{ "id": "lord-byron/canto-xv", "title": "Canto XV", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Lord Byron", "poet_slug": "lord-byron", "language": "en", "book": "Don Juan", "book_slug": "don-juan", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 17, "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-15.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": 792, "n_stanzas": 99, 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75 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXVI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 75, 76 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXVII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 76, 77 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXVIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 77, 78 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXIX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 78, 79 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 79, 80 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 80, 81 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 81, 82 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 82, 83 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXIV", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 83, 84 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXV", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 84, 85 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXVI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 85, 86 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXVII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 86, 87 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXVIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 87, 88 ] }, { "ordinal": "LXXXIX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 88, 89 ] }, { "ordinal": "XC", "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 ] } ], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "Ah!⁠—What should follow slips from my reflection;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whatever follows ne’ertheless may be", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As à-propos of Hope or Retrospection,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though the lurking thought had followed free.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All present life is but an Interjection,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An “Oh!” or “Ah!” of Joy or Misery,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or a “Ha! ha!” or “Bah!”⁠—a yawn, or “Pooh!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of which perhaps the latter is most true.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But, more or less, the whole’s a Syncopé", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or a Singultus⁠—emblems of Emotion,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The grand Antithesis to great Ennui,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wherewith we break our bubbles on the Ocean⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That Watery Outline of Eternity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or miniature, at least, as is my notion⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which ministers unto the Soul’s delight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In seeing matters which are out of sight.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But all are better than the sigh suppressed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Corroding in the cavern of the heart,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Making the countenance a masque of rest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And turning Human Nature to an art.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Few men dare show their thoughts of worst or best;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dissimulation always sets apart", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A corner for herself; and, therefore, Fiction", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is that which passes with least contradiction.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ah! who can tell? Or rather, who can not", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remember, without telling, Passion’s errors?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The drainer of Oblivion, even the sot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hath got blue devils for his morning mirrors:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What though on Lethe’s stream he seem to float,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He cannot sink his tremours or his terrors;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The ruby glass that shakes within his hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Leaves a sad sediment of Time’s worst sand.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And as for Love⁠—O Love!⁠—We will proceed:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Lady Adeline Amundeville,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A pretty name as one would wish to read,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must perch harmonious on my tuneful quill.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There’s Music in the sighing of a reed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There’s Music in the gushing of a rill;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There’s Music in all things, if men had ears:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their Earth is but an echo of the Spheres.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Lady Adeline, Right Honourable,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And honoured, ran a risk of growing less so;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For few of the soft sex are very stable", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In their resolves⁠—alas! that I should say so;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They differ as wine differs from its label,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When once decanted;⁠—I presume to guess so,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But will not swear: yet both upon occasion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till old, may undergo adulteration.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Adeline was of the purest vintage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The unmingled essence of the grape; and yet", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Bright as a new napoleon from its mintage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or glorious as a diamond richly set;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A page where Time should hesitate to print age,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for which Nature might forego her debt⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sole creditor whose process doth involve in’t", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The luck of finding everybody solvent.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O Death! thou dunnest of all duns! thou daily", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Knockest at doors, at first with modest tap,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like a meek tradesman when approaching palely", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some splendid debtor he would take by sap:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But oft denied, as Patience ’gins to fail, he", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Advances with exasperated rap,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And (if let in) insists, in terms unhandsome,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On ready money, or “a draft on Ransom.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Whate’er thou takest, spare awhile poor Beauty!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She is so rare, and thou hast so much prey.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What though she now and then may slip from duty,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The more’s the reason why you ought to stay;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Gaunt Gourmand! with whole nations for your booty⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You should be civil in a modest way:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Suppress, then, some slight feminine diseases,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And take as many heroes as Heaven pleases.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Fair Adeline, the more ingenuous", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where she was interested (as was said),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because she was not apt, like some of us,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To like too readily, or too high bred", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To show it⁠—(points we need not now discuss)⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would give up artlessly both Heart and Head", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Unto such feelings as seemed innocent,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For objects worthy of the sentiment.