{ "id": "lord-byron/canto-x", "title": "Canto X", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Lord Byron", "poet_slug": "lord-byron", "language": "en", "book": "Don Juan", "book_slug": "don-juan", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 12, "container": null, "epigraph": null, "first_published": { "year": 1824, "venue": "Don Juan (1824)", "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.", "uncertain": false, "sources": [ "https://github.com/standardebooks/lord-byron_don-juan", "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18762" ] }, "source": { "kind": "standard-ebooks", "repo": "standardebooks/lord-byron_don-juan", "file": "canto-10.xhtml", "upstream": [ "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18762", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000667686" ], "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)" }, "verification": { "level": "structural-only", "last_checked": "2026-08-20" }, "stats": { "n_lines": 696, "n_stanzas": 87, 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said (for I’ll not answer above ground", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For any sage’s creed or calculation)⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A mode of proving that the Earth turned round", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In a most natural whirl, called “gravitation;”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And this is the sole mortal who could grapple,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Since Adam⁠—with a fall⁠—or with an apple.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Man fell with apples, and with apples rose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If this be true; for we must deem the mode", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In which Sir Isaac Newton could disclose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through the then unpaved stars the turnpike road,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A thing to counterbalance human woes:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For ever since immortal man hath glowed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With all kinds of mechanics, and full soon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Steam-engines will conduct him to the moon.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And wherefore this exordium?⁠—Why, just now,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In taking up this paltry sheet of paper,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My bosom underwent a glorious glow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And my internal spirit cut a caper:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And though so much inferior, as I know,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To those who, by the dint of glass and vapour,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Discover stars, and sail in the wind’s eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I wish to do as much by Poesy.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In the wind’s eye I have sailed, and sail; but for", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The stars, I own my telescope is dim;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But at the least I have shunned the common shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And leaving land far out of sight, would skim", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Ocean of Eternity: the roar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of breakers has not daunted my slight, trim,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But still sea-worthy skiff; and she may float", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where ships have foundered, as doth many a boat.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "We left our hero, Juan, in the bloom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of favouritism, but not yet in the blush;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And far be it from my Muses to presume", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(For I have more than one Muse at a push),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To follow him beyond the drawing-room:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It is enough that Fortune found him flush", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of Youth, and Vigour, Beauty, and those things", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which for an instant clip Enjoyment’s wings.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But soon they grow again and leave their nest.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Oh!” saith the Psalmist, “that I had a dove’s", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pinions to flee away, and be at rest!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And who that recollects young years and loves⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though hoary now, and with a withering breast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And palsied Fancy, which no longer roves", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Beyond its dimmed eye’s sphere⁠—but would much rather", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sigh like his son, than cough like his grandfather?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But sighs subside, and tears (even widows’) shrink,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like Arno in the summer, to a shallow,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So narrow as to shame their wintry brink,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which threatens inundations deep and yellow!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Such difference doth a few months make. You’d think", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grief a rich field which never would lie fallow;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "No more it doth⁠—its ploughs but change their boys,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who furrow some new soil to sow for joys.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But coughs will come when sighs depart⁠—and now", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then before sighs cease; for oft the one", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Will bring the other, ere the lake-like brow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is ruffled by a wrinkle, or the Sun", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of Life reached ten o’clock: and while a glow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hectic and brief as summer’s day nigh done,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "O’erspreads the cheek which seems too pure for clay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thousands blaze, love, hope, die⁠—how happy they!⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Juan was not meant to die so soon:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We left him in the focus of such glory", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As may be won by favour of the moon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or ladies’ fancies⁠—rather transitory", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps; but who would scorn the month of June,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because December, with his breath so hoary,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Must come? Much rather should he court the ray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hoard up warmth against a wintry day.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Besides, he had some qualities which fix", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Middle-aged ladies even more than young:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The former know what’s what; while new-fledged chicks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Know little more of Love than what is sung", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In rhymes, or dreamt (for Fancy will play tricks)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In visions of those skies from whence Love sprung.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some reckon women by their suns or years,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I rather think the Moon should date the dears.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And why? because she’s changeable and chaste:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I know no other reason, whatsoe’er", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Suspicious people, who find fault in haste,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May choose to tax me with; which is not fair,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nor flattering to “their temper or their taste,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As my friend Jeffrey writes with such an air:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "However, I forgive him, and I trust", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He will forgive himself;⁠—if not, I must.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Old enemies who have become new friends", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should so continue⁠—’tis a point of honour;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And I know nothing which could make amends", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For a return to Hatred: I would shun her", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like garlic, howsoever she extends", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her hundred arms and legs, and fain outrun her.