DON JUAN.

А РОЕМ.

Difficile est proprie communia dicere. >>

HOR. Epist. ad Pison.

VOL. II.

1

DON JUAN.

CANTO I.

I.

I WANT a hero : an uncommon want,

When every year and month sends forth a new one, Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,

The discovers he is not the true one; age

Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,

I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan,

We all have seen him in the pantomime

Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time.

H.

Vernon, the butcher Cumberland, Wolfe, Hawke, Prince Ferdinand, Granby, Burgoyne, Keppel, Howe, Evil and good, have had their tithe of talk,

And fill'd their sign-posts then, like Wellesley now; Each in their turn, like Banquo's monarchs, stalk, Followers of fame, « nine farrow » of that sow: France, too, had Buonaparte and Dumourier, Recorded in the Moniteur and Courier.

JIL.

Barnave, Brissot, Condorcet, Mirabeau,
Petion, Clootz, Danton, Marat, La Fayette
Were French, and famous people as we know;
And there were others, scarce forgotten yet,
Joubert, Hoche, Marceau, Lannes, Desaix, Moreau,
With many of the military set,
Exceedingly remarkable at times,
But not at all adapted to my rhymes.

IV.

Nelson was once Britannia's god of war,

And still should be so, but the tide is turn'd;
There's no more to be said of Trafalgar,
'Tis with our hero quietly inurn'd;
Because the army's grown more popular,

At which the naval people are concern'd;
Besides, the prince is all for the land-service,
Forgetting Duncan, Nelson, Howe, and Jervis.

V.

Brave men were living before Agamemnon,

And since exceeding valorous and sage,

I

A good deal like him too, though quite the same none,
But then they shone not on the poet's page,

And so have been forgotten :-I condemn none,
But can't find any in the present age

Fit for

my poem, that is for my new one; So, as I said, I'll take my friend Don Juan.