Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works

by Luis de Camoes

  510 Egaz behold, a chief self-doom’d to death. — See the same story in bk. iii. . Though history affords no authentic document of this transaction, tradition, the poet’s authority, is not silent. And the monument of Egaz in the monastery of Paço de Souza gives it countenance. Egaz and his family are there represented, in bas relief, in the attitude and garb, says Castera, as described by Camoëns.

  511 Ah Rome! no more thy gen’rous consul boast. — Sc. Posthumus, who, overpowered by the Samnites, submitted to the indignity of passing under the yoke.

  512 The Moorish king. — The Alcaydes, or tributary governors under the Miramolin{*} or Emperor of Morocco, are often by the Spanish and Portuguese writers styled kings. He who was surprised and taken prisoner by Don Fuaz Roupinho was named Gama. Fuaz, after having gained the first naval victory of the Portuguese, also experienced their first defeat. With one and twenty sail he attacked fifty-four large galleys of the Moors. “The sea,” says Brandan, “which had lately furnished him with trophies, now supplied him with a tomb.”

  {*} This should be (and is evidently only a corruption of), Emir-el-Mumenin, i.e. in Arabic, Commander of the believers. — Ed.

  513 A foreign navy brings the pious aid. — A navy of crusaders, mostly English.

  514 And from the leaves. — This legend is mentioned by some ancient Portuguese chronicles. Homer would have availed himself, as Camoëns has done, of a tradition so enthusiastic, and characteristic of the age. Henry was a native of Bonneville near Cologne. “His tomb,” says Castera, “is still to be seen in the monastery of St. Vincent, but without the palm.”

  515 In robes of white behold a priest advance. — Thestonius, prior of the regulars of St. Augustine of Conymbra. Some ancient chronicles relate this circumstance as mentioned by Camoëns. Modern writers assert, that he never quitted his breviary. — Castera.

  516 The son of Egas. — He was named Mem Moniz, and was son of Egas Moniz, celebrated for the surrender of himself and family to the King of Castile, as already mentioned.

  517 The dauntless Gerald.— “He was a man of rank, who, in order to avoid the legal punishment to which several crimes rendered him obnoxious, put himself at the head of a party of freebooters. Tiring, however, of that life, he resolved to reconcile himself to his sovereign by some noble action. Full of this idea, one evening he entered Evora, which then belonged to the Moors. In the night he killed the sentinels of one of the gates, which he opened to his companions, who soon became masters of the place. This exploit had its desired effect. The king pardoned Gerald, and made him governor of Evora. A knight with a sword in one hand, and two heads in the other, from that time became the armorial bearing of the city.” — Castera.

  518 Wrong’d by his king. — Don Pedro Fernando de Castro, injured by the family of Lara, and denied redress by the King of Castile, took the infamous revenge of bearing arms against his native country. At the head of a Moorish army he committed several outrages in Spain; but was totally defeated in Portugal.

  519 And lo, the skies unfold.— “According to some ancient Portuguese histories, Don Matthew, bishop of Lisbon, in the reign of Alonso I, attempted to reduce Alcazar, then in possession of the Moors. His troops, being suddenly surrounded by a numerous party of the enemy, were ready to fly, when, at the prayers of the bishop, a venerable old man, clothed in white, with a red cross on his breast, appeared in the air. The miracle dispelled the fears of the Portuguese; the Moors were defeated, and the conquest of Alcazar crowned the victory.” — Castera.

  520

  Her streets in blood deplore

  The seven brave hunters murder’d by the Moor. —

  “During a truce with the Moors, six cavaliers of the order of St. James were, while on a hunting party, surrounded and killed, by a numerous body of the Moors. During the fight, in which the gentlemen sold their lives dear, a common carter, named Garcias Rodrigo, who chanced to pass that way, came generously to their assistance, and lost his life along with them. The poet, in giving all seven the same title, shows us that virtue constitutes true nobility. Don Payo de Correa, grand master of the order of St. James, revenged the death of these brave unfortunates by the sack of Tavila, where his just rage put the garrison to the sword.” — Castera.

