University of Virginia Library

Camoens immediately before, and in the former book, calls the ensign of Lusus a bough; here he calls it the green thyrsus of Bacchus,

The thyrsus however was a javelin twisted with ivy-leaves, used in the sacrifices of Bacchus.

In this assertion our author has the authority of Strabo, a foundation sufficient for a poet. Nor are there wanting several Spanish writers, particularly Barbosa, who seriously affirm that Homer drew the fine description of Elysium, in his fourth Odyssey, from the beautiful valleys of Spain, where in one of his voyages, they say, he arrived. Egypt, however, seems to have a better title to this honour. The fable of Charon, and the judges of the poetical hell, are evidently borrowed from the Egyptian rites of burial, and are older than Homer. After a ferryman had conveyed the corpse over a lake, certain judges examined the life of the deceased, particularly his claim to the virtue of loyalty, and, according to the report, decreed or refused the honours of sepulture. The place of the Catacombs, according to Diodorus Siculus, was surrounded with deep canals, beautiful meadows, and a wilderness of groves. And it is universally known the greatest part of the Grecian fables were fabricated from the customs and opinions of Egypt. Several other nations have also claimed the honour of affording the idea of the fields of the Blessed. Even the Scotch challenge it. Many Grecian fables, says an author of that country, are evidently founded on the reports of the Phœnician sailors. That these navigators traded to the coasts of Britain is certain. In the middle of summer, the season when the ancients performed their voyages, for about six weeks there is no night over the Orkney islands; the disk of the sun during that time scarcely sinking below the horizon. This appearance, together with the calm which usually prevails at that season, and the beautiful verdure of the islands, could not fail to excite the admiration of the Tyrians; and their accounts of the place naturally afforded the idea that these islands were inhabited by the spirits of the Just. This, says our author, is countenanced by Homer, who places his islands of the Happy at the extremity of the ocean. That the fables of Scylla, the Gorgades, and several others, were founded on the accounts of navigators, seems probable; and on this supposition the Insulæ Fortunatæ, and Purpuraniæ, now the Canary and Madeira islands, also claim the honour of giving colours to the description of Elysium. The truth however appears to be this; That a place of happiness is reserved for the spirits of the Good is the natural suggestion of that anxiety and hope concerning the future, which animates the human breast. All the barbarous nations of Africa and America agree in placing their heaven in beautiful islands at an immense distance over the ocean. The idea is universal, and is natural to every nation in the state of barbarous simplicity.

Alluding to the fable of Neptune, Apollo, and Laomedon.

For some account of this tradition see the note p. 107. Antient traditions, however fabulous, have a good effect in poetry. Virgil has not scrupled to insert one, which required an apology. —Prisca fides facto, sed fama perennis. Spenser has given us the history of Brute and his descendants at full length in the Faerie Queene; and Milton, it is known, was so fond of that absurd legend, that he intended to write a poem on the subject; and by this fondness was induced to mention it as a truth in his introduction to the history of England.

Paulus de Gama.

When Pyrrhus king of Epirus was at war with the Romans, his physician offered to poison him. The senate rejected the proposal, and acquainted Pyrrhus of the designed treason. Florus remarks on the infamous assassination of Viriatus, that the Roman senate did him great honour; ut videretur aliter vinci non potuisse; it was a confession that they could not otherwise conquer him. Vid. Flor. l. 17. For a fuller account of this great man, see the note on p. 13.

See the note on p. 95.

King of Portugal. See p. 96, &c.

“Some, indeed, most writers say, that the queen (of whom see p. 96.) advancing with her army towards Guimaraez, the king, without waiting till his governor joined him, engaged them and was routed: but that afterwards the remains of his army being joined by the troops under the command of Egaz Munitz, engaged the army of the queen a second time, and gained a complete victory.” Univ. Hist.

See the same story, p. 99. Though history affords no authentic document of this transaction, tradition, the Poet's authority, is not silent. And the monument of Egaz in the monastery of Paco de Souza gives it countenance. Egaz and his family are there represented, in bas relief, in the attitude and garb, says Castera, as described by Camoens.

