "text": "Which⁠—taken at the flood,”⁠—you know the rest,",
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   },
   {
    "text": "And most of us have found it now and then:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At least we think so, though but few have guessed",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The moment, till too late to come again.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But no doubt everything is for the best⁠—",
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   },
   {
    "text": "Of which the surest sign is in the end:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When things are at the worst they sometimes mend.",
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    "text": "There is a tide in the affairs of women,",
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   {
    "text": "Which, taken at the flood, leads⁠—God knows where:",
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   },
   {
    "text": "Those navigators must be able seamen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose charts lay down its currents to a hair;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not all the reveries of Jacob Behmen",
    "indent": 0
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   {
    "text": "With its strange whirls and eddies can compare:",
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   },
   {
    "text": "Men with their heads reflect on this and that⁠—",
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   },
   {
    "text": "But women with their hearts on Heaven knows what!",
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   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And yet a headlong, headstrong, downright She,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Young, beautiful, and daring⁠—who would risk",
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   },
   {
    "text": "A throne⁠—the world⁠—the universe⁠—to be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beloved in her own way⁠—and rather whisk",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The stars from out the sky, than not be free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As are the billows when the breeze is brisk⁠—",
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   },
   {
    "text": "Though such a She’s a devil (if there be one),",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet she would make full many a Manichean.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
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   {
    "text": "Thrones, worlds, et cetera, are so oft upset",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By commonest ambition, that when Passion",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O’erthrows the same, we readily forget,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or at the least forgive, the loving rash one.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If Anthony be well remembered yet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis not his conquests keep his name in fashion,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But Actium, lost for Cleopatra’s eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Outbalances all Caesar’s victories.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
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   {
    "text": "He died at fifty for a queen of forty;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I wish their years had been fifteen and twenty,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For then wealth, kingdoms, worlds are but a sport⁠—I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Remember when, though I had no great plenty",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of worlds to lose, yet still, to pay my court, I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gave what I had⁠—a heart; as the world went, I",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Gave what was worth a world; for worlds could never",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Restore me those pure feelings, gone for ever.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
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   {
    "text": "’Twas the boy’s “mite,” and, like the “widow’s,” may",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps be weighed hereafter, if not now;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But whether such things do or do not weigh,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All who have loved, or love, will still allow",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Life has nought like it. God is Love, they say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Love’s a god, or was before the brow",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Earth was wrinkled by the sins and tears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of⁠—but Chronology best knows the years.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We left our hero and third heroine in",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A kind of state more awkward than uncommon,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For gentlemen must sometimes risk their skin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For that sad tempter, a forbidden woman:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sultans too much abhor this sort of sin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And don’t agree at all with the wise Roman,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Heroic, stoic Cato, the sententious,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who lent his lady to his friend Hortensius.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I know Gulbeyaz was extremely wrong;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I own it, I deplore it, I condemn it;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But I detest all fiction even in song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so must tell the truth, howe’er you blame it.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her reason being weak, her passions strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She thought that her Lord’s heart (even could she claim it)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Was scarce enough; for he had fifty-nine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Years, and a fifteen-hundredth concubine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I am not, like Cassio, “an arithmetician,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But by “the bookish theoric” it appears,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If ’tis summed up with feminine precision,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That, adding to the account his Highness’ years,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The fair Sultana erred from inanition;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For, were the Sultan just to all his dears,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She could but claim the fifteen-hundredth part",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of what should be monopoly⁠—the heart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It is observed that ladies are litigious",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon all legal objects of possession,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And not the least so when they are religious,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which doubles what they think of the transgression:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With suits and prosecutions they besiege us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the tribunals show through many a session,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When they suspect that any one goes shares",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In that to which the law makes them sole heirs.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now, if this holds good in a Christian land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The heathen also, though with lesser latitude,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Are apt to carry things with a high hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And take, what Kings call “an imposing attitude;”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And for their rights connubial make a stand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When their liege husbands treat them with ingratitude;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And as four wives must have quadruple claims,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Tigris hath its jealousies like Thames.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Gulbeyaz was the fourth, and (as I said)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The favourite; but what’s favour amongst four?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Polygamy may well be held in dread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not only as a sin, but as a bore:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Most wise men with one moderate woman wed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will scarcely find philosophy for more;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And all (except Muhammadans) forbear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To make the nuptial couch a “Bed of Ware.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His Highness, the sublimest of mankind⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So styled according to the usual forms",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of every monarch, till they are consigned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To those sad hungry Jacobins the worms,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who on the very loftiest kings have dined⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His Highness gazed upon Gulbeyaz’ charms,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Expecting all the welcome of a lover",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(A “Highland welcome” all the wide world over).",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now here we should distinguish; for howe’er",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kisses, sweet words, embraces, and all that,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "May look like what it is⁠—neither here nor there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They are put on as easily as a hat,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or rather bonnet, which the fair sex wear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trimmed either heads or hearts to decorate,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which form an ornament, but no more part",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of heads, than their caresses of the heart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A slight blush, a soft tremor, a calm kind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of gentle feminine delight, and shown",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "More in the eyelids than the eyes, resigned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rather to hide what pleases most unknown,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Are the best tokens (to a modest mind)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Love, when seated on his loveliest throne,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A sincere woman’s breast⁠—for over-warm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or over-cold annihilates the charm.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For over-warmth, if false, is worse than truth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If true, ’tis no great lease of its own fire;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For no one, save in very early youth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would like (I think) to trust all to desire,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which is but a precarious bond, in sooth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And apt to be transferred to the first buyer",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At a sad discount: while your over chilly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Women, on t’ other hand, seem somewhat silly.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That is, we cannot pardon their bad taste,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For so it seems to lovers swift or slow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who fain would have a mutual flame confessed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And see a sentimental passion glow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Even were St. Francis’ paramour their guest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In his monastic concubine of snow;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In short, the maxim for the amorous tribe is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Horatian, “Medio tu tutissimus ibis.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The “tu” ’s too much⁠—but let it stand⁠—the verse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Requires it, that’s to say, the English rhyme,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And not the pink of old hexameters;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, after all, there’s neither tune nor time",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In the last line, which cannot well be worse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And was thrust in to close the octave’s chime:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I own no prosody can ever rate it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As a rule, but Truth may, if you translate it.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If fair Gulbeyaz overdid her part,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know not⁠—it succeeded, and success",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is much in most things, not less in the heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than other articles of female dress.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Self-love in Man, too, beats all female art;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They lie, we lie, all lie, but love no less:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And no one virtue yet, except starvation,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could stop that worst of vices⁠—propagation.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We leave this royal couple to repose:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A bed is not a throne, and they may sleep,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whate’er their dreams be, if of joys or woes:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet disappointed joys are woes as deep",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As any man’s clay mixture undergoes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our least of sorrows are such as we weep;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis the vile daily drop on drop which wears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The soul out (like the stone) with petty cares.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A scolding wife, a sullen son, a bill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To pay, unpaid, protested, or discounted",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At a per-centage; a child cross, dog ill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A favourite horse fallen lame just as he’s mounted,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A bad old woman making a worse will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which leaves you minus of the cash you counted",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As certain;⁠—these are paltry things, and yet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve rarely seen the man they did not fret.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I’m a philosopher; confound them all!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bills, beasts, and men, and⁠—no! not womankind!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With one good hearty curse I vent my gall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then my Stoicism leaves nought behind",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which it can either pain or evil call,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I can give my whole soul up to mind;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though what is soul, or mind, their birth or growth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is more than I know⁠—the deuce take them both!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So now all things are damned one feels at ease,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As after reading Athanasius’ curse,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which doth your true believer so much please:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I doubt if any now could make it worse",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er his worst enemy when at his knees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis so sententious, positive, and terse,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And decorates the Book of Common Prayer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As doth a rainbow the just clearing air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Gulbeyaz and her lord were sleeping, or",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At least one of them!⁠—Oh, the heavy night,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When wicked wives, who love some bachelor,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lie down in dudgeon to sigh for the light",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the grey morning, and look vainly for",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its twinkle through the lattice dusky quite⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To toss, to tumble, doze, revive, and quake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest their too lawful bed-fellow should wake!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "These are beneath the canopy of heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Also beneath the canopy of beds",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Four-posted and silk-curtained, which are given",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For rich men and their brides to lay their heads",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon, in sheets white as what bards call “driven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Snow,” Well! ’tis all hap-hazard when one weds.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Gulbeyaz was an empress, but had been",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps as wretched if a peasants quean.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Don Juan in his feminine disguise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all the damsels in their long array,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had bowed themselves before th’ imperial eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And at the usual signal ta’en their way",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Back to their chambers, those long galleries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the seraglio, where the ladies lay",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their delicate limbs; a thousand bosoms there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beating for Love, as the caged bird’s for air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I love the sex, and sometimes would reverse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Tyrant’s wish, “that Mankind only had",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce:”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My wish is quite as wide, but not so bad,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And much more tender on the whole than fierce;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It being (not now, but only while a lad)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That Womankind had but one rosy mouth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To kiss them all at once from North to South.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, enviable Briareus! with thy hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And heads, if thou hadst all things multiplied",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In such proportion!⁠—But my Muse withstands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The giant thought of being a Titan’s bride,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or travelling in Patagonian lands;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So let us back to Lilliput, and guide",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Our hero through the labyrinth of Love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In which we left him several lines above.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He went forth with the lovely Odalisques,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the given signal joined to their array;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And though he certainly ran many risks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet he could not at times keep, by the way,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "(Although the consequences of such frisks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are worse than the worst damages men pay",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In moral England, where the thing’s a tax,)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From ogling all their charms from breasts to backs.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Still he forgot not his disguise:⁠—along",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The galleries from room to room they walked,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A virgin-like and edifying throng,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By eunuchs flanked; while at their head there stalked",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A dame who kept up discipline among",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The female ranks, so that none stirred or talked,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Without her sanction on their she-parades:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her title was “the Mother of the Maids.