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some parts of Juan’s history, which Rumour,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That live Gazette, had scattered to disfigure,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She had heard; but Women hear with more good humour", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such aberrations than we men of rigour:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Besides, his conduct, since in England, grew more", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strict, and his mind assumed a manlier vigour:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because he had, like Alcibiades,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The art of living in all climes with ease.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "His manner was perhaps the more seductive,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because he ne’er seemed anxious to seduce;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nothing affected, studied, or constructive", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of coxcombry or conquest: no abuse", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of his attractions marred the fair perspective,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To indicate a Cupidon broke loose,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And seem to say, “Resist us if you can”⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which makes a Dandy while it spoils a Man.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They are wrong⁠—that’s not the way to set about it;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As, if they told the truth, could well be shown.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But, right or wrong, Don Juan was without it;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In fact, his manner was his own alone:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sincere he was⁠—at least you could not doubt it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In listening merely to his voice’s tone.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Devil hath not in all his quiver’s choice", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An arrow for the Heart like a sweet voice.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "By nature soft, his whole address held off", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Suspicion: though not timid, his regard", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was such as rather seemed to keep aloof,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To shield himself than put you on your guard:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps ’twas hardly quite assured enough,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Modesty’s at times its own reward,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like Virtue; and the absence of pretension", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Will go much farther than there’s need to mention.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Serene, accomplished, cheerful but not loud;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Insinuating without insinuation;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Observant of the foibles of the crowd,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet ne’er betraying this in conversation;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Proud with the proud, yet courteously proud,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So as to make them feel he knew his station", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And theirs:⁠—without a struggle for priority,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He neither brooked nor claimed superiority⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That is, with Men: with Women he was what", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They pleased to make or take him for; and their", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Imagination’s quite enough for that:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So that the outline’s tolerably fair,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They fill the canvas up⁠—and “verbum sat.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If once their fantasies be brought to bear", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Upon an object, whether sad or playful,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They can transfigure brighter than a Raphael.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Adeline, no deep judge of character,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was apt to add a colouring from her own:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis thus the Good will amiably err,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And eke the Wise, as has been often shown.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Experience is the chief philosopher,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But saddest when his science is well known:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And persecuted Sages teach the Schools", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their folly in forgetting there are fools.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Was it not so, great Locke? and greater Bacon?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Great Socrates? And thou, Diviner still,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whose lot it is by Man to be mistaken,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thy pure creed made sanction of all ill?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Redeeming Worlds to be by bigots shaken,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How was thy toil rewarded? We might fill", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Volumes with similar sad illustrations,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But leave them to the conscience of the nations.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I perch upon an humbler promontory,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amidst Life’s infinite variety:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With no great care for what is nicknamed Glory,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But speculating as I cast mine eye", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "On what may suit or may not suit my story,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And never straining hard to versify,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I rattle on exactly as I’d talk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With anybody in a ride or walk.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I don’t know that there may be much ability", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shown in this sort of desultory rhyme;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But there’s a conversational facility,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which may round off an hour upon a time.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of this I’m sure at least, there’s no servility", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In mine irregularity of chime,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which rings what’s uppermost of new or hoary,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Just as I feel the Improvvisatore.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Omnia vult belle Matho dicere⁠—dic aliquando", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Et bene, dic neutrum, dic aliquando male.”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The first is rather more than mortal can do;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The second may be sadly done or gaily;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The third is still more difficult to stand to;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fourth we hear, and see, and say too, daily:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The whole together is what I could wish", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To serve in this conundrum of a dish.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A modest hope⁠—but Modesty’s my forte,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Pride my feeble:⁠—let us ramble on.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I meant to make this poem very short,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But now I can’t tell where it may not run.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "No doubt, if I had wished to pay my court", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To critics, or to hail the setting sun", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of Tyranny of all kinds, my concision", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were more;⁠—but I was born for opposition.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But then ’tis mostly on the weaker side;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So that I verily believe if they", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who now are basking in their full-blown pride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were shaken down, and “dogs had had their day,”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though at the first I might perchance deride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their tumble, I should turn the other way,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And wax an ultra-royalist in Loyalty,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because I hate even democratic Royalty.