LXXXIV.

I've seen the landholders without a rap

I've seen Johanna Southcote- I have seen The House of Commons turn'd to a tax-trap

I've seen that sad affair of the late queenI've seen crowns worn instead of a fool's

capI've seen a congress doing all that's meanI've seen some nations, like o'erloaded asses, Kick off their burthens-meaning the high classes.

LXXXV.

I've seen

small
poets,

and

great prosers, and Interminable--not eternal-speakers I've seen the funds at war with house and land

I've seen the country gentlemen turn squeakersI've seen the people ridden o'er like sand

By slaves on horseback—I have seen malt liquors Exchanged for « thin potations» by John Bull

LXXXVI.

I've seen John half detect himself a fool.-
But"a Carpe diem,» Juan, « Carpe, carpe!»

To-morrow sees another race as gay
And transient, and devour'd by the same harpy.

« Life 's a poor player, »—then « play out the play, Ye villains!» and above all keep a sharp eye

Much less on what you do than what you say:
Be hypocritical, be cautious, be
Not what you seem, but always what you see.

LXXXVII.

But how shall I relate in other cantos

Of what befel our hero in the land,
Which 't is the common cry and lie to vaunt as

A moral country? But I hold my hand-
For I disdain to write an Atalantis;

But 't is as well at once to understand, You 're not a moral people, and you know it Without the aid of too sincere a poet.

LXXXVIII.

What Juan saw, and underwent, shall be

My topic, with of course the due restriction Which is required by proper courtesy;

And recollect the work is only fiction,
And that I sing of neither mine nor me,

Though every scribe, in some slight turn of diction,
Will hint allusions never meant. Ne'er doubt
This—when I speak, I don't hint, but speak out.

LXXXIS.

Whether he married with the third or fourth

Offspring of some sage, husband-hunting countess, Or whether with some virgin of more worth

(I mean in fortune's matrimonial bounties) He took to regularly peopling earth,

Of which your lawful awful wedlock fount is,-
Or whether he was taken in for damages,
For being too excursive in his homages,-

XC.

Is yet within the unread events of time.

Thus far, go forth, thou lay, which I will back Against the same given quantity of rhyme,

For being as much the subject of attack, As ever yet was any work sublime,

By those who love to say that white is black. So much the better !—I may stand alone, But would not change my free thoughts for a throne.

END OF CANTO XI.

VOL. III.

7

NOTES TO CANTO XI.

Note 1, page 73, stanza xix.

So prime, so swell, so putty, and so knowing? The advance of science and of language has rendered it unnecessary to translate the above good and true English, spoken in its original purity by the select mobility and their patrons. The following is a stanza of a song which was very popular, at least in my early days :

« On the high toby-spice flash the muzzle,

In spite of each gallows old scout;
If you at the spellken can't hustle,

You 'll be hobbled in making a clout.
«Then your blowing will wax gallows haughty,

When she hears of your scaly mistake,
She 'll surely turn snitch for the forty-

That her Jack may be regular weight.» If there be any gemman so ignorant as to require a traduction, I refer him to my old friend and corporeal pastor and master, John Jackson, Esq., Professor of Pugilism; who I trust still retains the strength and symmetry of his model of a form, together with his goodhumour and athletic as mental accomplishments.

Note 2, page 76, stanza xxix.

St James's Palace and St James's « Hells. » Hells,» gaming-houses. What their number may now be in this life, I know not. Before I was of

age I knew them pretty accurately, both a gold, and « silver.» I was once nearly called out by an acquaintance because when he asked me where I thought that his soul would be found hereafter, I answered, « In Silver Hell.»