NOTES TO CANTO X.

Note 1, page 39, stanza XIII.

Would scarcely join again the « reformadoes,» etc.

Reformers, or rather «Reformed." The Baron Bradwardine in

Waverley is authority for the word.

Note 2, page 40, stanza xv.

The endless soot bestows a tint far deeper etc.
Query, suit?-Printer's Devil.

Note 3, page 41, stanza XVIII.

The Dee, the Don, Balgounie's Brig's black wall, etc.

The brig of Don near the «auld toun» of Aberdeen, with its one arch and its black deep salmon stream below, is in my memory as yesterday. I still remember, though perhaps I may misquote, the awful proverb which made me pause to cross it, and yet lean over it childish delight, being an only son, at least by the mother's side. The saying as recollected by me was this, but I have never heard or seen it since I was nine

with a

of years age.

Brig of Balgounie, black's your wa,

Wi' a wife's ae son, and a mear's ae foal,

Doun ye shall fa!»

5

Note 4, page 46, stanza xxxiv.

Oh for a forty-parson power to chaunt etc.

A metaphor taken from the « forty-horse power» of a steam-engine. That mad wag the Reverend S. S. sitting by a brother clergyman at dinner, observed afterwards that his dull neighbour had a twelveparson power of conversation.

Note 5, page 47, stanza xxxvi.

To strip the Saxons of their hydes, like tanners, etc.

Hyde.»—I believe a hyde of land to be a legitimate word, and as such subject to the tax of a quibble.

Note 6, page 51, stanza XLIX.

Was given to her favourite, and now bore his.

The empress went to the Crimea accompanied by the Emperor Joseph in the year—I forget which.

Note 7, page 54, stanza LVIII.

Which gave her dukes the graceless name of « Biron. >>

In the Empress Anne's time Biron her favourite assumed the name and arms of the « Birons» of France, which families are yet extant with that of England; there are still the daughters of Courland of that name; one of them I remember seeing in England in the blessed year of the Allies—the Duchess of S.-to whom the English Duchess of St presented me as a namesake.

Note 8, page 55, stanza LXII.

The greatest number flesh hath ever known.

St Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins were still extant in 1816, and may be so yet as much as ever.

DON JUAN.

CANTO XI.

I.

WHEN Bishop Berkeley said « there was no matter,»
And proved it-'t was no matter what he said:
They say his system 't is in vain to batter,

Too subtle for the airiest human head;
And yet who can believe it? I would shatter
Gladly all matters down to stone or lead,
Or adamant, to find the world a spirit,
And wear my head, denying that I wear it.

II.

What a sublime discovery 't was to make the
Universe universal egotism,

That all 's ideal-all ourselves: I'll stake the

World (be it what you will) that that's no schism.
Oh doubt!-if thou be'st doubt, for which some take thee,
But which I doubt extremely-thou sole prism

Of the truth's rays, spoil not my draught of spirit!
Heaven's brandy, though our brain can hardly bear it.

III.

For ever and anon comes indigestion,

(Not the most «< dainty Ariel») and perplexes
Our soarings with another sort of question:
And that which after all my spirit vexes,
Is, that I find no spot where man can rest eye on,
Without confusion of the sorts and sexes,

Of beings, stars, and this unriddled wonder,
The world, which at the worst's a glorious blunder-

IV.

If it be chance; or if it be according

To the old text, still better:-lest it should
Turn out so, we'll say nothing 'gainst the wording,
As several people think such hazards rude.
They 're right; our days are too brief for affording
Space, to dispute what no one ever could

Decide, and every body one day will
Know very clearly—or at least lie still.

V.

And therefore will I leave off metaphysical
Discussion, which is neither here nor there:
If I agree that what is, is; then this I call

Being quite perspicuous and extremely fair.
The truth is, I've grown lately rather phthisical:
I don't know what the reason is-the air
Perhaps; but as I suffer from the shocks
Of illness, I grow much more orthodox.

VI.

The first attack at once proved the divinity;
(But that I never doubted, nor the devil;)
The next, the virgin's mystical virginity;
The third, the usual origin of evil;

The fourth at once establish'd the whole trinity
On so incontrovertible a level,

That I devoutly wish'd the three were four,
On purpose to believe so much the more.

VII.

To our theme. The man who has stood on the Acropolis,
And looked down over Attica; or he

Who has sailed where picturesque Constantinople is,
Or seen Tombuctoo, or hath taken tea

In small-eyed China's crockery-ware metropolis,
Or sat amidst the bricks of Nineveh,

May not think much of London's first appearance-
But ask him what he thinks of it a year hence?

VIII.

Don Juan had got out on Shooter's hill;

Sunset the time, the place the same declivity

Which looks along that vale of good and ill

Where London streets ferment in full activity;
While every thing around was calm and still,

Except the creak of wheels, which on their pivot he
Heard, and that bee-like, bubbling, busy hum
Of cities that boil over with their scum:-