Don Juan 05-131
Canto the Fifth
 
     CXXXI
 
Suppose, -- but you already have supposed,
     The spouse of Potiphar, the Lady Booby,
Phaedra, and all which story has disclosed
     Of good examples; pity that so few by
Poets and private tutors are exposed,
     To educate -- ye youth of Europe -- you by!
But when you have supposed the few we know,
You can't suppose Gulbeyaz' angry brow.
 
 
Don Juan 05-132
Canto the Fifth
 
     CXXXII
 
A tigress robb'd of young, a lioness,
     Or any interesting beast of prey,
Are similes at hand for the distress
     Of ladies who can not have their own way;
But though my turn will not be served with less,
     These don't express one half what I should say:
For what is stealing young ones, few or many,
To cutting short their hopes of having any?
 
 
Don Juan 05-133
Canto the Fifth
 
     CXXXIII
 
The love of offspring's nature's general law,
     From tigresses and cubs to ducks and ducklings;
There's nothing whets the beak, or arms the claw
     Like an invasion of their babes and sucklings;
And all who have seen a human nursery, saw
     How mothers love their children's squalls and chucklings;
This strong extreme effect (to tire no longer
Your patience) shows the cause must still be stronger.
 
 
Don Juan 05-134
Canto the Fifth
 
     CXXXIV
 
If I said fire flash'd from Gulbeyaz' eyes,
     'T were nothing -- for her eyes flash'd always fire;
Or said her cheeks assumed the deepest dyes,
     I should but bring disgrace upon the dyer,
So supernatural was her passion's rise;
     For ne'er till now she knew a check'd desire:
Even ye who know what a check'd woman is
(Enough, God knows!) would much fall short of this.
 
 
Don Juan 05-135
Canto the Fifth
 
     CXXXV
 
Her rage was but a minute's, and 't was well --
     A moment's more had slain her; but the while
It lasted 't was like a short glimpse of hell:
     Nought's more sublime than energetic bile,
Though horrible to see yet grand to tell,
     Like ocean warring 'gainst a rocky isle;
And the deep passions flashing through her form
Made her a beautiful embodied storm.
  
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
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