Don Alonzo was not only
reconciled
to his son, but laboured
by every means to oblige him, and to efface from his memory the injury
and insult he had received.
by every means to oblige him, and to efface from his memory the injury
and insult he had received.
Camoes - Lusiades
On the field of battle Alonzo was proclaimed
King of Portugal. The Portuguese writers have given many fabulous
accounts of this victory. Some affirm that the Moorish army amounted to
380,000, others, 480,000, and others swell it to 600,000, whereas Don
Alonzo's did not exceed 13,000. Miracles must also be added. Alonzo,
they tell us, being in great perplexity, sat down to comfort his mind by
the perusal of the Holy Scriptures. Having read the story of Gideon, he
sunk into a deep sleep, in which he saw a very old man in a remarkable
dress come into his tent, and assure him of victory. His chamberlain
coming in, awoke him, and told him there was an old man very importunate
to speak with him. Don Alonzo ordered him to be brought in, and no
sooner saw him than he knew him to be the old man whom he had seen in
his dream. This venerable person acquainted him that he was a fisherman,
and had led a life of penance for sixty years on an adjacent rock, where
it had been revealed to him, that if the count marched his army the next
morning, as soon as he heard a certain bell ring, he should receive the
strongest assurance of victory. Accordingly, at the ringing of the bell,
the count put his army in motion, and suddenly beheld in the eastern sky
the figure of the cross, and Christ upon it, who promised him a complete
victory, and commanded him to accept the title of king, if it were
offered him by the army. The same writers add, that as a standing
memorial of this miraculous event, Don Alonzo changed the arms which his
father had given, of a cross azure in a field argent, for five
escutcheons, each charged with five bezants, in memory of the wounds of
Christ. Others assert, that he gave, in a field argent, five escutcheons
azure in the form of a cross, each charged with five bezants argent,
placed saltierwise, with a point sable, in memory of five wounds he
himself received, and of five Moorish kings slain in the battle. There
is an old record, said to be written by Don Alonzo, in which the story
of the vision is related upon his majesty's oath. The Spanish critics,
however, have discovered many inconsistencies in it. They find the
language intermixed with phrases not then in use: and it bears the date
of the year of our Lord, at a time when that era had not been introduced
into Spain.
[217] Troy.
[218] The tradition, that Lisbon was built by Ulysses, and thence called
_Olyssipolis_, is as common as, and of equal authority with, that which
says, that Brute landed a colony of Trojans in England, and gave the
name of Britannia to the island.
[219] The conquest of Lisbon was of the utmost importance to the infant
monarchy. It is one of the finest ports in the world, and before the
invention of cannon, was of great strength. The old Moorish wall was
flanked by seventy-seven towers, was about six miles in length, and
fourteen in circumference. When besieged by Don Alonzo, according to
some, it was garrisoned by an army of 200,000 men. This is highly
incredible. However, that it was strong and well garrisoned is certain,
as also that Alonzo owed the conquest of it to a fleet of adventurers,
who were going to the Holy Land, the greater part of whom were English.
One Udal op Rhys, in his tour through Portugal, says, that Alonzo gave
them Almada, on the side of the Tagus opposite to Lisbon, and that Villa
Franca was peopled by them, which they called Cornualla, either in
honour of their native country, or from the rich meadows in its
neighbourhood, where immense herds of cattle are kept, as in the English
Cornwall.
[220] Jerusalem.
[221] _Unconquer'd towers. _--This assertion of Camoens is not without
foundation, for it was by treachery that Herimeneric, the Goth, got
possession of Lisbon.
[222] The aqueduct of Sertorius, here mentioned, is one of the grandest
remains of antiquity. It was repaired by John III. of Portugal about
A. D. 1540.
[223] Badajoz.
[224] The history of this battle wants authenticity.
[225] As already observed, there is no authentic proof that Don Alonzo
used such severity to his mother as to put her in chains. Brandan says
it was reported that Don Alonzo was born with both his legs growing
together, and that he was cured by the prayers of his tutor, Egas Nunio.
Legendary as this may appear, this however is deducible from it, that
from his birth there was something amiss about his legs. When he was
prisoner to his son-in-law, Don Fernando, king of Leon, he recovered his
liberty ere his leg, which was fractured in the battle, was restored, on
condition that as soon as he was able to mount on horseback, he should
come to Leon, and in person do homage for his dominions. This condition,
so contrary to his coronation agreement, he found means to avoid. He
ever after affected to drive in a calash, and would never mount on
horseback more. The superstitious of those days ascribed this infirmity
to the curses of his mother.
[226] _Phasis. _--A river of Colchis.
[227] A frontier town on the Nile, bordering on Nubia.
[228] _Colchis. _--A country of Asia Minor bordering on the Black
Sea. --_Ed. _
[229]
_Tu quoque littoribus nostris, AEneia nutrix, AEternam moriens famam,
Caieta, dedisti. _ VIRG. AEn. vii.
[230] _i. e. _ Tangiers, opposite to Gibraltar. --_Ed. _
[231] This should be _Emir el Moumeneen_, _i. e. _, Commander of the
Faithful. --_Ed. _
[232] The Mondego is the largest river having its rise within the
kingdom of Portugal and entering no other state. --_Ed. _
[233] _Miramolin. _--Not the name of a person, but a title, _quasi
Sultan_; _the Emperor of the Faithful_.
[234] In this poetical exclamation, expressive of the sorrow of Portugal
on the death of Alonzo, Camoens has happily imitated some passages of
Virgil.
----_Ipsae te, Tityre, pinus,
Ipsi te fontes, ipsa haec arbusta vocabant. _
ECL. i.
----_Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua,
Ah miseram Eurydicen, anima fugiente, vocabat:
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae. _
GEORG. iv.
----_littus, Hyla, Hyla, omne sonaret. _
ECL. vi.
[235] The Guadalquiver, the largest river in Spain. --_Ed. _
[236] The Portuguese, in their wars with the Moors, were several times
assisted by the English and German crusaders. In the present instance
the fleet was mostly English, the troops of which nation were, according
to agreement, rewarded with the plunder, which was exceeding rich, of
the city of Silves. _Nuniz de Leon as cronicas dos Reis de Port_, A. D.
1189. --_Ed. _
[237] Barbarossa, A. D. 1189. --_Ed. _
[238] _Unlike the Syrian_ (rather _Assyrian_). --Sardanapalus.
[239] _When Rome's proud tyrant far'd. _--Heliogabalus, infamous for his
gluttony.
[240] Alluding to the history of Phalaris.
[241] Camoens, who was quite an enthusiast for the honour of his
country, has in this instance disguised the truth of history. Don Sancho
was by no means the weak prince here represented, nor did the miseries
of his reign proceed from himself. The clergy were the sole authors of
his, and the public, calamities. The Roman See was then in the height of
its power, which it exerted in the most tyrannical manner. The
ecclesiastical courts had long claimed the sole right to try an
ecclesiastic: and, to prohibit a priest to say mass for a twelve-month,
was by the brethren, his judges, esteemed a sufficient punishment for
murder, or any other capital crime. Alonzo II. , the father of Don
Sancho, attempted to establish the authority of the king's courts of
justice over the offending clergy. For this the Archbishop of Braga
excommunicated Gonzalo Mendez, the chancellor; and Honorius, the pope,
excommunicated the king, and put his dominions under an interdict. The
exterior offices of religion were suspended, the people fell into the
utmost dissoluteness of manners; Mohammedanism made great advances, and
public confusion everywhere prevailed. By this policy the Church
constrained the nobility to urge the king to a full submission to the
papal chair. While a negotiation for this purpose was on foot Alonzo
died, and left his son to struggle with an enraged and powerful clergy.
Don Sancho was just, affable, brave, and an enamoured husband. On this
last virtue faction first fixed its envenomed fangs. The queen was
accused of arbitrary influence over her husband; and, according to the
superstition of that age, she was believed to have disturbed his senses
by an enchanted draught. Such of the nobility as declared in the king's
favour were stigmatized, and rendered odious, as the creatures of the
queen. The confusions which ensued were fomented by Alonso, Earl of
Bologna, the king's brother, by whom the king was accused as the author
of them. In short, by the assistance of the clergy and Pope Innocent
IV. , Sancho was deposed, and soon after died at Toledo. The beautiful
queen, Donna Mencia, was seized upon, and conveyed away by one Raymond
Portocarrero, and was never heard of more. Such are the triumphs of
faction!
