XLVIII. This, too, was a seal'd book to little Juan She scarcely trusted him from out her sight; XLIX. Young Juan wax'd in goodliness and grace; As e'er to man's maturer growth was given: And seem'd, at least, in the right road to heaven, For half his days were pass'd at church, the other Between his tutors, confessor, and mother, L. At six, I said, he was a charming child, They tamed him down amongst them; to destroy His natural spirit not in vain they toil'd, At least it seem'd so; and his mother's joy Was to declare how sage, and still, and steady, Her young philosopher was grown already, LI. I had my doubts, perhaps I have them still, He and his wife were an ill-sorted pair Against all evil speaking, even in jest. That if I had an only son to put To school (as God be praised that I have none) "Tis not with Donna Inez would shut Him up to learn his catechism alone, No no I'd send him out betimes to college, For there it was I pick'd up my own knowledge. but I pass over that, As well as all the Greek I since have lost: I say that there's the place-but,,Verbum sat," I think I pick'd up too, as well as most, I never married but, I think, I know Vol. IX. C LIV. Young Juan now was sixteen years of age, -Tall, handsome, slender, but well knit; he seem'd Active, though not so sprightly, as a page; { And every body but his mother deem'd Him almost man; but she flew in a rage, And bit her lips (for else she might have If any said so, for to be precocious scream'd), Was in her eyes a thing the most atrocious. LV. Amongst her numerous acquaintance, all As sweetness to the flower, or salt to ocean, Her zone to Venus, or his bow to Cupid, (But this last simile is trite and stupid.): LVI. The darkness of her oriental eye Accorded with her Moorish origin; (Her blood was not all Spanish, by the by; Some went to Africa, some staid in Spain, LVII. She married (I forget the pedigree) With an Hidalgo, who transmitted down His blood less noble than such blood should be; At such alliances his sires would frown, In that point so precise in each degree That they bred in and in, as might be shown, Marrying their cousins nay, their aunts, and nieces, Which always spoils the breed, if it increases. |