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Whether she was a “Mother,” I know not,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or whether they were “Maids” who called her Mother;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But this is her Seraglio title, got",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know not how, but good as any other;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So Cantemir can tell you, or De Tott:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her office was to keep aloof or smother",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All bad propensities in fifteen hundred",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Young women, and correct them when they blundered.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A goodly sinecure, no doubt! but made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More easy by the absence of all men⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Except his Majesty⁠—who, with her aid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And guards, and bolts, and walls, and now and then",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A slight example, just to cast a shade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along the rest, contrived to keep this den",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of beauties cool as an Italian convent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where all the passions have, alas! but one vent.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And what is that? Devotion, doubtless⁠—how",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could you ask such a question?⁠—but we will",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Continue. As I said, this goodly row",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of ladies of all countries at the will",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of one good man, with stately march and slow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like water-lilies floating down a rill⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or rather lake⁠—for rills do not run slowly⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Paced on most maiden-like and melancholy.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when they reached their own apartments, there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like birds, or boys, or bedlamites broke loose,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Waves at spring-tide, or women anywhere",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When freed from bonds (which are of no great use",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "After all), or like Irish at a fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their guards being gone, and as it were a truce",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Established between them and bondage, they",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Began to sing, dance, chatter, smile, and play.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Their talk, of course, ran most on the new comer;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her shape, her hair, her air, her everything:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some thought her dress did not so much become her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or wondered at her ears without a ring;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some said her years were getting nigh their summer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Others contended they were but in spring;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some thought her rather masculine in height,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While others wished that she had been so quite.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But no one doubted on the whole, that she",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was what her dress bespoke, a damsel fair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And fresh, and “beautiful exceedingly,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who with the brightest Georgians might compare:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They wondered how Gulbeyaz, too, could be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So silly as to buy slaves who might share",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "(If that his Highness wearied of his bride)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her Throne and Power, and everything beside.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But what was strangest in this virgin crew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Although her beauty was enough to vex,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "After the first investigating view,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They all found out as few, or fewer, specks",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In the fair form of their companion new,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than is the custom of the gentle sex,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When they survey, with Christian eyes or Heathen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a new face “the ugliest creature breathing.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And yet they had their little jealousies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like all the rest; but upon this occasion,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whether there are such things as sympathies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without our knowledge or our approbation,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Although they could not see through his disguise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All felt a soft kind of concatenation,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like Magnetism, or Devilism, or what",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You please⁠—we will not quarrel about that:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But certain ’tis they all felt for their new",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Companion something newer still, as ’twere",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A sentimental friendship through and through,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Extremely pure, which made them all concur",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In wishing her their sister, save a few",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who wished they had a brother just like her,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom, if they were at home in sweet Circassia,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They would prefer to Padisha or Pacha.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of those who had most genius for this sort",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sentimental friendship, there were three,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lolah, Katinka, and Dudù⁠—in short",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(To save description), fair as fair can be",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Were they, according to the best report,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though differing in stature and degree,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And clime and time, and country and complexion⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They all alike admired their new connection.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lolah was dusk as India and as warm;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Katinka was a Georgian, white and red,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With great blue eyes, a lovely hand and arm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And feet so small they scarce seemed made to tread,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But rather skim the earth; while Dudù’s form",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Looked more adapted to be put to bed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Being somewhat large, and languishing, and lazy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet of a beauty that would drive you crazy.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A kind of sleepy Venus seemed Dudù,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet very fit to “murder sleep” in those",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who gazed upon her cheek’s transcendent hue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her Attic forehead, and her Phidian nose:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Few angles were there in her form, ’tis true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thinner she might have been, and yet scarce lose;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet, after all, ’t would puzzle to say where",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It would not spoil some separate charm to pare.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She was not violently lively, but",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stole on your spirit like a May-day breaking;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her eyes were not too sparkling, yet, half-shut,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They put beholders in a tender taking;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She looked (this simile’s quite new) just cut",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From marble, like Pygmalion’s statue waking,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The mortal and the marble still at strife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And timidly expanding into Life.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lolah demanded the new damsel’s name⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Juanna.”⁠—Well, a pretty name enough.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Katinka asked her also whence she came⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“From Spain.”⁠—“But where is Spain?”⁠—“Don’t ask such stuff,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor show your Georgian ignorance⁠—for shame!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said Lolah, with an accent rather rough,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To poor Katinka: “Spain’s an island near",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Morocco, betwixt Egypt and Tangier.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dudù said nothing, but sat down beside",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Juanna, playing with her veil or hair;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, looking at her steadfastly, she sighed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As if she pitied her for being there,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A pretty stranger without friend or guide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all abashed, too, at the general stare",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which welcomes hapless strangers in all places,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With kind remarks upon their mien and faces.