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Old flames, new wives, become our bitterest foes⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Converted foes should scorn to join with those.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "This were the worst desertion:⁠—renegadoes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even shuffling Southey, that incarnate lie,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Would scarcely join again the “reformadoes,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom he forsook to fill the Laureate’s sty;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And honest men from Iceland to Barbadoes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whether in Caledon or Italy,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Should not veer round with every breath, nor seize", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To pain, the moment when you cease to please.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The lawyer and the critic but behold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The baser sides of literature and life,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And nought remains unseen, but much untold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By those who scour those double vales of strife.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While common men grow ignorantly old,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lawyer’s brief is like the surgeon’s knife,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Dissecting the whole inside of a question,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And with it all the process of digestion.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A legal broom’s a moral chimney-sweeper,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that’s the reason he himself’s so dirty;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The endless soot bestows a tint far deeper", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than can be hid by altering his shirt; he", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Retains the sable stains of the dark creeper,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least some twenty-nine do out of thirty,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In all their habits;⁠—not so you, I own;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As Caesar wore his robe you wear your gown.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And all our little feuds, at least all mine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dear Jeffrey, once my most redoubted foe", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(As far as rhyme and criticism combine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make such puppets of us things below),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Are over: Here’s a health to “Auld Lang Syne!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I do not know you, and may never know", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Your face⁠—but you have acted on the whole", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Most nobly, and I own it from my soul.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And when I use the phrase of “Auld Lang Syne!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis not addressed to you⁠—the more’s the pity", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For me, for I would rather take my wine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With you, than aught (save Scott) in your proud city:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But somehow⁠—it may seem a schoolboy’s whine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet I seek not to be grand nor witty,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But I am half a Scot by birth, and bred", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A whole one, and my heart flies to my head⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As “Auld Lang Syne” brings Scotland, one and all,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue hills, and clear streams,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Dee⁠—the Don⁠—Balgounie’s brig’s black wall⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All my boy feelings, all my gentler dreams", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of what I then dreamt, clothed in their own pall⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like Banquo’s offspring⁠—floating past me seems", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My childhood, in this childishness of mine:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I care not⁠—’tis a glimpse of “Auld Lang Syne.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And though, as you remember, in a fit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of wrath and rhyme, when juvenile and curly,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I railed at Scots to show my wrath and wit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which must be owned was sensitive and surly,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet ’tis in vain such sallies to permit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They cannot quench young feelings fresh and early:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I “scotched not killed” the Scotchman in my blood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And love the land of “mountain and of flood.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Don Juan, who was real, or ideal⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For both are much the same, since what men think", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Exists when the once thinkers are less real", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than what they thought, for Mind can never sink,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And ’gainst the Body makes a strong appeal;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet ’tis very puzzling on the brink", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of what is called Eternity to stare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And know no more of what is here, than there;⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Don Juan grew a very polished Russian⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How we won’t mention, why we need not say:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Few youthful minds can stand the strong concussion", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of any slight temptation in their way;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But his just now were spread as is a cushion", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Smoothed for a Monarch’s seat of honour: gay", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Damsels, and dances, revels, ready money,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made ice seem Paradise, and winter sunny.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The favour of the Empress was agreeable;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And though the duty waxed a little hard,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Young people at his time of life should be able", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To come off handsomely in that regard.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He was now growing up like a green tree, able", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Love, War, or Ambition, which reward", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their luckier votaries, till old Age’s tedium", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Make some prefer the circulating medium.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "About this time, as might have been anticipated,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seduced by Youth and dangerous examples,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Don Juan grew, I fear, a little dissipated;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which is a sad thing, and not only tramples", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "On our fresh feelings, but⁠—as being participated", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With all kinds of incorrigible samples", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of frail humanity⁠—must make us selfish,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shut our souls up in us like a shell-fish.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "This we pass over. We will also pass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The usual progress of intrigues between", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Unequal matches, such as are, alas!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A young Lieutenant’s with a not old Queen,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But one who is not so youthful as she was", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In all the royalty of sweet seventeen.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sovereigns may sway materials, but not matter,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wrinkles, the d⁠⸺⁠d democrats! won’t flatter.