CANTO IX.]
DON JUAN.
375
But though your years as man tend fast to zero,
In fact your Grace is still but a young Hero,
In fact your Grace is still but a young Hero,
III.
Though Britain owes (and pays you too) so much,
Yet Europe doubtless owes you greatly more:
You have repaired Legitimacy's crutch,
A prop not quite so certain as before:
The Spanish, and the French, as well as Dutch,
Have seen, and felt, how strongly you restore;
And Waterloo has made the world your debtor
(I wish your bards would sing it rather better).
Though Britain owes (and pays you too) so much,
Yet Europe doubtless owes you greatly more:
You have repaired Legitimacy's crutch,
A prop not quite so certain as before:
The Spanish, and the French, as well as Dutch,
Have seen, and felt, how strongly you restore;
And Waterloo has made the world your debtor
(I wish your bards would sing it rather better).
IV.
You are "the best of cut-throats:"[D 2]—do not start;
The phrase is Shakespeare's, and not misapplied:—
War 's a brain-spattering, windpipe-slitting art,
Unless her cause by right be sanctified.
If you have acted once a generous part,
The World, not the World's masters, will decide,
And I shall be delighted to learn who,
Save you and yours, have gained by Waterloo?
You are "the best of cut-throats:"[D 2]—do not start;
The phrase is Shakespeare's, and not misapplied:—
War 's a brain-spattering, windpipe-slitting art,
Unless her cause by right be sanctified.
If you have acted once a generous part,
The World, not the World's masters, will decide,
And I shall be delighted to learn who,
Save you and yours, have gained by Waterloo?
V.
I am no flatterer—you 've supped full of flattery:[D 3]
They say you like it too—'t is no great wonder.
He whose whole life has been assault and battery,
At last may get a little tired of thunder;
And swallowing eulogy much more than satire, he
May like being praised for every lucky blunder,
Called "Saviour of the Nations"—not yet saved,—
And "Europe's Liberator"—still enslaved.[D 4]
I am no flatterer—you 've supped full of flattery:[D 3]
They say you like it too—'t is no great wonder.
He whose whole life has been assault and battery,
At last may get a little tired of thunder;
And swallowing eulogy much more than satire, he
May like being praised for every lucky blunder,
Called "Saviour of the Nations"—not yet saved,—
And "Europe's Liberator"—still enslaved.[D 4]
- ↑ [The reference may be to the Duke of Wellington's intimacy with Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster. Byron had "passed that way" himself (see Letters, 1898, ii. 251, note i, 323, etc.), and could hardly attack the Duke on that score.]
- ↑ ["Thou art the best o' the cut-throats."
Macbeth, act iii. sc. 4, line 17.] - ↑ ["I have supped full of horrors."
Macbeth, act v. sc. 5, line 13.] - ↑ Vide speeches in Parliament, after the battle of Waterloo.
