DON JUAN. CANTO I. I. I WANT a hero : an uncommon want, When every year and month sends forth a new one, Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant, The discovers he is not the true one; age Of such as these I should not care to vaunt, I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan, We all have seen him in the pantomime Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time. H. Vernon, the butcher Cumberland, Wolfe, Hawke, Prince Ferdinand, Granby, Burgoyne, Keppel, Howe, Evil and good, have had their tithe of talk, And fill'd their sign-posts then, like Wellesley now; Each in their turn, like Banquo's monarchs, stalk, Followers of fame, « nine farrow » of that sow: France, too, had Buonaparte and Dumourier, Recorded in the Moniteur and Courier. JIL. Barnave, Brissot, Condorcet, Mirabeau, IV. Nelson was once Britannia's god of war, And still should be so, but the tide is turn'd; At which the naval people are concern'd; V. Brave men were living before Agamemnon, And since exceeding valorous and sage, I A good deal like him too, though quite the same none, And so have been forgotten :-I condemn none, Fit for my poem, that is for my new one; So, as I said, I'll take my friend Don Juan. |