{ "id": "lord-byron/canto-xiii", "title": "Canto XIII", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Lord Byron", "poet_slug": "lord-byron", "language": "en", "book": "Don Juan", "book_slug": "don-juan", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 15, "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-13.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": 888, "n_stanzas": 111, 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null, "stanza_range": [ 104, 105 ] }, { "ordinal": "CVI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 105, 106 ] }, { "ordinal": "CVII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 106, 107 ] }, { "ordinal": "CVIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 107, 108 ] }, { "ordinal": "CIX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 108, 109 ] }, { "ordinal": "CX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 109, 110 ] }, { "ordinal": "CXI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 110, 111 ] } ], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "I now mean to be serious;⁠—it is time,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Since Laughter now-a-days is deemed too serious;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A jest at Vice by Virtue’s called a crime,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And critically held as deleterious:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Besides, the sad’s a source of the sublime,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Although, when long, a little apt to weary us;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And therefore shall my lay soar high and solemn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As an old temple dwindled to a column.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Lady Adeline Amundeville", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(’Tis an old Norman name, and to be found", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In pedigrees, by those who wander still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the last fields of that Gothic ground)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was high-born, wealthy by her father’s will,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And beauteous, even where beauties most abound,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In Britain⁠—which, of course, true patriots find", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The goodliest soil of Body and of Mind.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I’ll not gainsay them; it is not my cue;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I’ll leave them to their taste, no doubt the best;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An eye’s an eye, and whether black or blue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is no great matter, so ’tis in request;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis nonsense to dispute about a hue⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The kindest may be taken as a test.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The fair sex should be always fair; and no man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till thirty, should perceive there’s a plain woman.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And after that serene and somewhat dull", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Epoch, that awkward corner turned for days", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "More quiet, when our moon’s no more at full,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We may presume to criticise or praise;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because Indifference begins to lull", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our passions, and we walk in Wisdom’s ways;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Also because the figure and the face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hint, that ’tis time to give the younger place.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I know that some would fain postpone this era,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reluctant as all placemen to resign", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their post; but theirs is merely a chimera,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For they have passed Life’s equinoctial line:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But then they have their claret and Madeira,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To irrigate the dryness of decline;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And County meetings, and the Parliament,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And debt⁠—and what not, for their solace sent.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And is there not Religion, and Reform,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Peace, War, the taxes, and what’s called the “Nation”?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The struggle to be pilots in a storm?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The landed and the monied speculation?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The joys of mutual hate to keep them warm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Instead of Love, that mere hallucination?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Now Hatred is by far the longest pleasure;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Rough Johnson, the great moralist, professed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Right honestly, “he liked an honest hater!”⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The only truth that yet has been confessed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Within these latest thousand years or later.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps the fine old fellow spoke in jest:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For my part, I am but a mere spectator,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And gaze where’er the palace or the hovel is,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Much in the mode of Goethe’s Mephistopheles;", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But neither love nor hate in much excess;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though ’twas not once so. If I sneer sometimes,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It is because I cannot well do less,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now and then it also suits my rhymes.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I should be very willing to redress", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men’s wrongs, and rather check than punish crimes,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had not Cervantes, in that too true tale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Quixote, shown how all such efforts fail.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Of all tales ’tis the saddest⁠—and more sad,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because it makes us smile: his hero’s right,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And still pursues the right;⁠—to curb the bad", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His only object, and ’gainst odds to fight", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His guerdon: ’tis his virtue makes him mad!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But his adventures form a sorry sight;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A sorrier still is the great moral taught", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By that real Epic unto all who have thought.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Redressing injury, revenging wrong,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To aid the damsel and destroy the caitiff;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Opposing singly the united strong,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From foreign yoke to free the helpless native:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Alas! must noblest views, like an old song,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Be for mere Fancy’s sport a theme creative,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A jest, a riddle, Fame through thin and thick sought!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Socrates himself but Wisdom’s Quixote?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Cervantes smiled Spain’s chivalry away;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A single laugh demolished the right arm", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of his own country;⁠—seldom since that day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has Spain had heroes. While Romance could charm,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The World gave ground before her bright array;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And therefore have his volumes done such harm,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That all their glory, as a composition,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was dearly purchased by his land’s perdition.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I’m “at my old lunes”⁠—digression, and forget", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Lady Adeline Amundeville;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The fair most fatal Juan ever met,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Although she was not evil nor meant ill;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Destiny and Passion spread the net", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Fate is a good excuse for our own will),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And caught them;⁠—what do they not catch, methinks?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But I’m not Oedipus, and Life’s a Sphinx.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I tell the tale as it is told, nor dare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To venture a solution: “Davus sum!”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And now I will proceed upon the pair.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweet Adeline, amidst the gay World’s hum,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was the Queen-Bee, the glass of all that’s fair;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose charms made all men speak, and women dumb.