But when the offer went beyond, they knew

You read my stanzas, and I read your features
And-but no matter, all those things are over;'Twas for the Sultan, and at once withdrew.
Still, I have no dislike to learned natures,

For sometimes such a world of virtues cover;
knew one woman of that purple school,
The loveliest, chastest, best, but-quite a fool.

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;'
O, Lady Daphne, let me measure you!

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, one and all,
And there, with Georgians, Russians, and Cir-
cassians,

Bought up for different purposes and passions.

CXIV.

CXV.

Twelve negresses from Nubia brought a price
Which the West Indian market scarce would
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 pashas, 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,

The females stood, as one by one they pick'd
Hoping no very old vizier might choose, ['em,
To make a mistress, or fourth wife, or victim:

CXVII.

All this must be reserved for further song ;
Also our hero's lot, howe'er unpleasant
(Because this canto has become too long),
Must be postponed discreetly for the present.
I'm sensible redundancy is wrong,

Some went off dearly; fifteen hundred dollars
For one Circassian, a sweet girl were given,
Warranted virgin; beauty's brightest colours
Had deck'd her out in all the hues of heaven : But could not for the muse of me put less in't;
Her sale sent home some disappointed bawlers, And now delay the progress of Don Juan,
Who bade on till the hundreds reach'd eleven ;Till what is call'd, in Ossian, the fifth Duan.

I.

CANTO THE FIFTH.

1821.

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 tack'd,
Form'd rather for instructing than delighting,
And with all passions in their turn attack'd;

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 stream *
Here and there studded with a seventy-four;
Sophia's Cupola, with golden gleam;
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 charm'd the charming Mary Montagu.

IV.

I have a passion for the name of 'Mary,'
For once it was a magic sound to me;

• Ωκεανοιο ρεοιο. This expression of Homer has been much criticized. It hardly answers to our Atlantic ideas of the The cyanometer, an instrument for ascertaining the in- ocean, but is sufficiently applicable to the Hellespont and the tensity of the blue colour of the sky. Bosphorus, with the Egean intersected with islands.

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'm 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,'*
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 Parcæ then cut short the further spinning
Of seamen's fates, and the loud tempests raise
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;
[won't.
Because, if drown'd, they can't—if spared, they

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 seem'd jaded with vexation,
From friends, and home, and freedom, far'
estranged;

The negroes more philosophy display'd,-
Used to it, no doubt, as eels are to be flay'd.

VIII.

Juan was juvenile, and thus was full,

As most at his age are, of hope and health; Yet I must own he look'd 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 ;

But seeing at his elbow a mere lad,
Of a high spirit evidently, though
At present weigh'd down by a doom which had
O'erthrown even men, he soon began to show
A kind of blunt compassion for the sad

Lot of so young a partner in the woe,
Which for himself he seem'd to deem no worse
Than any other scrape, a thing of course.

My boy,'-said he, amidst this motley crew Of Georgians, Russians, Nubians, and what All ragamuffins differing but in hue,

With whom it is our luck to cast our lot, The only gentlemen seem I and you;

So let us be acquainted, as we ought: If I could yield you any consolation [nation 'Twould give me pleasure.-Pray, what is your

XIV.

When Juan answer'd, 'Spanish,' he replied.
'I thought, in fact, you could not be a Greek.
Those servile dogs are not so proudly eyed:

Fortune has play'd you here a pretty freak
But that's her way with all men, till they're tried.
But never mind-she'll turn, perhaps, next
week:

She has served me also much the same as you,
Except that I have found it nothing new.

XV.

And then, though pale, he was so very hand-Pray, sir,' said Juan, if I may presume,

some:

And then-they calculated on his ransom.

The Giant's Grave' is a height on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, much frequented by holiday parties, like Har. row and Highgate.

What brought you here? Oh, nothing

very rare

idom

Six Tartars and a drag-chain-—'—'To t
But what conducted, if the question's fair.
Is that which I would learn.'-'I served for se
Months with the Russian army here and there.

They almost lost their way, and had to pick it—And nearer as they came, a genial savour
For night was closing ere they came to land.
The eunuch made a sign to those on board,
Who row'd off, leaving them, without a word.