by Lord Byron
No sign, save breath, of having left the grave.
LXIV
Her handmaids tended, but she heeded not;
Her father watch’d, she turn’d her eyes away;
She recognized no being, and no spot,
However dear or cherish’d in their day;
They changed from room to room — but all forgot —
Gentle, but without memory she lay;
At length those eyes, which they would fain be weaning
Back to old thoughts, wax’d full of fearful meaning.
LXV
And then a slave bethought her of a harp;
The harper came, and tuned his instrument;
At the first notes, irregular and sharp,
On him her flashing eyes a moment bent,
Then to the wall she turn’d as if to warp
Her thoughts from sorrow through her heart re-sent;
And he begun a long low island song
Of ancient days, ere tyranny grew strong.
LXVI
Anon her thin wan fingers beat the wall
In time to his old tune; he changed the theme,
And sung of love; the fierce name struck through all
Her recollection; on her flash’d the dream
Of what she was, and is, if ye could call
To be so being; in a gushing stream
The tears rush’d forth from her o’erclouded brain,
Like mountain mists at length dissolved in rain.
LXVII
Short solace, vain relief! — thought came too quick,
And whirl’d her brain to madness; she arose
As one who ne’er had dwelt among the sick,
And flew at all she met, as on her foes;
But no one ever heard her speak or shriek,
Although her paroxysm drew towards its dose; —
Hers was a phrensy which disdain’d to rave,
Even when they smote her, in the hope to save.
LXVIII
Yet she betray’d at times a gleam of sense;
Nothing could make her meet her father’s face,
Though on all other things with looks intense
She gazed, but none she ever could retrace;
Food she refused, and raiment; no pretence
Avail’d for either; neither change of place,
Nor time, nor skill, nor remedy, could give her
Senses to sleep — the power seem’d gone for ever.
LXIX
Twelve days and nights she wither’d thus; at last,
Without a groan, or sigh, or glance, to show
A parting pang, the spirit from her past:
And they who watch’d her nearest could not know
The very instant, till the change that cast
Her sweet face into shadow, dull and slow,
Glazed o’er her eyes — the beautiful, the black —
Oh! to possess such lustre — and then lack!
LXX
She died, but not alone; she held within
A second principle of life, which might
Have dawn’d a fair and sinless child of sin;
But closed its little being without light,
And went down to the grave unborn, wherein
Blossom and bough lie wither’d with one blight;
In vain the dews of Heaven descend above
The bleeding flower and blasted fruit of love.
LXXI
Thus lived — thus died she; never more on her
Shall sorrow light, or shame. She was not made
Through years or moons the inner weight to bear,
Which colder hearts endure till they are laid
By age in earth: her days and pleasures were
Brief, but delightful — such as had not staid
Long with her destiny; but she sleeps well
By the sea-shore, whereon she loved to dwell.
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,
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 —
A heavy price must all pay who thus err,
In some shape; let none think to fly the danger,
For soon or late Love is his own avenger.
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,”
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 Sigaeum.
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
The tumulus — of whom? Heaven knows! ‘t may be
Patroclus, Ajax, or Protesilaus —
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 ‘t is he) remain;
The situation seems still form’d for fame —
A hundred thousand men might fight again
With case; 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.
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.
LXXX
He saw some fellow captives, who appear’d
To be Italians, as they were in fact;
From them, at least, their desti
ny 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.
LXXXI
By one of these, the buffo 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 and the tenor.
LXXXII
In a few words he told their hapless story,
Saying, “Our Machiavellian impresario,
Making a signal off some promontory,
Hail’d a strange brig — Corpo di Caio Mario!
We were transferr’d on board her in a hurry,
Without a single scudo of salario;
But if the Sultan has a taste for song,
We will revive our fortunes before long.
LXXXIII
“The prima donna, though a little old,
And haggard with a dissipated life,
And subject, when the house is thin, to cold,
Has some good notes; and then the tenor’s wife,
With no great voice, is pleasing to behold;
Last carnival she made a deal of strife
By carrying off Count Cesare Cicogna
From an old Roman princess at Bologna.
LXXXIV
“And then there are the dancers; there’s the Nini,
With more than one profession, gains by all;
Then there’s that laughing slut the Pelegrini,
She, too, was fortunate last carnival,
And made at least five hundred good zecchini,
But spends so fast, she has not now a paul;
And then there’s the Grotesca — such a dancer!
Where men have souls or bodies she must answer.
LXXXV
“As for the figuranti, they are like
The rest of all that tribe; with here and there
A pretty person, which perhaps may strike,
The rest are hardly fitted for a fair;
There’s one, though tall and stiffer than a pike,
Yet has a sentimental kind of air
Which might go far, but she don’t dance with vigour;
The more’s the pity, with her face and figure.
LXXXVI
“As for the men, they are a middling set;
The Musico is but a crack’d old basin,
But being qualified in one way yet,
May the seraglio do to set his face in,
And as a servant some preferment get;
His singing I no further trust can place in:
From all the Pope makes yearly ‘t would perplex
To find three perfect pipes of the third sex.
LXXXVII
“The tenor’s voice is spoilt by affectation,
And for the bass, the beast can only bellow;
In fact, he had no singing education,
An ignorant, noteless, timeless, tuneless fellow;
But being the prima donna’s near relation,
Who swore his voice was very rich and mellow,
They hired him, though to hear him you’d believe
An ass was practising recitative.
