Oh then, propitious hear your son implore, 2 One hand the pen, and one the sword employ'd, The guest dependent at the lordling's board: Now blest with all the wealth fond hope could crave, On the wild shore all friendless, hopeless, thrown; 1 The warlike song.-Though Camoëns began his Lusiad in Portugal, almost the whole of it was written while on the ocean, while in Africa, and in India.-See his Life. 2 As Canace.-Daughter of Eolus. Her father, having thrown her incestuous child to the dogs, sent her a sword, with which she slew herself. In Ovid she writes an epistle to her husband-brother, where she thus describes herself: Dextra tenet calamum, strictum tenet altera ferrum. 3 Soon I beheld that wealth beneath the wave See the Life of Camoens. My life, like Judah's Heaven-doom'd king of yore.-Hezekiah.-See Isaiah xxxviii. 5 And left me mourning in a dreary jail.—This, and the whole paragraph from Degraded now, by poverty abhorr'd, Such was the meed, alas! on me bestow'd, Bestow'd by those for whom my numbers glow'd, Ye gentle nymphs of Tago's rosy bowers, Who spurns the muse,1 nor feels the raptur'd strain, alludes to his fortunes in India. The latter circumstance relates particularly to the base and inhuman treatment he received on his return to Goa, after his unhappy shipwreck.-See his Life. 1 Who spurns the muse. Similarity of condition_has produced similarity of sentiment in Camoëns and Spenser. Each was the ornament of his country and his age, and each was cruelly neglected by the men of power, who, in truth, were incapable to judge of their merit, or to relish their writings. We have seen several of the strictures of Camoëns on the barbarous nobility of Portugal. The similar complaints of Spenser will show, that neglect of genius, however, was not confined to the court of Lisbon: "O grief of griefs! O gall of all good hearts! Of such as first were raised for virtue's parts, For him, for these, no wreath my hand shall twine; honor t And now, broad spreading like an aged tree, Igally then power Real Heroes RUINS OF TIME. It is thought Lord Burleigh, who withheld the bounty intended by Queen Elizabeth, is here meant. But he is more clearly stigmatized in these remarkable lines, where the misery of dependence on court favour is painted in colours which must recal several strokes of the Lusiad to the mind of the reader : "Full little knowest thou that hast not tried, MOTHER HUBBERD'S TALE. These lines exasperated still more the inelegant, illiberal Burleigh. So true is the observation of Mr. Hughes, that, "even the sighs of a miserable man are sometimes resented as an affront by him that is the occasion of them." END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK. BOOK VIII. THE ARGUMENT. Description of the pictures, given by Paulus. The heroes of Portugal, from Lusus, one of the companions of Bacchus (who gave his name to Portugal), and Ulysses, the founder of Lisbon, down to Don Pedro and Don Henrique (Henry), the conquerors of Ceuta, are all represented in the portraits of Gama, and are characterized by appropriate verses. Meanwhile the zamorim has recourse to the oracles of his false gods, who make him acquainted with the future dominion of the Portuguese over India, and the consequent ruin of his empire. The Mohammedan Arabs conspire against the Portuguese. The zamorim questions the truth of Gama's statement, and charges him with being captain of a band of pirates. Gama is obliged to give up to the Indians the whole of his merchandise as ransom, when he obtains permission to re-embark. He seizes several merchants of Calicut, whom he detains on board his ship as hostages for his two factors, who were on land to sell his merchandise. He afterwards liberates the natives, whom he exchanges for his two companions. In Mickle's translation this portion of the original is omitted, and the factors are released in consequence of a victory gained by Gama. WITH eye unmov'd the silent CATUAL1 view'd The pictur'd sire with seeming life endu'd; "Bold though these figures frown, yet bolder far These godlike heroes shin'd in ancient war. 1 Kotwal, a sort of superintendent or inspector of police.--FORBES' Hindustani Dictionary. 2 Lusus. T In that hoar sire, of mien serene, august, His cluster'd bough-the same which Bacchus bore1— What time his yellow locks with vine-leaves curl'd, 1 His cluster'd bough, the same which Bacchus bore.-Camoëns immediately before, and in the former book, calls the ensign of Lusus a bough; here he calls it the green thyrsus of Bacchus : O verde Tyrso foi de Bacco usado. The thyrsus, however, was a javelin twisted with ivy-leaves, used in the sacrifices of Bacchus: In those fair lawns the bless'd Elysium feign'd. In this assertion our author has the authority of Strabo, a foundation sufficient for a poet. Nor are there wanting several Spanish writers, particularly Barbosa, who seriously affirm that Homer drew the fine description of Elysium, in his fourth Odyssey, from the beautiful valleys of Spain, where, in one of his voyages, they say, he arrived. Egypt, however, seems to have a better title to this honour. The fable of Charon, and the judges of hell, are evidently borrowed from the Egyptian rites of burial, and are older than Homer. After a ferryman had conveyed the corpse 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 refused the honours of sepulture. The place of the catacombs, according to Diodorus Siculus, was surrounded with deep canals, beautiful meadows, and a wilderness of groves. It is universally 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, says an author of that country, are evidently founded on the reports of the Phoenician sailors. That these navigators traded to the coasts of Britain is certain. In the middle of summer, the season when the ancients performed their voyages, for about six weeks there is no night over the Orkney Islands; the disk of the sun, during that time, scarcely sinking below the horizon. This appearance, together with the calm which usually prevails at that |