Selected Works of George Gordon, Lord Byron

     LXXVI
She cannot do these things, nor one or two
  Others, in that off-hand and dashing style
Which takes so much--to give the devil his due;
  Nor is she quite so ready with her smile,
Nor settles all things in one interview
  (A thing approved as saving time and toil);--
But though the soil may give you time and trouble,
Well cultivated, it will render double.

     LXXVII
And if in fact she takes to a 'grande passion,'
  It is a very serious thing indeed:
Nine times in ten 't is but caprice or fashion,
  Coquetry, or a wish to take the lead,
The pride of a mere child with a new sash on,
  Or wish to make a rival's bosom bleed:
But the tenth instance will be a tornado,
For there 's no saying what they will or may do.

     LXXVIII
The reason 's obvious; if there 's an eclat,
  They lose their caste at once, as do the Parias;
And when the delicacies of the law
  Have fill'd their papers with their comments various,
Society, that china without flaw
  (The hypocrite!), will banish them like Marius,
To sit amidst the ruins of their guilt:
For Fame 's a Carthage not so soon rebuilt.

     LXXIX
Perhaps this is as it should be;--it is
  A comment on the Gospel's 'Sin no more,
And be thy sins forgiven:'--but upon this
  I leave the saints to settle their own score.
Abroad, though doubtless they do much amiss,
  An erring woman finds an opener door
For her return to Virtue--as they call
That lady, who should be at home to all.

     LXXX
For me, I leave the matter where I find it,
  Knowing that such uneasy virtue leads
People some ten times less in fact to mind it,
  And care but for discoveries and not deeds.
And as for chastity, you 'll never bind it
  By all the laws the strictest lawyer pleads,
But aggravate the crime you have not prevented,
By rendering desperate those who had else repented.

     LXXXI
But Juan was no casuist, nor had ponder'd
  Upon the moral lessons of mankind:
Besides, he had not seen of several hundred
  A lady altogether to his mind.
A little 'blase'--'t is not to be wonder'd
  At, that his heart had got a tougher rind:
And though not vainer from his past success,
No doubt his sensibilities were less.

     LXXXII
He also had been busy seeing sights--
  The Parliament and all the other houses;
Had sat beneath the gallery at nights,
  To hear debates whose thunder roused (not rouses)
The world to gaze upon those northern lights
  Which flash'd as far as where the musk-bull browses;
He had also stood at times behind the throne--
But Grey was not arrived, and Chatham gone.

     LXXXIII
He saw, however, at the closing session,
  That noble sight, when really free the nation,
A king in constitutional possession
  Of such a throne as is the proudest station,
Though despots know it not--till the progression
  Of freedom shall complete their education.
'T is not mere splendour makes the show august
To eye or heart--it is the people's trust.

     LXXXIX
There, too, he saw (whate'er he may be now)
  A Prince, the prince of princes at the time,
With fascination in his very bow,
  And full of promise, as the spring of prime.
Though royalty was written on his brow,
  He had then the grace, too, rare in every clime,
Of being, without alloy of fop or beau,
A finish'd gentleman from top to toe.

     XC
And Juan was received, as hath been said,
  Into the best society: and there
Occurr'd what often happens, I 'm afraid,
  However disciplined and debonnaire:--
The talent and good humour he display'd,
  Besides the mark'd distinction of his air,
Exposed him, as was natural, to temptation,
Even though himself avoided the occasion.

     XCI
But what, and where, with whom, and when, and why,
  Is not to be put hastily together;
And as my object is morality
  (Whatever people say), I don't know whether
I 'll leave a single reader's eyelid dry,
  But harrow up his feelings till they wither,
And hew out a huge monument of pathos,
As Philip's son proposed to do with Athos.

     XCII
Here the twelfth Canto of our introduction
  Ends. When the body of the book 's begun,
You 'll find it of a different construction
  From what some people say 't will be when done:
The plan at present 's simply in concoction,
  I can't oblige you, reader, to read on;
That 's your affair, not mine: a real spirit
Should neither court neglect, nor dread to bear it.

     XCIII
And if my thunderbolt not always rattles,
  Remember, reader! you have had before
The worst of tempests and the best of battles
  That e'er were brew'd from elements or gore,
Besides the most sublime of--Heaven knows what else:
  An usurer could scarce expect much more--
But my best canto, save one on astronomy,
Will turn upon 'political economy.'

     XCIV
That is your present theme for popularity:
  Now that the public hedge hath scarce a stake,
It grows an act of patriotic charity,
  To show the people the best way to break.
My plan (but I, if but for singularity,
  Reserve it) will be very sure to take.
Meantime, read all the national debt-sinkers,
And tell me what you think of your great thinkers.