Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/391

Where yon proud palace, Fashion's hallowed fane,640
Spreads wide her portals for the motley train,
Behold the new Petronius^[1] of the day,^[2]
Our arbiter of pleasure and of play!
There the hired eunuch, the Hesperian choir,
The melting lute, the soft lascivious lyre,
The song from Italy, the step from France,
The midnight orgy, and the mazy dance,
The smile of beauty, and the flush of wine,
For fops, fools, gamesters, knaves, and Lords combine:
Each to his humour—Comus all allows;650
Champaign, dice, music, or your neighbour's spouse.
Talk not to us, ye starving sons of trade!
Of piteous ruin, which ourselves have made;
In Plenty's sunshine Fortune's minions bask,
Nor think of Poverty, except "en masque,"^[3]

When for the night some lately titled ass

1. Petronius, "Arbiter elegantiarum" to Nero, "and a very pretty fellow in his day," as Mr. Congreve's "Old Bachelor" saith of Hannibal.
2. {{block center|Behold the new Petronius of the times
   The skilful Arbiter of modern crimes.—[MS.]
3. [" We are authorised to state that Mr. Greville, who has a