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But here the Mother of the Maids drew near,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With “Ladies, it is time to go to rest.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m puzzled what to do with you, my dear!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She added to Juanna, their new guest:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Your coming has been unexpected here,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every couch is occupied; you had best",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Partake of mine; but by to-morrow early",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We will have all things settled for you fairly.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here Lolah interposed⁠—“Mamma, you know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You don’t sleep soundly, and I cannot bear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That anybody should disturb you so;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll take Juanna; we’re a slenderer pair",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Than you would make the half of;⁠—don’t say no;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I of your young charge will take due care.”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But here Katinka interfered, and said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“She also had compassion and a bed.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Besides, I hate to sleep alone,” quoth she.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The matron frowned: “Why so?”⁠—“For fear of ghosts,”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Replied Katinka; “I am sure I see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A phantom upon each of the four posts;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And then I have the worst dreams that can be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Guebres, Giaours, and Ginns, and Gouls in hosts.”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The dame replied, “Between your dreams and you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I fear Juanna’s dreams would be but few.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“You, Lolah, must continue still to lie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone, for reasons which don’t matter; you",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The same, Katinka, until by and by:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I shall place Juanna with Dudù,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who’s quiet, inoffensive, silent, shy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And will not toss and chatter the night through.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What say you, child?”⁠—Dudù said nothing, as",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her talents were of the more silent class;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But she rose up, and kissed the matron’s brow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between the eyes, and Lolah on both cheeks,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Katinka too; and with a gentle bow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Curt’sies are neither used by Turks nor Greeks)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She took Juanna by the hand to show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their place of rest, and left to both their piques,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The others pouting at the matron’s preference",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Dudù, though they held their tongues from deference.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It was a spacious chamber (Oda is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Turkish title), and ranged round the wall",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Were couches, toilets⁠—and much more than this",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I might describe, as I have seen it all,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But it suffices⁠—little was amiss;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas on the whole a nobly furnished hall,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With all things ladies want, save one or two,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And even those were nearer than they knew.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dudù, as has been said, was a sweet creature,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not very dashing, but extremely winning,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With the most regulated charms of feature,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which painters cannot catch like faces sinning",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Against proportion⁠—the wild strokes of nature",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which they hit off at once in the beginning,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Full of expression, right or wrong, that strike,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And pleasing, or unpleasing, still are like.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But she was a soft landscape of mild earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where all was harmony, and calm, and quiet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Luxuriant, budding; cheerful without mirth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which, if not happiness, is much more nigh it",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Than are your mighty passions and so forth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which, some call “the Sublime:” I wish they’d try it:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve seen your stormy seas and stormy women,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And pity lovers rather more than seamen.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But she was pensive more than melancholy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And serious more than pensive, and serene,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It may be, more than either⁠—not unholy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her thoughts, at least till now, appear to have been.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The strangest thing was, beauteous, she was wholly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unconscious, albeit turned of quick seventeen,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That she was fair, or dark, or short, or tall;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She never thought about herself at all.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And therefore was she kind and gentle as",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Age of Gold (when gold was yet unknown,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By which its nomenclature came to pass;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus most appropriately has been shown",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Lucus à non lucendo,” not what was,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But what was not; a sort of style that’s grown",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Extremely common in this age, whose metal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Devil may decompose, but never settle:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I think it may be of “Corinthian Brass,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which was a mixture of all metals, but",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The brazen uppermost). Kind reader! pass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This long parenthesis: I could not shut",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It sooner for the soul of me, and class",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My faults even with your own! which meaneth, Put",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A kind construction upon them and me:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But that you won’t⁠—then don’t⁠—I am not less free.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis time we should return to plain narration,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thus my narrative proceeds:⁠—Dudù,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With every kindness short of ostentation,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Showed Juan, or Juanna, through and through",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This labyrinth of females, and each station",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Described⁠—what’s strange⁠—in words extremely few:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I have but one simile, and that’s a blunder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For wordless woman, which is silent thunder.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And next she gave her (I say her, because",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gender still was epicene, at least",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In outward show, which is a saving clause)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An outline of the customs of the East,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With all their chaste integrity of laws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By which the more a Harem is increased,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The stricter doubtless grow the vestal duties",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of any supernumerary beauties.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And then she gave Juanna a chaste kiss:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dudú was fond of kissing⁠—which I’m sure",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That nobody can ever take amiss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because ’tis pleasant, so that it be pure,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And between females means no more than this⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That they have nothing better near, or newer.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Kiss” rhymes to “bliss” in fact as well as verse⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I wish it never led to something worse.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In perfect innocence she then unmade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her toilet, which cost little, for she was",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A child of Nature, carelessly arrayed:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If fond of a chance ogle at her glass,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas like the fawn, which, in the lake displayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beholds her own shy, shadowy image pass,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When first she starts, and then returns to peep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Admiring this new native of the deep.