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LXXII.

That isle is now all desolate and bare,

Its dwellings down, its tenants pass'd away; None but her own and father's grave is there,

And nothing outward tells of human clay; Ye could not know where lies a thing so fair,

No stone is there to show, no tongue to say What was; no dirge, except the hollow sea's, (1) Mourns o'er the beauty of the Cyclades.

LXXIII.

But many a Greek maid in a loving song
Sighs o'er her name; and many an islander
With her sire's story makes the night less long;
Valour was his, and beauty dwelt with her:
If she loved rashly, her life paid for wrong (2)-
A heavy price must all pay who thus err,

In some shape; let none think to fly the danger, (3)
For soon or late Love is his own avenger.

(1) [MS.

"No stone is there to read, nor tongue to say, No dirge-save when arise the stormy seas."]

(2) [It will be advanced that her amours are objectionable, by some fastidious critic,

"Who minces virtue, and doth shake the head

To hear of pleasure's name.'

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If the loves of Juan and Haidée are not pure and innocent, and dictated with sufficient delicacy and propriety, the tender passion may as well be struck at once out of the list of the poet's themes. We must shut our eyes and harden our hearts against the master-passion of our existence; and, becoming mere creatures of hypocrisy and form, charge even Milton himself with folly. — CAMPBELL.]

(3) [MS.—“They must, and will, and none can fly the danger,

For soon or late Love," &c.]

LXXIV.

But let me change this theme, which grows too sad,
And lay this sheet of sorrows on the shelf;
I don't much like describing people mad,

For fear of seeming rather touch'd myself—
Besides, I've no more on this head to add;
And as my Muse is a capricious elf,

We'll put about, and try another tack
With Juan, left half-kill'd some stanzas back.

LXXV.

Wounded and fetter'd, " cabin'd, cribb'd,'confined," (1) Some days and nights elapsed before that he Could altogether call the past to mind;

And when he did, he found himself at sea, Sailing six knots an hour before the wind;

The shores of Ilion lay beneath their lee— Another time he might have liked to see 'em, But now was not much pleased with Cape Sigæum. (2)

(1)

["But now I'm cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears."-SHAKSPEARE.]

(2) [We had a full view of Mount Ida,

"Where Juno once caress'd her amorous Jove,

And the world's master lay subdued by love.'

We anchored at Cape Janissary, the famous promontory of Sigæum. My curiosity supplied me with strength to climb to the top of it, to see the place where Achilles was buried, and where Alexander ran naked round his tomb, in honour of him which no doubt was a great comfort to his ghost. Farther downward we saw the promontory famed for the sepulchre of Ajax. While I reviewed these celebrated fields and rivers, I admired the exact geography of Homer, whom I had in my hand. Almost every epithet he gives to a mountain or plain is still just for it; and I spent several hours here in as agreeable cogitations as ever Don Quixote had on Mount Montesinos. - LADY M. W. MONTAGU.]

LXXVI.

There, on the green and village-cotted hill, is
(Flank'd by the Hellespont, and by the sea)
Entomb'd the bravest of the brave, Achilles ;

They say so-(Bryant says the contrary):
And further downward, tall and towering still, is (1)
The tumulus-of whom? Heaven knows; 't may be
Patroclus, Ajax, or Protesilaus ;(2)

All heroes, who if living still would slay us.

LXXVII.

High barrows, without marble, or a name,
A vast, untill'd, and mountain-skirted plain,
And Ida in the distance, still the same,

And old Scamander, (if 'tis he) remain ;

(1) [Proceeding towards the east, and round the bay distinctly pointed out by Strabo, as the harbour in which the Grecian fleet was stationed, we arrived at the sepulchre of Ajax, upon the ancient Rhætian promontory. It is one of the most interesting objects to which the attention of the literary traveller can possibly be directed. In all that remains of former ages, I know of nothing likely to affect the mind by emotions of local enthusiasm more powerfully than this most interesting tomb. It is impossible to view its sublime and simple form without calling to mind the veneration so long paid to it; without picturing to the imagination a successive series of mariners, of kings and heroes, who, from the Hellespont, or by the shores of Troas and Chersonesus, or on the sepulchre itself, poured forth the tribute of their homage; and, finally, without representing to the mind the feelings of a native, or of a traveller, in those times, who, after viewing the existing monument, and witnessing the instances of public and of private regard so constantly bestowed upon it, should have been told the age was to arrive when the existence of Troy, and of the mighty dead entombed upon its plain, would be considered as having no foundation in truth. DR. E. D. CLARKE.]