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The last’s a miracle, and such was reckoned,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And since that time there has not been a second.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Chaste was she, to Detraction’s desperation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wedded unto one she had loved well⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A man known in the councils of the Nation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cool, and quite English, imperturbable,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though apt to act with fire upon occasion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Proud of himself and her: the World could tell", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nought against either, and both seemed secure⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She in her virtue, he in his hauteur.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It chanced some diplomatical relations,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arising out of business, often brought", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Himself and Juan in their mutual stations", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Into close contact. Though reserved, nor caught", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By specious seeming, Juan’s youth, and patience,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And talent, on his haughty spirit wrought,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And formed a basis of esteem, which ends", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In making men what Courtesy calls friends.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And thus Lord Henry, who was cautious as", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reserve and Pride could make him, and full slow", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In judging men⁠—when once his judgment was", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Determined, right or wrong, on friend or foe,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had all the pertinacity Pride has,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which knows no ebb to its imperious flow,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And loves or hates, disdaining to be guided,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because its own good pleasure hath decided.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "His friendships, therefore, and no less aversions,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though oft well founded, which confirmed but more", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His prepossessions, like the laws of Persians", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Medes, would ne’er revoke what went before.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His feelings had not those strange fits, like tertians,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of common likings, which make some deplore", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What they should laugh at⁠—the mere ague still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of men’s regard, the fever or the chill.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“ ’Tis not in mortals to command success:”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But do you more, Sempronius⁠—don’t deserve it,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And take my word, you won’t have any less.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Be wary, watch the time, and always serve it;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Give gently way, when there’s too great a press;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for your conscience, only learn to nerve it;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For, like a racer, or a boxer training,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twill make, if proved, vast efforts without paining.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Lord Henry also liked to be superior,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As most men do, the little or the great;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The very lowest find out an inferior,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least they think so, to exert their state", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Upon: for there are very few things wearier", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than solitary Pride’s oppressive weight,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which mortals generously would divide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By bidding others carry while they ride.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In birth, in rank, in fortune likewise equal,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er Juan he could no distinction claim;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In years he had the advantage of Time’s sequel;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, as he thought, in country much the same⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because bold Britons have a tongue and free quill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At which all modern nations vainly aim;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the Lord Henry was a great debater,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So that few Members kept the House up later.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "These were advantages: and then he thought⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It was his foible, but by no means sinister⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That few or none more than himself had caught", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Court mysteries, having been himself a minister:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He liked to teach that which he had been taught,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And greatly shone whenever there had been a stir;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And reconciled all qualities which grace man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Always a patriot⁠—and, sometimes, a placeman.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He liked the gentle Spaniard for his gravity;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He almost honoured him for his docility;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because, though young, he acquiesced with suavity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or contradicted but with proud humility.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He knew the World, and would not see depravity", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In faults which sometimes show the soil’s fertility,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If that the weeds o’erlive not the first crop⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For then they are very difficult to stop.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And then he talked with him about Madrid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Constantinople, and such distant places;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Where people always did as they were bid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or did what they should not with foreign graces.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of coursers also spake they: Henry rid", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Well, like most Englishmen, and loved the races;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Juan, like a true-born Andalusian,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could back a horse, as Despots ride a Russian.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And thus acquaintance grew, at noble routs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And diplomatic dinners, or at other⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For Juan stood well both with Ins and Outs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As in freemasonry a higher brother.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Upon his talent Henry had no doubts;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His manner showed him sprung from a high mother,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And all men like to show their hospitality", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To him whose breeding matches with his quality.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "At Blank-Blank Square;⁠—for we will break no squares", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By naming streets: since men are so censorious,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And apt to sow an author’s wheat with tares,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reaping allusions private and inglorious,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Where none were dreamt of, unto Love’s affairs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which were, or are, or are to be notorious,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That therefore do I previously declare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lord Henry’s mansion was in Blank-Blank Square.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Also there bin another pious reason", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For making squares and streets anonymous;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which is, that there is scarce a single season", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which doth not shake some very splendid house", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With some slight heart-quake of domestic treason⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A topic Scandal doth delight to rouse:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Such I might stumble over unawares,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unless I knew the very chastest squares.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis true, I might have chosen Piccadilly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A place where peccadillos are unknown;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But I have motives, whether wise or silly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For letting that pure sanctuary alone.