from Canto I

61

Her glossy hair was cluster’d o’er a brow
     Bright with intelligence, and fair and smooth;
Her eyebrow’s shape was like the aerial bow,
     Her cheek all purple with the beam of youth,
Mounting, at times, to a transparent glow,
     As if her veins ran lightning; she, in sooth,
Possess’d an air and grace by no means common:
Her stature tall—I hate a dumpy woman.

62

Wedded she was some years, and to a man
     Of fifty, and such husbands are in plenty;
And yet, I think, instead of such a ONE
     ‘Twere better to have TWO of five and twenty,
Especially in countries near the sun:
     And now I think on’t, “mi vien in mente,”
Ladies even of the most uneasy virtue
Prefer a spouse whose age is short of thirty.

63

‘Tis a sad thing, I cannot choose but say,
     And all the fault of that indecent sun,
Who cannot leave alone our helpless clay,
     But will keep baking, broiling, burning on,
That howsoever people fast and pray
     The flesh is frail, and so the soul undone:
What men call gallantry, and gods adultery,
Is much more common where the climate’s sultry.

64

Happy the nations of the moral north!
     Where all is virtue, and the winter season
Sends sin, without a rag on, shivering forth;
     (‘Twas snow that brought St. Anthony to reason);
Where juries cast up what a wife is worth
    By laying whate’er sum, in mulct, they please on
The lover, who must pay a handsome price,
Because it is a marketable vice.

65

Alfonso was the name of Julia’s lord,
     A man well looking for his years, and who
Was neither much beloved, nor yet abhorr’d;
     They lived together as most people do,
Suffering each other’s foibles by accord,
     And not exactly either one or two;
Yet he was jealous, though he did not show it,
For jealousy dislikes the world to know it.

66

Julia was—yet I never could see why—
     With Donna Inez quite a favourite friend;
Between their tastes there was small sympathy,
     For not a line had Julia ever penn’d:
Some people whisper (but, no doubt, they lie,
    For malice still imputes some private end)
That Inez had, ere Don Alfonso’s marriage,
Forgot with him her very prudent carriage;

67

And that still keeping up the old connexion,
     Which time had lately render’d much more chaste,
She took his lady also in affection,
     And certainly this course was much the best:
She flatter’d Julia with her sage protection,
     And complimented Don Alfonso’s taste;
And if she could not (who can?) silence scandal,
At least she left it a more slender handle.

68

I can’t tell whether Julia saw the affair
     With other people’s eyes, or if her own
Discoveries made, but none could be aware
     Of this, at least no symptom e’er was shown;
Perhaps she did not know, or did not care,
     Indifferent from the first, or callous grown:
I’m really puzzled what to think or say,
She kept her counsel in so close a way.

69

Juan she saw, and, as a pretty child,
    Caress’d him often, such a thing might be
Quite innocently done, and harmless styled,
     When she had twenty years, and thirteen he;
But I am not so sure I should have smiled
     When he was sixteen, Julia twenty-three,
These few short years make wond’rous alterations,
Particularly amongst sun-burnt nations.

70

Whate’er the cause might be, they had become
     Changed; for the dame grew distant, the youth shy,
Their looks cast down, their greetings almost dumb,
     And much embarrassment in either eye;
There surely will be little doubt with some
     That Donna Julia knew the reason why,
But as for Juan, he had no more notion
Than he who never saw the sea of ocean.