Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works

by Luis de Camoes

  379 Gama and his followers were, from the darkness of the Portuguese complexion, thought to be Moors. When Gama arrived in the East, a considerable commerce was carried on between the Indies and the Red Sea by the Moorish traders, by whom the gold mines of Sofala, and the riches of East Africa were enjoyed. The traffic was brought by land to Cairo, from whence Europe was supplied by the Venetian and Antwerpian merchants.

  380 “O nome lhe ficou dos Bons-Signais.”

  381 Raphael. See Tobit, ch. v. and xii. — Ed.

  382 It was the custom of the Portuguese navigators to erect crosses on the shores of new-discovered countries. Gama carried materials for pillars of stone with him, and erected six crosses during his expedition. They bore the name and arms of the king of Portugal, and were intended as proofs of the title which accrues from first discovery.

  383 This poetical description of the scurvy is by no means exaggerated. It is what sometimes really happens in the course of a long voyage.

  384 King of Ithaca.

  385 Æneas.

  386 Homer.

  387 Virgil.

  388 The Muses.

  389 Homer’s Odyssey, bk. x. 460.

  390 See the Odyssey, bk. ix.

  391 See Æn. v. 833

  392 The Lotophagi, so named from the lotus, are thus described by Homer: —

  “Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest,

  They eat, they drink, and Nature gives the feast;

  The trees around them all their fruit produce;

  Lotos the name; divine, nectareous juice;

  (Thence call’d Lotophagi) which whoso tastes,

  Insatiate, riots in the sweet repasts,

  Nor other home, nor other care intends,

  But quits his home, his country, and his friends:

  The three we sent, from off th’ enchanting ground

  We dragg’d reluctant, and by force we bound:

  The rest in haste forsook the pleasing shore,

  Or, the charm tasted, had return’d no more.”

  Pope, Odyss. ix. 103.

  The Libyan lotus is a shrub like a bramble, the berries like the myrtle, purple when ripe, and about the size of an olive. Mixed with bread-corn, it was used as food for slaves. They also made an agreeable wine of it, but which would not keep above ten days. See Pope’s note in loco.

  393 In skins confin’d the blust’ring winds control. — The gift of Æolus to Ulysses.

  “The adverse winds in leathern bags he brac’d,

  Compress’d their force, and lock’d each struggling blast:

  For him the mighty sire of gods assign’d,

  The tempest’s lord, the tyrant of the wind;

  His word alone the list’ning storms obey,

  To smooth the deep, or swell the foamy sea.

  These, in my hollow ship the monarch hung,

  Securely fetter’d by a silver thong;

  But Zephyrus exempt, with friendly gales

  He charg’d to fill, and guide the swelling sails:

  Rare gift! but oh, what gift to fools avails?”

  }

  Pope, Odyss. x. 20.

  The companions of Ulysses imagined that these bags contained some valuable treasure, and opened them while their leader slept. The tempests bursting out, drove the fleet from Ithaca, which was then in sight, and was the cause of a new train of miseries.

  394 See the third Æneid.

  395 See the sixth Æneid, and the eleventh Odyssey.

  396 Alexander the Great. — Ed.

  397 Achilles, son of Peleus. — Ed.

  398 Virgil, born at Mantua. — Ed.

  399 Don Francisco de Gama, grandson of Vasco de Gama, the hero of the Lusiad. — Ed.

  400 Cleopatra.

  401 Every display of eastern luxury and magnificence was lavished in the fishing parties on the Nile, with which Cleopatra amused Mark Antony, when at any time he showed symptoms of uneasiness, or seemed inclined to abandon the effeminate life which he led with his mistress. At one of these parties, Mark Antony, having procured divers to put fishes upon his hooks while under the water, he very gallantly boasted to his mistress of his great dexterity in angling. Cleopatra perceived his art, and as gallantly outwitted him. Some other divers received her orders, and in a little while Mark Antony’s line brought up a fried fish in place of a live one, to the vast entertainment of the queen, and all the convivial company. Octavius was at this time on his march to decide who should be master of the world.

