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LXXXVI.

But "Carpe diem," Juan, "Carpe, carpe!"

To-morrow sees another race as gay

And transient, and devoured by the same harpy.

"Life's a poor player," then " play out the play, "Ye villains!" and above all keep a sharp eye

Much less on what you do than what you say:

Be hypocritical, be cautious, be

Not what you seem, but always what you see.

LXXXVII.

But how shall I relate in other Cantos

Of what befell our hero in the land,

Which 'tis the common cry and lie to vaunt as
A moral country? But I hold my hand-

For I disdain to write an Atalantis ;

But 'tis as well at once to understand,

You are not a moral people, and you know it
Without the aid of too sincere a poet.

LXXXVIII.

What Juan saw and underwent, shall be

My topic, with of course the due restriction

Which is required by proper courtesy ;

And recollect the work is only fiction,

And that I sing of neither mine nor me,

Though every scribe, in some slight turn of diction,

Will hint allusions never meant. Ne'er doubt

This-when I speak, I don't hint, but speak out.

LXXXIX.

Whether he married with the third or fourth

Offspring of some sage, husband-hunting Countess,

Or whether with some virgin of more worth

(I mean in Fortune's matrimonial bounties)

He took to regularly peopling Earth,

Of which your lawful awful wedlock fount is,—

Or whether he was taken in for damages,

For being too excursive in his homages,

XC.

Is yet within the unread events of time.

Thus far, go forth, thou Lay! which I will back

Against the same given quantity of rhyme,

For being as much the subject of attack

As ever yet was any work sublime,

By those who love to say that white is black.

So much the better!-I may stand alone,

But would not change my free thoughts for a throne.

END OF CANTO THE ELEVENTH.

NOTES TO CANTO XI.

Note 1, page 112, stanza xix.

Who on a lark, with black-eyed Sal (his blowing)
So prime, so swell, so nutty, and so knowing?

The advance of science and of language has rendered it unnecessary to translate the above good and true English, spoken in its original purity by the select mobility and their patrons. The following is a stanza of a song which was very popular, at least in my early days:

"On the high toby-spice flash the muzzle,

"In spite of each gallows old scout

"If you at the spellken can't hustle,

"You'll be hobbled in making a Clout.

"Then your Blowing will wax gallows haughty,
"When she hears of your scaly mistake,
"She'll surely turn snitch for the forty,

“ That her Jack may be regular weight."

If there be any Gemman so ignorant as to require a traduction, I refer him to my old friend and corporeal pastor and master, John Jackson, Esq., Professor of Pugilism; who I trust still retains the strength and symmetry of his model of a form, together with his good humour, and athletic as well as mental accomplishments.

Note 2, page 117, stanza xxix.

St. James's Palace, and St. James's "Hells."

"Hells," gaming-houses. What their number may now be in this life, I know not. Before I was of age I knew them pretty accurately, both "gold" and "silver." I was once nearly called out by an acquaintance because, when he asked me where I thought that his soul would be found hereafter, I answered, " In Silver Hell.”

Note 3, page 124, stanza xliii.

And therefore even I won't anent

This subject quote.

"Anent" was a Scotch phrase, meaning "concerning""with regard to." It has been made English by the Scotch Novels; and as the Frenchman said-" If it be not, ought to be English."

Note 4, page 127, stanza xlix.

The milliners who furnish" drapery Misses.".

Drapery Misses."—This term is probably any thing now but a mystery. It was however almost so to me when I first returned from the East in 1811-1812. It means a pretty, a highborn, a fashionable young female, well instructed by her friends, and furnished by her milliner with a wardrobe upon credit, to be repaid, when married, by the husband. The riddle was first read to me by a young and pretty heiress, on my praising the "drapery" of an "untochered" but "pretty virginities" (like Mrs. Anne Page) of the then day, which has

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