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Death, the Sovereign’s Sovereign, though the great", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gracchus of all mortality, who levels,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With his Agrarian laws, the high estate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of him who feasts, and fights, and roars, and revels,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To one small grass-grown patch (which must await", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Corruption for its crop) with the poor devils", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who never had a foot of land till now⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Death’s a reformer⁠—all men must allow.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He lived (not Death, but Juan) in a hurry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of waste, and haste, and glare, and gloss, and glitter,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In this gay clime of bear-skins black and furry⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which (though I hate to say a thing that’s bitter)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Peep out sometimes, when things are in a flurry,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through all the “purple and fine linen,” fitter", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For Babylon’s than Russia’s royal harlot⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And neutralise her outward show of scarlet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And this same state we won’t describe: we would", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps from hearsay, or from recollection:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But getting nigh grim Dante’s “obscure wood,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That horrid equinox, that hateful section", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of human years⁠—that half-way house⁠—that rude", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hut, whence wise travellers drive with circumspection", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Life’s sad post-horses o’er the dreary frontier", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Age, and looking back to Youth, give one tear;⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I won’t describe⁠—that is, if I can help", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Description; and I won’t reflect⁠—that is,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If I can stave off thought, which⁠—as a whelp", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Clings to its teat⁠—sticks to me through the abyss", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of this odd labyrinth; or as the kelp", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Holds by the rock; or as a lover’s kiss", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Drains its first draught of lips:⁠—but, as I said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I won’t philosophise, and will be read.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan, instead of courting courts, was courted⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thing which happens rarely: this he owed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Much to his youth, and much to his reported", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Valour; much also to the blood he showed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like a race-horse; much to each dress he sported,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which set the beauty off in which he glowed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As purple clouds befringe the sun; but most", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He owed to an old woman and his post.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He wrote to Spain;⁠—and all his near relations,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perceiving he was in a handsome way", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of getting on himself, and finding stations", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For cousins also, answered the same day.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Several prepared themselves for emigrations;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And eating ices, were o’erheard to say,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That with the addition of a slight pelisse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Madrid’s and Moscow’s climes were of a piece.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "His mother, Donna Inez, finding, too,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That in the lieu of drawing on his banker,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Where his assets were waxing rather few,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He had brought his spending to a handsome anchor⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Replied, “that she was glad to see him through", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those pleasures after which wild youth will hanker;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As the sole sign of Man’s being in his senses", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is⁠—learning to reduce his past expenses.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“She also recommended him to God,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And no less to God’s Son, as well as Mother,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Warned him against Greek worship, which looks odd", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In Catholic eyes; but told him, too, to smother", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Outward dislike, which don’t look well abroad;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Informed him that he had a little brother", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Born in a second wedlock; and above", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All, praised the Empress’s maternal love.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“She could not too much give her approbation", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unto an Empress, who preferred young men", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whose age, and what was better still, whose nation", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And climate, stopped all scandal (now and then);⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At home it might have given her some vexation;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But where thermometers sink down to ten,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or five, or one, or zero, she could never", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Believe that Virtue thawed before the river.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Oh for a forty-parson power to chant", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy praise, Hypocrisy! Oh for a hymn", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Loud as the virtues thou dost loudly vaunt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not practise! Oh for trump of Cherubim!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or the ear-trumpet of my good old aunt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who, though her spectacles at last grew dim,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Drew quiet consolation through its hint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When she no more could read the pious print.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She was no Hypocrite at least, poor soul,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But went to heaven in as sincere a way", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As anybody on the elected roll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which portions out upon the Judgment Day", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Heaven’s freeholds, in a sort of Doomsday scroll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such as the conqueror William did repay", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His knights with, lotting others’ properties", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Into some sixty thousand new knights’ fees.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I can’t complain, whose ancestors are there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Erneis, Radulphus⁠—eight-and-forty manors", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(If that my memory doth not greatly err)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were their reward for following Billy’s banners:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And though I can’t help thinking ’twas scarce fair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To strip the Saxons of their hides like tanners;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet as they founded churches with the produce,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You’ll deem, no doubt, they put it to a good use.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The gentle Juan flourished, though at times", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He felt like other plants called sensitive,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which shrink from touch, as Monarchs do from rhymes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Save such as Southey can afford to give.