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Though horrible to see yet grand to tell,
Like ocean warring 'gainst a rocky isle;
And the deep passions flashing through her form
Made her a beautiful embodied storm.

CXXXVI.

A vulgar tempest 't were to a typhoon
To match a common fury with her rage,
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,
Pass'd without words-in fact she could not speak;
And then her sex's shame (4) broke in at last,
A sentiment till then in her but weak,
But now it flow'd in natural and fast,

As water through an unexpected leak,
For she felt humbled-and humiliation
Is sometimes good for people in her station.

(1) [" By heaven! methinks, it were an easy leap,

Henry IV.]

To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon."(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, kill, 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,
It also gently hints to them that others,
Although of clay, are yet not quite of mud;

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)

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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
The dagger close at hand, which made it awkward;
For Eastern stays are little made to pad,

So that a poniard pierces if 't is stuck hard:
She thought of killing Juan-but, poor lad!
Though he deserved it well for being so backward,
The cutting off his head was not the art
Most likely to attain her aim-his heart.

(1) [MS. —“The lesson mends more rarely than it reaches."]

CXLI.

Juan was moved: he had made

up

his mind

To be impaled, or quarter'd as a dish For dogs, or to be slain with pangs refined,

Or thrown to lions, or made baits for fish, And thus heroically stood resign'd,

Rather than sin—except to his own wish : But all his great preparatives for dying Dissolved like snow before a woman crying.

CXLII.

As through his palms Bob Acres' valour oozed, (1)
So Juan's virtue ebb'd, I know not how;
And first he wonder'd why he had refused;
And then, if matters could be made up now;
And next his savage virtue he accused,
Just as a friar may accuse his vow,

Or as a dame repents her of her oath,
Which mostly ends in some small breach of both.

CXLIII.

So he began to stammer some excuses;
But words are not enough in such a matter,
Although you borrow'd all that e'er the muses
Have sung, or even a Dandy's dandiest chatter,
Or all the figures Castlereagh abuses; (2)
Just as a languid smile began to flatter
His peace was making, but before he ventured
Further, old Baba rather briskly enter'd.

(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 soonWhich 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.

"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
Sound, and then by a cry, "The Sultan's coming!"

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

As to announce his visits a long while
Before he came, especially at night;
For being the last wife of the Emperour,
She was of course the favourite of the four.

CXLVII.

His Highness was a man of solemn port,
Shawl'd to the nose, and bearded to the eyes,
Snatch'd from a prison to preside at court,

His lately bowstrung brother caused his rise;
He was as good a sovereign of the sort
As any mention'd in the histories

Of Cantemir, or Knōlles, where few shine
Save Solyman, the glory of their line. (1)

CXLVIII.

He went to mosque in state, and said his prayers With more than "Oriental scrupulosity ;"(2) He left to his vizier all state affairs,

And show'd but little royal curiosity:

I know not if he had domestic cares

No process proved connubial animosity;

Four wives and twice five hundred maids, unseen, Were ruled as calmly as a Christian queen. (3)

(1) It may not be unworthy of remark, that Bacon, in his essay on "Empire," hints that Solyman was the last of his line; on what authority, I know not. These are his words:-" The destruction of Mustapha was so fatal to Solyman's line, as the succession of the Turks from Solyman, until this day, is suspected to be untrue, and of strange blood; for that Selymus the second was thought to be supposititious." But Bacon, in his historical authorities, is often inaccurate. I could give half a dozen instances from his Apophthegms only. [See APPENDIX to this Canto, p. 120. post.] (2) [Gibbon.]

(3) [MS.

"Because he kept them wrapt up in his closet, he
Ruled four wives and twelve hundred whores, unseen,
More easily than Christian kings one queen."]

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