from Canto XII

41

But first of little Leila we’ll dispose;
     For like a day-dawn she was young and pure,
Or, like the old comparison of snows,
     Which are more pure than pleasant to be sure.
Like many people every body knows,
     Don Juan was delighted to secure
A goodly guardian for his infant charge,
Who might not profit much by being at large.

42

Besides, he had found out that he was no tutor:
     (I wish that others would find out the same)
And rather wished in such things to stand neuter,
     For silly wards will bring their guardians blame:
So when he saw each ancient dame a suitor
     To make his little wild Asiatic tame,
Consulting “the Society for Vice
Suppression,” Lady Pinchbeck was his choice.

43

Olden she was—but had been very young;
     Virtuous she was—and had been, I believe:
Although the world has such an evil tongue
    That—but my chaster ear will not receive
An echo of a syllable that’s wrong:
     In fact, there’s nothing makes me so much grieve
As that abominable tittle tattle,
Which is the cud eschewed by human cattle.

44

Moreover I’ve remarked (and I was once
     A slight observer in a modest way)
And so may every one except a dunce,
     That ladies in their youth a little gay,
Besides their knowledge of the world, and sense
     Of the sad consequence of going astray,
Are wiser in their warnings ‘gainst the woe
Which the mere passionless can never know.

45

While the harsh Prude indemnifies her virtue
     By railing at the unknown and envied passion,
Seeking far less to save you than to hurt you,
     Or what’s still worse, to put you out of fashion,—
The kinder veteran with calm words will court you,
    Entreating you to pause before you dash on;
Expounding and illustrating the riddle
Of Epic Love’s beginning, end, and middle.

46

Now whether it be thus, or that they are stricter,
     As better knowing why they should be so,
I think you’ll find from many a family picture,
     That daughters of such mothers as may know
The world by experience rather than by lecture,
     Turn out much better for the Smithfield Show
Of vestals brought into the marriage mart,
Than those bred up by prudes without a heart.

47

I said that Lady Pinchbeck had been talked about—
     As who has not, if female, young, and pretty?
But now no more the ghost of Scandal stalked about;
     She merely was deemed amiable and witty,
And several of her best bon-mots were hawked about;
     Then she was given to charity and pity,
And passed (at least the latter years of life)
For being a most exemplary wife.

48

High in high circles, gentle in her own,
    She was the mild reprover of the young
Whenever—which means every day—they’d shown
     An awkward inclination to go wrong.
The quantity of good she did’s unknown,
     Or at the least would lengthen out my song:—
In brief, the little orphan of the East
Had raised an interest in her which encreased.

49

Juan too was a sort of favourite with her,
     Because she thought him a good heart at bottom,
A little spoiled, but not so altogether;
     Which was a wonder, if you think who got him,
And how he had been tossed, he scarce knew whither:
     Though this might ruin others, it did not him,
At least entirely, for he had seen too many
Changes in youth, to be surprised at any.

50

And these vicissitudes tell best in youth;
    For when they happen at a riper age,
People are apt to blame the Fates, forsooth,
     And wonder Providence is not more sage.
Adversity is the first path to truth:
     He who hath proved war, storm, or woman’s rage,
Whether his winters be eighteen or eighty,
Hath won the experience which is deemed so weighty.