  521 Those three bold knights how dread. — Nothing can give us a stronger picture of the romantic character of their age, than the manners of those champions, who were gentlemen of birth; and who, in the true spirit of knight-errantry, went about from court to court in quest of adventures. Their names were, Gonçalo Ribeiro; Fernando Martinez de Santarene; and Vasco Anez, foster-brother to Mary, queen of Castile, daughter of Alonzo IV. of Portugal.

  522 And I, behold, am off’ring sacrifice. — This line, the simplicity which, I think, contains great dignity, is adopted from Fanshaw —

  “And I, ye see, am off’ring sacrifice;”

  who has here caught the spirit of the original —

  A quem lhe a dura nova estava dando,

  Pois eu responde estou sacrificando;

  i.e. To whom when they told the dreadful tidings, “And I,” he replies “am sacrificing.” The piety of Numa was crowned with victory. — Vid. ‘Plut. in vit. Numæ.

  523

  The Lusian Scipio well might speak his fame,

  But nobler Nunio shines a greater name. —

  Castera justly observes the happiness with which Camoëns introduces the name of this truly great man. “Il va,” says he, “le nommer tout à l’heure avec une adresse et une magnificence digne d’un si beau sujet.”

  524 Two knights of Malta. — These knights were first named Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem, afterwards Knights of Rhodes, from whence they were driven to Messina, ere Malta was assigned to them. By their oath of knighthood they were bound to protect the Holy Sepulchre from the profanation of infidels; immediately on taking this oath, they retired to their colleges, where they lived on their revenues in all the idleness of monkish luxury. Their original habit was black, with a white cross; their arms gules, a cross, argent.

  525 His captive friend. — Before John I. mounted the throne of Portugal, one Vasco Porcallo was governor of Villaviciosa. Roderic de Landroal and his friend, Alvarez Cuytado, having discovered that he was in the interest of the King of Castile, drove him from his town and fortress. On the establishment of King John, Porcallo had the art to obtain the favour of that prince; but, no sooner was he re-instated in the garrison, than he delivered it up to the Castilians; and plundered the house of Cuytado, whom, with his wife, he made prisoner and, under a numerous party, ordered to be sent to Olivença. Roderic de Landroal, hearing of this, attacked and defeated the escort, and set his friend at liberty. — Castera.

  526 Here treason’s well-earn’d meed allures thine eyes. — While the kingdom of Portugal was divided, some holding with John the newly elected king, and others with the King of Castile, Roderic Marin, governor of Campo-Major, declared for the latter. Fernando d’Elvas endeavoured to gain him to the interest of his native prince, and a conference, with the usual assurances of safety, was agreed to. Marin, at this meeting, seized upon Elvas, and sent him prisoner to his castle. Elvas having recovered his liberty, a few days after met his enemy in the field, whom, in his turn, he made captive; and the traitorous Marin, notwithstanding the endeavours of their captain to save his life, met the reward of his treason from the soldiers of Elvas. — Partly from Castera.

  527 And safe the Lusian galleys speed away. — A numerous fleet of the Castilians being on their way to lay siege to Lisbon. Ruy Pereyra, the Portuguese commander, seeing no possibility of victory, boldly attacked the Spanish admiral. The fury of his onset put the Castilians in disorder, and allowed the Portuguese galleys a safe escape. In this brave piece of service the gallant Pereyra lost his life. — Castera.

  528 The shepherd. — Viriatus.

  529 Equal flame inspir’d these few. — The Castilians having laid siege to Almada, a fortress on a mountain near Lisbon, the garrison, in the utmos
t distress for water, were obliged at times to make sallies to the bottom of the hill in quest of it. Seventeen Portuguese thus employed were one day attacked by four hundred of the enemy. They made a brave defence, and effected a happy retreat into their fortress. — Castera.

  530 Far from the succour of the Lusian host. — When Alonzo V. took Ceuta, Don Pedro de Menezes was the only officer in the army who was willing to become governor of that fortress; which, on account of the uncertainty of succour from Portugal, and the earnest desire of the Moors to regain it, was deemed untenable. He gallantly defended his post in two severe sieges.

  531 That other earl. — He was the natural son of Don Pedro de Menezes. Alonzo V. one day, having ridden out from Ceuta with a few attendants, was attacked by a numerous party of the Moors, when De Vian, and some others under him, at the expense of their own lives, purchased the safe retreat of their sovereign.

  532 Two brother-heroes shine. — The sons of John I. Don Pedro was called the Ulysses of his age, on account both of his eloquence and his voyages. He visited almost every court of Europe, but he principally distinguished himself in Germany, where, under the standards of the Emperor Sigismond, he signalized his valour in the war against the Turks. — Castera.

  533 The glorious Henry. — In pursuance of the reasons assigned in the preface, the translator has here taken the liberty to make a transposition in the order of his author. In Camoëns, Don Pedro de Menezes, and his son De Vian, conclude the description of the pictured ensigns. Don Henry, the greatest man perhaps that ever Portugal produced, has certainly the best title to close this procession of the Lusian heroes. And, as he was the father of navigation, particularly of the voyage of Gama, to sum up the narrative with his encomium has even some critical propriety.

  These observations were suggested by the conduct of Camoëns, whose design, like that of Virgil, was to write a poem which might contain all the triumphs of his country. As the shield of Æneas supplies what could not be introduced in the vision of Elysium, so the ensigns of Gama complete the purpose of the third and fourth Lusiads. The use of that long episode, the conversation with the King of Melinda, and its connection with the subject, have been already observed. The seeming episode of the pictures, while it fulfills the promise —

  And all my country’s wars the song adorn,

  is also admirably connected with the conduct of the poem. The Hindoos naturally desire to be informed of the country, the history, and power of their foreign visitors, and Paulus sets it before their eyes. In every progression of the scenery the business of the poem advances. The regent and his attendants are struck with the warlike grandeur and power of the strangers, and to accept of their friendship, or to prevent the forerunners of so martial a nation from carrying home the tidings of the discovery of India, becomes the great object of their consideration.

  534 But ah, forlorn, what shame to barb’rous pride. — In the original. —

  Mas faltamlhes pincel, faltamlhes cores,

  Honra, premio, favor, que as artes criáo.

  “But the pencil was wanting, colors were wanting, honour, reward, favour, the nourishers of the arts.” This seemed to the translator as in impropriety, and contrary to the purpose of the whole speech of Paulus, which was to give the catual a high idea of Portugal. In the fate of the imaginary painter, the Lusian poet gives us the picture of his own, resentment wrung this impropriety from him. The spirit of the complaint, however, is preserved in the translation. The couplet —

  “Immortal fame his deathless labours gave;

  Poor man, he sunk neglected to the grave!”

  is not in the original. It is the sigh of indignation over the unworthy fate of the unhappy Camoëns.

  535 The ghost-like aspect and the threat’ning look. — Mohammed, by some historians described as of a pale livid complexion, and trux aspectus et vox terribilis, of a fierce threatening aspect, voice, and demeanour.

  536

  When, softly usher’d by the milky dawn,

  The sun first rises. —

  “I deceive myself greatly,” says Castera, “if this simile is not the most noble and the most natural that can be found in any poem. It has been imitated by the Spanish comedian, the illustrious Lopez de Vega, in his comedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, act i. sc. 1: —

  “Como mirar puede ser

  El sol al amanecer,

  I quando se enciende, no.”

  Castera adds a very loose translation of these Spanish lines in French verse. The literal English is, As the sun may be beheld at its rising, but, when illustriously kindled, cannot. Naked, however, as this is, the imitation of Camoëns is evident. As Castera is so very bold in his encomium of this fine simile of the sun, it is but justice to add his translation of it, together with the original Portuguese, and the translation of Fanshaw. Thus the French translator: —

  Les yeux peuvent soûtenir la clarté du soleil naissant, mais lorsqu’il s’est avancé dans sa carrière lumineuse, et que ses rayons répandent les ardeurs du midi, on tacherait en vain de l’envisager; un prompt aveuglement serait le prix de cette audace.

  Thus elegantly in the original: —

  “Em quanto he fraca a força desta gente,

  Ordena como em tudo se resista,

  Porque quando o Sol sahe, facilmente

  Se pòde nelle por a aguda vista:

  Porem despois que sobe claro, & ardente,

  Se a agudeza dos olhos o conquista

  Tao cega fica, quando ficareis,

  Se raizes criar lhe nao tolheis.”

