196 Camoëns, in making the founder of the Portuguese monarchy a younger son of the King of Hungary, has followed the old chronologist Galvan. The Spanish and Portuguese historians differ widely in their accounts of the parentage of this gallant stranger. Some bring him from Constantinople, and others from the house of Lorraine. But the clearest and most probable account of him is in the chronicle of Fleury, wherein is preserved a fragment of French history, written by a Benedictine monk in the beginning of the twelfth century, and in the time of Count Henry. By this it appears, that he was a younger son of Henry, the only son of Robert, the first duke of Burgundy, who was a younger brother of Henry I. of France. Fanshaw having an eye to this history, has taken the unwarrantable liberty to alter the fact as mentioned by his author.
Amongst these Henry, saith the history,
A younger son of France, and a brave prince,
Had Portugal in lot. ——
And the same king did his own daughter tie
To him in wedlock, to infer from thence
His firmer love.
Nor are the historians agreed on the birth of Donna Teresa, the spouse of Count Henry. Brandam, and other Portuguese historians, are at great pains to prove she was the legitimate daughter of Alonzo and the beautiful Ximena de Guzman. But it appears from the more authentic chronicle of Fleury, that Ximena was only his concubine. And it is evident from all the historians, that Donna Urraca, the heiress of her father’s kingdom, was younger than her half-sister, the wife of Count Henry.
197 The Mohammedan Arabs.
198 Deliver’d Judah Henry’s might confess’d. — His expedition to the Holy Land is mentioned by some monkish writers, but from the other parts of his history it is highly improbable.
199 Jerusalem.
200 Godfrey of Bouillon.
201 Don Alonzo Enriquez, son of Count Henry, had only entered into his third year when his father died. His mother assumed the reins of government, and appointed Don Fernando Perez de Traba to be her minister. When the young prince was in his eighteenth year, some of the nobility, who either envied the power of Don Perez, or suspected his intention to marry the queen, and exclude the lawful heir, easily persuaded the young Count to take arms, and assume the sovereignty. A battle ensued, in which the prince was victorious. Teresa, it is said, retired into the castle of Legonaso, where she was taken prisoner by her son, who condemned her to perpetual imprisonment, and ordered chains to be put upon her legs. That Don Alonso made war against his mother, vanquished her party, and that she died in prison about two years after, A.D. 1130, are certain. But the cause of the war, that his mother was married to, or intended to marry, Don Perez, and that she was put in chains, are uncertain.
202 Guimaraens was the scene of a very sanguinary battle. — Ed.
203 The Scylla here alluded to was, according to fable, the daughter of Nisus, king of Megara, who had a purple lock, in which lay the fate of his kingdom. Minos of Crete made war against him, for whom Scylla conceived so violent a passion, that she cut off the fatal lock while her father slept. Minos on this was victorious, but rejected the love of the unnatural daughter, who in despair flung herself from a rock, and in the fall was changed into a lark.
204 Guimaraens, the scene of a famous battle. — Ed.
205 Some historians having related this story of Egas, add, “All this is very pleasant and entertaining, but we see no sufficient reason to affirm that there is one syllable of it true.”
206 When Darius laid siege to Babylon, one of his lords, named Zopyrus, having cut off his own nose and ears, persuaded the enemy that he had received these indignities from the cruelty of his master. Being appointed to a chief command in Babylon, he betrayed the city to Darius. — Vid. Justin’s History.
207 Spanish and Portuguese histories afford several instances of the Moorish chiefs being attended in the field of battle by their mistresses, and of the romantic gallantry and Amazonian courage of these ladies.
208 Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, who, after having signalized her valour at the siege of Troy, was killed by Achilles.
209 The Greek name of Troy. — Ed.
210 The Amazons.
211 Thermodon, a river of Scythia in the country of the Amazons.
Quales Threïciæ cum flumina Thermodontis
Pulsant et pictis bellantur Amazones armis:
Seu circum Hippolyten, seu cum se Martia curru
Penthesilea refert: magnoque ululante tumultu
Fœminea exsultant lunatis agmina peltis. Virg. Æn. xi. 659.
212 It may, perhaps, be agreeable to the reader, to see the description of a bull-fight as given by Homer.
As when a lion, rushing from his den,
Amidst the plain of some wide-water’d fen,
(Where num’rous oxen, as at ease they feed,
At large expatiate o’er the ranker mead;)
Leaps on the herds before the herdsman’s eyes:
The trembling herdsman far to distance flies:
Some lordly bull (the rest dispers’d and fled)
He singles out, arrests, and lays him dead.
Thus from the rage of Jove-like Hector flew
All Greece in heaps; but one he seiz’d, and slew
Mycenian Periphas. ——
Pope, II. xv.
213 A shirt of mail, formed of small iron rings.
214 Mohammed.
215 There is a passage in Xenophon, upon which perhaps Camoëns had his eye. Επεὶ δέ ἒληξεν ἡ μάχη, παρῆν ἰδεἱν την μέν γῆν αἵματι πεφυρμένην, &c. “When the battle was over, one might behold through the whole extent of the field the ground purpled with blood; the bodies of friends and enemies stretched over each other, the shields pierced, the spears broken, and the drawn swords, some scattered on the earth, some plunged in the bosoms of the slain, and some yet grasped in the hands of the dead soldiers.”
216 This memorable battle was fought in the plains of Ourique, in 1139. The engagement lasted six hours; the Moors were totally routed with incredible slaughter. On the field of battle Alonzo was proclaimed King of Portugal. The Portuguese writers have given many fabulous accounts of this victory. Some affirm that the Moorish army amounted to 380,000, others, 480,000, and others swell it to 600,000, whereas Don Alonzo’s did not exceed 13,000. Miracles must also be added. Alonzo, they tell us, being in great perplexity, sat down to comfort his mind by the perusal of the Holy Scriptures. Having read the story of Gideon, he sunk into a deep sleep, in which he saw a very old man in a remarkable dress come into his tent, and assure him of victory. His chamberlain coming in, awoke him, and told him there was an old man very importunate to speak with him. Don Alonzo ordered him to be brought in, and no sooner saw him than he knew him to be the old man whom he had seen in his dream. This venerable person acquainted him that he was a fisherman, and had led a life of penance for sixty years on an adjacent rock, where it had been revealed to him, that if the count marched his army the next morning, as soon as he heard a certain bell ring, he should receive the strongest assurance of victory. Accordingly, at the ringing of the bell, the count put his army in motion, and suddenly beheld in the eastern sky the figure of the cross, and Christ upon it, who promised him a complete victory, and commanded him to accept the title of king, if it were offered him by the army. The same writers add, that as a standing memorial of this miraculous event, Don Alonzo changed the arms which his father had given, of a cross azure in a field argent, for five escutcheons, each charged with five bezants, in memory of the wounds of Christ. Others assert, that he gave, in a field argent, five escutcheons azure in the form of a cross, each charged with five bezants argent, placed saltierwise, with a point sable, in memory of five wounds he himself received, and of five Moorish kings slain in the battle. There is an old record, said to be written by Don Alonzo, in which the story of the vision is related upon his majesty’s oath. The Spanish critics, however, have discovered many inconsistencies in it. They find the l
anguage intermixed with phrases not then in use: and it bears the date of the year of our Lord, at a time when that era had not been introduced into Spain.
217 Troy.
218 The tradition, that Lisbon was built by Ulysses, and thence called Olyssipolis, is as common as, and of equal authority with, that which says, that Brute landed a colony of Trojans in England, and gave the name of Britannia to the island.
219 The conquest of Lisbon was of the utmost importance to the infant monarchy. It is one of the finest ports in the world, and before the invention of cannon, was of great strength. The old Moorish wall was flanked by seventy-seven towers, was about six miles in length, and fourteen in circumference. When besieged by Don Alonzo, according to some, it was garrisoned by an army of 200,000 men. This is highly incredible. However, that it was strong and well garrisoned is certain, as also that Alonzo owed the conquest of it to a fleet of adventurers, who were going to the Holy Land, the greater part of whom were English. One Udal op Rhys, in his tour through Portugal, says, that Alonzo gave them Almada, on the side of the Tagus opposite to Lisbon, and that Villa Franca was peopled by them, which they called Cornualla, either in honour of their native country, or from the rich meadows in its neighbourhood, where immense herds of cattle are kept, as in the English Cornwall.
220 Jerusalem.
221 Unconquer’d towers. — This assertion of Camoëns is not without foundation, for it was by treachery that Herimeneric, the Goth, got possession of Lisbon.
222 The aqueduct of Sertorius, here mentioned, is one of the grandest remains of antiquity. It was repaired by John III. of Portugal about A.D. 1540.
223 Badajoz.
224 The history of this battle wants authenticity.
225 As already observed, there is no authentic proof that Don Alonzo used such severity to his mother as to put her in chains. Brandan says it was reported that Don Alonzo was born with both his legs growing together, and that he was cured by the prayers of his tutor, Egas Nunio. Legendary as this may appear, this however is deducible from it, that from his birth there was something amiss about his legs. When he was prisoner to his son-in-law, Don Fernando, king of Leon, he recovered his liberty ere his leg, which was fractured in the battle, was restored, on condition that as soon as he was able to mount on horseback, he should come to Leon, and in person do homage for his dominions. This condition, so contrary to his coronation agreement, he found means to avoid. He ever after affected to drive in a calash, and would never mount on horseback more. The superstitious of those days ascribed this infirmity to the curses of his mother.
226 Phasis. — A river of Colchis.
227 A frontier town on the Nile, bordering on Nubia.
228 Colchis. — A country of Asia Minor bordering on the Black Sea. — Ed.
229 Tu quoque littoribus nostris, Æneia nutrix,
Æternam moriens famam, Caieta, dedisti.
Virg. Æn. vii.
230 i.e. Tangiers, opposite to Gibraltar. — Ed.
231 This should be Emir el Moumeneen, i.e., Commander of the Faithful. — Ed.
232 The Mondego is the largest river having its rise within the kingdom of Portugal and entering no other state. — Ed.
233 Miramolin. — Not the name of a person, but a title, quasi Sultan; the Emperor of the Faithful.
234 In this poetical exclamation, expressive of the sorrow of Portugal on the death of Alonzo, Camoëns has happily imitated some passages of Virgil.
—— Ipsæ te, Tityre, pinus,
Ipsi te fontes, ipsa hæc arbusta vocabant.
Ecl. i.
—— Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua,
Ah miseram Eurydicen, anima fugiente, vocabat:
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripæ.
Georg. iv.
—— littus, Hyla, Hyla, omne sonaret.
Ecl. vi.
235 The Guadalquiver, the largest river in Spain. — Ed.
236 The Portuguese, in their wars with the Moors, were several times assisted by the English and German crusaders. In the present instance the fleet was mostly English, the troops of which nation were, according to agreement, rewarded with the plunder, which was exceeding rich, of the city of Silves. Nuniz de Leon as cronicas dos Reis de Port, A.D. 1189. — Ed.
237 Barbarossa, A.D. 1189. — Ed.
238 Unlike the Syrian (rather Assyrian). — Sardanapalus.
239 When Rome’s proud tyrant far’d. — Heliogabalus, infamous for his gluttony.
240 Alluding to the history of Phalaris.
241 Camoëns, who was quite an enthusiast for the honour of his country, has in this instance disguised the truth of history. Don Sancho was by no means the weak prince here represented, nor did the miseries of his reign proceed from himself. The clergy were the sole authors of his, and the public, calamities. The Roman See was then in the height of its power, which it exerted in the most tyrannical manner. The ecclesiastical courts had long claimed the sole right to try an ecclesiastic: and, to prohibit a priest to say mass for a twelve-month, was by the brethren, his judges, esteemed a sufficient punishment for murder, or any other capital crime. Alonzo II., the father of Don Sancho, attempted to establish the authority of the king’s courts of justice over the offending clergy. For this the Archbishop of Braga excommunicated Gonzalo Mendez, the chancellor; and Honorius, the pope, excommunicated the king, and put his dominions under an interdict. The exterior offices of religion were suspended, the people fell into the utmost dissoluteness of manners; Mohammedanism made great advances, and public confusion everywhere prevailed. By this policy the Church constrained the nobility to urge the king to a full submission to the papal chair. While a negotiation for this purpose was on foot Alonzo died, and left his son to struggle with an enraged and powerful clergy. Don Sancho was just, affable, brave, and an enamoured husband. On this last virtue faction first fixed its envenomed fangs. The queen was accused of arbitrary influence over her husband; and, according to the superstition of that age, she was believed to have disturbed his senses by an enchanted draught. Such of the nobility as declared in the king’s favour were stigmatized, and rendered odious, as the creatures of the queen. The confusions which ensued were fomented by Alonso, Earl of Bologna, the king’s brother, by whom the king was accused as the author of them. In short, by the assistance of the clergy and Pope Innocent IV., Sancho was deposed, and soon after died at Toledo. The beautiful queen, Donna Mencia, was seized upon, and conveyed away by one Raymond Portocarrero, and was never heard of more. Such are the triumphs of faction!
242 Alexander the Great.
243 Mondego, the largest exclusively Portuguese river. — Ed.
244 The baccaris, or Lady’s glove, a herb to which the Druids and ancient poets ascribed magical virtues.
—— Baccare frontem
Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro.
Virg. Ecl. vii.
245 Semiramis, who is said to have invaded India. — Ed.
246 Attila, a king of the Huns, surnamed “The Scourge of God.” He lived in the fifth century. He may be reckoned among the greatest of conquerors.
247 His much-lov’d bride. — The Princess Mary. She was a lady of great beauty and virtue, but was exceedingly ill used by her husband, who was violently attached to his mistresses, though he owed his crown to the assistance of his father-in-law, the King of Portugal.
248
By night our fathers’ shades confess their fear,
Their shrieks of terror from the tombs we hear. —
Camoëns says, “A mortos faz espanto;” to give this elegance in English required a paraphrase. There is something wildly great, and agreeable to the superstition of that age, to suppose that the dead were troubled in their graves on the approach of so terrible an army. The French translator, contrary to the original, ascribes this terror to the ghost of only one prince, by which this stroke of Camoëns, in the spirit of Shakespeare, is reduced to a piece of unmeaning frippery.
249 The Muliya, a river of Moroc
co. — Ed.
250 See the first Æneid.
251 Goliath, the Philistine champion. — Ed.
252 David, afterwards king of Israel. — Ed.
253 Though wove. — It may perhaps be objected that this is ungrammatical. But —
—— Usus
Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus et norma loquendi.
and Dryden, Pope, etc., often use wove as a participle in place of the harsh-sounding woven, a word almost incompatible with the elegance of versification.
254 Hannibal, who, as a child, was compelled to swear perpetual hostility to the Romans. — Ed.
255 Where the last great battle between Hannibal and the Romans took place, in which the Romans sustained a crushing defeat. — Ed.
256 When the soldiers of Marius complained of thirst, he pointed to a river near the camp of the Ambrones. “There,” says he, “you may drink, but it must be purchased with blood.” “Lead us on,” they replied, “that we may have something liquid, though it be blood.” The Romans, forcing their way to the river, the channel was filled with the dead bodies of the slain. — Vid. Plutarch’s Lives.
Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works Page 125