Repetitions of words or sounds often convey the effect of a pun, e.g.:

The witty line,

“But Tom’s no more—and so no more of Tom,”353

is an excellent example of Byron’s verbal artistry.

It should be added here, also, that Byron displayed a singular capacity for coining maxims and compressing much worldly wisdom into a compact form. Some of his sayings have so far passed into common speech that they are almost platitudes, e.g.:

“There is no sterner moralist than pleasure.”354

As has been pointed out, this kind of sententious utterance in the form of a proverb or an epigram was very common with the Italian burlesque writers, especially with Pulci.

Something of the universality of Don Juan, of its appeal, not only to particular countries and peoples, but also to the world at large, may be indicated by the number of translations of it which exist.355 It appeared in French in 1827, in Spanish in 1829, in Swedish in 1838, in German in 1839, in Russian in 1846, in Roumanian in 1847, in Italian in 1853, in Danish in 1854, in Polish in 1863, and in Servian in 1888. Since these first versions appeared, other and more satisfactory ones have been published in most of the countries named. It was chiefly through Don Juan that Byron became, what Saintsbury calls him, “the sole master of young Russia, young Italy, young Spain, in poetry.” In these days when Byron’s defence of the rights of the people is less necessary, when his opposition to despotism would find few tyrants to oppose, and when his condemnation of war has developed into a widespread movement for universal peace, the powerful impetus which his satire gave to the progress of democracy is likely to be overlooked. His attitude of defiance furnished an illustrious example to struggling nations, and gave them hope of better things.356

Within this limited space it has been possible to touch only upon one or two phases of the many which this poem, perhaps the greatest in English since Paradise Lost, presents to the reader. Byron’s satire, in assuming a wider scope and a greater breadth of view, in growing out of the insular into the cosmopolitan, has also blended itself with romance and realism, with the lyric, the descriptive, and the epic types of poetry until it has created a new literary form and method suitable only to a great genius. His satiric spirit, in assailing not only individuals, but also institutions, systems, and theories of life, in concerning itself less with literary grudges and personal quarrels than with momentous questions of society, in progressing steadily from the specific to the universal, has undergone a striking evolution. The tone of his satire has become less formal and dignified, and more colloquial, while a more frequent use of irony, burlesque, and verbal wit makes the poem easier and more varied. Byron joins mockery with invective, raillery with contempt, so that Don Juan, in retaining certain qualities of the old Popean satire, seems to have tempered and qualified the acrimony of English Bards. The inevitable result of this development was to make Don Juan a reflection of Byron’s personality such as no other of his works had been. Don Juan is Byron; and in this fact lies the explanation of its strength and weakness.