, surnamed the Brave, ascended the
throne of Portugal in the vigour of his age.
throne of Portugal in the vigour of his age.
Camoes - Lusiades
_--In pursuance of the reasons 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 has even
some critical propriety.
These observations were suggested 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 AEneas 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 fulfills the promise--
_And all my country's wars the song adorn,_
is also admirably connected with the conduct of the poem. The Hindoos
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 from carrying home the tidings of the
discovery of India, becomes the great object of their consideration.
[534] _But ah, forlorn, what shame to barb'rous pride. _--In the
original. --
_Mas faltamlhes pincel, faltamlhes cores,
Honra, premio, favor, que as artes criao. _
"But the pencil was wanting, colors were wanting, honour, reward,
favour, the nourishers of the arts. " This seemed to the translator as in
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,
resentment wrung this impropriety from him. The spirit of the complaint,
however, is preserved in the translation. The couplet--
"Immortal fame his deathless labours gave;
Poor man, he sunk neglected to the grave! "
is not in the original. It is the sigh of indignation over the unworthy
fate of the unhappy Camoens.
[535] _The ghost-like aspect and the threat'ning look. _--Mohammed, by
some historians described as of a pale livid complexion, and _trux
aspectus et vox terribilis_, of a fierce threatening aspect, voice, and
demeanour.
[536]
_When, softly usher'd by the milky dawn,
The sun first rises. --_
"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. sc. 1:--
"_Como mirar puede ser
El sol al amanecer,
I quando se enciende, no. _"
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 soutenir la clarte du soleil naissant, mais lorsqu'il
s'est avance dans sa carriere lumineuse, et que ses rayons repandent les
ardeurs du midi, on tacherait en vain de l'envisager; un prompt
aveuglement serait le prix de cette audace. _
Thus elegantly in the original:--
"Em quanto he fraca a forca desta gente,
Ordena como em tudo se resista,
Porque quando o Sol sahe, facilmente
Se pode nelle por a aguda vista:
Porem despois que sobe claro, & ardente,
Se a agudeza dos olhos o conquista
Tao cega fica, quando ficareis,
Se raizes criar lhe nao tolheis. "
And thus humbled by Fanshaw:--
"_Now_ whilst this people's strength is not yet knit,
Think how ye may resist them by all ways.
For when the _Sun_ is in his _nonage_ yit,
Upon his _morning beauty_ men may gaze;
But let him once up to his _zenith_ git,
He strikes them _blind_ with his _meridian rays_;
So _blind_ will ye be, if ye look not too't,
If ye permit these _cedars_ to take root. "
[537]
_Around him stand,
With haggard looks, the hoary Magi band. --_
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, expressly gives the Brahmins the name of
Magi. The Magi of India, says he, told Alexander, on his pretensions to
divinity, that in everything he was like other men, except that he took
less rest, and did more mischief. The Brahmins are never among modern
writers called Magi.
[538] _The hov'ring demon gives the dreadful sign. _--This has an
allusion to the truth of history. Barros relates, that an anger 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 destruicam dos Mouros de aquellas partes. _--In a vessel of water
he showed 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 demon in the dream of the Moorish priest.
[539] _Th'eternal yoke. _--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 demon and the enemies of the Portuguese who procure this
divination; everything in it is dreadful, on 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:--
"Beneath their sway majestic, wise, and mild,
Proud of her victors' laws, thrice happier India smil'd. "
[540] _So let the tyrant plead. _--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--
_Lur'd was the regent with the Moorish gold,_
is happily introduced by the declamatory reflections which immediately
precede it.
[541]
_The Moors----their ancient deeds relate,
Their ever-faithful service of the state. --_
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. 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 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.
[542] Troy.
[543] _No sumptuous gift thou bring'st. _--"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 this: Four mantles of scarlet, six
hats adorned with feathers, four chaplets of coral beads, twelve Turkey
carpets, seven drinking cups of brass, a chest of sugar, two barrels of
oil, and two of honey. "--CASTERA.
[544] _Fair Acidalia, Love's celestial queen. _--Castera derives Acidalia
from ? ? ? ? ? ? , 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 Boeotia.
[545] _Sprung from the prince. _--John I.
[546] _And from her raging tempests, nam'd the Cape. _--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.
[547]
_The pillar thus of deathless fame, begun
By other chiefs_, etc. --
"Till I now ending what those did begin,
The furthest pillar in thy realm advance;
Breaking the element of molten tin,
Through horrid storms I lead to thee the dance. "
FANSHAW.
[548]
_The regent's palace high o'erlook'd the bay,
Where Gama's black-ribb'd fleet at anchor lay. _--
The resemblance of this couplet to many passages in Homer, must be
obvious to the intelligent critic.
[549] _As in the sun's bright beam. _--Imitated from Virgil, who, by the
same simile, describes the fluctuation of the thoughts of AEneas, on the
eve of the Latian war:--
"Laomedontius heros
Cuncta videns, magno curarum fluctuat aestu,
Atque animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit illuc,
In partesque rapit varias, perque omnia versat.
Sicut aquae tremulum labris ubi lumen ahenis
Sole repercussum, aut radiantis imagine Lunae,
Omnia pervolitat late loca: jamque sub auras
Erigitur, summique ferit laquearia tecti. "
"This way and that he turns his anxious mind,
Thinks, and rejects the counsels he design'd;
Explores himself in vain, in ev'ry part,
And gives no rest to his distracted heart:
So when the sun by day or moon by night
Strike on the polish'd brass their trembling light,
The glitt'ring species here and there divide,
And cast their dubious beams from side to side;
Now on the walls, now on the pavement play,
And to the ceiling flash the glaring day. "
Ariosto has also adopted this simile in the eighth book of his Orlando
Furioso:--
"Qual d'acqua chiara il tremolante lume
Dal Sol per percossa, o da' notturni rai,
Per gli ampli tetti va con lungo salto
A destra, ed a sinistra, e basso, ed alto. "
"So from a water clear, the trembling light
Of Phoebus, or the silver ray of night,
Along the spacious rooms with splendour plays,
Now high, now low, and shifts a thousand ways. "
HOOLE.
But the happiest circumstance belongs to Camoens. The velocity and
various shiftings of the sun-beam, reflected from a piece of crystal 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.
We have already seen the warm encomium paid by Tasso to his
contemporary, 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 demon, in the dream of the
Moorish priest. The enchanter Ismeno thus appears to the sleeping
Solyman:--
"Soliman' Solimano, i tuoi silenti
Riposi a miglior tempo homai riserva:
Che sotto il giogo de straniere genti
La patria, ove regnasti, ancor' e serva.
In questa terra dormi, e non rammenti,
Ch'insepolte de' tuoi l'ossa conserva?
Ove si gran' vestigio e del tuo scorno,
Tu neghittoso aspetti il nuovo giorno? "
Thus elegantly translated by Mr. Hoole:--
"Oh! Solyman, regardless chief, awake!
In happier hours thy grateful slumber take:
Beneath a foreign yoke thy subjects bend,
And strangers o'er thy land their rule extend:
Here dost thou sleep? here close thy careless eyes,
While uninterr'd each lov'd associate lies?
Here where thy fame has felt the hostile scorn,
Canst thou, unthinking, wait the rising morn? "
The conclusion of this canto has been slightly altered by the
translator. Camoens, adhering to history, makes GAMA (when his factors
are detained on shore) seize upon some of the native merchants as
hostages. At the intreaty of their wives and children the zamorim
liberates his captives; while GAMA, having recovered his men and the
merchandise, sailed away, carrying with him the unfortunate natives,
whom he had seized as hostages.
As there is nothing heroic in this dishonourable action of GAMA'S,
Mickle has omitted it, and has altered the conclusion of the
canto. --_Ed. _
[550] Mickle, in place of the first seventeen stanzas of this canto, has
inserted about three hundred lines of his own composition; in this
respect availing himself of the licence he had claimed in his
preface. --_Ed. _
[551] _Thy sails, and rudders too, my will demands. _--According to
history.
[552] _My sov'reign's fleet I yield not to your sway. _--The circumstance
of GAMA'S refusing to put his fleet into the power of the zamorim, is
thus rendered by Fanshaw:--
"The Malabar protests that he shall rot
In prison, if he send not for the _ships_.
_He_ (_constant_, and with noble _anger_ hot)
His haughty _menace_ weighs not at _two chips_. "
[553] _Through Gata's hills. _--The hills of Gata or Gate, mountains
which form a natural barrier on the eastern side of the kingdom of
Malabar.
"Nature's rude wall, against the fierce Canar
They guard the fertile walls of Malabar. "
LUSIAD, vii.
