A lady with apologies abounds ;- alone The passage you so often have explored Here is the garden-key. Fly-fly-Adieu ! Haste-haste! I hear Alfonso's hurrying feet To whom she knew his mother's fame was dear. Day has not broke there's no one in the street. A pair of shoes!-what then? not much, if they CLXXXVI. Alfonso grappled to detain the foe. And Juan throttled him to get away, And then his only garment quite gave way CLXXXVII. Lights came at length, and men, and maids, found An awkward spectacle their eyes before: Antonia in hysterics, Julia swoon'd, Alfonso leaning breathless by the door: Some half-torn drapery scatter'd on the groun Some blood and several footsteps, but more; Was but a moment's act.-Ah! well-a-day! Alfonso first examined well their fashion, CLXXXII. He left the room for his relinquish'd sword, And liking not the inside, lock'd the out. CLXXXVIII. Here ends this canto. Need I sing, or av, And reach'd his home in an unseemly pl With love, and war, a heavy gale at sea, A list of ships, and captains, and kings reignNew characters; the episodes are three: [ing, A panoramic view of hell's in training, After the style of Virgil and of Homer, So that my name of epic's no misnomer. CCI. All these things will be specified in time, Which makes so many poets and some fools: CCII. There's only one slight difference between Me and my epic brethren gone before; And here the advantage is my own, I ween (Not that I have not several merits more, But this will more peculiarly be seen): They so embellish, that 'tis quite a bore Their labyrinth of fables to thread through, Whereas this story's actually true. CCIII. If any person doubt it, I appeal To history, tradition, and to facts, To newspapers, whose truth all know and feel, To plays in five, and operas in three, acts; All these confirm my statement a good deal, But that which more completely faith exacts Is that myself, and several now in Seville, Saw Juan's last elopement with the devil. CCIV. If ever I should condescend to prose, I'll write poetical commandments, which Shall supersede beyond all doubt all those That went before; in these I shall enrich My text with many things that no one knows, And carry precept to the highest pitch: I'll call the work Longinus o'er a Bottle; Or, Every Poet his own Aristotle.' CCV. Thou shalt believe in Milton, Dryden, Pope; Thou shalt not set up Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey; Because the first is crazed beyond all hope, The second drunk, the third so quaint and mouthey: With Crabbe it may be difficult to cope, And Campbell's Hippocrene is somewhat drouthy: Thou shalt not steal from Samuel Rogers, nor Commit-flirtation with the muse of Moore. CCVI. Thou shalt not covet Mr Sotheby's muse, His Pegasus, nor anything that's his; Thou shalt not bear false witness like 'the Blues' (There's one, at least, is very fond of this: Thou shalt not write, in short, but what I choose: This is true criticism, and you may kissExactly as you please, or not-the rod : But if you don't, I'll lay it on, by G-d! CCVII. If any person should presume to assert That this is not a moral tale, though gay; Besides, in Canto Twelfth, I mean to show The very place where wicked people go. CCVIII. If, after all, there should be some so blind To their own good, this warning to despise, Led by some tortuosity of mind, Not to believe my verse and their own eyes, And cry that they the moral cannot find. 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 corail, Meantime they'll doubtless please to recolect My epical pretensions to the laurel ; For fear some prudish readers should grow sk." I've bribed my grandmother's review-itBritish. 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 break a promise after having made it net. Denying the receipt of what it cost, And smear his page with gall instead of honey, All I can say is that he had the money. CCXI. I think that, with this holy new alliance, All other magazines of art or science, Daily, or monthly, or three-monthly; I Have not essay'd to multiply their clients. Because they tell me 'twere in vain to try, And that the Edinburgh Review and Quartri Treat a dissenting author very martyrly. CCXII. 'Non ego hoc ferrem calida juventa Consule Planco,' Horace said, and so Say I; by which quotation there is meant a Hint that, some six or seven good years ago (Long ere I dreamt of dating from the Brenta),Now, like Friar Bacon's brazen head, I've spoken, I was most ready to return a blow, Time is, Time was, Time's past;'-a chymic And would not brook at all this sort of thing In my hot youth-when George the Third was king. CCXIII. But now, at thirty years, my hair is grey- My heart is not much greener; and, in short, I And feel no more the spirit to retort: I CCXIV. No more-no more-Oh never more on me Extracts emotions beautiful and new, Alas! 'twas not in them, but in thy power 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, ment. CCXVI. My days of love are over; me no more* The charms of maid, wife, and still less of Can make the fool of which they made before: CCXVII. Ambition was my idol, which was broken Me nec femina, nec puer treasure Is glittering youth, which I have spent betimes- |