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I think I should have made a decent spouse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If I had never proved the soft condition;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I think I should have made monastic vows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But for my own peculiar superstition:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Gainst rhyme I never should have knocked my brows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor broken my own head, nor that of Priscian,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nor worn the motley mantle of a poet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If some one had not told me to forego it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But laissez aller⁠—Knights and Dames I sing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such as the times may furnish. ’Tis a flight", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which seems at first to need no lofty wing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Plumed by Longinus or the Stagyrite:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The difficulty lies in colouring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Keeping the due proportions still in sight)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With Nature manners which are artificial,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rend’ring general that which is especial.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The difference is, that in the days of old", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men made the Manners; Manners now make men⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pinned like a flock, and fleeced too in their fold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least nine, and a ninth beside of ten.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Now this at all events must render cold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your writers, who must either draw again", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Days better drawn before, or else assume", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The present, with their common-place costume.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "We’ll do our best to make the best on ’t:⁠—March!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "March, my Muse! If you cannot fly, yet flutter;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And when you may not be sublime, be arch,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or starch, as are the edicts statesmen utter.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "We surely may find something worth research:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Columbus found a new world in a cutter,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or brigantine, or pink, of no great tonnage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While yet America was in her non-age.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "When Adeline, in all her growing sense", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Juan’s merits and his situation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Felt on the whole an interest intense⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Partly perhaps because a fresh sensation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or that he had an air of innocence,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which is for Innocence a sad temptation⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As Women hate half measures, on the whole,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She ’gan to ponder how to save his soul.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She had a good opinion of Advice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like all who give and eke receive it gratis,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For which small thanks are still the market price,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even where the article at highest rate is:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She thought upon the subject twice or thrice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And morally decided⁠—the best state is", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For Morals⁠—Marriage; and, this question carried,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She seriously advised him to get married.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan replied, with all becoming deference,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He had a predilection for that tie;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But that, at present, with immediate reference", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To his own circumstances, there might lie", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some difficulties, as in his own preference,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or that of her to whom he might apply:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That still he’d wed with such or such a lady,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If that they were not married all already.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Next to the making matches for herself,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And daughters, brothers, sisters, kith or kin,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Arranging them like books on the same shelf,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There’s nothing women love to dabble in", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "More (like a stock-holder in growing pelf)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than match-making in general: ’tis no sin", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Certes, but a preventative, and therefore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That is, no doubt, the only reason wherefore.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But never yet (except of course a miss", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unwed, or mistress never to be wed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or wed already, who object to this)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was there chaste dame who had not in her head", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some drama of the marriage Unities,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Observed as strictly both at board and bed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As those of Aristotle, though sometimes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They turn out Melodrames or Pantomimes.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They generally have some only son,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some heir to a large property, some friend", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of an old family, some gay Sir John,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or grave Lord George, with whom perhaps might end", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A line, and leave Posterity undone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unless a marriage was applied to mend", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The prospect and their morals: and besides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They have at hand a blooming glut of brides.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "From these they will be careful to select,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For this an heiress, and for that a beauty;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For one a songstress who hath no defect,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For t’ other one who promises much duty;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For this a lady no one can reject,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose sole accomplishments were quite a booty;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A second for her excellent connections;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A third, because there can be no objections.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "When Rapp the Harmonist embargoed Marriage", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In his harmonious settlement⁠—(which flourishes", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Strangely enough as yet without miscarriage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because it breeds no more mouths than it nourishes,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Without those sad expenses which disparage", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What Nature naturally most encourages)⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Why called he “Harmony” a state sans wedlock?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now here I’ve got the preacher at a dead lock.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Because he either meant to sneer at Harmony", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or Marriage, by divorcing them thus oddly.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But whether reverend Rapp learned this in Germany", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or no, ’tis said his sect is rich and godly,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pious and pure, beyond what I can term any", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of ours, although they propagate more broadly.