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Therefore I name not square, street, place, until I", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Find one where nothing naughty can be shown,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A vestal shrine of Innocence of Heart:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such are⁠—but I have lost the London Chart.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "At Henry’s mansion then, in Blank-Blank Square,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was Juan a recherché, welcome guest,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As many other noble scions were;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some who had but Talent for their crest;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or Wealth, which is a passport everywhere;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or even mere Fashion, which indeed’s the best", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Recommendation; and to be well dressed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Will very often supersede the rest.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And since “there’s safety in a multitude", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of counsellors,” as Solomon has said,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or some one for him, in some sage, grave mood;⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indeed we see the daily proof displayed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In Senates, at the Bar, in wordy feud,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where’er collective wisdom can parade,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which is the only cause that we can guess", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Britain’s present wealth and happiness;⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But as “there’s safety” grafted in the number", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Of counsellors,” for men⁠—thus for the sex", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A large acquaintance lets not Virtue slumber;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or should it shake, the choice will more perplex⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Variety itself will more encumber.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Midst many rocks we guard more against wrecks⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And thus with women: howsoe’er it shocks some’s", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Self-love, there’s safety in a crowd of coxcombs.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Adeline had not the least occasion", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For such a shield, which leaves but little merit", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To Virtue proper, or good education.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her chief resource was in her own high spirit,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which judged Mankind at their due estimation;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for coquetry, she disdained to wear it⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Secure of admiration: its impression", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was faint⁠—as of an every-day possession.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To all she was polite without parade;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To some she showed attention of that kind", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which flatters, but is flattery conveyed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In such a sort as cannot leave behind", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A trace unworthy either wife or maid;⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A gentle, genial courtesy of mind,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To those who were, or passed for meritorious,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Just to console sad Glory for being glorious;", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Which is in all respects, save now and then,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A dull and desolate appendage. Gaze", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Upon the shades of those distinguished men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who were or are the puppet-shows of praise,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The praise of persecution. Gaze again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On the most favoured; and amidst the blaze", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of sunset halos o’er the laurel-browed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What can ye recognise?⁠—a gilded cloud.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There also was of course in Adeline", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That calm patrician polish in the address,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which ne’er can pass the equinoctial line", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of anything which Nature would express;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Just as a Mandarin finds nothing fine⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least his manner suffers not to guess,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That anything he views can greatly please:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps we have borrowed this from the Chinese⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Perhaps from Horace: his “Nil admirari”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was what he called the “Art of Happiness”⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An art on which the artists greatly vary,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And have not yet attained to much success.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "However, ’tis expedient to be wary:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indifference, certes, don’t produce distress;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And rash Enthusiasm in good society", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were nothing but a moral inebriety.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Adeline was not indifferent: for", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Now for a common-place!) beneath the snow,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As a Volcano holds the lava more", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Within⁠—et cetera. Shall I go on?⁠—No!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I hate to hunt down a tired metaphor,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So let the often-used Volcano go.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Poor thing! How frequently, by me and others,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It hath been stirred up till its smoke quite smothers!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I’ll have another figure in a trice:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What say you to a bottle of champagne?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Frozen into a very vinous ice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which leaves few drops of that immortal rain,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet in the very centre, past all price,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About a liquid glassful will remain;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And this is stronger than the strongest grape", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could e’er express in its expanded shape:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis the whole spirit brought to a quintessence;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thus the chilliest aspects may concentre", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A hidden nectar under a cold presence.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And such are many⁠—though I only meant her", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From whom I now deduce these moral lessons,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On which the Muse has always sought to enter.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And your cold people are beyond all price,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When once you’ve broken their confounded ice.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But after all they are a North-West Passage", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unto the glowing India of the soul;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And as the good ships sent upon that message", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have not exactly ascertained the Pole", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Though Parry’s efforts look a lucky presage),", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thus gentlemen may run upon a shoal;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For if the Pole’s not open, but all frost", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(A chance still), ’tis a voyage or vessel lost.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And young beginners may as well commence", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With quiet cruising o’er the ocean, Woman;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While those who are not beginners should have sense", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enough to make for port, ere Time shall summon", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With his grey signal-flag; and the past tense,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dreary Fuimus of all things human,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Must be declined, while Life’s thin thread’s spun out", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between the gaping heir and gnawing gout.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Heaven must be diverted; its diversion", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is sometimes truculent⁠—but never mind:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The World upon the whole is worth the assertion", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(If but for comfort) that all things are kind:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And that same devilish doctrine of the Persian,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of the “Two Principles,” but leaves behind", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As many doubts as any other doctrine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has ever puzzled Faith withal, or yoked her in.