DON JUAN. CANTO I. I. I WANT a hero an uncommon want, When every year and month sends forth a new one, Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant, The age discovers he is not the true one; Of such as these I should not care to vaunt, We all have seen him in the pantomime Sent to the devil, somewhat ere his time. 11. Vernon, the butcher Cumberland,* Wolfe, Hawke, Prince Ferdinand, Granby, Burgoyne, Keppel, Howe, Evil and good, have had their tithe of talk, And fill'd their sign-posts then, like Wellesley now; Each in their turn like Banquo's monarchs stalk, Followers of fame, "nine farrow" of that sow: France, too, had Buonaparté and Dumourier, Recorded in the Moniteur and Courier. III. Barnave, Brissot, Condorcet, Mirabeau, Petion, Clootz, Danton, Marat, La Fayette, Were French, and famous ve know; And there were others, scarce forgotten yet, Joubert, Hoche, Marceau, Lannes, Dessaix, Moreau, With many of the military set, Exceedingly remarkable at times, *See Notes in Appendix, IV. Nelson was once Britannia's god of war, And still should be so, but the tide is turn'd; There's no more to be said of Trafalgar, "Tis with our hero quietly inurn'd : Because the army's grown more popular, At which the naval people are concern'd: Besides, the Prince is all for the land service, Forgetting Duncan, Nelson, Howe, and Jervis. v.'. Brave men were living before Agamemnon (1) A good deal like him too, though quite the same none; Fit for my poem, (that is, for my new one); VI. Most epic poets plunge in " medias res," (Horace makes this the heroic turnpike-road,) And then your hero tells, whene'er you please, What went before-by way of episode, While seated after dinner at his ease, Beside his mistress in some soft abode, Palace or garden, paradise or cavern, Which serves the happy couple for a tavern. # VII. That is the usual method, but not mine My way is to begin with the beginning; The regularity of my design Forbids all wandering as the worst of sinning, And therefore I shall open with a line (Although it cost me half an hour in spinning) Narrating somewhat of Don Juan's father, |