(2) [The Troad is a fine field for conjecture and snipe-shooting, and a good sportsman and an ingenious scholar may exercise their feet and faculties to great advantage upon the spot; - or, if they prefer riding, lose their way, as I did, in a cursed quagmire of the Scamander, who wriggles about as if the Dardan virgins still offered their wonted tribute. The only

The situation seems still form'd for fame—

A hundred thousand men might fight again With ease; but where I sought for Ilion's walls, The quiet sheep feeds, and the tortoise crawls;

LXXVIII.

Troops of untended horses; here and there
Some little hamlets, with new names uncouth;
Some shepherds, (unlike Paris) led to stare
A moment at the European youth

Whom to the spot their school-boy feelings bear ;(1)
A Turk, with beads in hand, and pipe in mouth,
Extremely taken with his own religion,

Are what I found there but the devil a Phrygian.

LXXIX.

Don Juan, here permitted to emerge

From his dull cabin, found himself a slave; Forlorn, and gazing on the deep blue surge, O'ershadow'd there by many a hero's grave; Weak still with loss of blood, he scarce could urge A few brief questions; and the answers gave No very satisfactory information

About his past or present situation.

vestige of Troy, or her destroyers, are the barrows supposed to contain the carcases of Achilles, Antilochus, Ajax, &c. ; but Mount Ida is still in high feather, though the shepherds are now-a-days not much like Ganymede. B. Letters, 1810.]

(1) [Nothing could be more agreeable than our frequent rambles. The peasants of the numerous villages, whom we frequently encountered ploughing with their buffaloes, or driving their creaking wicker cars, laden with faggots from the mountains, whether Greeks or Turks, showed no inclination to interrupt our pursuits. Parties of our crew might be seen scattered over the plain, collecting the tortoises which swarm on the sides of the rivulets, and are found under every furze-bush. HOBHOUSE.]

LXXX.

He saw some fellow captives, who appear'd
To be Italians, as they were in fact;
From them, at least, their destiny he heard,
Which was an odd one; a troop going to act
In Sicily-all singers, duly rear'd

In their vocation; had not been attack'd
In sailing from Livorno by the pirate,
But sold by the impresario at no high rate. (1)

LXXXI.

By one of these, the buffo (2) of the party,
Juan was told about their curious case;
For although destined to the Turkish mart, he
Still kept his spirits up- at least his face;
The little fellow really look'd quite hearty,

And bore him with some gaiety and grace,
Showing a much more reconciled demeanour
Than did the prima donna (3) and the tenor. (4)

(1) This is a fact. A few years ago a man engaged a company for some foreign theatre, embarked them at an Italian port, and carrying them to Algiers, sold them all. One of the women, returned from her captivity, I heard sing, by a strange coincidence, in Rossini's opera of "L'Italiana in Algieri," at Venice, in the beginning of 1817.-[We have reason to believe that the following, which we take from the MS. journal of a highly respectable traveller, is a more correct account: "In 1812, a Signor Guariglia induced several young persons of both sexes-none of them exceeding fifteen years of age- to accompany him on an operatic excursion; part to form the opera, and part the ballet. He contrived to get them on board a vessel, which took them to Janina, where he sold them for the basest purposes. Some died from the effect of the climate, and some from suffering. Among the few who returned were a Signor Molinari, and a female dancer, named Bomfiglia, who afterwards became the wife of Crespi, the tenor singer. The wretch who so basely sold them was, when Lord Byron resided at Venice, employed as capo de' vestarj, or head tailor, at the Fenice."- GRAHAM.]

(2) [A comic singer' in the opera buffa. The Italians, however, distinguish the buffo cantante, which requires good singing, from the buffo comico, in which there is more acting.]

(3) [First female singer.] (4) [The mean between bass and treble.]

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