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And one by one her articles of dress",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were laid aside; but not before she offered",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her aid to fair Juanna, whose excess",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of modesty declined the assistance proffered:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which passed well off⁠—as she could do no less;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though by this politesse she rather suffered,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Pricking her fingers with those cursed pins,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which surely were invented for our sins⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Making a woman like a porcupine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not to be rashly touched. But still more dread,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh ye! whose fate it is, as once ’twas mine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In early youth, to turn a lady’s maid;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I did my very boyish best to shine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In tricking her out for a masquerade:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The pins were placed sufficiently, but not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stuck all exactly in the proper spot.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But these are foolish things to all the wise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I love Wisdom more than she loves me;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My tendency is to philosophise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On most things, from a tyrant to a tree;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But still the spouseless virgin Knowledge flies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What are we? and whence came we? what shall be",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Our ultimate existence? what’s our present?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are questions answerless, and yet incessant.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There was deep silence in the chamber: dim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And distant from each other burned the lights,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And slumber hovered o’er each lovely limb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the fair occupants: if there be sprites,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They should have walked there in their sprightliest trim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By way of change from their sepulchral sites,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And shown themselves as ghosts of better taste",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than haunting some old ruin or wild waste.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Many and beautiful lay those around,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like flowers of different hue, and clime, and root,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In some exotic garden sometimes found,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With cost, and care, and warmth induced to shoot.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One with her auburn tresses lightly bound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fair brows gently drooping, as the fruit",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nods from the tree, was slumbering with soft breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lips apart, which showed the pearls beneath.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "One with her flushed cheek laid on her white arm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And raven ringlets gathered in dark crowd",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Above her brow, lay dreaming soft and warm;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And smiling through her dream, as through a cloud",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The moon breaks, half unveiled each further charm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As, slightly stirring in her snowy shroud,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her beauties seized the unconscious hour of night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All bashfully to struggle into light.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This is no bull, although it sounds so; for",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas night, but there were lamps, as hath been said.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A third’s all pallid aspect offered more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The traits of sleeping sorrow, and betrayed",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the heaved breast the dream of some far shore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Belovèd and deplored; while slowly strayed",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "(As night-dew, on a cypress glittering, tinges",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The black bough) tear-drops through her eyes’ dark fringes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A fourth as marble, statue-like and still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay in a breathless, hushed, and stony sleep;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "White, cold, and pure, as looks a frozen rill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or the snow minaret on an Alpine steep,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or Lot’s wife done in salt⁠—or what you will;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My similes are gathered in a heap,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So pick and choose⁠—perhaps you’ll be content",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a carved lady on a monument.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And lo! a fifth appears;⁠—and what is she?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lady of a “certain age,” which means",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Certainly agèd⁠—what her years might be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know not, never counting past their teens;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But there she slept, not quite so fair to see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As ere that awful period intervenes",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which lays both men and women on the shelf,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To meditate upon their sins and self.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But all this time how slept, or dreamed, Dudú?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With strict inquiry I could ne’er discover,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And scorn to add a syllable untrue;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But ere the middle watch was hardly over,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Just when the fading lamps waned dim and blue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And phantoms hovered, or might seem to hover,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To those who like their company, about",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The apartment, on a sudden she screamed out:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And that so loudly, that upstarted all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Oda, in a general commotion:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Matron and maids, and those whom you may call",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Neither, came crowding like the waves of Ocean,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One on the other, throughout the whole hall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All trembling, wondering, without the least notion",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "More than I have myself of what could make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The calm Dudù so turbulently wake.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But wide awake she was, and round her bed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With floating draperies and with flying hair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With eager eyes, and light but hurried tread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bosoms, arms, and ankles glancing bare,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And bright as any meteor ever bred",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the North Pole⁠—they sought her cause of care,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For she seemed agitated, flushed, and frightened,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her eye dilated, and her colour heightened.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But what is strange⁠—and a strong proof how great",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A blessing is sound sleep⁠—Juanna lay",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As fast as ever husband by his mate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In holy matrimony snores away.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not all the clamour broke her happy state",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of slumber, ere they shook her⁠—so they say",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At least⁠—and then she, too, unclosed her eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yawned a good deal with discreet surprise.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And now commenced a strict investigation,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which, as all spoke at once, and more than once",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Conjecturing, wondering, asking a narration,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alike might puzzle either wit or dunce",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To answer in a very clear oration.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dudú had never passed for wanting sense,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But being “no orator as Brutus is,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could not at first expound what was amiss.