Part 2 (2/2)
He did not have the scholar's temper In dusty chronicles to trace The story of the human race: But anecdotes he did remember Of bygone times, which he'd relay, From Romulus until this day.
7.
The lofty pa.s.sion not possessing, That sacrifices life to rhyme, He could, no matter how we pressed him, Not tell a trochee from an iamb, Homer,9 Theocritus10 he rubbished, But Adam Smith11 instead he relished, And was a great economist.
That is, he knew how states subsist, Acquire their wealth, and what they live on And why they can dispense with gold, When, in the land itself they hold The simple product12 ready given.
His father could not understand, And mortgaged, therefore, all his land.
8.
What Eugene knew of in addition I have no leisure to impart, But where he showed true erudition, More than in any other art, What from his early adolescence Had brought him bliss and painful lessons, What all day long would occupy His aching inactivity a This was the art of tender pa.s.sion, That Ovid13 sang and paid for dear, Ending his brilliant, wild career In banishment and deportation To far Moldavia's steppes, where he Pined for his native Italy.
[9]14.
10.
How soon he learned the skill of feigning, Of seeming jealous, hiding hope, Inspiring faith and undermining, Appearing sombre and to mope, Now acting proud and now submissive, By turns attentive and dismissive!
How languid, when no word he said, How fiery, when he spoke, instead, In letters of the heart how casual!
Loving one thing exclusively, How self-forgetting he could be!
How rapid was his look and bashful, Tender and bold, while off and on With an obedient tear it shone.
11.
What talent for appearing novel, Causing with feigned despair alarm, Jesting to make the guileless marvel, Flattering to entertain and charm, Pouncing upon a moment's weakness, Subduing innocence and meekness With pa.s.sion and intelligence, Expecting certain recompense, Begging, demanding declarations, Eavesdropping on the heart's first sound, Chasing his love, and, in a bound, s.n.a.t.c.hing clandestine a.s.signations...
And later in tranquillity Giving her lessons privately!
12.
How soon he knew how to bedevil The heart of a professed coquette!
Or, to annihilate a rival, How bitingly he would beget A train of malice, spite and slander!
What snares he'd set to make him founder!
But you, blest husbands, you remained His friends and kept him entertained: The cunning spouse, a Faublas15 pupil, Was eager to become his man, So, too, the wary veteran, And the grand cuckold, without scruple, Forever satisfied with life, His dinner and adoring wife.
[13, 14].
15.
<script>