{ "id": "lord-byron/canto-xiv", "title": "Canto XIV", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Lord Byron", "poet_slug": "lord-byron", "language": "en", "book": "Don Juan", "book_slug": "don-juan", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 16, "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-14.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": 816, "n_stanzas": 102, 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"title": null, "stanza_range": [ 89, 90 ] }, { "ordinal": "XCI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 90, 91 ] }, { "ordinal": "XCII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 91, 92 ] }, { "ordinal": "XCIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 92, 93 ] }, { "ordinal": "XCIV", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 93, 94 ] }, { "ordinal": "XCV", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 94, 95 ] }, { "ordinal": "XCVI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 95, 96 ] }, { "ordinal": "XCVII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 96, 97 ] }, { "ordinal": "XCVIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 97, 98 ] }, { "ordinal": "XCIX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 98, 99 ] }, { "ordinal": "C", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 99, 100 ] }, { "ordinal": "CI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 100, 101 ] }, { "ordinal": "CII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 101, 102 ] } ], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "If from great Nature’s or our own abyss", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Thought we could but snatch a certainty,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps Mankind might find the path they miss⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But then ’t would spoil much good philosophy.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "One system eats another up, and this", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Much as old Saturn ate his progeny;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For when his pious consort gave him stones", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In lieu of sons, of these he made no bones.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But System doth reverse the Titan’s breakfast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And eats her parents, albeit the digestion", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Is difficult. Pray tell me, can you make fast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "After due search, your faith to any question?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Look back o’er ages, ere unto the stake fast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You bind yourself, and call some mode the best one.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nothing more true than not to trust your senses;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet what are your other evidences?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "For me, I know nought; nothing I deny,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Admit⁠—reject⁠—contemn: and what know you,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Except perhaps that you were born to die?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And both may after all turn out untrue.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An age may come, Font of Eternity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When nothing shall be either old or new.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet a third of Life is passed in sleep.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A sleep without dreams, after a rough day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of toil, is what we covet most; and yet", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How clay shrinks back from more quiescent clay!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The very Suicide that pays his debt", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At once without instalments (an old way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of paying debts, which creditors regret),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lets out impatiently his rushing breath,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Less from disgust of Life than dread of Death.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis round him⁠—near him⁠—here⁠—there⁠—everywhere⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there’s a courage which grows out of fear,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps of all most desperate, which will dare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The worst to know it:⁠—when the mountains rear", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their peaks beneath your human foot, and there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You look down o’er the precipice, and drear", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The gulf of rock yawns⁠—you can’t gaze a minute,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without an awful wish to plunge within it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis true, you don’t⁠—but, pale and struck with terror,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Retire: but look into your past impression!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And you will find, though shuddering at the mirror", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of your own thoughts, in all their self-confession,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The lurking bias, be it truth or error,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To the unknown; a secret prepossession,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To plunge with all your fears⁠—but where? You know not,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that’s the reason why you do⁠—or do not.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But what’s this to the purpose? you will say.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gent. reader, nothing; a mere speculation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For which my sole excuse is⁠—’tis my way;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sometimes with and sometimes without occasion,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I write what’s uppermost, without delay;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This narrative is not meant for narration,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But a mere airy and fantastic basis,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To build up common things with common places.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "You know, or don’t know, that great Bacon saith,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Fling up a straw, ’twill show the way the wind blows;”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And such a straw, borne on by human breath,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is Poesy, according as the Mind glows;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A paper kite which flies ’twixt Life and Death,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A shadow which the onward Soul behind throws:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And mine’s a bubble, not blown up for praise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But just to play with, as an infant plays.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The World is all before me⁠—or behind;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For I have seen a portion of that same,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And quite enough for me to keep in mind;⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of passions, too, I have proved enough to blame,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To the great pleasure of our friends, Mankind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who like to mix some slight alloy with fame;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For I was rather famous in my time,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until I fairly knocked it up with rhyme.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I have brought this world about my ears, and eke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The other; that’s to say, the Clergy⁠—who", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Upon my head have bid their thunders break", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In pious libels by no means a few.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And yet I can’t help scribbling once a week,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tiring old readers, nor discovering new.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In Youth I wrote because my mind was full,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now because I feel it growing dull.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But “why then publish?”⁠—There are no rewards", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of fame or profit when the World grows weary.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I ask in turn⁠—Why do you play at cards?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Why drink? Why read?⁠—To make some hour less dreary.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It occupies me to turn back regards", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On what I’ve seen or pondered, sad or cheery;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And what I write I cast upon the stream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To swim or sink⁠—I have had at least my dream.