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At length she said, that in a slumber sound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She dreamed a dream, of walking in a wood⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A “wood obscure,” like that where Dante found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Himself in at the age when all grow good;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Life’s half-way house, where dames with virtue crowned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Run much less risk of lovers turning rude;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And that this wood was full of pleasant fruits,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And trees of goodly growth and spreading roots;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And in the midst a golden apple grew⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A most prodigious pippin⁠—but it hung",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Rather too high and distant; that she threw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her glances on it, and then, longing, flung",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Stones and whatever she could pick up, to",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bring down the fruit, which still perversely clung",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To its own bough, and dangled yet in sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But always at a most provoking height;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That on a sudden, when she least had hope,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It fell down of its own accord before",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her feet; that her first movement was to stoop",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And pick it up, and bite it to the core;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That just as her young lip began to ope",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the golden fruit the vision bore,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A bee flew out, and stung her to the heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so⁠—she woke with a great scream and start.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All this she told with some confusion and",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dismay, the usual consequence of dreams",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the unpleasant kind, with none at hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To expound their vain and visionary gleams.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve known some odd ones which seemed really planned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prophetically, or that which one deems",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A “strange coincidence,” to use a phrase",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By which such things are settled now-a-days.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The damsels, who had thoughts of some great harm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Began, as is the consequence of fear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To scold a little at the false alarm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That broke for nothing on their sleeping ear.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The matron, too, was wroth to leave her warm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bed for the dream she had been obliged to hear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And chafed at poor Dudù, who only sighed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And said, that she was sorry she had cried.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I’ve heard of stories of a cock and bull;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But visions of an apple and a bee,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To take us from our natural rest, and pull",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The whole Oda from their beds at half-past three,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Would make us think the moon is at its full.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You surely are unwell, child! we must see,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To-morrow, what his Highness’s physician",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will say to this hysteric of a vision.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“And poor Juanna, too, the child’s first night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within these walls, to be broke in upon",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With such a clamour⁠—I had thought it right",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That the young stranger should not lie alone,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, as the quietest of all, she might",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With you, Dudù, a good night’s rest have known:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But now I must transfer her to the charge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Lolah⁠—though her couch is not so large.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lolah’s eyes sparkled at the proposition;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But poor Dudù, with large drops in her own,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Resulting from the scolding or the vision,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Implored that present pardon might be shown",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For this first fault, and that on no condition",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(She added in a soft and piteous tone)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Juanna should be taken from her, and",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her future dreams should be all kept in hand.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She promised never more to have a dream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At least to dream so loudly as just now;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She wondered at herself how she could scream⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas foolish, nervous, as she must allow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A fond hallucination, and a theme",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For laughter⁠—but she felt her spirits low,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And begged they would excuse her; she’d get over",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This weakness in a few hours, and recover.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And here Juanna kindly interposed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And said she felt herself extremely well",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where she then was, as her sound sleep disclosed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When all around rang like a tocsin bell;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She did not find herself the least disposed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To quit her gentle partner, and to dwell",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Apart from one who had no sin to show,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save that of dreaming once “mal-à-propos.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As thus Juanna spoke, Dudù turned round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hid her face within Juanna’s breast:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her neck alone was seen, but that was found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The colour of a budding rose’s crest.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I can’t tell why she blushed, nor can expound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mystery of this rupture of their rest;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All that I know is, that the facts I state",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are true as Truth has ever been of late,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And so good night to them⁠—or, if you will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Good morrow⁠—for the cock had crown, and light",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Began to clothe each Asiatic hill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the mosque crescent struggled into sight",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the long caravan, which in the chill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of dewy dawn wound slowly round each height",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That stretches to the stony belt, which girds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Asia, where Kaff looks down upon the Kurds.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With the first ray, or rather grey of morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gulbeyaz rose from restlessness; and pale",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As Passion rises, with its bosom worn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arrayed herself with mantle, gem, and veil.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Nightingale that sings with the deep thorn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which fable places in her breast of wail,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is lighter far of heart and voice than those",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose headlong passions form their proper woes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And that’s the moral of this composition,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If people would but see its real drift;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But that they will not do without suspicion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because all gentle readers have the gift",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of closing ’gainst the light their orbs of vision:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While gentle writers also love to lift",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their voices ’gainst each other, which is natural,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The numbers are too great for them to flatter all.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Rose the Sultana from a bed of splendour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Softer than the soft Sybarite’s, who cried",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Aloud because his feelings were too tender",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To brook a ruffled rose-leaf by his side⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So beautiful that Art could little mend her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though pale with conflicts between Love and Pride;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So agitated was she with her error,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She did not even look into the mirror.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Also arose about the self-same time,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps a little later, her great Lord,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Master of thirty kingdoms so sublime,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And of a wife by whom he was abhorred;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A thing of much less import in that clime⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At least to those of incomes which afford",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The filling up their whole connubial cargo⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than where two wives are under an embargo.