  And thus humbled by Fanshaw: —

  “Now whilst this people’s strength is not yet knit,

  Think how ye may resist them by all ways.

  For when the Sun is in his nonage yit,

  Upon his morning beauty men may gaze;

  But let him once up to his zenith git,

  He strikes them blind with his meridian rays;

  So blind will ye be, if ye look not too’t,

  If ye permit these cedars to take root.”

  537

  Around him stand,

  With haggard looks, the hoary Magi band. —

  The Brahmins, the diviners of India. Ammianus Marcellinus, l. 23, says, that the Persian Magi derived their knowledge from the Brachmanes of India. And Arrianus, l. 7, expressly gives the Brahmins the name of Magi. The Magi of India, says he, told Alexander, on his pretensions to divinity, that in everything he was like other men, except that he took less rest, and did more mischief. The Brahmins are never among modern writers called Magi.

  538 The hov’ring demon gives the dreadful sign. — This has an allusion to the truth of history. Barros relates, that an anger being brought before the Zamorim, “Em hum vaso de agua l’he mostrara hunas naos, que vin ham de muy longe para a India, e que a gente d’ellas seria total destruiçam dos Mouros de aquellas partes. — In a vessel of water he showed him some ships which from a great distance came to India, the people of which would effect the utter subversion of the Moors.” Camoëns has certainly chosen a more poetical method of describing this divination, a method in the spirit of Virgil; nor in this is he inferior to his great master. The supernatural flame which seizes on Lavinia while assisting at the sacrifice alone excepted, every other part of the augury of Latinus, and his dream in the Albunean forest, whither he went to consult his ancestor, the god Faunus, in dignity and poetical colouring, cannot come in comparison with the divination of the Magi, and the appearance of the demon in the dream of the Moorish priest.

  539 Th’eternal yoke. — This picture, it may perhaps be said, is but a bad compliment to the heroes of the Lusiad, and the fruits of their discovery. A little consideration, however, will vindicate Camoëns. It is the demon and the enemies of the Portuguese who procure this divination; everything in it is dreadful, on purpose to determine the zamorim to destroy the fleet of Gama. In a former prophecy of the conquest of India (when the catual describes the sculpture of the royal palace), our poet has been careful to ascribe the h
appiest effects to the discovery of his heroes: —

  “Beneath their sway majestic, wise, and mild,

  Proud of her victors’ laws, thrice happier India smil’d.”

  540 So let the tyrant plead. — In this short declamation, a seeming excrescence, the business of the poem in reality is carried on. The zamorim, and his prime minister, the catual, are artfully characterised in it; and the assertion —

  Lur’d was the regent with the Moorish gold,

  is happily introduced by the declamatory reflections which immediately precede it.

  541

  The Moors —— their ancient deeds relate,

  Their ever-faithful service of the state. —

  An explanation of the word Moor is here necessary. When the East afforded no more field for the sword of the conqueror, the Saracens, assisted by the Moors, who had embraced their religion, laid the finest countries in Europe in blood and desolation. As their various embarkations were from the empire of Morocco, the Europeans gave the name of Moors to all the professors of the Mohammedan religion. In the same manner the eastern nations blended all the armies of the Crusaders under one appellation, and the Franks, of whom the army of Godfrey was mostly composed, became their common name for all the inhabitants of the West. Before the arrival of Gama, as already observed, all the traffic of the East, from the Ethiopian side of Africa to China, was in the hands of Arabian Mohammedans, who, without incorporating with the pagan natives, had their colonies established in every country commodious for commerce. These the Portuguese called Moors; and at present the Mohammedans of India are called the Moors of Hindostan by our English writers. The intelligence these Moors gave to one another, relative to the actions of Gama; the general terror with which they beheld the appearance of Europeans, whose rivalship they dreaded as the destruction of their power; the various frauds and arts they employed to prevent the return of one man of Gama’s fleet to Europe, and their threat to withdraw from the dominions of the zamorim, are all according to the truth of history. The speeches of the zamorim and of Gama, which follow, are also founded in truth.