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I think that were I certain of success,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I hardly could compose another line:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So long I’ve battled either more or less,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That no defeat can drive me from the Nine.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "This feeling ’tis not easy to express,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet ’tis not affected, I opine.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In play, there are two pleasures for your choosing⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The one is winning, and the other losing.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Besides, my Muse by no means deals in fiction:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She gathers a repertory of facts,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of course with some reserve and slight restriction,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But mostly sings of human things and acts⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And that’s one cause she meets with contradiction;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For too much truth, at first sight, ne’er attracts;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And were her object only what’s called Glory,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With more ease too she’d tell a different story.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Love⁠—War⁠—a tempest⁠—surely there’s variety;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Also a seasoning slight of lucubration;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A bird’s-eye view, too, of that wild, Society;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A slight glance thrown on men of every station.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If you have nought else, here’s at least satiety,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Both in performance and in preparation;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And though these lines should only line portmanteaus,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Trade will be all the better for these Cantos.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The portion of this World which I at present", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have taken up to fill the following sermon,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Is one of which there’s no description recent:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The reason why is easy to determine:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Although it seems both prominent and pleasant,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There is a sameness in its gems and ermine,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A dull and family likeness through all ages,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of no great promise for poetic pages.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With much to excite, there’s little to exalt;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nothing that speaks to all men and all times;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A sort of varnish over every fault;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A kind of common-place, even in their crimes;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Factitious passions⁠—Wit without much salt⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A want of that true nature which sublimes", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whate’er it shows with Truth; a smooth monotony", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of character, in those at least who have got any.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Sometimes, indeed, like soldiers off parade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They break their ranks and gladly leave the drill;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But then the roll-call draws them back afraid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And they must be or seem what they were: still", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Doubtless it is a brilliant masquerade:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when of the first sight you have had your fill,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It palls⁠—at least it did so upon me,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This paradise of Pleasure and Ennui.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "When we have made our love, and gamed our gaming,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dressed, voted, shone, and, may be, something more⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With dandies dined⁠—heard senators declaiming⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seen beauties brought to market by the score,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sad rakes to sadder husbands chastely taming⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There’s little left but to be bored or bore.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Witness those ci-devant jeunes hommes who stem", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The stream, nor leave the world which leaveth them.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis said⁠—indeed a general complaint⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That no one has succeeded in describing", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The monde, exactly as they ought to paint:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some say, that authors only snatch, by bribing", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The porter, some slight scandals strange and quaint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To furnish matter for their moral gibing;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And that their books have but one style in common⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My Lady’s prattle, filtered through her woman.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But this can’t well be true, just now; for writers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are grown of the beau monde a part potential:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I’ve seen them balance even the scale with fighters,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Especially when young, for that’s essential.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Why do their sketches fail them as inditers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of what they deem themselves most consequential,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The real portrait of the highest tribe?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis that⁠—in fact⁠—there’s little to describe.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Haud ignara loquor;” these are Nugae, “quarum", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pars parva fui,” but still art and part.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Now I could much more easily sketch a harem,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A battle, wreck, or history of the heart,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Than these things; and besides, I wish to spare ’em,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For reasons which I choose to keep apart.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“Vetabo Cereris sacrum qui vulgarit”⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which means, that vulgar people must not share it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And therefore what I throw off is ideal⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lowered, leavened, like a history of Freemasons,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which bears the same relation to the real,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As Captain Parry’s Voyage may do to Jason’s.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The grand Arcanum’s not for men to see all;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My music has some mystic diapasons;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And there is much which could not be appreciated", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In any manner by the uninitiated.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Alas! worlds fall⁠—and Woman, since she felled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The World (as, since that history, less polite", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Than true, hath been a creed so strictly held),", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has not yet given up the practice quite.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Poor Thing of Usages! coerced, compelled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Victim when wrong, and martyr oft when right,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Condemned to child-bed, as men for their sins", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have shaving too entailed upon their chins⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A daily plague, which in the aggregate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May average on the whole with parturition.⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But as to women⁠—who can penetrate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The real sufferings of their she condition?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Man’s very sympathy with their estate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has much of selfishness, and more suspicion.