Canto I LXXIII
All have their fooleries; not alike are thine,Fair Cadiz, rising o'er the dark blue sea!Soon as the matin bell proclaimeth nine,Thy saint adorers count the rosary:Much is the Virgin teased to shrive them free(Well do I ween the only virgin there)From crimes as numerous as her beadsmen be;Then to the crowded circus forth they fare:Young, old, high, low, at once the same diversion share.
The lists are oped, the spacious area cleared,Thousands on thousands piled are seated round;Long ere the first loud trumpet's note is heard,No vacant space for lated wight is found:Here dons, grandees, but chiefly dames abound,Skilled in the ogle of a roguish eye,Yet ever well inclined to heal the wound;None through their cold disdain are doomed to die,As moon-struck bards complain, by Love's sad archery.
Hushed is the din of tongues--on gallant steeds,With milk-white crest, gold spur, and light-poised lance,Four cavaliers prepare for venturous deeds,And lowly bending to the lists advance;Rich are their scarfs, their chargers featly prance:If in the dangerous game they shine to-day,The crowd's loud shout, and ladies' lovely glance,Best prize of better acts, they bear away,And all that kings or chiefs e'er gain their toils repay.
Words in this poem
- matin n.
- A French mastiff. [F. matin.]
- rosary n.
- A bed of roses, or place where roses grow. [LL. rosarium a string of beads, L. rosarium a place planted with roses, rosa a rose: cf. F. rosaire. See Rose.]
- shrive v. t.
- To hear or receive the confession of; to administer confession and absolution to; -- said of a priest as the agent. [OE. shriven, schriven, AS. scrivan to shrive, to impose penance or punishment; akin to OFries. skriva to impose punishment; cf. OS. biskriban to be troubled. Cf]
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- lated a.
- Belated; too late.
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
- ogle v. t.
- To view or look at with side glances, as in fondness, or with a design to attract notice. [From a Dutch word corresponding to G. äugeln to ogle, fr. auge eye; cf. D. ooglonken to ogle, OD. oogen to cast sheep's eyes upon, ooge eye. See Eye.]
- venturous a.
- Daring; bold; hardy; fearless; venturesome; adveturous; as, a venturous soldier. [Aphetic form of OE. aventurous. See Adventurous, Venture, n.]
- featly adv.
- Neatly; dexterously; nimbly. [From Feat, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I LXXIII is in the public domain. This text is taken from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Project Gutenberg ebook #5131; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lord Byron, Canto I LXXIII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-lxxiii.html, id L06500.
Form and metre
Canto I LXXIII is 27 lines in 3 stanzas of 9 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABBCBCC, the Spenserian stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in the Spenserian stanza, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABBCBCC thineA · seaB · nineA · rosaryB · freeB · thereC · beB · fareC · shareC
- 2 ABABBCBCC clearedA · roundB · heardA · foundB · aboundB · eyeC · woundB · dieC · archeryC
- 3 ABABBCBCC steedsA · lanceB · deedsA · advanceB · pranceB · dayC · glanceB · awayC · repayC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| All have their fooleries; not alike are thine, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Fair Cadiz, rising o'er the dark blue sea! | 10 | ·˘//˘····· |
| Soon as the matin bell proclaimeth nine, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Thy saint adorers count the rosary: | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Much is the Virgin teased to shrive them free | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| (Well do I ween the only virgin there) | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| From crimes as numerous as her beadsmen be; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Then to the crowded circus forth they fare: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Young, old, high, low, at once the same diversion share. | 12 | ········˘/˘· |
| The lists are oped, the spacious area cleared, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Thousands on thousands piled are seated round; | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Long ere the first loud trumpet's note is heard, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| No vacant space for lated wight is found: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Here dons, grandees, but chiefly dames abound, | 9 | ····/˘·˘/ |
| Skilled in the ogle of a roguish eye, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Yet ever well inclined to heal the wound; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| None through their cold disdain are doomed to die, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| As moon-struck bards complain, by Love's sad archery. | 11 | ····˘/···/˘ |
| Hushed is the din of tongues--on gallant steeds, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With milk-white crest, gold spur, and light-poised lance, | 10 | ·········· |
| Four cavaliers prepare for venturous deeds, | 11 | ··˘/˘/·/˘˘· |
| And lowly bending to the lists advance; | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Rich are their scarfs, their chargers featly prance: | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| If in the dangerous game they shine to-day, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The crowd's loud shout, and ladies' lovely glance, | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| Best prize of better acts, they bear away, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And all that kings or chiefs e'er gain their toils repay. | 12 | ··········˘/ |
Notes from the edition 2
E. H. Coleridge's notes to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, The Works of Lord Byron, Poetry vol. II (John Murray, 1899; Project Gutenberg #25340). Bracketed passages are the editor's; unbracketed are Byron's own (Cantos I-III) or John Cam Hobhouse's (Canto IV, his 'Historical Notes'). Digit footnotes ('[17]') are informational and numbered continuously through the whole book; end-notes keyed '[n.B.]' (Byron) or '[n.H.]' (Hobhouse) follow each canto and are numbered afresh from 1 there. Both kinds are placed here by matching each note's own quoted words against the site's text, not by the number or stanza the note states, because the site's text (Gutenberg #5131) and this edition (#25340) are different editions with different stanza counts in Canto I. Lettered footnotes ('[h]', '[dn]') are manuscript and edition variant readings and are not harvested, matching the treatment of Don Juan's and byron-works-3's lettered notes.
- Stanza 1, line 2 [M. Darmesteter quotes a striking passage from Gautier's Voyage en Espagne (xv.), in appreciation of Cadiz and Byron: "L'aspect de Cadix, en venant du large, est charmant. A la voir ainsi etincelante de blancheur entre l'azur de la mer et l'azur du ciel, on dirait une immense couronne de filigrane d'argent; le dome de la cathedrale, peint en jaune, semble une tiare de vermeil posee au milieu. Les pots de fleurs, les volutes et les tourelles qui terminent les maisons, varient a l'infini la dentelure. Byron a merveilleusement caracterise la physionomie de Cadix en une seule touche:
"Brillante Cadix, qui t'eleves vers le ciel du milieu du bleu fonce de la mer."] - Stanza 2, line 1 [The actors in a bull-fight consist of three or four classes: the chulos or footmen, the banderilleros or dart-throwers, the picadores or horsemen, the matadores or espadas the executioners. Each bull-fight, which lasts about twenty minutes, is divided into three stages or acts. In the first act the picadores receive the charge of the bull, defending themselves, but not, as a rule, attacking the foe with their lances or garrochas. In the second act the chulos, who are not mounted, wave coloured cloaks or handkerchiefs in the bull's face, and endeavour to divert his fury from the picadores, in case they have been thrown or worsted in the encounter. At the same time, the banderilleros are at pains to implant in either side of the bull's neck a number of barbed darts ornamented with cut paper, and, sometimes, charged with detonating powder. It is de rigeur to plant the barbs exactly on either side. In the third and final act, the protagonist, the matador or espada, is the sole performer. His function is to entice the bull towards him by waving the muleta or red flag, and, standing in front of the animal, to inflict the death-wound by plunging his sword between the left shoulder and the blade. "The teams of mules now enter, glittering with flags and tinkling with bells, whose gay decorations contrast with the stern cruelty and blood; the dead bull is carried off at a rapid gallop, which always delights the populace."--Handbook for Spain, by Richard Ford, 1898, i. 67-76.]
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