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My objection’s to his title, not his ritual.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Although I wonder how it grew habitual.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Rapp is the reverse of zealous matrons,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who favour, malgré Malthus, Generation⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Professors of that genial art, and patrons", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of all the modest part of Propagation;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which after all at such a desperate rate runs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That half its produce tends to Emigration,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That sad result of passions and potatoes⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two weeds which pose our economic Catos.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Had Adeline read Malthus? I can’t tell;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I wish she had: his book’s the eleventh commandment,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which says, “Thou shall not marry,” unless well:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This he (as far as I can understand) meant.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis not my purpose on his views to dwell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor canvass what “so eminent a hand” meant;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But, certes, it conducts to lives ascetic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or turning Marriage into Arithmetic.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Adeline, who probably presumed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That Juan had enough of maintenance,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or separate maintenance, in case ’twas doomed⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As on the whole it is an even chance", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That bridegrooms, after they are fairly groomed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May retrograde a little in the Dance", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of Marriage⁠—(which might form a painter’s fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like Holbein’s “Dance of Death”⁠—but ’tis the same)⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Adeline determined Juan’s wedding", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In her own mind, and that’s enough for Woman:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But then, with whom? There was the sage Miss Reading,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Miss Raw, Miss Flaw, Miss Showman, and Miss Knowman,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the two fair co-heiresses Giltbedding.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She deemed his merits something more than common:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All these were unobjectionable matches,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And might go on, if well wound up, like watches.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was Miss Millpond, smooth as summer’s sea,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That usual paragon, an only daughter,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who seemed the cream of Equanimity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till skimmed⁠—and then there was some milk and water,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With a slight shade of blue too, it might be,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath the surface; but what did it matter?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Love’s riotous, but Marriage should have quiet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And being consumptive, live on a milk diet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And then there was the Miss Audacia Shoestring,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A dashing demoiselle of good estate,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whose heart was fixed upon a star or blue string;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But whether English Dukes grew rare of late,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or that she had not harped upon the true string,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By which such Sirens can attract our great,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She took up with some foreign younger brother,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A Russ or Turk⁠—the one’s as good as t’ other.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And then there was⁠—but why should I go on,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unless the ladies should go off?⁠—there was", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Indeed a certain fair and fairy one,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of the best class, and better than her class⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Aurora Raby, a young star who shone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er Life, too sweet an image for such glass,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A lovely being, scarcely formed or moulded,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded;", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Rich, noble, but an orphan⁠—left an only", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Child to the care of guardians good and kind⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But still her aspect had an air so lonely;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blood is not water; and where shall we find", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Feelings of Youth like those which overthrown lie", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By Death, when we are left, alas! behind,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To feel, in friendless palaces, a home", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is wanting, and our best ties in the tomb?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Early in years, and yet more infantine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In figure, she had something of Sublime", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In eyes which sadly shone, as Seraphs’ shine.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All Youth⁠—but with an aspect beyond Time;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Radiant and grave⁠—as pitying Man’s decline;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mournful⁠—but mournful of another’s crime,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She looked as if she sat by Eden’s door,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And grieved for those who could return no more.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She was a Catholic, too, sincere, austere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As far as her own gentle heart allowed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And deemed that fallen worship far more dear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps because ’twas fallen: her Sires were proud", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of deeds and days when they had filled the ear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of nations, and had never bent or bowed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To novel power; and as she was the last,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She held their old faith and old feelings fast.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She gazed upon a World she scarcely knew,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As seeking not to know it; silent, lone,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As grows a flower, thus quietly she grew,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And kept her heart serene within its zone.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There was awe in the homage which she drew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her Spirit seemed as seated on a throne", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Apart from the surrounding world, and strong", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In its own strength⁠—most strange in one so young!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now it so happened, in the catalogue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Adeline, Aurora was omitted,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Although her birth and wealth had given her vogue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond the charmers we have already cited;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her beauty also seemed to form no clog", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against her being mentioned as well fitted,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By many virtues, to be worth the trouble", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of single gentlemen who would be double.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And this omission, like that of the bust", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Brutus at the pageant of Tiberius,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Made Juan wonder, as no doubt he must.