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their love, their virtue, beauty, education,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But form good housekeepers⁠—to breed a nation.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "All this were very well, and can’t be better;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But even this is difficult, Heaven knows,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So many troubles from her birth beset her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such small distinction between friends and foes;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The gilding wears so soon from off her fetter,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That⁠—but ask any woman if she’d choose", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Take her at thirty, that is) to have been", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Female or male? a schoolboy or a Queen?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Petticoat Influence” is a great reproach,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which even those who obey would fain be thought", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To fly from, as from hungry pikes a roach;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But since beneath it upon earth we are brought,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By various joltings of Life’s hackney coach,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I for one venerate a petticoat⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A garment of a mystical sublimity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No matter whether russet, silk, or dimity.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Much I respect, and much I have adored,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In my young days, that chaste and goodly veil,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which holds a treasure, like a miser’s hoard,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And more attracts by all it doth conceal⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A golden scabbard on a Damasque sword,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A loving letter with a mystic seal,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A cure for grief⁠—for what can ever rankle", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before a petticoat and peeping ankle?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And when upon a silent, sullen day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With a Sirocco, for example, blowing,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When even the sea looks dim with all its spray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sulkily the river’s ripple’s flowing,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the sky shows that very ancient gray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sober, sad antithesis to glowing⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis pleasant, if then anything is pleasant,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To catch a glimpse even of a pretty peasant.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "We left our heroes and our heroines", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In that fair clime which don’t depend on climate,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Quite independent of the Zodiac’s signs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though certainly more difficult to rhyme at,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because the Sun, and stars, and aught that shines,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mountains, and all we can be most sublime at,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Are there oft dull and dreary as a dun⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whether a sky’s or tradesman’s is all one.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "An in-door life is less poetical;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And out-of-door hath showers, and mists, and sleet", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With which I could not brew a pastoral:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But be it as it may, a bard must meet", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All difficulties, whether great or small,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To spoil his undertaking, or complete⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And work away⁠—like Spirit upon Matter⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Embarrassed somewhat both with fire and water.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan⁠—in this respect, at least, like saints⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was all things unto people of all sorts,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And lived contentedly, without complaints,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In camps, in ships, in cottages, or courts⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Born with that happy soul which seldom faints,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And mingling modestly in toils or sports.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He likewise could be most things to all women,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without the coxcombry of certain she men.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A fox-hunt to a foreigner is strange;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis also subject to the double danger", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of tumbling first, and having in exchange", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some pleasant jesting at the awkward stranger:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Juan had been early taught to range", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wilds, as doth an Arab turned avenger,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So that his horse, or charger, hunter, hack,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Knew that he had a rider on his back.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And now in this new field, with some applause,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He cleared hedge, ditch, and double post, and rail,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And never craned and made but few “faux pas,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And only fretted when the scent ’gan fail.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He broke, ’tis true, some statutes of the laws", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of hunting⁠—for the sagest youth is frail;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Rode o’er the hounds, it may be, now and then,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And once o’er several Country Gentlemen.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But on the whole, to general admiration,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He acquitted both himself and horse: the Squires", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Marvelled at merit of another nation;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The boors cried “Dang it! who’d have thought it?”⁠—Sires,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Nestors of the sporting generation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swore praises, and recalled their former fires;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Huntsman’s self relented to a grin,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rated him almost a whipper-in.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Such were his trophies⁠—not of spear and shield,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But leaps, and bursts, and sometimes foxes’ brushes;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet I must own⁠—although in this I yield", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To patriot sympathy a Briton’s blushes⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He thought at heart like courtly Chesterfield,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who, after a long chase o’er hills, dales, bushes,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And what not, though he rode beyond all price.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Asked next day, “If men ever hunted twice?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He also had a quality uncommon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To early risers after a long chase,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who wake in winter ere the cock can summon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "December’s drowsy day to his dull race⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A quality agreeable to Woman,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When her soft, liquid words run on apace,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who likes a listener, whether Saint or Sinner⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He did not fall asleep just after dinner;", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But, light and airy, stood on the alert,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shone in the best part of dialogue,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By humouring always what they might assert,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And listening to the topics most in vogue,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Now grave, now gay, but never dull or pert;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And smiling but in secret⁠—cunning rogue!