[554] _Then, furious, rushing to the darken'd bay. _--For the
circumstances of the battle, and the tempest which then happened, see
the Life of GAMA.
[555] _I left my fix'd command my navy's guard. _--See the Life of GAMA.
[556] _Unmindful of my fate on India's shore. _--This most magnanimous
resolution, to sacrifice his own safety or his life for the safe return
of the fleet, is strictly true. --See the Life of GAMA.
[557] _Abrupt--the monarch cries_--"_What yet may save! _"--GAMA'S
declaration, that no message from him to the fleet could alter the
orders he had already left, and his rejection of any further treaty,
have a necessary effect in the conduct of the poem. They hasten the
catastrophe, and give a verisimilitude to the abrupt and full submission
of the zamorim.
[558] _The rollers_--_i. e. _ the capstans. --The capstan is a cylindrical
windlass, worked with bars, which are moved from hole to hole as it
turns round. It is used on board ship to weigh the anchors, raise the
masts, etc. The versification of this passage in the original affords a
most noble example of imitative harmony:--
"Mas ja nas naos os bons trabalhadores
Volvem o cabrestante, & repartidos
Pello trabalho, huns puxao pella amarra,
Outros quebrao co peito duro a barra. "
STANZA X.
[559]
_Mozaide, whose zealous care
To Gama's eyes reveal'd each treach'rous snare. --_
Had this been mentioned sooner, the interest of the catastrophe of the
poem must have languished. Though he is not a warrior, the unexpected
friend of GAMA bears a much more considerable part in the action of the
Lusiad than the faithful Achates, the friend of the hero, bears in the
business of the AEneid.
[560] _There wast thou call'd to thy celestial home. _--This exclamatory
address to the Moor Monzaida, however it may appear digressive, has a
double propriety. The conversion of the Eastern world is the great
purpose of the expedition of GAMA, and Monzaida is the first fruits of
that conversion. The good characters of the victorious heroes, however
neglected by the great genius of Homer, have a fine effect in making an
epic poem interest us and please. It might have been said, that Monzaida
was a traitor to his friends, who crowned his villainy with apostacy.
Camoens has, therefore, wisely drawn him with other features, worthy of
the friendship of GAMA. Had this been neglected, the hero of the Lusiad
might have shared the fate of the wise Ulysses of the Iliad, against
whom, as Voltaire justly observes, every reader bears a secret ill will.
Nor is the poetical character of Monzaida unsupported by history. He was
not an Arab Moor, so he did not desert his countrymen. These Moors had
determined on the destruction of GAMA; Monzaida admired and esteemed
him, and therefore generously revealed to him his danger. By his
attachment to GAMA he lost all his effects in India, a circumstance
which his prudence and knowledge of affairs must have certainly
foreseen. By the known dangers he encountered, by the loss he thus
voluntarily sustained, and by his after constancy, his sincerity is
undoubtedly proved.
[561] _The joy of the fleet on the homeward departure from India. _--We
are now come to that part of the Lusiad, which, in the conduct of the
poem, is parallel to the great catastrophe of the Iliad, when, on the
death of Hector, Achilles thus addresses the Grecian army--
"Ye sons of Greece, in triumph bring
The corpse of Hector, and your paeons sing:
Be this the song, slow moving toward the shore,
'Hector is dead, and Ilion is no more. '"
Our Portuguese poet, who in his machinery, and many other instances, has
followed the manner of Virgil, now forsakes him. In a very bold and
masterly spirit he now models his poem by the steps of Homer. What of
the Lusiad yet remains, in poetical conduct (though not in an imitation
of circumstances), exactly resembles the latter part of the Iliad. The
games at the funeral of Patroclus, and the redemption of the body of
Hector, are the completion of the rage of Achilles. In the same manner,
the reward of the heroes, and the consequences of their expedition
complete the unity of the Lusiad. I cannot say it appears that Milton
ever read our poet (though Fanshaw's translation was published in his
time); yet no instance can be given of a more striking resemblance of
plan and conduct, than may be produced in two principal parts of the
poem of Camoens, and of the Paradise Lost. --See the Dissertation which
follows this book.
[562] _Near where the bowers of Paradise were plac'd. _--Between the
mouth of the Ganges and Euphrates.
[563] Swans.
[564] _His falling kingdom claim'd his earnest care. _--This fiction, in
poetical conduct, bears a striking resemblance to the digressive
histories with which Homer enriches and adorns his poems, particularly
to the beautiful description of the feast of the gods with "the
blameless Ethiopians. " It also contains a masterly commentary on the
machinery of the Lusiad. The Divine Love conducts GAMA to India. The
same Divine Love is represented as preparing to reform the corrupted
world, when its attention is particularly called to bestow a foretaste
of immortality on the heroes of the expedition which discovered the
eastern world. Nor do the wild fantastic loves, mentioned in this little
episode, afford any objection against this explanation, an explanation
which is expressly given in the episode itself. These wild fantastic
amours signify, in the allegory, the wild sects of different
enthusiasts, which spring up under the wings of the best and most
rational institutions; and which, however contrary to each other, all
agree in deriving their authority from the same source.
[565] _A young Actaeon. _--The French translator has the following
characteristic note: "This passage is an eternal monument of the
freedoms taken by Camoens, and at the same time a proof of the
imprudence of poets; an authentic proof of that prejudice which
sometimes blinds them, notwithstanding all the light of their genius.
The modern Actaeon of whom he speaks, was King Sebastian. He loved the
chase; but, that pleasure, which is one of the most innocent and one of
the most noble we can possibly taste, did not at all interrupt his
attention to the affairs of state, and did not render him savage, as our
author pretends. On this point the historians are rather to be believed.
And what would the lot of princes be, were they allowed no relaxation
from their toils, while they allow that privilege to their people?
Subjects as we are, let us venerate the amusements of our sovereigns;
let us believe that the august cares for our good, which employ them,
follow them often even to the very bosom of their pleasures. "
Many are the strokes in the Lusiad which must endear the character of
Camoens to every reader of sensibility. The noble freedom and manly
indignation with which he mentions the foible of his prince, and the
flatterers of his court, would do honour to the greatest names of Greece
or Rome. While the shadow of freedom remained in Portugal, the greatest
men of that nation, in the days of Lusian heroism, thought and conducted
themselves in the spirit of Camoens. A noble anecdote of this brave
spirit offers itself. Alonzo IV.
, surnamed the Brave, ascended the
throne of Portugal in the vigour of his age. The pleasures of the chase
engrossed all his attention. His confidants and favourites encouraged,
and allured him to it. His time was spent in the forests of Cintra,
while the affairs of government were neglected or executed by those
whose interest it was to keep their sovereign in ignorance. His
presence, at last, being necessary at Lisbon, he entered the council
with all the brisk impetuosity of a young sportsman, and with great
familiarity and gaiety entertained his nobles with the history of a
whole month spent in hunting, in fishing, and shooting. When he had
finished his narrative, a nobleman of the first rank rose up: "Courts
and camps," said he, "were allotted for kings, not woods and deserts.
Even the affairs of private men suffer when recreation is preferred to
business. But when the whims of pleasure engross the thoughts of a king,
a whole nation is consigned to ruin. We came here for other purposes
than to hear the exploits of the chase, exploits which are only
intelligible to grooms and falconers. If your majesty will attend to the
wants, and remove the grievances of your people, you will find them
obedient subjects; if not----" The king, starting with rage, interrupted
him, "If not, what? " "If not," resumed the nobleman, in a firm tone,
"they will look for another and a better king. " Alonzo, in the highest
transport of passion, expressed his resentment, and hasted out of the
room. In a little while, however, he returned, calm and reconciled: "I
perceive," said he, "the truth of what you say. He who will not execute
the duties of a king, cannot long have good subjects. Remember, from
this day, you have nothing more to do with Alonzo the sportsman, but
with Alonzo the king of Portugal. " His majesty was as good as his
promise, and became, as a warrior and politician, one of the greatest of
the Portuguese monarchs.
[566] _With love's fierce flames his frozen heart shall burn. _--"It is
said, that upon the faith of a portrait Don Sebastian fell in love with
Margaret of France, daughter of Henry II. , and demanded her in marriage,
but was refused. The Spaniards treated him no less unfavourably, for
they also rejected his proposals for one of the daughters of Philip II.
