The loveliest, chastest, best, but—quite a fool.422
CXII
Humboldt, “the first of travellers,” but not
The last, if late accounts be accurate,
Invented, by some name I have forgot,
As well as the sublime discovery’s date,
An airy instrument, with which he sought
To ascertain the atmospheric state,
By measuring “the intensity of blue:”423
Oh, Lady Daphne! let me measure you!424
CXIII
But to the narrative:—The vessel bound
With slaves to sell off in the capital,
After the usual process, might be found
At anchor under the seraglio wall;
Her cargo, from the plague being safe and sound,
Were landed in the market,425 one and all;
And, there, with Georgians, Russians, and Circassians,
Bought up for different purposes and passions.
CXIV
Some went off dearly; fifteen hundred dollars
For one Circassian, a sweet girl, were given,
Warranted virgin; Beauty’s brightest colours
Had decked her out in all the hues of heaven:
Her sale sent home some disappointed bawlers,
Who bade on till the hundreds reached eleven;
But when the offer went beyond, they knew
’Twas for the Sultan, and at once withdrew.
CXV
Twelve negresses from Nubia brought a price
Which the West Indian market scarce could bring—
Though Wilberforce, at last, has made it twice
What ’twas ere Abolition; and the thing
Need not seem very wonderful, for Vice
Is always much more splendid than a King:
The Virtues, even the most exalted, Charity,
Are saving—Vice spares nothing for a rarity.
CXVI
But for the destiny of this young troop,
How some were bought by Pachas, some by Jews,
How some to burdens were obliged to stoop,
And others rose to the command of crews
As renegadoes; while in hapless group,
Hoping no very old Vizier might choose,
The females stood, as one by one they picked ’em,
To make a mistress, or fourth wife, or victim:426
CXVII
All this must be reserved for further song;
Also our Hero’s lot, howe’er unpleasant
(Because this Canto has become too long),427
Must be postponed discreetly for the present;
I’m sensible redundancy is wrong,
But could not for the Muse of me put less in ’t:
And now delay the progress of Don Juan,
Till what is called in Ossian the fifth Duan.
Canto V428
I
When amatory poets sing their loves
In liquid lines mellifluously bland,
And pair their rhymes as Venus yokes her doves,
They little think what mischief is in hand;
The greater their success the worse it proves,
As Ovid’s verse may give to understand;
Even Petrarch’s self, if judged with due severity,
Is the Platonic pimp of all posterity.
II
I therefore do denounce all amorous writing,
Except in such a way as not to attract;
Plain—simple—short, and by no means inviting,
But with a moral to each error tacked,
Formed rather for instructing than delighting,
And with all passions in their turn attacked;
Now, if my Pegasus should not be shod ill,
This poem will become a moral model.
III
The European with the Asian shore
Sprinkled with palaces—the Ocean stream429
Here and there studded with a seventy-four,
Sophia’s Cupola with golden gleam,430
The cypress groves, Olympus high and hoar,
The twelve isles, and the more than I could dream,
Far less describe, present the very view
Which charmed the charming Mary Montagu.
IV
I have a passion for the name of “Mary,”431
For once it was a magic sound to me;
And still it half calls up the realms of Fairy,
Where I beheld what never was to be;
All feelings changed, but this was last to vary,
A spell from which even yet I am not quite free:
But I grow sad—and let a tale grow cold,
Which must not be pathetically told.
V
The wind swept down the Euxine, and the wave
Broke foaming o’er the blue Symplegades;
’Tis a grand sight from off “the Giant’s Grave”432
To watch the progress of those rolling seas
Between the Bosphorus, as they lash and lave
Europe and Asia, you being quite at ease:
There’s not a sea the passenger e’er pukes in,
Turns up more dangerous breakers than the Euxine.
VI
’Twas a raw day of Autumn’s bleak beginning,
When nights are equal, but not so the days;
The Parcae then cut short the further spinning
Of seamen’s fates, and the loud tempests raise433
The waters, and repentance for past sinning
In all, who o’er the great deep take their ways:
They vow to amend their lives, and yet they don’t;
Because if drowned, they can’t—if spared, they won’t.
VII
A crowd of shivering slaves of every nation,
And age, and sex, were in the market ranged;
Each bevy with the merchant in his station:
Poor creatures! their good looks were sadly changed.
All save the blacks seemed jaded with vexation,
From friends, and home, and freedom far estranged;
The negroes more philosophy displayed—
Used to it, no doubt, as eels are to be flayed.
VIII
Juan was juvenile, and thus was full,
As most at his age are, of hope, and health;
Yet I must own, he looked a little dull,
And now and then a tear stole down by stealth;
Perhaps his recent loss of blood might pull
His spirit down; and then the loss of wealth,
A mistress, and such comfortable quarters,
To be put up for auction amongst Tartars,
IX
Were things to shake a Stoic; ne’ertheless,
Upon the whole his carriage was serene:
His figure, and the splendour of his dress,
Of which some gilded remnants still were seen,
Drew all eyes on him, giving them to guess
He was above the vulgar by his mien;
And then, though pale, he was so very handsome;
And then—they calculated on his ransom.434
X
Like a backgammon board the place was dotted
With whites and blacks, in groups on show for sale,
Though rather more irregularly spotted:
Some bought the jet, while others chose the pale.
It chanced amongst the