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He ne’er presumed to make an error clearer;⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In short, there never was a better hearer.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And then he danced;⁠—all foreigners excel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The serious Angles in the eloquence", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of pantomime!⁠—he danced, I say, right well,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With emphasis, and also with good sense⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A thing in footing indispensable;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He danced without theatrical pretence,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Not like a ballet-master in the van", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of his drilled nymphs, but like a gentleman.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Chaste were his steps, each kept within due bound,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Elegance was sprinkled o’er his figure;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like swift Camilla, he scarce skimmed the ground,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rather held in than put forth his vigour;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And then he had an ear for Music’s sound,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which might defy a crotchet critic’s rigour.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Such classic pas⁠—sans flaws⁠—set off our hero,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He glanced like a personified Bolero;", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Or like a flying Hour before Aurora,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In Guido’s famous fresco (which alone", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Is worth a tour to Rome, although no more a", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remnant were there of the old World’s sole throne):", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The “tout ensemble” of his movements wore a", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grace of the soft Ideal, seldom shown,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And ne’er to be described; for to the dolour", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of bards and prosers, words are void of colour.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "No marvel then he was a favourite;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A full-grown Cupid, very much admired;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A little spoilt, but by no means so quite;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least he kept his vanity retired.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Such was his tact, he could alike delight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The chaste, and those who are not so much inspired.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Duchess of Fitz-Fulke, who loved tracasserie,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Began to treat him with some small agacerie.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She was a fine and somewhat full-blown blonde,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Desirable, distinguished, celebrated", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For several winters in the grand, grand Monde:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I’d rather not say what might be related", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of her exploits, for this were ticklish ground;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Besides there might be falsehood in what’s stated:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her late performance had been a dead set", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At Lord Augustus Fitz-Plantagenet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "This noble personage began to look", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little black upon this new flirtation;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But such small licences must lovers brook,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mere freedoms of the female corporation.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Woe to the man who ventures a rebuke!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twill but precipitate a situation", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Extremely disagreeable, but common", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To calculators when they count on Woman.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The circle smiled, then whispered, and then sneered;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The misses bridled, and the matrons frowned;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some hoped things might not turn out as they feared;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some would not deem such women could be found;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some ne’er believed one half of what they heard;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some looked perplexed, and others looked profound:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And several pitied with sincere regret", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Poor Lord Augustus Fitz-Plantagenet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But what is odd, none ever named the Duke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who, one might think, was something in the affair:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "True, he was absent, and, ’twas rumoured, took", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But small concern about the when, or where,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or what his consort did: if he could brook", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her gaieties, none had a right to stare:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Theirs was that best of unions, past all doubt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which never meets, and therefore can’t fall out.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But, oh! that I should ever pen so sad a line!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fired with an abstract love of Virtue, she,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My Dian of the Ephesians, Lady Adeline,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Began to think the Duchess’ conduct free;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Regretting much that she had chosen so bad a line,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And waxing chiller in her courtesy,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Looked grave and pale to see her friend’s fragility,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For which most friends reserve their sensibility.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There’s nought in this bad world like sympathy:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis so becoming to the soul and face,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sets to soft music the harmonious sigh,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And robes sweet Friendship in a Brussels lace.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Without a friend, what were Humanity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hunt our errors up with a good grace?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Consoling us with⁠—“Would you had thought twice!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ah! if you had but followed my advice!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O Job! you had two friends: one’s quite enough,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Especially when we are ill at ease;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They’re but bad pilots when the weather’s rough,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Doctors less famous for their cures than fees.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Let no man grumble when his friends fall off,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As they will do like leaves at the first breeze:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When your affairs come round, one way or t’ other,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Go to the coffee-house, and take another.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But this is not my maxim: had it been,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some heart-aches had been spared me: yet I care not⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I would not be a tortoise in his screen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of stubborn shell, which waves and weather wear not:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis better on the whole to have felt and seen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That which Humanity may bear, or bear not:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Twill teach discernment to the sensitive,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And not to pour their Ocean in a sieve.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sadder than owl-songs or the midnight blast,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Is that portentous phrase, “I told you so,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Uttered by friends, those prophets of the past,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who, ’stead of saying what you now should do,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Own they foresaw that you would fall at last,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And solace your slight lapse ’gainst bonos mores,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With a long memorandum of old stories.