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The English winter⁠—ending in July,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To recommence in August⁠—now was done.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis the postilion’s paradise: wheels fly;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On roads, East, South, North, West, there is a run.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But for post-horses who finds sympathy?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Man’s pity’s for himself, or for his son,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Always premising that said son at college", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has not contracted much more debt than knowledge.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The London winter’s ended in July⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sometimes a little later. I don’t err", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In this: whatever other blunders lie", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon my shoulders, here I must aver", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My Muse a glass of Weatherology;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Parliament is our barometer:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Let Radicals its other acts attack,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its sessions form our only almanac.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "When its quicksilver’s down at zero⁠—lo!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Coach, chariot, luggage, baggage, equipage!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Wheels whirl from Carlton Palace to Soho,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And happiest they who horses can engage;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The turnpikes glow with dust; and Rotten Row", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sleeps from the chivalry of this bright age;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And tradesmen, with long bills and longer faces,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sigh⁠—as the postboys fasten on the traces.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They and their bills, “Arcadians both,” are left", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To the Greek Kalends of another session.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Alas! to them of ready cash bereft,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What hope remains? Of hope the full possession,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or generous draft, conceded as a gift,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At a long date⁠—till they can get a fresh one⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Hawked about at a discount, small or large;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Also the solace of an overcharge.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But these are trifles. Downward flies my Lord,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nodding beside my Lady in his carriage.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Away! away! “Fresh horses!” are the word,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And changed as quickly as hearts after marriage;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The obsequious landlord hath the change restored;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The postboys have no reason to disparage", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their fee; but ere the watered wheels may hiss hence,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ostler pleads too for a reminiscence.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis granted; and the valet mounts the dickey⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That gentleman of Lords and Gentlemen;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Also my Lady’s gentlewoman, tricky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tricked out, but modest more than poet’s pen", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Can paint⁠—“Cosi viaggino i Ricchi!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Excuse a foreign slipslop now and then,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If but to show I’ve travelled: and what’s Travel,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unless it teaches one to quote and cavil?)", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The London winter and the country summer", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were well nigh over. ’Tis perhaps a pity,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When Nature wears the gown that doth become her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To lose those best months in a sweaty city,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And wait until the nightingale grows dumber,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Listening debates not very wise or witty,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ere patriots their true country can remember;⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But there’s no shooting (save grouse) till September.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I’ve done with my tirade. The World was gone;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The twice two thousand, for whom Earth was made,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Were vanished to be what they call alone⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That is, with thirty servants for parade,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As many guests, or more; before whom groan", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As many covers, duly, daily laid.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Let none accuse old England’s hospitality⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its quantity is but condensed to quality.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Lord Henry and the Lady Adeline", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Departed like the rest of their compeers,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The peerage, to a mansion very fine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Gothic Babel of a thousand years.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "None than themselves could boast a longer line,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Time through heroes and through beauties steers;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And oaks as olden as their pedigree", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Told of their Sires⁠—a tomb in every tree.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A paragraph in every paper told", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of their departure⁠—such is modern fame:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis pity that it takes no further hold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than an advertisement, or much the same;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When, ere the ink be dry, the sound grows cold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Morning Post was foremost to proclaim⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“Departure, for his country seat, to-day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lord H. Amundeville and Lady A.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“We understand the splendid host intends", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To entertain, this autumn, a select", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And numerous party of his noble friends;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Midst whom we have heard, from sources quite correct,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Duke of D⁠⸺ the shooting season spends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With many more by rank and fashion decked;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Also a foreigner of high condition,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The envoy of the secret Russian mission.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And thus we see⁠—who doubts the Morning Post?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Whose articles are like the “Thirty-nine,”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which those most swear to who believe them most)⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our gay Russ Spaniard was ordained to shine,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Decked by the rays reflected from his host,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With those who, Pope says, “greatly daring dine.”⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis odd, but true⁠—last war the News abounded", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More with these dinners than the killed or wounded;⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As thus: “On Thursday there was a grand dinner;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Present, Lords A.B.C.”⁠—Earls, dukes, by name", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Announced with no less pomp than Victory’s winner:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then underneath, and in the very same", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Column: date, “Falmouth. There has lately been here", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Slap-dash regiment, so well known to Fame,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whose loss in the late action we regret:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The vacancies are filled up⁠—see Gazette.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To Norman Abbey whirled the noble pair⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An old, old Monastery once, and now", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Still older mansion⁠—of a rich and rare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mixed Gothic, such as artists all allow", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Few specimens yet left us can compare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Withal: it lies, perhaps, a little low,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because the monks preferred a hill behind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To shelter their devotion from the wind.