[242] Alexander the Great.
[243] Mondego, the largest exclusively Portuguese river. --_Ed. _
[244] The _baccaris_, or Lady's glove, a herb to which the Druids and
ancient poets ascribed magical virtues.
----_Baccare frontem
Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro. _
VIRG. Ecl. vii.
[245] Semiramis, who is said to have invaded India. --_Ed. _
[246] Attila, a king of the Huns, surnamed "The Scourge of God. " He
lived in the fifth century. He may be reckoned among the greatest of
conquerors.
[247] _His much-lov'd bride. _--The Princess Mary. She was a lady of
great beauty and virtue, but was exceedingly ill used by her husband,
who was violently attached to his mistresses, though he owed his crown
to the assistance of his father-in-law, the King of Portugal.
[248]
_By night our fathers' shades confess their fear,
Their shrieks of terror from the tombs we hear. --_
Camoens says, "A mortos faz espanto;" to give this elegance in English
required a paraphrase. There is something wildly great, and agreeable to
the superstition of that age, to suppose that the dead were troubled in
their graves on the approach of so terrible an army. The French
translator, contrary to the original, ascribes this terror to the ghost
of only one prince, by which this stroke of Camoens, in the spirit of
Shakespeare, is reduced to a piece of unmeaning frippery.
[249] The Muliya, a river of Morocco. --_Ed. _
[250] See the first AEneid.
[251] Goliath, the Philistine champion. --_Ed. _
[252] David, afterwards king of Israel. --_Ed. _
[253] _Though wove. _--It may perhaps be objected that this is
ungrammatical. But--
----Usus
Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus et norma loquendi.
and Dryden, Pope, etc. , often use _wove_ as a participle in place of the
harsh-sounding _woven_, a word almost incompatible with the elegance of
versification.
[254] Hannibal, who, as a child, was compelled to swear perpetual
hostility to the Romans. --_Ed. _
[255] Where the last great battle between Hannibal and the Romans took
place, in which the Romans sustained a crushing defeat. --_Ed. _
[256] When the soldiers of Marius complained of thirst, he pointed to a
river near the camp of the Ambrones. "There," says he, "you may drink,
but it must be purchased with blood. " "Lead us on," they replied, "that
we may have something liquid, though it be blood. " The Romans, forcing
their way to the river, the channel was filled with the dead bodies of
the slain. --Vid. Plutarch's Lives.
[257] This unfortunate lady, Donna Inez de Castro, was the daughter of a
Castilian gentleman, who had taken refuge in the court of Portugal. Her
beauty and accomplishments attracted the regard of Don Pedro, the king's
eldest son, a prince of a brave and noble disposition. La Neufville, Le
Clede, and other historians, assert that she was privately married to
the prince ere she had any share in his bed. Nor was his conjugal
fidelity less remarkable than the ardour of his passion. Afraid,
however, of his father's resentment, the severity of whose temper he
knew, his intercourse with Donna Inez passed at the court as an intrigue
of gallantry. On the accession of Don Pedro the Cruel to the throne of
Castile many of the disgusted nobility were kindly received by Don
Pedro, through the interest of his beloved Inez. The favour shown to
these Castilians gave great uneasiness to the politicians. A thousand
evils were foreseen from the prince's attachment to his Castilian
mistress: even the murder of his children by his deceased spouse, the
princess Constantia, was surmised; and the enemies of Donna Inez,
finding the king willing to listen, omitted no opportunity to increase
his resentment against the unfortunate lady. The prince was about his
twenty-eighth year when his amour with his beloved Inez commenced.
[258]
_Ad coelum tendens ardentia lumina frustra,
Lumina nam teneras arcebant vincula palmas. _
VIRG. AEn. ii.
[259] Romulus and Remus, who were said to have been suckled by a
wolf. --_Ed. _
[260] It has been observed by some critics, that Milton on every
occasion is fond of expressing his admiration of music, particularly of
the song of the nightingale, and the full woodland choir. If in the same
manner we are to judge of the favourite taste of Homer, we shall find it
of a less delicate kind. He is continually describing the feast, the
huge chine, the savoury viands on the glowing coals, and the foaming
bowl. The ruling passion of Camoens is also strongly marked in his
writings. One may venture to affirm, that there is no poem of equal
length that abounds with so many impassioned encomiums on the fair sex
as the Lusiad. The genius of Camoens seems never so pleased as when he
is painting the variety of female charms; he feels all the magic of
their allurements, and riots in his descriptions of the happiness and
miseries attendant on the passion of love. As he wrote from his
feelings, these parts of his works have been particularly honoured with
the attention of the world.
[261] To give the character of Alphonso IV. will throw light on this
inhuman transaction. He was an undutiful son, an unnatural brother, and
a cruel father, a great and fortunate warrior, diligent in the execution
of the laws, and a Macchiavellian politician. His maxim was that of the
Jesuits; so that a contemplated good might be attained, he cared not how
villainous might be the means employed. When the enemies of Inez had
persuaded him that her death was necessary to the welfare of the state,
he took a journey to Coimbra, that he might see the lady, when the
prince, his son, was absent on a hunting party. Donna Inez, with her
children, threw herself at his feet. The king was moved with the
distress of the beautiful suppliant, when his three counsellors, Alvaro
Gonsalez, Diego Lopez Pacheco, and Pedro Coello, reproaching him for his
disregard to the state, he relapsed to his former resolution. She was
then dragged from his presence, and brutally murdered by the hands of
his three counsellors, who immediately returned to the king with their
daggers reeking with the innocent blood of his daughter-in-law. Alonzo,
says La Neufville, avowed the horrid assassination, as if he had done
nothing of which he ought to be ashamed.
[262] Pyrrhus, son of Achilles: he was also called Neoptolemus. He
sacrificed Polyxena, daughter of Priam king of Troy, to the manes of his
father. Euripides and Sophocles each wrote a tragedy having the
sacrifice of Polyxena for the subject. Both have unfortunately
perished. --_Ed. _
[263] Hecuba, mother of Polyxena, and wife of Priam. --_Ed. _
[264] The fair Inez was crowned Queen of Portugal after her interment.
[265] Atreus, having slain the sons of Thyestes, cut them in pieces, and
served them up for a repast to their own father. The sun, it is said,
hid his face rather than shine on so barbarous a deed. --Ed.
[266] At an old royal castle near Mondego, there is a rivulet called the
fountain of Amours. According to tradition, it was here that Don Pedro
resided with his beloved Inez. The fiction of Camoens, founded on the
popular name of the rivulet, is in the spirit of Homer.
[267] When the prince was informed of the death of his beloved Inez, he
was transported into the most violent fury. He took arms against his
father. The country between the rivers Minho and Doura was laid
desolate: but, by the interposition of the queen and the Archbishop of
Braga, the prince relented, and the further horrors of a civil war were
prevented.
Don Alonzo was not only reconciled to his son, but laboured
by every means to oblige him, and to efface from his memory the injury
and insult he had received. The prince, however, still continued to
discover the strongest marks of affection and grief. When he succeeded
to the crown, one of his first acts was a treaty with the King of
Castile, whereby each monarch engaged to give up such malcontents as
should take refuge in each other's dominions. In consequence of this,
Pedro Coello and Alvaro Gonsalez, who, on the death of Alonzo had fled
to Castile, were sent prisoners to Don Pedro. Diego Pacheco, the third
murderer, made his escape. The other two were put to death with the most
exquisite tortures, and most justly merited, if torture is in any
instance to be allowed. After this the king, Don Pedro, summoned an
assembly of the states at Cantanedes. Here, in the presence of the
Pope's nuncio, he solemnly swore on the holy Gospels, that having
obtained a dispensation from Rome, he had secretly, at Braganza,
espoused the Lady Inez de Castro, in the presence of the Bishop of
Guarda, and of his master of the wardrobe; both of whom confirmed the
truth of the oath. The Pope's Bull, containing the dispensation, was
published; the body of Inez was lifted from the grave, was placed on a
magnificent throne, and with the proper regalia, crowned Queen of
Portugal. The nobility did homage to her skeleton, and kissed the bones
of her hand. The corpse was then interred at the royal monastery of
Alcobaca, with a pomp before unknown in Portugal, and with all the
honours due to a queen. Her monument is still extant, where her statue
is adorned with the diadem and the royal robe. This, with the
legitimation of her children, and the care he took of all who had been
in her service, consoled him in some degree, and rendered him more
conversable than he had hitherto been; but the cloud which the death of
Inez brought over the natural cheerfulness of his temper, was never
totally dispersed. ---- A circumstance strongly characteristic of the
rage of his resentment must not be omitted. When the murderers were
brought before him, he was so transported with indignation, that he
struck Pedro Coello several blows on the face with the shaft of his
whip.