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This he expressed half smiling and half serious;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When Adeline replied with some disgust,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And with an air, to say the least, imperious,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She marvelled “what he saw in such a baby", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As that prim, silent, cold Aurora Raby?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan rejoined⁠—“She was a Catholic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And therefore fittest, as of his persuasion;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Since he was sure his mother would fall sick,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the Pope thunder excommunication,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If⁠—” But here Adeline, who seemed to pique", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Herself extremely on the inoculation", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of others with her own opinions, stated⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As usual⁠—the same reason which she late did.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And wherefore not? A reasonable reason,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If good, is none the worse for repetition;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If bad, the best way’s certainly to tease on,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And amplify: you lose much by concision,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whereas insisting in or out of season", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Convinces all men, even a politician;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or⁠—what is just the same⁠—it wearies out.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So the end’s gained, what signifies the route?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Why Adeline had this slight prejudice⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For prejudice it was⁠—against a creature", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As pure, as Sanctity itself, from Vice⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With all the added charm of form and feature⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For me appears a question far too nice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Since Adeline was liberal by nature;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Nature’s Nature, and has more caprices", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than I have time, or will, to take to pieces.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Perhaps she did not like the quiet way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With which Aurora on those baubles looked,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which charm most people in their earlier day:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For there are few things by Mankind less brooked,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Womankind too, if we so may say,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than finding thus their genius stand rebuked,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like “Antony’s by Caesar,” by the few", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who look upon them as they ought to do.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It was not envy⁠—Adeline had none;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her place was far beyond it, and her mind:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It was not scorn⁠—which could not light on one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose greatest fault was leaving few to find:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It was not jealousy, I think⁠—but shun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Following the ignes fatui of Mankind:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It was not⁠—but ’tis easier far, alas!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To say what it was not than what it was.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Little Aurora deemed she was the theme", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of such discussion. She was there a guest;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A beauteous ripple of the brilliant stream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Rank and Youth, though purer than the rest,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which flowed on for a moment in the beam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Time sheds a moment o’er each sparkling crest.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had she known this, she would have calmly smiled⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She had so much, or little, of the child.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The dashing and proud air of Adeline", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Imposed not upon her: she saw her blaze", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Much as she would have seen a glow-worm shine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then turned unto the stars for loftier rays.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Juan was something she could not divine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Being no Sibyl in the new world’s ways;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet she was nothing dazzled by the meteor,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because she did not pin her faith on feature.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "His fame too⁠—for he had that kind of fame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which sometimes plays the deuce with Womankind,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A heterogeneous mass of glorious blame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Half virtues and whole vices being combined;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Faults which attract because they are not tame;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Follies tricked out so brightly that they blind:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "These seals upon her wax made no impression,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such was her coldness or her self-possession.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan knew nought of such a character⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High, yet resembling not his lost Haidée;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet each was radiant in her proper sphere:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The island girl, bred up by the lone sea,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "More warm, as lovely, and not less sincere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was Nature’s all: Aurora could not be,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nor would be thus:⁠—the difference in them", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was such as lies between a flower and gem.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Having wound up with this sublime comparison,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Methinks we may proceed upon our narrative,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And, as my friend Scott says, “I sound my warison;”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scott, the superlative of my comparative⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Scott, who can paint your Christian knight or Saracen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Serf⁠—Lord⁠—Man, with such skill as none would share it, if", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There had not been one Shakespeare and Voltaire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of one or both of whom he seems the heir.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I say, in my slight way I may proceed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To play upon the surface of Humanity.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I write the World, nor care if the World read,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least for this I cannot spare its vanity.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My Muse hath bred, and still perhaps may breed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More foes by this same scroll: when I began it, I", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thought that it might turn out so⁠—now I know it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But still I am, or was, a pretty poet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The conference or congress (for it ended", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As Congresses of late do) of the Lady", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Adeline and Don Juan rather blended", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some acids with the sweets⁠—for she was heady;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But, ere the matter could be marred or mended,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The silvery bell rang, not for “dinner ready,”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But for that hour, called half-hour, given to dress,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though ladies’ robes seem scant enough for less.