The Lusiad Part 49

_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 blus.h.i.+ng to her laughter gave more grace, And laughter to her blus.h.i.+ng, 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 l.u.s.t 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._--Ta.s.sO.

"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 att.i.tude 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 Ta.s.so, 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 princ.i.p.al 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. The course of human things, however, soon took place, and the sword of victory and power soon became the sword of tyranny and rapine.

[589] _Far o'er the silver lake of Mexic._--The city of Mexico is environed with an extensive lake; or, according to Cortez, in his second narration to Charles V., with two lakes, one of fresh, the other of salt water, in circuit about fifty leagues. This situation, said the Mexicans, was appointed by their G.o.d Vitzliputzli, who, according to the explanation of their picture-histories, led their forefathers a journey of fourscore years, in search of the promised land. Four of the princ.i.p.al priests carried the idol in a coffer of reeds. Whenever they halted they built a tabernacle for their G.o.d in the midst of their camp, where they placed the coffer and the altar. They then sowed the land, and their stay or departure, without regard to the harvest, was directed by the orders received from their idol, till at last, by his command, they fixed their abode on the site of Mexico.

[590] _Before the love-sick Roman._--Mark Antony.

[591] _The beverage--the fountain's cooling aid confess'd._--It was a custom of the ancients in warm climates to mix the coolest spring water with their wine, immediately before drinking; not, we may suppose, to render it less intoxicating, but on account of the cooling flavour it thereby received. Homer tells us that the wine which Ulysses gave to Polyphemus would bear twenty measures of water. Modern luxury has subst.i.tuted preserved ice, in place of the more ancient mixture.

[592] _Music, such as erst subdued the horrid frown of h.e.l.l_, etc.--Alluding to the fable of Orpheus. Fanshaw's translation, as already observed, was published fourteen years before the Paradise Lost.

These lines of Milton--

"What could it less, when spirits immortal sung?

Their song was partial, but the harmony Suspended h.e.l.l, and took with ravishment The thronging audience,"

bear a resemblance to these of Fanshaw--

"Musical instruments not wanting, such As to the d.a.m.n'd spirits once gave ease In the dark vaults of the infernal hall."

To _slumber_ amid their punishment, though omitted by Fanshaw, is literal:--

"Fizerao descancar da eterna pena."

[593] _No more the summer of my life remains._--It is not certain when Camoens wrote this. It seems, however, not long to have preceded the publication of his poem, at which time he was in his fifty-fifth year.

This apostrophe to his muse may, perhaps, by some be blamed as another digression; but, so little does it require defence, that one need not hesitate to affirm that, had Homer, who often talks to his muse, introduced, on these favourable opportunities, any little picture or history of himself, these digressions would have been the most interesting parts of his works. Had any history of Homer complained, like this of Camoens, it would have been bedewed with the tears of ages.

[594] _Thy faith repent not, nor lament thy wrong._--P. Alvarez Cabral, the second Portuguese commander who sailed to India, entered into a treaty of alliance with Trimumpara, king of Cochin, and high priest of Malabar. The zamorim raised powerful armies to dethrone him. His fidelity to the Portuguese was unalterable, though his affairs were brought to the lowest ebb.--See the history in the Preface.

[595]

_His s.h.i.+p's strong sides shall groan beneath his weight, And deeper waves receive the sacred freight.--_

Thus Virgil:--

"Simul accipit alveo Ingentem aeneam. Gemuit sub pondere cymba Sutilis, et multam accepit rimosa paludem."--aeN. vi. 412.

That the visionary boat of Charon groaned under the weight of aeneas is a fine poetical stroke; but that the crazy rents let in the water is certainly lowering the image. The thought, however, as managed in Camoens is much grander than in Virgil, and affords a happy instance where the hyperbole is truly poetical.

The Lusiad affords many instances which must be highly pleasing to the Portuguese, but dry to those who are unacquainted with their history.

Nor need one hesitate to a.s.sert that, were we not acquainted with the Roman history from our childhood, a great part of the aeneid would appear to us intolerably uninteresting. Sensible of this disadvantage which every version of historical poetry must suffer, the translator has not only in the notes added every incident which might elucidate the subject, but has also, all along, in the episode in the third and fourth books, in the description of the painted ensigns in the eighth, and in the allusions in the present book, endeavoured to throw every historical incident into that universal language, the picturesque of poetry. When Hector storms the Grecian camp, when Achilles marches to battle, every reader understands and is affected with the bold painting. But when Nestor talks of his exploits at the funeral games of Amarynces (Iliad xxiii.) the critics themselves cannot comprehend him, and have vied with each other in inventing explanations.

[596] _Proas_, or paraos, Indian vessels which lie low on the water, are worked with oars, and carry 100 men and upwards apiece.

[597]

_His robes are sprinkled o'er, And his proud face dash'd, with his menials' gore.--_

See the history in the Preface.

[598] _Round Lusus' fleet to pour their sulph'rous entrails._--How Pacheco avoided this formidable danger, see the history in the preface.

[599] _Nor Tiber's bridge._--When Porsenna besieged Rome, Horatius Cocles defended the pa.s.s of a bridge till the Romans destroyed it behind him. Having thus saved the pa.s.s, heavy armed as he was, he swam across the Tiber to his companions. Roman history, however, at this period, is often mixed with fable. Miltiades obtained a great victory over Darius at Marathon. The stand made by Leonidas at Thermopylae is well known. The battles of Pacheco were in defence of the fords by which alone the city of Cochin could be entered. The numbers he withstood by land and sea, and the victories he obtained, are much more astonis.h.i.+ng than the defence of Thermopylae.

[600] _Bound to the mast the G.o.dlike hero stands._--English history affords an instance of similar resolution in Admiral Bembo, who was supported in a wooden frame, and continued the engagement after his legs and thighs were s.h.i.+vered in splinters. Contrary to the advice of his officers, the young Almeyda refused to bear off, though almost certain to be overpowered, and though both wind and tide were against him. His father had sharply upbraided him for a former retreat, where victory was thought impossible. He now fell the victim of his father's ideas of military glory.

[601] _The fleets of India fly._--After having cleared the Indian seas, the viceroy, Almeyda, attacked the combined fleets of Egypt, Cambaya, and the zamorim, in the entrance and harbour of Diu, or Dio. The fleet of the zamorim almost immediately fled. That of Melique Yaz, Lord of Diu, suffered much; but the greatest slaughter fell upon the Egyptians and Turks, commanded by Mir-Hocem, who had defeated and killed the young Almeyda. Of 800 Mamelukes, or Turks, who fought under Mir-Hocem, only 22, says Osorius, survived this engagement. Melique Yaz, says Faria y Sousa, was born in slavery, and descended of the Christians of Roxia.

The road to preferment is often a dirty one; but Melique's was much less so than that of many. As the King of Cambaya was one day riding in state, an unlucky kite dunged upon his royal head. His majesty in great wrath swore he would give all he was worth to have the offender killed.

Melique, who was an expert archer, immediately despatched an arrow, which brought the audacious hawk to the ground. For the merit of this eminent service he was made Lord of Diu, or Dio, a considerable city, the strongest and the most important fortress at that time in all India.--See Faria, 1. 2, c. 2.

[602] _Great Cunia._--Tristan da Cunha, or d'Acugna.

[603] _Heav'n indignant showers their arrows backward._--Some writers related that, when Albuquerque besieged Ormuz, a violent wind drove the arrows of the enemy backward upon their own ranks. Osorius says, that many of the dead Persians and Moors were found to have died by arrows.

But as that weapon was not used by the Portuguese he conjectures that, in their despair of victory, many of the enemy had thus killed themselves, rather than survive the defeat.

[604] _Muscat._

[605] Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf.

[606] _What glorious palms on Goa's isle I see._--This important place was made an archbishopric, the capital of the Portuguese empire in the east, and the seat of their viceroys; for which purposes it is advantageously situated on the coast of Dekhan. It still remains in the possession of the Portuguese.