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It stood embosomed in a happy valley,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Crowned by high woodlands, where the Druid oak", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Stood like Caractacus, in act to rally", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His host, with broad arms ’gainst the thunder-stroke;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And from beneath his boughs were seen to sally", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dappled foresters; as Day awoke,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The branching stag swept down with all his herd,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To quaff a brook which murmured like a bird.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Before the mansion lay a lucid Lake,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Broad as transparent, deep, and freshly fed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By a river, which its softened way did take", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In currents through the calmer water spread", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Around: the wildfowl nestled in the brake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sedges, brooding in their liquid bed:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The woods sloped downwards to its brink, and stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With their green faces fixed upon the flood.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Its outlet dashed into a deep cascade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sparkling with foam, until again subsiding,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Its shriller echoes⁠—like an infant made", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Quiet⁠—sank into softer ripples, gliding", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Into a rivulet; and thus allayed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pursued its course, now gleaming, and now hiding", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Its windings through the woods; now clear, now blue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "According as the skies their shadows threw.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A glorious remnant of the Gothic pile", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(While yet the Church was Rome’s) stood half apart", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In a grand Arch, which once screened many an aisle.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These last had disappeared⁠—a loss to Art:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The first yet frowned superbly o’er the soil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And kindled feelings in the roughest heart,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which mourned the power of Time’s or Tempest’s march,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In gazing on that venerable Arch.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Within a niche, nigh to its pinnacle,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Twelve Saints had once stood sanctified in stone;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But these had fallen, not when the friars fell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But in the war which struck Charles from his throne,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When each house was a fortalice⁠—as tell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The annals of full many a line undone⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The gallant Cavaliers, who fought in vain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For those who knew not to resign or reign.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But in a higher niche, alone, but crowned,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Virgin-Mother of the God-born Child,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With her Son in her blessèd arms, looked round,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spared by some chance when all beside was spoiled:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She made the earth below seem holy ground.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This may be superstition, weak or wild;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But even the faintest relics of a shrine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of any worship wake some thoughts divine.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A mighty window, hollow in the centre,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shorn of its glass of thousand colourings,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Through which the deepened glories once could enter,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Streaming from off the Sun like Seraph’s wings,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Now yawns all desolate: now loud, now fainter,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The gale sweeps through its fretwork, and oft sings", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The owl his anthem, where the silenced choir", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lie with their Hallelujahs quenched like fire.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But in the noontide of the moon, and when", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wind is wingèd from one point of heaven,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There moans a strange unearthly sound, which then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is musical⁠—a dying accent driven", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Through the huge Arch, which soars and sinks again.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some deem it but the distant echo given", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Back to the night wind by the waterfall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And harmonised by the old choral wall:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Others, that some original shape, or form", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shaped by decay perchance, hath given the power", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Though less than that of Memnon’s statue, warm", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In Egypt’s rays, to harp at a fixed hour)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To this grey ruin: with a voice to charm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sad, but serene, it sweeps o’er tree or tower;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The cause I know not, nor can solve; but such", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fact:⁠—I’ve heard it⁠—once perhaps too much.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Amidst the court a Gothic fountain played,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Symmetrical, but decked with carvings quaint⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Strange faces, like to men in masquerade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And here perhaps a monster, there a saint:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The spring gushed through grim mouths of granite made,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sparkled into basins, where it spent", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Its little torrent in a thousand bubbles,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like man’s vain Glory, and his vainer troubles.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Mansion’s self was vast and venerable,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With more of the monastic than has been", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Elsewhere preserved: the cloisters still were stable,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cells, too, and Refectory, I ween:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An exquisite small chapel had been able,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still unimpaired, to decorate the scene;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The rest had been reformed, replaced, or sunk,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And spoke more of the baron than the monk.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Huge halls, long galleries, spacious chambers, joined", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By no quite lawful marriage of the arts,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Might shock a connoisseur; but when combined,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Formed a whole which, irregular in parts,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet left a grand impression on the mind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least of those whose eyes are in their hearts:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "We gaze upon a giant for his stature,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor judge at first if all be true to nature.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Steel Barons, molten the next generation", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To silken rows of gay and gartered Earls,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Glanced from the walls in goodly preservation:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Lady Marys blooming into girls,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With fair long locks, had also kept their station:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Countesses mature in robes and pearls:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Also some beauties of Sir Peter Lely,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose drapery hints we may admire them freely.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Judges in very formidable ermine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were there, with brows that did not much invite", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The accused to think their lordships would determine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His cause by leaning much from might to right:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Bishops, who had not left a single sermon;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Attorneys-general, awful to the sight,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As hinting more (unless our judgments warp us)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of the “Star Chamber” than of “Habeas Corpus.