Through orange bowers, and jasmine, and so forth:
(Of which I might have a good deal to say,
There being no such profusion in the North
Of oriental plants, et cetera,
But that of late your scribblers think it worth
Their while to rear whole hotbeds in their works,
Because one poet travelled ’mongst the Turks:)445
XLIII
As they were threading on their way, there came
Into Don Juan’s head a thought, which he
Whispered to his companion:—’twas the same
Which might have then occurred to you or me.
“Methinks,”—said he—“it would be no great shame
If we should strike a stroke to set us free;
Let’s knock that old black fellow on the head,
And march away—’twere easier done than said.”
XLIV
“Yes,” said the other, “and when done, what then?
How get out? how the devil got we in?
And when we once were fairly out, and when
From Saint Bartholomew we have saved our skin,446447
To-morrow’d see us in some other den,
And worse off than we hitherto have been;
Besides, I’m hungry, and just now would take,
Like Esau, for my birthright a beef-steak.
XLV
“We must be near some place of man’s abode;—
For the old negro’s confidence in creeping,
With his two captives, by so queer a road,
Shows that he thinks his friends have not been sleeping;
A single cry would bring them all abroad:
’Tis better therefore looking before leaping—
And there, you see, this turn has brought us through,
By Jove, a noble palace!—lighted too.”
XLVI
It was indeed a wide extensive building
Which opened on their view, and o’er the front
There seemed to be besprent a deal of gilding
And various hues, as is the Turkish wont—
A gaudy taste; for they are little skilled in
The arts of which these lands were once the font:
Each villa on the Bosphorus looks a screen
New painted, or a pretty opera-scene.448
XLVII
And nearer as they came, a genial savour
Of certain stews, and roast-meats, and pilaus,
Things which in hungry mortals’ eyes find favour,
Made Juan in his harsh intentions pause,
And put himself upon his good behaviour:
His friend, too, adding a new saving clause,
Said, “In Heaven’s name let’s get some supper now,
And then I’m with you, if you’re for a row.”
XLVIII
Some talk of an appeal unto some passion,
Some to men’s feelings, others to their reason;
The last of these was never much the fashion,
For Reason thinks all reasoning out of season:
Some speakers whine, and others lay the lash on,
But more or less continue still to tease on,
With arguments according to their “forte:”
But no one ever dreams of being short.—
XLIX
But I digress: of all appeals—although
I grant the power of pathos, and of gold,
Of beauty, flattery, threats, a shilling—no
Method’s more sure at moments to take hold449
Of the best feelings of mankind, which grow
More tender, as we every day behold,
Than that all-softening, overpowering knell,
The Tocsin of the Soul—the dinner-bell.
L
Turkey contains no bells, and yet men dine;
And Juan and his friend, albeit they heard
No Christian knoll to table, saw no line
Of lackeys usher to the feast prepared,
Yet smelt roast-meat, beheld a huge fire shine,
And cooks in motion with their clean arms bared,
And gazed around them to the left and right,
With the prophetic eye of appetite.
LI
And giving up all notions of resistance,
They followed close behind their sable guide,
Who little thought that his own cracked existence
Was on the point of being set aside:
He motioned them to stop at some small distance,
And knocking at the gate, ’twas opened wide,
And a magnificent large hall displayed
The Asian pomp of Ottoman parade.
LII
I won’t describe; description is my “forte,”
But every fool describes in these bright days
His wondrous journey to some foreign court,
And spawns his quarto, and demands your praise—
Death to his publisher, to him ’tis sport;
While Nature, tortured twenty thousand ways,
Resigns herself with exemplary patience
To guide-books, rhymes, tours, sketches, illustrations.450
LIII
Along this hall, and up and down, some, squatted
Upon their hams, were occupied at chess;
Others in monosyllable talk chatted,
And some seemed much in love with their own dress;
And divers smoked superb pipes decorated
With amber mouths of greater price or less;
And several strutted, others slept, and some
Prepared for supper with a glass of rum.451
LIV
As the black eunuch entered with his brace
Of purchased Infidels, some raised their eyes
A moment, without slackening from their pace;
But those who sate ne’er stirred in any wise:
One or two stared the captives in the face,
Just as one views a horse to guess his price;
Some nodded to the negro from their station,
But no one troubled him with conversation.452
LV
He leads them through the hall, and, without stopping,
On through a farther range of goodly rooms,
Splendid, but silent, save in one, where dropping453
A marble fountain echoes through the glooms
Of night which robe the chamber, or where popping
Some female head most curiously presumes
To thrust its black eyes through the door or lattice,
As wondering what the devil noise that is!
LVI
Some faint lamps gleaming from the lofty walls
Gave light enough to hint their farther way,
But not enough to show the imperial halls
In all the flashing of their full array;
Perhaps there’s nothing—I’ll not say appals,
But saddens more by night as well as day,
Than an enormous room without a soul454
To break the lifeless splendour of the whole.
LVII
Two or three seem so little, one seems nothing:
In deserts, forests, crowds, or by the shore,
There Solitude, we know, has her full growth in
The spots which were her realms for evermore;
But in a mighty hall or gallery, both in
More modern buildings and those built of yore,
A kind of Death comes o’er us all alone,
Seeing what’s meant for many with but one.