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps he longed in bitter frosts for climes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In which the Neva’s ice would cease to live", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Before May-day: perhaps, despite his duty,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In Royalty’s vast arms he sighed for Beauty:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Perhaps⁠—but, sans perhaps, we need not seek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For causes young or old: the canker-worm", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Will feed upon the fairest, freshest cheek,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As well as further drain the withered form:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Care, like a housekeeper, brings every week", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His bills in, and however we may storm,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They must be paid: though six days smoothly run,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The seventh will bring blue devils or a dun.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I don’t know how it was, but he grew sick:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Empress was alarmed, and her physician", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(The same who physicked Peter) found the tick", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of his fierce pulse betoken a condition", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which augured of the dead, however quick", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Itself, and showed a feverish disposition;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At which the whole Court was extremely troubled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Sovereign shocked, and all his medicines doubled.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Low were the whispers, manifold the rumours:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some said he had been poisoned by Potemkin;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Others talked learnedly of certain tumours,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Exhaustion, or disorders of the same kin;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some said ’twas a concoction of the humours,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which with the blood too readily will claim kin:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Others again were ready to maintain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“ ’Twas only the fatigue of last campaign.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But here is one prescription out of many:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Sodae sulphat. ʒvj. ʒfs. Mannae optim.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Aq. fervent. f. ℥ ifs. ʒij. tinct. Sennae", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Haustus” (And here the surgeon came and cupped him)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“℞ Pulv. Com. gr. iij. Ipecacuanhae”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(With more beside if Juan had not stopped ’em).", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“Bolus Potassae Sulphuret. sumendus,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Et haustus ter in die capiendus.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "This is the way physicians mend or end us,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Secundum artem: but although we sneer", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In health⁠—when ill, we call them to attend us,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without the least propensity to jeer;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While that “hiatus maxime deflendus”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To be filled up by spade or mattock’s near,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Instead of gliding graciously down Lethe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We tease mild Baillie, or soft Abernethy.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan demurred at this first notice to", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Quit; and though Death had threatened an ejection,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His youth and constitution bore him through,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sent the doctors in a new direction.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But still his state was delicate: the hue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of health but flickered with a faint reflection", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Along his wasted cheek, and seemed to gravel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The faculty⁠—who said that he must travel.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The climate was too cold, they said, for him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Meridian-born, to bloom in. This opinion", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Made the chaste Catherine look a little grim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who did not like at first to lose her minion:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But when she saw his dazzling eye wax dim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drooping like an eagle’s with clipt pinion,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She then resolved to send him on a mission,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But in a style becoming his condition.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was just then a kind of a discussion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sort of treaty or negotiation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Between the British cabinet and Russian,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Maintained with all the due prevarication", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With which great states such things are apt to push on;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Something about the Baltic’s navigation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Hides, train-oil, tallow, and the rights of Thetis,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which Britons deem their uti possidetis.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So Catherine, who had a handsome way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of fitting out her favourites, conferred", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "This secret charge on Juan, to display", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At once her royal splendour, and reward", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His services. He kissed hands the next day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Received instructions how to play his card,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was laden with all kinds of gifts and honours,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which showed what great discernment was the donor’s.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But she was lucky, and luck’s all. Your Queens", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are generally prosperous in reigning⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which puzzles us to know what Fortune means:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But to continue⁠—though her years were waning,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her climacteric teased her like her teens;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And though her dignity brooked no complaining,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So much did Juan’s setting off distress her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She could not find at first a fit successor.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Time, the comforter, will come at last;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And four-and-twenty hours, and twice that number", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of candidates requesting to be placed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made Catherine taste next night a quiet slumber:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Not that she meant to fix again in haste,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor did she find the quantity encumber,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But always choosing with deliberation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Kept the place open for their emulation.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "While this high post of honour’s in abeyance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For one or two days, reader, we request", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "You’ll mount with our young hero the conveyance", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which wafted him from Petersburgh: the best", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Barouche, which had the glory to display once", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fair Czarina’s autocratic crest,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When, a new Iphigene, she went to Tauris,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was given to her favourite, and now bore his.