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In sweet vibrations thrilling o'er the skies,

High pois'd in air, the lark his warbling tries;
The fwan flow failing o'er the crystal lake
Tunes his melodious note; from every brake
The glowing strain the nightingale returns,
And in the bowers of love the turtle mourns.
Pleased to behold his branching horns appear,
O'er the bright fountain bends the fearless deer;
The hare ftarts trembling from the bushy shade,
And swiftly circling, croffes oft the glade.
Where from the rocks the bubbling founts diftil,
The milk-white lambs come bleating down the hill;
The dappled heifer feeks the vales below,
And from the thicket springs the bounding doe.
To his lov'd neft, on fondly fluttering wings,
In chirping bill the little songster brings

The food untasted; transport thrills his breast;
'Tis nature's touch; 'tis instinct's heaven-like feaft.
Thus bower and lawn were deckt with Eden's flowers,

And feng and joy imparadised the bowers.

And foon the fleet their ready anchors threw :

Lifted on eager tip-toe at the view,

On nimble feet that bounded to the ftrand

The fecond Argonauts helance to land.

Wide

h The fecond Argonauts.· -The expedition of the Golden Fleece was efteemed in ancient poetry, one of the most daring adventures, the fuccefs of which was accounted miraculous. The allufions of Camoëns to this voyage, though in the spirit of his age, are by no means improper.

Wide o'er the beauteous ifle i the lovely fair

Stray through the distant glades, devoid of care.

From

i Wide o'er the beauteous ifle the lovely fair.- -We now come to the paffage condemned by Voltaire as fo lafcivious, that no nation in Europe, except the Portuguese and Italians, could bear it. But the author of the deteftable poem La Pucelle d'Orleans talks of the island of Venus with that fame know. ledge of his fubject with which he made Camoëns, who was not then born, a companion to Gama in the expedition which discovered the route to India. Though Voltaire's cavils, I truft, are in general fully answered in the Preface, a particular examination of the charge of indecency may not be unneceffary ere the reader enter upon the paffage itself. No painter then, let it be remembered, was ever blamed for drawing the graces unveiled or naked. In sculpture, in painting, and poetry, it is not nakedness, it is the expreffion or manner only that offends decency. It is this which conftitutes the dif. ference between a Venus de Medicis and the lascivious paintings in the apartments of a Tiberius. The fate of Camoëns has hitherto been very peculiar. The mixture of Pagan and Christian mythology in his machinery has been anathematised, and his island of Love represented as a brothel. Yet both accufations are the arrogant affertions of the most fuperficial acquaintance with his works, a Hearfay, echoed from critic to critic. His poem itself, and a comparison of its parts with the fimilar conduct of the greatest modern poets, will clearly evince, that in both instances no modern epic writer of note has given lefs offence to true criticism.

Not to mention Ariofto, whose descriptions will often admit of no palliation, Taffo, Spenfer, and Milton, have always been efteemed as the chastest of poets, yet in the delicacy of warm description, the inartificial modesty of nature, none of them can boast the continued uniformity of the Portuguese poet. Though there is a warmth in the colouring of Camoëns, which even the genius of Taffo has not reached; and though the island of Armida is evidently copied from the Lusiad; yet those who are poffeffed of the finer feelings, will easily discover an effential difference between the love-fcenes of the two poets, a difference greatly in favour of the delicacy of the former. Though the nymphs in Camoëns are detected naked in the woods and in the ftream, and though defirous to captivate, still their behaviour is that of the virgin, who hopes to be the spouse. They act the part of offended modesty; even when they yield they are filent, and behave in every respect like Milton's Eve in the state of innocence, who

What was honour knew

And who difplayed

Her

From lowly valley and from mountain grove
The lovely nymphs renew the ftrains of love.

Here

Her virtue, and the confcience of her worth,

That would be wooed, and not unfought be won.

To fum up all, the nuptial fanctity draws its hallowed curtains, and a masterly allegory fhuts up the love-fcenes of Camoëns.

How different from all this is the island of Armida in Taffo, and its tranf. Jation, the bower of Acrafia, in Spenfer! In these virtue is feduced; the fcene therefore is lefs delicate. The nymphs, while they are bathing, in place of the modesty of the bride as in Camoëns, employ all the arts of the lafcivious wanton. They ftay not to be wooed; but, as Spenser gives it,

The amorous fweet Spoils to greedy eyes reveal.

One stanza from our English poet, which however is rather fuller than the original, fhall here fuffice:

Withal fhe laughed and the blufh'd withal,

That blushing to her laughter gave more grace,

And laughter to her blushing, as did fall.

Now when they spy'd the knight to flack his pace,
Them to behold, and in his sparkling face

The fecret figns of kindling luft appear,

Their wanton merriments they did encrease,

And to him beckon'd to approach more near,

And fhew'd him many fights, that courage cold could rear.

This and other defcriptions,

Upon a bed of roses she was laid

As faint through heat, or dight to pleasant fin.

prefent every idea of lafcivious voluptuoufnefs. The allurements of speech are alfo added. Songs, which breathe every perfuafive, are heard; and the nymphs boldly call to the beholder;

E' dolce campo di battaglia il letto
Fiavi, e l'herbetta morbida de' prati.—

Our field of battle is the downy bed,
Or flowery turf amid the fmiling mead.-

TASSO.

HOOLE.

Thefe,

Here from the bowers that crown the plaintive rill
The folemn harp's melodious warblings thrill;

Here

Thefe, and the whole fcenes in the domains of Armida and Acrafia, are in a turn of manner the reverse of the island of Venus. They are the scenes of guilt and remorfe. In Camoëns, the fuppofition of the pureft honour and innocence gives a nameless delicacy; and though the colouring be warm, yet the modesty of the Venus de Medicis is ftill preserved. In every thing he defcribes there is still something strongly similar to the modest attitude of the arms of that celebrated statue. Though prudery, that usual mask of the impureft minds, may condemn him, yet those of the moft chaste, though less gloomy turn, will allow, that in comparison with others, he might fay, Virginibus puerifque canto.

Spenfer also, where he does not follow Taffo, is often grofs; and even in fome inftances, where the expreffion is more delicate, the picture is nevertheless indecently lafcivious. The third and fourth of the five concluding ftanzas, which in his fecond edition he added to the third book of the Faerie Queene, afford a striking example. The virgin Britomart, the pattern of chastity, stands by, while Sir Scudamore and Amoret,

With fweet countervaile

Each other of love's bitter fruit defpoile→→→

But this fhall not here be cited; only,

That Britomart, half envying their blefs,

Was much empaffion'd in her gentle sprite,

And to herself oft wifh'd like happiness;

In vain the wifh'd, that fate n'ould let her yet poffefs.

Nor is even Spenfer's wife of Malbecco more indelicate than some lines of the Paradife Loft. The reply of the angel to Adam's defcription of his nuptials, contains some strokes intolerably disgustful. And the first effect of the forbidden fruit offers a remarkable contrast to that delicacy of expreffion which adorns the first loves of Adam and Eve. If there is propriety however in thus reprefenting the amours of guilty intoxication, by which figure Milton calls it, fome of the terms of expreffion are still indefenfibly indelicate. In a word, so unjust is the cenfure of Voltaire, a cenfure which never arose from a comparison of Camoëns with other poets, and fo illgrounded is the charge against him, that we cannot but admire his fuperior delicacy; a delicacy not even understood in his age, when the groffeft VOL. II.

imagery

Here from the fhadows of the upland grott
The mellow lute renews the fwelling note.
As fair Diana and her virgin train

Some gayly ramble o'er the flowery plain,
In feign'd pursuit of hare or bounding roe,
Their graceful mien and beauteous limbs to fhew;
Now feeming carelefs, fearful now and coy,
(So taught the goddess of unutter'd joy,)
And gliding through the diftant glades difplay
Each limb, each movement, naked as the day.
Some light with glee in careless freedom take
Their playful revels in the crystal lake ;
One trembling ftands no deeper than the knee
To plunge reluctant, while in sportful glee
Another o'er her fudden laves the tide ;
In pearly drops the wishful waters glide,
Reluctant dropping from her breasts of fnow;
Beneath the wave another feems to glow;
The amorous waves her bosom fondly kiss'd,
And rofe and fell, as panting on her breast.

Another

imagery often found a place in the pulpits of the most pious divines; when in the old liturgy itself it was esteemed no indelicacy of expreffion to enjoin the wife to be buxom in bed and at board. We know what liberties were taken by the politeft writers of the Augustan age; and fuch is the change of manners, that Shakespeare and Spenser might with justice appeal from the judgment of the present, when it condemns them for indecency. Camoëns, however, may appeal to the most polished age; let him be heard for himself, let him be compared with others of the first name, and his warmeft descrip tions need not dread the decifion.