But though my turn will not be served with less, CXXXIII. The love of offspring's nature's general law, From tigresses and cubs to ducks and ducklings; There's nothing whets the beak, or arms the claw Like an invasion of their babes and sucklings; And all who have seen a human nursery, saw How mothers love their children's squalls and chucklings; This strong extreme effect (to tire no longer Your patience) shows the cause must still be stronger. (1) CXXXIV. If I said fire flash'd from Gulbeyaz' eyes, 'Twere nothing-for her eyes flash'd always fire; Or said her cheeks assumed the deepest dyes, I should but bring disgrace upon the dyer, So supernatural was her passion's rise; For ne'er till now she knew a check'd desire: Even ye who know what a check'd woman is (Enough, God knows!) would much fall short of this. CXXXV. Her rage was but a minute's, and 'twas well- (1) [MS." And this strong second cause (to tire no longer Your patience) shows the first must be still stronger."] Though horrible to see yet grand to tell, CXXXVI. A vulgar tempest 't were to a typhoon And yet she did not want to reach the moon, (1) Like moderate Hotspur on the immortal page; (2) Her anger pitch'd into a lower tune, Perhaps the fault of her soft sex and age— Her wish was but to "kill, kill, kill," like Lear's, (3) And then her thirst of blood was quench'd in tears. CXXXVII. A storm it raged, and like the storm it pass'd, As water through an unexpected leak, (1) [" By heaven! methinks, it were an easy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon." - Henry IV.] (2) [MS." Like natural Shakspeare on the immortal page."] (3) [" And when I have stolen upon these sons-in-law, Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kifl, kill."- Lear.] (4) ["A woman scorn'd is pitiless as fate, For, there, the dread of shame adds stings to hate." GIFFORD'S Juvenal.] CXXXVIII. It teaches them that they are flesh and blood, That urns and pipkins are but fragile brothers, And works of the same pottery, bad or good, Though not all born of the same sires and mothers: It teaches - Heaven knows only what it teaches, But sometimes it may mend, and often reaches. (1) CXXXIX. Her first thought was to cut off Juan's head; Her second, to cut only his-acquaintance; Her third, to ask him where he had been bred; Her fourth, to rally him into repentance; Her fifth, to call her maids and go to bed; Her sixth, to stab herself; her seventh, to sentence The lash to Baba:—but her grand resource Was to sit down again, and cry of course. CXL. She thought to stab herself, but then she had So that a poniard pierces if 'tis stuck hard: (1) [MS." The lesson mends more rarely than it reaches."] CXLI. Juan was moved: he had made up his mind Rather than sin-except to his own wish : CXLII. As through his palms Bob Acres' valour oozed, (1) Or as a dame repents her of her oath, CXLIII. So he began to stammer some excuses; Just as a languid smile began to flatter (1) ["Yes, my valour is certainly going! it is sneaking off!- I feel it oozing, as it were, at the palms of my hands!"-SHERIDAN's Rivals.] (2) [MS." Or all the stuff which utter'd by the Blues' is."] CXLIV. "Bride of the Sun! and Sister of the Moon!" ('Twas thus he spake,) "and Empress of the Earth! Whose frown would put the spheres all out of tune, Whose smile makes all the planets dance with mirth, Your slave brings tidings- he hopes not too soon — Which your sublime attention may be worth: (1) The Sun (2) himself has sent me like a ray To hint that he is coming up this way." CXLV. 66 "Is it," exclaim'd Gulbeyaz, " as you say? I wish to heaven he would not shine till morning! But bid my women form the milky way. [ing-(3) Hence, my old comet! give the stars due warnAnd, Christian! mingle with them as you may, And as you'd have me pardon your past scorning" Here they were interrupted by a humming CXLVI. First came her damsels, a decorous file, And then his Highness' eunuchs, black and white; The train might reach a quarter of a mile: His majesty was always so polite (1) [MS. "it may be too soon But your sublime attention they are worth."] (2) [The public style and title of the Sultan abound in Asiatic hyperbole. He is called " Governor of the Earth, Lord of three Continents and Two Seas," and very frequently "Hunkier, the Slayer of Men."— DALLAWAY.] (3) [MS." But prithee-get my women in the way, VOL. XVI. That all the stars may gleam with due adorning "] I |