CCVIII. If, after all, there should be some so blind Not to believe my verse and their own eyes, I tell him, if a clergyman, he lies— Should captains the remark, or critics, make, They also lie too-under a mistake. 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 thank'd me duly by return of postI'm for a handsome article his creditor; Yet, if my gentle Muse he please to roast, And smear his page with gall instead of honey, CCXI. I think that with this holy new alliance CCXII. "Non ego hoc ferrem calida juventa Say I, by which quotation there is meant a CCXIII. But now, at thirty years, my hair is gray (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 squander'd my whole summer while 't was May, And feel no more the spirit to retort; I Have spent my life, both interest and principal, CCXIV. No more-no more- -Oh! never more on me Extracts emotions beautiful and new, Hived in our bosoms like the bag o' the bee : CCXV. No more no more-Oh! never more, my heart, Thou canst not be my blessing or my curse; Insensible, I trust, but none the worse; 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 7 The charms of maid, wife, and still less of widow, 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, Is glittering youth, which I have spent betimes- CCXVIII. What is the end of fame? 't is but to fill Some liken it to climbing up a hill, Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour; For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill, And bards burn what they call their "midnight taper," To have, when the original is dust, A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust. CCXIX. What are the hopes of man? old Egypt's king, And largest, thinking it was just the thing To keep his memory whole, and mummy hid; But somebody or other, rummaging, Burglariously broke his coffin's lid; Let not a monument give you or me hopes, CCXX. But I, being fond of true philosophy, All things that have been born were born to die, CCXXI. But for the present, gentle reader! and Still gentler purchaser! the bard-that 's I— Must, with permission, shake you by the hand, And so your humble servant, and good bye! We meet again, if we should understand Each other; and if not, I shall not try Your patience further than by this short sample-. 'T were well if others follow'd my example. CCXXII. "Go, little book, from this my solitude! The world will find thee after many days." NOTES TO CANTO I. Note 1. Stanza v. Brave men were living before Agamemnon. Note 2. Stanza xvii. Save thine incomparable oil," Macassar! "Description des vertus incomparables de l'huile de Macassar."-See the devertisement. Note 3. Stanza xlii. Although Longinus tells us there is no hymn Where the sublime soars forth on wings more ample. See Longinus, Section 10, ἵνα μὴ ἕν τι περὶ αὐτὴν πάθος φαίνηται, παθῶν δὲ σύνοδος. Note 4. Stanza xliv. They only add them all in an appendix. Fact. There is, or was, such an edition, with all the obnoxious epigrams of Martial placed by themselves at the end. Note 5. Stanza ixxxviii. The bard I quote from does not sing amiss. Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming, (I think) the opening of Canto II, but quote from memory. Note 6. Stanza cxlviii. Is it for this that General Count O'Reilly, Who took Algiers, declares I used him vilely? Donna Julia here made a mistake. Count O'Reilly did not take Algiers-but Algiers very nearly took him; he and his army and fleet retreated with great loss, and not much credit, from before that city, in the year 17— Note 7. Stanza ccxvi. My days of love are over; me no more. "Me nec foemina, nec puer Jam, nec spes animi credula mutui; Nec certare juvat mero, Nec vincire novis tempora floribus." CANTO II. I. OH ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations, It mends their morals: never mind the pain: In Juan's case, were but employ'd in vain, Since in a way, that 's rather of the oddest, he Became divested of his native modesty. II. Had he but been placed at a public school, At least had he been nurtured in the north. But then exceptions always prove its worth : A lad of sixteen causing a divorce Puzzled his tutors very much, of course. I can't III. say that it puzzles me at all, If all things be consider'd: first there was His lady mother, mathematical, A never mind; his tutor, an old ass; A pretty woman— -(that 's quite natural, Or else the thing had hardly come to pass); IV. Well-well, the world must turn upon its axis, And as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails; |