Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works

by Luis de Camoes

  127 Latona, says the fable, flying from the serpent Python, and faint with thirst, came to a pond, where some Lycian peasants were cutting the bulrushes. In revenge of the insults which they offered her in preventing her to drink, she changed them into frogs. This fable, says Castera, like almost all the rest, is drawn from history. Philocorus, as cited by Boccace, relates, that the Rhodians having declared war against the Lycians, were assisted by some troops from Delos, who carried the image of Latona on their standards. A detachment of these going to drink at a lake in Lycia, a crowd of peasants endeavoured to prevent them. An encounter ensued; the peasants fled to the lake for shelter, and were there slain. Some months afterwards their companions came in search of their corpses, and finding an unusual quantity of frogs, imagined, according to the superstition of their age, that the souls of their friends appeared to them under that metamorphosis.

  To some it may, perhaps, appear needless to vindicate Camoëns, in a point wherein he is supported by the authority of Homer and Virgil. Yet, as many readers are infected with the sang froid of a Bossu or a Perrault, an observation in defence of our poet cannot be thought impertinent. If we examine the finest effusions of genius, we shall find that the most genuine poetical feeling has often dictated those similes which are drawn from familiar and low objects. The sacred writers, and the greatest poets of every nation, have used them. We may, therefore, conclude that the criticism which condemns them is a refinement not founded on nature. But, allowing them admissible, it must be observed, that to render them pleasing requires a peculiar happiness and delicacy of management. When the poet attains this indispensable point, he gives a striking proof of his elegance, and of his mastership in his art. That the similes of the emmets and of the frogs in Camoëns are happily expressed and applied, is indisputable. In that of the frogs there is a peculiar propriety, both in the comparison itself, and in the allusion to the fable, as it was the intent of the poet to represent not only the flight, but the baseness of the Moors. The simile he seems to have copied from Dante, Inf. Cant. 9 —

  Come le rane innanzi a la nemica

  Biscia per l’acqua si dileguan tutte

  Fin che a la terra ciascuna s’abbica.

  And Cant. 22 —

  E come a l’orlo de l’acqua d’un fosso

  Stan li ranocchi pur col muso fuori

  Sì che celano i piedi, e l’altro grosso.

  128 Barros and Castaneda, in relating this part of the voyage of Gama, say that the fleet, just as they were entering the port of Mombas, were driven back as it were by an invisible hand. By a subsequent note it will appear that the safety of the Armada depended upon this circumstance.

  129 Venus.

  130 As the planet of Jupiter is in the sixth heaven, the author has with propriety there placed the throne of that god. — Castera.

  131 “I am aware of the objection, that this passage is by no means applicable to the celestial Venus. I answer once for all, that the names and adventures of the pagan divinities are so blended and uncertain in mythology, that a poet is at great liberty to adapt them to his allegory as he pleases. Even the fables, which may appear as profane, even these contain historical, physical, and moral truths, which fully atone for the seeming licentiousness of the letter. I could prove this in many instances, but let the present suffice. Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, spent his first years as a shepherd in the country. At this time Juno, Minerva, and Venus disputed for the apple of gold, which was destined to be given to the most beautiful goddess. They consented that Paris should be their judge. His equity claimed this honour. He saw them all naked. Juno promised him riches, Minerva the sciences, but he decided in favour of Venus, who promised him the possession of the most beautiful woman. What a ray of light is contained in this philosophical fable! Paris represents a studious man, who, in the silence of solitude, seeks the supreme good. Juno is the emblem of riches and dignities; Minerva, that of the sciences purely human; Venus is that of religion, which contains the sciences both human and divine; the charming female, which she promises to the Trojan shepherd, is that divine wisdom which gives tranquillity of heart. A judge so philosophical as Paris would not hesitate a moment to whom to give the apple of gold.” — Castera.

  132 “The allegory of Camoëns is here obvious. If Acteon, and the slaves of their violent passions, could discover the beauties of true religion, they would be astonished and reclaimed: according to the expression of Seneca, ‘Si virtus cerni posset oculis corporeis, omnes ad amorem suum pelliceret.’” — Castera.

  133 “That is Divine love, which always accompanies religion. Behold how our author insinuates the excellence of his moral!” — Castera.

  As the French translator has acknowledged, there is no doubt but several readers will be apt to decry this allegorical interpretation of the machinery of Camoëns. Indeed there is nothing more easy than to discover a system of allegory in the simplest narrative. The reign of Henry VIII. is as susceptible of it as any fable in the heathen mythology. Nay, perhaps, more so. Under the names of Henry, More, Wolsey, Cromwell, Pole, Cranmer, etc., all the war of the passions, with their different catastrophes, might be delineated. Though it may be difficult to determine how far, yet one may venture to affirm that Homer and Virgil sometimes allegorised. The poets, however, who wrote on the revival of letters have left us in no doubt; we have their own authority for it that their machinery is allegorical. Not only the pagan deities, but the more modern adventures of enchantment were used by them to delineate the affections, and the trials and rewards of the virtues and vices. Tasso published a treatise to prove that his Gerusalemme Liberata is no other than the Christian spiritual warfare. And Camoëns, as observed in the preface, has twice asserted that his machinery is allegorical. The poet’s assertion, and the taste of the age in which he wrote, sufficiently vindicate and explain the allegory of the Lusiad.

  134 The following speech of Venus and the reply of Jupiter, are a fine imitation from the first Æneid, and do great honour to the classical taste of the Portuguese poet.

  135 Imitated from Virg. Æn. i. —

  Olli subridens hominum sator atque Deorum,

  Vultu, quo cœlum tempestatesque serenat,

  Oscula libavit natæ ——

  136 Ulysses, king of Ithaka. — Ed.

  137 i.e., the slave of Calypso, who offered Ulysses immortality on condition that he would live with her.

  138 Æneas. — Ed.

  139

  “Far on the right her dogs foul Scylla hides,

  Charybdis roaring on the left presides,

  And in her greedy whirlpool sucks the tides.”

  Dryden’s Virg. Æn. iii. — Ed.

  140 After the Portuguese had made great conquests in India, Gama had the honour to be appointed Viceroy. In 1524, when sailing thither to take possession of his government, his fleet was so becalmed on the coast of Cambaya that the ships stood motionless on the water, when in an instant, without the least change of the weather, the waves were shaken with a violent agitation, like trembling. The ships were tossed about, the sailors were terrified, and in the utmost confusion, thinking themselves lost. Gama, perceiving it to be the effect of an earthquake, with his wonted heroism and prudence, exclaimed, “Of what are you afraid? Do you not see how the ocean trembles under its sovereigns!” Barros, l. 9, c. 1, and Faria, c. 9, say, that such as lay sick of fevers were cured by the fright.

  141 Ormuz, or Hormuz, an island at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, once a great commercial dépôt. — Ed.

  142 Both Barros and Castaneda relate this fact. Albuquerque, during the war of Ormuz, having given battle to the Persians and Moors, by the violence of a sudden wind the arrows of the latter were driven back upon themselves, whereby many of their troops were wounded.

  143 Calicut was a seaport town of Malabar, more properly Colicodu.

  144

  Hinc ope barbarica, variisque Antonius armis,

  Victor ab Auroræ populis et littore rubro,

  Æg
yptum, viresque Orientis, et ultima secum

  Bactra vehit: sequiturque nefas! Ægyptia conjux.

  Una omnes ruere, ac totum spumare, reductis

  Convulsum remis rostrisque tridentibus, æquor.

  Alta petunt: pelago credas innare revulsas

  Cycladas, aut montes concurrere montibus altos:

  Tanta mole viri turritis puppibus instant.

  Stuppea flamma manu telisque volatile ferrum

  Spargitur: arva nova Neptunia cæde rubescunt.

  —— Sævit medio in certamine Maxors.

  Virg. Æn. viii.

  145 Antony.

  146 Gades, now Cadiz, an ancient and still flourishing seaport of Spain. — Ed.

  147 The Lusian pride, etc. — Magalhaens, a most celebrated navigator, neglected by Emmanuel, king of Portugal, offered his service to the king of Spain, under whom he made most important discoveries round the Straits which bear his name, and in parts of South America. Of this hero see further, Lusiad X., in the notes.

  148 Mercury.

  149 Mombas, a seaport town on an island of the same name off the coast of Zanguebar, East Africa. — Ed.

  150 Mercury, so called from Cyllēnē, the highest mountain in the Peloponnesus, where he had a temple, and on which spot he is said to have been born. — Ed.

  151 Petasus.

  152 The caduceus, twined with serpents. — Ed.

  153

  “But first he grasps within his awful hand

  The mark of sovereign power, the magic wand:

  With this he draws the ghosts from hollow graves,

  With this he drives them down the Stygian waves,

  With this he seals in sleep the wakeful sight,

  And eyes, though closed in death, restores to light.”

  Æneid, iv. 242. (Dryden’s Trans.)

  154 Mercury.

  155 Diomede, a tyrant of Thrace, who fed his horses with human flesh; a thing, says the grave Castera, almost incredible. Busiris was a king of Egypt, who sacrificed strangers.

  Quis ... illaudati nescit Busiridis aras?

  Virg. Geor. iii.

  Hercules vanquished both these tyrants, and put them to the same punishments which their cruelty had inflicted on others. Isocrates composed an oration in honour of Busiris; a masterly example of Attic raillery and satire.

  156 i.e. the equator.

  157 Hermes is the Greek name for the god Mercury.

  158 Having mentioned the escape of the Moorish pilots, Osorius proceeds: Rex deinde homines magno cum silentio scaphis et lintribus submittebat, qui securibus anchoralia nocte præciderent. Quod nisi fuisset à nostris singulari Gamæ industria vigilatum, et insidiis scelerati illius regis occursum, nostri in summum vitæ discrimen incidissent.

  159 Mercury.

  160 A city and kingdom of the same name on the east coast of Africa.

  161 Ascension Day.

  162 Jesus Christ.

  163

  Vimen erat dum stagna subit, processerat undis

  Gemma fuit.

  Claud.

  Sic et coralium, quo primum contigit auras,

  Tempore durescit, mollis fuit herba sub undis.

  Ovid.

  164 There were on board Gama’s fleet several persons skilled in the Oriental languages. — Osor.

  165 See the Eighth Odyssey, etc.

  166 Castera’s note on this place is so characteristic of a Frenchman, that the reader will perhaps be pleased to see it transcribed. In his text he says, “Toi qui occupes si dignement le rang supreme.” “Le Poete dit,” says he, in the note, “Tens de Rey o officio, Toi qui sais le metier de Roi. (The poet says, thou who holdest the business of a king.) I confess,” he adds, “I found a strong inclination to translate this sentence literally. I find much nobleness in it. However, I submitted to the opinion of some friends, who were afraid that the ears of Frenchmen would be shocked at the word business applied to a king. It is true, nevertheless, that Royalty is a business. Philip II. of Spain was convinced of it, as we may discern from one of his letters. Hallo, says he, me muy embaraçado, &c. I am so entangled and encumbered with the multiplicity of business, that I have not a moment to myself. In truth, we kings hold a laborious office (or trade); there is little reason to envy us.”

  167 The propriety and artfulness of Homer’s speeches have been often and justly admired. Camoëns is peculiarly happy in the same department of the Epopæa. The speech of Gama’s herald to the King of Melinda is a striking instance of it. The compliments with which it begins have a direct tendency to the favours afterwards to be asked. The assurances of the innocence, the purpose of the voyagers, and the greatness of their king, are happily touched. The exclamation on the barbarous treatment they had experienced— “Not wisdom saved us, but Heaven’s own care” — are masterly insinuations. Their barbarous treatment is again repeated in a manner to move compassion: Alas! what could they fear? etc., is reasoning joined with pathos. That they were conducted to the King of Melinda by Heaven, and were by Heaven assured of his truth, is a most delicate compliment, and in the true spirit of the epic poem. The apology for Gama’s refusal to come on shore is exceeding artful. It conveys a proof of the greatness of the Portuguese sovereign, and affords a compliment to loyalty, which could not fail to be acceptable to a monarch.

  168 Rockets.

  169 The Tyrian purple, obtained from the murex, a species of shell-fish, was very famous among the ancients. — Ed.

  170 A girdle, or ornamented belt, worn over one shoulder and across the breast. — Ed.

  171 Camoëns seems to have his eye on the picture of Gama, which is thus described by Faria y Sousa: “He is painted with a black cap, cloak, and breeches edged with velvet, all slashed, through which appears the crimson lining, the doublet of crimson satin, and over it his armour inlaid with gold.”

  172 The admiration and friendship of the King of Melinda, so much insisted on by Camoëns, is a judicious imitation of Virgil’s Dido. In both cases such preparation was necessary to introduce the long episodes which follow.

  173 The Moors, who are Mohammedans, disciples of the Arabian prophet, who was descended from Abraham through the line of Hagar. — Ed.

  174 The famous temple of the goddess Diana at Ephesus. — Ed.

  175 Apollo.

  176 Calliope. — The Muse of epic poesy, and mother of Orpheus. Daphne, daughter of the river Peneus, flying from Apollo, was turned into the laurel. Clytia was metamorphosed into the sun-flower, and Leucothoë, who was buried alive by her father for yielding to the solicitations of Apollo, was by her lover changed into an incense tree.

  177 A fountain of Bœotia sacred to the Muses. — Ed.

  178 The preface to the speech of Gama, and the description of Europe which follows, are happy imitations of the manner of Homer. When Camoëns describes countries, or musters an army, it is after the example of the great models of antiquity: by adding some characteristical feature of the climate or people, he renders his narrative pleasing, picturesque, and poetical.

  179 The Mediterranean.

  180 The Don. — Ed.

  181 The Sea of Azof. — Ed.

  182 Italy. In the year 409 the city of Rome was sacked, and Italy laid desolate by Alaric, king of the Gothic tribes. In mentioning this circumstance Camoëns has not fallen into the common error of little poets, who on every occasion bewail the outrage which the Goths and Vandals did to the arts and sciences. A complaint founded on ignorance. The Southern nations of Europe were sunk into the most contemptible degeneracy. The sciences, with every branch of manly literature, were almost unknown. For near two centuries no poet of note had adorned the Roman empire. Those arts only, the abuse of which have a certain and fatal tendency to enervate the mind, the arts of music and cookery, were passionately cultivated in all the refinement of effeminate abuse. The art of war was too laborious for their delicacy, and the generous warmth of heroism and patriotism was incompatible with their effeminacy. On these despicable Sybarites{*} the North poured her
brave and hardy sons, who, though ignorant of polite literature, were possessed of all the manly virtues in a high degree. Under their conquests Europe wore a new face, which, however rude, was infinitely preferable to that which it had lately worn. And, however ignorance may talk of their barbarity, it is to them that England owes her constitution, which, as Montesquieu observes, they brought from the woods of Saxony.

  {*} Sybaris, a city in Magna Grecia (South Italy), whose inhabitants were so effeminate, that they ordered all the cocks to be killed, that they might not be disturbed by their early crowing.

  183 The river Don.

  184 This was the name of an extensive forest in Germany. It exists now under different names, as the Black Forest, the Bohemian and the Thuringian Forest, the Hartz, etc. — Ed.

  185 The Hellespont, or Straits of the Dardanelles. — Ed.

  186 The Balkan Mountains separating Greece and Macedonia from the basin of the Danube, and extending from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. — Ed.

  187 Now Constantinople.

  188 Julius Cæsar, the conqueror of Gaul, or France. — Ed.

  189 Faithless to the vows of lost Pyrene, etc. — She was daughter to Bebryx, a king of Spain, and concubine to Hercules. Having wandered one day from her lover, she was destroyed by wild beasts, on one of the mountains which bear her name.

  190 Hercules, says the fable, to crown his labours, separated the two mountains Calpe and Abyla, the one in Spain, the other in Africa, in order to open a canal for the benefit of commerce; on which the ocean rushed in, and formed the Mediterranean, the Ægean, and Euxine seas. The twin mountains Abyla and Calpe were known to the ancients by the name of the Pillars of Hercules. — See Cory’s Ancient Fragments.

  191 The river Guadalquivir; i.e., in Arabic, the great river. — Ed.

  192 Viriatus. — See the note on Book I. .

  193 The assassination of Viriatus. — See the note on Book I. .

  194 The name of Saracen is derived from the Arabic Es-shurk, the East, and designates the Arabs who followed the banner of Mohammed. — Ed.

  195 Don Alonzo, king of Spain, apprehensive of the superior number of the Moors, with whom he was at war, demanded assistance from Philip I. of France, and the Duke of Burgundy. According to the military spirit of the nobility of that age, no sooner was his desire known than numerous bodies of troops thronged to his standard. These, in the course of a few years, having shown signal proofs of their courage, the king distinguished the leaders with different marks of his regard. To Henry, a younger son of the Duke of Burgundy, he gave his daughter Teresa in marriage, with the sovereignty of the countries to the south of Galicia, commissioning him to enlarge his boundaries by the expulsion of the Moors. Under the government of this great man, who reigned by the title of Count, his dominion was greatly enlarged, and became more rich and populous than before. The two provinces of Entre Minho e Douro, and Tras os Montes, were subdued, with that part of Beira which was held by the Moorish king of Lamego, whom he constrained to pay tribute. Many thousands of Christians, who had either lived in miserable subjection to the Moors, or in desolate independency in the mountains, took shelter under the protection of Count Henry. Great multitudes of the Moors also chose rather to submit, than be exposed to the severities and the continual feuds and seditions of their own governors. These advantages, added to the great fertility of the soil of Henry’s dominions, will account for the numerous armies, and the frequent wars of the first sovereigns of Portugal.