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He did not think much on the matter, nor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Indeed on any other: as a man",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He liked to have a handsome paramour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At hand, as one may like to have a fan,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And therefore of Circassians had good store,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As an amusement after the Divan;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though an unusual fit of love, or duty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had made him lately bask in his bride’s beauty.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And now he rose; and after due ablutions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Exacted by the customs of the East,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And prayers and other pious evolutions,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He drank six cups of coffee at the least,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And then withdrew to hear about the Russians,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose victories had recently increased",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In Catherine’s reign, whom Glory still adores,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As greatest of all sovereigns and w⁠⸺⁠s.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But oh, thou grand legitimate Alexander!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her son’s son, let not this last phrase offend",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine ear, if it should reach⁠—and now rhymes wander",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Almost as far as Petersburgh, and lend",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A dreadful impulse to each loud meander",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of murmuring Liberty’s wide waves, which blend",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their roar even with the Baltic’s⁠—so you be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your father’s son, ’tis quite enough for me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To call men love-begotten, or proclaim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their mothers as the antipodes of Timon,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That hater of Mankind, would be a shame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A libel, or whate’er you please to rhyme on:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But people’s ancestors are History’s game;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And if one Lady’s slip could leave a crime on",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All generations, I should like to know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What pedigree the best would have to show?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Had Catherine and the Sultan understood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their own true interests, which Kings rarely know,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Until ’tis taught by lessons rather rude,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There was a way to end their strife, although",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps precarious, had they but thought good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without the aid of Prince or Plenipo:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She to dismiss her guards and he his Harem,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for their other matters, meet and share ’em.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But as it was, his Highness had to hold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His daily council upon ways and means",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How to encounter with this martial scold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This modern Amazon and Queen of queans;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the perplexity could not be told",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all the pillars of the State, which leans",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes a little heavy on the backs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of those who cannot lay on a new tax.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Meantime Gulbeyaz when her King was gone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Retired into her boudoir, a sweet place",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For love or breakfast; private, pleasing, lone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rich with all contrivances which grace",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Those gay recesses:⁠—many a precious stone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sparkled along its roof, and many a vase",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of porcelain held in the fettered flowers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those captive soothers of a captive’s hours.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mother of pearl, and porphyry, and marble,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vied with each other on this costly spot;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And singing birds without were heard to warble;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the stained glass which lighted this fair grot",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Varied each ray;⁠—but all descriptions garble",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The true effect, and so we had better not",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Be too minute; an outline is the best⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lively reader’s fancy does the rest.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And here she summoned Baba, and required",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Don Juan at his hands, and information",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of what had passed since all the slaves retired,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And whether he had occupied their station:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If matters had been managed as desired,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his disguise with due consideration",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Kept up; and above all, the where and how",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He had passed the night, was what she wished to know.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Baba, with some embarrassment, replied",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To this long catechism of questions, asked",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "More easily than answered⁠—that he had tried",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His best to obey in what he had been tasked;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But there seemed something that he wished to hide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which Hesitation more betrayed than masked;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He scratched his ear, the infallible resource",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To which embarrassed people have recourse.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Gulbeyaz was no model of true patience,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor much disposed to wait in word or deed;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She liked quick answers in all conversations;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when she saw him stumbling like a steed",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In his replies, she puzzled him for fresh ones;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And as his speech grew still more broken-kneed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her cheek began to flush, her eyes to sparkle,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And her proud brow’s blue veins to swell and darkle.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When Baba saw these symptoms, which he knew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bode him no great good, he deprecated",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her anger, and beseeched she’d hear him through⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He could not help the thing which he related:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then out it came at length, that to Dudù",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Juan was given in charge, as hath been stated;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But not by Baba’s fault, he said, and swore on",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The holy camel’s hump, besides the Koran.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The chief dame of the Oda, upon whom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The discipline of the whole Harem bore,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As soon as they reentered their own room,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Baba’s function stopped short at the door,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had settled all; nor could he then presume",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(The aforesaid Baba) just then to do more,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Without exciting such suspicion as",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might make the matter still worse than it was.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He hoped, indeed he thought, he could be sure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Juan had not betrayed himself; in fact",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas certain that his conduct had been pure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because a foolish or imprudent act",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Would not alone have made him insecure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But ended in his being found out and sacked,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And thrown into the sea.⁠—Thus Baba spoke",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all save Dudù’s dream, which was no joke.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This he discreetly kept in the back ground,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And talked away⁠—and might have talked till now,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For any further answer that he found,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So deep an anguish wrung Gulbeyaz’ brow:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her cheek turned ashes, ears rung, brain whirled round,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As if she had received a sudden blow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the heart’s dew of pain sprang fast and chilly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er her fair front, like Morning’s on a lily.