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Great things were now to be achieved at table,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With massy plate for armour, knives and forks", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For weapons; but what Muse since Homer’s able", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(His feasts are not the worst part of his works)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To draw up in array a single day-bill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of modern dinners? where more mystery lurks,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In soups or sauces, or a sole ragoût,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than witches, b‑ches, or physicians, brew.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was a goodly “soupe à la bonne femme”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though God knows whence it came from; there was, too,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A turbot for relief of those who cram,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Relieved with “dindon à la Périgeux;”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There also was⁠—the sinner that I am!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How shall I get this gourmand stanza through?⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“Soupe à la Beauveau,” whose relief was dory,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Relieved itself by pork, for greater glory.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But I must crowd all into one grand mess", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or mass; for should I stretch into detail,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My Muse would run much more into excess,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than when some squeamish people deem her frail;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But though a bonne vivante, I must confess", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her stomach’s not her peccant part; this tale", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "However doth require some slight refection,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Just to relieve her spirits from dejection.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Fowls “à la Condé,” slices eke of salmon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With “sauces Génevoises,” and haunch of venison;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Wines too, which might again have slain young Ammon⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A man like whom I hope we shan’t see many soon;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They also set a glazed Westphalian ham on,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whereon Apicius would bestow his benison;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And then there was champagne with foaming whirls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As white as Cleopatra’s melted pearls.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then there was God knows what “à l’Allemande,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“À l’Espagnole,” “timballe,” and “salpicon”⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With things I can’t withstand or understand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though swallowed with much zest upon the whole;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And “entremets” to piddle with at hand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gently to lull down the subsiding soul;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While great Lucullus’ Robe triumphal muffles⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(There’s fame)⁠—young partridge fillets, decked with truffles.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "What are the fillets on the Victor’s brow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To these? They are rags or dust. Where is the arch", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which nodded to the nation’s spoils below?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where the triumphal chariots’ haughty march?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Gone to where Victories must like dinners go.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Farther I shall not follow the research:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But oh! ye modern Heroes with your cartridges,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When will your names lend lustre e’en to partridges?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Those truffles too are no bad accessaries,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Followed by “petits puits d’amour”⁠—a dish", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of which perhaps the cookery rather varies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So every one may dress it to his wish,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "According to the best of dictionaries,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which encyclopedize both flesh and fish;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But even, sans confitures, it no less true is,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There’s pretty picking in those petits puits.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The mind is lost in mighty contemplation", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of intellect expanded on two courses;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Indigestion’s grand multiplication", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Requires arithmetic beyond my forces.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who would suppose, from Adam’s simple ration,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That cookery could have called forth such resources,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As form a science and a nomenclature", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From out the commonest demands of Nature?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The glasses jingled, and the palates tingled;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The diners of celebrity dined well;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The ladies with more moderation mingled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In the feast, pecking less than I can tell;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Also the younger men too: for a springald", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Can’t, like ripe Age, in gourmandise excel,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But thinks less of good eating than the whisper", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(When seated next him) of some pretty lisper.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Alas! I must leave undescribed the gibier,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The salmi, the consommé, the purée,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All which I use to make my rhymes run glibber", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than could roast beef in our rough John Bull way:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I must not introduce even a spare rib here,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Bubble and squeak” would spoil my liquid lay:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But I have dined, and must forego, alas!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The chaste description even of a “bécasse;”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And fruits, and ice, and all that Art refines", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Nature for the service of the goût⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Taste or the gout⁠—pronounce it as inclines", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your stomach! Ere you dine, the French will do;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But after, there are sometimes certain signs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which prove plain English truer of the two.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Hast ever had the gout? I have not had it⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But I may have, and you too, reader, dread it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The simple olives, best allies of wine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must I pass over in my bill of fare?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I must, although a favourite plat of mine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In Spain, and Lucca, Athens, everywhere:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "On them and bread ’twas oft my luck to dine⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The grass my table-cloth, in open air,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "On Sunium or Hymettus, like Diogenes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of whom half my philosophy the progeny is.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Amidst this tumult of fish, flesh, and fowl,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And vegetables, all in masquerade,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The guests were placed according to their roll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But various as the various meats displayed:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Don Juan sat next an “à l’Espagnole”⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No damsel, but a dish, as hath been said;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But so far like a lady, that ’twas drest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Superbly, and contained a world of zest.