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A bull-dog, and a bullfinch, and an ermine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All private favourites of Don Juan;⁠—for", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Let deeper sages the true cause determine)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He had a kind of inclination, or", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Weakness, for what most people deem mere vermin,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Live animals: an old maid of threescore", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For cats and birds more penchant ne’er displayed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Although he was not old, nor even a maid;⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The animals aforesaid occupied", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their station: there were valets, secretaries,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In other vehicles; but at his side", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sat little Leila, who survived the parries", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He made ’gainst Cossacque sabres in the wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slaughter of Ismail. Though my wild Muse varies", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her note, she don’t forget the infant girl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom he preserved, a pure and living pearl.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Poor little thing! She was as fair as docile,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And with that gentle, serious character,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As rare in living beings as a fossile", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Man, ’midst thy mouldy mammoths, “grand Cuvier!”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ill fitted was her ignorance to jostle", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With this o’erwhelming world, where all must err:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But she was yet but ten years old, and therefore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was tranquil, though she knew not why or wherefore.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Don Juan loved her, and she loved him, as", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor brother, father, sister, daughter love.⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I cannot tell exactly what it was;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He was not yet quite old enough to prove", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Parental feelings, and the other class,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Called brotherly affection, could not move", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His bosom⁠—for he never had a sister:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ah! if he had⁠—how much he would have missed her!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And still less was it sensual; for besides", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That he was not an ancient debauchee,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Who like sour fruit, to stir their veins’ salt tides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As acids rouse a dormant alkali,)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Although (’twill happen as our planet guides)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His youth was not the chastest that might be,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There was the purest Platonism at bottom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of all his feelings⁠—only he forgot ’em.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Just now there was no peril of temptation;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He loved the infant orphan he had saved,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As patriots (now and then) may love a nation;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His pride, too, felt that she was not enslaved", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Owing to him;⁠—as also her salvation", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through his means and the Church’s might be paved.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But one thing’s odd, which here must be inserted,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The little Turk refused to be converted.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Twas strange enough she should retain the impression", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through such a scene of change, and dread, and slaughter;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But though three Bishops told her the transgression,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She showed a great dislike to holy water;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She also had no passion for confession;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps she had nothing to confess:⁠—no matter,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whate’er the cause, the Church made little of it⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She still held out that Muhammad was a prophet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In fact, the only Christian she could bear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was Juan; whom she seemed to have selected", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In place of what her home and friends once were.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He naturally loved what he protected:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And thus they formed a rather curious pair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A guardian green in years, a ward connected", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In neither clime, time, blood, with her defender;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet this want of ties made theirs more tender.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They journeyed on through Poland and through Warsaw,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Famous for mines of salt and yokes of iron:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Through Courland also, which that famous farce saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which gave her dukes the graceless name of “Biron.”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis the same landscape which the modern Mars saw,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who marched to Moscow, led by Fame, the Siren!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To lose by one month’s frost some twenty years", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of conquest, and his guard of Grenadiers.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Let this not seem an anti-climax:⁠—“Oh!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My guard! my old guard!” exclaimed that god of clay.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Think of the Thunderer’s falling down below", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Carotid-artery-cutting Castlereagh!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Alas! that glory should be chilled by snow!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But should we wish to warm us on our way", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Through Poland, there is Kosciusko’s name", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might scatter fire through ice, like Hecla’s flame.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "From Poland they came on through Prussia Proper,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Königsberg, the capital, whose vaunt,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Besides some veins of iron, lead, or copper,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has lately been the great Professor Kant.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Juan, who cared not a tobacco-stopper", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About philosophy, pursued his jaunt", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To Germany, whose somewhat tardy millions", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have princes who spur more than their postilions.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And thence through Berlin, Dresden, and the like,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until he reached the castellated Rhine:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ye glorious Gothic scenes! how much ye strike", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All fantasies, not even excepting mine!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A grey wall, a green ruin, rusty pike,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Make my soul pass the equinoctial line", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Between the present and past worlds, and hover", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon their airy confines, half-seas-over.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Juan posted on through Mannheim, Bonn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which Drachenfels frowns over like a spectre", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of the good feudal times for ever gone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On which I have not time just now to lecture.