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DON JUAN.
[CANTO XVII.
CANTO THE SEVENTEENTH.[1]
I.
The world is full of orphans: firstly, those
Who are so in the strict sense of the phrase;
But many a lonely tree the loftier grows
Than others crowded in the Forest's maze—
The next are such as are not doomed to lose
Their tender parents, in their budding days,
But, merely, their parental tenderness,
Which leaves them orphans of the heart no less.
II.
The next are "only Children," as they are styled,
Who grow up Children only, since th' old saw
Pronounces that an "only's" a spoilt child—
But not to go too far, I hold it law,
That where their education, harsh or mild,
- ↑ [May 8, 1823.—MS. More than one "Seventeenth Canto," or so-called continuation of Don Juan, has been published. Some of these "Sequels" pretend to be genuine, while others are undisguisedly imitations or parodies. E.g. Don Juan, Cantos XVII., XVIII., 1824: The New Don Juan ... and The Last Canto of the The Original Don Juan, From the papers of the Countess Guiccioli, London, n.d., etc. There was, however, a foundation for the myth. Before Byron left Italy he had begun (May 8, 1823) a seventeenth canto, and when he sailed for Greece he took the new stanzas with him. Trelawny found "fifteen stanzas of the seventeenth canto of Don Juan" in Byron's room at Missolonghi (Recollections, etc., 1858, p. 237). The MS., together with other papers, was handed over to John Cam Hobhouse, and is now in the possession of his daughter, the Lady Dorchester. The copyright was purchased by the late John Murray. The fourteen (not fifteen) stanzas are now printed and published for the first time.]