[268] _Pedro the Just. _--History cannot afford an instance of any prince
who has a more eminent claim to the title of just than Pedro I. His
diligence to correct every abuse was indefatigable, and when guilt was
proved his justice was inexorable. He was dreadful to the evil, and
beloved by the good, for he respected no persons, and his inflexible
severity never digressed from the line of strict justice. An anecdote or
two will throw some light on his character. A priest having killed a
mason, the king dissembled his knowledge of the crime, and left the
issue to the ecclesiastical court, where the priest was punished by one
year's suspension from saying mass. The king on this privately ordered
the mason's son to revenge the murder of his father. The young man
obeyed, was apprehended, and condemned to death. When his sentence was
to be confirmed by the king, Pedro enquired, what was the young man's
trade. He was answered, that he followed his father's. "Well then," said
the king, "I shall commute his punishment, and interdict him from
meddling with stone or mortar for a twelve-month. " After this he fully
established the authority of the king's courts over the clergy, whom he
punished with death when their crimes were capital. When solicited to
refer the causes of such criminals to a higher tribunal, he would answer
very calmly, "That is what I intend to do: I will send them to the
highest of all tribunals, to that of their Maker and mine. " Against
adulterers he was particularly severe, often declaring it as his
opinion, that conjugal infidelity was the source of the greatest evils,
and that therefore to restrain it was the interest and duty of the
sovereign. Though the fate of his beloved Inez chagrined and soured his
temper, he was so far from being naturally sullen or passionate, that he
was rather of a gay and sprightly disposition; he was affable and easy
of access; delighted in music and dancing; was a lover of learning, a
man of letters, and an elegant poet. --Vide Le Clede, Mariana, Faria.
[269] This lady, named Leonora de Tellez, was the wife of Don Juan
Lorenzo Acugna, a nobleman of one of the most distinguished families in
Portugal. After a sham process this marriage was dissolved, and the king
privately espoused to her, though, at this time, he was publicly married
by proxy to Donna Leonora of Arragon. A dangerous insurrection, headed
by one Velasquez, a tailor, drove the king and his adulterous bride from
Lisbon. Soon after, he caused his marriage to be publicly celebrated in
the province of Entre Douro e Minho. Henry, king of Castile, being
informed of the general discontent that reigned in Portugal, marched a
formidable army into that kingdom, to revenge the injury offered to some
of his subjects, whose ships had been unjustly seized at Lisbon. The
desolation hinted at by Camoens ensued. After the subjects of both
kingdoms had severely suffered, the two kings ended the war, much to
their mutual satisfaction, by an intermarriage of their illegitimate
children.
[270] Judges, chap. xix. and xx.
[271] Samuel, chap. xii. 10, "The sword shall never depart from thine
house. "
[272] Hercules.
[273] Love compelled Hercules to spin wool. --OVID.
[274] Hannibal.
[275] Dom John was a natural brother of Fernando, being an illegitimate
son of Pedro. --_Ed. _
[276] _A cradled infant gave the wondrous sign. _--No circumstance has
ever been more ridiculed by the ancient and modern pedants than
Alexander's pretensions to divinity. Some of his courtiers expostulating
with him one day on the absurdity of such claim, he replied, "I know the
truth of what you say, but these," (pointing to a crowd of Persians)
"these know no better. " The report that the Grecian army was commanded
by a son of Jupiter spread terror through the East, and greatly
facilitated the operations of the conqueror. The miraculous speech of
the infant, attested by a few monks, was adapted to the superstition of
the age of John I. and, as he was illegitimate, was of infinite service
to his cause. The pretended fact, however, is differently related.
[277] Lisbon, or Ulyssipolis, supposed to be founded by Ulysses. --_Ed. _
[278] _The mitred head. _--Don Martin, bishop of Lisbon, a man of
exemplary life. He was by birth a Castilian, which was esteemed a
sufficient reason to murder him, as of the queen's party. He was thrown
from the tower of his own cathedral, whither he had fled to avoid the
popular fury.
[279] _The queen beheld her power, her honours lost. _--Possessed of
great beauty and great abilities, this bad woman was a disgrace to her
sex, and a curse to the age and country which gave her birth. Her
sister, Donna Maria, a lady of unblemished virtue, had been secretly
married to the infant, Don Juan, the king's brother, who was
passionately attached to her. Donna Maria had formerly endeavoured to
dissuade her sister from the adulterous marriage with the king. In
revenge of this, the queen, Leonora, persuaded Don Juan that her sister
was unfaithful to his bed. The enraged husband hastened to his wife,
and, without enquiry or expostulation, says Mariana, dispatched her with
two strokes of his dagger. He was afterwards convinced of her innocence.
Having sacrificed her honour, and her first husband, to a king, (says
Faria), Leonora soon sacrificed that king to a wicked gallant, a
Castilian nobleman, named Don Juan Fernandez de Andeyro. An unjust war
with Castile, wherein the Portuguese were defeated by sea and land, was
the first fruits of the policy of the new favourite. Andeyro one day
being in a great perspiration, by some military exercise, the queen tore
her veil, and publicly gave it him to wipe his face. The grand master of
Avis, the king's illegitimate brother, afterwards John I. , and some
others, expostulated with her on the indecency of this behaviour. She
dissembled her resentment, but, soon after, they were seized and
committed to the castle of Evora, where a forged order for their
execution was sent; but the governor suspecting some fraud, showed it to
the king. Yet, such was her ascendancy over Fernando, that though
convinced of her guilt, he ordered his brother to kiss the queen's hand,
and thank her for his life. Soon after, Fernando died, but not till he
was fully convinced of the queen's conjugal infidelity, and had given an
order for the assassination of the gallant. Not long after the death of
the king, the favourite Andeyro was stabbed in the palace by the
grandmaster of Avis, and Don Ruy de Pereyra. The queen expressed all the
transport of grief and rage, and declared she would undergo the
trial-ordeal in vindication of his, and her, innocence. But this she
never performed: in her vows of revenge, however, she was more punctual.
Don Juan, king of Castile, who had married her only daughter and
heiress, at her earnest entreaties invaded Portugal, and was proclaimed
king. Don John, grand master of Avis, was proclaimed by the people
protector and regent. A desperate war ensued. Queen Leonora, treated
with indifference by her daughter and son-in-law, resolved on the murder
of the latter, but the plot was discovered, and she was sent prisoner to
Castile. The regent was besieged in Lisbon, and the city reduced to the
utmost extremities, when an epidemic broke out in the Castilian army,
and made such devastation, that the king suddenly raised the siege, and
abandoned his views on Portugal. The happy inhabitants ascribed their
deliverance to the valour and vigilance of the regent. The regent
reproved their ardour, exhorted them to repair to their churches, and
return thanks to God, to whose interposition he solely ascribed their
safety. This behaviour increased the admiration of the people; the
nobility of the first rank joined the regent's party, and many garrisons
in the interest of the king of Castile opened their gates to him. An
assembly of the states met at Coimbra, where it was proposed to invest
the regent with the regal dignity. This he pretended to decline. Don
John, son of Pedro the Just and the beautiful Inez de Castro, was by the
people esteemed their lawful sovereign, but was, and had been long,
detained a prisoner by the King of Castile. If the states would declare
the infant, Don John, their king, the regent professed his willingness
to swear allegiance to him, that he would continue to expose himself to
every danger, and act as regent, till Providence restored to Portugal
her lawful sovereign. The states, however, saw the necessity that the
nation should have a head. The regent was unanimously elected king, and
some articles in favour of liberty were added to those agreed upon at
the coronation of Don Alonzo Enriquez, the first king of Portugal.
Don John I. , one of the greatest of the Portuguese monarchs, was the
natural son of Pedro the Just, by Donna Teresa Lorenza, a Galician lady,
and was born some years after the death of Inez. At seven years of age
he was made grand master of Avis, where he received an excellent
education, which, joined to his great parts, brought him out early on
the political theatre. He was a brave commander, and a deep politician,
yet never forfeited the character of candour and honour. To be humble to
his friends, and haughty to his enemies, was his leading maxim. His
prudence gained him the confidence of the wise; his steadiness and
gratitude the friendship of the brave; his liberality the bulk of the
people. He was in the twenty-seventh year of his age when declared
protector, and in his twenty-eighth when proclaimed king.
The following anecdote is much to the honour of this prince when regent.
A Castilian officer, having six Portuguese gentleman prisoners, cut off
their noses and hands, and sent them to Don John. Highly incensed, the
protector commanded six Castilian gentlemen to be treated in the same
manner. But, before the officer, to whom he gave the orders, had quitted
the room, he relented. "I have given enough to resentment," said he, "in
giving such a command. It were infamous to put it in execution. See that
the Castilian prisoners receive no harm. "
[280] Beatrice.
[281] _By Rodrick given. _--The celebrated hero of Corneille's tragedy of
the Cid.
[282] [283] Cadiz: in ancient times a Phoenician colony, whose coins
bear the emblem of two pillars--the pillars of Hercules
(Alcides). --_Ed. _
[284] The Gascons or Basques, a very ancient and singular people. Their
language has no relation to that of any other people. They are regarded
as the earliest inhabitants of the Spanish peninsula. --_Ed. _
[285] See Judges xvi. 17-19.
[286] This speech in the original has been much admired by foreign
critics, as a model of military eloquence. The critic, it is hoped, will
perceive that the translator has endeavoured to support the character of
the speaker.
[287] This was the famous P. Corn. Scipio Africanus. The fact, somewhat
differently related by Livy, is this. After the defeat at Cannae, a
considerable body of Romans fled to Canusium, and appointed Scipio and
Ap. Claudius their commanders. While they remained there, it was told
Scipio, that some of his chief officers, at the head of whom was
Caecilius Metellus, were taking measures to transport themselves out of
Italy. He went immediately to their assembly; and drawing his sword,
said, _I swear that I will not desert the Commonwealth of Rome, nor
suffer any other citizen to do it. The same oath I require of you,
Caecilius, and of all present; whoever refuses, let him know that this
sword is drawn against him. _ The historian adds, that they were as
terrified by this, as if they had beheld the face of their conqueror,
Hannibal. They all swore, and submitted themselves to Scipio. --Vid.
Livy, bk. 22. c. 53.
[288] Sestos was a city of Thrace, on the Dardanelles, opposite
Abydos. --_Ed. _
[289] The Guadiana, one of the two great rivers of Spain. --_Ed. _
[290] The Douro.
[291] Homer and Virgil have, with great art, gradually heightened the
fury of every battle, till the last efforts of their genius were
lavished in describing the superior prowess of the hero in the decisive
engagement. Camoens, in like manner, has bestowed his utmost attention
on this his principal battle. The circumstances preparatory to the
engagement are happily imagined, and solemnly conducted, and the fury of
the combat is supported with a poetical heat, and a variety of imagery,
which, one need not hesitate to affirm, would do honour to an ancient
classic author.
[292] _And his own brothers shake the hostile lance. _--The just
indignation with which Camoens treats the kindred of the brave Nunio
Alvaro de Pereyra, is condemned by the French translator. "The
Pereyras," says he, "deserve no stain on their memory for joining the
King of Castile, whose title to the crown of Portugal was infinitely
more just and solid than that of Don John. " Castera, however, is grossly
mistaken. Don Alonzo Enriquez, the first King of Portugal, was elected
by the people, who had recovered their liberties at the glorious battle
of Ourique. At the election the constitution of the kingdom was settled
in eighteen short statutes, wherein it is expressly provided, that none
but a Portuguese can be king of Portugal; that if an infanta marry a
foreign prince, he shall not, in her right, become King of Portugal, and
a new election of a king, in case of the failure of the male line, is,
by these statutes, supposed legal. By the treaty of marriage between the
King of Castile and Donna Beatrix, the heiress of Fernando of Portugal,
it was agreed, that only their children should succeed to the Portuguese
crown; and that, in case the throne became vacant ere such children were
born, the Queen-dowager, Leonora, should govern with the title of
Regent. Thus, neither by the original constitution, nor by the treaty of
marriage, could the King of Castile succeed to the throne of Portugal.
And any pretence he might found on the marriage contract was already
forfeited; for he caused himself and his queen to be proclaimed, added
Portugal to his titles, coined Portuguese money with his bust, deposed
the queen regent, and afterwards sent her prisoner to Castile. The
lawful heir, Don Juan, the son of Inez de Castro, was kept in prison by
his rival, the King of Castile; and, as before observed, a new election
was, by the original statutes, supposed legal in cases of emergency.
These facts, added to the consideration of the tyranny of the King of
Castile, and the great services which Don John had rendered his country,
fully vindicate the indignation of Camoens against the traitorous
Pereyras.
[293] Near Pharsalus was fought the decisive battle between Caesar and
Pompey, B. C. 48. --_Ed. _
[294] Ceuta, a small Spanish possession on the Mediterranean coast of
Morocco. --_Ed. _
[295] Tetuan, a city of Morocco. --_Ed. _
[296] _Through the fierce Brigians. _--The Castilians, so called from one
of their ancient kings, named Brix, or Brigus, whom the monkish writers
call the grandson of Noah.
[297] These lines are not in the common editions of Camoens. They
consist of three stanzas in the Portuguese, and are said to have been
left out by the author himself in his second edition. The translator,
however, as they breathe the true spirit of Virgil, was willing to
preserve them with this acknowledgment.
[298] Massylia, a province in Numidia, greatly infested with lions,
particularly that part of it called _Os sete montes irmaos_, the seven
brother mountains.
[299] _And many a gasping warrior sigh'd his last. _--This, which is
almost literal from--
_Muitos lancarao o ultimo suspiro,--_
and the preceding circumstance of Don John's brandishing his lance four
times--
_E sopesando a lanca quatro vezes,_
are poetical, and in the spirit of Homer. Besides Maldonat, Castera has,
in this battle, introduced several other names which have no place in
Camoens. Carrillo, Robledo, John of Lorca, Salazar of Seville were
killed, he tells us: And, "Velasques and Sanches, natives of Toledo,
Galbes, surnamed the 'Soldier without Fear,' Montanches, Oropesa, and
Mondonedo, all six of proved valour, fell by the hand of young Antony,
who brought to the fight either more address, or better fortune than
these. " Not a word of this is in the Portuguese.
[300] _Their swords seem dipp'd in fire. _--This is as literal as the
idiom of the two languages would allow. Dryden has a thought like that
of this couplet, but which is not in his original:--
"Their bucklers clash; thick blows descend from high,
And flakes of fire from their hard helmets fly. "
DRYD. Virg. AEn. xii.
[301] Grand master of the order of St. James, named Don Pedro Nunio. He
was not killed, however, in this battle, which was fought on the plains
of Aljubarota, but in that of Valverda, which immediately followed. The
reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find that every soldier mentioned
in these notes is a Don, a _Lord_. The following piece of history will
account for the number of the Portuguese nobles. Don Alonzo Enriquez,
Count of Portugal, was saluted king by his army at the battle of
Ourique; in return, his majesty dignified every man in his army with the
rank of nobility. --Vide the 9th of the Statutes of Lamego.
[302] Cerberus.
[303] The Spaniards.
[304] This tyrant, whose unjust pretensions to the crown of Portugal
laid his own, and that, kingdom in blood, was on his final defeat
overwhelmed with all the frenzy of grief. In the night after the
decisive battle of Aljubarota, he fled upwards of thirty miles upon a
mule. Don Laurence, archbishop of Braga, in a letter written in old
Portuguese to Don John, abbot of Alcobaza, gives this account of his
behaviour: "The constable has informed me that he saw the King of
Castile at Santaren, who behaved as a madman, cursing his existence, and
tearing the hairs of his beard. And, in good faith, my good friend, it
is better that he should do so to himself than to us; the man who thus
plucks his own beard, would be much better pleased to do so to others. "
The writer of this letter, though a prelate, fought at the battle of
Aljubarota, where he received on the face a large wound from a sabre.
[305] _The festive days by heroes old ordain'd. _--As a certain proof of
the victory, it was required, by the honour of these ages, that the
victor should encamp three days on the field of battle. By this
knight-errantry the advantages which ought to have been pursued were
frequently lost. Don John, however, though he complied with the reigning
ideas of honour, sent Don Nunio, with a proper army, to reap the fruits
of his victory.
King of Portugal. The Portuguese writers have given many fabulous
accounts of this victory. Some affirm that the Moorish army amounted to
380,000, others, 480,000, and others swell it to 600,000, whereas Don
Alonzo's did not exceed 13,000. Miracles must also be added. Alonzo,
they tell us, being in great perplexity, sat down to comfort his mind by
the perusal of the Holy Scriptures. Having read the story of Gideon, he
sunk into a deep sleep, in which he saw a very old man in a remarkable
dress come into his tent, and assure him of victory. His chamberlain
coming in, awoke him, and told him there was an old man very importunate
to speak with him. Don Alonzo ordered him to be brought in, and no
sooner saw him than he knew him to be the old man whom he had seen in
his dream. This venerable person acquainted him that he was a fisherman,
and had led a life of penance for sixty years on an adjacent rock, where
it had been revealed to him, that if the count marched his army the next
morning, as soon as he heard a certain bell ring, he should receive the
strongest assurance of victory. Accordingly, at the ringing of the bell,
the count put his army in motion, and suddenly beheld in the eastern sky
the figure of the cross, and Christ upon it, who promised him a complete
victory, and commanded him to accept the title of king, if it were
offered him by the army. The same writers add, that as a standing
memorial of this miraculous event, Don Alonzo changed the arms which his
father had given, of a cross azure in a field argent, for five
escutcheons, each charged with five bezants, in memory of the wounds of
Christ. Others assert, that he gave, in a field argent, five escutcheons
azure in the form of a cross, each charged with five bezants argent,
placed saltierwise, with a point sable, in memory of five wounds he
himself received, and of five Moorish kings slain in the battle. There
is an old record, said to be written by Don Alonzo, in which the story
of the vision is related upon his majesty's oath. The Spanish critics,
however, have discovered many inconsistencies in it. They find the
language intermixed with phrases not then in use: and it bears the date
of the year of our Lord, at a time when that era had not been introduced
into Spain.
[217] Troy.
[218] The tradition, that Lisbon was built by Ulysses, and thence called
_Olyssipolis_, is as common as, and of equal authority with, that which
says, that Brute landed a colony of Trojans in England, and gave the
name of Britannia to the island.
[219] The conquest of Lisbon was of the utmost importance to the infant
monarchy. It is one of the finest ports in the world, and before the
invention of cannon, was of great strength. The old Moorish wall was
flanked by seventy-seven towers, was about six miles in length, and
fourteen in circumference. When besieged by Don Alonzo, according to
some, it was garrisoned by an army of 200,000 men. This is highly
incredible. However, that it was strong and well garrisoned is certain,
as also that Alonzo owed the conquest of it to a fleet of adventurers,
who were going to the Holy Land, the greater part of whom were English.
One Udal op Rhys, in his tour through Portugal, says, that Alonzo gave
them Almada, on the side of the Tagus opposite to Lisbon, and that Villa
Franca was peopled by them, which they called Cornualla, either in
honour of their native country, or from the rich meadows in its
neighbourhood, where immense herds of cattle are kept, as in the English
Cornwall.
[220] Jerusalem.
[221] _Unconquer'd towers. _--This assertion of Camoens is not without
foundation, for it was by treachery that Herimeneric, the Goth, got
possession of Lisbon.
[222] The aqueduct of Sertorius, here mentioned, is one of the grandest
remains of antiquity. It was repaired by John III. of Portugal about
A. D. 1540.
[223] Badajoz.
[224] The history of this battle wants authenticity.
[225] As already observed, there is no authentic proof that Don Alonzo
used such severity to his mother as to put her in chains. Brandan says
it was reported that Don Alonzo was born with both his legs growing
together, and that he was cured by the prayers of his tutor, Egas Nunio.
Legendary as this may appear, this however is deducible from it, that
from his birth there was something amiss about his legs. When he was
prisoner to his son-in-law, Don Fernando, king of Leon, he recovered his
liberty ere his leg, which was fractured in the battle, was restored, on
condition that as soon as he was able to mount on horseback, he should
come to Leon, and in person do homage for his dominions. This condition,
so contrary to his coronation agreement, he found means to avoid. He
ever after affected to drive in a calash, and would never mount on
horseback more. The superstitious of those days ascribed this infirmity
to the curses of his mother.
[226] _Phasis. _--A river of Colchis.
[227] A frontier town on the Nile, bordering on Nubia.
[228] _Colchis. _--A country of Asia Minor bordering on the Black
Sea. --_Ed. _
[229]
_Tu quoque littoribus nostris, AEneia nutrix, AEternam moriens famam,
Caieta, dedisti. _ VIRG. AEn. vii.
[230] _i. e. _ Tangiers, opposite to Gibraltar. --_Ed. _
[231] This should be _Emir el Moumeneen_, _i. e. _, Commander of the
Faithful. --_Ed. _
[232] The Mondego is the largest river having its rise within the
kingdom of Portugal and entering no other state. --_Ed. _
[233] _Miramolin. _--Not the name of a person, but a title, _quasi
Sultan_; _the Emperor of the Faithful_.
[234] In this poetical exclamation, expressive of the sorrow of Portugal
on the death of Alonzo, Camoens has happily imitated some passages of
Virgil.
----_Ipsae te, Tityre, pinus,
Ipsi te fontes, ipsa haec arbusta vocabant. _
ECL. i.
----_Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua,
Ah miseram Eurydicen, anima fugiente, vocabat:
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae. _
GEORG. iv.
----_littus, Hyla, Hyla, omne sonaret. _
ECL. vi.
[235] The Guadalquiver, the largest river in Spain. --_Ed. _
[236] The Portuguese, in their wars with the Moors, were several times
assisted by the English and German crusaders. In the present instance
the fleet was mostly English, the troops of which nation were, according
to agreement, rewarded with the plunder, which was exceeding rich, of
the city of Silves. _Nuniz de Leon as cronicas dos Reis de Port_, A. D.
1189. --_Ed. _
[237] Barbarossa, A. D. 1189. --_Ed. _
[238] _Unlike the Syrian_ (rather _Assyrian_). --Sardanapalus.
[239] _When Rome's proud tyrant far'd. _--Heliogabalus, infamous for his
gluttony.
[240] Alluding to the history of Phalaris.
[241] Camoens, who was quite an enthusiast for the honour of his
country, has in this instance disguised the truth of history. Don Sancho
was by no means the weak prince here represented, nor did the miseries
of his reign proceed from himself. The clergy were the sole authors of
his, and the public, calamities. The Roman See was then in the height of
its power, which it exerted in the most tyrannical manner. The
ecclesiastical courts had long claimed the sole right to try an
ecclesiastic: and, to prohibit a priest to say mass for a twelve-month,
was by the brethren, his judges, esteemed a sufficient punishment for
murder, or any other capital crime. Alonzo II. , the father of Don
Sancho, attempted to establish the authority of the king's courts of
justice over the offending clergy. For this the Archbishop of Braga
excommunicated Gonzalo Mendez, the chancellor; and Honorius, the pope,
excommunicated the king, and put his dominions under an interdict. The
exterior offices of religion were suspended, the people fell into the
utmost dissoluteness of manners; Mohammedanism made great advances, and
public confusion everywhere prevailed. By this policy the Church
constrained the nobility to urge the king to a full submission to the
papal chair. While a negotiation for this purpose was on foot Alonzo
died, and left his son to struggle with an enraged and powerful clergy.
Don Sancho was just, affable, brave, and an enamoured husband. On this
last virtue faction first fixed its envenomed fangs. The queen was
accused of arbitrary influence over her husband; and, according to the
superstition of that age, she was believed to have disturbed his senses
by an enchanted draught. Such of the nobility as declared in the king's
favour were stigmatized, and rendered odious, as the creatures of the
queen. The confusions which ensued were fomented by Alonso, Earl of
Bologna, the king's brother, by whom the king was accused as the author
of them. In short, by the assistance of the clergy and Pope Innocent
IV. , Sancho was deposed, and soon after died at Toledo. The beautiful
queen, Donna Mencia, was seized upon, and conveyed away by one Raymond
Portocarrero, and was never heard of more. Such are the triumphs of
faction!
[242] Alexander the Great.
