foul. Though his polished converfation + was often courted by the great, he appears fo diftant from fervility, that his imprudence in this refpect is by fome highly blamed. Yet the inftances of it by no means deserve that feverity of cenfure with which fome writers have condemned him. Unconfcious of the feelings of a Camoëns, they knew not that a careleffuefs in fecuring the fmiles of fortune, and an open honefty of indignation, are almoft infeparable from the enthusiasm of fine imagination. The truth is, the man poffeffed of true genius feels his greatest happiness in the pursuits and excurfions of the mind, and therefore makes an eftimate of things, very different from that of him whofe unremitting attention is devoted to his external intereft. The profufion of Camoëns is alfo cenfured. Had he diffipated the wealth he acquired at Macao, his profufion indeed had been criminal; but it does not appear that he ever enjoyed any other opportunity of acquiring independence. But Camoëns was unfortunate, and the unfortunate man is viewed through the dim fhade his fate cafts o'er him: Never had been defcried Yet after the ftri&teft difcuffion, when all the causes are weighed to¬ gether, the misfortunes of Camoëns will appear the fault and difgrace of his age and country, and not of the man. His talents would have fecured him an apartment in the palace of Auguftus, but fuch talents are a curfe to their poffeffor in an illiterate nation. After all, however, if he was imprudent on his first appearance at the court of John III. if the honesty of his indignation led him into great imprudence, as certainly it did, when at Goa he fatyrifed the viceroy and the first Goths in power; yet let it alfo be remembered, that "The gifts of imagination bring the heaviest tafk upon the vigilance of reafon; and to bear thofe faculties with unerring rec"fitude or invariable propriety, requires a degree of firmness and + Camoëns has not escaped the fate of other eminent wits. Their ignorant admirers contrive anecdotes of their humour, which in reality difgrace them. Camoëns, it is faid, one day heard a potter finging fome of his verses in a miferable mangled manner, and by way of retaliation, broke a parcel of his earthen ware. "Friend, faid he, you deftroy my verfes and I deftroy your goods." The fame foolish ftory is told of Ariofto; nay, we are even informed, that Rinaldo's fpeech to his horfe in the first book, Ferma Baiarda mio, &c. was the paffage miftuned; and that on the potter's complaint, the injured poet replied, "I have only broken a few bafe pots of thine not worth a groat, but thou haft murdered a fine ftanza of mine worth a mark of gold." But both these filly tales are borrowed from Plutarch's life of Arcefilaus, where the fame dull humour is told of Philoxenus. "He heard fome brick-makers miftune one of his fongs, and in return he destroyed a number of their bricks." 46 s of cool attention, which doth not always attend the higher gifts of the mind. Yet difficult as nature herfelf feems to have ren"dered the task of regularity to genius, it is the fupreme confola❝tion of dul!nefs and of folly to point with Gothic triumph to "thofe exceffes which are the overflowings of faculties they never enjoyed. Perfectly unconscious that they are indebted to their ftupidity for the confifiency of their conduct, they plume them, felves on an imaginary virtue, which has its origin in what is "really their difgrace.-Let fuch, if fuch dare approach the fhrine "of Camoëns, withdraw to a refpectful distance; and should they "behold the ruins of genius, or the weakness of an exalted mind, "let them be taught to lament, that nature has left the nobleft of "her works imperfect." After a masterly confutation of fome ill-grounded criticisms and grofs mifrepresentations of Voltaire's, refpecting the Lufiad, Mr. Mickle proceeds to an examen of the machinery and conftruction of the poem on the principles of the Epopoeia, and prefents us with the following analyfis: The poem opens with a view of the Portuguese fleet before a profperous gale on the coaft of Ethiopia. The crews, however, are worn with labour, and their fafety depends upon their fortune in a friendly harbour. The gods of ancient or poetical mythology are reprefented as in council. The fate of the Eaftern world depends upon the fuccefs of the fleet. But as we