Sc. Posthumus, who, overpowered by the Samnites, submitted to the indignity of passing under the yoke or gallows.

The Alcaydes, or tributary Governors under the Miramolin or Emperor of Morocco, are often by the Spanish and Portuguese writers stiled kings. He who was surprized and taken prisoner by Don Fuaz Roupinho was named Gama. Fuaz, after having gained the first naval victory of the Portuguese, also experienced their first defeat. With one and twenty sail he attacked fifty-four large gallies of the Moors. The sea, says Brandan, which had lately furnished him with trophies, now supplied him with a tomb.

A navy of crusaders, mostly English. See p. 108.

This Legend is mentioned by some ancient Portuguese chronicles. Homer would have availed himself, as Camoens has done, of a tradition fo enthusiastical, and characteristic of the age. Henry was a native of Bonneville near Cologn. His tomb, says Castera, is still to be seen in the Monastery of St. Vincent, but without the palm.

Theotonius, prior of the regulars of St. Augustine of Conymbra. Some ancient Chronicles relate this circumstance as mentioned by Camoens. Modern writers assert, that he never quitted his breviary. Castera.

He was named Mem Moniz, and was son of Egas Moniz, celebrated for the surrender of himself and family to the king of Castile, as already mentioned.

“He was a man of rank, who, in order to avoid the legal punishment to which several crimes rendered him obnoxious, put himself at the head of a party of Freebooters. Tiring however of that life, he resolved to reconcile himself to his sovereign by some noble action. Full of this idea, one evening he entered Evora, which then belonged to the Moors. In the night he killed the centinels of one of the gates, which he opened to his companions, who soon became masters of the place. This exploit had its desired effect. The king pardoned Gerrald, and made him governor of Evora. A knight with a sword in one hand, and two heads in the other, from that time became the armorial bearing of the city.” Castera.

Don Pedro Fernando de Castro, injured by the family of Lara, and denied redress by the king of Castile, took the infamous revenge of bearing arms against his native country. At the head of a Moorish army he committed several outrages in Spain; but was totally defeated in Portugal.

“According to some ancient Portuguese histories, Don Matthew, Bishop of Lisbon, in the reign of Alonzo I. attempted to reduce Alcazar, then in possession of the Moors. His troops being suddenly surrounded by a numerous party of the enemy, were ready to fly, when, at the prayers of the Bishop, a venerable old man, cloathed in white, with a red cross on his breast, appeared in the air. The miracle dispelled the fears of the Portuguese; the Moors were defeated, and the conquest of Alcazar crowned the victory.” Castera.

“During a truce with the Moors, six cavaliers of the order of St. James were, while on a hunting party, surrounded and killed by a numerous body of the Moors. During the fight, in which the gentlemen sold their lives dear, a common carter, named Garcias Rodrigo, who chanced to pass that way, came generously to their assistance, and lost his life along with them. The Poet, in giving all seven the same title, shews us that virtue constitutes true nobility. Don Payo de Correa, grand master of the order of St. James, revenged the death of these brave unfortunates, by the sack of Tavila, where his just rage put the garrison to the sword.” Castera.

Nothing can give us a stronger picture of the romantic character of their age, than the manners of these champions, who were gentlemen of birth; and who, in the true spirit of knight-errantry, went about from court to court in quest of adventures. Their names were, Gonçalo Ribeiro; Ferdando Martinez de Santarene; and Vasco Anez, foster-brother to Mary, queen of Castile, daughter of Alonzo IV. of Portugal.

This line, the simplicity of which, I think, contains great dignity, is adopted from Fanshaw,

who has here catched the spirit of the original:

i. e. To whom when they told the dreadful tidings, “And I, he replies, am sacrificing.” The piety of Numa was crowned with victory. Vid. Plut. in vit. Num.

Castera justly observes the happiness with which Camoens introduces the name of this truly great man. Il va, says he, le nommer tout à l'heure avec une adresse et une magnificence digne d'un si beau sujet.