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Generals, some all in armour, of the old", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And iron time, ere lead had ta’en the lead;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Others in wigs of Marlborough’s martial fold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Huger than twelve of our degenerate breed:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lordlings, with staves of white or keys of gold:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nimrods, whose canvas scarce contained the steed;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And, here and there, some stern high patriot stood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who could not get the place for which he sued.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But ever and anon, to soothe your vision,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fatigued with these hereditary glories,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There rose a Carlo Dolce or a Titian,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or wilder group of savage Salvatore’s:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Here danced Albano’s boys, and here the sea shone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In Vernet’s ocean lights; and there the stories", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of martyrs awed, as Spagnoletto tainted", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His brush with all the blood of all the sainted.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here sweetly spread a landscape of Lorraine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There Rembrandt made his darkness equal light,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or gloomy Caravaggio’s gloomier stain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bronzed o’er some lean and stoic anchorite:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But, lo! a Teniers woos, and not in vain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your eyes to revel in a livelier sight:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His bell-mouthed goblet makes me feel quite Danish", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or Dutch with thirst⁠—What, ho! a flask of Rhenish.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Oh, reader! if that thou canst read⁠—and know,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis not enough to spell, or even to read,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To constitute a reader⁠—there must go", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Virtues of which both you and I have need;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Firstly, begin with the beginning⁠—(though", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That clause is hard); and secondly, proceed:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thirdly, commence not with the end⁠—or, sinning", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In this sort, end at last with the beginning.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But, reader, thou hast patient been of late,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While I, without remorse of rhyme, or fear,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Have built and laid out ground at such a rate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dan Phoebus takes me for an auctioneer.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That Poets were so from their earliest date,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By Homer’s “Catalogue of ships” is clear;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But a mere modern must be moderate⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I spare you then the furniture and plate.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The mellow Autumn came, and with it came", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The promised party, to enjoy its sweets.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The corn is cut, the manor full of game;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pointer ranges, and the sportsman beats", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In russet jacket:⁠—lynx-like in his aim;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Full grows his bag, and wonderful his feats.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ah, nutbrown partridges! Ah, brilliant pheasants!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ah, ye poachers!⁠—’Tis no sport for peasants.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "An English Autumn, though it hath no vines,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blushing with Bacchant coronals along", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The paths o’er which the far festoon entwines", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The red grape in the sunny lands of song,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Hath yet a purchased choice of choicest wines;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Claret light, and the Madeira strong.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If Britain mourn her bleakness, we can tell her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The very best of vineyards is the cellar.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then, if she hath not that serene decline", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which makes the southern Autumn’s day appear", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As if ’t would to a second Spring resign", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The season, rather than to Winter drear⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of in-door comforts still she hath a mine⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sea-coal fires, the “earliest of the year;”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Without doors, too, she may compete in mellow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As what is lost in green is gained in yellow.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And for the effeminate villeggialura⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rife with more horns than hounds⁠—she hath the chase,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So animated that it might allure a", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saint from his beads to join the jocund race:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Even Nimrod’s self might leave the plains of Dura,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wear the Melton jacket for a space:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If she hath no wild boars, she hath a tame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Preserve of bores, who ought to be made game.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The noble guests, assembled at the Abbey,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Consisted of⁠—we give the sex the pas⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Duchess of Fitz-Fulke; the Countess Crabby;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Ladies Scilly, Busey;⁠—Miss Eclat,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Miss Bombazeen, Miss Mackstay, Miss O’Tabby,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Mrs. Rabbi, the rich banker’s squaw;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Also the honourable Mrs. Sleep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who looked a white lamb, yet was a black sheep:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With other Countesses of Blank⁠—but rank;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At once the “lie” and the élite of crowds;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who pass like water filtered in a tank,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All purged and pious from their native clouds;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or paper turned to money by the Bank:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No matter how or why, the passport shrouds", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The passée and the past; for good society", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is no less famed for tolerance than piety⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That is, up to a certain point; which point", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forms the most difficult in punctuation.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Appearances appear to form the joint", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On which it hinges in a higher station;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And so that no explosion cry “Aroint", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thee, witch!” or each Medea has her Jason;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or (to the point with Horace and with Pulci)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Omne tulit punctum, quae miscuit utile dulci.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I can’t exactly trace their rule of right,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which hath a little leaning to a lottery.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I’ve seen a virtuous woman put down quite", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By the mere combination of a coterie;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Also a so-so matron boldly fight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her way back to the world by dint of plottery,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And shine the very Siria, of the spheres,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Escaping with a few slight, scarless sneers.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I have seen more than I’ll say:⁠—but we will see", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How our “villeggiatura” will get on.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The party might consist of thirty-three", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of highest caste⁠—the Brahmins of the ton.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I have named a few, not foremost in degree,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But ta’en at hazard as the rhyme may run.