trace the machinery of the Lufiad, let us remember that, like the machinery of Homer and Virgil, it is alfo allegorical. Jupiter, or the Lord of Fate, pronounces that the Lufians fhall be profperous. Bacchus, the evil demon or genius of Mohammedifm, who was worshipped in the Eaft, foreseeing that his empire and altars would be overturned, opposes Jove, or Fate. The celeftial Venus, or heavenly Love, pleads for the Lufians. Mars, or divine Fortitude, encourages the Lord of Fate to remain unaltered; and Maia's fon, the Messenger of Heaven, is fent to lead the navy to a friendly harbour. The fleet arrives at Mozambic. Bacchus, like Juno in the Eneid, raifes a commotion against the Lufians. A battle enfues, and the victorious fleet purfue their voyage, under the care of a Moorish pilot, who advifes them to enter the harbour of Quiloa. According to history they attempted this harbour, where their deftruction would have been inevitable; but they were driven from it by the violence of a fudden tempeft. The poet afcribes this to the celestial Venus, whofe watchful care Had ever been their guide They now arrive at Mombaffa. The malice of the evil dæmon or genius of Mohammediím, ftill excites the arts of treachery againft them. Hermes, the meffenger of heaven, in a dream, in the flyle of Homer, warns the hero of the poem of his danger, and commands him to fteer for Melinda. There he arrives, and is received by the prince in the most friendly manner. Here the hero receives the first This paffage in inverted commas is cited, with the alteration of the rame only, from Langhorne's account of the Life of William Collins,' certain certain intelligence or hope of India. The prince cf Melinda's admiration of the fortitude and prowess of his guests, the first who had ever dared to pafs the unknown ocean by the tempestuous Cape, artfully prepares the reader for a long epifode. The poem of Virgil contains the hiftory of the Roman empire to his own time. Camoëns perceived this, and trod in his fteps. The history of Portugal, which Gama relates to the king of Melinda, is not only neceffary to give their new ally an high idea of the Lufian prowess and fpirit, but also naturally leads to, and accounts for the voyage of Gama; the event, which in its confequences, fums up the Portuguefe honours. It is as requifite for Gama to tell the rife of his nation to the king of Melinda, as it is for Eneas to relate to Dido the caufe of his voyage, the deftruction of Troy. And Gama's long account of his own voyage, will bear to be read after the fimilar parts of either the Odyffey or the Eneid. Pleafed with the fame of their nation, the king of Melinda vows lafting friendship with the Lufians, and gives them a faithful pilot. As they fail across the great Indian ocean the machinery is again employed. The evil dæmon implores Neptune and the powers of the fea to raise a tempeft to deftroy the fleet. The failors on the night watch, fortify their courage by the valiant acts of their countrymen, and an episode in the true poetical fpirit of chivalry is introduced.. Thus Achilles in his tent is reprefented as finging to his lyre the praises of heroes. And in the Epic conduct, this narrative and the tales told by Neftor, either to reftrain or inflame the rage of the Grecian chiefs, are certainly the fame. The accumulation of the tempeft in the meanwhile is finely defcribed. It now defcends. Celeftial Venus perceives the danger of her fleet. She is introduced by the appearance of her ftar, a stroke of poetry which would have shined in the Eneid. The tempeft is ią its utmoft rage, The sky and ocean blending, each on fire, And in the true fpirit of Homer's allegory fhe calls her nymphs, and by their miniftry ftills the tempeft. Gama now arrives in India. Every circumstance rifes from the preceding one; and, as fully pointed out in the notes, the conduct in every circumstance is as exactly Virgilian, as any two tragedies may poñibly be alike in adherence to the rules of the drama. Gama, having accomplished his purpofe in India, fets fail for Europe, and the machinery is the laft time employed. Venus, to reward her heroes, raifes a Paradifaical ifland in the fea. Voltaire, in his English effay, has faid, that no nation but the Portuguese and Italians could bear fuch lafcivious defcription. In the French he has fuppreffed this fentence, but has compared it to a Dutch brothel allowed for the failors. Yet this idea of it is as falfe as it is grofs. Every thing in the island of Love resembles refembles the ftatue of Venus de Medicis. The defcription is warm indeed, but it is chafte as the first loves of Adam and Eve in Milton. And fo far from deferving the cenfure of Voltaire, were Dante, Ariofto, Taffo, Spenfer, and even Milton himself, to contend with him for the palm of modefty, there could be no hefitation in fixing it upon the brow of Camoëns. After the poet has explained the allegory of the island of Love, the Goddess of the ocean gives her hand and commits her empire to Gama, whom she conducts to her palace, where, in a prophetic fong, he hears the actions of the heroes who were to establish the Portuguese empire in the Eaft. In Epic conduct nothing can be more mafterly. The funeral games in honour of Patroclus, after the Iliad has turned upon its great hinge, the death of Hector, are here moft happily imitated after the Lufiad has alfo turned upon its great hinge, the discovery of India. The conduct is the fame, though not one feature is borrowed. Ulyffes and Eneas are fent to visit the regions of the dead; and Voltaire's hero must also be conveyed to Hell and Heaven. But how fuperior is the spirit of Camoëns! He parallels these striking adventures by a new fiction of his own. Gama in the island of Bliss, and Eneas in Hell, are in Epic conduct exactly the fame; and in this unborrowing fameness, he artfully interweaves the hiftory of Portugal: artfully as Voltaire himself confeffes. The episode with the king of Melinda, the description of the painted enfigns, and the prophetic fong, are parallel in manner and purpose with the episode of Dido, the shield of Eneas, and the vifion in Elyfium. To revenge the rage of Achilles, and to lay the foundation of the Roman empire, are the grand purposes of the Iliad and Eneid; the one effected by the death of Hedor; the other by the alliance of Latinus and Eneas, accomplished in the death of Turnus. In like manner, to establish the Portuguese Chriftian empire in the Eaft, is the grand design of the Lufiad, accomplished in the happy return of Gama. And thus, in the true fpirit of the Epopoeia,fends the Lufiad, a poem where every circumstance rifes in just gradation, till the whole is fummed up in the most perfect unity of Epic action.' Such is the business of the poem, which, in Mr. Mickle, has found not only an able tranflator, but a fpirited advocate. We cannot refuse admittance to the following animated obfervations, and beautiful fonnet, before we fufpend this Article. As the grand intereft of commerce and of mankind forms the fubject of the Lufiad, fo with great propriety, as neceffary accompanyments to the voyage of his Hero, the Author has given poetical pictures of the four parts of the world. In the third book, a view of Europe; in the fifth, a view of Africa; and in the tenth, a picture of Afia and America. Homer and Virgil have been highly praised for their judgment in the choice of fubjects which interefted their countrymen, and Statius has been as feverely condemned for his uninteresting choice. But though the fubject of Camoëns be particularly interesting to his countrymen, it has alfo the peculiar happinefs to be the Poem of every trading nation. It is the Epic Poem of the Birth of Commerce. And in a particular manner the Epic Poem Poem of whatever country has the controul and poffeffion of the commerce of India. An unexhaufted fertility and variety of poetical description, an unexhausted elevation of fentiment, and a conftant tenor of the grand fimplicity of diction, complete the character of the Lufiad of Camoens: a poem which, though it has hitherto received from the Public most unmerited neglect, and from the critics moft flagrant injuftice, was yet better understood by the greateft poet of Italy. Taffo never did his judgment more credit, than when he confeffed that he dreaded Camoëns as a rival; or his generofity more honour, than when he addreffed this elegant Sonnet to the Hero of the Lufiad: SONNETTO. Vafco, le cui felici, ardite antenne Non più di te per afpro mar foftenne Et bor quella del colto, e buon' Luigi, SONNET. Vafco, whose bold and happy bowfprit bore Ne'er did the Greek fuch length of feas explore: (To be concluded in our next.) > ART. |