CCII.

There's only one slight difference between
Me and my epic brethren gone before,
And here the advantage is my own, I ween
(Not that I have not several merits more,
But this will more peculiarly be seen);

They so embellish, that 't is quite a bore
Their labyrinth of fables to thread through,
Whereas this story 's actually true.

CCIII.

If any person doubt it, I appeal

To History, Tradition, and to Facts,
To newspapers, whose truth all know and feel,
To plays in five, and operas in three acts;1
All these confirm my statement a good deal,

But that which more completely faith exacts
Is, that myself, and several now in Seville,
Saw Juan's last elopement with the Devil.

CCIV.

If ever I should condescend to prose,

I'll write poetical commandments, which
Shall supersede beyond all doubt all those

That went before; in these I shall enrich
My text with many things that no one knows,
And carry precept to the highest pitch:
I'll call the work "Longinus o'er a Bottle,"
Or, Every Poet his own Aristotle."

CCV.

Thou shalt believe in Milton, Dryden, Pope;

Thou shalt not set up Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey; Because the first is crazed beyond all hope,

The second drunk,' the third so quaint and mouthy:

i. To newspapers, to sermons, which the seal

Of pious men have published on his acts.—[MS.]

ii. I'll call the work "Reflections o'er a Bottle."—[MS.]

1. [Here, and elsewhere in Don Juan, Byron attacked Coleridge fiercely and venomously, because he believed that his protégé had accepted patronage and money, and, notwithstanding, had retailed scandalous statements to the detriment and dishonour of his advocate

With Crabbe it may be difficult to cope,

And Campbell's Hippocrene is somewhat drouthy: Thou shalt not steal from Samuel Rogers, nor Commit-flirtation with the muse of Moore.

CCVI.

Thou shalt not covet Mr. Sotheby's Muse,
His Pegasus, nor anything that's his;
Thou shalt not bear false witness like "the Blues
(There's one, at least, is very fond of this);
Thou shalt not write, in short, but what I choose:
This is true criticism, and you may kiss-
Exactly as you please, or not, the rod;
But if you don't, I'll lay it on, by G-d!

CCVII.

-

If any person should presume to assert
This story is not moral, first, I pray,
That they will not cry out before they 're hurt,
Then that they 'll read it o'er again, and say
(But, doubtless, nobody will be so pert)

That this is not a moral tale, though gay :
Besides, in Canto Twelfth, I mean to show
The very place where wicked people go.

CCVIII.

If, after all, there should be some so blind
To their own good this warning to despise,
Led by some tortuosity of mind,

Not to believe my verse and their own eyes,
And cry that they "the moral cannot find,"
I tell him, if a clergyman, he lies;

Should captains the remark, or critics, make,
They also lie too-under a mistake.

and benefactor (see letter to Murray, November 24, 1818, Letters, 1900, iv. 272; and "Introduction to the Vision of Judgment," Poetical Works, 1901, iv. 475). Byron does not substantiate his charge of ingratitude, and there is nothing to show whether Coleridge ever knew why a once friendly countenance was changed towards him. He might have asked, with the Courtenays, Ubi lapsus, quid feci? If Byron had been on his mind or his conscience he would have drawn up an elaborate explanation or apology; but nothing of the kind is extant. He took the abuse as he had taken the favours-for the unmerited gifts of the blind goddess Fortune. (See, too, Letter . . ., by John Bull, 1821, p. 14.)]

CCIX.

The public approbation I expect,

And beg they'll take my word about the moral, Which I with their amusement will connect

(So children cutting teeth receive a coral); Meantime they 'll doubtless please to recollect My epical pretensions to the laurel :

For fear some prudish readers should grow skittish, I've bribed my Grandmother's Review-the British.'

CCX.

I sent it in a letter to the Editor,

Who thanked me duly by return of postI'm for a handsome article his creditor;

Yet, if my gentle Muse he please to roast,
And break a promise after having made it her,
Denying the receipt of what it cost,

And smear his page with gall instead of honey,
All I can say is--that he had the money.

CCXI.

I think that with this holy new alliance
I may ensure the public, and defy
All other magazines of art or science,

Daily, or monthly, or three monthly; I
Have not essayed to multiply their clients,
Because they tell me 't were in vain to try,
And that the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly
Treat a dissenting author very martyrly.

1. [Compare Byron's "Letter to the Editor of My Grandmother's Review," Letters, 1900, iv. Appendix VII. 465-470; and letter to Murray, August 24, 1819, ibid., p. 348: "I wrote to you by last post, enclosing a buffooning letter for publication, addressed to the buffoon Roberts, who has thought proper to tie a canister to his own tail. It was written off-hand, and in the midst of circumstances not very favourable to facetiousness, so that there may, perhaps, be more bitterness than enough for that sort of small acid punch.' The letter was in reply to a criticism of Don Juan (Cantos I., II.) in the British Review (No. xxvii., 1819, vol. 14, pp. 266-268), in which the Editor assumed, or feigned to assume, that the accusation of bribery was to be taken au grand sérieux.]

CCXII.

"Non ego hoc ferrem calidus juventâ
Consule Planco," 1 Horace said, and so
Say I; by which quotation there is meant a
Hint that some six or seven good years ago
(Long ere I dreamt of dating from the Brenta)
I was most ready to return a blow,
And would not brook at all this sort of thing
In my hot youth-when George the Third was King.

CCXIII.

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.

CCXIV.

No more no more-Oh! never more on me

The freshness of the heart can fall like dew, Which out of all the lovely things we see

Extracts emotions beautiful and new,

Hived 2 in our bosoms like the bag o' the bee.
Think'st thou the honey with those objects grew?
Alas! 't was not in them, but in thy power
To double even the sweetness of a flower.

CCXV.

No more no more-Oh! never more, my heart,
Canst thou be my sole world, my universe!
Once all in all, but now a thing apart,

Thou canst not be my blessing or my curse:
The illusion 's gone for ever, and thou art
Insensible, I trust, but none the worse,

i. I thought of dyeing it the other day.—[MS.]

1. [Hor., Od. III. C. xiv. lines 27, 28.]

2. [Compare Childe Harold, Canto III. stanza cvii. line 2.]

And in thy stead I 've got a deal of judgment, Though Heaven knows how it ever found a lodgment.

CCXVI.

My days of love are over; me no more 1

The charms of maid, wife, and still less of widow,
Can make the fool of which they made before,-
In short, I must not lead the life I did do
The credulous hope of mutual minds is o'er,
The copious use of claret is forbid too,
So for a good old-gentlemanly vice,
I think I must take up with avarice.

CCXVII.

Ambition was my idol, which was broken
Before the shrines of Sorrow, and of Pleasure;
And the two last have left me many a token

O'er which reflection may be made at leisure : Now, like Friar Bacon's Brazen Head, I 've spoken, "Time is, Time was, Time 's past:"2-a chymic

treasure

Is glittering Youth, which I have spent betimes-
My heart in passion, and my head on rhymes.

CCXVIII.

What is the end of Fame? 't is but to fill
A certain portion of uncertain paper:

Some liken it to climbing up a hill,

Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour;

1.

"

'Me nec femina, nec puer

Jam, nec spes animi credula mutui,

Nec certare juvat mero;

Nec vincire novis tempora floribus."

3

Hor., Od. IV. i. 30.

[In the revise the words nec puer Jam were omitted. On this Hobhouse comments, "Better add the whole or scratch out all after femina." Quote the whole then-it was only in compliance with your settentrionale notions that I left out the remnant of the line."-[B.]]

2. [For "How Fryer Bacon made a Brazen head to speak," see The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon (Reprint, London, 1815, pp. 13-18; see, too, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, by Robert Greene, ed. Rev. Alexander Dyce, 1861, pp. 153-181.]

3. ["Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb

The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?" etc.
Beattie's Minstrel, Bk. I. stanza i. lines 1, 2.]