The Lusiad Part 33

[124] _Doto, Nyse, and Nerine._--Cloto, or Clotho, as Castera observes, has by some error crept into almost all the Portuguese editions of the Lusiad. Clotho was one of the Fates, and neither Hesiod, Homer, nor Virgil has given such a name to any of the Nereids; but in the ninth aeneid Doto is mentioned--

----_magnique jubebo aequoris esse Deas, qualis Nerea Doto Et Galatea secant spumantem pectore pontum._

The Nereids, in the Lusiad, says Castera, are the virtues divine and human. In the first book they accompany the Portuguese fleet--

----_before the bounding prows The lovely forms of sea-born nymphs arose._

[125] The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.--PROVERBS x.x.x. 25.--_Ed._

[126] Imitated from Virgil--

_Cymothoe simul, et Triton adnixus acuto Detrudunt naves scopulo._--VIRG. aen. i.

[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 a.s.sisted 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 quant.i.ty of frogs, imagined, according to the superst.i.tion of their age, that the souls of their friends appeared to them under that metamorphosis.

To some it may, perhaps, appear needless to vindicate Camoens, 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 Camoens 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 S 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 circ.u.mstance.

[129] Venus.

[130] As the planet of Jupiter is in the sixth heaven, the author has with propriety there placed the throne of that G.o.d.--CASTERA.

[131] "I am aware of the objection, that this pa.s.sage 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 G.o.ddess. 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 Camoens is here obvious. If Acteon, and the slaves of their violent pa.s.sions, 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 Camoens. 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 pa.s.sions, 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. Ta.s.so published a treatise to prove that his _Gerusalemme Liberata_ is no other than the Christian spiritual warfare. And Camoens, as observed in the preface, has twice a.s.serted that his machinery is allegorical. The poet's a.s.sertion, 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 aeneid, and do great honour to the cla.s.sical taste of the Portuguese poet.

[135] Imitated from Virg. aen. i.--

_Olli subridens hominum sator atque Deorum, Vultu, quo clum tempestatesque serenat, Oscula libavit natae_----

[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] aeneas.--_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. aen. 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 depot.--_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 Aurorae populis et littore rubro, aegyptum, viresque Orientis, et ultima sec.u.m Bactra vehit: sequiturque nefas! aegyptia conjux.

Una omnes ruere, ac totum spumare, reductis Convulsum remis rostrisque tridentibus, aequor.

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 caede rubesc.u.n.t.

----Saevit medio in certamine Maxors._

VIRG. aen. 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 Cyllene, 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]