from Canto IV

91

They heard next day—that in the Dardanelles,
     Waiting for his sublimity’s firman,
The most imperative of sovereign spells,
     Which every body does without who can,
More to secure them in their naval cells,
     Lady to lady, well as man to man,
Were to be chain’d and lotted out per couple,
For the slave market of Constantinople.

92

It seems when this allotment was made out,
     There chanced to be an odd male, and odd female,
Who (after some discussion and some doubt,
     If the soprano might be deem’d to be male,
They placed him o’er the women as a scout)
     Were link’d together, and it happen’d the male
Was Juan, who,—an awkward thing at his age,
Pair’d off with a Bacchante blooming visage.

93

With Raucocanti lucklessly was chain’d
     The tenor; these two hated with a hate
Found only on the stage, and each more pain’d
     With this his tuneful neighbour than his fate;
Sad strife arose, for they were so cross-grain’d,
     Instead of bearing up without debate,
That each pull’d different ways with many an oath,
“Arcades ambo,” id est—blackguards both.

94

Juan’s companion was a Romagnole,
     But bred within the March of old Ancona,
With eyes that look’d into the very soul
     (And other chief points of a “bella donna”),
Bright—and as black and burning as a coal;
     And through her clear brunette complexion shone a
Great wish to please—a most attractive dower,
Especially when added to the power.

95

But all that power was wasted upon him,
     For sorrow o’er each sense held stern command;
Her eye might flash on his, but found it dim;
     And though thus chain’d, as natural her hand
Touch’d his, nor that—nor any handsome limb
     (And she had some not easy to withstand)
Could stir his pulse, or make his faith feel brittle;
Perhaps his recent wounds might help a little.

96

No matter; we should ne’er too much inquire,
     But facts are facts, no knight could be more true,
And firmer faith no ladye-love desire;
     We will omit the proofs, save one or two,
‘Tis said no one in hand “can hold a fire
     By thought of frosty Caucasus,” but few
I really think; yet Juan’s then ordeal
Was more triumphant, and not much less real.

97

Here I might enter on a chaste description,
     Having withstood temptation in my youth,
But hear that several people take exception
     At the first two books having too much truth;
Therefore I’ll make Don Juan leave the ship soon,
     Because the publisher declares, in sooth,
Through needles’ eyes it easier for the camel is
To pass, than those two cantos into families.

98

‘Tis all the same to me; I’m fond of yielding,
     And therefore leave them to the purer page
Of Smollet, Prior, Ariosto, Fielding,
     Who say strange things for so correct an age;
I once had a great alacrity in wielding
     My pen, and liked poetic war to wage,
And recollect the time when all this cant
Would have provoked remarks which now it shan’t.

99

As boys love rows, my boyhood liked a squabble;
     But at this hour I wish to part in peace,
Leaving such to the literary rabble,
     Whether my verse’s fame be doom’d to cease,
While the right hand which wrote it still is able,
     Or of some centuries to take a lease;
The grass upon my grave will grow as long,
And sigh to midnight winds, but not to song.

100

Of poets who come down to us through distance
     Of time and tongues, the foster-babes of Fame,
Life seems the smallest portion of existence;
     Where twenty ages gather o’er a name,
‘Tis as a snowball which derives assistance
     From every flake, and yet rolls on the same,
Even till an iceberg it may chance to grow,
But after all ‘tis nothing but cold snow.