Our author considers these refusals as the punishment of Don Sebastian's
excessive attachment to the chase; but this is only a consequence of the
prejudice with which he viewed the amusements of his prince. The truth
is, these princesses were refused for political reasons, and not with
any regard to the manner in which he filled up his moments of leisure. "
Thus Castera, who, with the same spirit of sagacity, starts and answers
the following objections: "But here is a difficulty: Camoens wrote
during the life of Don Sebastian, but the circumstance he relates (the
return of GAMA) happened several years before, under the reign of
Emmanuel. How, therefore, could he say that Cupid then saw Don Sebastian
at the chase, when that prince was not then born? The answer is easy:
Cupid, in the allegory of this work, represents the love of God, the
Holy Spirit, who is God himself. Now the Divinity admits of no
distinction of time; one glance of his eye beholds the past, the
present, and the future; everything is present before him. "
This defence of the fiction of Actaeon is not more absurd than useless.
The free and bold spirit of poetry, and in particular the nature of
allegory, defend it. The poet might easily have said, that Cupid
_foresaw_; but had he said so his satire had been much less genteel. As
the sentiments of Castera on this passage are extremely characteristic
of French ideas, another note from him will perhaps be agreeable.
"Several Portuguese writers have remarked," says he, "that the wish--
'Of these lov'd dogs that now his passions sway,
Ah! may he never fall the hapless prey! '
Had in it an air of prophecy; and fate, in effect, seemed careful to
accomplish it, in making the presaged woes to fall upon Don Sebastian.
If he did not fall a prey to his pack of hounds, we may, however, say
that he was devoured by his favourites, who misled his youth and his
great soul. But at any rate our poet has carried the similitude too far.
It was certainly injurious to Don Sebastian, who nevertheless had the
bounty not only not to punish this audacity, but to reward the just
eulogies which the author had bestowed on him in other places. As much
as the indiscretion of Camoens ought to surprise us, as much ought we to
admire the generosity of his master. "
This foppery, this slavery in thinking, cannot fail to rouse the
indignation of every manly breast, when the facts are fairly stated. Don
Sebastian, who ascended the throne when a child, was a prince of great
abilities and great spirit, but his youth was poisoned with the most
romantic ideas of military glory. The affairs of state were left to his
ministers (for whose character see the next note), his other studies
were neglected, and military exercises, of which he not unjustly
esteemed the chase a principal, were almost his sole employ. Camoens
beheld this romantic turn, and in a genteel allegorical satire foreboded
its consequences. The wish, that his prince might not fall the prey of
his favourite passion, was in vain. In a rash, ill-concerted expedition
into Africa, Don Sebastian lost his crown in his twenty-fifth year, an
event which soon after produced the fall of the Portuguese empire. Had
the nobility possessed the spirit of Camoens, had they, like him,
endeavoured to check the quixotism of a young generous prince, that
prince might have reigned long and happy, and Portugal might have
escaped the Spanish yoke, which soon followed his defeat at Alcazar; a
yoke which sunk Portugal into an abyss of misery, from which, in all
probability, she will never emerge into her former splendour.
[567]
_Enraged, he sees a venal herd, the shame
Of human race, assume the titled name. --_
"After having ridiculed all the pleasures of Don Sebastian, the author
now proceeds to his courtiers, to whom he has done no injustice. Those
who are acquainted with the Portuguese history, will readily acknowledge
this. "--CASTERA.
[568] _On the hard bosoms of the stubborn crowd. _--There in an elegance
in the original of this line, which the English language will not
admit:--
"Nos duros coracoens de plebe dura,"--
_i. e. _, In the hard hearts of the hard vulgar.
[569] Cupid.
[570]
_Thus from my native waves a hero line
Shall rise, and o'er the East illustrious shine. _--
"By the line of heroes to be produced by the union of the Portuguese
with the Nereids, is to be understood the other Portuguese, who,
following the steps of GAMA, established illustrious colonies in
India. "--CASTERA.
[571] _And Fame--a giant goddess. _--This passage affords a striking
instance of the judgment of Camoens. Virgil's celebrated description of
Fame is in his eye, but he copies it, as Virgil, in his best imitations,
copies after Homer. He adopts some circumstances, but, by adding others,
he makes a new picture, which justly may be called his own.
[572] _The wat'ry gods. _--To mention the gods in the masculine gender,
and immediately to apply to them--
"O peito feminil, que levemente
Muda quaysquer propositos tomados. "--
The ease with which the female breast changes its resolutions, may to
the hypercritical appear reprehensible. The expression, however, is
classical, and therefore retained. Virgil uses it, where AEneas is
conducted by Venus through the flames of Troy:--
"Descendo, ac ducente _Deo_, flammam inter et hostes
Expedior. "
This is in the manner of the Greek poets, who use the word ? ? ? ? for god
or goddess.
[573] _White as her swans. _--A distant fleet compared to swans on a lake
is certainly a happy thought. The allusion to the pomp of Venus, whose
agency is immediately concerned, gives it besides a peculiar propriety.
This simile, however, is not in the original. It is adopted from an
uncommon liberty taken by Fanshaw:--
"The pregnant _sails_ on Neptune's surface creep,
Like her own _swans_, in _gate_, _out-chest_, and _fether_. "
[574] _Soon as the floating verdure caught their sight. _--As the
departure of GAMA from India was abrupt, he put into one of the
beautiful islands of Anchediva for fresh water. "While he was here
careening his ships," says Faria, "a pirate named Timoja, attacked him
with eight small vessels, so linked together and covered with boughs,
that they formed the appearance of a floating island. " This, says
Castera, afforded the fiction of the floating island of Venus. "The
fictions of Camoens," says he, "are the more marvellous, because they
are all founded in history. It is not difficult to find why he makes his
island of Anchediva to wander on the waves; it is an allusion to a
singular event related by Barros. " He then proceeds to the story of
Timoja, as if the genius of Camoens stood in need of so weak an
assistance.
[575] _In friendly pity of Latona's woes. _--Latona, pregnant by Jupiter,
was persecuted by Juno, who sent the serpent Python in pursuit of her.
Neptune, in pity of her distress, raised the island of Delos for her
refuge, where she was delivered of Apollo and Diana. --OVID, Met.
[576] _Form'd in a crystal lake the waters blend. _--Castera also
attributes this to history. "The Portuguese actually found in this
island," says he, "a fine piece of water ornamented with hewn stones and
magnificent aqueducts; an ancient and superb work, of which nobody knew
the author. "
In 1505 Don Francisco Almeyda built a fort in this island. In digging
among some ancient ruins he found many crucifixes of black and red
colour, from whence the Portuguese conjectured, says Osorius, that the
Anchedivian islands had in former ages been inhabited by
Christians. --Vid. Osor. 1. iv.
[577]
_The orange here perfumes the buxom air.
And boasts the golden hue of Daphne's hair. --_
Frequent allusions to the fables of the ancients form a characteristic
feature of the poetry of the 16th and 17th centuries. A profusion of it
is pedantry; a moderate use of it, however, in a poem of those times
pleases, because it discovers the stages of composition, and has in
itself a fine effect, as it illustrates its subject by presenting the
classical reader with some little landscapes of that country through
which he has travelled. The description of forests is a favourite topic
in poetry. Chaucer, Tasso, and Spenser, have been happy in it, but both
have copied an admired passage in Statius:--
"Cadit ardua fagus,
Chaoniumque nemus, brumaeque illaesa cupressus;
Procumbunt piceae, flammis alimenta supremis,
Ornique, iliceaeque trabes, metuandaque sulco
Taxus, et infandos belli potura cruores
Fraxinus, atque situ non expugnabile robur:
Hinc audax abies, et odoro vulnere pinus
Scinditur, acclinant intonsa cacumina terrae
Alnus amica fretis, nec inhospita vitibus ulmus. "
In rural descriptions three things are necessary to render them
poetical: the happiness of epithet, of picturesque arrangement, and of
little landscape views. Without these, all the names of trees and
flowers, though strung together in tolerable numbers, contain no more
poetry than a nurseryman or a florist's catalogue. In Statius, in Tasso
and Spenser's admired forests (Ger. Liber. c. 3. st. 75, 76, and F.
Queen, b. 1 c. 1. st. 8, 9), the poetry consists entirely in the
happiness of the epithets. In Camoens, all the three requisites are
admirably attained and blended together.
[578] _And stain'd with lover's blood. _--Pyramus and Thisbe:--
"Arborei foetus aspergine caedis in atram
Vertuntur faciem: madefactaque sanguine radix
Puniceo tingit pendentia mora colore. . . . .
At tu quo ramis arbor miserabile corpus
Nunc tegis unius, mox es tectura duorum;
Signa tene caedis: pullosque et lectibus aptos
Semper habe foetus gemini monumenta cruoris. "
OVID, Met.
