LVI.

I think it may be of "Corinthian Brass,'
Which was a Mixture of all Metals, but
The brazen uppermost.) Kind reader! pass
This long parenthesis: I could not shut
It sooner for the soul of me, and class

My faults even with your own! which meaneth, Put A kind construction upon them and me:

But that

you won't-then don't-I am not less free.

LVII.

'Tis time we should return to plain narration, And thus my narrative proceeds:-Dudù, With every kindness short of ostentation,

Showed Juan, or Juanna, through and through This labyrinth of females, and each station

Described-what's strange-in words extremely few: I have but one similie, and that's a blunder, For wordless woman, which is silent thunder.

LVIII.

And next she gave her (I say her, because
The gender still was Epicene, at least
In outward show, which is a saving clause)
An outline of the customs of the East,
With all their chaste integrity of laws,

By which the more a Harem is increased,
The stricter doubtless grow the vestal duties
Of any supernumerary beauties.

LIX.

And then she gave Juanna a chaste kiss:
Dudu was fond of kissing-which I'm sure

That nobody can ever take amiss,

Because 'tis pleasant, so that it be pure,

And between females means no more than this

That they have nothing better near, or newer. "Kiss" rhymes to "bliss" in fact as well as verse— I wish it never led to something worse.

LX.

In perfect innocence she then unmade
Her toilet, which cost little, for she was
A child of Nature, carelessly arrayed:
If fond of a chance ogle at her glass,
'Twas like the fawn which, in the lake displayed,
Beholds her own shy, shadowy image pass,
When first she starts, and then returns to peep,
Admiring this new native of the deep.

LXI.

And one by one her articles of dress
Were laid aside; but not before she offered
Her aid to fair Juanna, whose excess

Of modesty declined the assistance proffered:
Which past well off-as she could do no less;
Though by this politesse she rather suffered,
Pricking her fingers with those cursed pins,
Which surely were invented for our sins,-

LXII.

Making a woman like a porcupine,

Not to be rashly touched. But still more dread, Oh ye! whose fate it is, as once 'twas mine, In early youth, to turn a lady's maid;—

I did my very boyish best to shine

In tricking her out for a masquerade: The pins were placed sufficiently, but not Stuck all exactly in the proper spot.

LXIII.

But these are foolish things to all the wise,

And I love Wisdom more than she loves me; My tendency is to philosophize

On most things, from a tyrant to a tree; But still the spouseless virgin knowledge flies. What are we? and whence came we? what shall be Our ultimate existence? what's our present? Are questions answerless, and yet incessant.

LXIV.

There was deep silence in the chamber: dim
And distant from each other burned the lights,
And slumber hover'd o'er each lovely limb
Of the fair occupants: if there be sprites,

They should have walked there in their spriteliest trim,
By way of change from their sepulchral sites,
And shown themselves as ghosts of better taste
Than haunting some old Ruin or wild Waste.

LXV.

Many and beautiful lay those around,

Like flowers of different hue and clime and root,

In some exotic garden sometimes found,

With cost and care and warmth induced to shoot. One with her auburn tresses lightly bound,

And fair brows gently drooping, as the fruit Nods from the tree, was slumbering with soft breath And lips apart, which showed the pearls beneath.

LXVI.

One with her flushed cheek laid on her white arm,
And raven ringlets gathered in dark crowd

Above her brow, lay dreaming soft and warm;

CANTO V1.-C

And smiling through her dream, as through a cloud The Moon breaks, half unveiled each further charm, As, slightly stirring in her snowy shroud,

Her beauties seized the unconscious hour of night
All bashfully to struggle into light.

LXVII.

This is no bull, although it sounds so; for

'Twas night, but there were lamps, as hath been said. A third's all pallid aspect offered more

The traits of sleeping Sorrow, and betrayed Through the heaved breast the dream of some far shore Beloved and deplored; while slowly strayed

(As Night Dew, on a Cypress glittering, tinges

(ges.

The black bough) tear-drops through her eyes' dark frin

LXVIII.

A fourth as marble, statue-like and still,

Lay in a breathless, hushed, and stony sleep;
White, cold and pure, as looks a frozen rill,
On the snow minaret on an Alpine steep,
Or Lot's wife done in salt,
,—or what you will;-
My similies are gathered in a heap,

So pick and choose-perhaps you'll be content
With a carved lady on a monument.

LXIX.

And lo! a fifth appears; and what is she?
A lady of "a certain age," which means
Certainly aged-what her years might be

I know not, never counting past their teens;
But there she slept, not quite so fair to see,
As ere that awful period intervenes
Which lays both men and women on the shelf,
To meditate upon their sins and self.

LXX.

But all this time how slept, or dreamed, Dudù?
With strict inquiry I could ne'er discover,
And scorn to add a syllable untrue;

But ere the middle watch was hardly over,
Just when the fading lamps waned dim and blue,
And phantoms hovered, or might seem to hover,
To those who like their company, about
The apartment, on a sudden she screamed out:

LXXI.

And that so loudly, that upstarted all
The Oda in a general commotion:

Matrons and maids, and those whom you may call
Neither, came crowding like the waves of ocean,

One on the other, throughout the whole hall,

་་

All trembling, wondering, without the least notion, More than I have myself, of what could make The calm Dudù so turbulently wake.

LXXII.

But wide awake she was, and round her bed,
With floating draperies and with flying hair,
With eager eyes, and light but hurried tread,

And bosoms, arms, and ancles glancing bare,
And bright as any meteor ever bred

By the North Pole, they sought her cause of care, For she seemed agitated, flushed and frightened, Her eye dilated and her colour heightened.

But what is strange—and a strong proof how great

A blessing is sound sleep-Juanna lay

As fast as ever husband by his mate

In holy matrimony snores away.