Next Thalaba came, that selfslaying destroyer,

Of readers and conjurors too the annoyer;

Let him murder magicians, and all their relations,

But why did he murder our rhyme[82] and our patience?

Then Madoc’s adventures so ably were sung,

You’d think they were told in his own native tongue.[83]

For the curse of Kehama one cannot help dreading it,

The curse is so cursedly felt in the reading it.

Then a Monarch of Spain—how strange he should blast one!

For though he’s a Goth he might surely have past one,