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Lady Adeline’s serene severity", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was not confined to feeling for her friend,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whose fame she rather doubted with posterity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unless her habits should begin to mend:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Juan also shared in her austerity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But mixed with pity, pure as e’er was penned", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His Inexperience moved her gentle ruth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And (as her junior by six weeks) his Youth.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "These forty days’ advantage of her years⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hers were those which can face calculation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Boldly referring to the list of Peers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And noble births, nor dread the enumeration⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Gave her a right to have maternal fears", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For a young gentleman’s fit education,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though she was far from that leap year, whose leap,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In female dates, strikes Time all of a heap.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "This may be fixed at somewhere before thirty⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Say seven-and-twenty; for I never knew", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The strictest in chronology and virtue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Advance beyond, while they could pass for new.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "O Time! why dost not pause? Thy scythe, so dirty", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With rust, should surely cease to hack and hew:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Reset it⁠—shave more smoothly, also slower,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If but to keep thy credit as a mower.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Adeline was far from that ripe age,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose ripeness is but bitter at the best:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Twas rather her Experience made her sage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For she had seen the World and stood its test,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As I have said in⁠—I forget what page;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My Muse despises reference, as you have guessed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By this time;⁠—but strike six from seven-and-twenty,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And you will find her sum of years in plenty.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "At sixteen she came out; presented, vaunted,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She put all coronets into commotion:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At seventeen, too, the World was still enchanted", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With the new Venus of their brilliant Ocean:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At eighteen, though below her feet still panted", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A Hecatomb of suitors with devotion,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She had consented to create again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That Adam, called “The happiest of Men.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Since then she had sparkled through three glowing winters,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Admired, adored; but also so correct,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That she had puzzled all the acutest hinters,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without the apparel of being circumspect:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They could not even glean the slightest splinters", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From off the marble, which had no defect.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She had also snatched a moment since her marriage", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To bear a son and heir⁠—and one miscarriage.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Fondly the wheeling fire-flies flew around her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those little glitterers of the London night;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But none of these possessed a sting to wound her⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She was a pitch beyond a coxcomb’s flight.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps she wished an aspirant profounder;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But whatsoe’er she wished, she acted right;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And whether Coldness, Pride, or Virtue dignify", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A Woman⁠—so she’s good⁠—what does it signify?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I hate a motive, like a lingering bottle", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which with the landlord makes too long a stand,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Leaving all-claretless the unmoistened throttle,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Especially with politics on hand;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I hate it, as I hate a drove of cattle,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who whirl the dust as Simooms whirl the sand;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I hate it as I hate an argument,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A Laureate’s Ode, or servile Peer’s “Content.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis sad to hack into the roots of things,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They are so much intertwisted with the earth;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So that the branch a goodly verdure flings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I reck not if an acorn gave it birth.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To trace all actions to their secret springs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would make indeed some melancholy mirth:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But this is not at present my concern,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I refer you to wise Oxenstiern.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With the kind view of saving an éclat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Both to the Duchess and Diplomatist,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Lady Adeline, as soon’s she saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That Juan was unlikely to resist⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(For foreigners don’t know that a faux pas", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In England ranks quite on a different list", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From those of other lands unblest with juries,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose verdict for such sin a certain cure is;⁠—)", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Lady Adeline resolved to take", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such measures as she thought might best impede", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The farther progress of this sad mistake.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She thought with some simplicity indeed;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Innocence is bold even at the stake,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And simple in the World, and doth not need", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nor use those palisades by dames erected,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose virtue lies in never being detected.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It was not that she feared the very worst:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His Grace was an enduring, married man,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And was not likely all at once to burst", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Into a scene, and swell the clients’ clan", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of Doctors’ Commons; but she dreaded first", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The magic of her Grace’s talisman,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And next a quarrel (as he seemed to fret)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Lord Augustus Fitz-Plantagenet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Her Grace, too, passed for being an intrigante,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And somewhat méchante in her amorous sphere;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "One of those pretty, precious plagues, which haunt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A lover with caprices soft and dear,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That like to make a quarrel, when they can’t", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Find one, each day of the delightful year:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Bewitching, torturing, as they freeze or glow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And⁠—what is worst of all⁠—won’t let you go:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The sort of thing to turn a young man’s head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or make a Werter of him in the end.