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "By some odd chance too, he was placed between", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aurora and the Lady Adeline⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A situation difficult, I ween,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For man therein, with eyes and heart, to dine.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Also the conference which we have seen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was not such as to encourage him to shine,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For Adeline, addressing few words to him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With two transcendent eyes seemed to look through him.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I sometimes almost think that eyes have ears:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This much is sure, that, out of earshot, things", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Are somehow echoed to the pretty dears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of which I can’t tell whence their knowledge springs.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like that same mystic music of the spheres,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which no one hears, so loudly though it rings,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis wonderful how oft the sex have heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Long dialogues⁠—which passed without a word!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Aurora sat with that indifference", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which piques a preux chevalier⁠—as it ought:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of all offences that’s the worst offence,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which seems to hint you are not worth a thought.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Now Juan, though no coxcomb in pretence,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was not exactly pleased to be so caught;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like a good ship entangled among ice⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And after so much excellent advice.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To his gay nothings, nothing was replied,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or something which was nothing, as Urbanity", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Required. Aurora scarcely looked aside,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor even smiled enough for any vanity.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Devil was in the girl! Could it be pride?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or modesty, or absence, or inanity?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Heaven knows! But Adeline’s malicious eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sparkled with her successful prophecies,", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And looked as much as if to say, “I said it;”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A kind of triumph I’ll not recommend,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because it sometimes, as I have seen or read it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Both in the case of lover and of friend,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Will pique a gentleman, for his own credit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To bring what was a jest to a serious end:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For all men prophesy what is or was,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hate those who won’t let them come to pass.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan was drawn thus into some attentions,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slight but select, and just enough to express,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To females of perspicuous comprehensions,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That he would rather make them more than less.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Aurora at the last (so history mentions,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though probably much less a fact than guess)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So far relaxed her thoughts from their sweet prison,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As once or twice to smile, if not to listen.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "From answering she began to question: this", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With her was rare; and Adeline, who as yet", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thought her predictions went not much amiss,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Began to dread she’d thaw to a coquette⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So very difficult, they say, it is", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To keep extremes from meeting, when once set", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In motion; but she here too much refined⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aurora’s spirit was not of that kind.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Juan had a sort of winning way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A proud humility, if such there be,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which showed such deference to what females say,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As if each charming word were a decree.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His tact, too, tempered him from grave to gay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And taught him when to be reserved or free:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He had the art of drawing people out,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without their seeing what he was about.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Aurora, who in her indifference", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Confounded him in common with the crowd", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of flatterers, though she deemed he had more sense", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than whispering foplings, or than witlings loud⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Commenced (from such slight things will great commence)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To feel that flattery which attracts the proud", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Rather by deference than compliment,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wins even by a delicate dissent.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And then he had good looks;⁠—that point was carried", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nem. con. amongst the women, which I grieve", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To say leads oft to crim. con. with the married⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A case which to the juries we may leave,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Since with digressions we too long have tarried.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now though we know of old that looks deceive,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And always have done⁠—somehow these good looks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Make more impression than the best of books.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Aurora, who looked more on books than faces,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was very young, although so very sage,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Admiring more Minerva than the Graces,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Especially upon a printed page.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Virtue’s self, with all her tightest laces,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has not the natural stays of strict old age;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Socrates, that model of all duty,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Owned to a penchant, though discreet, for beauty.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And girls of sixteen are thus far Socratic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But innocently so, as Socrates;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And really, if the Sage sublime and Attic", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At seventy years had fantasies like these,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which Plato in his dialogues dramatic", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has shown, I know not why they should displease", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In virgins⁠—always in a modest way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Observe⁠—for that with me’s a sine quâ.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Also observe, that, like the great Lord Coke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(See Littleton), whene’er I have expressed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Opinions two, which at first sight may look", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Twin opposites, the second is the best.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perhaps I have a third too, in a nook,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or none at all⁠—which seems a sorry jest:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But if a writer should be quite consistent,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How could he possibly show things existent?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "If people contradict themselves, can I", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Help contradicting them, and everybody,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Even my veracious self?⁠—But that’s a lie:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I never did so, never will⁠—how should I?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He who doubts all things nothing can deny:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Truth’s fountains may be clear⁠—her streams are muddy,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And cut through such canals of contradiction,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That she must often navigate o’er fiction.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Apologue, Fable, Poesy, and Parable,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are false, but may be rendered also true,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By those who sow them in a land that’s arable:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis wonderful what Fable will not do!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis said it makes Reality more bearable:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But what’s Reality? Who has its clue?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Philosophy? No; she too much rejects.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Religion? Yes; but which of all her sects?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some millions must be wrong, that’s pretty clear;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps it may turn out that all were right.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "God help us! Since we have need on our career", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To keep our holy beacons always bright,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis time that some new prophet should appear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or old indulge man with a second sight.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Opinions wear out in some thousand years,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without a small refreshment from the spheres.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But here again, why will I thus entangle", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Myself with Metaphysics? None can hate", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So much as I do any kind of wrangle;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet, such is my folly, or my fate,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I always knock my head against some angle", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the present, past, or future state:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet I wish well to Trojan and to Tyrian,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For I was bred a moderate Presbyterian.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But though I am a temperate theologian,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And also meek as a metaphysician,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Impartial between Tyrian and Trojan,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As Eldon on a lunatic commission⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In politics my duty is to show John", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bull something of the lower world’s condition.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It makes my blood boil like the springs of Hecla,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see men let these scoundrel Sovereigns break law.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Politics, and Policy, and Piety,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are topics which I sometimes introduce,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Not only for the sake of their variety,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But as subservient to a moral use;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because my business is to dress society,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And stuff with sage that very verdant goose.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And now, that we may furnish with some matter all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tastes, we are going to try the Supernatural.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And now I will give up all argument;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And positively, henceforth, no temptation", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Shall “fool me to the top up of my bent:”⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yes, I’ll begin a thorough reformation.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Indeed, I never knew what people meant", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By deeming that my Muse’s conversation", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was dangerous;⁠—I think she is as harmless", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As some who labour more and yet may charm less.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Grim reader! did you ever see a ghost?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No; but you have heard⁠—I understand⁠—be dumb!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And don’t regret the time you may have lost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For you have got that pleasure still to come:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And do not think I mean to sneer at most", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of these things, or by ridicule benumb", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That source of the Sublime and the Mysterious:⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For certain reasons my belief is serious.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Serious? You laugh;⁠—you may: that will I not;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My smiles must be sincere or not at all.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I say I do believe a haunted spot", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Exists⁠—and where? That shall I not recall,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Because I’d rather it should be forgot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Shadows the soul of Richard” may appal.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In short, upon that subject I’ve some qualms very", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like those of the philosopher of Malmsbury.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The night⁠—(I sing by night⁠—sometimes an owl,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now and then a nightingale)⁠—is dim,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the loud shriek of sage Minerva’s fowl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rattles around me her discordant hymn:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Old portraits from old walls upon me scowl⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I wish to Heaven they would not look so grim;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The dying embers dwindle in the grate⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I think too that I have sat up too late:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And therefore, though ’tis by no means my way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To rhyme at noon⁠—when I have other things", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To think of, if I ever think⁠—I say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I feel some chilly midnight shudderings,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And prudently postpone, until mid-day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Treating a topic which, alas! but brings", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Shadows;⁠—but you must be in my condition,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before you learn to call this superstition.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Between two worlds Life hovers like a star,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twixt Night and Morn, upon the horizon’s verge.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How little do we know that which we are!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How less what we may be! The eternal surge", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of Time and Tide rolls on and bears afar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our bubbles; as the old burst, new emerge,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lashed from the foam of ages; while the graves", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Empires heave but like some passing waves.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }