CXXXV. He wrote this polar melody, and set it, Duly accompanied by shrieks and groans, But ye-our children's children! think how we Show'd what things were before the world was free! CXXXVI. That hour is not for us, but 't is for you, And as, in the great joy of your millennium, You hardly will believe such things were true But As now occur, I thought that I would pen you 'em; may their very memory perish too!Yet, if perchance remember'd, still disdain More than you scorn the savages of yore, Who painted their bare limbs, but not with gore. CXXXVII. you 'em, And when you hear historians talk of thrones, The pleasant riddles of futurity- CXXXVIII. Reader! I have kept my word,—at least so far CXXXIX. With which I still can harp, and carp, and fiddle. The hero of this grand poetic riddle, I by and by may tell you, if at all: But now I choose to break off in the middle, While Juan is sent off with the dispatch, For which all Petersburgh is on the watch. CXL. This special honour was conferr'd, because CXLI. The Moslem orphan went with her protector, Of what it had been; there the Muezzin's call To prayer was heard no more!—and Juan wept, And made a vow to shield her, which he kept. NOTES TO CANTO VIII. Note 1. Stanza viii. All sounds it pierceth, "Allah! Allah! Hu!" "Allah! Hu!" is properly the war-cry of the Mussulmans, and they dwell long on the last syllable, which gives it a very wild and peculiar effect. Note 2. Stanza ix. "Carnage (so Wordsworth tells you) is God's daughter." But thy most dreaded instrument In working out a pure intent, Is man array'd for mutual slaughter, Yea, Carnage is thy daughter! WORDSWORTH'S Thanksgiving Ode. To wit, the Deity's. This is perhaps as pretty a pedigree for Murder as ever was found out by Garter King-at-arms.-What would have been said, had any freespoken people discovered such a lineage? Note 3. Stanza xviii. Was printed Grove, although his name was Grose. : A fact; see the Waterloo Gazettes. I recollect remarking at the time to a friend: "There is fame! a man is killed, his name is Grose, and they print it Grove." I was at college with the deceased, who was a very amiable and clever man, and his society in great request for his wit, gaiety, and "chansons à boire." *Note 4. Stanza xxiii. 40 As any other notion, and not national. See Major Vallencey and Sir Lawrence Parsons. Note 5. Stanza xxv. 'T is pity that such meanings should pave hell." The Portuguese proverb says, that "Hell is paved with good intentions." Note 6. Stanza xxxiii. By thy humane discovery, Friar Bacon! Gunpowder is said to have been discovered by this friar. Note 7. Stanza xlvii. Which scarcely rose much higher than grass blades. They were but two feet high above the level. Eternal! such names mingled!) "Ismail 's ours!" In the original Russian Slava bogu! slava vam! A kind of couplet; for he was a poet. CANTO IX. 1. OH, Wellington! (or "Vilainton "—for fame You have obtain❜d great pensions and much praise; II. I don't think that you used K-n-rd quite well Such tales being for the tea hours of some tabby; III. Though Britain owes (and pays you too) so much, A prop not quite so certain as before: The Spanish, and the French, as well as Dutch, Have seen, and felt, how strongly you restore; And Waterloo has made the world your debtor(I wish your bards would sing it rather better.) You are IV. "the best of cut-throats: "-do not start; The phrase is Shakspeare's, and not misapplied : War's a brain-spattering, windpipe-slitting art, Unless her cause by right be sanctified. If you have acted once a generous part, The world, not the world's masters, will decide, And I shall be delighted to learn who, Save you and yours, have gain'd by Waterloo? V. I am no flatterer-you 've supp'd full of flattery : VI. I've done. Now go and dine from off the plate A slice or two from your luxurious meals : 2 Some hunger too they say the people feels : There is no doubt that you deserve your ration, But pray give back a little to the nation. VII. I don't mean to reflect-a man so great as You need not take them under your direction; Is rather dear!-I'm sure I mean no harm. VIII. Great men have always scorn'd great recompenses; Not leaving even his funeral expenses: George Washington had thanks and nought beside, IX. Never had mortal man such opportunity, You might have freed fall'n Europe from the unity Of tyrants, and been bless'd from shore to shore ; And now-what is your fame? Shall the muse tune it ye? Now that the rabble's first vain shouts are o'er? Go! hear it in your famish'd country's cries! Behold the world! and curse your victories! |