[CANTOS IX., X., and XI., were written at Pisa, and published in London, by Mr. John Hunt, in August, 1823. We extract the following specimens of contemporary criticism: "That there is a great deal of what is objectionable in these three cantos, who can deny? What can be more so than to attack the King, with low, vile, personal buffooneries - bottomed in utter falsehood, and expressed in crawling malice? What can be more exquisitely worthy of contempt than the savage imbecility of these eternal tirades against the Duke of Wellington? What more pitiable than the state of mind that can find any gratification in calling such a man as Southey by nicknames that one would be ashamed of applying to a coal-heaver? What can be so abject as this eternal trampling upon the dust of Castlereagh? Lord Byron ought to know that all men, of all parties, unite in regarding all these things, but especially the first and last, as insults to themselves, and as most miserable degradations of him. "But still Don Juan is, without exception, the first of Lord Byron's works. It is by far the most original in point of conception. It is decidedly original in point of tone. It contains the finest specimens of serious poetry he has ever written; and it contains the finest specimens of ludicrous poetry that our age has witnessed. Frere may have written the stanza earlier; he may have written it more carefully, more musically, if you will; but what is he to Byron? Where is the sweep, the pith, the soaring pinion, the lavish luxury of genius revelling in strength. No: no: Don Juan, say the canting world what it will, is destined to hold a permanent rank in the literature of our country. It will always be referred to as furnishing the most powerful picture of that vein of thought (no matter how false and bad) which distinguishes a great portion of the thinking people of our time."-BLACKWOOD.] (100) DON JUAN. CANTO THE NINTH. I. OH, Wellington! (or “Vilainton "* for Fame France could not even conquer your great name, You have obtained great pensions and much praise: Glory like yours should any dare gainsay, Humanity would rise, and thunder "Nay!"† II. I don't think that you used Kinnaird quite well * ["M. de Vilainton a tout pris, Point d'argent dans la ville de Paris," etc. † Query-Ney?- Printer's Devil. DE BERANGER.] [The late Lord Kinnaird was received in Paris, in 1814, with great civility by the Duke of Wellington and the royal family of France, but he had himself presented to Buonaparte during the hundred days, and intrigued on with those of the faction, in spite of the Duke's remonstrances, until the re-restored govern And like some other things won't do to tell Such tales being for the tea-hours of some tabby; III. Though Britain owes (and pays you too) so much, A prop not quite so certain as before: IV. You are "the best of cut-throats:"* do not start; The phrase is Shakspeare's, and not misapplied;ment ordered him out of the French territory in 1816. In 1817, he became acquainted at Brussels with one Marinet, an adventurer mixed up in a conspiracy to assassinate the Duke in the streets of Paris. This fellow at first promised to discover the man who actually shot at his Grace, but, on reaching Paris, shuffled and would say nothing; and Lord Kinnaird's avowed cause of complaint against the Duke was, that he did not protect this creature from the French police, who, not doubting that he had been one of the conspirators against his Grace's life, arrested him accordingly. He was tried along with the actual assassin, and both were acquitted by the Parisian jury.] * ["Thou art the best o' the cut-throats." - Macbeth, act iii. sc. iii.] |