The ocean's great discoverer he fhines; Nor lefs his honours in the martial lines: The Talia, per clypeum Vulcani, dona parentis Miratur: rerumque ignarus imagine gaudet. Thefe obfervations, which the tranflator believes have efcaped the critics, were fuggefted to him by the conduct of Camoëns, whofe defign, like that of Virgil, was to write a poem which might contain all the triumphs of his country. As the fhield of Æneas fupplies what could not be introduced in the vifion of Elyfium, fo the enfigns of Gama complete the purpose of the third and fourth Lufiads. The ufe of that long episode, the converfation with the king of Melinda, and its connection with the fubject, have been already obferved. The feeming episode of the pictures, while it fulfils the promife, And all my country's wars the fong adorn The Indians and power of In every proThe regent and is also admirably connected with the conduct of the poem. naturally defire to be informed of the country, the history, their foreign vifitors, and Paulus fets it before their eyes. greffion of the fcenery the business of the poem advances. his attendants are ftruck with the warlike grandeur and power of the ftrangers, and to accept of their friendship, or to prevent the forerunners of fo martial a nation from carrying home the tidings of the discovery of India, becomes the great object of their confideration. And from the paffions of the Indians and Moors, thus agitated, the great catastrophe of the Lufiad is both naturally and artfully produced. As every reader is not a critic in poetry, to fome perhaps the expreffions And the tired ox lows on his weary way loud fhouts aftound the ear-→→→ And the abrupt speech of an enraged warrior, afcribed to a picture; Here no foreign throne Shall fix its bafe, my native king alone Shall reign may appear as unwarrantable. This however, let them be affured, is the language of the genuine fpirit of poetry, when the productions of the fifter mufe are the object of defcription. Let one very bold inftance of this appear in the picture of the dance of the youths and maidens on the fhield of Achilles, thus faithfully rendered by Mr. Pope; Now The painted flag the cloud-wrapt fiege displays; Black yawns the breach; the point of many a spear Numerous though these, more numerous warriors fhine Th' illuftrious glory of the Lufian line. But Now all at once they rife, at once defcend, With well-taught feet: now fhape, in oblique ways, Confus'dly regular, the moving maze: Now forth at once, too fwift for fight they fpring, And undistinguish'd blend the flying ring: So whirls a wheel, in giddy circles toft, And rapid as it runs, the fingle spokes are loft. The gazing multitudes admire around: Two active tumblers in the centre bound; Now high, now low, their pliant limbs they bend: II. XVIII. Sometimes when defcribing a picture, poetry will fay, the figures feem to move, to tremble, or to fing. Homer has once or twice, on the shield of his hero, given this hint how to understand him. But often to repeat the qualification were quite oppofite to the bold and free spirit of poefy, which delights in perfonification, and in giving life and paffion to every thing it describes. It is owing to the superior force of this spirit, together with the more beautiful colouring of its landscape views, that the shield of Achilles, în poetical merit, fo greatly excels the buckler of Æneas, though the diving workman of the latter had the former as a pattern before him. 274 But ah, forlorn, what shame to barbarous 1 pride! The gallant Paulus faithful thus explain'd The wondering regent of the wars inquired; O'er 1 But ab, forlorn, what shame to barbarous pride.—In the original, Mas faltamlhes pincel, faltamlbes cores, But the pencil was wanting, colours were wanting, honour, reward, This feemed to the tranflator as an "favour, the nourishers of the arts." 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 Lufian poet gives us the picture of his own, and refentment wrung this impropriety from him. The spirit of the complaint however is preferved in the translation. The couplet, Immortal fame his deathless labours gave; Poor man, He funk neglected to the grave! is not in the original. It is the figh of indignation over the unworthy fate of the unhappy Camoens. O'er the tall mountain-forest's waiving boughs Aflant the new moon's flender horns arofe ; Near her pale chariot fhone a twinkling star, And, fave the murmuring of the wave afar, Thus when the God of earthquakes rocks the ground, O'er nature's face a horrid gloom he throws, A fhrill-voiced howling trembles through the air The ghoft-like afpect, and the threatening m look, Then m The ghoft-like aspect, and the threatening look.-Mohammed, by all historians, is described as of a pale livid complexion, and trux afpectus et vox terribilis, of a fierce threatening aspect, voice, and demeanour. Then o'er the pillow of a furious priest, Whose burning zeal the Koran's lore profeft, His femblance fhining as the moon's pale gleam": An n We have already feen the warm encomium paid by Taffo to his cotemporary, Camoëns. That great poet, the ornament of Italy, has also teftified his approbation by several imitations of the Lufiad. Virgil, in no instance, has more closely copied Homer, than Taffo has imitated the appearance of Bacchus, or the evil Dæmon, in the dream of the Moorish priest. Thẹ enchanter Ifmeno thus appears to the fleeping Solyman. Soliman' Salimano, i tuoi filenti Ripofi à miglior tempo homai riferva: Thus elegantly tranflated by Mr. Hoole. Oh! Solyman, regardless chief, awake ; Canft thou, unthinking, wait the rising morn? |