Narrator's (General) Digressions
The narrator is parenthetically fond of this body part.
What are (handsome) eyes? (I.60.473)
This body part of Haidee's is described as "white" to emphasize her appearance during their passionate walk?
What is her arm? (II.194.1546)
The person on whom a virgin relies, according to the narrator.
What is her maid? About Zoe, of course. (II.131.1042)
This cardinal direction is where "all is virtue" in contrast to more "sultry" climates.
What is the (moral) North? (I.64.506) (I.63.504)
This is "tiresome and unwise," according to a narrator who does it frequently.
What is repetition? (II.171.1366)
His "stainless" Gothic heritage is emphasized early on in the poem, important to him and so, too, to Don Juan.
Who is Don Jose? (I.9.68)
Haidee's gaze is compared to this animal "late coiled" and holding on to an attack.
The narrator says "a word is enough" in this language to indicate that having once learned Greek is sufficient for education.
What is latin? "Verbum sat" (I.53.420)
Pure joys, like "an infant when it gazes on the light" or "a devotee when soars the Host in sight," are rolled in with "an Arab with a stranger for a guest." These all fall short of this form of joy, however.
What is watching "o'er what they love while sleeping?" (II.196)
A description of this character leads the narrator to declare that "I hate a dumpy woman."
Who is Donna Julia, whose tall stature is to the narrator Byron's taste? (I.61.488)
The narrator uses this religion to imply Haidee is prompted to care for Don Juan in his helpless, dying state thanks to his "so white a skin."
What is a Christian bible verse for a greek woman? "I was a stranger, and you took me in" (II.129.1031-2)
Donna Julia uses eight of these in her letter to Don Juan.
What is an em-dash?
Donna Inez, despite her proclaimed proficiency with all Christian languages, knows the Lord's prayer in Latin, the alphabet in Greek, shows no care for Spanish, and reads only the romances of this language.
What is French? (I.13.99)
The narrator compares Haidee's freedom to that of wives from this kind of country.
What is christian? (II.175.1399)
The narrator ends with a couplet on "fellow/yellow" to undercut the sexual tension between Don Juan and who?
Who is Haidee? (II.148.1183)
After several stanzas of JUan's beauty in Haidee's eyes: "In short, he was a very pretty fellow/although his woes had turned him rather yellow."
It is, "by the by," a sin that Donna Julia falls short of racial purity in this way.
What is not having entirely Spanish blood? (I.56.443)
This "lovely and fearful" thing is both inflicted and felt by the provider.
What is "the love of a woman!" (II.199.1585-1592)
He takes his "posse comitatus," the complete latin phrase for "posse," with him when he leaves, but it's still not enough for Don Juan to get away with his cavorting.
Who is Don Alfonso? (I.164.1305)
If you live in a country "near the sun," you may want two young ones of this instead of one old one, at least according to Byron.
What is a husband? (I.62.493)
This many stanzas occupy the narrator's longest digression, found at the end of canto I.
What is 19?
While Donna Julia is singled out as having an "Oriental eye," characterized by its "darkness," these other characters are also described as having dark eyes.
Who are both Don Juan and Haidee? (I.56.441)
Even women with poor virtue prefer husbands under this age.
What is thirty? (I.62.496)
This French inscription was shared by a seal gifted from Donna Julia to Don Juan and a jewel gifted by Byron to his friend John Eddleston.
What is "Elle vous suite partout," or "She follows you everywhere?" (I.198.1582)
The narrator pits Greeks and Arabs against each other when comparing how they might have approached this task.
What is saving Don Juan and then selling him into slavery? (II.130.1040)