[579] _The shadowy vale. _--Literal from the original,--_O sombrio
valle_--which Fanshaw, however, has translated, "the gloomy valley," and
thus has given us a funereal, where the author intended a festive,
landscape. It must be confessed, however, that the description of the
island of Venus, is infinitely the best part of all of Fanshaw's
translation. And indeed the dullest prose translation might obscure, but
could not possibly throw a total eclipse over, so admirable an original.
[580] _The woe-mark'd flower of slain Adonis--water'd by the tears of
love. _--The Anemone. "This," says Castera, "is applicable to the
celestial Venus, for, according to my theology, her amour with Adonis
had nothing in it impure, but was only the love which nature bears to
the sun. " The fables of antiquity have generally a threefold
interpretation, an historical allusion, a physical and a metaphysical
allegory. In the latter view, the fable of Adonis is only applicable to
the celestial Venus. A divine youth is outrageously slain, but shall
revive again at the restoration of the golden age. Several nations, it
is well known, under different names, celebrated the Mysteries, or the
death and resurrection of Adonis; among whom were the British Druids, as
we are told by Dr. Stukely. In the same manner Cupid, in the fable of
Psyche, is interpreted by mythologists, to signify the Divine Love
weeping over the degeneracy of human nature.
[581]
_At strife appear the lawns and purpled skies,
Who from each other stole the beauteous dyes. --_
On this passage Castera has the following sensible, though turgid, note:
"This thought," says he, "is taken from the idyllium of Ausonius on the
rose:--
'Ambigeres raperetne rosis Aurora ruborem,
An daret, et flores tingere torta dies. '
Camoens who had a genius rich of itself, still further enriched it at
the expense of the ancients. Behold what makes great authors! Those who
pretend to give us nothing but the fruits of their own growth, soon
fail, like the little rivulets which dry up in the summer, very
different from the floods, who receive in their course the tribute of a
hundred and a hundred rivers, and which even in the dog-days carry their
waves triumphant to the ocean. "
[582] _The hyacinth bewrays the doleful_ Ai. --Hyacinthus, a youth
beloved of Apollo, by whom he was accidentally slain, and afterwards
turned into a flower:--
"Tyrioque nitentior ostro
Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia: si non,
Purpureus color huic, argenteus esset in illis.
Non satis hoc Phaebo est: is enim fuit auctor honoris.
Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit; et Ai, Ai,
Flos habet inscriptum: funestaque littera ducta est. "
OVID, Met.
[583] _The second Argonauts. _--The expedition of the Golden Fleece was
esteemed, in ancient poetry, one of the most daring adventures, the
success of which was accounted miraculous. The allusions of Camoens to
this voyage, though in the spirit of his age, are by no means improper.
[584] _Wide o'er the beauteous isle the lovely fair. _--We now come to
the passage condemned by Voltaire as so lascivious, that no nation in
Europe, except the Portuguese and Italians, could bear it. The fate of
Camoens has hitherto been very peculiar. The mixture of Pagan and
Christian mythology in his machinery has been anathematized, and his
island of love represented as a brothel. Yet both accusations are the
arrogant assertions of the most superficial acquaintance with his works.
His poem itself, and a comparison of its parts with the similar conduct
of the greatest modern poets, will clearly evince, that in both
instances no modern epic writer of note has given less offence to true
criticism.
Not to mention Ariosto, whose descriptions will often admit of no
palliation, Tasso, Spenser, and Milton, have always been esteemed among
the chastest of poets, yet in that delicacy of warm description, which
Milton has so finely exemplified in the nuptials of our first parents,
none of them can boast the continued uniformity of the Portuguese poet.
Though there is a warmth in the colouring of Camoens which even the
genius of Tasso has not reached: and though the island of Armida is
evidently copied from the Lusiad, yet those who are possessed of the
finer feelings, will easily discover an essential difference between the
love-scenes of the two poets, a difference greatly in favour of the
delicacy of the former. Though the nymphs in Camoens are detected naked
in the woods, and in the stream, and though desirous to captivate, still
their behaviour is that of the virgin who hopes to be the spouse. They
act the part of offended modesty; even when they yield they are silent,
and behave in every respect like Milton's Eve in the state of innocence,
who--
"What was honour knew,"
And who displayed--
"Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,
That would be wooed, and not unsought be won. "
To sum up all, the nuptial sanctity draws its hallowed curtains, and a
masterly allegory shuts up the love-scenes of Camoens.
How different from all this is the island of Armida in Tasso, and its
translation, the bower of Acrasia in Spenser! In these virtue is
seduced; the scene therefore is less delicate. The nymphs, while they
are bathing, in place of the modesty of the bride as in Camoens, employ
all the arts of the lascivious wanton. They stay not to be wooed; but,
as Spenser gives it--
_The amorous sweet spoils to greedy eyes reveal. _
One stanza from our English poet, which, however, is rather fuller than
the original, shall here suffice:--
"Withal she laughed and she blush'd withal,
That blushing to her laughter gave more grace,
And laughter to her blushing, as did fall.
Now when they spy'd the knight to slack his pace,
Them to behold, and _in his sparkling face
The secret signs of kindled lust appear_,
Their wanton merriments they did increase,
And to him beckon'd to approach more near,
_And show'd him many sights, that courage cold could rear_.
This and other descriptions--
"Upon a bed of roses she was laid
As faint through heat, or dight to pleasant sin"--
present every idea of lascivious voluptuousness. The allurements of
speech are also added. Songs, which breathe every persuasive, are heard;
and the nymphs boldly call to the beholder:--
_E' dolce campo di battaglia il letto
Fiavi, e l'herbetta morbida de' prati. _--TASSO.
"Our field of battle is the downy bed,
Or flow'ry turf amid the smiling mead. "--HOOLE.
These, and the whole scenes in the domains of Armida and Acrasia, are in
a turn of manner the reverse of the island of Venus. In these the
expression and idea are meretricious. In Camoens, though the colouring
is even warmer, yet the modesty of the Venus de Medicis is still
preserved. In everything he describes there is still something strongly
similar to the modest attitude of the arms of that celebrated statue.
Though prudery, that usual mask of the impurest minds, may condemn him,
yet those of the most chaste, though less gloomy turn, will allow, that
in comparison with others, he might say,--_Virginibus puerisque canto_.
Spenser also, where he does not follow Tasso, is often gross; and even
in some instances, where the expression is most delicate, the picture is
nevertheless indecently lascivious.
[585] _The hunter. _--Acteon.
[586] _Madd'ning as he said. _--At the end of his Homer Mr. Pope has
given an index of the instances of imitative and sentimental harmony
contained in his translations. He has also often even in his notes
pointed out the adaptation of sound to sense. The translator of the
Lusiad hopes he may for once say, that he has not been inattentive to
this great essential of good versification: how he has succeeded the
judicious only must determine. The speech of Leonard to the cursory
reader may perhaps sometimes appear careless, and sometimes turgid and
stiff. That speech, however, is an attempt at the imitative and
sentimental harmony, and with the judicious he rests its fate. As the
translation in this instance exceeds the original in length, the
objection of a foreign critic requires attention. An old pursy Abbe,
(and critics are apt to judge by themselves) may indeed be surprised
that a man out of breath with running should be able to talk so long.
But, had he consulted the experiences of others, he would have found it
was no wonderful matter for a stout and young cavalier to talk twice as
much, though fatigued with the chase of a couple of miles, provided the
supposition be allowed, that he treads on the last steps of his flying
mistress.
[587] _Hence, ye profane. _--We have already observed, that in every
other poet the love scenes are generally described as those of guilt and
remorse. The contrary character of those of Camoens not only gives them
a delicacy unknown to other moderns, but, by the fiction of the spousal
rites, the allegory and machinery of the poem are most happily
conducted.
[588] _Spread o'er the eastern world the dread alarms. _--This admonition
places the whole design of the poem before us. To extirpate
Mohammedanism, and propagate Christianity, were professed as the
principal purpose of the discoveries of Prince Henry and King Emmanuel.
In the beginning of the seventh Lusiad, the nations of Europe are
upbraided for permitting the Saracens to erect and possess an empire,
which alike threatened Europe and Christianity. The Portuguese, however,
the patriot poet concludes, will themselves overthrow their enormous
power: an event which is the proposed subject of the Lusiad, and which
is represented as, in effect, completed in the last book. On this
system, adopted by the poet, and which on every occasion was avowed by
their kings, the Portuguese made immense conquests in the East. Yet, let
it be remembered, to the honour of GAMA, and the first commanders who
followed his route, that the plots of the Moors, and their various
breaches of treaty, gave rise to the first wars which the Portuguese
waged in Asia. On finding that all the colonies of the Moors were
combined for their destruction, the Portuguese declared war against the
eastern Moors, and their allies, wherever they found them.
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 has even
some critical propriety.
These observations were suggested 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 AEneas 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 fulfills the promise--
_And all my country's wars the song adorn,_
is also admirably connected with the conduct of the poem. The Hindoos
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 from carrying home the tidings of the
discovery of India, becomes the great object of their consideration.
[534] _But ah, forlorn, what shame to barb'rous pride. _--In the
original. --
_Mas faltamlhes pincel, faltamlhes cores,
Honra, premio, favor, que as artes criao. _
"But the pencil was wanting, colors were wanting, honour, reward,
favour, the nourishers of the arts. " This seemed to the translator as in
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,
resentment wrung this impropriety from him. The spirit of the complaint,
however, is preserved in the translation. The couplet--
"Immortal fame his deathless labours gave;
Poor man, he sunk neglected to the grave! "
is not in the original. It is the sigh of indignation over the unworthy
fate of the unhappy Camoens.
[535] _The ghost-like aspect and the threat'ning look. _--Mohammed, by
some historians described as of a pale livid complexion, and _trux
aspectus et vox terribilis_, of a fierce threatening aspect, voice, and
demeanour.
[536]
_When, softly usher'd by the milky dawn,
The sun first rises. --_
"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. sc. 1:--
"_Como mirar puede ser
El sol al amanecer,
I quando se enciende, no. _"
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 soutenir la clarte du soleil naissant, mais lorsqu'il
s'est avance dans sa carriere lumineuse, et que ses rayons repandent les
ardeurs du midi, on tacherait en vain de l'envisager; un prompt
aveuglement serait le prix de cette audace. _
Thus elegantly in the original:--
"Em quanto he fraca a forca desta gente,
Ordena como em tudo se resista,
Porque quando o Sol sahe, facilmente
Se pode nelle por a aguda vista:
Porem despois que sobe claro, & ardente,
Se a agudeza dos olhos o conquista
Tao cega fica, quando ficareis,
Se raizes criar lhe nao tolheis. "
And thus humbled by Fanshaw:--
"_Now_ whilst this people's strength is not yet knit,
Think how ye may resist them by all ways.
For when the _Sun_ is in his _nonage_ yit,
Upon his _morning beauty_ men may gaze;
But let him once up to his _zenith_ git,
He strikes them _blind_ with his _meridian rays_;
So _blind_ will ye be, if ye look not too't,
If ye permit these _cedars_ to take root. "
[537]
_Around him stand,
With haggard looks, the hoary Magi band. --_
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, expressly gives the Brahmins the name of
Magi. The Magi of India, says he, told Alexander, on his pretensions to
divinity, that in everything he was like other men, except that he took
less rest, and did more mischief. The Brahmins are never among modern
writers called Magi.
[538] _The hov'ring demon gives the dreadful sign. _--This has an
allusion to the truth of history. Barros relates, that an anger 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 destruicam dos Mouros de aquellas partes. _--In a vessel of water
he showed 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 demon in the dream of the Moorish priest.
[539] _Th'eternal yoke. _--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 demon and the enemies of the Portuguese who procure this
divination; everything in it is dreadful, on 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:--
"Beneath their sway majestic, wise, and mild,
Proud of her victors' laws, thrice happier India smil'd. "
[540] _So let the tyrant plead. _--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--
_Lur'd was the regent with the Moorish gold,_
is happily introduced by the declamatory reflections which immediately
precede it.
[541]
_The Moors----their ancient deeds relate,
Their ever-faithful service of the state. --_
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. 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 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.
[542] Troy.
[543] _No sumptuous gift thou bring'st. _--"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 this: Four mantles of scarlet, six
hats adorned with feathers, four chaplets of coral beads, twelve Turkey
carpets, seven drinking cups of brass, a chest of sugar, two barrels of
oil, and two of honey. "--CASTERA.
[544] _Fair Acidalia, Love's celestial queen. _--Castera derives Acidalia
from ? ? ? ? ? ? , 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 Boeotia.
[545] _Sprung from the prince. _--John I.
[546] _And from her raging tempests, nam'd the Cape. _--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.
[547]
_The pillar thus of deathless fame, begun
By other chiefs_, etc. --
"Till I now ending what those did begin,
The furthest pillar in thy realm advance;
Breaking the element of molten tin,
Through horrid storms I lead to thee the dance. "
FANSHAW.
[548]
_The regent's palace high o'erlook'd the bay,
Where Gama's black-ribb'd fleet at anchor lay. _--
The resemblance of this couplet to many passages in Homer, must be
obvious to the intelligent critic.
[549] _As in the sun's bright beam. _--Imitated from Virgil, who, by the
same simile, describes the fluctuation of the thoughts of AEneas, on the
eve of the Latian war:--
"Laomedontius heros
Cuncta videns, magno curarum fluctuat aestu,
Atque animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit illuc,
In partesque rapit varias, perque omnia versat.
Sicut aquae tremulum labris ubi lumen ahenis
Sole repercussum, aut radiantis imagine Lunae,
Omnia pervolitat late loca: jamque sub auras
Erigitur, summique ferit laquearia tecti. "
"This way and that he turns his anxious mind,
Thinks, and rejects the counsels he design'd;
Explores himself in vain, in ev'ry part,
And gives no rest to his distracted heart:
So when the sun by day or moon by night
Strike on the polish'd brass their trembling light,
The glitt'ring species here and there divide,
And cast their dubious beams from side to side;
Now on the walls, now on the pavement play,
And to the ceiling flash the glaring day. "
Ariosto has also adopted this simile in the eighth book of his Orlando
Furioso:--
"Qual d'acqua chiara il tremolante lume
Dal Sol per percossa, o da' notturni rai,
Per gli ampli tetti va con lungo salto
A destra, ed a sinistra, e basso, ed alto. "
"So from a water clear, the trembling light
Of Phoebus, or the silver ray of night,
Along the spacious rooms with splendour plays,
Now high, now low, and shifts a thousand ways. "
HOOLE.
But the happiest circumstance belongs to Camoens. The velocity and
various shiftings of the sun-beam, reflected from a piece of crystal 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.
We have already seen the warm encomium paid by Tasso to his
contemporary, 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 demon, in the dream of the
Moorish priest. The enchanter Ismeno thus appears to the sleeping
Solyman:--
"Soliman' Solimano, i tuoi silenti
Riposi a miglior tempo homai riserva:
Che sotto il giogo de straniere genti
La patria, ove regnasti, ancor' e serva.
In questa terra dormi, e non rammenti,
Ch'insepolte de' tuoi l'ossa conserva?
Ove si gran' vestigio e del tuo scorno,
Tu neghittoso aspetti il nuovo giorno? "
Thus elegantly translated by Mr. Hoole:--
"Oh! Solyman, regardless chief, awake!
In happier hours thy grateful slumber take:
Beneath a foreign yoke thy subjects bend,
And strangers o'er thy land their rule extend:
Here dost thou sleep? here close thy careless eyes,
While uninterr'd each lov'd associate lies?
Here where thy fame has felt the hostile scorn,
Canst thou, unthinking, wait the rising morn? "
The conclusion of this canto has been slightly altered by the
translator. Camoens, adhering to history, makes GAMA (when his factors
are detained on shore) seize upon some of the native merchants as
hostages. At the intreaty of their wives and children the zamorim
liberates his captives; while GAMA, having recovered his men and the
merchandise, sailed away, carrying with him the unfortunate natives,
whom he had seized as hostages.
As there is nothing heroic in this dishonourable action of GAMA'S,
Mickle has omitted it, and has altered the conclusion of the
canto. --_Ed. _
[550] Mickle, in place of the first seventeen stanzas of this canto, has
inserted about three hundred lines of his own composition; in this
respect availing himself of the licence he had claimed in his
preface. --_Ed. _
[551] _Thy sails, and rudders too, my will demands. _--According to
history.
[552] _My sov'reign's fleet I yield not to your sway. _--The circumstance
of GAMA'S refusing to put his fleet into the power of the zamorim, is
thus rendered by Fanshaw:--
"The Malabar protests that he shall rot
In prison, if he send not for the _ships_.
_He_ (_constant_, and with noble _anger_ hot)
His haughty _menace_ weighs not at _two chips_. "
[553] _Through Gata's hills. _--The hills of Gata or Gate, mountains
which form a natural barrier on the eastern side of the kingdom of
Malabar.
"Nature's rude wall, against the fierce Canar
They guard the fertile walls of Malabar. "
LUSIAD, vii.
[554] _Then, furious, rushing to the darken'd bay. _--For the
circumstances of the battle, and the tempest which then happened, see
the Life of GAMA.
[555] _I left my fix'd command my navy's guard. _--See the Life of GAMA.
[556] _Unmindful of my fate on India's shore. _--This most magnanimous
resolution, to sacrifice his own safety or his life for the safe return
of the fleet, is strictly true. --See the Life of GAMA.
[557] _Abrupt--the monarch cries_--"_What yet may save! _"--GAMA'S
declaration, that no message from him to the fleet could alter the
orders he had already left, and his rejection of any further treaty,
have a necessary effect in the conduct of the poem. They hasten the
catastrophe, and give a verisimilitude to the abrupt and full submission
of the zamorim.
[558] _The rollers_--_i. e. _ the capstans. --The capstan is a cylindrical
windlass, worked with bars, which are moved from hole to hole as it
turns round. It is used on board ship to weigh the anchors, raise the
masts, etc. The versification of this passage in the original affords a
most noble example of imitative harmony:--
"Mas ja nas naos os bons trabalhadores
Volvem o cabrestante, & repartidos
Pello trabalho, huns puxao pella amarra,
Outros quebrao co peito duro a barra. "
STANZA X.
[559]
_Mozaide, whose zealous care
To Gama's eyes reveal'd each treach'rous snare. --_
Had this been mentioned sooner, the interest of the catastrophe of the
poem must have languished. Though he is not a warrior, the unexpected
friend of GAMA bears a much more considerable part in the action of the
Lusiad than the faithful Achates, the friend of the hero, bears in the
business of the AEneid.
[560] _There wast thou call'd to thy celestial home. _--This exclamatory
address to the Moor Monzaida, however it may appear digressive, has a
double propriety. The conversion of the Eastern world is the great
purpose of the expedition of GAMA, and Monzaida is the first fruits of
that conversion. The good characters of the victorious heroes, however
neglected by the great genius of Homer, have a fine effect in making an
epic poem interest us and please. It might have been said, that Monzaida
was a traitor to his friends, who crowned his villainy with apostacy.
Camoens has, therefore, wisely drawn him with other features, worthy of
the friendship of GAMA. Had this been neglected, the hero of the Lusiad
might have shared the fate of the wise Ulysses of the Iliad, against
whom, as Voltaire justly observes, every reader bears a secret ill will.
Nor is the poetical character of Monzaida unsupported by history. He was
not an Arab Moor, so he did not desert his countrymen. These Moors had
determined on the destruction of GAMA; Monzaida admired and esteemed
him, and therefore generously revealed to him his danger. By his
attachment to GAMA he lost all his effects in India, a circumstance
which his prudence and knowledge of affairs must have certainly
foreseen. By the known dangers he encountered, by the loss he thus
voluntarily sustained, and by his after constancy, his sincerity is
undoubtedly proved.
[561] _The joy of the fleet on the homeward departure from India. _--We
are now come to that part of the Lusiad, which, in the conduct of the
poem, is parallel to the great catastrophe of the Iliad, when, on the
death of Hector, Achilles thus addresses the Grecian army--
"Ye sons of Greece, in triumph bring
The corpse of Hector, and your paeons sing:
Be this the song, slow moving toward the shore,
'Hector is dead, and Ilion is no more. '"
Our Portuguese poet, who in his machinery, and many other instances, has
followed the manner of Virgil, now forsakes him. In a very bold and
masterly spirit he now models his poem by the steps of Homer. What of
the Lusiad yet remains, in poetical conduct (though not in an imitation
of circumstances), exactly resembles the latter part of the Iliad. The
games at the funeral of Patroclus, and the redemption of the body of
Hector, are the completion of the rage of Achilles. In the same manner,
the reward of the heroes, and the consequences of their expedition
complete the unity of the Lusiad. I cannot say it appears that Milton
ever read our poet (though Fanshaw's translation was published in his
time); yet no instance can be given of a more striking resemblance of
plan and conduct, than may be produced in two principal parts of the
poem of Camoens, and of the Paradise Lost. --See the Dissertation which
follows this book.
[562] _Near where the bowers of Paradise were plac'd. _--Between the
mouth of the Ganges and Euphrates.
[563] Swans.
[564] _His falling kingdom claim'd his earnest care. _--This fiction, in
poetical conduct, bears a striking resemblance to the digressive
histories with which Homer enriches and adorns his poems, particularly
to the beautiful description of the feast of the gods with "the
blameless Ethiopians. " It also contains a masterly commentary on the
machinery of the Lusiad. The Divine Love conducts GAMA to India. The
same Divine Love is represented as preparing to reform the corrupted
world, when its attention is particularly called to bestow a foretaste
of immortality on the heroes of the expedition which discovered the
eastern world. Nor do the wild fantastic loves, mentioned in this little
episode, afford any objection against this explanation, an explanation
which is expressly given in the episode itself. These wild fantastic
amours signify, in the allegory, the wild sects of different
enthusiasts, which spring up under the wings of the best and most
rational institutions; and which, however contrary to each other, all
agree in deriving their authority from the same source.
[565] _A young Actaeon. _--The French translator has the following
characteristic note: "This passage is an eternal monument of the
freedoms taken by Camoens, and at the same time a proof of the
imprudence of poets; an authentic proof of that prejudice which
sometimes blinds them, notwithstanding all the light of their genius.
The modern Actaeon of whom he speaks, was King Sebastian. He loved the
chase; but, that pleasure, which is one of the most innocent and one of
the most noble we can possibly taste, did not at all interrupt his
attention to the affairs of state, and did not render him savage, as our
author pretends. On this point the historians are rather to be believed.
And what would the lot of princes be, were they allowed no relaxation
from their toils, while they allow that privilege to their people?
Subjects as we are, let us venerate the amusements of our sovereigns;
let us believe that the august cares for our good, which employ them,
follow them often even to the very bosom of their pleasures. "
Many are the strokes in the Lusiad which must endear the character of
Camoens to every reader of sensibility. The noble freedom and manly
indignation with which he mentions the foible of his prince, and the
flatterers of his court, would do honour to the greatest names of Greece
or Rome. While the shadow of freedom remained in Portugal, the greatest
men of that nation, in the days of Lusian heroism, thought and conducted
themselves in the spirit of Camoens. A noble anecdote of this brave
spirit offers itself. Alonzo IV.
, surnamed the Brave, ascended the
throne of Portugal in the vigour of his age. The pleasures of the chase
engrossed all his attention. His confidants and favourites encouraged,
and allured him to it. His time was spent in the forests of Cintra,
while the affairs of government were neglected or executed by those
whose interest it was to keep their sovereign in ignorance. His
presence, at last, being necessary at Lisbon, he entered the council
with all the brisk impetuosity of a young sportsman, and with great
familiarity and gaiety entertained his nobles with the history of a
whole month spent in hunting, in fishing, and shooting. When he had
finished his narrative, a nobleman of the first rank rose up: "Courts
and camps," said he, "were allotted for kings, not woods and deserts.
Even the affairs of private men suffer when recreation is preferred to
business. But when the whims of pleasure engross the thoughts of a king,
a whole nation is consigned to ruin. We came here for other purposes
than to hear the exploits of the chase, exploits which are only
intelligible to grooms and falconers. If your majesty will attend to the
wants, and remove the grievances of your people, you will find them
obedient subjects; if not----" The king, starting with rage, interrupted
him, "If not, what? " "If not," resumed the nobleman, in a firm tone,
"they will look for another and a better king. " Alonzo, in the highest
transport of passion, expressed his resentment, and hasted out of the
room. In a little while, however, he returned, calm and reconciled: "I
perceive," said he, "the truth of what you say. He who will not execute
the duties of a king, cannot long have good subjects. Remember, from
this day, you have nothing more to do with Alonzo the sportsman, but
with Alonzo the king of Portugal. " His majesty was as good as his
promise, and became, as a warrior and politician, one of the greatest of
the Portuguese monarchs.
[566] _With love's fierce flames his frozen heart shall burn. _--"It is
said, that upon the faith of a portrait Don Sebastian fell in love with
Margaret of France, daughter of Henry II. , and demanded her in marriage,
but was refused. The Spaniards treated him no less unfavourably, for
they also rejected his proposals for one of the daughters of Philip II.
Our author considers these refusals as the punishment of Don Sebastian's
excessive attachment to the chase; but this is only a consequence of the
prejudice with which he viewed the amusements of his prince. The truth
is, these princesses were refused for political reasons, and not with
any regard to the manner in which he filled up his moments of leisure. "
Thus Castera, who, with the same spirit of sagacity, starts and answers
the following objections: "But here is a difficulty: Camoens wrote
during the life of Don Sebastian, but the circumstance he relates (the
return of GAMA) happened several years before, under the reign of
Emmanuel. How, therefore, could he say that Cupid then saw Don Sebastian
at the chase, when that prince was not then born? The answer is easy:
Cupid, in the allegory of this work, represents the love of God, the
Holy Spirit, who is God himself. Now the Divinity admits of no
distinction of time; one glance of his eye beholds the past, the
present, and the future; everything is present before him. "
This defence of the fiction of Actaeon is not more absurd than useless.
The free and bold spirit of poetry, and in particular the nature of
allegory, defend it. The poet might easily have said, that Cupid
_foresaw_; but had he said so his satire had been much less genteel. As
the sentiments of Castera on this passage are extremely characteristic
of French ideas, another note from him will perhaps be agreeable.
"Several Portuguese writers have remarked," says he, "that the wish--
'Of these lov'd dogs that now his passions sway,
Ah! may he never fall the hapless prey! '
Had in it an air of prophecy; and fate, in effect, seemed careful to
accomplish it, in making the presaged woes to fall upon Don Sebastian.
If he did not fall a prey to his pack of hounds, we may, however, say
that he was devoured by his favourites, who misled his youth and his
great soul. But at any rate our poet has carried the similitude too far.
It was certainly injurious to Don Sebastian, who nevertheless had the
bounty not only not to punish this audacity, but to reward the just
eulogies which the author had bestowed on him in other places. As much
as the indiscretion of Camoens ought to surprise us, as much ought we to
admire the generosity of his master. "
This foppery, this slavery in thinking, cannot fail to rouse the
indignation of every manly breast, when the facts are fairly stated. Don
Sebastian, who ascended the throne when a child, was a prince of great
abilities and great spirit, but his youth was poisoned with the most
romantic ideas of military glory. The affairs of state were left to his
ministers (for whose character see the next note), his other studies
were neglected, and military exercises, of which he not unjustly
esteemed the chase a principal, were almost his sole employ. Camoens
beheld this romantic turn, and in a genteel allegorical satire foreboded
its consequences. The wish, that his prince might not fall the prey of
his favourite passion, was in vain. In a rash, ill-concerted expedition
into Africa, Don Sebastian lost his crown in his twenty-fifth year, an
event which soon after produced the fall of the Portuguese empire. Had
the nobility possessed the spirit of Camoens, had they, like him,
endeavoured to check the quixotism of a young generous prince, that
prince might have reigned long and happy, and Portugal might have
escaped the Spanish yoke, which soon followed his defeat at Alcazar; a
yoke which sunk Portugal into an abyss of misery, from which, in all
probability, she will never emerge into her former splendour.
[567]
_Enraged, he sees a venal herd, the shame
Of human race, assume the titled name. --_
"After having ridiculed all the pleasures of Don Sebastian, the author
now proceeds to his courtiers, to whom he has done no injustice. Those
who are acquainted with the Portuguese history, will readily acknowledge
this. "--CASTERA.
[568] _On the hard bosoms of the stubborn crowd. _--There in an elegance
in the original of this line, which the English language will not
admit:--
"Nos duros coracoens de plebe dura,"--
_i. e. _, In the hard hearts of the hard vulgar.
[569] Cupid.
[570]
_Thus from my native waves a hero line
Shall rise, and o'er the East illustrious shine. _--
"By the line of heroes to be produced by the union of the Portuguese
with the Nereids, is to be understood the other Portuguese, who,
following the steps of GAMA, established illustrious colonies in
India. "--CASTERA.
[571] _And Fame--a giant goddess. _--This passage affords a striking
instance of the judgment of Camoens. Virgil's celebrated description of
Fame is in his eye, but he copies it, as Virgil, in his best imitations,
copies after Homer. He adopts some circumstances, but, by adding others,
he makes a new picture, which justly may be called his own.
[572] _The wat'ry gods. _--To mention the gods in the masculine gender,
and immediately to apply to them--
"O peito feminil, que levemente
Muda quaysquer propositos tomados. "--
The ease with which the female breast changes its resolutions, may to
the hypercritical appear reprehensible. The expression, however, is
classical, and therefore retained. Virgil uses it, where AEneas is
conducted by Venus through the flames of Troy:--
"Descendo, ac ducente _Deo_, flammam inter et hostes
Expedior. "
This is in the manner of the Greek poets, who use the word ? ? ? ? for god
or goddess.
[573] _White as her swans. _--A distant fleet compared to swans on a lake
is certainly a happy thought. The allusion to the pomp of Venus, whose
agency is immediately concerned, gives it besides a peculiar propriety.
This simile, however, is not in the original. It is adopted from an
uncommon liberty taken by Fanshaw:--
"The pregnant _sails_ on Neptune's surface creep,
Like her own _swans_, in _gate_, _out-chest_, and _fether_. "
[574] _Soon as the floating verdure caught their sight. _--As the
departure of GAMA from India was abrupt, he put into one of the
beautiful islands of Anchediva for fresh water. "While he was here
careening his ships," says Faria, "a pirate named Timoja, attacked him
with eight small vessels, so linked together and covered with boughs,
that they formed the appearance of a floating island. " This, says
Castera, afforded the fiction of the floating island of Venus. "The
fictions of Camoens," says he, "are the more marvellous, because they
are all founded in history. It is not difficult to find why he makes his
island of Anchediva to wander on the waves; it is an allusion to a
singular event related by Barros. " He then proceeds to the story of
Timoja, as if the genius of Camoens stood in need of so weak an
assistance.
[575] _In friendly pity of Latona's woes. _--Latona, pregnant by Jupiter,
was persecuted by Juno, who sent the serpent Python in pursuit of her.
Neptune, in pity of her distress, raised the island of Delos for her
refuge, where she was delivered of Apollo and Diana. --OVID, Met.
[576] _Form'd in a crystal lake the waters blend. _--Castera also
attributes this to history. "The Portuguese actually found in this
island," says he, "a fine piece of water ornamented with hewn stones and
magnificent aqueducts; an ancient and superb work, of which nobody knew
the author. "
In 1505 Don Francisco Almeyda built a fort in this island. In digging
among some ancient ruins he found many crucifixes of black and red
colour, from whence the Portuguese conjectured, says Osorius, that the
Anchedivian islands had in former ages been inhabited by
Christians. --Vid. Osor. 1. iv.
[577]
_The orange here perfumes the buxom air.
And boasts the golden hue of Daphne's hair. --_
Frequent allusions to the fables of the ancients form a characteristic
feature of the poetry of the 16th and 17th centuries. A profusion of it
is pedantry; a moderate use of it, however, in a poem of those times
pleases, because it discovers the stages of composition, and has in
itself a fine effect, as it illustrates its subject by presenting the
classical reader with some little landscapes of that country through
which he has travelled. The description of forests is a favourite topic
in poetry. Chaucer, Tasso, and Spenser, have been happy in it, but both
have copied an admired passage in Statius:--
"Cadit ardua fagus,
Chaoniumque nemus, brumaeque illaesa cupressus;
Procumbunt piceae, flammis alimenta supremis,
Ornique, iliceaeque trabes, metuandaque sulco
Taxus, et infandos belli potura cruores
Fraxinus, atque situ non expugnabile robur:
Hinc audax abies, et odoro vulnere pinus
Scinditur, acclinant intonsa cacumina terrae
Alnus amica fretis, nec inhospita vitibus ulmus. "
In rural descriptions three things are necessary to render them
poetical: the happiness of epithet, of picturesque arrangement, and of
little landscape views. Without these, all the names of trees and
flowers, though strung together in tolerable numbers, contain no more
poetry than a nurseryman or a florist's catalogue. In Statius, in Tasso
and Spenser's admired forests (Ger. Liber. c. 3. st. 75, 76, and F.
Queen, b. 1 c. 1. st. 8, 9), the poetry consists entirely in the
happiness of the epithets. In Camoens, all the three requisites are
admirably attained and blended together.
[578] _And stain'd with lover's blood. _--Pyramus and Thisbe:--
"Arborei foetus aspergine caedis in atram
Vertuntur faciem: madefactaque sanguine radix
Puniceo tingit pendentia mora colore. . . . .
At tu quo ramis arbor miserabile corpus
Nunc tegis unius, mox es tectura duorum;
Signa tene caedis: pullosque et lectibus aptos
Semper habe foetus gemini monumenta cruoris. "
OVID, Met.
[579] _The shadowy vale. _--Literal from the original,--_O sombrio
valle_--which Fanshaw, however, has translated, "the gloomy valley," and
thus has given us a funereal, where the author intended a festive,
landscape. It must be confessed, however, that the description of the
island of Venus, is infinitely the best part of all of Fanshaw's
translation. And indeed the dullest prose translation might obscure, but
could not possibly throw a total eclipse over, so admirable an original.
[580] _The woe-mark'd flower of slain Adonis--water'd by the tears of
love. _--The Anemone. "This," says Castera, "is applicable to the
celestial Venus, for, according to my theology, her amour with Adonis
had nothing in it impure, but was only the love which nature bears to
the sun. " The fables of antiquity have generally a threefold
interpretation, an historical allusion, a physical and a metaphysical
allegory. In the latter view, the fable of Adonis is only applicable to
the celestial Venus. A divine youth is outrageously slain, but shall
revive again at the restoration of the golden age. Several nations, it
is well known, under different names, celebrated the Mysteries, or the
death and resurrection of Adonis; among whom were the British Druids, as
we are told by Dr. Stukely. In the same manner Cupid, in the fable of
Psyche, is interpreted by mythologists, to signify the Divine Love
weeping over the degeneracy of human nature.
[581]
_At strife appear the lawns and purpled skies,
Who from each other stole the beauteous dyes. --_
On this passage Castera has the following sensible, though turgid, note:
"This thought," says he, "is taken from the idyllium of Ausonius on the
rose:--
'Ambigeres raperetne rosis Aurora ruborem,
An daret, et flores tingere torta dies. '
Camoens who had a genius rich of itself, still further enriched it at
the expense of the ancients. Behold what makes great authors! Those who
pretend to give us nothing but the fruits of their own growth, soon
fail, like the little rivulets which dry up in the summer, very
different from the floods, who receive in their course the tribute of a
hundred and a hundred rivers, and which even in the dog-days carry their
waves triumphant to the ocean. "
[582] _The hyacinth bewrays the doleful_ Ai. --Hyacinthus, a youth
beloved of Apollo, by whom he was accidentally slain, and afterwards
turned into a flower:--
"Tyrioque nitentior ostro
Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia: si non,
Purpureus color huic, argenteus esset in illis.
Non satis hoc Phaebo est: is enim fuit auctor honoris.
Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit; et Ai, Ai,
Flos habet inscriptum: funestaque littera ducta est. "
OVID, Met.
[583] _The second Argonauts. _--The expedition of the Golden Fleece was
esteemed, in ancient poetry, one of the most daring adventures, the
success of which was accounted miraculous. The allusions of Camoens to
this voyage, though in the spirit of his age, are by no means improper.
[584] _Wide o'er the beauteous isle the lovely fair. _--We now come to
the passage condemned by Voltaire as so lascivious, that no nation in
Europe, except the Portuguese and Italians, could bear it. The fate of
Camoens has hitherto been very peculiar. The mixture of Pagan and
Christian mythology in his machinery has been anathematized, and his
island of love represented as a brothel. Yet both accusations are the
arrogant assertions of the most superficial acquaintance with his works.
His poem itself, and a comparison of its parts with the similar conduct
of the greatest modern poets, will clearly evince, that in both
instances no modern epic writer of note has given less offence to true
criticism.
Not to mention Ariosto, whose descriptions will often admit of no
palliation, Tasso, Spenser, and Milton, have always been esteemed among
the chastest of poets, yet in that delicacy of warm description, which
Milton has so finely exemplified in the nuptials of our first parents,
none of them can boast the continued uniformity of the Portuguese poet.
Though there is a warmth in the colouring of Camoens which even the
genius of Tasso has not reached: and though the island of Armida is
evidently copied from the Lusiad, yet those who are possessed of the
finer feelings, will easily discover an essential difference between the
love-scenes of the two poets, a difference greatly in favour of the
delicacy of the former. Though the nymphs in Camoens are detected naked
in the woods, and in the stream, and though desirous to captivate, still
their behaviour is that of the virgin who hopes to be the spouse. They
act the part of offended modesty; even when they yield they are silent,
and behave in every respect like Milton's Eve in the state of innocence,
who--
"What was honour knew,"
And who displayed--
"Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,
That would be wooed, and not unsought be won. "
To sum up all, the nuptial sanctity draws its hallowed curtains, and a
masterly allegory shuts up the love-scenes of Camoens.
How different from all this is the island of Armida in Tasso, and its
translation, the bower of Acrasia in Spenser! In these virtue is
seduced; the scene therefore is less delicate. The nymphs, while they
are bathing, in place of the modesty of the bride as in Camoens, employ
all the arts of the lascivious wanton. They stay not to be wooed; but,
as Spenser gives it--
_The amorous sweet spoils to greedy eyes reveal. _
One stanza from our English poet, which, however, is rather fuller than
the original, shall here suffice:--
"Withal she laughed and she blush'd withal,
That blushing to her laughter gave more grace,
And laughter to her blushing, as did fall.
Now when they spy'd the knight to slack his pace,
Them to behold, and _in his sparkling face
The secret signs of kindled lust appear_,
Their wanton merriments they did increase,
And to him beckon'd to approach more near,
_And show'd him many sights, that courage cold could rear_.
This and other descriptions--
"Upon a bed of roses she was laid
As faint through heat, or dight to pleasant sin"--
present every idea of lascivious voluptuousness. The allurements of
speech are also added. Songs, which breathe every persuasive, are heard;
and the nymphs boldly call to the beholder:--
_E' dolce campo di battaglia il letto
Fiavi, e l'herbetta morbida de' prati. _--TASSO.
"Our field of battle is the downy bed,
Or flow'ry turf amid the smiling mead. "--HOOLE.
These, and the whole scenes in the domains of Armida and Acrasia, are in
a turn of manner the reverse of the island of Venus. In these the
expression and idea are meretricious. In Camoens, though the colouring
is even warmer, yet the modesty of the Venus de Medicis is still
preserved. In everything he describes there is still something strongly
similar to the modest attitude of the arms of that celebrated statue.
Though prudery, that usual mask of the impurest minds, may condemn him,
yet those of the most chaste, though less gloomy turn, will allow, that
in comparison with others, he might say,--_Virginibus puerisque canto_.
Spenser also, where he does not follow Tasso, is often gross; and even
in some instances, where the expression is most delicate, the picture is
nevertheless indecently lascivious.
[585] _The hunter. _--Acteon.
[586] _Madd'ning as he said. _--At the end of his Homer Mr. Pope has
given an index of the instances of imitative and sentimental harmony
contained in his translations. He has also often even in his notes
pointed out the adaptation of sound to sense. The translator of the
Lusiad hopes he may for once say, that he has not been inattentive to
this great essential of good versification: how he has succeeded the
judicious only must determine. The speech of Leonard to the cursory
reader may perhaps sometimes appear careless, and sometimes turgid and
stiff. That speech, however, is an attempt at the imitative and
sentimental harmony, and with the judicious he rests its fate. As the
translation in this instance exceeds the original in length, the
objection of a foreign critic requires attention. An old pursy Abbe,
(and critics are apt to judge by themselves) may indeed be surprised
that a man out of breath with running should be able to talk so long.
But, had he consulted the experiences of others, he would have found it
was no wonderful matter for a stout and young cavalier to talk twice as
much, though fatigued with the chase of a couple of miles, provided the
supposition be allowed, that he treads on the last steps of his flying
mistress.
[587] _Hence, ye profane. _--We have already observed, that in every
other poet the love scenes are generally described as those of guilt and
remorse. The contrary character of those of Camoens not only gives them
a delicacy unknown to other moderns, but, by the fiction of the spousal
rites, the allegory and machinery of the poem are most happily
conducted.
[588] _Spread o'er the eastern world the dread alarms. _--This admonition
places the whole design of the poem before us. To extirpate
Mohammedanism, and propagate Christianity, were professed as the
principal purpose of the discoveries of Prince Henry and King Emmanuel.
In the beginning of the seventh Lusiad, the nations of Europe are
upbraided for permitting the Saracens to erect and possess an empire,
which alike threatened Europe and Christianity. The Portuguese, however,
the patriot poet concludes, will themselves overthrow their enormous
power: an event which is the proposed subject of the Lusiad, and which
is represented as, in effect, completed in the last book. On this
system, adopted by the poet, and which on every occasion was avowed by
their kings, the Portuguese made immense conquests in the East. Yet, let
it be remembered, to the honour of GAMA, and the first commanders who
followed his route, that the plots of the Moors, and their various
breaches of treaty, gave rise to the first wars which the Portuguese
waged in Asia. On finding that all the colonies of the Moors were
combined for their destruction, the Portuguese declared war against the
eastern Moors, and their allies, wherever they found them.
