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C

To make men happy, or to keep them so"
(So take it in the very words of Creech)—
Thus Horace wrote we all know long ago;

And thus Pope1 quotes the precept to re-teach
From his translation; but had none admired,
Would Pope have sung, or Horace been inspired ? 2

CII.

Baba, when all the damsels were withdrawn,
Motioned to Juan to approach, and then
A second time desired him to kneel down,
And kiss the lady's foot; which maxim when
He heard repeated, Juan with a frown

Drew himself up to his full height again,

And said, "It grieved him, but he could not stoop
To any shoe, unless it shod the Pope."

CIII.

Baba, indignant at this ill-timed pride,

Made fierce remonstrances, and then a threat He muttered (but the last was given aside)

2

About a bow-string-quite in vain ; not yet Would Juan bend, though 't were to Mahomet's bride: There's nothing in the world like etiquette

In kingly chambers or imperial halls,

As also at the Race and County Balls.

CIV.

He stood like Atlas, with a world of words
About his ears, and nathless would not bend;

I. ["Not to admire, is all the Art I know

To make men happy, and to keep them so,

(Plain Truth, dear MURRAY, needs no flow'rs of speech,
So take it in the very words of Creech)."

To Mr. Murray (Lord Mansfield), Pope's Imitations of Horace,
Book I. epist. vi. lines 1-4.

Thomas Creech (1659-1701) published his Translation of Horace in 1684. In the second edition, 1688, p. 487, the lines run

"Not to admire, as most are wont to do,

It is the only method that I know,

To make Men happy and to keep 'em so."]

2. [Johnson placed judgment and friendship above admiration and love. "Admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgment and friendship like being enlivened." See Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1876, p. 450.]

The blood of all his line's Castilian lords
Boiled in his veins, and, rather than descend
To stain his pedigree, a thousand swords

A thousand times of him had made an end;
At length perceiving the "foot" could not stand,
Baba proposed that he should kiss the hand.

CV.

Here was an honourable compromise,

A half-way house of diplomatic rest,

Where they might meet in much more peaceful guise ; And Juan now his willingness expressed

To use all fit and proper courtesies,

Adding, that this was commonest and best,
For through the South, the custom still commands
The gentleman to kiss the lady's hands.

CVI.

And he advanced, though with but a bad grace,
Though on more thorough-bred1 or fairer fingers
No lips e'er left their transitory trace:

On such as these the lip too fondly lingers,
And for one kiss would fain imprint a brace,

As you will see, if she you love shall bring hers In contact; and sometimes even a fair stranger's An almost twelvemonth's constancy endangers.

CVIL,

The lady eyed him o'er and o'er, and bade
Baba retire, which he obeyed in style,
As if well used to the retreating trade;

And taking hints in good part all the while,

He whispered Juan not to be afraid,

And looking on him with a sort of smile,

Took leave, with such a face of satisfaction,
As good men wear who have done a virtuous action.

CVIII.

When he was gone, there was a sudden change:
I know not what might be the lady's thought,

1. There is nothing, perhaps, more distinctive of birth than the hand. It is almost the only sign of blood which aristocracy can generate.

But o'er her bright brow flashed a tumult strange,
And into her clear cheek the blood was brought,
Blood-red as sunset summer clouds which range

The verge of Heaven; and in her large eyes wrought, A mixture of sensations might be scanned,

Of half voluptuousness and half command.

CIX.

Her form had all the softness of her sex,

Her features all the sweetness of the Devil, When he put on the Cherub to perplex1

Eve, and paved (God knows how) the road to evil; The Sun himself was scarce more free from specks Than she from aught at which the eye could cavil; Yet, somehow, there was something somewhere wanting, As if she rather ordered than was granting.—

CX.

Something imperial, or imperious, threw

A chain o'er all she did; that is, a chain
Was thrown as 't were about the neck of you,—
And Rapture's self will seem almost a pain
With aught which looks like despotism in view;
Our souls at least are free, and 't is in vain
We would against them make the flesh obey-
The spirit in the end will have its way.

CXI.

Her very smile was haughty, though so sweet;
Her very nod was not an inclination;
There was a self-will even in her small feet,

As though they were quite conscious of her stationThey trod as upon necks; and to complete

Her state (it is the custom of her nation),

A poniard decked her girdle, as the sign

She was a Sultan's bride (thank Heaven, not mine !).

CXII.

"To hear and to obey" had been from birth

The law of all around her; to fulfil

1. [In old pictures of the Fall, it is a cherub who whispers into the ear of Eve. The serpent's coils are hidden in the foliage of the tree.]