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "No wonder then a purer soul should dread", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This sort of chaste liaison for a friend;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It were much better to be wed or dead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than wear a heart a Woman loves to rend.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis best to pause, and think, ere you rush on,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If that a bonne fortune be really bonne.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And first, in the overflowing of her heart,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which really knew or thought it knew no guile,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She called her husband now and then apart,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bade him counsel Juan. With a smile", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lord Henry heard her plans of artless art", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To wean Don Juan from the Siren’s wile;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And answered, like a statesman or a prophet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In such guise that she could make nothing of it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Firstly, he said, “he never interfered", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In anybody’s business but the King’s:”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Next, that “he never judged from what appeared,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without strong reason, of those sort of things:”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thirdly, that “Juan had more brain than beard,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And was not to be held in leading strings;”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And fourthly, what need hardly be said twice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“That good but rarely came from good advice.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And, therefore, doubtless to approve the truth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of the last axiom, he advised his spouse", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To leave the parties to themselves, forsooth⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least as far as bienséance allows:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That time would temper Juan’s faults of youth;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That young men rarely made monastic vows;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That Opposition only more attaches⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But here a messenger brought in despatches:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And being of the council called “the Privy,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lord Henry walked into his cabinet,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To furnish matter for some future Livy", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To tell how he reduced the Nation’s debt;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And if their full contents I do not give ye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It is because I do not know them yet;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But I shall add them in a brief appendix,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To come between mine Epic and its index.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But ere he went, he added a slight hint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Another gentle common-place or two,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Such as are coined in Conversation’s mint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pass, for want of better, though not new:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Then broke his packet, to see what was in ’t,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And having casually glanced it through,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Retired: and, as he went out, calmly kissed her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Less like a young wife than an agèd sister.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He was a cold, good, honourable man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Proud of his birth, and proud of everything;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A goodly spirit for a state Divan,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A figure fit to walk before a King;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Tall, stately, formed to lead the courtly van", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On birthdays, glorious with a star and string;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The very model of a chamberlain⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And such I mean to make him when I reign.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But there was something wanting on the whole⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I don’t know what, and therefore cannot tell⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which pretty women⁠—the sweet souls!⁠—call soul.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Certes it was not body; he was well", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Proportioned, as a poplar or a pole,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A handsome man, that human miracle;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And in each circumstance of Love or War", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had still preserved his perpendicular.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Still there was something wanting, as I’ve said⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That undefinable “Je ne sçais quoi”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which, for what I know, may of yore have led", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Homer’s Iliad, since it drew to Troy", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Greek Eve, Helen, from the Spartan’s bed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though on the whole, no doubt, the Dardan boy", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was much inferior to King Menelaüs:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But thus it is some women will betray us.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There is an awkward thing which much perplexes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unless like wise Tiresias we had proved", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By turns the difference of the several sexes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Neither can show quite how they would be loved.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Sensual for a short time but connects us⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Sentimental boasts to be unmoved;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But both together form a kind of Centaur,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon whose back ’tis better not to venture.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A something all-sufficient for the heart", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is that for which the sex are always seeking:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But how to fill up that same vacant part?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There lies the rub⁠—and this they are but weak in.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Frail mariners afloat without a chart,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They run before the wind through high seas breaking;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And when they have made the shore through every shock,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis odd⁠—or odds⁠—it may turn out a rock.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There is a flower called “Love in Idleness,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For which see Shakespeare’s ever-blooming garden;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I will not make his great description less,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And beg his British godship’s humble pardon,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If, in my extremity of rhyme’s distress,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I touch a single leaf where he is warden;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But, though the flower is different, with the French", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or Swiss Rousseau⁠—cry “Voilà la Pervenche!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Eureka! I have found it! What I mean", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To say is, not that Love is Idleness,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But that in Love such idleness has been", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An accessory, as I have cause to guess.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Hard Labour’s an indifferent go-between;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your men of business are not apt to express", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Much passion, since the merchant-ship, the Argo,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Conveyed Medea as her supercargo.