Napoleon's, Mary's' (Queen of Scotland), should
Lend to that colour a transcendent ray;

And Pallas also sanctions the same hue,

Too wise to look through optics black or blue)

LXXII.

Her sweet smile, and her then majestic figure,
Her plumpness, her imperial condescension,
Her preference of a boy to men much bigger
(Fellows whom Messalina's self would pension),
Her prime of life, just now in juicy vigour,

With other extras, which we need not mention,-
All these, or any one of these, explain
Enough to make a stripling very vain.

LXXIII.

ii.

And that's enough, for Love is vanity,
Selfish in its beginning as its end,
Except where 't is a mere insanity,

A maddening spirit which would strive to blend.
Itself with Beauty's frail inanity,

On which the Passion's self seems to depend; And hence some heathenish philosophers

Make Love the main-spring of the Universe.

LXXIV.

Besides Platonic love, besides the love

Of God, the love of sentiment, the loving Of faithful pairs-(I needs must rhyme with dove, That good old steam-boat which keeps verses moving 'Gainst reason-Reason ne'er was hand-and-glove With rhyme, but always leant less to improving The sound than sense)-besides all these pretences To Love, there are those things which words name senses;

LXXV.

Those movements, those improvements in our bodies Which make all bodies anxious to get out

i. Her figure, and her vigour, and her rigour.─[MS. erased.] ii. In its sincere beginning, or dull end.-MS. erased.]

1. [The historic Catherine (at. 62) was past her meridian in the spring of 1791.]

Of their own sand-pits, to mix with a goddess,
For such all women are at first no doubt.
How beautiful that moment! and how odd is
That fever which precedes the languid rout
Of our sensations! What a curious way
The whole thing is of clothing souls in clay !".
LXXVI.1

The noblest kind of love is love Platonical,
To end or to begin with; the next grand
Is that which may be christened love canonical,
Because the clergy take the thing in hand;
The third sort to be noted in our chronicle
As flourishing in every Christian land,
Is when chaste matrons to their other ties
Add what may be called marriage in disguise.

LXXVII.

Well, we won't analyse-our story must
Tell for itself: the Sovereign was smitten,
Juan much flattered by her love, or lust ;-

I cannot stop to alter words once written,
And the two are so mixed with human dust,

That he who names one, both perchance may hit on: But in such matters Russia's mighty Empress Behaved no better than a common sempstress.

LXXVIII.

The whole court melted into one wide whisper,
And all lips were applied unto all ears!
The elder ladies' wrinkles curled much crisper
As they beheld; the younger cast some leers

On one another, and each lovely lisper

Smiled as she talked the matter o'er; but tears Of rivalship rose in each clouded eye

Of all the standing army who stood by.

i. For such all women are just then, no doubt.-[MS.}

ii. Of such sensations, in the drowsy drear

After-which shadows the, say-second year.-[MS.]
Of that sad heavy, drowsy, doubly drear

After, which shadows the first--say, year.—[MS. erased.]
1. [Stanza lxxvi. is not in the MS.]

LXXIX.

All the ambassadors of all the powers

Inquired, Who was this very new young man, Who promised to be great in some few hours? Which is full soon (though Life is but a span). Already they beheld the silver showers

Of rubles rain, as fast as specie can, Upon his cabinet, besides the presents

Of several ribands, and some thousand peasants.1

LXXX.

Catherine was generous,—all such ladies are:
Love that great opener of the heart and all
The ways that lead there, be they near or far,
Above, below, by turnpikes great or small,-
Love (though she had a curséd taste for War,
And was not the best wife unless we call
Such Clytemnestra, though perhaps 't is better
That one should die-than two drag on the fetter)—

LXXXI.

Love had made Catherine make each lover's fortune,
Unlike our own half-chaste Elizabeth,

Whose avarice all disbursements did importune,
If History, the grand liar, ever saith

The truth; and though grief her old age might shorten,
Because she put a favourite to death,

Her vile, ambiguous method of flirtation,
And stinginess, disgrace her sex and station.

LXXXII.

But when the levée rose, and all was bustle
In the dissolving circle, all the nations'
Ambassadors began as 't were to hustle

Round the young man with their congratulations.
Also the softer silks were heard to rustle

Of gentle dames, among whose recreations

It is to speculate on handsome faces,

Especially when such lead to high places.

1. A Russian estate is always valued by the number of the slaves upon it.

LXXXIII.

Juan, who found himself, he knew not how,

A general object of attention, made
His answers with a very graceful bow,

He said

As if born for the ministerial trade.
Though modest, on his unembarrassed brow
Nature had written "Gentleman!"
Little, but to the purpose; and his manner
Flung hovering graces o'er him like a banner.

LXXXIV.

An order from her Majesty consigned

Our young Lieutenant to the genial çare
Of those in office: all the world looked kind,
(As it will look sometimes with the first stare,
Which Youth would not act ill to keep in mind,)
As also did Miss Protasoff' then there,"
Named from her mystic office "l'Eprouveuse,"
A term inexplicable to the Muse.

LXXXV.

With her then, as in humble duty bound,
Juan retired, and so will I, until
My Pegasus shall tire of touching ground.
We have just lit on a "heaven-kissing hill,"
So lofty that I feel my brain turn round,

And all my fancies whirling like a mill;
Which is a signal to my nerves and brain,
To take a quiet ride in some green lane.*

i. And not be dazzled by its early glare.-[MS. erased.]

1. [The "Protassova" (born 1744) was a cousin of the Orlofs. She survived Catherine by many years, and was, writes M. Waliszewski (The Story of a Throne, 1895, ii. 193), "present at the Congress of Vienna, covered with diamonds like a reliquary, and claiming precedence of every one." She is named l'éprouveuse in a note to the Mémoires Secrets, 1800, i. 148.]

2. End of Canto 9th, Augt. Sept., 1822. B.

CANTO THE TENTH.

I.

WHEN Newton saw an apple fall, he found

In that slight startle from his contemplation-
"T is said (for I'll not answer above ground
For any sage's creed or calculation)-
A mode of proving that the Earth turned round
In a most natural whirl, called "gravitation;
And this is the sole mortal who could grapple,
Since Adam-with a fall-or with an apple.", 1

II.

Man fell with apples, and with apples rose,

If this be true; for we must deem the mode In which Sir Isaac Newton could disclose

Through the then unpaved stars the turnpike road,.

i. In a most natural whirling of rotation.—[MS. erased.]
ii. Since Adam-gloriously against an apple.—[MS. erased.]
iii. To the then unploughed stars —.—[MS. erased.]

...

1. ["Neither Pemberton nor Whiston, who received from Newton himself the history of his first Ideas of Gravity, records the story of the falling apple. It was mentioned, however, to Voltaire by Catherine Barton (afterwards Mrs. Conduit), Newton's niece. We saw the apple tree in 1814. The tree was so much decayed that it was taken down in 1820" (Memoirs, etc., of Sir Isaac Newton, by Sir David Brewster, 1855, i. 27, note 1). Voltaire tells the story thus (Éléments de la Philosophie de Newton, Partie III. chap. iii.): “Un jour, en l'année 1666 [1665], Newton, retiré à la campagne, et voyant tomber des fruits d'un arbre, à ce que m'a conté sa nièce (Madame Conduit), se laissa aller à une méditation profonde sur la cause qui entraîne ainsi tous les corps dans une ligne qui, si elle était prolongée, passerait à peu près par le centre de la terre."-Euvres Complètes, 1837, v. 727.]