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Although she was not of the fainting sort,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Baba thought she would faint, but there he erred⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It was but a convulsion, which though short",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can never be described; we all have heard,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And some of us have felt thus “all amort”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When things beyond the common have occurred;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Gulbeyaz proved in that brief agony",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What she could ne’er express⁠—then how should I?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She stood a moment as a Pythoness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stands on her tripod, agonized, and full",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of inspiration gathered from distress,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When all the heart-strings like wild horses pull",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The heart asunder;⁠—then, as more or less",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their speed abated or their strength grew dull,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She sunk down on her seat by slow degrees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bowed her throbbing head o’er trembling knees.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her face declined and was unseen; her hair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell in long tresses like the weeping willow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweeping the marble underneath her chair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or rather sofa (for it was all pillow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A low, soft ottoman), and black Despair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stirred up and down her bosom like a billow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which rushes to some shore whose shingles check",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its farther course, but must receive its wreck.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her head hung down, and her long hair in stooping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Concealed her features better than a veil;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And one hand o’er the ottoman lay drooping,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "White, waxen, and as alabaster pale:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Would that I were a painter! to be grouping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All that a poet drags into detail!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh that my words were colours! but their tints",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May serve perhaps as outlines or slight hints.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Baba, who knew by experience when to talk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when to hold his tongue, now held it till",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This passion might blow o’er, nor dared to balk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gulbeyaz’ taciturn or speaking will.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At length she rose up, and began to walk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slowly along the room, but silent still,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And her brow cleared, but not her troubled eye;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wind was down, but still the sea ran high.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She stopped, and raised her head to speak⁠—but paused",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then moved on again with rapid pace;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then slackened it, which is the march most caused",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By deep emotion:⁠—you may sometimes trace",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A feeling in each footstep, as disclosed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By Sallust in his Catiline, who, chased",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By all the demons of all passions, showed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their work even by the way in which he trode.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Gulbeyaz stopped and beckoned Baba:⁠—“Slave!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bring the two slaves!” she said in a low tone,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But one which Baba did not like to brave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet he shuddered, and seemed rather prone",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To prove reluctant, and begged leave to crave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Though he well knew the meaning) to be shown",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What slaves her Highness wished to indicate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For fear of any error, like the late.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The Georgian and her paramour,” replied",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Imperial Bride⁠—and added, “Let the boat",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Be ready by the secret portal’s side:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You know the rest.” The words stuck in her throat,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Despite her injured love and fiery pride;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And of this Baba willingly took note,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And begged by every hair of Muhammad’s beard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She would revoke the order he had heard.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“To hear is to obey,” he said; “but still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sultana, think upon the consequence:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It is not that I shall not all fulfil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your orders, even in their severest sense;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But such precipitation may end ill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even at your own imperative expense:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I do not mean destruction and exposure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In case of any premature disclosure;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But your own feelings. Even should all the rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be hidden by the rolling waves, which hide",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Already many a once love-beaten breast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep in the caverns of the deadly tide⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You love this boyish, new, Seraglio guest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And if this violent remedy be tried⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Excuse my freedom, when I here assure you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That killing him is not the way to cure you.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“What dost thou know of Love or feeling?⁠—Wretch!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Begone!” she cried, with kindling eyes⁠—“and do",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My bidding!” Baba vanished, for to stretch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His own remonstrance further he well knew",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Might end in acting as his own “Jack Ketch;”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And though he wished extremely to get through",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This awkward business without harm to others,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He still preferred his own neck to another’s.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Away he went then upon his commission,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Growling and grumbling in good Turkish phrase",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Against all women of whate’er condition,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Especially Sultanas and their ways;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their obstinacy, pride, and indecision,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their never knowing their own mind two days,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The trouble that they gave, their immorality,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which made him daily bless his own neutrality.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And then he called his brethren to his aid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sent one on a summons to the pair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That they must instantly be well arrayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And above all be combed even to a hair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And brought before the Empress, who had made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inquiries after them with kindest care:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At which Dudù looked strange, and Juan silly;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But go they must at once, and will I⁠—nill I.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And here I leave them at their preparation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the imperial presence, wherein whether",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Gulbeyaz showed them both commiseration,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or got rid of the parties altogether,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like other angry ladies of her nation⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are things the turning of a hair or feather",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "May settle; but far be ’t from me to anticipate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In what way feminine caprice may dissipate.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I leave them for the present with good wishes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though doubts of their well doing, to arrange",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Another part of History; for the dishes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of this our banquet we must sometimes change;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And trusting Juan may escape the fishes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Although his situation now seems strange,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And scarce secure)⁠—as such digressions are fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Muse will take a little touch at warfare.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}