Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works

by Luis de Camoes

  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 Πλἡρωμα, 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 as their legends are the dreadful penances to which the Hindus submit themselves for the expiation of sins. Some hold the transmigration of souls, and of consequence abstain from all animal food.{*} Yet, however austere in other respects, they freely abandon themselves to every species of debauchery, some of them esteeming the most unnatural abominations as the privilege of their sanctity. The cow they venerate as sacred. If a dying man can lay hold of a cow’s tail, and expire with it in his hands, his soul is sure to be purified, and perhaps will enjoy the signal favour to transmigrate into the body of one of those animals. The temples of India, which are numerous, are filled with innumerable idols of the most horrid figures. The Brahmins are allowed to eat nothing but what is cooked by themselves. Astrology is their principal study; yet, though they are mostly a despicable set of fortune-tellers, some of them are excellent moralists, and particularly inculcate the comprehensive virtue of humanity, which is enforced by the opinion, that Divine beings often assume the habit of mendicants, in order to distinguish the charitable from the inhuman. They have several traditions of the virtuous, on these happy trials, being translated into heaven; the best designed incitement to virtue, perhaps, which their religion contains. Besides the Brahmins, the principal sect of that vast region called India, there are several others, who are divided and subdivided, according to innumerable variations, in every province. In Cambaya, the Banians, a sect who strictly abstain from all animal food, are numerous.

  {*} Though from the extracts given by Mr. Dow, the philosopher Goutam appears to have been a very Duns Scotus or Aquinas in metaphysics, the Pythagorean reason why the Brahmins abstain from animal food, is a convincing proof of their ignorance in natural philosophy. Some will let vermin overrun them; some of the Banians cover their mouth with a cloth, lest they should suck in a gnat with their breath; and some carefully sweep the floor ere they tread upon it, lest they dislodge the soul of an insect. And yet they do not know that in the water they drink, and in every salad they eat, they cause the death of innumerable living creatures.

  The sacred books of the Hindoos are written in a dead language, the Sanskrit, which none but the Brahmins are allowed to study. So strict in this are they, says Mr. Dow, that only one Mussulman was ever instructed in it, and his knowledge was obtained by fraud. Mahummud Akbar, emperor of India, though bred a Mohammedan, studied several religions. In the Christian he was instructed by a Portuguese. But, finding that of the Hindoos inaccessible, he had recourse to art. A boy named Feizi, was, as the orphan of a Brahmin, put under the care of one of the most eminent of these philosophers, and obtained full knowledge of their hidden religion. But the fraud being discovered, he was laid under the restraint of an oath, and it does not appear that he ever communicated the knowledge thus acquired.

  476 Kotwâl, the chief officer of police in a town. — Forbes’ Hindustani Dictionary.

  477 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.

  478 So Titan’s son. — Briareus.

  479 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.”

  480 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.

  481

  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.

  482 Had Semele beheld the smiling boy. — The Theban Bacchus, to whom the Greek fabulists ascribed the Indian expedition of Sesostris, king of Egypt.

  483 Semiramis.

  484 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.

  485

  The tap’stried walls with gold were pictur’d o’er,

  And
flow’ry velvet spread the marble floor. —

  According to Osorius.

  486 A leaf. — The Betel.

  487 More now we add not. — The tenor of this first conversation between the zamorim and Gama, is according to the truth of history.

  488 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.

  489 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.

  490

  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.

  491 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.

  492 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.

  493

  Soon I beheld that wealth beneath the wave

  For ever lost. —

  See the Life of Camoëns.

  494 My life, like Judah’s Heaven-doom’d king of yore. — Hezekiah. — See Isaiah xxxviii.

  495 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.

  496 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.”

  497 Kotwâl, a sort of superintendent or inspector of police. — Forbes’ Hindustani Dictionary.

  498 Lusus.

  499 His cluster’d bough, the same which Bacchus bore. — Camoëns immediately before, and in the former book, calls the ensign of Lusus a bough; here he calls it the green thyrsus of Bacchus: —

  O verde Tyrso foi de Bacco usado.

  The thyrsus, however, was a javelin twisted with ivy-leaves, used in the sacrifices of Bacchus.

  500 In those fair lawns the bless’d Elysium feign’d. — In this assertion our author has the authority of Strabo. a foundation sufficient for a poet. Nor are there wanting several Spanish writers, particularly Barbosa, who seriously affirm that Homer drew the fine description of Elysium, in his fourth Odyssey, from the beautiful valleys of Spain, where, in one of his voyages, they say, he arrived. Egypt, however, seems to have a better title to this honour. The fable of Charon, and the judges of hell, are evidently borrowed from the Egyptian rites of burial, and are older than Homer. After a ferryman had conveyed the corpse over a lake, certain judges examined the life of the deceased, particularly his claim to the virtue of loyalty, and, according to the report, decreed or refused the honours of sepulture. The place of the catacombs, according to Diodorus Siculus, was surrounded with deep canals, beautiful meadows, and a wilderness of groves. It is universally known that the greatest part of the Grecian fables were fabricated from the customs and opinions of Egypt. Several other nations have also claimed the honour of affording the idea of the fields of the blessed. Even the Scotch challenge it. Many Grecian fables, says an author of that country, are evidently founded on the reports of the Phœnician sailors. That these navigators traded to the coasts of Britain is certain. In the middle of summer, the season when the ancients performed their voyages, for about six weeks there is no night over the Orkney Islands; the disk of the sun, during that time, scarcely sinking below the horizon. This appearance, together with the calm which usually prevails at that season, and the beautiful verdure of the islands, could not fail to excite the admiration of the Phœnicians; and their accounts of the place naturally afforded the idea that these islands were inhabited by the spirits of the just. This, says our author, is countenanced by Homer, who places his “islands of the happy” at the extremity of the ocean. That the fables of Scylla, the Gorgones, and several others, were founded on the accounts of navigators, seems probable; and, on this supposition, the Insulæ Fortunatæ, and Purpurariæ, now the Canary and Madeira islands, also claim the honour of giving colours to the description of Elysium. The truth, however, appears to be this: That a place of happiness is reserved for the spirits of the good
is the natural suggestion of that anxiety and hope concerning the future which animates the human breast. All the barbarous nations of Africa and America agree in placing their heaven in beautiful islands, at an immense distance over the ocean. The idea is universal, and is natural to every nation in a state of barbarous simplicity.

  501 The goddess Minerva.

  502 The heav’n-built towers of Troy. — Alluding to the fable of Neptune, Apollo, and Laomedon.

  503

  On Europe’s strand, more grateful to the skies,

  He bade th’ eternal walls of Lisbon rise. —

  For some account of this tradition, see the note on Lusiad, bk. iii. . Ancient traditions, however fabulous, have a good effect in poetry. Virgil has not scrupled to insert one, which required an apology: —

  Prisca fides facto, sed fama perennis.

  Spenser has given us the history of Brute and his descendants at full length in the Faerie Queene; and Milton, it is known, was so fond of that absurd legend, that he intended to write a poem on the subject; and by this fondness was induced to mention it as a truth in the introduction to his History of England.

  504 The brother chief. — Paulus de Gama.

  505 That gen’rous pride which Rome to Pyrrhus bore. — When Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was at war with the Romans, his physician offered to poison him. The senate rejected the proposal, and acquainted Pyrrhus of the designed treason. Florus remarks on the infamous assassination of Viriatus, that the Roman senate did him great honour; ut videretur aliter vinci non potuisse; it was a confession that they could not otherwise conquer him, — Vid. Flor. l. 17. For a fuller account of this great man, see the note on Lusiad, bk. i. .

  506 Some deem the warrior of Hungarian race. — See the note on the Lusiad, bk. iii .

  507 Jerusalem.

  508 The first Alonzo. — King of Portugal.

  509 On his young pupil’s flight.— “Some, indeed most, writers say, that the queen advancing with her army towards Guimaraez, the king, without waiting till his governor joined him, engaged them and was routed: but that afterwards the remains of his army, being joined by the troops under the command of Egaz Munitz, engaged the army of the queen a second time, and gained a complete victory.” — Univ. Hist.