DON JUAN.

CANTO II.

DON JUA N.

CANTO II,

I.

OH ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations, Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain,

I pray ye flog them upon all occasions,

It mends their morals, never mind the pain: The best of mothers and of educations

In Juan's case were but employ'd in vain, Since in a way, that's rather of the oddest, he Became divested of his native modesty.

II.

Had he but been placed at a public school,
In the third form, or even in the fourth,
His daily task had kept his fancy cool,

At least, had he been nurtured in the north; Spain may prove an exception to the rule,

But then exceptions always prove its worth A lad of sixteen causing a divorce Puzzled his tutors very much, of course.

I can't say that it puzzles me at all,

If all things be consider'd: first, there was

His lady-mother, mathematical,

A

never mind; his tutor, an old ass;

A pretty woman — (that's quite natural,

-

Or else the thing had hardly come to pass);

A husband rather old, not much in unity
With his young wife — a time, and opportunity.

IV.

Well-well, the world must turn upon its axis, And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails, And live and die, make love and pay our taxes,,

And as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails; The king commands us, and the doctor quacks us, The priest instructs, and so our life exhales, A little breath, love, wine, ambition, fame, Fighting, devotion, dust, perhaps a name.

V.

I said, that Juan had been sent to Cadiz.

A pretty town, I recollect it well.

'Tis there the mart of the colonial trade is,
(Or was, before Peru learn'd to rebel)

And such sweet girls-I mean, such graceful ladies,
Their very walk would make your bosom swell;
I can't describe it, though so much it strike,
Nor liken it

- I never saw the like: