Each with the youth above the rest approved,
Each with the nymph above the rest beloved,
They seek the palace of the fovereign dame;
High on a mountain glow'd the wondrous frame :
Of gold the towers, of gold the pillars fhone,
The walls were crystal starr'd with precious ftone.
Amid the hall arose the festive board

With nature's choiceft gifts promifcuous ftor'd:
So will'd the goddess to renew the smile
Of vital strength, long worn by days of toil.
On crystal chairs that fhined as lambent flame
Each gallant youth attends his lovely dame;
Beneath a purple canopy of state

The beauteous goddess and the leader fate:
The banquet glows-Not fuch the feast when all

The pride of luxury in Egypt's hall

Before the love-fick b Roman spread the boast

Of every teeming sea and fertile coaft.
Sacred to nobleft worth and virtue's ear,

Divine as genial was the banquet here;
The wine, the fong, by fweet returns inspire,
Now wake the lover's, now the hero's fire.
On gold and filver from th' Atlantic main,
The fumptuous tribute of the sea's wide reign,
Of various favour was the banquet piled;
Amid the fruitage mingling rofes fmiled.

b Before the love-fick Roman-Mark Anthony.

In

In cups of gold that shed a yellow light,
In filver fhining as the moon of night,
Amid the banquet flow'd the sparkling wine,
Nor gave Falernia's fields the parent vine:
Falernia's vintage nor the fabled power
Of Jove's ambrofia in th' Olympian bower
To this compare not; wild nor frantic fires,
Divineft tranfport this alone inspires.
The beverage foaming o'er the goblet's breast
The crystal fountain's cooling aid confeft;
The while, as circling flow'd the cheerful bowl,
Sapient difcourfe, the banquet of the foul,
Of richest argument and brightest glow,
Array'd in dimpling smiles, in easiest flow
Pour'd all its graces: nor in filence food

The powers of mufic, fuch as erft fubdued

The horrid frown of hell's profound domains,

And footh'd the tortur'd ghosts to flumber on their chains.

Το

It was a cuftom of

The beverage- the fountain's cooling aid corfeft.the ancients in warm climates to mix the coldeft fpring water with their wine, immediately before drinking; not, we may suppose, to render it lefs intoxicating, but on account of the heightened flavour it thereby received. Homer tells us, that the wine which Ulyffes gave to Polypheme would bear twenty measures of water. Modern luxury, by placing the bottle in preferved ice, has found a method to give the wine the most agreeable coolness, without reducing its quality.

Mufic, fuch as erft fubdued the horrid frown of bell, &c.-Alluding to the fable of Orpheus. Fanshaw's translation, as already observed, was published fourteen years before the Paradife Loft. Thefe lines of Milton,

What

To mufic's sweetest chords in loftieft vein,
An angel Syren joins the vocal strain ;
The filver roofs refound the living fong,
The harp and organ's lofty mood prolong
The hallowed warblings; liftening filence rides
The sky, and o'er the bridled winds prefides;
In fofteft murmurs flows the glaffy deep,

And each, lull'd in his fhade, the beftials fleep.
The lofty fong ascends the thrilling skies,

The fong of godlike heroes yet to rise;

Jove gave the dream, whofe glow the Syren fired,

And present Jove the prophecy inspired.

Not he, the bard of love-fick Dido's board,

Nor he the minstrel of Phæacia's lord,

Though fam'd in song, could touch the warbling string,

Or with a voice fo fweet, melodious fing.

And thou, my mufe, O fairest of the train,

Calliope, inspire my closing strain.

No

What could it less when spirits immortal fung?
Their fong was partial, but the harmony
Sufpended hell, and took with ravishment
The thronging audience-

bear a refemblance to these of Fanshaw,

Mufical inftruments not wanting, fuch
As to the damned fpirits once gave eafe
In the dark vaults of the infernal hall.-

To flumber amid their punishment, though omitted by Fanshaw, is literal,,

Fizerao defcançar da eterna pena

e

No more the fummer of my life remains,

My autumn's lengthening evenings chill my veins;
Down the bleak ftream of years by woes on woes
Wing'd on, I hasten to the tomb's repofe,

The port whofe deep dark bottom shall detain
My anchor never to be weigh'd again,

Never on other fea of life to steer

The human courfe

Yet thou, O goddefs, hear,

Yet let me live, though round my filver'd head
Misfortune's bitterest rage unpitying shed

Her coldest storms; yet let me live to crown
The fong that boasts my nation's proud renown.

Of godlike heroes fung the nymph divine,
Héroes whofe deeds on Gama's creft fhall fhine;
Who through the feas by Gama first explor'd
Shall bear the Lufian standard and the fword,
Till every coaft where roars the orient main,
Bleft in its fway fhall own the Lufian reign;
Till every pagan king his neck shall yield,
Or vanquish'd gnaw the duft on battle field.

High

* No more the summer of my life remains.— -It is not certain when Camoëns wrote this. It seems however not long to precede the publication of his poem, at which time he was in his fifty-fifth year. This apoftrophe to his mufe may perhaps by fome be blamed as another digreffion; but fo little does it require defence, that one need not hesitate to affirm, that had Homer, who often talks to his mufe, introduced, on these favourable opportunities, any little picture or history of himself, these digreffions would have been the most interesting parts of his works. Had any fuch little hiftory of Homer complained like this of Camoëns, it would have been bedewed with the tears

of ages.

High Priest of Malabar, the goddess sung,
Thy faith repent not, nor lament thy f wrong;
Though for thy faith to Lufus' generous race
The raging Zamoreem thy fields deface:
From Tagus, lo, the great Pacheco fails,

To India wafted on aufpicious gales.

Soon as his crooked prow the tide shall press,

A new Achilles fhall the tide confefs;

His fhip's ftrong fides shall groan beneath his weight,

And deeper waves receive the facred freight.

Soon

-P. Alvarez Cabral, the

f Thy faith repent not, nor lament thy wrong.. fecond Portuguese commander who failed to India, entered into a treaty of alliance with Trimumpara king of Cochin and high priest of Malabar. The Zamorim raised powerful armies to dethrone him, but his fidelity to the Portuguese was unalterable, though his affairs were brought to the lowest ebb. For an account of this war, and the almost incredible atchievements of Pacheco, fee the history in the Preface.

ɛ His ship's strong fides shall groan beneath their weight, and deeper waves receive the facred freight. Thus Virgil;

-fimul accipit alveo

Ingentem Æneam. Gemuit fub pondere cymba
Sutilis, & multam accepit rimofa paludem.

That the vifionary boat of Charon groaned under the weight of Æneas is a fine poetical stroke; but that the crazy rents let in the water is certainly lowering the image. The thought however, as managed in Camoëns, is much grander than in Virgil, and affords a happy instance, where the hyperbole is truly poetical.

Poetical allufions to, or abridgements of historical events, are either extremely infipid and obfcure, or particularly pleafing to the reader. To be pleafing, a previous acquaintance with the hiftory is neceffary, and for this reason the poems of Homer and Virgil were peculiarly relished by their countrymen. When a known circumftance is placed in an animated poetical view, and cloathed with the graces of poetical language, a fenfible