WIT ITH eye unmoved the filent CATUAL view'd The pictured fire with seeming life endued; A verdant vine-bough waving in his right, Smooth flowed his fweepy beard of gloffy white; When thus, as swift the Moor unfolds the word, The valiant Paulus to the Indian lord; Bold though these figures frown, yet bolder far These godlike heroes fhined in ancient war. In that hoar fire, of mien ferene, august, Lufus behold, no robber chief unjust; His cluster'd bough, the fame which Bacchus a bore, He waves, the emblem of his care of yore; b Where a His clufter'd bough, the fame which Bacchus bore. -Camoëns immediately before, and in the former book, calls the enfign of Lufus a bough; here he calls it the green thyrfus of Bacchus, O verde tyrfo foi de Bacco ufado. The thyrfus however was a javelin twisted with ivy-leaves, used in the facrifices of Bacchus. b In thofe fair lawns the bleft Elyfium feign'd.—In this affertion our author has the authority of Strabo, a foundation sufficient for a poet. Nor are there wanting feveral Spanish writers, particularly Barbofa, who seriously affirm that Homer drew the fine defcription of Elyfium, in his fourth Odyffey, from the beautiful valleys of Spain, where in one of his voyages, it is faid, he arrived. Egypt, however, feems to have a better title to this honour. The fable of Charon, and the judges of the poetical hell, are evidently borrowed from the Egyptian rites of burial, and are older than Homer. After a ferryman had conveyed the corpfe 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 refufed the honours of fepulture. The place of the catacombs, according to Diodorus Siculus, was furrounded 254 Where winding oft the Guadiana roves, And Douro murmurs through the flowery groves. Who with deep canals, beautiful meadows, and a wildernefs of groves. And it is univerfally 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, fays an author of that country, are evidently founded on the reports of the Phoenician failors. That these navigators traded to the coafts of Britain is certain. In the middle of fummer, the feafon when the ancients performed their voyages, for about fix weeks there is no night over the Orkney islands; the difk of the fun during that time fcarcely finking below the horizon. This appearance, together with the calm which ufually prevails at that feason, and the beautiful verdure of the iflands, could not fail to excite the admiration of the Tyrians, and their accounts of the place naturally afforded the idea that thefe islands were inhabited by the fpirits of the juft. This, fays 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 Gorgades, and feveral others, were founded on the accounts of navigators, feems probable; and on this fuppofition the Infulæ Fortunatæ, and Purpurariæ, now the Canary and Madeira islands, alfo claim the honour of giving colours to the defcription of Elyfium. The truth however appears to be this: That a place of happiness is referved for the fpirits of the good is the natural fuggeftion 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 immenfe distance over the ocean. The idea is univerfal, and is natural to every nation in the state of barbarous fimplicity. Who fired his lips with eloquence divine, On Tago's banks he rear'd the hallowed shrine: On Afian ground the heaven-built towers of On Europe's strand, more grateful to the skies, Troy, But who that godlike terror of the plain, The pagan afks; the brother chief replies, Unconquer'd deem'd proud Rome's dread ftandard flies. His crook thrown by, fired by his nation's woes, The hero fhepherd Viriatus rose; His country faved proclaim'd his warlike fame, And Rome's wide empire trembled at his name. That e-The heaven-built towers of Troy -Alluding to the fable of Neptune, Apollo, and Laomedon. On Europe's frand, more grateful to the fkies, He bade th' eternal walls of Lisboa rise. For fome account of this tradition fee the note p. 109. vol. i. Ancient traditions, however fabulous, have a good effect in poetry. Virgil has not fcrupled to infert one, which required an apology. -Prifca fides facto, fed fama perennis. Spenfer has given us the history of Brute and his descendants at full length in the Faerie Queen; 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 fondnefs was induced to mention it as a truth in his Introduction to the History of England. 256 That generous pride which Rome to Pyrrhus f bore, By treason flain he lay. How ftern, behold, g Some from Loraine the godlike hero trace. His warlike bands the holy Henry leads, And to his latest race aufpicious waft it down. And f That generous pride which Rome to Pyrrhus bore.-When Pyrrhus king of Epirus was at war with the Romans, his phyfician offered to poison him. The fenate rejected the propofal, and acquainted Pyrrhus of the defigned treafon. Florus remarks on the infamous affaffination of Viriatus, that the Roman fenate did him great honour; ut videretur aliter vinci non potuiffe; it was a confeffion that they could not otherwife conquer him. Vid. Flor. 1. 17. For a fuller account of this great man, fee the note on p. 14. vol. i. 8 Some deem the warrior of Hungarian race. vol. i. See the note on p. 9 |