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From thence he was drawn onwards to Cologne,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A city which presents to the inspector", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Eleven thousand maiden heads of bone.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The greatest number flesh hath ever known.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "From thence to Holland’s Hague and Helvoetsluys,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That water-land of Dutchmen and of ditches,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Where juniper expresses its best juice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The poor man’s sparkling substitute for riches.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Senates and sages have condemned its use⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But to deny the mob a cordial, which is", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Too often all the clothing, meat, or fuel,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Good government has left them, seems but cruel.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here he embarked, and with a flowing sail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went bounding for the Island of the free,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Towards which the impatient wind blew half a gale;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High dashed the spray, the bows dipped in the sea,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And sea-sick passengers turned somewhat pale;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Juan, seasoned, as he well might be,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By former voyages, stood to watch the skiffs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which passed, or catch the first glimpse of the cliffs.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "At length they rose, like a white wall along", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The blue sea’s border; and Don Juan felt⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What even young strangers feel a little strong", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At the first sight of Albion’s chalky belt⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A kind of pride that he should be among", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those haughty shopkeepers, who sternly dealt", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their goods and edicts out from pole to pole,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And made the very billows pay them toll.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I’ve no great cause to love that spot of earth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which holds what might have been the noblest nation;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But though I owe it little but my birth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I feel a mixed regret and veneration", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For its decaying fame and former worth.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seven years (the usual term of transportation)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of absence lay one’s old resentments level,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When a man’s country’s going to the devil.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Alas! could she but fully, truly, know", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How her great name is now throughout abhorred;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How eager all the Earth is for the blow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which shall lay bare her bosom to the sword;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How all the nations deem her their worst foe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That worse than worst of foes, the once adored", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "False friend, who held out Freedom to Mankind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now would chain them⁠—to the very mind;⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Would she be proud, or boast herself the free,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who is but first of slaves? The nations are", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In prison⁠—but the gaoler, what is he?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No less a victim to the bolt and bar.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Is the poor privilege to turn the key", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the captive, Freedom? He’s as far", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From the enjoyment of the earth and air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who watches o’er the chain, as they who wear.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Don Juan now saw Albion’s earliest beauties,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy cliffs, dear Dover! harbour, and hotel;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thy custom-house, with all its delicate duties;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy waiters running mucks at every bell;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thy packets, all whose passengers are booties", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To those who upon land or water dwell;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And last, not least, to strangers uninstructed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy long, long bills, whence nothing is deducted.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan, though careless, young, and magnifique,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rich in rubles, diamonds, cash, and credit,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who did not limit much his bills per week,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet stared at this a little, though he paid it⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(His Maggior Duomo, a smart, subtle Greek,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before him summed the awful scroll and read it):", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But, doubtless, as the air⁠—though seldom sunny⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is free, the respiration’s worth the money.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "On with the horses! Off to Canterbury!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tramp, tramp o’er pebble, and splash, splash through puddle;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Hurrah! how swiftly speeds the post so merry!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not like slow Germany, wherein they muddle", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Along the road, as if they went to bury", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their fare; and also pause besides, to fuddle", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With “schnapps”⁠—sad dogs! whom “Hundsfot,” or “Verflucter,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Affect no more than lightning a conductor.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now there is nothing gives a man such spirits,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Leavening his blood as cayenne doth a curry,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As going at full speed⁠—no matter where its", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Direction be, so ’tis but in a hurry,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And merely for the sake of its own merits;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For the less cause there is for all this flurry,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The greater is the pleasure in arriving", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At the great end of travel⁠—which is driving.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They saw at Canterbury the cathedral;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Black Edward’s helm, and Becket’s bloody stone,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Were pointed out as usual by the bedral,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In the same quaint, uninterested tone:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There’s glory again for you, gentle reader! All", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ends in a rusty casque and dubious bone,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Half-solved into these sodas or magnesias,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which form that bitter draught, the human species.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The effect on Juan was of course sublime:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He breathed a thousand Cressys, as he saw", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That casque, which never stooped except to Time.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even the bold Churchman’s tomb excited awe,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who died in the then great attempt to climb", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er Kings, who now at least must talk of Law", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Before they butcher. Little Leila gazed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And asked why such a structure had been raised:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And being told it was “God’s House,” she said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He was well lodged, but only wondered how", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He suffered Infidels in his homestead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cruel Nazarenes, who had laid low", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His holy temples in the lands which bred", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The True Believers;⁠—and her infant brow", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was bent with grief that Muhammad should resign", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A mosque so noble, flung like pearls to swine.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "On! on! through meadows, managed like a garden,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A paradise of hops and high production;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For, after years of travel by a bard in", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Countries of greater heat, but lesser suction,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A green field is a sight which makes him pardon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The absence of that more sublime construction,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which mixes up vines⁠—olives⁠—precipices⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Glaciers⁠—volcanoes⁠—oranges and ices.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And when I think upon a pot of beer⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But I won’t weep!⁠—and so drive on, postilions!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As the smart boys spurred fast in their career,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Juan admired these highways of free millions⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A country in all senses the most dear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To foreigner or native, save some silly ones,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who “kick against the pricks” just at this juncture,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for their pains get only a fresh puncture.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "What a delightful thing’s a turnpike road!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So smooth, so level, such a mode of shaving", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Earth, as scarce the eagle in the broad", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Air can accomplish, with his wide wings waving.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had such been cut in Phaeton’s time, the god", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had told his son to satisfy his craving", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With the York mail;⁠—but onward as we roll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Surgit amari aliquid⁠—the toll!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Alas! how deeply painful is all payment!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Take lives⁠—take wives⁠—take aught except men’s purses:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As Machiavel shows those in purple raiment,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such is the shortest way to general curses.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They hate a murderer much less than a claimant", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On that sweet ore which everybody nurses.⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Kill a man’s family, and he may brook it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But keep your hands out of his breeches’ pocket:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So said the Florentine: ye monarchs, hearken", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To your instructor. Juan now was borne,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Just as the day began to wane and darken,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er the high hill, which looks with pride or scorn", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Toward the great city.⁠—Ye who have a spark in", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your veins of Cockney spirit, smile or mourn", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "According as you take things well or ill;⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bold Britons, we are now on Shooter’s Hill!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Sun went down, the smoke rose up, as from", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A half-unquenched volcano, o’er a space", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which well beseemed the “Devil’s drawing-room,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As some have qualified that wondrous place:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Juan felt, though not approaching Home,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As one who, though he were not of the race,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Revered the soil, of those true sons the mother,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who butchered half the earth, and bullied t’ other.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dirty and dusky, but as wide as eye", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In sight, then lost amidst the forestry", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A huge, dun Cupola, like a foolscap crown", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On a fool’s head⁠—and there is London Town!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Juan saw not this: each wreath of smoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Appeared to him but as the magic vapour", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of some alchymic furnace, from whence broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wealth of worlds (a wealth of tax and paper):", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The gloomy clouds, which o’er it as a yoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are bowed, and put the Sun out like a taper,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Were nothing but the natural atmosphere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Extremely wholesome, though but rarely clear.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He paused⁠—and so will I; as doth a crew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before they give their broadside. By and by,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My gentle countrymen, we will renew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our old acquaintance; and at least I’ll try", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To tell you truths you will not take as true,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because they are so;⁠—a male Mrs. Fry,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With a soft besom will I sweep your halls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And brush a web or two from off the walls.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Oh Mrs. Fry! Why go to Newgate? Why", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Preach to poor rogues? And wherefore not begin", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With Carlton, or with other houses? Try", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your hand at hardened and imperial Sin.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To mend the People’s an absurdity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A jargon, a mere philanthropic din,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Unless you make their betters better:⁠—Fie!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I thought you had more religion, Mrs. Fry.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Teach them the decencies of good threescore;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cure them of tours, hussar and highland dresses;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Tell them that youth once gone returns no more,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That hired huzzas redeem no land’s distresses;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Tell them Sir William Curtis is a bore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too dull even for the dullest of excesses⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The witless Falstaff of a hoary Hal,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A fool whose bells have ceased to ring at all.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Tell them, though it may be, perhaps, too late⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Life’s worn confine, jaded, bloated, sated⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To set up vain pretence of being great,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis not so to be good; and, be it stated,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The worthiest kings have ever loved least state:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tell them⁠—But you won’t, and I have prated", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Just now enough; but, by and by, I’ll prattle", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like Roland’s horn in Roncesvalles’ battle.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }