Book VII

William Julius Mickle's notes to his translation of The Lusiad (1776; Project Gutenberg #32528).

1. Stanza 1, line 1 Vasco de Gama.
2. Stanza 2, line 4 This refers to the Catholic persecutions of Protestants whom they had previously condemned at the Diet of Spires. War was declared against the Protestants in 1546. It lasted for six years, when a treaty of peace was signed at Passau on the Danube, in 1552.--Ed.
3. Stanza 2, line 5 Some blindly wand'ring, holy faith disclaim.--At the time when Camoëns wrote, the German empire was plunged into all the miseries of a religious war, the Catholics using every endeavour to rivet the chains of Popery, the adherents of Luther as strenuously endeavouring to shake them off.
4. Stanza 2, line 8 High sound the titles of the English crown, King of Jerusalem.-- The title of "King of Jerusalem" was never assumed by the kings of England. Robert, duke of Normandy, son of William the Conqueror, was elected King of Jerusalem by the army in Syria, but declined it in hope of ascending the throne of England. Henry VIII. filled the throne of England when our author wrote: his luxury and conjugal brutality amply deserved the censure of the honest poet.
5. Stanza 2, line 18 France.
6. Stanza 2, line 20 What impious lust of empire steels thy breast.--The French translator very cordially agrees with the Portuguese poet in the strictures upon Germany, England, and Italy.
7. Stanza 2, line 22 The Mohammedans.
8. Stanza 2, line 23 Where Cynifio flows.--A river in Africa, near Tripoli.--VIRGIL, Georg. iii. 311.--Ed.
9. Stanza 2, line 31 O Italy! how fall'n, how low, how lost!--However these severe reflections on modern Italy may displease the admirers of Italian manners, the picture on the whole is too just to admit of confutation. Never did the history of any court afford such instances of villainy and all the baseness of intrigue as that of the pope's. That this view of the lower ranks in the pope's dominions is just, we have the indubitable testimony of Addison. Our poet is justifiable in his censures, for he only follows the severe reflections of the greatest of the Italian poets. It were easy to give fifty instances; two or three, however, shall suffice. Dante, in his sixth canto, del Purg.-- Ahi, serva Italia, di dolore ostello, Nave senza nocchiero in gran tempesta, Non donna di provincie, bordello. "Ah, slavish Italy, the inn of dolour, a ship without a pilot in a horrid tempest:--not the mistress of provinces, but a brothel!" Ariosto, canto 17:-- O d' ogni vitio fetida sentina Dormi Italia imbríaco. "O inebriated Italy, thou sleepest the sink of every filthy vice!" And Petrarch:-- Del'empia Babilonia, ond'è fuggita Ogni vergogna, ond'ogni bene è fuori, Albergo di dolor, madre d'errori Son fuggit'io per allungar la vita. "From the impious Babylon (the Papal Court) from whence all shame and all good are fled, the inn of dolour, the mother of errors, have I hastened away to prolong my life."
10. Stanza 3, line 2 The fables old of Cadmus.--Cadmus having slain the dragon which guarded the fountain of Dirce, in Boeotia, sowed the teeth of the monster. A number of armed men immediately sprang up, and surrounded Cadmus, in order to kill him. By the counsel of Minerva he threw a precious stone among them, in striving for which they slew one another. Only five survived, who afterwards assisted him to build the city of Thebes.--Vid. Ovid. Met. iv. Terrigenæ pereunt per mutua vulnera fratres.
11. Stanza 3, line 5 So fall the bravest of the Christian name, While dogs unclean.-- Imitated from a fine passage in Lucan, beginning-- Quis furor, O Cives! quæ tanta licentia ferri, Gentibus invisis Latium præbere cruorem?
12. Stanza 3, line 6 The Mohammedans.
13. Stanza 3, line 27 Constantinople.
14. Stanza 3, line 31 Beyond the Wolgian Lake.--The Caspian Sea, so called from the large river Volga, or Wolga, which empties itself into it.
15. Stanza 3, line 36 Their fairest offspring from their bosoms torn, (A dreadful tribute !)-- By this barbarous policy the tyranny of the Ottomans was long sustained. The troops of the Turkish infantry and cavalry, known by the name of Janissaries and Spahis, were thus supported. "The sons of Christians--and those the most completely furnished by nature--were taken in their childhood from their parents by a levy made every five years, or oftener, as occasion required."--SANDYS.
16. Stanza 3, line 38 Mohammedans.
17. Stanza 4, line 10 O'er Afric's shores The sacred shrines the Lusian heroes rear'd.-- See the note on book v. p. 137.
18. Stanza 4, line 14 Of deepest west.--Alludes to the discovery and conquest of the Brazils by the Portuguese.
19. Stanza 4, line 18 The poet, having brought his heroes to the shore of India, indulges himself with a review of the state of the western and eastern worlds; the latter of which is now, by the labour of his heroes, rendered accessible to the former. The purpose of his poem is also strictly kept in view. The west and the east he considers as two great empires; the one of the true religion, the other of a false. The professors of the true, disunited and destroying one another; the professors of the false one, all combined to extirpate the other. He upbraids the professors of the true religion for their vices, particularly for their disunion, and for deserting the interests of holy faith. His countrymen, however, he boasts, have been its defenders and planters, and, without the assistance of their brother powers, will plant it in Asia. "The Crusaders," according to Voltaire, "were a band of vagabond thieves, who had agreed to ramble from the heart of Europe in order to desolate a country they had no right to, and massacre, in cold blood, a venerable prince, more than fourscore years old, and his whole people, against whom they had no pretence of complaint." To prove that the Crusades were neither so unjustifiable, so impolitic, nor so unhappy in their consequences as superficial readers of history are accustomed to regard them, would not be difficult. Upon the whole, it will be found that the Portuguese poet talks of the political reasons of a Crusade with an accuracy in the philosophy of history as superior to that of Voltaire, as the poetical merit of the Lusiad surpasses that of the Henriade. And the critic in poetry must allow, that, to suppose the discovery of GAMA the completion of all the endeavours to overthrow the great enemies of the true religion, gives a dignity to the poem, and an importance to the hero, similar to that which Voltaire, on the same supposition, allows to the subject of the Jerusalem of Tasso.
20. Stanza 5, line 5 Calicut is the name of a famous sea-port town in the province of Malabar.
21. Stanza 5, line 24 The herald hears Castilia's manly tongue salute his ears.-- This in according to the truth of history. While the messenger sent ashore by GAMA was borne here and there, and carried off his feet by the throng, who understood not a word of his language, he was accosted in Spanish by a Moorish merchant, a native of Tunis, who, according to Osorius, had been the chief person with whom King Ferdinand had formerly contracted for military stores. He proved himself an honest agent, and of infinite service to GAMA; he returned to Portugal, where, according to Faria, he died in the Christian communion. He was named Monzaida.
22. Stanza 5, line 47 The sacred pledge of eastern faith.--To eat together was, and still is, in the east looked upon as the inviolable pledge of protection. As a Persian nobleman was one day walking in his garden, a wretch in the utmost terror prostrated himself before him, and implored to be protected from the rage of a multitude who were in pursuit of him, to take his life. The nobleman took a peach, eat part of it, and gave the rest to the fugitive, assuring him of safety. As they approached the house, they met a crowd who carried the murdered corpse of the nobleman's beloved son. The incensed populace demanded the murderer, who stood beside him, to be delivered to their fury. The father, though overwhelmed with grief and anger, replied, "We have eaten together, and I will not betray him." He protected the murderer of his son from the fury of his domestics and neighbours, and in the night facilitated his escape.
23. Stanza 5, line 59 i.e. crescent-shaped.--Ed.
24. Stanza 5, line 75 In Rhodope.--The beautiful fable of the descent of Orpheus to hell, for the recovery of his beloved wife, Eurydice, will be found in Virgil's Georgics, bk. iv., lines 460-80.--Ed.
25. Stanza 6, line 4 Th' enormous mountain.--The Himalaya range, which is a continuation of an immense chain of mountains girdling the northern regions of the earth and known by various names, as Caucasus, Homodus, Paropamissus, Imaus, etc., and from Imaus extended through Tartary to the sea of Kamschatka. Not the range of mountains so called in Asia Minor.--Ed.
26. Stanza 6, line 5 Th' enormous mountain.--The Himalaya range, which is a continuation of an immense chain of mountains girdling the northern regions of the earth and known by various names, as Caucasus, Homodus, Paropamissus, Imaus, etc., and from Imaus extended through Tartary to the sea of Kamschatka. Not the range of mountains so called in Asia Minor.--Ed.
27. Stanza 6, line 19 (For now the banquet on the tented plain, And sylvan chase his careless hours employ).-- The great Mogul, and other eastern sovereigns, attended by their courtiers, spend annually some months of the finest season in encampments in the field, in hunting parties, and military amusements.
28. Stanza 6, line 31 As wild traditions tell.--Pliny, imposed upon by some Greeks, who pretended to have been in India, relates this fable.--Vide Nat. Hist. lib. 12.
29. Stanza 6, line 40 Is fondly plac'd in Ganges' holy wave.--Almost all the Indian nations attribute to the Ganges the virtue of cleansing the soul from the stains of sin. They have such veneration for this river, that if any one in their presence were to throw any filth into the stream, an instant death would punish his audacity.
30. Stanza 6, line 46 Cambaya, the ancient Camanes of Ptolemy, gives name to the gulf of that name at the head of which it is situated. It is the principal seaport of Guzerat.--Ed.
31. Stanza 6, line 48 Porus was king of part of the Punjaub, and was conquered by Alexander the Great.--Ed.
32. Stanza 6, line 49 Narsinga.--The laws of Narsing oblige the women to throw themselves into the funeral pile, to be burnt with their deceased husbands. An infallible secret to prevent the desire of widowhood.--CASTERA from Barros, Dec. 4.
33. Stanza 6, line 57 The Canarese, who inhabit Canara, on the west coast of India.--Ed.
34. Stanza 6, line 77 Medina, a city of Arabia, famous as being the burial-place of Mohammed, and hence esteemed sacred.--Ed.
35. Stanza 6, line 99 According to tradition, Perimal, a sovereign of India, embraced Islamism about 800 years before GAMA'S voyage, divided his dominions into different kingdoms, and ended his days as a hermit at Mecca.--Ed.
36. Stanza 7, line 4 Th' enormous mountain.--The Himalaya range, which is a continuation of an immense chain of mountains girdling the northern regions of the earth and known by various names, as Caucasus, Homodus, Paropamissus, Imaus, etc., and from Imaus extended through Tartary to the sea of Kamschatka. Not the range of mountains so called in Asia Minor.--Ed.
37. Stanza 7, line 5 Th' enormous mountain.--The Himalaya range, which is a continuation of an immense chain of mountains girdling the northern regions of the earth and known by various names, as Caucasus, Homodus, Paropamissus, Imaus, etc., and from Imaus extended through Tartary to the sea of Kamschatka. Not the range of mountains so called in Asia Minor.--Ed.
38. Stanza 7, line 19 i.e. pariahs, outcasts.
39. Stanza 7, line 30 Brahma their founder as a god they boast.--Antiquity has talked much, but knew little with certainty of the Brahmins, and their philosophy. Porphyry and others esteem them the same as the Gymnosophists of the Greeks, and divide them into several sects, the Samanæi, the Germanes, the Pramnæ, the Gymnetæ, etc. Brahma is the head of the Hindu triad which consists of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.--Ed.
40. Stanza 7, line 30 Almost innumerable, and sometimes as whimsically absurd as the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments," are the holy legends of India. The accounts of the god Brahma, or Brimha, are more various than those of any fable in the Grecian mythology. According to Father Bohours, in his life of Xavier, the Brahmins hold, that the Great God having a desire to become visible, became man. In this state he produced three sons, Mayso, Visnu, and Brahma; the first, born of his mouth, the second, of his breast, the third, of his belly. Being about to return to his invisibility, he assigned various departments to his three sons. To Brahma he gave the third heaven, with the superintendence of the rites of religion. Brahma having a desire for children, begat the Brahmins, who are the priests of India, and who are believed by the other tribes to be a race of demi-gods, who have the blood of heaven running in their veins. Other accounts say, that Brahma produced the priests from his head, the more ignoble tribes from his breast, thighs, and feet. According to the learned Kircher's account of the theology of the Brahmins, the sole and supreme god Vishnu, formed the secondary god Brahma, out of a flower that floated on the surface of the great deep before the creation. And afterwards, in reward of the virtue, fidelity, and gratitude of Brahma, gave him power to create the universe. Hesiod's genealogy of the gods, though refined upon by the schools of Plato, is of the same class with the divine genealogies of the Brahmins. The Jewish fables, foolish questions and genealogies, reproved by Saint Paul (epist. Tit.), were probably of this kind, for the Talmudical legends were not then sprung up. Binah, or Understanding, said the cabalists, begat Kochmah, or Wisdom, etc., till at last comes Milcah, the Kingdom, who begat Shekinah, the Divine Presence. In the same manner the Christian Gnostics, of the sect of Valentinus, held their [Greek: Plêrôma], and their thirty Æons. Ampsiu and Auraan, they tell us, i.e. Profundity and Silence, begat Bacua and Tharthuu, Mind and Truth; these begat Ubucua and Thardeadie, Word and Life, and these Merexa and Atarbarba, Man and Church. The other conjunctions of their thirty Æons are of similar ingenuity. The prevalence of the same spirit of mythological allegory in such different nations, affords the philosopher a worthy field for speculation. Almost as innumerable a …
41. Stanza 7, line 31 As wild traditions tell.--Pliny, imposed upon by some Greeks, who pretended to have been in India, relates this fable.--Vide Nat. Hist. lib. 12.
42. Stanza 7, line 40 Is fondly plac'd in Ganges' holy wave.--Almost all the Indian nations attribute to the Ganges the virtue of cleansing the soul from the stains of sin. They have such veneration for this river, that if any one in their presence were to throw any filth into the stream, an instant death would punish his audacity.
43. Stanza 7, line 46 Cambaya, the ancient Camanes of Ptolemy, gives name to the gulf of that name at the head of which it is situated. It is the principal seaport of Guzerat.--Ed.
44. Stanza 7, line 48 Porus was king of part of the Punjaub, and was conquered by Alexander the Great.--Ed.
45. Stanza 7, line 49 Narsinga.--The laws of Narsing oblige the women to throw themselves into the funeral pile, to be burnt with their deceased husbands. An infallible secret to prevent the desire of widowhood.--CASTERA from Barros, Dec. 4.
46. Stanza 7, line 57 The Canarese, who inhabit Canara, on the west coast of India.--Ed.
47. Stanza 7, line 77 Medina, a city of Arabia, famous as being the burial-place of Mohammed, and hence esteemed sacred.--Ed.
48. Stanza 7, line 99 According to tradition, Perimal, a sovereign of India, embraced Islamism about 800 years before GAMA'S voyage, divided his dominions into different kingdoms, and ended his days as a hermit at Mecca.--Ed.
49. Stanza 8, line 19 i.e. pariahs, outcasts.
50. Stanza 8, line 30 Brahma their founder as a god they boast.--Antiquity has talked much, but knew little with certainty of the Brahmins, and their philosophy. Porphyry and others esteem them the same as the Gymnosophists of the Greeks, and divide them into several sects, the Samanæi, the Germanes, the Pramnæ, the Gymnetæ, etc. Brahma is the head of the Hindu triad which consists of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.--Ed.
51. Stanza 8, line 30 Almost innumerable, and sometimes as whimsically absurd as the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments," are the holy legends of India. The accounts of the god Brahma, or Brimha, are more various than those of any fable in the Grecian mythology. According to Father Bohours, in his life of Xavier, the Brahmins hold, that the Great God having a desire to become visible, became man. In this state he produced three sons, Mayso, Visnu, and Brahma; the first, born of his mouth, the second, of his breast, the third, of his belly. Being about to return to his invisibility, he assigned various departments to his three sons. To Brahma he gave the third heaven, with the superintendence of the rites of religion. Brahma having a desire for children, begat the Brahmins, who are the priests of India, and who are believed by the other tribes to be a race of demi-gods, who have the blood of heaven running in their veins. Other accounts say, that Brahma produced the priests from his head, the more ignoble tribes from his breast, thighs, and feet. According to the learned Kircher's account of the theology of the Brahmins, the sole and supreme god Vishnu, formed the secondary god Brahma, out of a flower that floated on the surface of the great deep before the creation. And afterwards, in reward of the virtue, fidelity, and gratitude of Brahma, gave him power to create the universe. Hesiod's genealogy of the gods, though refined upon by the schools of Plato, is of the same class with the divine genealogies of the Brahmins. The Jewish fables, foolish questions and genealogies, reproved by Saint Paul (epist. Tit.), were probably of this kind, for the Talmudical legends were not then sprung up. Binah, or Understanding, said the cabalists, begat Kochmah, or Wisdom, etc., till at last comes Milcah, the Kingdom, who begat Shekinah, the Divine Presence. In the same manner the Christian Gnostics, of the sect of Valentinus, held their [Greek: Plêrôma], and their thirty Æons. Ampsiu and Auraan, they tell us, i.e. Profundity and Silence, begat Bacua and Tharthuu, Mind and Truth; these begat Ubucua and Thardeadie, Word and Life, and these Merexa and Atarbarba, Man and Church. The other conjunctions of their thirty Æons are of similar ingenuity. The prevalence of the same spirit of mythological allegory in such different nations, affords the philosopher a worthy field for speculation. Almost as innumerable a …
52. Stanza 8, line 31 Kotwâl, the chief officer of police in a town.--FORBES' Hindustani Dictionary.
53. Stanza 8, line 60 The monster forms, Chimera-like, and rude.--Chimera, a monster slain by Bellerophon. "First, dire Chimera's conquest was enjoin'd, A mingled monster of no mortal kind; Behind, a dragon's fiery tail was spread, A goat's rough body bore a lion's head; Her pitchy nostrils flaky flames expire, Her gaping throat emits infernal fire." POPE'S II. vi.
54. Stanza 8, line 66 So Titan's son.--Briareus.
55. Stanza 8, line 70 Before these shrines the blinded Indians bow.--In this instance, Camoëns has, with great art, deviated from the truth of history. As it was the great purpose of his hero to propagate the law of heaven in the East, it would have been highly absurd to have represented GAMA and his attendants as on their knees in a pagan temple. This, however, was the case. "GAMA, who had been told," says Osorius, "that there were many Christians in India, conjectured that the temple, to which the catual led him, was a Christian church. At their entrance they were met by four priests, who seemed to make crosses on their foreheads. The walls were painted with many images. In the middle was it little round chapel, in the wall of which, opposite to the entrance, stood an image which could hardly be discovered. The four priests ascending, some entered the chapel by a little brass door, and pointing to the benighted image, cried aloud, 'Mary, Mary!' The catual and his attendants prostrated themselves an the ground, while the Lusians on their bended knees adored the blessed virgin." Thus Osorius. Another writer says, that a Portuguese, having some doubt, exclaimed, "If this be the devil's image, I however worship God."
56. Stanza 8, line 89 Here India's fate.--The description of the palace of the zamorim, situated among aromatic groves, is according to history; the embellishment of the walls is in imitation of Virgil's description of the palace of King Latinus:-- Tectum augustum, ingens, centum sublime columnis, Urbe fuit summa, etc. "The palace built by Picus, vast and proud, } Supported by a hundred pillars stood, } And round encompass'd with a rising wood. } The pile o'erlook'd the town, and drew the sight, Surprised, at once, with reverence and delight.... Above the portal, carv'd in cedar wood, Placed in their ranks their godlike grandsires stood. Old Saturn, with his crooked scythe on high; And Italus, that led the colony: And ancient Janus with his double face, And bunch of keys, the porter of the place. There stood Sabinus, planter of the vines, } On a short pruning-hook his head reclines; } And studiously surveys his gen'rous wines. } Then warlike kings who for their country fought, And honourable wounds from battle brought. Around the posts hung helmets, darts, and spears; } And captive chariots, axes, shields, and bars; } And broken beaks of ships, the trophies of their wars. } Above the rest, as chief of all the band Was Picus plac'd, a buckler in his hand; His other wav'd a long divining wand. Girt in his Gabin gown the hero sate----" DRYDEN, Æn. vii.
57. Stanza 8, line 99 Had Semele beheld the smiling boy.--The Theban Bacchus, to whom the Greek fabulists ascribed the Indian expedition of Sesostris, king of Egypt.
58. Stanza 8, line 103 Semiramis.
59. Stanza 8, line 118 Call'd Jove his father.--The bon-mot of Olympias on this pretension of her son Alexander, was admired by the ancients. "This hot-headed youth, forsooth, cannot be at rest unless he embroil me in a quarrel with Juno."--QUINT. CURT.
60. Stanza 9, line 31 Kotwâl, the chief officer of police in a town.--FORBES' Hindustani Dictionary.
61. Stanza 9, line 60 The monster forms, Chimera-like, and rude.--Chimera, a monster slain by Bellerophon. "First, dire Chimera's conquest was enjoin'd, A mingled monster of no mortal kind; Behind, a dragon's fiery tail was spread, A goat's rough body bore a lion's head; Her pitchy nostrils flaky flames expire, Her gaping throat emits infernal fire." POPE'S II. vi.
62. Stanza 9, line 66 So Titan's son.--Briareus.
63. Stanza 9, line 70 Before these shrines the blinded Indians bow.--In this instance, Camoëns has, with great art, deviated from the truth of history. As it was the great purpose of his hero to propagate the law of heaven in the East, it would have been highly absurd to have represented GAMA and his attendants as on their knees in a pagan temple. This, however, was the case. "GAMA, who had been told," says Osorius, "that there were many Christians in India, conjectured that the temple, to which the catual led him, was a Christian church. At their entrance they were met by four priests, who seemed to make crosses on their foreheads. The walls were painted with many images. In the middle was it little round chapel, in the wall of which, opposite to the entrance, stood an image which could hardly be discovered. The four priests ascending, some entered the chapel by a little brass door, and pointing to the benighted image, cried aloud, 'Mary, Mary!' The catual and his attendants prostrated themselves an the ground, while the Lusians on their bended knees adored the blessed virgin." Thus Osorius. Another writer says, that a Portuguese, having some doubt, exclaimed, "If this be the devil's image, I however worship God."
64. Stanza 9, line 89 Here India's fate.--The description of the palace of the zamorim, situated among aromatic groves, is according to history; the embellishment of the walls is in imitation of Virgil's description of the palace of King Latinus:-- Tectum augustum, ingens, centum sublime columnis, Urbe fuit summa, etc. "The palace built by Picus, vast and proud, } Supported by a hundred pillars stood, } And round encompass'd with a rising wood. } The pile o'erlook'd the town, and drew the sight, Surprised, at once, with reverence and delight.... Above the portal, carv'd in cedar wood, Placed in their ranks their godlike grandsires stood. Old Saturn, with his crooked scythe on high; And Italus, that led the colony: And ancient Janus with his double face, And bunch of keys, the porter of the place. There stood Sabinus, planter of the vines, } On a short pruning-hook his head reclines; } And studiously surveys his gen'rous wines. } Then warlike kings who for their country fought, And honourable wounds from battle brought. Around the posts hung helmets, darts, and spears; } And captive chariots, axes, shields, and bars; } And broken beaks of ships, the trophies of their wars. } Above the rest, as chief of all the band Was Picus plac'd, a buckler in his hand; His other wav'd a long divining wand. Girt in his Gabin gown the hero sate----" DRYDEN, Æn. vii.
65. Stanza 9, line 97 Behind her founder Nysa's walls were rear'd---- ----at distance far The Ganges lav'd the wide-extended war.-- This is in the perspective manner of the beautiful descriptions of the figures on the shield of Achilles.--IL. xviii.
66. Stanza 9, line 99 Had Semele beheld the smiling boy.--The Theban Bacchus, to whom the Greek fabulists ascribed the Indian expedition of Sesostris, king of Egypt.
67. Stanza 9, line 103 Semiramis.
68. Stanza 9, line 118 Call'd Jove his father.--The bon-mot of Olympias on this pretension of her son Alexander, was admired by the ancients. "This hot-headed youth, forsooth, cannot be at rest unless he embroil me in a quarrel with Juno."--QUINT. CURT.
69. Stanza 10, line 17 A leaf.--The Betel.
70. Stanza 11, line 4 The tap'stried walls with gold were pictur'd o'er, And flow'ry velvet spread the marble floor.-- According to Osorius.
71. Stanza 11, line 17 A leaf.--The Betel.
72. Stanza 12, line 15 More now we add not.--The tenor of this first conversation between the zamorim and GAMA, is according to the truth of history.
73. Stanza 13, line 10 What terrors oft have thrill'd my infant breast.--The enthusiasm with which Monzaida, a Moor, talks of the Portuguese, may perhaps to some appear unnatural. Camoëns seems to be aware of this by giving a reason for that enthusiasm in the first speech of Monzaida to Gama-- Heav'n sent you here for some great work divine, And Heav'n inspires my breast your sacred toils to join. And, that this Moor did conceive a great affection to GAMA, whose religion he embraced, and to whom he proved of the utmost service, is according to the truth of history.
74. Stanza 13, line 15 More now we add not.--The tenor of this first conversation between the zamorim and GAMA, is according to the truth of history.
75. Stanza 14, line 10 What terrors oft have thrill'd my infant breast.--The enthusiasm with which Monzaida, a Moor, talks of the Portuguese, may perhaps to some appear unnatural. Camoëns seems to be aware of this by giving a reason for that enthusiasm in the first speech of Monzaida to Gama-- Heav'n sent you here for some great work divine, And Heav'n inspires my breast your sacred toils to join. And, that this Moor did conceive a great affection to GAMA, whose religion he embraced, and to whom he proved of the utmost service, is according to the truth of history.
76. Stanza 14, line 19 The ruddy juice by Noah found.--Gen. ix. 20. "And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine," etc.
77. Stanza 14, line 58 The warlike song.--Though Camoëns began his Lusiad in Portugal, almost the whole of it was written while on the ocean, while in Africa, and in India.--See his Life.
78. Stanza 14, line 63 As Canace.--Daughter of Eolus. Her father, having thrown her incestuous child to the dogs, sent her a sword, with which she slew herself. In Ovid she writes an epistle to her husband-brother, where she thus describes herself:-- Dextra tenet calamum, strictum tenet altera ferrum.
79. Stanza 14, line 71 My life, like Judah's Heaven-doom'd king of yore.--Hezekiah.--See Isaiah xxxviii.
80. Stanza 14, line 78 And left me mourning in a dreary jail.--This, and the whole paragraph from-- Degraded now, by poverty abhorr'd, alludes to his fortunes in India. The latter circumstance relates particularly to the base and inhuman treatment he received on his return to Goa, after his unhappy shipwreck.--See his Life.
81. Stanza 15, line 19 The ruddy juice by Noah found.--Gen. ix. 20. "And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine," etc.
82. Stanza 15, line 23 Who spurns the muse.--Similarity of condition has produced similarity of sentiment in Camoëns and Spenser. Each was the ornament of his country and his age, and each was cruelly neglected by the men of power, who, in truth, were incapable to judge of their merit, or to relish their writings. We have seen several of the strictures of Camoëns on the barbarous nobility of Portugal. The similar complaints of Spenser will show, that neglect of genius, however, was not confined to the court of Lisbon:-- "O grief of griefs! O gall of all good hearts! To see that virtue should despised be Of such as first were raised for virtue's parts, And now, broad spreading like an aged tree, Let none shoot up that nigh them planted be. O let not those of whom the muse is scorn'd, Alive or dead be by the muse adorn'd." RUINS OF TIME. It is thought Lord Burleigh, who withheld the bounty intended by Queen Elizabeth, is here meant. But he is more clearly stigmatized in these remarkable lines, where the misery of dependence on court favour is painted in colours which must recall several strokes of the Lusiad to the mind of the reader:-- "Full little knowest thou that hast not tried, What hell it is, in suing long to bide; To lose good days, that might be better spent, To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow, To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow; To have thy princess' grace, yet want her peers'; To have thy asking, yet wait many years. To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares, To eat thy heart thro' comfortless despairs; To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run, To spend, to give, to want, to be undone." MOTHER HUBBERD'S TALE. These lines exasperated still more the inelegant, illiberal Burleigh. So true is the observation of Mr. Hughes, that, "even the sighs of a miserable man are sometimes resented as an affront by him that is the occasion of them."
83. Stanza 15, line 24 His faith forbade with other tribe to join The sacred meal, esteem'd a rite divine.-- The opinion of the sacredness of the table is very ancient in the East. It is plainly to be discovered in the history of Abraham. When Melchizedek, a king and priest, blessed Abraham, it is said, "And he brought forth bread and wine and he blessed him."--Gen. xiv. 18. The patriarchs only drank wine, according to Dr. Stukely, on their more solemn festivals, when they were said to rejoice before the Lord. Other customs of the Hindoos are mentioned by Camoëns in this book. If a noble should touch a person of another tribe-- A thousand rites, and washings o'er and o'er, Can scarce his tainted purity restore. Nothing, says Osorius, but the death of the unhappy commoner can wipe off the pollution. Yet we are told by the same author, that Hindoo nobility cannot be forfeited, or even tarnished by the basest and greatest of crimes; nor can one of mean birth become great or noble by the most illustrious actions. The noblemen, says the same writer, adopt the children of their sisters, esteeming there can be no other certainty of the relationship of their heirs.
84. Stanza 15, line 58 The warlike song.--Though Camoëns began his Lusiad in Portugal, almost the whole of it was written while on the ocean, while in Africa, and in India.--See his Life.
85. Stanza 15, line 63 As Canace.--Daughter of Eolus. Her father, having thrown her incestuous child to the dogs, sent her a sword, with which she slew herself. In Ovid she writes an epistle to her husband-brother, where she thus describes herself:-- Dextra tenet calamum, strictum tenet altera ferrum.
86. Stanza 15, line 69 Soon I beheld that wealth beneath the wave For ever lost.-- See the Life of Camoëns.
87. Stanza 15, line 71 My life, like Judah's Heaven-doom'd king of yore.--Hezekiah.--See Isaiah xxxviii.
88. Stanza 15, line 78 And left me mourning in a dreary jail.--This, and the whole paragraph from-- Degraded now, by poverty abhorr'd, alludes to his fortunes in India. The latter circumstance relates particularly to the base and inhuman treatment he received on his return to Goa, after his unhappy shipwreck.--See his Life.
89. Stanza 16, line 23 Who spurns the muse.--Similarity of condition has produced similarity of sentiment in Camoëns and Spenser. Each was the ornament of his country and his age, and each was cruelly neglected by the men of power, who, in truth, were incapable to judge of their merit, or to relish their writings. We have seen several of the strictures of Camoëns on the barbarous nobility of Portugal. The similar complaints of Spenser will show, that neglect of genius, however, was not confined to the court of Lisbon:-- "O grief of griefs! O gall of all good hearts! To see that virtue should despised be Of such as first were raised for virtue's parts, And now, broad spreading like an aged tree, Let none shoot up that nigh them planted be. O let not those of whom the muse is scorn'd, Alive or dead be by the muse adorn'd." RUINS OF TIME. It is thought Lord Burleigh, who withheld the bounty intended by Queen Elizabeth, is here meant. But he is more clearly stigmatized in these remarkable lines, where the misery of dependence on court favour is painted in colours which must recall several strokes of the Lusiad to the mind of the reader:-- "Full little knowest thou that hast not tried, What hell it is, in suing long to bide; To lose good days, that might be better spent, To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow, To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow; To have thy princess' grace, yet want her peers'; To have thy asking, yet wait many years. To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares, To eat thy heart thro' comfortless despairs; To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run, To spend, to give, to want, to be undone." MOTHER HUBBERD'S TALE. These lines exasperated still more the inelegant, illiberal Burleigh. So true is the observation of Mr. Hughes, that, "even the sighs of a miserable man are sometimes resented as an affront by him that is the occasion of them."