DON JUAN
You -Gentlemen! by dint of long seclusion
From better company, have kept your own
At Keswick, and, through still continued fusion
Of one another's minds, at last have grown
To deem as a most logical conclusion,
That Poesy has wreaths for you alone:
There is a narrowness in such a notion,
Which makes me wish you'd change your lakes for Ocean.(1818. Dedication, V)
I want a hero: an uncommon want,
When every year and month sends forth a new one,
Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one;
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan-
We all have seen him, in the pantomime,
Sent to the Devil somewhat ere his time(1818. Canto I, I)
That is the usual method, but not mine-
My way is to begin with the beginning;
The regularity of my design
Forbids all wandering as the worst of sinning,
And therefore I shall open with a line
(Although it cost me half an hour in spinning),
Narrating somewhat of Don Juan's father,
And also of his mother, if you'd rather.(1818. Canto I, VII)
But now at thirty years my hair is grey-
(I wonder what it will be like at forty?
I thought of a peruke the other day-)
My heart is not much greener; and, in short, I
Have squandered my whole summer while 't was May,
And feel no more the spirit to retort; I
Have spent my life, both interest and principal,
And deem not, what I deemed -my soul invincible.(1818. Canto I, CCXIII)
“Farewell, my Spain! a long farewell!” he cried,
“Perhaps I may revisit thee no more,
But die, as many an exiled heart hath died,
Of its own thirst to see again thy shore:
Farewell, where Guadalquivir's waters glide!
Farewell, my mother! and, since all is o'er,
Farewell, too, dearest Julia! - (here he drew
Her letter out again, and read it through.)
“And oh! if e'er I should forget, I swear-
But that's impossible, and cannot be-
Sooner shall this blue Ocean melt to air,
Sooner shall Earth resolve itself to sea,
That I resign thine image, oh, my fair!
Or think of anything, excepting thee;
A mind diseased no remedy can physic-
(Here the ship gave a lurch, and he grew sea-sick.)
“Sooner shall Heaven kiss earth -(here he fell sicker)
Oh, Julia! what is every other woe?-
For God's sake let me have a glass of liquor;
Pedro, Battista, help me down below.)
Julia, my love! -(you rascal, Pedro, quicker)-
Oh, Julia! -(this curst vessel pitches so)-
Belovéd Julia, hear me still beseeching!”
(Here he grew inarticulate with retching.)(1818-1819. Canto II, XVIII-XX)
And thus like to an Angel o'er the dying
Who die in righteousness, she leaned; and there
All tranquilly the shipwrecked boy was lying,
As o'er him lay the calm and stirless air:
But Zoe the meantime some eggs was frying,
Since, after all, no doubt the youthful pair
Must breakfast - and, betimes, lest they should ask it,
She drew out her provision from the basket.(1818-1819. Canto II, CXLIV)
They look upon each other, and their eyes
Gleam in the moonlight; and her white arm clasps
Round Juan's head, and his around her lies
Half buried in the tresses which it grasps;
She sits upon his knee, and drinks his sighs,
He hers, until they end in broken gasps;
And thus they form a group that's quite antique,
Half naked, loving, natural, and Greek.(1818-1819. Canto II, CXCIV)
Alas! the love of Women! it is known
To be a lovely and a fearful thing;
For all of theirs upon that die is thrown,
And if't is lost, Life hath no more to bring
To them but mockeries of the past alone,
And their revenge is as the tiger's spring,
Deadly, and quick, and crushing; yet, as real
Torture is theirs - what they inflict they feel.
They are right; for Man, to man so oft unjust,
Is always so to Women: one sole bond
Awaits them - treachery is all their trust;
Taught to conceal, their bursting hearts despond
Over their idol, till some wealthier lust
Buys them in marriage - and what rests beyond?
A thankless husband - next a faithless lover -
Then dressing, nursing, praying - and all's over.
Some take a lover, some take drams or prayers,
Some mind their household, others dissipation,
Some run away, and but exchange their cares,
Losing the advantage of a virtuous station;
Few changes e'er can better their affairs,
Theirs being an unnatural situation,
From the dull palace to the dirty hovel:
Some play the devil, and then write a novel.(1818-1819. Canto II, CXCIX-CCI)
But let me change this theme, which grows too sad
And lay this sheet of sorrows on the shelf;
I don't much like describing people mad,
For fear of seeming rather touched myself-
Besides, I've no more on this head to add;
And as my Muse is a capricious elf,
We'll put about, and try another tack
With Juan, left half-killed some stanzas back.(1819. Canto IV, LXXIV)
History can only take things in the gross;
But could we know them in detail, perchance
In balancing the profit and the loss,
War's merit it by no means might enhance,
To waste so much gold for a little dross,
As hath been done, mere conquest to advance.
The drying up a single tear has more
Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore.(1822. Canto VIII, III)
Where is Lord This? And where my Lady That?
The Honourable Mistresses and Misses?
Some laid aside like an old Opera hat,
Married, unmarried, and remarried: (this is
An evolution oft performed of late).
Where are the Dublin shouts - and London hisses?
Where are the Grenvilles? Turned as usual. Where
My friends the Whigs? Exactly where they were.
Where are the Lady Carolines and Franceses?
Divorced or doing thereanent. Ye annals
So brilliant, where the list of routs and dances is,-
Thou Morning Post, sole record of the panels
Broken in carriages, and all the phantasies
Of fashion, -say what streams now fill those channels?
Some die, some fly, some languish on the Continent,
Because the times have hardly left them one tenant.(1822. Canto XI, LXXIX-LXXX)
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