{ "id": "lord-byron/canto-xii", "title": "Canto XII", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Lord Byron", "poet_slug": "lord-byron", "language": "en", "book": "Don Juan", "book_slug": "don-juan", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 14, "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-12.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": 712, "n_stanzas": 89, 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75 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXVI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 75, 76 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXVII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 76, 77 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXVIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 77, 78 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXIX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 78, 79 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 79, 80 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 80, 81 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 81, 82 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 82, 83 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXIV", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 83, 84 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXV", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 84, 85 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXVI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 85, 86 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXVII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 86, 87 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXVIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 87, 88 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXIX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 88, 89 ] } ], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "Of all the barbarous middle ages, that", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which is most barbarous is the middle age", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of man! it is⁠—I really scarce know what;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when we hover between fool and sage,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And don’t know justly what we would be at⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A period something like a printed page,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Black letter upon foolscap, while our hair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grows grizzled, and we are not what we were;⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Too old for Youth⁠—too young, at thirty-five,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To herd with boys, or hoard with good threescore⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I wonder people should be left alive;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But since they are, that epoch is a bore:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Love lingers still, although ’twere late to wive:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And as for other love, the illusion’s o’er;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Money, that most pure imagination,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gleams only through the dawn of its creation.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O Gold! Why call we misers miserable?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Theirs is the pleasure that can never pall;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Theirs is the best bower anchor, the chain cable", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which holds fast other pleasures great and small.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ye who but see the saving man at table,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And scorn his temperate board, as none at all,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And wonder how the wealthy can be sparing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Know not what visions spring from each cheese-paring.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Love or lust makes Man sick, and wine much sicker;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ambition rends, and gaming gains a loss;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But making money, slowly first, then quicker,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And adding still a little through each cross", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Which will come over things), beats Love or liquor,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The gamester’s counter, or the statesman’s dross.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "O Gold! I still prefer thee unto paper,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which makes bank credit like a bank of vapour.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Who hold the balance of the World? Who reign", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er congress, whether royalist or liberal?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who rouse the shirtless patriots of Spain?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(That make old Europe’s journals “squeak and gibber” all)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who keep the World, both old and new, in pain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or pleasure? Who make politics run glibber all?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The shade of Bonaparte’s noble daring?⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Jew Rothschild, and his fellow-Christian, Baring.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Those, and the truly liberal Lafitte,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are the true Lords of Europe. Every loan", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Is not a merely speculative hit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But seats a Nation or upsets a Throne.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Republics also get involved a bit;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Columbia’s stock hath holders not unknown", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "On ’Change; and even thy silver soil, Peru,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must get itself discounted by a Jew.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Why call the miser miserable? as", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I said before: the frugal life is his,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which in a saint or cynic ever was", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The theme of praise: a hermit would not miss", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Canonization for the self-same cause,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wherefore blame gaunt Wealth’s austerities?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because, you’ll say, nought calls for such a trial;⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then there’s more merit in his self-denial.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He is your only poet;⁠—Passion, pure", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sparkling on from heap to heap, displays,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Possessed, the ore, of which mere hopes allure", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nations athwart the deep: the golden rays", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Flash up in ingots from the mine obscure:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On him the Diamond pours its brilliant blaze,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While the mild Emerald’s beam shades down the dies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of other stones, to soothe the miser’s eyes.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The lands on either side are his; the ship", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Ceylon, Inde, or far Cathay, unloads", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For him the fragrant produce of each trip;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath his cars of Ceres groan the roads,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the vine blushes like Aurora’s lip;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His very cellars might be Kings’ abodes;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While he, despising every sensual call,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Commands⁠—the intellectual Lord of all.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Perhaps he hath great projects in his mind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To build a college, or to found a race,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A hospital, a church⁠—and leave behind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some dome surmounted by his meagre face:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps he fain would liberate Mankind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even with the very ore which makes them base;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps he would be wealthiest of his nation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or revel in the joys of calculation.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But whether all, or each, or none of these", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May be the hoarder’s principle of action,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The fool will call such mania a disease:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What is his own? Go⁠—look at each transaction,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Wars, revels, loves⁠—do these bring men more ease", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than the mere plodding through each “vulgar fraction?”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or do they benefit Mankind? Lean Miser!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let spendthrifts’ heirs inquire of yours⁠—who’s wiser?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "How beauteous are rouleaus! how charming chests", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Containing ingots, bags of dollars, coins", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Not of old victors, all whose heads and crests", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Weigh not the thin ore where their visage shines,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But) of fine unclipped gold, where dully rests", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some likeness, which the glittering cirque confines,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of modern, reigning, sterling, stupid stamp!⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yes! ready money is Aladdin’s lamp.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Love rules the Camp, the Court, the Grove⁠—for Love", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is Heaven, and Heaven is Love:”⁠—so sings the bard;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which it were rather difficult to prove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(A thing with poetry in general hard).", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps there may be something in “the Grove,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least it rhymes to “Love:” but I’m prepared", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To doubt (no less than landlords of their rental)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If “Courts” and “Camps” be quite so sentimental.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But if Love don’t, Cash does, and Cash alone:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cash rules the Grove, and fells it too besides;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Without cash, camps were thin, and courts were none;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without cash, Malthus tells you⁠—“take no brides.”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So Cash rules Love the ruler, on his own", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High ground, as virgin Cynthia sways the tides:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And as for “Heaven being Love,” why not say honey", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is wax? Heaven is not Love, ’tis Matrimony.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Is not all Love prohibited whatever,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Excepting Marriage? which is Love, no doubt,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "After a sort; but somehow people never", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With the same thought the two words have helped out.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Love may exist with Marriage, and should ever,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Marriage also may exist without;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Love sans banns is both a sin and shame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ought to go by quite another name.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now if the “Court,” and “Camp,” and “Grove,” be not", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Recruited all with constant married men,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who never coveted their neighbour’s lot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I say that line’s a lapsus of the pen;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Strange too in my buon camerado Scott,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So celebrated for his morals, when", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My Jeffrey held him up as an example", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To me;⁠—of whom these morals are a sample.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Well, if I don’t succeed, I have succeeded,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that’s enough; succeeded in my youth,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The only time when much success is needed:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And my success produced what I, in sooth,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Cared most about; it need not now be pleaded⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whate’er it was, ’twas mine; I’ve paid, in truth,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of late, the penalty of such success,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But have not learned to wish it any less.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That suit in Chancery,⁠—which some persons plead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In an appeal to the unborn, whom they,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In the faith of their procreative creed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Baptize Posterity, or future clay⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To me seems but a dubious kind of reed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To lean on for support in any way;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Since odds are that Posterity will know", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No more of them, than they of her, I trow.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Why, I’m Posterity⁠—and so are you;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And whom do we remember? Not a hundred.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Were every memory written down all true,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tenth or twentieth name would be but blundered;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Even Plutarch’s Lives have but picked out a few,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ’gainst those few your annalists have thundered;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Mitford in the nineteenth century", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gives, with Greek truth, the good old Greek the lie.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Good people all, of every degree,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ye gentle readers and ungentle writers,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In this twelfth Canto ’tis my wish to be", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As serious as if I had for inditers", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Malthus and Wilberforce:⁠—the last set free", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Negroes, and is worth a million fighters;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While Wellington has but enslaved the Whites,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Malthus does the thing ’gainst which he writes.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I’m serious⁠—so are all men upon paper;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And why should I not form my speculation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And hold up to the Sun my little taper?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mankind just now seem wrapped in meditation", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "On constitutions and steam-boats of vapour;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While sages write against all procreation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Unless a man can calculate his means", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of feeding brats the moment his wife weans.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That’s noble! That’s romantic! For my part,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I think that “Philo-genitiveness” is⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Now here’s a word quite after my own heart,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though there’s a shorter a good deal than this,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If that politeness set it not apart;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But I’m resolved to say nought that’s amiss)⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I say, methinks that “Philo-genitiveness”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might meet from men a little more forgiveness.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And now to business.⁠—O my gentle Juan!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thou art in London⁠—in that pleasant place,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Where every kind of mischief’s daily brewing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which can await warm Youth in its wild race.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis true, that thy career is not a new one;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thou art no novice in the headlong chase", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of early life; but this is a new land,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which foreigners can never understand.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "What with a small diversity of climate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of hot or cold, mercurial or sedate,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I could send forth my mandate like a Primate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the rest of Europe’s social state;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But thou art the most difficult to rhyme at,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Great Britain, which the Muse may penetrate.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All countries have their “Lions,” but in thee", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There is but one superb menagerie.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But I am sick of politics. Begin⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Paulo Majora.” Juan, undecided", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Amongst the paths of being “taken in,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the ice had like a skater glided:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When tired of play, he flirted without sin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With some of those fair creatures who have prided", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Themselves on innocent tantalisation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hate all vice except its reputation.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But these are few, and in the end they make", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some devilish escapade or stir, which shows", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That even the purest people may mistake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their way through Virtue’s primrose paths of snows;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And then men stare, as if a new ass spake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Balaam, and from tongue to ear o’erflows", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Quicksilver small talk, ending (if you note it)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With the kind World’s Amen⁠—“Who would have thought it?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The little Leila, with her Orient eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And taciturn Asiatic disposition,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Which saw all Western things with small surprise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To the surprise of people of condition,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who think that novelties are butterflies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To be pursued as food for inanition,)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her charming figure and romantic history", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Became a kind of fashionable mystery.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The women much divided⁠—as is usual", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amongst the sex in little things or great⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Think not, fair creatures, that I mean to abuse you all,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I have always liked you better than I state⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Since I’ve grown moral, still I must accuse you all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of being apt to talk at a great rate;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And now there was a general sensation", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amongst you, about Leila’s education.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In one point only were you settled⁠—and", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You had reason; ’twas that a young child of grace,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As beautiful as her own native land,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And far away, the last bud of her race,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Howe’er our friend Don Juan might command", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Himself for five, four, three, or two years’ space,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Would be much better taught beneath the eye", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of peeresses whose follies had run dry.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So first there was a generous emulation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then there was a general competition,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To undertake the orphan’s education:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As Juan was a person of condition,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It had been an affront on this occasion", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To talk of a subscription or petition;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But sixteen dowagers, ten unwed she sages", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose tale belongs to “Hallam’s Middle Ages,”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And one or two sad, separate wives, without", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A fruit to bloom upon their withering bough⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Begged to bring up the little girl, and “out”⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For that’s the phrase that settles all things now,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Meaning a virgin’s first blush at a rout,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all her points as thorough-bred to show:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And I assure you, that like virgin honey", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tastes their first season (mostly if they have money).", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "How all the needy honourable misters,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each out-at-elbow peer, or desperate dandy,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The watchful mothers, and the careful sisters,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Who, by the by, when clever, are more handy", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At making matches, where “ ’tis gold that glisters,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than their he relatives), like flies o’er candy", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Buzz round “the Fortune” with their busy battery,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To turn her head with waltzing and with flattery!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Each aunt, each cousin, hath her speculation;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nay, married dames will now and then discover", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Such pure disinterestedness of passion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I’ve known them court an heiress for their lover.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“Tantoene!” Such the virtues of high station,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even in the hopeful Isle, whose outlet’s “Dover!”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While the poor rich wretch, object of these cares,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has cause to wish her sire had had male heirs.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some are soon bagged, and some reject three dozen:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis fine to see them scattering refusals", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And wild dismay o’er every angry cousin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Friends of the party), who begin accusals,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Such as⁠—“Unless Miss Blank meant to have chosen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Poor Frederick, why did she accord perusals", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To his billets? Why waltz with him? Why, I pray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look ‘Yes’ last night, and yet say ‘No’ to-day?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Why?⁠—Why?⁠—Besides, Fred really was attached;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas not her fortune⁠—he has enough without;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The time will come she’ll wish that she had snatched", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So good an opportunity, no doubt:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But the old Marchioness some plan had hatched,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As I’ll tell Aurea at to-morrow’s rout:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And after all poor Frederick may do better⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pray did you see her answer to his letter?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Smart uniforms and sparkling coronets", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are spurned in turn, until her turn arrives,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "After male loss of time, and hearts, and bets", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the sweepstakes for substantial wives;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And when at last the pretty creature gets", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some gentleman, who fights, or writes, or drives,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It soothes the awkward squad of the rejected", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To find how very badly she selected.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "For sometimes they accept some long pursuer,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Worn out with importunity; or fall", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(But here perhaps the instances are fewer)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To the lot of him who scarce pursued at all.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A hazy widower turned of forty ’s sure", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(If ’tis not vain examples to recall)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To draw a high prize: now, howe’er he got her, I", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "See nought more strange in this than t’ other lottery.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I, for my part⁠—(one “modern instance” more,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“True, ’tis a pity⁠—pity ’tis, ’tis true”)⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was chosen from out an amatory score,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Albeit my years were less discreet than few;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But though I also had reformed before", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those became one who soon were to be two,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I’ll not gainsay the generous public’s voice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That the young lady made a monstrous choice.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Oh, pardon my digression⁠—or at least", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Peruse! ’Tis always with a moral end", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That I dissert, like grace before a feast:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For like an agèd aunt, or tiresome friend,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A rigid guardian, or a zealous priest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My Muse by exhortation means to mend", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All people, at all times, and in most places,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which puts my Pegasus to these grave paces.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But now I’m going to be immoral; now", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I mean to show things really as they are,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Not as they ought to be: for I avow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That till we see what’s what in fact, we’re far", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From much improvement with that virtuous plough", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which skims the surface, leaving scarce a scar", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Upon the black loam long manured by Vice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Only to keep its corn at the old price.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But first of little Leila we’ll dispose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For like a day-dawn she was young and pure⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or like the old comparison of snows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Which are more pure than pleasant, to be sure,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like many people everybody knows)⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Don Juan was delighted to secure", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A goodly guardian for his infant charge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who might not profit much by being at large.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Besides, he had found out he was no tutor", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(I wish that others would find out the same),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And rather wished in such things to stand neuter,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For silly wards will bring their guardians blame:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So when he saw each ancient dame a suitor", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make his little wild Asiatic tame,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Consulting “the Society for Vice", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Suppression,” Lady Pinchbeck was his choice.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Olden she was⁠—but had been very young;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Virtuous she was⁠—and had been, I believe;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Although the World has such an evil tongue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That⁠—but my chaster ear will not receive", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An echo of a syllable that’s wrong:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In fact, there’s nothing makes me so much grieve,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As that abominable tittle-tattle,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which is the cud eschewed by human cattle.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Moreover I’ve remarked (and I was once", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A slight observer in a modest way),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And so may every one except a dunce,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That ladies in their youth a little gay,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Besides their knowledge of the World, and sense", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of the sad consequence of going astray,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Are wiser in their warnings ’gainst the woe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which the mere passionless can never know.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "While the harsh prude indemnifies her virtue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By railing at the unknown and envied passion,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Seeking far less to save you than to hurt you,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or, what’s still worse, to put you out of fashion⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The kinder veteran with calm words will court you,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Entreating you to pause before you dash on;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Expounding and illustrating the riddle", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of epic Love’s beginning⁠—end⁠—and middle.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now whether it be thus, or that they are stricter,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As better knowing why they should be so,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I think you’ll find from many a family picture,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That daughters of such mothers as may know", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The World by experience rather than by lecture,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Turn out much better for the Smithfield Show", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of vestals brought into the marriage mart,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than those bred up by prudes without a heart.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I said that Lady Pinchbeck had been talked about⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As who has not, if female, young, and pretty?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But now no more the ghost of Scandal stalked about;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She merely was deemed amiable and witty,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And several of her best bons-mots were hawked about:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then she was given to charity and pity,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And passed (at least the latter years of life)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For being a most exemplary wife.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "High in high circles, gentle in her own,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She was the mild reprover of the young,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whenever⁠—which means every day⁠—they’d shown", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An awkward inclination to go wrong.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The quantity of good she did ’s unknown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or at the least would lengthen out my song:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In brief, the little orphan of the East", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had raised an interest in her⁠—which increased.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan, too, was a sort of favourite with her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because she thought him a good heart at bottom,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A little spoiled, but not so altogether;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which was a wonder, if you think who got him,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And how he had been tossed, he scarce knew whither:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though this might ruin others, it did not him,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At least entirely⁠—for he had seen too many", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Changes in Youth, to be surprised at any.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And these vicissitudes tell best in youth;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For when they happen at a riper age,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "People are apt to blame the Fates, forsooth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wonder Providence is not more sage.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Adversity is the first path to Truth:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He who hath proved War⁠—Storm⁠—or Woman’s rage,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whether his winters be eighteen or eighty,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hath won the experience which is deemed so weighty.