[243] Mondego, the largest exclusively Portuguese river. --_Ed. _
[244] The _baccaris_, or Lady's glove, a herb to which the Druids and
ancient poets ascribed magical virtues.
----_Baccare frontem
Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro. _
VIRG. Ecl. vii.
[245] Semiramis, who is said to have invaded India. --_Ed. _
[246] Attila, a king of the Huns, surnamed "The Scourge of God. " He
lived in the fifth century. He may be reckoned among the greatest of
conquerors.
[247] _His much-lov'd bride. _--The Princess Mary. She was a lady of
great beauty and virtue, but was exceedingly ill used by her husband,
who was violently attached to his mistresses, though he owed his crown
to the assistance of his father-in-law, the King of Portugal.
[248]
_By night our fathers' shades confess their fear,
Their shrieks of terror from the tombs we hear. --_
Camoens says, "A mortos faz espanto;" to give this elegance in English
required a paraphrase. There is something wildly great, and agreeable to
the superstition of that age, to suppose that the dead were troubled in
their graves on the approach of so terrible an army. The French
translator, contrary to the original, ascribes this terror to the ghost
of only one prince, by which this stroke of Camoens, in the spirit of
Shakespeare, is reduced to a piece of unmeaning frippery.
[249] The Muliya, a river of Morocco. --_Ed. _
[250] See the first AEneid.
[251] Goliath, the Philistine champion. --_Ed. _
[252] David, afterwards king of Israel. --_Ed. _
[253] _Though wove. _--It may perhaps be objected that this is
ungrammatical. But--
----Usus
Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus et norma loquendi.
and Dryden, Pope, etc. , often use _wove_ as a participle in place of the
harsh-sounding _woven_, a word almost incompatible with the elegance of
versification.
[254] Hannibal, who, as a child, was compelled to swear perpetual
hostility to the Romans. --_Ed. _
[255] Where the last great battle between Hannibal and the Romans took
place, in which the Romans sustained a crushing defeat. --_Ed. _
[256] When the soldiers of Marius complained of thirst, he pointed to a
river near the camp of the Ambrones. "There," says he, "you may drink,
but it must be purchased with blood. " "Lead us on," they replied, "that
we may have something liquid, though it be blood. " The Romans, forcing
their way to the river, the channel was filled with the dead bodies of
the slain. --Vid. Plutarch's Lives.
[257] This unfortunate lady, Donna Inez de Castro, was the daughter of a
Castilian gentleman, who had taken refuge in the court of Portugal. Her
beauty and accomplishments attracted the regard of Don Pedro, the king's
eldest son, a prince of a brave and noble disposition. La Neufville, Le
Clede, and other historians, assert that she was privately married to
the prince ere she had any share in his bed. Nor was his conjugal
fidelity less remarkable than the ardour of his passion. Afraid,
however, of his father's resentment, the severity of whose temper he
knew, his intercourse with Donna Inez passed at the court as an intrigue
of gallantry. On the accession of Don Pedro the Cruel to the throne of
Castile many of the disgusted nobility were kindly received by Don
Pedro, through the interest of his beloved Inez. The favour shown to
these Castilians gave great uneasiness to the politicians. A thousand
evils were foreseen from the prince's attachment to his Castilian
mistress: even the murder of his children by his deceased spouse, the
princess Constantia, was surmised; and the enemies of Donna Inez,
finding the king willing to listen, omitted no opportunity to increase
his resentment against the unfortunate lady. The prince was about his
twenty-eighth year when his amour with his beloved Inez commenced.
[258]
_Ad coelum tendens ardentia lumina frustra,
Lumina nam teneras arcebant vincula palmas. _
VIRG. AEn. ii.
[259] Romulus and Remus, who were said to have been suckled by a
wolf. --_Ed. _
[260] It has been observed by some critics, that Milton on every
occasion is fond of expressing his admiration of music, particularly of
the song of the nightingale, and the full woodland choir. If in the same
manner we are to judge of the favourite taste of Homer, we shall find it
of a less delicate kind. He is continually describing the feast, the
huge chine, the savoury viands on the glowing coals, and the foaming
bowl. The ruling passion of Camoens is also strongly marked in his
writings. One may venture to affirm, that there is no poem of equal
length that abounds with so many impassioned encomiums on the fair sex
as the Lusiad. The genius of Camoens seems never so pleased as when he
is painting the variety of female charms; he feels all the magic of
their allurements, and riots in his descriptions of the happiness and
miseries attendant on the passion of love. As he wrote from his
feelings, these parts of his works have been particularly honoured with
the attention of the world.
[261] To give the character of Alphonso IV. will throw light on this
inhuman transaction. He was an undutiful son, an unnatural brother, and
a cruel father, a great and fortunate warrior, diligent in the execution
of the laws, and a Macchiavellian politician. His maxim was that of the
Jesuits; so that a contemplated good might be attained, he cared not how
villainous might be the means employed. When the enemies of Inez had
persuaded him that her death was necessary to the welfare of the state,
he took a journey to Coimbra, that he might see the lady, when the
prince, his son, was absent on a hunting party. Donna Inez, with her
children, threw herself at his feet. The king was moved with the
distress of the beautiful suppliant, when his three counsellors, Alvaro
Gonsalez, Diego Lopez Pacheco, and Pedro Coello, reproaching him for his
disregard to the state, he relapsed to his former resolution. She was
then dragged from his presence, and brutally murdered by the hands of
his three counsellors, who immediately returned to the king with their
daggers reeking with the innocent blood of his daughter-in-law. Alonzo,
says La Neufville, avowed the horrid assassination, as if he had done
nothing of which he ought to be ashamed.
[262] Pyrrhus, son of Achilles: he was also called Neoptolemus. He
sacrificed Polyxena, daughter of Priam king of Troy, to the manes of his
father. Euripides and Sophocles each wrote a tragedy having the
sacrifice of Polyxena for the subject. Both have unfortunately
perished. --_Ed. _
[263] Hecuba, mother of Polyxena, and wife of Priam. --_Ed. _
[264] The fair Inez was crowned Queen of Portugal after her interment.
[265] Atreus, having slain the sons of Thyestes, cut them in pieces, and
served them up for a repast to their own father. The sun, it is said,
hid his face rather than shine on so barbarous a deed. --Ed.
[266] At an old royal castle near Mondego, there is a rivulet called the
fountain of Amours. According to tradition, it was here that Don Pedro
resided with his beloved Inez. The fiction of Camoens, founded on the
popular name of the rivulet, is in the spirit of Homer.
[267] When the prince was informed of the death of his beloved Inez, he
was transported into the most violent fury. He took arms against his
father. The country between the rivers Minho and Doura was laid
desolate: but, by the interposition of the queen and the Archbishop of
Braga, the prince relented, and the further horrors of a civil war were
prevented.
Don Alonzo was not only reconciled to his son, but laboured
by every means to oblige him, and to efface from his memory the injury
and insult he had received. The prince, however, still continued to
discover the strongest marks of affection and grief. When he succeeded
to the crown, one of his first acts was a treaty with the King of
Castile, whereby each monarch engaged to give up such malcontents as
should take refuge in each other's dominions. In consequence of this,
Pedro Coello and Alvaro Gonsalez, who, on the death of Alonzo had fled
to Castile, were sent prisoners to Don Pedro. Diego Pacheco, the third
murderer, made his escape. The other two were put to death with the most
exquisite tortures, and most justly merited, if torture is in any
instance to be allowed. After this the king, Don Pedro, summoned an
assembly of the states at Cantanedes. Here, in the presence of the
Pope's nuncio, he solemnly swore on the holy Gospels, that having
obtained a dispensation from Rome, he had secretly, at Braganza,
espoused the Lady Inez de Castro, in the presence of the Bishop of
Guarda, and of his master of the wardrobe; both of whom confirmed the
truth of the oath. The Pope's Bull, containing the dispensation, was
published; the body of Inez was lifted from the grave, was placed on a
magnificent throne, and with the proper regalia, crowned Queen of
Portugal. The nobility did homage to her skeleton, and kissed the bones
of her hand. The corpse was then interred at the royal monastery of
Alcobaca, with a pomp before unknown in Portugal, and with all the
honours due to a queen. Her monument is still extant, where her statue
is adorned with the diadem and the royal robe. This, with the
legitimation of her children, and the care he took of all who had been
in her service, consoled him in some degree, and rendered him more
conversable than he had hitherto been; but the cloud which the death of
Inez brought over the natural cheerfulness of his temper, was never
totally dispersed. ---- A circumstance strongly characteristic of the
rage of his resentment must not be omitted. When the murderers were
brought before him, he was so transported with indignation, that he
struck Pedro Coello several blows on the face with the shaft of his
whip.
[268] _Pedro the Just. _--History cannot afford an instance of any prince
who has a more eminent claim to the title of just than Pedro I. His
diligence to correct every abuse was indefatigable, and when guilt was
proved his justice was inexorable. He was dreadful to the evil, and
beloved by the good, for he respected no persons, and his inflexible
severity never digressed from the line of strict justice. An anecdote or
two will throw some light on his character. A priest having killed a
mason, the king dissembled his knowledge of the crime, and left the
issue to the ecclesiastical court, where the priest was punished by one
year's suspension from saying mass. The king on this privately ordered
the mason's son to revenge the murder of his father. The young man
obeyed, was apprehended, and condemned to death. When his sentence was
to be confirmed by the king, Pedro enquired, what was the young man's
trade. He was answered, that he followed his father's. "Well then," said
the king, "I shall commute his punishment, and interdict him from
meddling with stone or mortar for a twelve-month. " After this he fully
established the authority of the king's courts over the clergy, whom he
punished with death when their crimes were capital. When solicited to
refer the causes of such criminals to a higher tribunal, he would answer
very calmly, "That is what I intend to do: I will send them to the
highest of all tribunals, to that of their Maker and mine. " Against
adulterers he was particularly severe, often declaring it as his
opinion, that conjugal infidelity was the source of the greatest evils,
and that therefore to restrain it was the interest and duty of the
sovereign. Though the fate of his beloved Inez chagrined and soured his
temper, he was so far from being naturally sullen or passionate, that he
was rather of a gay and sprightly disposition; he was affable and easy
of access; delighted in music and dancing; was a lover of learning, a
man of letters, and an elegant poet. --Vide Le Clede, Mariana, Faria.
[269] This lady, named Leonora de Tellez, was the wife of Don Juan
Lorenzo Acugna, a nobleman of one of the most distinguished families in
Portugal. After a sham process this marriage was dissolved, and the king
privately espoused to her, though, at this time, he was publicly married
by proxy to Donna Leonora of Arragon. A dangerous insurrection, headed
by one Velasquez, a tailor, drove the king and his adulterous bride from
Lisbon. Soon after, he caused his marriage to be publicly celebrated in
the province of Entre Douro e Minho. Henry, king of Castile, being
informed of the general discontent that reigned in Portugal, marched a
formidable army into that kingdom, to revenge the injury offered to some
of his subjects, whose ships had been unjustly seized at Lisbon. The
desolation hinted at by Camoens ensued. After the subjects of both
kingdoms had severely suffered, the two kings ended the war, much to
their mutual satisfaction, by an intermarriage of their illegitimate
children.
[270] Judges, chap. xix. and xx.
[271] Samuel, chap. xii. 10, "The sword shall never depart from thine
house. "
[272] Hercules.
[273] Love compelled Hercules to spin wool. --OVID.
[274] Hannibal.
[275] Dom John was a natural brother of Fernando, being an illegitimate
son of Pedro. --_Ed. _
[276] _A cradled infant gave the wondrous sign. _--No circumstance has
ever been more ridiculed by the ancient and modern pedants than
Alexander's pretensions to divinity. Some of his courtiers expostulating
with him one day on the absurdity of such claim, he replied, "I know the
truth of what you say, but these," (pointing to a crowd of Persians)
"these know no better. " The report that the Grecian army was commanded
by a son of Jupiter spread terror through the East, and greatly
facilitated the operations of the conqueror. The miraculous speech of
the infant, attested by a few monks, was adapted to the superstition of
the age of John I. and, as he was illegitimate, was of infinite service
to his cause. The pretended fact, however, is differently related.
[277] Lisbon, or Ulyssipolis, supposed to be founded by Ulysses. --_Ed. _
[278] _The mitred head. _--Don Martin, bishop of Lisbon, a man of
exemplary life. He was by birth a Castilian, which was esteemed a
sufficient reason to murder him, as of the queen's party. He was thrown
from the tower of his own cathedral, whither he had fled to avoid the
popular fury.
[279] _The queen beheld her power, her honours lost. _--Possessed of
great beauty and great abilities, this bad woman was a disgrace to her
sex, and a curse to the age and country which gave her birth. Her
sister, Donna Maria, a lady of unblemished virtue, had been secretly
married to the infant, Don Juan, the king's brother, who was
passionately attached to her. Donna Maria had formerly endeavoured to
dissuade her sister from the adulterous marriage with the king. In
revenge of this, the queen, Leonora, persuaded Don Juan that her sister
was unfaithful to his bed. The enraged husband hastened to his wife,
and, without enquiry or expostulation, says Mariana, dispatched her with
two strokes of his dagger. He was afterwards convinced of her innocence.
Having sacrificed her honour, and her first husband, to a king, (says
Faria), Leonora soon sacrificed that king to a wicked gallant, a
Castilian nobleman, named Don Juan Fernandez de Andeyro. An unjust war
with Castile, wherein the Portuguese were defeated by sea and land, was
the first fruits of the policy of the new favourite. Andeyro one day
being in a great perspiration, by some military exercise, the queen tore
her veil, and publicly gave it him to wipe his face. The grand master of
Avis, the king's illegitimate brother, afterwards John I. , and some
others, expostulated with her on the indecency of this behaviour. She
dissembled her resentment, but, soon after, they were seized and
committed to the castle of Evora, where a forged order for their
execution was sent; but the governor suspecting some fraud, showed it to
the king. Yet, such was her ascendancy over Fernando, that though
convinced of her guilt, he ordered his brother to kiss the queen's hand,
and thank her for his life. Soon after, Fernando died, but not till he
was fully convinced of the queen's conjugal infidelity, and had given an
order for the assassination of the gallant. Not long after the death of
the king, the favourite Andeyro was stabbed in the palace by the
grandmaster of Avis, and Don Ruy de Pereyra. The queen expressed all the
transport of grief and rage, and declared she would undergo the
trial-ordeal in vindication of his, and her, innocence. But this she
never performed: in her vows of revenge, however, she was more punctual.
Don Juan, king of Castile, who had married her only daughter and
heiress, at her earnest entreaties invaded Portugal, and was proclaimed
king. Don John, grand master of Avis, was proclaimed by the people
protector and regent. A desperate war ensued. Queen Leonora, treated
with indifference by her daughter and son-in-law, resolved on the murder
of the latter, but the plot was discovered, and she was sent prisoner to
Castile. The regent was besieged in Lisbon, and the city reduced to the
utmost extremities, when an epidemic broke out in the Castilian army,
and made such devastation, that the king suddenly raised the siege, and
abandoned his views on Portugal. The happy inhabitants ascribed their
deliverance to the valour and vigilance of the regent. The regent
reproved their ardour, exhorted them to repair to their churches, and
return thanks to God, to whose interposition he solely ascribed their
safety. This behaviour increased the admiration of the people; the
nobility of the first rank joined the regent's party, and many garrisons
in the interest of the king of Castile opened their gates to him. An
assembly of the states met at Coimbra, where it was proposed to invest
the regent with the regal dignity. This he pretended to decline. Don
John, son of Pedro the Just and the beautiful Inez de Castro, was by the
people esteemed their lawful sovereign, but was, and had been long,
detained a prisoner by the King of Castile. If the states would declare
the infant, Don John, their king, the regent professed his willingness
to swear allegiance to him, that he would continue to expose himself to
every danger, and act as regent, till Providence restored to Portugal
her lawful sovereign. The states, however, saw the necessity that the
nation should have a head. The regent was unanimously elected king, and
some articles in favour of liberty were added to those agreed upon at
the coronation of Don Alonzo Enriquez, the first king of Portugal.
Don John I. , one of the greatest of the Portuguese monarchs, was the
natural son of Pedro the Just, by Donna Teresa Lorenza, a Galician lady,
and was born some years after the death of Inez. At seven years of age
he was made grand master of Avis, where he received an excellent
education, which, joined to his great parts, brought him out early on
the political theatre. He was a brave commander, and a deep politician,
yet never forfeited the character of candour and honour. To be humble to
his friends, and haughty to his enemies, was his leading maxim. His
prudence gained him the confidence of the wise; his steadiness and
gratitude the friendship of the brave; his liberality the bulk of the
people. He was in the twenty-seventh year of his age when declared
protector, and in his twenty-eighth when proclaimed king.
The following anecdote is much to the honour of this prince when regent.
A Castilian officer, having six Portuguese gentleman prisoners, cut off
their noses and hands, and sent them to Don John. Highly incensed, the
protector commanded six Castilian gentlemen to be treated in the same
manner. But, before the officer, to whom he gave the orders, had quitted
the room, he relented. "I have given enough to resentment," said he, "in
giving such a command. It were infamous to put it in execution. See that
the Castilian prisoners receive no harm. "
[280] Beatrice.
[281] _By Rodrick given. _--The celebrated hero of Corneille's tragedy of
the Cid.
[282] [283] Cadiz: in ancient times a Phoenician colony, whose coins
bear the emblem of two pillars--the pillars of Hercules
(Alcides). --_Ed. _
[284] The Gascons or Basques, a very ancient and singular people. Their
language has no relation to that of any other people. They are regarded
as the earliest inhabitants of the Spanish peninsula. --_Ed. _
[285] See Judges xvi. 17-19.
[286] This speech in the original has been much admired by foreign
critics, as a model of military eloquence. The critic, it is hoped, will
perceive that the translator has endeavoured to support the character of
the speaker.
[287] This was the famous P. Corn. Scipio Africanus. The fact, somewhat
differently related by Livy, is this. After the defeat at Cannae, a
considerable body of Romans fled to Canusium, and appointed Scipio and
Ap. Claudius their commanders. While they remained there, it was told
Scipio, that some of his chief officers, at the head of whom was
Caecilius Metellus, were taking measures to transport themselves out of
Italy. He went immediately to their assembly; and drawing his sword,
said, _I swear that I will not desert the Commonwealth of Rome, nor
suffer any other citizen to do it. The same oath I require of you,
Caecilius, and of all present; whoever refuses, let him know that this
sword is drawn against him. _ The historian adds, that they were as
terrified by this, as if they had beheld the face of their conqueror,
Hannibal. They all swore, and submitted themselves to Scipio. --Vid.
Livy, bk. 22. c. 53.
[288] Sestos was a city of Thrace, on the Dardanelles, opposite
Abydos. --_Ed. _
[289] The Guadiana, one of the two great rivers of Spain. --_Ed. _
[290] The Douro.
[291] Homer and Virgil have, with great art, gradually heightened the
fury of every battle, till the last efforts of their genius were
lavished in describing the superior prowess of the hero in the decisive
engagement. Camoens, in like manner, has bestowed his utmost attention
on this his principal battle. The circumstances preparatory to the
engagement are happily imagined, and solemnly conducted, and the fury of
the combat is supported with a poetical heat, and a variety of imagery,
which, one need not hesitate to affirm, would do honour to an ancient
classic author.
[292] _And his own brothers shake the hostile lance. _--The just
indignation with which Camoens treats the kindred of the brave Nunio
Alvaro de Pereyra, is condemned by the French translator. "The
Pereyras," says he, "deserve no stain on their memory for joining the
King of Castile, whose title to the crown of Portugal was infinitely
more just and solid than that of Don John. " Castera, however, is grossly
mistaken. Don Alonzo Enriquez, the first King of Portugal, was elected
by the people, who had recovered their liberties at the glorious battle
of Ourique. At the election the constitution of the kingdom was settled
in eighteen short statutes, wherein it is expressly provided, that none
but a Portuguese can be king of Portugal; that if an infanta marry a
foreign prince, he shall not, in her right, become King of Portugal, and
a new election of a king, in case of the failure of the male line, is,
by these statutes, supposed legal. By the treaty of marriage between the
King of Castile and Donna Beatrix, the heiress of Fernando of Portugal,
it was agreed, that only their children should succeed to the Portuguese
crown; and that, in case the throne became vacant ere such children were
born, the Queen-dowager, Leonora, should govern with the title of
Regent. Thus, neither by the original constitution, nor by the treaty of
marriage, could the King of Castile succeed to the throne of Portugal.
And any pretence he might found on the marriage contract was already
forfeited; for he caused himself and his queen to be proclaimed, added
Portugal to his titles, coined Portuguese money with his bust, deposed
the queen regent, and afterwards sent her prisoner to Castile. The
lawful heir, Don Juan, the son of Inez de Castro, was kept in prison by
his rival, the King of Castile; and, as before observed, a new election
was, by the original statutes, supposed legal in cases of emergency.
These facts, added to the consideration of the tyranny of the King of
Castile, and the great services which Don John had rendered his country,
fully vindicate the indignation of Camoens against the traitorous
Pereyras.
[293] Near Pharsalus was fought the decisive battle between Caesar and
Pompey, B. C. 48. --_Ed. _
[294] Ceuta, a small Spanish possession on the Mediterranean coast of
Morocco. --_Ed. _
[295] Tetuan, a city of Morocco. --_Ed. _
[296] _Through the fierce Brigians. _--The Castilians, so called from one
of their ancient kings, named Brix, or Brigus, whom the monkish writers
call the grandson of Noah.
[297] These lines are not in the common editions of Camoens. They
consist of three stanzas in the Portuguese, and are said to have been
left out by the author himself in his second edition. The translator,
however, as they breathe the true spirit of Virgil, was willing to
preserve them with this acknowledgment.
[298] Massylia, a province in Numidia, greatly infested with lions,
particularly that part of it called _Os sete montes irmaos_, the seven
brother mountains.
[299] _And many a gasping warrior sigh'd his last. _--This, which is
almost literal from--
_Muitos lancarao o ultimo suspiro,--_
and the preceding circumstance of Don John's brandishing his lance four
times--
_E sopesando a lanca quatro vezes,_
are poetical, and in the spirit of Homer. Besides Maldonat, Castera has,
in this battle, introduced several other names which have no place in
Camoens. Carrillo, Robledo, John of Lorca, Salazar of Seville were
killed, he tells us: And, "Velasques and Sanches, natives of Toledo,
Galbes, surnamed the 'Soldier without Fear,' Montanches, Oropesa, and
Mondonedo, all six of proved valour, fell by the hand of young Antony,
who brought to the fight either more address, or better fortune than
these. " Not a word of this is in the Portuguese.
[300] _Their swords seem dipp'd in fire. _--This is as literal as the
idiom of the two languages would allow. Dryden has a thought like that
of this couplet, but which is not in his original:--
"Their bucklers clash; thick blows descend from high,
And flakes of fire from their hard helmets fly. "
DRYD. Virg. AEn. xii.
[301] Grand master of the order of St. James, named Don Pedro Nunio. He
was not killed, however, in this battle, which was fought on the plains
of Aljubarota, but in that of Valverda, which immediately followed. The
reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find that every soldier mentioned
in these notes is a Don, a _Lord_. The following piece of history will
account for the number of the Portuguese nobles. Don Alonzo Enriquez,
Count of Portugal, was saluted king by his army at the battle of
Ourique; in return, his majesty dignified every man in his army with the
rank of nobility. --Vide the 9th of the Statutes of Lamego.
[302] Cerberus.
[303] The Spaniards.
[304] This tyrant, whose unjust pretensions to the crown of Portugal
laid his own, and that, kingdom in blood, was on his final defeat
overwhelmed with all the frenzy of grief. In the night after the
decisive battle of Aljubarota, he fled upwards of thirty miles upon a
mule. Don Laurence, archbishop of Braga, in a letter written in old
Portuguese to Don John, abbot of Alcobaza, gives this account of his
behaviour: "The constable has informed me that he saw the King of
Castile at Santaren, who behaved as a madman, cursing his existence, and
tearing the hairs of his beard. And, in good faith, my good friend, it
is better that he should do so to himself than to us; the man who thus
plucks his own beard, would be much better pleased to do so to others. "
The writer of this letter, though a prelate, fought at the battle of
Aljubarota, where he received on the face a large wound from a sabre.
[305] _The festive days by heroes old ordain'd. _--As a certain proof of
the victory, it was required, by the honour of these ages, that the
victor should encamp three days on the field of battle. By this
knight-errantry the advantages which ought to have been pursued were
frequently lost. Don John, however, though he complied with the reigning
ideas of honour, sent Don Nunio, with a proper army, to reap the fruits
of his victory.