  402 The friendship of the Portuguese and Melindians was of long continuance. Alvaro Cabral, the second admiral who made the voyage to India, in an engagement with the Moors off the coast of Sofala, took two ships richly freighted from the mines of that country. On finding that Xeques Fonteyma, the commander, was uncle to the King of Melinda, he restored the valuable prize, and treated him with the utmost courtesy. Their good offices were reciprocal. By the information of the King of Melinda, Cabral escaped the treachery of the King of Calicut. The Kings of Mombaz and Quiloa, irritated at the alliance with Portugal, made several depredations on the subjects of Melinda, who in return were effectually revenged by their European allies.

  403 A giant.

  404 Two gods contending. — According to the fable, Neptune and Minerva disputed the honour of giving a name to the city of Athens. They agreed to determine the contest by a display of their wisdom and power, in conferring the most beneficial gift on mankind. Neptune struck the earth with his trident and produced the horse, whose bounding motions are emblematical of the agitation of the sea. Pallas commanded the olive-tree, the symbol of peace, and of riches, to spring forth. The victory was adjudged to the goddess, from whom the city was named Athens. The taste of the ancient Grecians clothed almost every occurrence in mythological allegory. The founders of Athens, it is most probable, disputed whether their new city should be named from the fertility of the soil or from the marine situation of Attica. The former opinion prevailed, and the town received its name in honour of the goddess of the olive-tree — Athēnē.

  405 While Pallas here appears to wave her hand. — As Neptune struck the earth with his trident, Minerva, says the fable, struck the earth with her lance. That she waved her hand while the olive boughs spread, is a fine poetical attitude, and varies the picture from that of Neptune, which follows.

  406 Though wide, and various, o’er the sculptur’d stone. — The description of palaces is a favourite topic several times touched upon by the two great masters of epic poetry, in which they have been happily imitated by their three greatest disciples among the moderns, Camoëns, Tasso, and Milton. The description of the palace of Neptune has great merit. Nothing can be more in place than the picture of chaos and the four elements. The war of the gods, and the contest of Neptune and Minerva are touched with the true boldness of poetical colouring. To show to the English reader that the Portuguese poet is, in his manner, truly classical, is the intention of many of these notes.

  407 Bacchus.

  408 The description of Triton, who, as Fanshaw says —

  “Was a great nasty clown,”

  is in the style of the classics. His parentage is differently related. Hesiod makes him the son of Neptune and Amphitrité. By Triton, in the physical sense of the fable, is meant the noise, and by Salacé, the mother by some ascribed to him, the salt of the ocean. The origin of the fable of Triton, it is probable, was founded on the appearance of a sea animal, which, according to some ancient naturalists, in the upward parts resembles the human figure. Pausanias relates a wonderful story of a monstrously large one, which often came ashore on the meadows of Bœotia. Over his head was a kind of finny cartilage, which, at a distance, appeared like hair; the body covered with brown scales; the nose and ears like the human; the mouth of a dreadful width, jagged with the teeth of a panther; the eyes of a greenish hue; the hands divided into fingers, the nails of which were crooked, and of a shelly substance. This monster, whose extremities ended in a tail like a dolphin’s, devoured both m
en and beasts as they chanced in his way. The citizens of Tanagra, at last, contrived his destruction. They set a large vessel full of wine on the sea shore. Triton got drunk with it, and fell into a profound sleep, in which condition the Tanagrians beheaded him, and afterwards, with great propriety, hung up his body in the temple of Bacchus; where, says Pausanias, it continued a long time.

  409 A shell of purple on his head he bore. — In the Portuguese —

  Na cabeça por gorra tinha posta

  Huma mui grandé casco de lagosta.

  Thus rendered by Fanshaw —

  “He had (for a montera413) on his crown

  The shell of a red lobster overgrown.”

  410 Neptune.

  411 And changeful Proteus, whose prophetic mind. — The fullest and best account of the fable of Proteus is in the fourth Odyssey.

  412 Thetis.

  413 Montera, the Spanish word for a huntsman’s cap.

  414 She who the rage of Athamas to shun. — Ino, the daughter of Cadmus and Hermione, and second spouse of Athamas, king of Thebes. The fables of her fate are various. That which Camoëns follows is the most common. Athamas, seized with madness, imagined that his spouse was a lioness, and her two sons young lions. In this frenzy he slew Learchus, and drove the mother and her other son, Melicertus, into the sea. The corpse of the mother was thrown ashore on Megara and that of the son at Corinth. They were afterwards deified, the one as a sea goddess, the other as the god of harbours.

  415 And Glaucus lost to joy. — A fisherman, says the fable, who, on eating a certain herb, was turned into a sea god. Circé was enamoured of him, and in revenge of her slighted love, poisoned the fountain where his mistress usually bathed. By the force of the enchantment the favoured Scylla was changed into a hideous monster, whose loins were surrounded with the ever-barking heads of dogs and wolves. Scylla, on this, threw herself into the sea, and was metamorphosed into the rock which bears her name. The rock Scylla at a distance appears like the statue of a woman. The furious dashing of the waves in the cavities, which are level with the water, resembles the barking of wolves and dogs.

  416 Thyoneus, a name of Bacchus.

  417 High from the roof the living amber glows. —

  “From the arched roof,

  Pendent by subtle magic, many a row

  Of starry lamps, and blazing cressets, fed

  With naptha and asphaltus, yielded light

  As from a sky.”

  Milton.

  418 The Titans.

  419 The north wind.

  420 And rent the Mynian sails. — The sails of the Argonauts, inhabitants of Mynia.

  421 See the first note on the first book of the Lusiad.

  422

  In haughty England, where the winter spreads

  His snowy mantle o’er the shining meads. —

  In the original —

  Là na grande Inglaterra, que de neve

  Boreal sempre abunda;

  that is, “In illustrious England, always covered with northern snow.” Though the translator was willing to retain the manner of Homer, he thought it proper to correct the error in natural history fallen into by Camoëns. Fanshaw seems to have been sensible of the mistake of his author, and has given the following (uncountenanced by the Portuguese) in place of the eternal snows ascribed to his country: —

  “In merry England, which (from cliffs that stand

  Like hills of snow) once Albion’s name did git.”

  423 Eris, or Discordia, the goddess of contention. — Virgil, Æneid ii. 337. — Ed.

  424

  What knighthood asks, the proud accusers yield,

  And, dare the damsels’ champions to the field. —

  The translator has not been able to discover the slightest vestige of this chivalrous adventure in any memoirs of the English history. It is probable, nevertheless, that however adorned with romantic ornament, it is not entirely without foundation in truth. Castera, who unhappily does not cite his authority, gives the names of the twelve Portuguese champions: Alvaro Vaz d’Almada, afterwards Count d’Avranches in Normandy; another Alvaro d’Almada, surnamed the Juster, from his dexterity at that warlike exercise; Lopez Fernando Pacheco; Pedro Homen d’Acosta; Juan Augustin Pereyra; Luis Gonfalez de Malafay; the two brothers Alvaro and Rodrigo Mendez de Cerveyra; Ruy Gomex de Sylva; Soueyro d’Acosta, who gave his name to the river Acosta in Africa; Martin Lopez d’Azevedo; and Alvaro Gonfalez de Coutigno, surnamed Magricio. The names of the English champions, and of the ladies, he confesses are unknown, nor does history positively explain the injury of which the dames complained. It must, however, he adds, have been such as required the atonement of blood; il falloit qu’elle fût sanglante, since two sovereigns allowed to determine it by the sword. “Some critics,” says Castera, “may perhaps condemn this episode of Camoëns; but for my part,” he continues, “I think the adventure of Olindo and Sophronia, in Tasso, is much more to be blamed. The episode of the Italian poet is totally exuberant, whereas that of the Portuguese has a direct relation to his proposed subject: the wars of his country, a vast field, in which he has admirably succeeded, without prejudice to the first rule of the epopea, the unity of the action.” The severest critic must allow that the episode related by Veloso, is happily introduced. To one who has ever been at sea, the scene must be particularly pleasing. The fleet is under sail, they plough the smooth deep —

  “And o’er the decks cold breath’d the midnight wind.”

  All but the second watch are asleep in their warm pavilions; the second watch sit by the mast, sheltered from the chilly gale by a broad sail-cloth; sleep begins to overpower them, and they tell stories to entertain one another. For beautiful, picturesque simplicity there is no sea-scene equal to this in the Odyssey, or Æneid.

  425 What time he claim’d the proud Castilian throne. — John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, claimed the crown of Castile in the right of his wife, Donna Constantia, daughter of Don Pedro, the late king. Assisted by his son-in-law, John I. of Portugal, he entered Galicia, and was proclaimed king of Castile at the city of St. Jago de Compostella. He afterwards relinquished his pretensions, on the marriage of his daughter, Catalina, with the infant, Don Henry of Castile.

  426 The dames by lot their gallant champions choose. — The ten champions, who in the fifth book of Tasso’s Jerusalem are sent by Godfrey for the assistance of Armida, are chosen by lot. Tasso, who had read the Lusiad, and admired its author, undoubtedly had the Portuguese poet in his eye.

  427

  In that proud port half circled by the wave,

  Which Portugallia to the nation gave,

  A deathless name. —

  Oporto, called by the Romans Calle. Hence Portugal.

  428

  Yet something more than human warms my breast,

  And sudden whispers —

  In the Portuguese —

  Mas, se a verdade o espirito me adevinha.

  Literally, “But, if my spirit truly divine.” Thus rendered by Fanshaw —

  But, in my aug’ring ear a bird doth sing.

  429 As Rome’s Corvinus. — Valerius Maximus, a Roman tribune, who fought and slew a Gaul of enormous stature, in single combat. During the duel a raven perched on the helmet of his antagonist, sometimes pecked his face and hand, and sometimes blinded him with the flapping of his wings. The victor was thence named Corvinus, from Corvus. Vid. Livy, l. 7, c. 26.

  430 The Flandrian countess on her hero smil’d. — The princess, for whom Magricio signalized his valour, was Isabella of Portugal, and spouse to Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, and earl of Flanders. Some Spanish chronicles relate that Charles VII. of France, having assembled the states of his kingdom, cited Philip to appear with his other vassals. Isabella, who was present, solemnly protested that the earls of Flanders were not obliged to do homage. A dispute arose, on which she offered, according to the custom of that age, to appeal to the fate of arms. The proposal was accepted, and Magricio the champion of Isabella, vanquis
hed a French chevalier, appointed by Charles. Though our authors do not mention this adventure, and though Emmanuel de Faria, and the best Portuguese writers treat it with doubt, nothing to the disadvantage of Camoëns is thence to be inferred. A poet is not obliged always to follow the truth of history.

  431 The Rhine another pass’d, and prov’d his might. — This was Alvaro Vaz d’Almada. The chronicle of Garibay relates, that at Basle he received from a German a challenge to measure swords, on condition that each should fight with the right side unarmed; the German by this hoping to be victorious, for he was left-handed. The Portuguese, suspecting no fraud, accepted. When the combat began he perceived the inequality. His right side unarmed was exposed to the enemy, whose left side, which was nearest to him was defended with half a cuirass. Notwithstanding all this, the brave Alvaro obtained the victory. He sprang upon the German, seized him, and, grasping him forcibly in his arms, stifled and crushed him to death; imitating the conduct of Hercules, who in the same manner slew the cruel Anteus. Here we ought to remark the address of our author; he describes at length the injury and grief of the English ladies, the voyage of the twelve champions to England, and the prowess they there displayed. When Veloso relates these, the sea is calm; but no sooner does it begin to be troubled, than the soldier abridges his recital: we see him follow by degrees the preludes of the storm, we perceive the anxiety of his mind on the view of the approaching danger, hastening his narration to an end. Behold the strokes of a master! — This note, and the one preceding, are from Castera.

  432 The halcyons, mindful of their fate, deplore. — Ceyx, king of Trachinia, son of Lucifer, married Alcyone, the daughter of Eolus. On a voyage to consult the Delphic Oracle, he was shipwrecked. His corpse was thrown ashore in the view of his spouse, who, in the agonies of her love and despair, threw herself into the sea. The gods, in pity of her pious fidelity, metamorphosed them into the birds which bear her name. The halcyon is a little bird about the size of a thrush, its plumage of a beautiful sky blue, mixed with some traits of white and carnation. It is vulgarly called the kingfisher. The halcyons very seldom appear but in the finest weather, whence they are fabled to build their nests on the waves. The female is no less remarkable than the turtle, for her conjugal affection. She nourishes and attends the male when sick, and survives his death but a few days. When the halcyons are surprised in a tempest, they fly about as in the utmost terror, with the most lamentable and doleful cries. To introduce them, therefore, in the picture of a storm is a proof, both of the taste and judgment of Camoëns.