Don Juan 06-011 ~ 015
 

Don Juan 06-011
Canto the Sixth
 
     XI
 
Now, if this holds good in a Christian land,
     The heathen also, though with lesser latitude,
Are apt to carry things with a high hand,
     And take what kings call "an imposing attitude,"
And for their rights connubial make a stand,
     When their liege husbands treat them with ingratitude:
And as four wives must have quadruple claims,
The Tigris hath its jealousies like Thames.
 
 
Don Juan 06-012
Canto the Sixth
 
     XII
 
Gulbeyaz was the fourth, and (as I said)
     The favourite; but what is favour amongst four?
Polygamy may well be held in dread,
     Not only as a sin, but as a bore:
Most wise men, with one moderate woman wed,
     Will scarcely find philosophy for more;
And all (except Mahometans) forbear
To make the nuptial couch a "Bed of Ware."
 
 
Don Juan 06-013
Canto the Sixth
 
     XIII
 
His Highness, the sublimest of mankind, --
     So styled according to the usual forms
Of every monarch, till they are consign'd
     To those sad hungry jacobins the worms,
Who on the very loftiest kings have dined, --
     His Highness gazed upon Gulbeyaz' charms,
Expecting all the welcome of a lover
(A "Highland welcome" all the wide world over).
 
 
Don Juan 06-014
Canto the Sixth
 
     XIV
 
Now here we should distinguish; for howe'er
     Kisses, sweet words, embraces, and all that,
May look like what is -- neither here nor there,
     They are put on as easily as a hat,
Or rather bonnet, which the fair sex wear,
     Trimm'd either heads or hearts to decorate,
Which form an ornament, but no more part
Of heads, than their caresses of the heart.
 
 
Don Juan 06-015
Canto the Sixth
 
     XV
 
A slight blush, a soft tremor, a calm kind
     Of gentle feminine delight, and shown
More in the eyelids than the eyes, resign'd
     Rather to hide what pleases most unknown,
Are the best tokens (to a modest mind)
     Of love, when seated on his loveliest throne,
A sincere woman's breast, -- for over-warm
Or over-cold annihilates the charm.
 
 
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
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