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By way of sprinkling, scattered amongst these,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There also were some Irish absentees.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was Parolles, too, the legal bully,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who limits all his battles to the Bar", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Senate: when invited elsewhere, truly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He shows more appetite for words than war.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There was the young bard Rackrhyme, who had newly", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Come out and glimmered as a six weeks’ star.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There was Lord Pyrrho, too, the great freethinker;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Sir John Pottledeep, the mighty drinker.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was the Duke of Dash, who was a⁠—duke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Aye, every inch a” duke; there were twelve peers", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like Charlemagne’s⁠—and all such peers in look", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And intellect, that neither eyes nor ears", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For commoners had ever them mistook.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There were the six Miss Rawbolds⁠—pretty dears!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All song and sentiment; whose hearts were set", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Less on a convent than a coronet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There were four Honourable Misters, whose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Honour was more before their names than after;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There was the preux Chevalier de la Ruse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom France and Fortune lately deigned to waft here,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whose chiefly harmless talent was to amuse;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But the clubs found it rather serious laughter,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because⁠—such was his magic power to please⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dice seemed charmed, too, with his repartees.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was Dick Dubious, the metaphysician,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who loved philosophy and a good dinner;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Angle, the soi-disant mathematician;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sir Henry Silvercup, the great race-winner.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There was the Reverend Rodomont Precisian,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who did not hate so much the sin as sinner:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Lord Augustus Fitz-Plantagenet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Good at all things, but better at a bet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was Jack Jargon, the gigantic guardsman;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And General Fireface, famous in the field,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A great tactician, and no less a swordsman,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who ate, last war, more Yankees than he killed.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There was the waggish Welsh Judge, Jefferies Hardsman,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In his grave office so completely skilled,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That when a culprit came for condemnation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He had his Judge’s joke for consolation.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Good company’s a chess-board⁠—there are kings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Queens, bishops, knights, rooks, pawns; the World’s a game;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Save that the puppets pull at their own strings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Methinks gay Punch hath something of the same.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My Muse, the butterfly hath but her wings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not stings, and flits through ether without aim,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Alighting rarely:⁠—were she but a hornet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps there might be vices which would mourn it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I had forgotten⁠—but must not forget⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An orator, the latest of the session,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who had delivered well a very set", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Smooth speech, his first and maidenly transgression", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Upon debate: the papers echoed yet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With his début, which made a strong impression,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And ranked with what is every day displayed⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“The best first speech that ever yet was made.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Proud of his “Hear hims!” proud, too, of his vote,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lost virginity of oratory,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Proud of his learning (just enough to quote),", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He revelled in his Ciceronian glory:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With memory excellent to get by rote,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With wit to hatch a pun or tell a story,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Graced with some merit, and with more effrontery,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“His country’s pride,” he came down to the country.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There also were two wits by acclamation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Longbow from Ireland, Strongbow from the Tweed⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Both lawyers and both men of education⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Strongbow’s wit was of more polished breed;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Longbow was rich in an imagination", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As beautiful and bounding as a steed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But sometimes stumbling over a potato⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While Strongbow’s best things might have come from Cato.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Strongbow was like a new-tuned harpsichord;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Longbow wild as an Aeolian harp,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With which the Winds of heaven can claim accord,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And make a music, whether flat or sharp.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of Strongbow’s talk you would not change a word:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At Longbow’s phrases you might sometimes carp:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Both wits⁠—one born so, and the other bred⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This by his heart⁠—his rival by his head.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "If all these seem an heterogeneous mass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To be assembled at a country seat,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet think, a specimen of every class", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is better than a humdrum tête-à-tête.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The days of Comedy are gone, alas!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When Congreve’s fool could vie with Molière’s bête:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Society is smoothed to that excess,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That manners hardly differ more than dress.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Our ridicules are kept in the back-ground⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ridiculous enough, but also dull;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Professions, too, are no more to be found", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Professional; and there is nought to cull", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of Folly’s fruit; for though your fools abound,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They’re barren, and not worth the pains to pull.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Society is now one polished horde,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But from being farmers, we turn gleaners, gleaning", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The scanty but right-well threshed ears of Truth;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And, gentle reader! when you gather meaning,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You may be Boaz, and I⁠—modest Ruth.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Further I’d quote, but Scripture intervening", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forbids. A great impression in my youth", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was made by Mrs. Adams, where she cries,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“That Scriptures out of church are blasphemies.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But what we can we glean in this vile age", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of chaff, although our gleanings be not grist.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I must not quite omit the talking sage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Kit-Cat, the famous Conversationist,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who, in his common-place book, had a page", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Prepared each morn for evenings. “List, oh list!”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“Alas, poor ghost!”