LXXXVIII
“‘T would not become myself to dwell upon
My own merits, and though young — I see, Sir — you
Have got a travell’d air, which speaks you one
To whom the opera is by no means new:
You’ve heard of Raucocanti? — I’m the man;
The time may come when you may hear me too;
You was not last year at the fair of Lugo,
But next, when I’m engaged to sing there — do go.
LXXXIX
“Our baritone I almost had forgot,
A pretty lad, but bursting with conceit;
With graceful action, science not a jot,
A voice of no great compass, and not sweet,
He always is complaining of his lot,
Forsooth, scarce fit for ballads in the street;
In lovers’ parts his passion more to breathe,
Having no heart to show, he shows his teeth.”
XC
Here Raucocanti’s eloquent recital
Was interrupted by the pirate crew,
Who came at stated moments to invite all
The captives back to their sad berths; each threw
A rueful glance upon the waves (which bright all
From the blue skies derived a double blue,
Dancing all free and happy in the sun),
And then went down the hatchway one by one.
XCI
They heard next day — that in the Dardanelles,
Waiting for his Sublimity’s firmän,
The most imperative of sovereign spells,
Which every body does without who can,
More to secure them in their naval cells,
Lady to lady, well as man to man,
Were to be chain’d and lotted out per couple,
For the slave market of Constantinople.
XCII
It seems when this allotment was made out,
There chanced to be an odd male, and odd female,
Who (after some discussion and some doubt,
If the soprano might be deem’d to be male,
They placed him o’er the women as a scout)
Were link’d together, and it happen’d the male
Was Juan, — who, an awkward thing at his age,
Pair’d off with a Bacchante blooming visage.
XCIII
With Raucocanti lucklessly was chain’d
The tenor; these two hated with a hate
Found only on the stage, and each more pain’d
With this his tuneful neighbour than his fate;
Sad strife arose, for they were so cross-grain’d,
Instead of bearing up without debate,
That each pull’d different ways with many an oath,
“Arcades ambo,” id est — blackguards both.
XCIV
Juan’s companion was a Romagnole,
But bred within the March of old Ancona,
With eyes that look’d into the very soul
(And other chief points of a “bella donna”),
Bright — and as black and burning as a coal;
And through her dear brunette complexion shone
Great wish to please — a most attractive dower,
Especially when added to the power.
XCV
But all that power was wasted upon him,
For sorrow o’er each sense held stern command;
Her eye might flash on his, but found it dim;
And though thus chain’d, as natural her hand
Touch’d his, nor that — nor any handsome limb
(And she had some not easy to withstand)
Could stir his pulse, or make his faith feel brittle;
Perhaps his recent wounds might help a little.
XCVI
No matter; we should ne’er too much enquire,
But facts are facts: no knight could be more true,
And firmer faith no Ladye-love desire;
We will omit the proofs, save one or two:
‘T is said no one in hand “can hold a fire
By thought of frosty Caucasus” — but few,
I really think — yet Juan’s then ordeal
Was more triumphant, and not much less real.
XCVII
&
nbsp; Here I might enter on a chaste description,
Having withstood temptation in my youth,
But hear that several people take exception
At the first two books having too much truth;
Therefore I’ll make Don Juan leave the ship soon,
Because the publisher declares, in sooth,
Through needles’ eyes it easier for the camel is
To pass, than those two cantos into families.
XCVIII
‘T is all the same to me; I’m fond of yielding,
And therefore leave them to the purer page
Of Smollett, Prior, Ariosto, Fielding,
Who say strange things for so correct an age;
I once had great alacrity in wielding
My pen, and liked poetic war to wage,
And recollect the time when all this cant
Would have provoked remarks which now it shan’t.
XCIX
As boys love rows, my boyhood liked a squabble;
But at this hour I wish to part in peace,
Leaving such to the literary rabble:
Whether my verse’s fame be doom’d to cease
While the right hand which wrote it still is able,
Or of some centuries to take a lease,
The grass upon my grave will grow as long,
And sigh to midnight winds, but not to song.
C
Of poets who come down to us through distance
Of time and tongues, the foster-babes of Fame,
Life seems the smallest portion of existence;
Where twenty ages gather o’er a name,
‘T is as a snowball which derives assistance
From every flake, and yet rolls on the same,
Even till an iceberg it may chance to grow;
But, after all, ‘t is nothing but cold snow.
CI
And so great names are nothing more than nominal,
And love of glory’s but an airy lust,
Too often in its fury overcoming all
Who would as ‘t were identify their dust
From out the wide destruction, which, entombing all,
Leaves nothing till “the coming of the just” —
Save change: I’ve stood upon Achilles’ tomb,
And heard Troy doubted; time will doubt of Rome.
CII
The very generations of the dead
Are swept away, and tomb inherits tomb,
Until the memory of an age is fled,
And, buried, sinks beneath its offspring’s doom:
Where are the epitaphs our fathers read?
Save a few glean’d from the sepulchral gloom
Which once-named myriads nameless lie beneath,
And lose their own in universal death.
CIII
I canter by the spot each afternoon
Where perish’d in his fame the hero-boy,
Who lived too long for men, but died too soon