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "How far it profits is another matter.⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our hero gladly saw his little charge", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Safe with a lady, whose last grown-up daughter", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Being long married, and thus set at large,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had left all the accomplishments she taught her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To be transmitted, like the Lord Mayor’s barge,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To the next comer; or⁠—as it will tell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More Muse-like⁠—like to Cytherea’s shell.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I call such things transmission; for there is", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A floating balance of accomplishment,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which forms a pedigree from Miss to Miss,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "According as their minds or backs are bent.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some waltz⁠—some draw⁠—some fathom the abyss", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Metaphysics; others are content", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With Music; the most moderate shine as wits;⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While others have a genius turned for fits.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But whether fits, or wits, or harpsichords⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Theology⁠—fine arts⁠—or finer stays,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "May be the baits for Gentlemen or Lords", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With regular descent, in these our days,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The last year to the new transfers its hoards;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "New vestals claim men’s eyes with the same praise", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of “elegant” et cetera, in fresh batches⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All matchless creatures⁠—and yet bent on matches.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But now I will begin my poem. ’Tis", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps a little strange, if not quite new,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That from the first of Cantos up to this", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I’ve not begun what we have to go through.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "These first twelve books are merely flourishes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Preludios, trying just a string or two", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Upon my lyre, or making the pegs sure;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when so, you shall have the overture.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "My Muses do not care a pinch of rosin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About what’s called success, or not succeeding:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Such thoughts are quite below the strain they have chosen;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis a “great moral lesson” they are reading.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I thought, at setting off, about two dozen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cantos would do; but at Apollo’s pleading,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If that my Pegasus should not be foundered,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I think to canter gently through a hundred.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Don Juan saw that Microcosm on stilts,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yclept the Great World; for it is the least,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Although the highest: but as swords have hilts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By which their power of mischief is increased,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When Man in battle or in quarrel tilts,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thus the low world, north, south, or west, or east,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Must still obey the high⁠—which is their handle,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their Moon, their Sun, their gas, their farthing candle.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He had many friends who had many wives, and was", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Well looked upon by both, to that extent", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of friendship which you may accept or pass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It does nor good nor harm; being merely meant", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To keep the wheels going of the higher class,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And draw them nightly when a ticket’s sent;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And what with masquerades, and fêtes, and balls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For the first season such a life scarce palls.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A young unmarried man, with a good name", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fortune, has an awkward part to play;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For good society is but a game,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“The royal game of Goose,” as I may say,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Where everybody has some separate aim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An end to answer, or a plan to lay⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The single ladies wishing to be double,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The married ones to save the virgins trouble.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I don’t mean this as general, but particular", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Examples may be found of such pursuits:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though several also keep their perpendicular", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like poplars, with good principles for roots;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet many have a method more reticular⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Fishers for men,” like Sirens with soft lutes:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For talk six times with the same single lady,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And you may get the wedding-dresses ready.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Perhaps you’ll have a letter from the mother,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To say her daughter’s feelings are trepanned;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps you’ll have a visit from the brother,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All strut, and stays, and whiskers, to demand", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What “your intentions are?”⁠—One way or other", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It seems the virgin’s heart expects your hand:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And between pity for her case and yours,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You’ll add to Matrimony’s list of cures.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I’ve known a dozen weddings made even thus,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some of them high names: I have also known", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Young men who⁠—though they hated to discuss", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pretensions which they never dreamed to have shown⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet neither frightened by a female fuss,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor by mustachios moved, were let alone,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And lived, as did the broken-hearted fair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In happier plight than if they formed a pair.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There’s also nightly, to the uninitiated,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A peril⁠—not indeed like Love or Marriage,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But not the less for this to be depreciated:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It is⁠—I meant and mean not to disparage", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The show of Virtue even in the vitiated⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It adds an outward grace unto their carriage⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But to denounce the amphibious sort of harlot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Couleur de rose, who’s neither white nor scarlet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Such is your cold coquette, who can’t say “No,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And won’t say “Yes,” and keeps you on and off-ing", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "On a lee-shore, till it begins to blow⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then sees your heart wrecked, with an inward scoffing.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "This works a world of sentimental woe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sends new Werters yearly to their coffin;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But yet is merely innocent flirtation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not quite adultery, but adulteration.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Ye gods, I grow a talker!” Let us prate.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The next of perils, though I place it sternest,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Is when, without regard to Church or State,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A wife makes or takes love in upright earnest.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Abroad, such things decide few women’s fate⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Such, early Traveller! is the truth thou learnest)⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But in old England, when a young bride errs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Poor thing! Eve’s was a trifling case to hers.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "For ’tis a low, newspaper, humdrum, lawsuit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Country, where a young couple of the same ages", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Can’t form a friendship, but the world o’erawes it.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then there’s the vulgar trick of those d⁠⸺⁠d damages!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A verdict⁠—grievous foe to those who cause it!⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forms a sad climax to romantic homages;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Besides those soothing speeches of the pleaders,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And evidences which regale all readers.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But they who blunder thus are raw beginners;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little genial sprinkling of hypocrisy", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Has saved the fame of thousand splendid sinners,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The loveliest oligarchs of our Gynocracy;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "You may see such at all the balls and dinners,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the proudest of our aristocracy,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So gentle, charming, charitable, chaste⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all by having tact as well as taste.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan, who did not stand in the predicament", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of a mere novice, had one safeguard more;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For he was sick⁠—no, ’twas not the word sick I meant⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But he had seen so much good love before,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That he was not in heart so very weak;⁠—I meant", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But thus much, and no sneer against the shore", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of white cliffs, white necks, blue eyes, bluer stockings⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tithes, taxes, duns⁠—and doors with double knockings.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But coming young from lands and scenes romantic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where lives, not lawsuits, must be risked for Passion", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Passion’s self must have a spice of frantic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Into a country where ’tis half a fashion,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Seemed to him half commercial, half pedantic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Howe’er he might esteem this moral nation:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Besides (alas! his taste⁠—forgive and pity!)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At first he did not think the women pretty.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I say at first⁠—for he found out at last,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But by degrees, that they were fairer far", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Than the more glowing dames whose lot is cast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath the influence of the Eastern Star.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A further proof we should not judge in haste;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet inexperience could not be his bar", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To taste:⁠—the truth is, if men would confess,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That novelties please less than they impress.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Though travelled, I have never had the luck to", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Trace up those shuffling negroes, Nile or Niger,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To that impracticable place Timbuktu,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Geography finds no one to oblige her", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With such a chart as may be safely stuck to⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Europe ploughs in Afric like “bos piger:”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But if I had been at Timbuktu, there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No doubt I should be told that black is fair.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It is. I will not swear that black is white,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But I suspect in fact that white is black,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the whole matter rests upon eye-sight:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ask a blind man, the best judge. You’ll attack", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps this new position⁠—but I’m right;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or if I’m wrong, I’ll not be ta’en aback:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He hath no morn nor night, but all is dark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Within⁠—and what seest thou? A dubious spark!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But I’m relapsing into Metaphysics,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That labyrinth, whose clue is of the same", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Construction as your cures for hectic phthisics,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those bright moths fluttering round a dying flame:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And this reflection brings me to plain Physics,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And to the beauties of a foreign dame,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Compared with those of our pure pearls of price,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those polar summers, all Sun, and some ice.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Or say they are like virtuous mermaids, whose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beginnings are fair faces, ends mere fishes;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Not that there’s not a quantity of those", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who have a due respect for their own wishes.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like Russians rushing from hot baths to snows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are they, at bottom virtuous even when vicious:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They warm into a scrape, but keep of course,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As a reserve, a plunge into remorse.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But this has nought to do with their outsides.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I said that Juan did not think them pretty", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At the first blush; for a fair Briton hides", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Half her attractions⁠—probably from pity⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And rather calmly into the heart glides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than storms it as a foe would take a city;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But once there (if you doubt this, prithee try)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She keeps it for you like a true ally.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She cannot step as does an Arab barb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or Andalusian girl from mass returning,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nor wear as gracefully as Gauls her garb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor in her eye Ausonia’s glance is burning;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her voice, though sweet, is not so fit to warb⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "le those bravuras (which I still am learning", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To like, though I have been seven years in Italy,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And have, or had, an ear that served me prettily);⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She cannot do these things, nor one or two", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Others, in that off-hand and dashing style", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which takes so much⁠—to give the Devil his due;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor is she quite so ready with her smile,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nor settles all things in one interview,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(A thing approved as saving time and toil);⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But though the soil may give you time and trouble,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Well cultivated, it will render double.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And if in fact she takes to a grande passion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It is a very serious thing indeed:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nine times in ten ’tis but caprice or fashion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Coquetry, or a wish to take the lead,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The pride of a mere child with a new sash on,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or wish to make a rival’s bosom bleed:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But the tenth instance will be a tornado,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For there’s no saying what they will or may do.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The reason’s obvious: if there’s an éclat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They lose their caste at once, as do the Parias;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And when the delicacies of the Law", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have filled their papers with their comments various,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Society, that china without flaw,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(The Hypocrite!) will banish them like Marius,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To sit amidst the ruins of their guilt:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Fame’s a Carthage not so soon rebuilt.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Perhaps this is as it should be;⁠—it is", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A comment on the Gospel’s “Sin no more,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And be thy sins forgiven:”⁠—but upon this", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I leave the Saints to settle their own score.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Abroad, though doubtless they do much amiss,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An erring woman finds an opener door", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For her return to Virtue⁠—as they call", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That Lady, who should be at home to all.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "For me, I leave the matter where I find it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Knowing that such uneasy virtue leads", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "People some ten times less in fact to mind it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And care but for discoveries, and not deeds.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And as for Chastity, you’ll never bind it", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By all the laws the strictest lawyer pleads,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But aggravate the crime you have not prevented,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By rendering desperate those who had else repented.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Juan was no casuist, nor had pondered", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the moral lessons of mankind:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Besides, he had not seen of several hundred", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A lady altogether to his mind.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A little blasé⁠—’tis not to be wondered", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At, that his heart had got a tougher rind:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And though not vainer from his past success,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No doubt his sensibilities were less.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He also had been busy seeing sights⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Parliament and all the other houses;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had sat beneath the Gallery at nights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hear debates whose thunder roused (not rouses)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The World to gaze upon those Northern Lights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which flashed as far as where the musk-bull browses;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He had also stood at times behind the Throne⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Grey was not arrived, and Chatham gone.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He saw, however, at the closing session,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That noble sight, when really free the nation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A King in constitutional possession", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of such a Throne as is the proudest station,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though Despots know it not⁠—till the progression", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Freedom shall complete their education.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis not mere Splendour makes the show august", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To eye or heart⁠—it is the People’s trust.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There, too, he saw (whate’er he may be now)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A Prince, the prince of Princes at the time,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With fascination in his very bow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And full of promise, as the spring of prime.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though Royalty was written on his brow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He had then the grace, too, rare in every clime,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of being, without alloy of fop or beau,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A finished Gentleman from top to toe.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Juan was received, as hath been said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Into the best society; and there", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Occurred what often happens, I’m afraid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "However disciplined and debonnaire:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The talent and good humour he displayed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Besides the marked distinction of his air,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Exposed him, as was natural, to temptation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even though himself avoided the occasion.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But what, and where, with whom, and when, and why,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is not to be put hastily together;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And as my object is Morality", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Whatever people say), I don’t know whether", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I’ll leave a single reader’s eyelid dry,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But harrow up his feelings till they wither,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And hew out a huge monument of pathos,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As Philip’s son proposed to do with Athos.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here the twelfth canto of our Introduction", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ends. When the body of the Book’s begun,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "You’ll find it of a different construction", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From what some people say ’twill be when done;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The plan at present ’s simply in concoction.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I can’t oblige you, reader, to read on;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That’s your affair, not mine: a real spirit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should neither court neglect, nor dread to bear it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And if my thunderbolt not always rattles,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remember, reader! you have had before,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The worst of tempests and the best of battles,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That e’er were brewed from elements or gore,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Besides the most sublime of⁠—Heaven knows what else;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An usurer could scarce expect much more⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But my best canto⁠—save one on astronomy⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Will turn upon “Political Economy.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That is your present theme for popularity:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now that the public hedge hath scarce a stake,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It grows an act of patriotic charity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To show the people the best way to break.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My plan (but I, if but for singularity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reserve it) will be very sure to take.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Meantime, read all the National-Debt sinkers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tell me what you think of our great thinkers.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }