LXXXV. With her then, as in humble duty bound, NOTES TO CANTO IX. Note 1. Stanza i. Humanity would rise, and thunder "Nay!" Query, Ney?-PRINTER'S DEVIL. Note 2. Stanza vi. And send the sentinel before your gate A slice or two from your luxurious meals. "I at this time got a post, being for fatigue, with four others.-We were sent to break biscuit, and make a mess for Lord Wellington's hounds. I was very hungry, and thought it a good job at the time, as we got our own fill while we broke the biscuit, -a thing I had not got for some days. When thus engaged, the Prodigal Son was never once out of my mind; and I sighed, as I fed the dogs, over my humble situation and my ruined hopes."—Journal of a Soldier of the 71st Regiment during the war in Spain. Note 3. Stanza xxxiii. Because he could no more digest his dinner. He was killed in a conspiracy, after his temper had been exasperated, by his extreme costivity, to a degree of insanity. Note 4. Stanza xlvii. And had just buried the fair-faced Lanskoi. He was the "grande passion" of the grande Catherine.-See her Lives, under the bead of "Lanskoi." Note 5. Stanza xlix. Bid Ireland's Londonderry's Marquess show His parts of speech. This was written long before the suicide of that person. Note 6. Stanza Ixiii. Your "fortune” was in a fair way "to swell A man," as Giles says. "His fortune swells him, it is rank, he's married."-Sir Giles Overreach; MASSINGER.-See A New Way to Pay Old Debts. CANTO X. I. WHEN Newton saw an apple fall, he found In that slight startle from his contemplation- II. Man fell with apples, and with apples rose, If this be true; for we must deem the mode In which Sir Isaac Newton could disclose, Through the then unpaved stars, the turnpike road, A thing to counterbalance human woes; For, ever since, immortal man hath glow'd With all kinds of mechanics, and full soon Steam-engines will conduct him to the moon. III. And wherefore this exordium ?-Why, just now, And though so much inferior, as I know, To those who, by the dint of glass and vapour, IV. In the wind's eye I have sail'd, and sail; but for Of breakers has not daunted my slight, trim, ས་ We left our hero Juan in the bloom It is enough that fortune found him flush VI. But soon they grow again, and leave their nest. And who that recollects young years and loves,— Beyond its dimm'd eye's sphere, but would much rather Sigh like his son, than cough like his grandfather? VII. But sighs subside, and tears (even widows') shrink, So narrow as to shame their wintry brink, Which threatens inundations deep and yellow! Such difference doth a few months make. You'd think VIII. But coughs will come when sighs depart—and now Of life reach ten o'clock: and, while a glow, But Juan was not meant to die so soon. We left him in the focus of such glory As may he won by favour of the moon, Or ladies' fancies-rather transitory Perhaps but who would scorn the month of June, : Because December, with his breath so hoary, Must come? Much rather should he court the To hoard up warmth against a wintry day. ray, X. Besides, he had some qualities which fix Middle-aged ladies even more than young: The former know what 's what; while new-fledged chicks Know little more of love than what is sung In rhymes, or dream'd (for fancy will play tricks) In visions of those skies from whence love sprung. Some reckon women by their suns or years— I rather think the moon should date the years. XI. And why? because she 's changeable and chaste. May chuse to tax me with; which is not fair, XII. Old enemies who have become new friends Should so continue 't is a point of honour; And I know nothing which could make amends For a return to hatred: I would shun her Like garlick, howsoever she extends Her hundred arms and legs, and fain outrun her. Old flames, new wives, become our bitterest foesConverted foes should scorn to join with those. XIII. This were the worst desertion; renegadoes, Should not veer round with every breath, nor seize, XIV. The lawyer and the critic but behold The baser sides of literature and life, And nought remains unseen, but much untold. While common men grow ignorantly old, The lawyer's brief is like the surgeon's knife, |