⁠—What unexpected woes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Await those who have studied their bons-mots!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Firstly, they must allure the conversation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By many windings to their clever clinch;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And secondly, must let slip no occasion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor bate (abate) their hearers of an inch,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But take an ell⁠—and make a great sensation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If possible; and thirdly, never flinch", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When some smart talker puts them to the test,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But seize the last word, which no doubt’s the best.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Lord Henry and his lady were the hosts;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The party we have touched on were the guests.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their table was a board to tempt even ghosts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To pass the Styx for more substantial feasts.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I will not dwell upon ragoûts or roasts,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Albeit all human history attests", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That happiness for Man⁠—the hungry sinner!⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Witness the lands which “flowed with milk and honey,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Held out unto the hungry Israelites:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To this we have added since, the love of money,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The only sort of pleasure which requites.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Youth fades, and leaves our days no longer sunny;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We tire of mistresses and parasites;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But oh, ambrosial cash! Ah! who would lose thee?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When we no more can use, or even abuse thee!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The gentlemen got up betimes to shoot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or hunt: the young, because they liked the sport⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The first thing boys like after play and fruit;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The middle-aged, to make the day more short;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For ennui is a growth of English root,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though nameless in our language:⁠—we retort", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The fact for words, and let the French translate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That awful yawn which sleep can not abate.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The elderly walked through the library,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tumbled books, or criticised the pictures,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or sauntered through the gardens piteously,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And made upon the hot-house several strictures,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or rode a nag which trotted not too high,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or on the morning papers read their lectures,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or on the watch their longing eyes would fix,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Longing at sixty for the hour of six.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But none were gêné: the great hour of union", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was rung by dinner’s knell; till then all were", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Masters of their own time⁠—or in communion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or solitary, as they chose to bear", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The hours, which how to pass is but to few known.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each rose up at his own, and had to spare", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What time he chose for dress, and broke his fast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When, where, and how he chose for that repast.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The ladies⁠—some rouged, some a little pale⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Met the morn as they might. If fine, they rode,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or walked; if foul, they read, or told a tale,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sung, or rehearsed the last dance from abroad;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Discussed the fashion which might next prevail,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And settled bonnets by the newest code,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or crammed twelve sheets into one little letter,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make each correspondent a new debtor.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "For some had absent lovers, all had friends;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The earth has nothing like a she epistle,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And hardly Heaven⁠—because it never ends⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I love the mystery of a female missal,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which, like a creed, ne’er says all it intends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But full of cunning as Ulysses’ whistle,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When he allured poor Dolon:⁠—you had better", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Take care what you reply to such a letter.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then there were billiards; cards, too, but no dice;⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Save in the clubs no man of honour plays;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Boats when ’twas water, skating when ’twas ice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the hard frost destroyed the scenting days:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And angling, too, that solitary vice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whatever Izaak Walton sings or says:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With evening came the banquet and the wine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The conversazione⁠—the duet", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Attuned by voices more or less divine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(My heart or head aches with the memory yet).", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The four Miss Rawbolds in a glee would shine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But the two youngest loved more to be set", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Down to the harp⁠—because to Music’s charms", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They added graceful necks, white hands and arms.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Sometimes a dance (though rarely on field days,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For then the gentlemen were rather tired)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Displayed some sylph-like figures in its maze;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then there was small-talk ready when required;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Flirtation⁠—but decorous; the mere praise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of charms that should or should not be admired.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The hunters fought their fox-hunt o’er again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then retreated soberly⁠—at ten.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The politicians, in a nook apart,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Discussed the World, and settled all the spheres:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The wits watched every loophole for their art,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To introduce a bon-mot head and ears;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Small is the rest of those who would be smart,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A moment’s good thing may have cost them years", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Before they find an hour to introduce it;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then, even then, some bore may make them lose it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But all was gentle and aristocratic", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In this our party; polished, smooth, and cold,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As Phidian forms cut out of marble Attic.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There now are no Squire Westerns, as of old;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And our Sophias are not so emphatic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But fair as then, or fairer to behold:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "We have no accomplished blackguards, like Tom Jones,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But gentlemen in stays, as stiff as stones.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They separated at an early hour;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That is, ere midnight⁠—which is London’s noon:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But in the country ladies seek their bower", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little earlier than the waning moon.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Peace to the slumbers of each folded flower⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May the rose call back its true colour soon!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Good hours of fair cheeks are the fairest tinters,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lower the price of rouge⁠—at least some winters.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }