Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/51

CANTO I.] III.

Childe Harold was he hight: — but whence his name

And lineage long, it suits me not to say;

Suffice it, that perchance they were of fame,

And had been glorious in another day:

But one sad losel soils a name for ay,

However mighty in the olden time;

Nor all that heralds rake from coffined clay,

Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme,

Can blazon evil deeds, or consecrate a crime.

IV.

Childe Harold basked him in the Noontide sun,

Disporting there like any other fly;