Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 6.djvu/513

CANTO XIII.]

I. I NOW mean to be serious ; — it is time, Since Laughter now-a-days is deemed too serious ; A jest at Vice by Virtue 's called a crime, And critically held as deleterious : Besides, the sad 's a source of the sublime, Although, when long, a little apt to weary us ; And therefore shall my lay soar high and solemn, As an old temple dwindled to a column. II. The Lady Adeline Amundeville ('T is an old Norman name, and to be found In pedigrees, by those who wander still Along the last fields of that Gothic ground) Was high-born, wealthy by her father's will. And beauteous, even where beauties most abound, In Britain — which, of course, true patriots find The goodliest soil of Body and of Mind. III. I '11 not gainsay them ; it is not my cue ; I '11 leave them to their taste, no doubt the best ; An eye 's an eye, and whether black or blue, Is no great matter, so 't is in request ; The kindest may be taken as a test. . Fy. 12*^ X823, VOL. VI. 2 J
 * T is nonsense to dispute about a hue —