CANTO VI.

I.

'THERE is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood"-you know the rest, And most of us have found it, now and then;

At least we think so, though but few have guess'd

The moment, till too late to come again.

But no doubt every thing is for the best

Of which the surest sign is in the end;

VII.

We left our hero and third heroine in

A kind of state more awkward than uncommo",
For gentlemen must sometimes risk their skin
For that sad tempter, a forbidden woman:
Sultans too much abhor this sort of sin,

And don't agree at all with the wise Roman,
Heroic, stoic Cato, the sententious,
Who lent his lady to his friend Hortensius.

VIII.

I know Gulbeyaz was extremely wrong;
I own it, I deplore it, I condemn it;
But I detest all fiction, even in song,

And so must tell the truth, howe'er you blame it.
Her reason being weak, her passions strong,
She thought that her lord's heart (even could she
Was scarce enough; for he had fifty-nine [claim it)

When things are at the worst, they sometimes mend. Years, and a fifteen-hundredth concubine.

[may

IX.

I am not, like Cassio, "an arithmetician,"
But by "the bookish theoric" it appears,
If 'tis summ'd up with feminine precision,
That, adding to the account his highness' years,
The fair Sultana err'd from inanition;

For, were the Sultan just to all his dears,
She could but claim the fifteen-hundreth part
Of what should be monopoly-the heart.

X.

It is observed that ladies are litigious

Upon all legal objects of possession,
And not the least so when they are religious, [sion.
Which doubles what they think of the transgres-
With suits and prosecutions they besiege us,

As the tribunał shows through many a session,
When they suspect that any one goes shares
In that to which the law makes them sole heirs.

XI.

Now, if this holds good in a Christian land,
The heathens also, though with lesser latitude,
Are apt to carry things with a high hand,

And take what kings call "an imposing attitude;
And for their rights connubial make a stand, [tude;
When their liege husbands treat them with ingrati-
And as four wives must have quadruple claims,
The Tigris hath its jealousies like Thames.

XII.

Gulbeyaz was the fourth, and (as I said)
The favorite; but what's favor among four?
Polygamy may well be held in dread,
Not only as a sin, but as a bore:
Most wise men, with one moderate woman wed,
Will scarcely find philosophy for more;
And all (except Mahometans) forbear
To make the nuptial couch a "Bed of Ware."

XIII.

So styled according to the usual forms
Of every monarch, till they are consigned
To those sad hungry jacobins, the worms,
Who on the very loftiest kings have dined,-

'Twas the boy's "mite," and like the "widow's," His highness, the sublimest of mankind,—
Perhaps be weigh'd hereafter, if not now;
But whether such things do or do not weigh,
All who have loved, or love, will still allow
Life has nought like it. God is love, they say,
And Love's a God, or was before the brow
Of earth was wrinkled by the sins and tears
Of-but Chronology best knows the years.

His highness gazed upon Gulbeyaz' charms, Expecting all the welcome of a lover,

(A "Highland welcome" all the wide world over)

LVI.

LXIII.

I think it may be of "Corinthian Brass,"
Which was a mixture of all metals, but
The brazen uppermost.) Kind reader! pass
This long parenthesis: I could not shut

It sooner for the soul of me, and class

But these are foolish things to all the wise-
And I love Wisdom more than she loves me
My tendency is to philosophize

On most things, from a tyrant to a tree;

[put But still the spouseless virgin, Knowledge, flies. What are we? and whence came we ? what shall be Our ultimate existence? what's our present?

My faults even with your own! which meaneth,| A kind construction upon them and me:

But that you won't-then don't-I'm not less free. Are questions answerless, and yet incessant.

LVII.

"Tis time we should return to plain narration,
And thus my narrative proceeds :-Dudu,
With every kindness short of ostentation,

Show'd Juan, or Juanna, through and through
This labyrinth of females, and each station [few:
Described-what's strange, in words extremely
I have but one simile, and that's a blunder,
For worldless women, which is silent thunder.

LVIII.

And next she gave her (I say her, because
The gender still was epicene, at least
In outward show, which is a saving clause)
An outline of the customs of the East,
With all their chaste integrity of laws,

By which the more a haram is increased,
The stricter doubtless grow the vestal duties
Of any supernumerary beauties.

LIX.

And then she gave Juanna a chaste kiss:
Dudu was fond of kissing-which I'm sure
That nobody can ever take amiss,

LXIV.

There was deep silence in the chamber: dim
And distant from each other burn'd the lights,
And slumber hover'd o'er each lovely limb

Of the fair occupants: if there be sprites, [trim,
They should have walk'd there in their spriteliest
By way of change from their sepulchral sites,
And shown themselves as ghosts of better taste,
Than haunting some old ruin or wild waste

LXV.

Many and beautiful lay those around,

Like flowers of different hue, and clime, and root In some exotic garden sometimes found,

With cost, and care, and warmth induced to shoot
One with her auburn tresses lightly bound,

And fair brows gently drooping, as the fruit
Nods from the tree, was slumbering with soft breath,
And lips apart, which show'd the pearls beneath.

LXVI.

One, with her flush'd cheek laid on her white arm,
And raven ringlets gather'd in dark crowd
Above her brow, lay dreaming soft and warm; [cloud
And, smiling through her dream, as through a
The moon breaks, half unveil'd each further charm,
As, slightly stirring in her snowy shroud,

Because 'tis pleasant, so that it be pure,
And between females means no more than this-
That they have nothing better near, or newer.
"Kiss" rhymes to "bliss" in fact as well as verse-Her beauties seized the unconscious hour of night

I wish it never led to something worse.

LX.

In perfect innocence she then unmade

Her toilet, which cost little, for she was
A child of nature, carelessly array'd;

If fond of a chance ogle at her glass,
"Twas like the fawn which, in the lake display'd,
Beholds her own shy shadowy image pass,
When first she starts, and then returns to peep,
Admiring this new native of the deep.

LXI.

And one by one her articles of dress

Were laid aside; but not before she offer'd Her aid to fair Juanna, whose excess

Of modesty declined the assistance proffer'dWhich pass'd well off-as she could do no less: Though by this politeness she rather suffer'd, Pricking her fingers with those cursed pins, Which surely were invented for our sins,

LXII.

Making a woman like a porcupine,

Not to be rashly touch'd. But still more dread,
Oh ye! whose fate it is, as once 'twas mine,
In early youth to turn a lady's maid ;-
I did my very boyish best to shine

In tricking her out for a masquerade :
The pins were placed sufficiently, but not
Stuck all exactly in the proper spot.