These knights were first named knights Hospitallars of St. John of Jerusalem, afterwards knights of Rhodes, from whence they were driven to Messina, ere Malta was assigned to them, where they now remain. By their oath of knighthood they are bound to protect the Holy Sepulchre from the profanation of Infidels; and immediately on taking this oath, they retire to their colleges, where they live on their revenues in all the idleness of monkish luxury. Their original habit was black with a white cross; their arms Gules, a Cross, Argent.

Before John I. mounted the throne of Portugal, one Vasco Porcallo was governor of Villaviciosa. Roderic de Landroal and his friend Alvarez Cuytado, having discovered that he was in the interest of the king of Castile, drove him from his town and fortress. On the establishment of king John, Porcallo had the art to obtain the favour of that prince, but no sooner was he re-instated in the garrison, than he delivered it up to the Castilians; and plundered the house of Cuytado, whom, with his wife, he made prisoner; and under a numerous party, ordered to be sent to Olivença. Roderic de Landroal hearing of this, attacked and defeated the escort, and set his friend at liberty. Castera.

While the kingdom of Portugal was divided, some holding with John the newly elected king, and others with the king of Castile, Roderic Marin, governor of Campo-Major, declared for the latter. Fernando d'Elvas endeavoured to gain him to the interest of his native prince, and a conference, with the usual assurances of safety, was agreed to. Marin, at this meeting, seized upon Elvas, and sent him prisoner to his castle. Elvas having recovered his liberty, a few days after met his enemy in the field, whom in his turn he made captive; and the traiterous Marin, notwithstanding the endeavours of their captain to save his life, met the reward of his treason from the soldiers of Elvas. Partly from Castera.

A numerous fleet of the Castilians being on their way to lay siege to Lisbon, Ruy Pereyra, the Portuguse commander, seeing no possibility of victory, boldly attacked the Spanish admiral. The fury of his onset put the Castilians in disorder, and allowed the Portuguese galleys a safe escape. In this brave piece of service the gallant Pereyra lost his life. Castera.

Viriatus.

The Castilians having laid siege to Almada, a fortress on a mountain near Lisbon, the garrison, in the utmost distress for water, were obliged at times to make sallies to the bottom of the hill in quest of it. Seventeen Portuguese thus employed, were one day attacked by four hundred of the enemy. They made a brave defence and happy retreat into their fortress. Castera.

When Alonzo V. took Ceuta, Don Pedro de Menezes, was the only officer in the army who was willing to become governor of that fortress; which, on account of the uncertainty of succour from Portugal, and the earnest desire of the Moors to regain it, was deemed untenable. He gallantly defended his post in two severe sieges.

He was the natural son of Don Pedro de Menezes. Alonzo V. one day having rode out from Ceuta with a few attendants was attacked by a numerous party of the Moors, when De Vian, and some others under him, at the expence of their own lives, purchased the safe retreat of their sovereign.

The sons of John I. Don Pedro was called the Ulysses of his age, on account both of his eloquence and his voyages. He visited almost every court of Europe, but he principally distinguished himself in Germany, where, under the standards of the emperor Sigismond, he signalised his valour in the war against the Turks. Castera.

In pursuance of the reason assigned in the preface, the translator has here taken the liberty to make a transposition in the order of his author. In Camoens, Don Pedro de Menezes, and his son De Vian, conclude the description of the pictured ensigns. Don Henry, the greatest man perhaps that ever Portugal produced, has certainly the best title to close this procession of the Lusian heroes. And as he was the father of navigation, particularly of the voyage of Gama, to sum up the narrative with his encomium, it may be hoped has even some critical propriety. It remains now to make a few observations on this seeming episode of Camoens. The shield of Achilles has had many imitators, some in one degree, others in another. The imitation of Ariosto, in the XXXIII canto of his Orlando Furioso, is most fancifully ingenious; and on this undoubtedly the Portuguese poet had his eye. Pharamond king of France, having resolved to conquer Italy, desires the friendship of Arthur king of Britain. Arthur sends Merlin the magician to assist him with advice. Merlin by his supernatural art raises a sumptuous hall, on the sides of which all the future wars, unfortunate to the French in their invasions of Italy, are painted in colours exceeding the pencils of the greatest masters. A description of these pictures, an episode much longer than this of Camoens, is given to the heroine Bradamant, by the knight who kept the castle of Sir Tristram, the place where the inchanted hall remained. But though the poetry be pleasing, the whole fiction, unless to amuse the warlike lady, has nothing to do with the action of the poem. Unity of design however, is neither claimed by Ariosto in the exordium of his work, nor attempted in the execution. An examination therefore of the conduct of Homer and Virgil will be more applicable to Camoens. To give a landscape of the face of the country which is the scene of action, or to describe the heroes and their armour, are the becoming ornaments of an epic poem. Milton's beautiful description of Eden, and the admirable painting of the shield of Achilles, are like the embroidery of a suit of cloaths, a part of the subject, and injure not the gracefulness of the make; or in other words, destroy not the unity of the action. Yet let it be observed, that admirable as they are, the pictures on the shield of Achilles, considered by themselves, have no relation to the action of the Iliad. If six of the apartments may be said to rouse the hero to war, the other six may with equal justice be called an obvious admonition or a charge to turn husbandman. In that part of the Eneid where Virgil greatly improves upon his master, in the visions of his future race which Anchises gives to Eneas in Elysium, the business of the poem is admirably sustained, and the hero is inspired to encounter every danger on the view of so great a reward. The description of the shield of Eneas however is less connected with the conduct of the fable. Virgil indeed intended that his poem should contain all the honours of his country, and has therefore charged the shield of his hero with what parts of the Roman history were omitted in the vision of Elysium. But so foreign are these pictures to the war with Turnus, that the poet himself tells us Eneas was ignorant of the history which they contained.

These observations, which the translator believes have escaped the critics, were suggested to him by the conduct of Camoens, whose design, like that of Virgil, was to write a poem which might contain all the triumphs of his country. As the shield of Eneas supplies what could not be introduced in the vision of Elysium, so the ensigns of Gama complete the purpose of the third and fourth Lusiads. The use of that long episode, the conversation with the king of Melinda, and its connection with the subject, have been already observed. The seeming episode of the pictures, while it fulfils the promise,

is also admirably connected with the conduct of the poem. The Indians naturally desire to be informed of the country, the history, and power of their foreign visitors, and Paulus sets it before their eyes. In every progression of the scenery the business of the poem advances. The regent and his attendants are struck with the warlike grandeur and power of the strangers, and to accept of their friendship, or to prevent the forerunners of so martial a nation to carry home the tidings of the discovery of India, becomes the great object of their consideration. And from the passions of the Indians and Moors, thus agitated, the great catastrophe of the Lusiad is both naturally and artfully produced.

As every reader is not a critic in poetry, to some perhaps the expressions

And the abrupt speech of an enraged warrior, ascribed to a picture,

may appear as unwarrantable. This however, let them be assured, is the language of the genuine spirit of poetry, when the productions of the sister muse are the object of description. Let one very bold instance of this appear in the picture of the dance of the youths and maidens on the shield of Achilles, thus faithfully rendered by Mr. Pope;

Sometimes when describing a picture, poetry will say, the figures seem to move, to tremble, or to sing. Homer has once or twice, on the shield of his hero, given this hint how to understand him. But often to repeat the qualification were quite opposite to the bold and free spirit of poesy, which delights in personification, and in giving life and passion to every thing it describes. It is owing to the superior force of this spirit, together with the more beautiful colouring of its landscape-views, that the shield of Achilles, in poetical merit, so greatly excels the buckler of Eneas, though the divine workman of the latter, had the former as a pattern before him.

In the original,

“But the pencil was wanting, colours were wanting, honour, reward, favour, the nourishers of the arts.” This seemed to the translator as an impropriety, and contrary to the purpose of the whole speech of Paulus, which was to give the Catual a high idea of Portugal. In the fate of the imaginary painter, the Lusian poet gives us the picture of his own, and resentment wrung this impropriety from him. The spirit of the complaint however is preserved in the translation. The couplet,

is not in the original. It is the sigh of indignation over the unworthy fate of the unhappy Camoens.

Mohammed, by all historians, is described as of a pale livid complexion, and trux aspectus et vox terribilis, of a fierce threatening aspect, voice, and demeanour.

“I deceive myself greatly, says Castera, if this simile is not the most noble and the most natural that can be found in any poem. It has been imitated by the Spanish comedian, the illustrious Lopez de Vega, in his comedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, Act I. Scene I.

Castera adds a very loose translation of these Spanish lines in French verse. The literal English is, As the sun may be beheld at its rising, but when illustriously kindled, cannot. Naked however as this is, the imitation of Camoens is evident. As Castera is so very bold in his encomium of this fine simile of the sun, it is but justice to add his translation of it, together with the original Portuguese, and the translation of Fanshaw. Thus the French translator.

Les yeux peuvent soûtenir la clarté du soleil naissant, mais lorsqu'il s'est avancé dans sa carriere lumineuse, & que ses rayons répandent les ardeurs du midi, on tacheroit en vain de l'envisager; un prompt aveuglement seroit le prix de cette audace. Thus elegantly in the original;

And thus humbled by Fanshaw;

Or the Brahmins, the diviners of India Ammianus Marcellinus, l. 23, says, that the Persian Magi derived their knowledge from the Brachmanes of India. And Arrianus, l. 7. expresly gives the Brahmins the name of Magi. The Magi of India, says he, told Alexander on his pretensions to divinity, that In every thing he was like other men, except that he took less rest, and did more mischief. The Brahmins are never among modern writers called Magi.

This has an allusion to the truth of history. Barros relates, that an Augur being brought before the Zamorim, “Em hum vaso de agua l'he mostrara hunas naos, que vin ham de muy longe para a India, e que a gente d'ellas seria total destruiçam dos Mouros de aquellas partes. In a vessel of water he shewed him some ships which from a great distance came to India, the people of which would effect the utter subversion of the Moors.” Camoens has certainly chosen a more poetical method of describing this divination, a method in the spirit of Virgil; nor in this is he inferior to his great master. The supernatural flame which seizes on Lavinia, while assisting at the sacrifice, alone excepted, every other part of the augury of Latinus, and his dream in the Albunean forest, whither he went to consult his ancestor the god Faunus, in dignity and poetical colouring, cannot come in comparison with the divination of the Magi, and the appearance of the Dæmon in the dream of the Moorish priest.

This picture, it may perhaps be said, is but a bad compliment to the heroes of the Lusiad, and the fruits of their discovery. A little consideration however will vindicate Camoens. It is the Dæmon and the enemies of the Portuguese who procure this divination; every thing in it is dreadful, ón purpose to determine the Zamorim to destroy the fleet of Gama. In a former prophecy of the conquest of India, (when the Catual describes the sculpture of the royal palace) our poet has been careful to ascribe the happiest effects to the discovery of his heroes:

Would to God this may come to pass! But the prophecy of the Devil has hitherto, alas, been the true one.

In this short declamation, a seeming excrescence, the business of the poem in reality is carried on. The Zamorim, and his prime minister, the Catual, are artfully characterised in it; and the assertion

is happily introduced by the manly declamatory reflections which immediately precede it.

An explanation of the word Moor is here necessary. When the East afforded no more field for the sword of the conqueror, the Saracens, assisted by the Moors, who had embraced their religion, laid the finest countries in Europe in blood and desolation. As their various embarkations were from the empire of Morocco, the Europeans gave the name of Moors to all the professors of the Mohammedan religion. In the same manner the eastern nations blended all the armies of the Crusaders under one appellation, and the Franks, of whom the army of Godfrey was mostly composed, became their common name for all the inhabitants of the West. The appellation even reached China. When the Portuguese first arrived in that Empire, the Chinese softening the r into l, called both them and their cannon, by the name of Flanks, a name which is still retained at Canton, and other parts of the Chinese dominions. Before the arrival of Gama, as already observed, all the traffic of the East, from the Ethiopian side of Africa to China, was in the hands of Arabian Mohammedans, who, without incorporating with the pagan natives, had their colonies established in every country commodious for commerce. These the Portuguese called Moors; and at present the Mohammedans of India, are called the Moors of Hindostan by the latest of our English writers. The intelligence these Moors gave to one another, relative to the actions of Gama, the general terror with which they beheld the appearance of Europeans, whose rivalship they dreaded as the destruction of their power; the various frauds and arts they employed to prevent the return of one man of Gama's fleet to Europe, and their threat to withdraw from the dominions of the Zamorim, are all according to the truth of history. The speeches of the Zamorim and of Gama, which follow, are also founded in truth. They are only poetical paraphrases of the speeches ascribed by Osorius, to the Indian sovereign and the Portuguese admiral. Where the subject was so happily adapted to the epic Muse, to neglect it would have been reprehensible: and Camoens, not unjustly, thought, that the reality of his hero's adventures gave a dignity to his poem. When Gama, in his discourse with the king of Melinda, finishes the description of his voyage, he makes a spirited apostrophe to Homer and Virgil; and asserts, that the adventures which he had actually experienced, greatly exceeded all the wonders of their fables. Camoens also, in other parts of the poem, avails himself of the same assertion.

“As the Portuguese did not expect to find any people but savages beyond the Cape of Good Hope, they only brought with them some preserves and confections, with trinkets of coral, of glass, and other trifles. This opinion however deceived them. In Melinda and in Calicut they found civilized nations, where the arts flourished; who wanted nothing; who were possessed of all the refinements and delicacies on which we value ourselves. The king of Melinda had the generosity to be contented with the present which Gama made; but the Zamorim, with a disdainful eye, beheld the gifts which were offered to him. The present was thus: Four mantles of scarlet, six hats adorned with feathers, four chaplets of coral beads, twelve Turky carpets, seven drinking cups of brass, a chest of sugar, two barrels of oil, and two of honey.” Castera.

Castera derives Acidalia from ακηδης, which, he says, implies to act without fear or restraint. Acidalia, is one of the Names of Venus, in Virgil; derived from Acidalus, a fountain sacred to her in Bœotia.

John I.

Bartholomew Diaz, was the first who discovered the southmost point of Africa. He was driven back by the storms, which on these seas were thought always to continue, and which the learned of former ages, says Osorius, thought impassable. Diaz, when he related his voyage to John II. called the southmost point the Cape of Tempests. The expectation of the king, however, was kindled by the account, and with inexpressible joy, says the same author, he immediately named it the Cape of Good Hope.

Fanshaw.

The resemblance of this couplet to many passages in Homer, must be obvious to the intelligent critic.

Imitated from Virgil, who, by the same similie, describes the fluctuation of the thoughts of Eneas, on the eve of the Latian war:

Ariosto has also adopted this similie in the eighth book of his Orlando Furioso:

But the happiest circumstance belongs to Camoens. The velocity and various shiftings of the sun-beam, reflected from a piece of chrystal or polished steel in the hand of a boy, give a much stronger idea of the violent agitation and sudden shiftings of thought, than the image of the trembling light of the sun or moon reflected from a vessel of water. The brazen vessel however, and not the water, is only mentioned by Dryden. Nor must another inaccuracy pass unobserved. That the reflection of the moon flashed the glaring day is not countenanced by the original. The critic however, who, from the mention of these, will infer any disrespect to the name of Dryden, is, as critics often are, ignorant of the writer's meaning. A very different inference is intended: If so great a master as Dryden has erred, let the critic remember, that other translators are liable to fail, and that a few inaccuracies ought, by no means, to be produced as the specimens of any composition.

We have already seen the warm encomium paid by Tasso to his cotemporary, Camoens. That great poet, the ornament of Italy, has also testified his approbation by several imitations of the Lusiad. Virgil, in no instance, has more closely copied Homer, than Tasso has imitated the appearance of Bacchus, or the evil Dæmon, in the dream of the Moorish priest. The enchanter Ismeno thus appears to the sleeping Solyman:

Thus elegantly translated by Mr. Hoole,