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Beatus ille procul!” from “negotiis,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saith Horace; the great little poet’s wrong;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His other maxim, “Noscitur à sociis,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is much more to the purpose of his song;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though even that were sometimes too ferocious,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unless good company be kept too long;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But, in his teeth, whate’er their state or station,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thrice happy they who have an occupation!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Adam exchanged his Paradise for ploughing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Eve made up millinery with fig leaves⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The earliest knowledge from the Tree so knowing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As far as I know, that the Church receives:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And since that time it need not cost much showing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That many of the ills o’er which Man grieves,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And still more Women, spring from not employing", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some hours to make the remnant worth enjoying.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And hence high life is oft a dreary void,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A rack of pleasures, where we must invent", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A something wherewithal to be annoyed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bards may sing what they please about Content;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Contented, when translated, means but cloyed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hence arise the woes of Sentiment,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Blue-devils⁠—and Blue-stockings⁠—and Romances", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reduced to practice, and performed like dances.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I do declare, upon an affidavit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Romances I ne’er read like those I have seen;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nor, if unto the World I ever gave it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would some believe that such a tale had been:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But such intent I never had, nor have it;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some truths are better kept behind a screen,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Especially when they would look like lies;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I therefore deal in generalities.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“An oyster may be crossed in love”⁠—and why?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because he mopeth idly in his shell,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And heaves a lonely subterraqueous sigh,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Much as a monk may do within his cell:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And à-propos of monks, their Piety", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Sloth hath found it difficult to dwell:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Those vegetables of the Catholic creed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are apt exceedingly to run to seed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O Wilberforce! thou man of black renown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose merit none enough can sing or say,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thou hast struck one immense Colossus down,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thou moral Washington of Africa!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But there’s another little thing, I own,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which you should perpetrate some summer’s day,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And set the other half of Earth to rights;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You have freed the blacks⁠—now pray shut up the whites.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Shut up the bald-coot bully Alexander!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ship off the Holy Three to Senegal;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Teach them that “sauce for goose is sauce for gander,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ask them how they like to be in thrall?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Shut up each high heroic Salamander,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who eats fire gratis (since the pay’s but small);", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Shut up⁠—no, not the King, but the Pavilion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or else ’twill cost us all another million.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Shut up the World at large, let Bedlam out;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And you will be perhaps surprised to find", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All things pursue exactly the same route,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As now with those of soi-disant sound mind.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "This I could prove beyond a single doubt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were there a jot of sense among Mankind;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But till that point d’appui is found, alas!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like Archimedes, I leave Earth as ’twas.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Our gentle Adeline had one defect⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her heart was vacant, though a splendid mansion;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her conduct had been perfectly correct,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As she had seen nought claiming its expansion.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A wavering spirit may be easier wrecked,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because ’tis frailer, doubtless, than a staunch one;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But when the latter works its own undoing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its inner crash is like an Earthquake’s ruin.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She loved her Lord, or thought so; but that love", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cost her an effort, which is a sad toil,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The stone of Sisyphus, if once we move", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our feelings ’gainst the nature of the soil.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She had nothing to complain of, or reprove,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No bickerings, no connubial turmoil:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their union was a model to behold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Serene and noble⁠—conjugal, but cold.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was no great disparity of years,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though much in temper; but they never clashed:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They moved like stars united in their spheres,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or like the Rhone by Leman’s waters washed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Where mingled and yet separate appears", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The River from the Lake, all bluely dashed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Through the serene and placid glassy deep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which fain would lull its river-child to sleep.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now when she once had ta’en an interest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In anything, however she might flatter", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Herself that her intentions were the best,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Intense intentions are a dangerous matter:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Impressions were much stronger than she guessed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gathered as they run like growing water", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Upon her mind; the more so, as her breast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was not at first too readily impressed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But when it was, she had that lurking Demon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of double nature, and thus doubly named⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Firmness yclept in Heroes, Kings, and seamen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That is, when they succeed; but greatly blamed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As Obstinacy, both in Men and Women,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whene’er their triumph pales, or star is tamed:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And ’twill perplex the casuist in morality", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To fix the due bounds of this dangerous quality.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Had Bonaparte won at Waterloo,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It had been firmness; now ’tis pertinacity:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Must the event decide between the two?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I leave it to your people of sagacity", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To draw the line between the false and true,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If such can e’er be drawn by Man’s capacity:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My business is with Lady Adeline,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who in her way too was a heroine.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She knew not her own heart; then how should I?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I think not she was then in love with Juan:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If so, she would have had the strength to fly", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wild sensation, unto her a new one:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She merely felt a common sympathy", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(I will not say it was a false or true one)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In him, because she thought he was in danger⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her husband’s friend⁠—her own⁠—young⁠—and a stranger.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She was, or thought she was, his friend⁠—and this", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without the farce of Friendship, or romance", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of Platonism, which leads so oft amiss", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ladies who have studied Friendship but in France", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or Germany, where people purely kiss.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To thus much Adeline would not advance;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But of such friendship as Man’s may to Man be", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She was as capable as Woman can be.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "No doubt the secret influence of the Sex", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Will there, as also in the ties of blood,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An innocent predominance annex,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tune the concord to a finer mood.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If free from Passion, which all Friendship checks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And your true feelings fully understood,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "No friend like to a woman Earth discovers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So that you have not been nor will be lovers.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Love bears within its breast the very germ", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Change; and how should this be otherwise?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That violent things more quickly find a term", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is shown through Nature’s whole analogies;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And how should the most fierce of all be firm?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would you have endless lightning in the skies?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Methinks Love’s very title says enough:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How should “the tender passion” e’er be tough?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Alas! by all experience, seldom yet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(I merely quote what I have heard from many)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had lovers not some reason to regret", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The passion which made Solomon a zany.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I’ve also seen some wives (not to forget", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The marriage state, the best or worst of any)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who were the very paragons of wives,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet made the misery of at least two lives.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I’ve also seen some female friends (’tis odd,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But true⁠—as, if expedient, I could prove)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That faithful were through thick and thin, abroad,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At home, far more than ever yet was Love⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who did not quit me when Oppression trod", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon me; whom no scandal could remove;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who fought, and fight, in absence, too, my battles,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Despite the snake Society’s loud rattles.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Whether Don Juan and chaste Adeline", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grew friends in this or any other sense,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Will be discussed hereafter, I opine:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At present I am glad of a pretence", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To leave them hovering, as the effect is fine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And keeps the atrocious reader in suspense;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The surest way⁠—for ladies and for books⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To bait their tender⁠—or their tenter⁠—hooks.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Whether they rode, or walked, or studied Spanish,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To read Don Quixote in the original,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A pleasure before which all others vanish;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whether their talk was of the kind called “small,”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or serious, are the topics I must banish", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To the next Canto; where perhaps I shall", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Say something to the purpose, and display", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Considerable talent in my way.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Above all, I beg all men to forbear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Anticipating aught about the matter:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They’ll only make mistakes about the fair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Juan, too, especially the latter.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And I shall take a much more serious air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than I have yet done, in this Epic Satire.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It is not clear that Adeline and Juan", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Will fall; but if they do, ’twill be their ruin.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But great things spring from little:⁠—Would you think,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That in our youth, as dangerous a passion", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As e’er brought Man and Woman to the brink", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of ruin, rose from such a slight occasion,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As few would ever dream could form the link", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of such a sentimental situation?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "You’ll never guess, I’ll bet you millions, milliards⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It all sprung from a harmless game at billiards.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis strange⁠—but true; for Truth is always strange⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stranger than fiction: if it could be told,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How much would novels gain by the exchange!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How differently the World would men behold!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How oft would Vice and Virtue places change!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The new world would be nothing to the old,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If some Columbus of the moral seas", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would show mankind their Souls’ antipodes.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "What “antres vast and deserts idle,” then,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would be discovered in the human soul!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What icebergs in the hearts of mighty men,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With self-love in the centre as their Pole!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What Anthropophagi are nine of ten", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of those who hold the kingdoms in control!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Were things but only called by their right name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Caesar himself would be ashamed of Fame.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }