¹
CANTO III
Now, my Calliope!
CANTO III
Now, my Calliope!
Warner - World's Best Literature - v06 - Cal to Chr
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mon
LUIS DE CAMOËNS.
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LUIZ VAZ DE CAMOENS
(1524? -1580)
BY HENRY R. LANG
ORTUGUESE literature is usually divided into six periods,
which correspond, in the main, to the successive literary
movements of the other Romance nations which it followed.
First Period (1200-1385), Provençal and French influences. Soon
after the founding of the Portuguese State by Henry of Burgundy
and his knights in the beginning of the twelfth century, the nobles
of Portugal and Galicia, which regions form a unit in race and
speech, began to imitate in their native idiom the art of the Pro-
vençal troubadours who visited the courts of Leon and Castile.
This courtly lyric poetry in the Gallego-Portuguese dialect, which
was also cultivated in the rest of the peninsula excepting the East,
reached its height under Alphonso X. of Castile (1252-84), himself a
noted poet and patron of this art, and under King Dionysius of
Portugal (1279–1325), the most gifted of all these troubadours. The
collections (cancioneiros) of the works of this school preserved to us
contain the names of one hundred and sixty-three poets and some
two thousand compositions (inclusive of the four hundred and one
spiritual songs of Alphonso X. ). Of this body of verse, two-thirds
affect the artificial style of Provençal lyrics, while one-third is de-
rived from the indigenous popular poetry. This latter part contains
the so-called cantigas de amigo, songs of charming simplicity of form
and naïveté of spirit in which a woman addresses her lover either
in a monologue or in a dialogue. It is this native poetry, still
echoed in the modern folk-song of Galicia and Portugal, that imparted
to the Gallego-Portuguese lyric school the decidedly original color-
ing and vigorous growth which assign it an independent position in
the mediæval literature of the Romance nations.
Composition in prose also began in this period, consisting chiefly
in genealogies, chronicles, and in translations from Latin and French
dealing with religious subjects and the romantic traditions of British
origin, such as the 'Demanda do Santo Graal. ' It is now almost
certain that the original of the Spanish version of the 'Amadis de
Gaula' (1480) was the work of a Portuguese troubadour of the thir-
teenth century, Joam de Lobeira.
Second Period (1385-1521), Spanish influence. Instead of the Pro-
vençal style, the courtly circles now began to cultivate the native
popular forms, the copla and quadra, and to compose in the dialect
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LUIZ VAZ DE CAMOENS
I
of Castile, which communicated to them the influence of the Italian
Renaissance, with the vision and allegory of Dante and a fuller
understanding of classical antiquity. These two literary currents
became the formative elements of the second poetic school of an
aristocratic character in Portugal, at the courts of Alphonse V. (1438-
1481), John II. (1481-95), and Emanuel (1495-1521), whose works were
collected by the poet Garcia de Resende in the 'Cancioneiro Geral'
(Lisbon, 1516).
The prose-literature of this period is rich in translations from the
Latin classics, and chiefly noteworthy for the great Portuguese chron-
icles which it produced. The most prominent writer was Fernam
Lopes (1454), the founder of Portuguese historiography and the
"father of Portuguese prose. "
Third Period (1521-1580), Italian influence. This is the classic
epoch of Portuguese literature, born of the powerful rise of the Portu-
guese State during its period of discovery and conquest, and of the
dominant influence of the Italian Renaissance. It opens with three
authors who were prominently active in the preceding literary school,
but whose principal influence lies in this. These are Christovam
Falcão and Bernardim Ribeiro, the founders of the bucolic poem and
the sentimental pastoral romance, and Gil Vicente, a comic writer of
superior talent, who is called the father of the Portuguese drama,
and who, next to Camoens, is the greatest figure of this period. Its
real initiator, however, was Francesco Sa' de Miranda (1495-1557) who,
on his return from a six-years' study in Italy in 1521, introduced the
lyric forms of Petrarch and his followers as the only true models for
composition. Besides giving by his example a classic form to lyrics,
especially to the sonnet, and cultivating the pastoral poem, Sa' de
Miranda, desirous of breaking the influence of Gil Vicente's dramas,
wrote two comedies of intrigue in the style of the Italians and of
Plautus and Terence. His attempts in this direction, however, found
no followers, the only exception being Ferreira's tragedy 'Ines de
Castro' in the antique style. The greatest poet of this period, and
indeed in the whole history of Portuguese literature, is Luiz de
Camoens, in whose works, epic, lyric, and dramatic, the cultivation
of the two literary currents of this epoch, the national and the Re-
naissance, attained to its highest perfection, and to whom Portuguese
literature chiefly owes its place in the literature of the world.
Among the works in prose produced during this time are of especial
importance the historical writings, such as the 'Décadas' of João de
Barros (1496-1570), the "Livy of Portugal," and the numerous ro-
mances of chivalry.
Fourth Period (1580-1700), Culteranistic influence. The political
decline of Portugal is accompanied by one in its literature. While
some lyric poetry is still written in the spirit of Camoens, and the
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pastoral romance in the national style is cultivated by some authors,
Portuguese literature on the whole is completely under the influence
of the Spanish, receiving from the latter the euphuistic movement,
known in Spain as culteranismo or Gongorismo. Many writers of
talent of this time used the Spanish language in preference to their
own. It is thus that the charming pastoral poem 'Diana,' by Jorge
de Montemor, though composed by a Portuguese and in a vein so
peculiar to his nation, is credited to Spanish literature.
Fifth Period (1700-1825), Pseudo-Classicism. The influence of the
French classic school, felt in all European literatures, became para-
mount in Portugal. Excepting the works of a few talented members
of the society called "Arcadia," little of literary interest was produced
until the appearance, at the end of the century, of Francisco Manoel
de Nascimento and Manoel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, two poets of
decided talent who connect this period with the following.
Sixth Period (since 1825), Romanticism. The initiator of this
movement in Portugal was Almeida-Garrett (1799-1854), with Gil
Vicente and Camoens one of the three great poets Portugal has pro-
duced, who revived and strengthened the sense of national life in
his country by his Camoens,' an epic of glowing patriotism pub-
lished during his exile in 1825, by his national dramas, and by the
collection of the popular traditions of his people, which he began
and which has since been zealously continued in all parts of the
country. The second influential leader of romanticism was Alexandre
Herculano (1810-1877), great especially as national historian, but also
a novelist and poet of superior merit. The labors of these two men
bore fruit, since the middle of the century, in what may be termed
an intellectual renovation of Portugal which first found expression in
the so-called Coimbra School, and has since been supported by such
men as Theophilo Braga, F. Adolpho Coelho, Joaquim de Vasconcel-
los, J. Leite de Vasconcellos, and others, whose life-work is devoted
to the conviction that only a thorough and critical study of their
country's past can inspire its literature with new life and vigor and
maintain the sense of national independence.
LUIZ VAZ DE CAMOENS, Portugal's greatest poet and patriot, was
born in 1524 or 1525, most probably at Coimbra, as the son of
Simão Vaz de Camoens and Donna Anna de Macedo of Santarem.
Through his father, a cavalleiro fidalgo, or untitled nobleman, who was
related with Vasco da Gama, Camoens descended from an ancient
and once influential noble family of Galician origin. He spent his
youth at Coimbra, and though his name is not found in the regis-
ters of the university, which had been removed to that city in 1537,
and of which his uncle, Bento de Camoens, prior of the monastery of
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Santa Cruz, was made chancellor in 1539, it was presumably in that
institution, then justly famous, that the highly gifted youth acquired
his uncommon familiarity with the classics and with the literatures of
Spain, Italy, and that of his own country. In 1542 we find Camoens
exchanging his alma mater for the gay and brilliant court of John
III. , then at Lisbon, where his gentle birth, his poetic genius, and
his fine personal appearance brought him much favor, especially
with the fair sex, while his independent bearing and indiscreet
speech aroused the jealousy and enmity of his rivals. Here he woos
and wins the damsels of the palace until a high-born lady in attend-
ance upon the Queen, Donna Catharina de Athaide,-whom, like
Petrarch, he claims to have first seen on Good Friday in church, and
who is celebrated in his poems under the anagram of Natercia,—
inspires him with a deep and enduring passion. Irritated by the
intrigues employed by his enemies to mar his prospects, the impetu-
ous youth commits imprudent acts which lead to his banishment
from the city in 1546. For about a year he lives in enforced retire-
ment on the Upper Tagus (Ribatejo), pouring out his profound passion
and grief in a number of beautiful sonnets and elegies. Most likely
in consequence of some new offense, he is next exiled for two years
to Ceuta in Africa, where, in a fight with the Moors, he loses his
right eye by a chance splinter. Meeting on his return to Lisbon in
1547 neither with pardon for his indiscretions nor with recognition
for his services and poetic talent, he allows his keen resentment of
this unjust treatment to impel him into the reckless and turbulent
life of a bully. It was thus that during the festival of Corpus Christi
in 1552 he got into a quarrel with Gonçalo Borges, one of the King's
equerries, in which he wounded the latter. For this Camoens was
thrown into jail until March, 1553, when he was released only on
condition that he should embark to serve in India. Not quite two
weeks after leaving his prison, on March 24th, he sailed for India on
the flag-ship Sam Bento, bidding, as a true Renaissance poet, fare-
well to his native land in the words of Scipio which were to come
true: "Ingrata patria non possidebis ossa mea. " After a stormy pas-
sage of six months, the Sam Bento cast anchor in the bay of Goa.
Camoens first took part in an expedition against the King of Pimenta,
and in the following year (1554) he joined another directed against
the Moorish pirates on the coast of Africa. The scenes of drunken-
ness and dissoluteness which he witnessed in Goa inspired him with
a number of satirical poems, by which he drew upon himself much
enmity and persecution. In 1556 his three-years' term of service
expired; but though ardently longing for his beloved native land, he
remained in Goa, influenced either by his bent for the soldier's life
or by the sad news of the death of Donna Catharina de Athaide in
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that year.
He was ordered to Macao in China, to the lucrative post
of commissary for the effects of deceased or absent Portuguese sub-
jects. There, in the quietude of a grotto near Macao, still called the
Grotto of Camoens, the exiled poet finished the first six cantos of his
great epic The Lusiads. ' Recalled from this post in 1558, before
the expiration of his term, on the charge of malversation of office,
Camoens on his return voyage to Goa was shipwrecked near the
mouth of the Me-Kong, saving nothing but his faithful Javanese slave
and the manuscript of his 'Lusiads' — which, swimming with one
hand, he held above the water with the other. In Cambodia, where
he remained several months, he wrote his marvelous paraphrase of
the 137th psalm, contrasting under the allegory of Babel (Babylon)
and Siam (Zion), Goa and Lisbon. Upon his return to Goa he was
cast into prison, but soon set free on proving his innocence by a
public trial. Though receiving, in 1557, another lucrative employ-
ment, Camoens finally resolved to go home, burning with the desire
to lay his patriotic song, now almost completed, before his nation,
and to cover with honor his injured name.
He accepted a passage to Sofala offered him by Pedro Barreto,
who had become viceroy of Mozambique in that year. Unable to
refund the amount of the passage, he was once more held for debt
and spent two years of misery and distress in Mozambique, complet-
ing and polishing during this time his great epic song and preparing
the collection of his lyrics, his 'Parnasso. ' In 1559 he was released
by the historian Diogo do Couto and other friends of his, visiting
Sofala with the expedition of Noronha, and embarked on the Santa
Clara for Lisbon.
On the 7th of April, 1570, Camoens once more set foot on his native
soil, only to find the city for which he had yearned, sadly changed.
The government was in the hands of a brave but harebrained and
fanatic young monarch, ruled by the Jesuits; the capital had been
ravaged by a terrible plague which had carried off fifty thousand
souls; and its society had no room for a man who brought with him
from the Indies, whence so many returned with great riches, nothing
but a manuscript, though in it was sung in classic verse the glory of
his people. Still, through the kind offices of his warm friend Dom
Manoel de Portugal, Camoens obtained, on the 25th of September, 1571,
the royal permission to print his epic. It was published in the spring
of the following year (March, 1572). Great as was the success of the
work, which marked a new epoch in Portuguese history, the reward
which the poet received for it was meagre. King Sebastian granted
him an annual pension of fifteen thousand reis (fifteen dollars, which
then had the purchasing value of about sixty dollars in our money),
which, after the poet's death, was ordered by Philip II. to be paid to
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his aged mother.
Destitute and broken in spirit, Camoens lived for
the last eight years of his life with his mother in a humble house
near the convent of Santa Ana, "in the knowledge of many and in
the society of few. " Dom Sebastian's departure early in 1578 for the
conquest in Africa once more kindled patriotic hopes in his breast;
but the terrible defeat at Alcazarquivir (August 4th of the same year),
in which Portugal lost her king and her army, broke his heart. He
died on the 10th of June, 1580, at which time the army of Philip II. ,
under the command of the Duke of Alva, was marching upon Lisbon.
He was thus spared the cruel blow of seeing, though not of fore-
seeing, the national death of his country. The story that his Javanese
slave Antonio used to go out at night to beg of passers-by alms for
his master, is one of a number of touching legends which, as early
as 1572, popular fancy had begun to weave around the poet's life.
It is true, however, that Camoens breathed his last in dire distress
and isolation, and was buried "poorly and plebeianly" in the neigh-
boring convent of Santa Ana. It was not until sixteen years later
that a friend of his, Dom Gonçalo Coutinho, caused his grave to be
marked with a marble slab bearing the inscription:-"Here lies Luis
de Camoens, Prince of the Poets of his time. He died in the year
1579. This tomb was placed for him by order of D. Gonçalo Coutinho.
and none shall be buried in it. " The words "He lived poor and
neglected, and so died," which in the popular tradition form part of
this inscription, are apocryphal, though entirely in conformity with
the facts. The correctness of 1580 instead of 1579 as the year of the
poet's death is proven by an official document in the archives of
Philip II. Both the memorial slab and the convent-church of Santa
Ana were destroyed by the earthquake of 1755 and during the
rebuilding of the convent, and the identification of the remains of
the great man thus rendered well-nigh impossible. In 1854, however,
all the bones found under the floor of the convent-church were placed
in a coffin of Brazil-wood and solemnly deposited in the convent at
Belem, the Pantheon of King Emanuel. In 1867 a statue was erected
to Camoens by the city of Lisbon.
"The Lusiads (Portuguese, Os Lusíadas), a patronymic adopted by
Camoens in place of the usual term Lusitanos, the descendants of
Lusus (the mythical ancestor of the Portuguese), is an epic poem
which, as its name implies, has for its subject the heroic deeds not
of one hero, but of the whole Portuguese nation. Vasco da Gama's
discovery of the way to the East Indies forms, to be sure, the cen-
tral part of its action; but around it are grouped, with consummate
art, the heroic deeds and destinies of the other Lusitanians. In this,
Camoens' work stands alone among all poems of its kind. Originat-
ing under conditions similar to those which are indispensable to the
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production of a true epic, in the heroic period of the Portuguese
people, when national sentiment had risen to its highest point, it is
the only one among the modern epopees which comes near to the
primitive character of epic poetry. A trait which distinguishes this
epic from all its predecessors is the historic truthfulness with which
Camoens confessedly-"A verdade que eu conto nua e pura Vence toda
a grandiloqua escriptura "— represents his heroic personages and their
exploits, tempering his praise with blame where blame is due, and
the unquestioned fidelity and exactness with which he depicts nat-
ural scenes. Lest, however, this adherence to historic truth should
impair the vivifying element of imagination indispensable to true
poetry, our bard, combining in the true spirit of the Renaissance
myth and miracle, threw around his narrative the allegorical dra-
pery of pagan mythology, introducing the gods and goddesses of
Olympus as siding with or against the Portuguese heroes, and thus
calling the imagination of the reader into more active play. Among
the many beautiful inventions of his own creative fancy with which
Camoens has adorned his poem, we shall only mention the powerful
impersonation of the Cape of Storms in the Giant Adamastor (c. v. ),
an episode used by Meyerbeer in his opera 'L'Africaine,' and the en-
chanting scene of the Isle of Love (c. ix. ), as characteristic of the
poet's delicacy of touch as it is of his Portuguese temperament, in
which Venus provides for the merited reward and the continuance of
the brave sons of Lusus. For the metric form of his verse, Camoens
adopted the octave rhyme of Ariosto, while for his epic style he fol-
lowed Virgil, from whom many a simile and phrase is directly bor-
rowed. His poem, justly admired for the elegant simplicity, the
purity and harmony of its diction, bears throughout the deep imprint
of his own powerful and noble personality, that independence and
magnanimity of spirit, that fortitude of soul, that genuine and glow-
ing patriotism which alone, amid all the disappointments and dan-
gers, the dire distress and the foibles and faults of his life, could
enable him to give his mind and heart steadfastly to the fulfillment
of the lofty patriotic task he had set his genius, - the creation of a
lasting monument to the heroic deeds of his race. It is thus that
through The Lusiads' Camoens became the moral bond of the
national individuality of his people, and inspired it with the energy
to rise free once more out of Spanish subjection.
Lyrics. Here, Camoens is hardly less great than as an epic poet,
whether we consider the nobility, depth, and fervor of the senti-
ments filling his songs, or the artistic perfection, the rich variety of
form, and the melody of his verse. His lyric works fall into two
main classes, those written in Italian metres and those in the tra-
ditional trochaic lines and strophic forms of the Spanish peninsula.
The first class is contained in the 'Parnasso,' which comprises 356
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sonnets, 22 canzones, 27 elegies, 12 odes, 8 octaves, and 15 idyls, all
of which testify to the great influence of the Italian school, and
especially of Petrarch, on our poet. The second class is embodied
in the Cancioneiro,' or song-book, and embraces more than one
hundred and fifty compositions in the national peninsular manner.
Together, these two collections form a body of lyric verse of such
richness and variety as neither Petrarch and Tasso nor Garcilaso de
la Vega can offer. Unfortunately, Camoens never prepared an edition
of his Rimas; and the manuscript, which, as Diogo do Couto tells us,
he arranged during his sojourn in Mozambique from 1567 to 1569, is
said to have been stolen. It was not until 1595, fully fifteen years
after the poet's death, that one of his disciples and admirers, Fernão
Rodrigues Lobo Soropita, collected from Portugal, and even from
India, and published in Lisbon, a volume of one hundred and seventy-
two songs, four of which, however, are not by Camoens. The great
mass of verse we now possess has been gathered during the last
three centuries. More may still be discovered, while, on the other
hand, much of what is now attributed to Camoens does not belong
to him, and the question how much of the extant material is gen-
uine is yet to be definitely answered.
In his lyrics, Camoens has depicted, with all the passion and
power of his impressionable temperament, the varied experiences
and emotions of his eventful life. This variety and change of senti-
ments and situations, while greatly enhancing the value of his songs
by the impression of fuller truth and individuality which they pro-
duce, is in so far disadvantageous to a just appreciation of them, as
it naturally brings with it much verse of inferior poetic merit, and
lacks that harmony and unity of emotion which Petrarch was able
to effect in his Rime by confining himself to the portraiture of a
lover's soul.
Drama. In his youth, most likely during his life at court between
1542 and 1546, Camoens wrote three comedies of much freshness and
verve, in which he surpassed all the Portuguese plays in the national
taste produced up to his time. One, 'Filodemo,' derives its plot
from a medieval novel; the other two, 'Rei Seleuco' (King Seleucus)
and Amphitryões,' from antiquity. The last named, a free imitation
of Plautus's 'Amphitryo,' is by far the best play of the three.
these comedies we can recognize an attempt on the part of the author
to fuse the imperfect play in the national taste, such as it had been
cultivated by Gil Vicente, with the more regular but lifeless pieces
of the classicists, and thus to create a superior form of national
comedy. In this endeavor, however, Camoens found no followers.
In
Bibliography. The most complete edition of the works of Camoens
is that by the Viscount de Juromenha, Obras de Luiz de Camões,'
(6 vols. , Lisbon, 1860-70); a more convenient edition is the one by
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Th. Braga (in 'Bibliotheca da Actualidade,' 3 vols. , Porto, 1874).
The best separate edition of the text of The Lusiads' is by F. A.
Coelho (Lisbon, 1880). Camoens' lyric and dramatic works are pub-
lished in his collected works, no separate editions of them existing
thus far. In regard to the life and works of Camoens in general cf.
Adamson, 'Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Camoens (2 vols. ,
London, 1820); Th. Braga, 'Historia de Camoens (3 vols. , Porto,
1873-75); Latino Coelho, 'Luiz de Camoens' (in the 'Galeria de varões
illustres, i. , Lisbon, 1880); J. de Vasconcellos, 'Bibliographia Camo-
niana (Porto, 1880); Brito Aranha, Estudos Bibliographicos' (Lisbon,
1887-8); W. Storck, 'Luis' de Camoens Leben' (Paderborn, 1890);
and especially the judicious and impartial article by Mrs. Carolina
Michaelis de Vasconcellos in Vol. ii. of Gröber's Grundriss der
romanischen Philologie' (Strassburg, 1894). The best translations of
Camoens' works are the one by W. Storck, Camoens' Sämmtliche
Gedichte, 6 vols. , Paderborn, 1880-85), into German, and the one by
R. F. Burton, who has also written on the life of the poet, The
Lusiads' (2 vols. , London, 1880), and 'The Lyricks' (3 vols. , London,
1884, containing only those in Italian metres), into English. The ex-
tracts given below are from Burton.
Henry R. Lang
THE LUSIADS
CANTO I
THE
HE feats of Arms, and famed heroick Host,
from occidental Lusitanian strand,
who o'er the waters ne'er by seaman crost,
farèd beyond the Taprobane-land,
forceful in. perils and in battle-post,
with more than promised force of mortal hand;
and in the regions of a distant race
rear'd a new throne so haught in Pride of Place:
And, eke, the Kings of mem'ory grand and glorious,
who hied them Holy Faith and Reign to spread,
converting, conquering, and in lands notorious,
Africk and Asia, devastation made;
nor less the Lieges who by deeds memorious
brake from the doom that binds the vulgar dead;
my song would sound o'er Earth's extremest part
were mine the genius, mine the Poet's art.
VI-197
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Cease the sage Grecian, and the man of Troy
to vaunt long voyage made in by-gone day:
Cease Alexander, Trojan cease to 'joy
the fame of vict'ories that have pass'd away:
The noble Lusian's stouter breast sing I,
whom Mars and Neptune dared not disobey:
Cease all that antique Muse hath sung, for now
a better Brav'ry rears its bolder brow.
And you, my Tagian Nymphs, who have create
in me new purpose with new genius firing;
if 'twas my joy whilere to celebrate
your founts and stream my humble song inspiring;
Oh! lend me here a noble strain elate,
a style grandiloquent that flows untiring;
so shall Apollo for your waves ordain ye
in name and fame ne'er envy Hippokréné.
Grant me sonorous accents, fire-abounding,
now serves ne peasant's pipe, ne rustick reed;
but blasts of trumpet, long and loud resounding,
that 'flameth heart and hue to fiery deed:
Grant me high strains to suit their Gestes astounding,
your Sons, who aided Mars in martial need;
that o'er the world he sung the glorious song,
if theme so lofty may to verse belong.
And Thou! O goodly omen'd trust, all-dear¹
to Lusitania's olden liberty,
whereon assurèd esperance we rear
enforced to see our frail Christianity:
Thou, O new terror to the Moorish spear,
the fated marvel of our century,
to govern worlds of men by God so given,
that the world's best be given to God and Heaven:
Thou young, thou tender, ever-flourishing bough,
true scion of tree by Christ belovèd more
than aught that Occident did ever know,
"Cæsarian" or "Most Christian" styled before:
Look on thy 'scutcheon, and behold it show
the present Vict'ory long past ages bore;
Arms which He gave and made thine own to be
by Him assurèd on the fatal tree:"
1 Invocation to Dom Sebastian.
2 The Arms of Portugal (Canto iii. , 53, 54).
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Thou, mighty Sovran! o'er whose lofty reign
the rising Sun rains earliest smile of light;
sees it from middle firmamental plain;
And sights it sinking on the breast of Night:
Thou, whom we hope to hail the blight, the bane
of the dishonour'd Ishmaëlitish knight;
and Orient Turk, and Gentoo- misbeliever
that drinks the liquor of the Sacred River:¹
Incline awhile, I pray, that majesty
which in thy tender years I see thus ample,
E'en now prefiguring full maturity
that shall be shrined in Fame's eternal temple:
Those royal eyne that beam benignity
bend on low earth: Behold a new ensample
of hero hearts with patriot pride inflamèd,
in number'd verses manifold proclaimèd.
Thou shalt see Love of Land that ne'er shall own
lust of vile lucre; soaring towards th' Eternal:
For 'tis no light ambition to be known
th' acclaimèd herald of my nest paternal.
Hear; thou shalt see the great names greater grown
of Vavasors who hail the Lord Supernal:
So shalt thou judge which were the higher station,
King of the world or Lord of such a nation.
Hark, for with vauntings vain thou shalt not view
phantastical, fictitious, lying deed
of lieges lauded, as strange Muses do,
seeking their fond and foolish pride to feed
Thine acts so forceful are, told simply true,
all fabled, dreamy feats they far exceed;
exceeding Rodomont, and Ruggiero vain,
and Roland haply born of Poet's brain.
For these I give thee a Nuno, fierce in fight,
who for his King and Country freely bled;
an Egas and a Fuas; fain I might
for them my lay with harp Homeric wed!
For the twelve peerless Peers again I cite
the Twelve of England by Magriço led:
Nay, more, I give thee Gama's noble name,
who for himself claims all Eneas' fame.
The Ganges (not the Jordan).
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And if in change for royal Charles of France,
or rivalling Cæsar's mem'ories thou wouldst trow,
the first Afonso see, whose conquering lance
lays highest boast of stranger glories low:
See him who left his realm th' inheritance
fair Safety, born of wars that crusht the foe:
That other John, a knight no fear deter'd,
the fourth and fifth Afonso, and the third.
Nor shall they silent in my song remain,
they who in regions there where Dawns arise,
by Acts of Arms such glories toil'd to gain,
where thine unvanquisht flag for ever flies,
Pacheco, brave of braves; th' Almeidas twain,
whom Tagus mourns with ever-weeping eyes;
dread Albuquerque, Castro stark and brave,
with more, the victors of the very grave.
But, singing these, of thee I may not sing,
O King sublime! such theme I fain must fear.
Take of thy reign the reins, so shall my King
create a poesy new to mortal ear:
E'en now the mighty burthen here I ring
(and speed its terrors over all the sphere! )
of sing'ular prowess, War's own prodigies,
in Africk regions and on Orient seas.
Casteth on thee the Moor eyne cold with fright,
in whom his coming doom he views designed:
The barb'rous Gentoo, sole to see thy sight
yields to thy yoke the neck e'en now inclined;
Tethys, of azure seas the sovran right,
her realm, in dowry hath to thee resignèd;
and by thy noble tender beauty won,
would bribe and buy thee to become her son.
In thee from high Olympick halls behold
themselves, thy grandsires' sprites; far-famèd pair;1
this clad in Peacetide's angel-robe of gold,
that crimson-hued with paint of battle-glare:
By thee they hope to see their tale twice told,
their lofty mem'ries live again; and there,
when Time thy years shall end, for thee they 'sign
a seat where soareth Fame's eternal shrine.
¹ D. Joam III. and the Emperor Charles Quint.
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3141
But, sithence ancient Time slow minutes by
ere ruled the Peoples who desire such boon;
bend on my novel rashness favouring eye,
that these my verses may become thine own:
So shalt thou see thine Argonauts o'erfly
yon salty argent, when they see it shown
thou seest their labours on the raging sea:
Learn even now invok'd of man to be.
¹
CANTO III
Now, my Calliope! to teach incline
what speech great Gama for the king did frame:
Inspire immortal song, grant voice divine
unto this mortal who so loves thy name.
Thus may the God whose gift was Medicine,
to whom thou barest Orpheus, lovely Dame!
never for Daphne, Clytia, Leucothoë
due love deny thee or inconstant grow he.
Satisfy, Nymph! desires that in me teem,
to sing the merits of thy Lusians brave;
so worlds shall see and say that Tagus-stream
rolls Aganippe's liquor. Leave, I crave,
leave flow'ry Pindus-head; e'en now I deem
Apollo bathes me in that sovran wave;
else must I hold it, that thy gentle sprite,
fears thy dear Orpheus fade through me from sight.
All stood with open ears in long array
to hear what mighty Gama mote unfold;
when, past in thoughtful mood a brief delay,
began he thus with brow high-raised and bold:
"Thou biddest me, O King! to say my say
anent our grand genealogy of old:
Thou bidd'st me not relate an alien story;
Thou bidd'st me laud my brother Lusian's glory.
"That one praise others' exploits and renown
is honour'd custom which we all desire;
yet fear I 'tis unfit to praise mine own;
lest praise, like this suspect, no trust inspire;
nor may I hope to make all matters known
for Time however long were short; yet, sire!
'End of exordium: narrative begins.
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as thou commandest all is owed to thee;
maugre my will I speak and brief will be.
"Nay, more, what most obligeth me, in fine,
is that no leasing in my tale may dwell;
for of such Feats whatever boast be mine,
when most is told, remaineth much to tell:
But that due order wait on the design,
e'en as desirest thou to learn full well,
the wide-spread Continent first I'll briefly trace,
then the fierce bloody wars that waged my race.
"Lo! here her presence showeth noble Spain,
of Europe's body corporal the head;
o'er whose home-rule, and glorious foreign reign,
the fatal Wheel so many a whirl hath made;
Yet ne'er her Past or force or fraud shall stain,
nor restless Fortune shall her name degrade;
no bonds her bellic offspring bind so tight
but it shall burst them with its force of sprite.
"There, facing Tingitania's shore, she seemeth
to block and bar the Med'iterranean wave,
where the known Strait its name ennobled deemeth
by the last labour of the Theban Brave.
with the burthen of her tribes she teemeth,
circled by whelming waves that rage and rave;
all noble races of such valiant breast,
that each may justly boast itself the best.
"Hers the Tarragonese who, famed in war,
made aye-perturbed Parthenopé obey;
the twain Asturias, and the haught Navarre
twin Christian bulwarks on the Moslem way:
Hers the Gallego canny, and the rare
Castilian, whom his star raised high to sway
Spain as her saviour, and his seign'iory feel
Bætis, Leon, Granada, and Castile.
"See, the head-crowning coronet is she
of general Europe, Lusitania's reign,
where endeth land and where beginneth sea,
and Phoebus sinks to rest upon the main.
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Willed her the Heavens with all-just decree
by wars to mar th' ignoble Mauritan,
to cast him from herself: nor there consent
he rule in peace the Fiery Continent.
"This is my happy land, my home, my pride;
where, if the Heav'ens but grant the pray'er I pray
for glad return and every risk defied,
there may my life-light fail and fade away.
This was the Lusitania, name applied
by Lusus or by Lysa, sons, they say,
of antient Bacchus, or his boon compeers,
eke the first dwellers of her eldest years.
"Here sprang the Shepherd,¹ in whose name we see
forecast of virile might, of virtuous meed;
whose fame no force shall ever hold in fee,
since fame of mighty Rome ne'er did the deed.
This, by light Heaven's volatile decree,
that antient Scyther, who devours his seed,
made puissant pow'er in many a part to claim,
assuming regal rank; and thus it came:-
«A King there was in Spain, Afonso hight,
who waged such warfare with the Saracen,
that by his 'sanguined arms, and arts, and might,
he spoiled the lands and lives of many men.
When from Herculean Calpè winged her flight
his fame to Caucasus Mount and Caspian glen,
many a knight, who noblesse coveteth,
comes off'ering service to such King and Death.
"And with intrinsic love inflamèd more
for the True Faith, than honours popular,
they troopèd, gath'ering from each distant shore,
leaving their dear-loved homes and lands afar.
When with high feats of force against the Moor
they proved of sing'ular worth in Holy War,
willed Afonso that their mighty deeds
commensurate gifts command and equal meeds.
"'Mid them Henrique, second son, men say,
of a Hungarian King, well-known and tried,
by sort won Portugal which, in his day,
ne prized was ne had fit cause for pride:
1
¹ Viriatus.
## p. 3144 (#114) ###########################################
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His strong affection stronger to display
the Spanish King decreed a princely bride,
his only child, Teresa, to the count;
And with her made him Seigneur Paramount.
"This doughty Vassal from that servile horde,
Hagar, the handmaid's seed, great vict'ories won;
reft the broad lands adjacent with his sword
and did whatever Brav'ery bade be done;
Him, for his exploits excellent to reward,
God gave in shortest space a gallant son,
whose arm to 'noble and enfame was fain
the warlike name of Lusitania's reign.
"Once more at home this conqu'ering Henry stood
who sacred Hierosol'yma had relieved,
his eyes had fed on Jordan's holy flood,
which the Dear Body of Lord God had lavèd;
when Godfrey left no foe to be subdued,
and all Judæa conquered was and saved,
many that in his wars had done devoir
to their own lordships took the way once more.
"But when this stout and gallant Hun attainèd
Life's fatal period, age and travail-spent,
he gave, by Death's necessity constrainèd,
his sprite to him that had that spirit lent:
A son of tender years alone remainèd,
to whom the Sire bequeath'd his 'bodiment;
with bravest braves the youth was formed to cope,
for from such sire such son the world may hope.
"Yet old Report, I know not what its weight
(for on such antique tale no man relies),
saith that the Mother, tane in tow the State,
A second nuptial bed did not despise:
orphan son to disinher'ited fate
He
she doomed, declaring hers the dignities,
not his, with seigniory o'er all the land,
her spousal dowry by her sire's command.
"Now Prince Afonso (who such style had tane
in pious mem'ory of his Grandsire's name),
seeing no part and portion in his reign
all pilled and plundered by the Spouse and Dame.
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3145
by dour and doughty Mars inflamed amain,
privily plots his heritage to claim:
He weighs the causes in his own conceit
till firm Resolve its fit effect shall greet.
"Of Guimara'ens the field already flow'd
with floods of civil warfare's bloody tide,
where she, who little of the Mother show'd,
to her own bowels love and land denied.
Fronting the child in fight the parent stood;
nor saw her depth of sin that soul of pride
against her God, against maternal love:
Her sensual passion rose all pow'r above.
"O magical Medea! O Progne dire!
if your own babes in vengeance dared ye kill
for alien crimes, and injuries of the sire,
look ye, Teresa's deed was darker still.
Foul greed of gain, incontinent desire,
were the main causes of such bitter ill:
Scylla her agèd sire for one did slay,
for both Teresa did her son betray.
"Right soon that noble Prince clear vict'ory won
from his harsh Mother and her Fere indign;
in briefest time the land obeyed the son,
though first to fight him did the folk incline.
But reft of reason and by rage undone
he bound the Mother in the biting chain:
Eftsoons avenged her griefs the hand of God:
Such veneration is to parents ow'd.
"Lo! the superb Castilian 'gins prepare
his pow'r to 'venge Teresa's injuries,
against the Lusian land in men so rare,
whereon ne toil ne trouble heavy lies.
Their breasts the cruel battle grandly dare,
aid the good cause angelic Potencies;
unrecking might unequal still they strive,
nay, more, their dreadful foe to flight they drive!
"Passeth no tedious time, before the great
Prince a dure Siege in Guimaraens dree'd
by passing pow'er, for to 'mend his state,
came the fell en'emy, full of grief and greed:
¹Valdevez, or Campo da Matança, A. D. 1128 (Canto iv. 16).
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But when committed life to direful Fate,
Egas, the faithful guardian, he was free'd,
who had in any other way been lost,
all unprepared 'gainst such 'whelming host.
"But when the loyal Vassal well hath known
how weak his Monarch's arm to front such fight,
sans order wending to the Spanish fone,
his Sovran's homage he doth pledge and plight.
Straight from the horrid siege th' invader flown
trusteth the word and honour of the Knight,
Egas Moniz: But now the noble breast
of the brave Youth disdaineth strange behest.
"Already came the plighted time and tide,
when the Castilian Don stood dight to see,
before his pow'er the Prince bend low his pride,
yielding the promised obediency.
Egas who views his knightly word belied,
while still Castile believes him true to be,
Sweet life resolveth to the winds to throw,
nor live with foulest taint of faithless vow.
"He with his children and his wife departeth
to keep his promise with a faith immense;
unshod and strippèd, while their plight imparteth
far more of pity than of vengeance:
'If, mighty Monarch! still thy spirit smarteth
to wreak revenge on my rash confidence,'
quoth he, 'Behold! I come with life to save
my pledge, my knightly honour's word I gave. '
"I bring, thou seest here, lives innocent,
of wife, of sinless children dight to die;
if breasts of gen'erous mould and excellent
accept such weaklings' woeful destiny.
Thou seest these han this tongue inconsequent:
hereon alone the fierce exper'iment try
of torments, death, and doom that pass in full
Sinis or e'en Perillus' brazen bull. '
"As shrifted wight the hangman stands before,
in life still draining bitter draught of death,
lays throat on block, and of all hope forlore,
expects the blighting blow with bated breath:
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3147
So, in the Prince's presence angry sore,
Egás stood firm to keep his plighted faith:
When the King, marv'elling at such wondrous truth,
feels anger melt and merge in Royal ruth.
"Oh the great Portingall fidelity
of Vassal self-devote to doom so dread!
What did the Persian more for loyalty
whose gallant hand his face and nostrils shred?
When great Darius mourned so grievously
that he a thousand times deep-sighing said,
far he prefer'd his Zóp'yrus sound again,
than lord of twenty Babylons to reign.
"But Prince Afonso now prepared his band
of happy Lusians proud to front the foes,
those haughty Moors that held the glorious land
yon side where clear delicious Tagus flows:
Now on Ourique' field was pitched and plan'd
the Royal 'Campment fierce and bellicose,
facing the hostile host of Sarrasin
though there so many, here so few there bin.
"Confident, yet would he in naught confide,
save in his God that holds of Heav'en the throne;
so few baptized stood their King beside,
there were an hundred Moors for every one:
Judge any sober judgment, and decide
'twas deed of rashness or by brav'ery done
to fall on forces whose exceeding might
a century showèd to a single Knight.
"Order five Moorish Kings the hostile host
of whom Ismár, so called, command doth claim;
all of long Warfare large experience boast.
wherein may mortals win immortal fame:
And gallant dames the Knights they love the most
'company, like that brave and beauteous Dame,
who to beleaguered Troy such aidance gave
with woman-troops that drained Thermòdon's wave.
"The coolth serene, and early morning's pride,
now paled the sparkling stars about the Pole,
when Mary's Son appearing crucified
in vision, strengthened King Afonso's soul.
'Battle of Ourique, A. D. 1139.
## p. 3148 (#118) ###########################################
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But he, adoring such appearance, cried,
fired with a phrenzied faith beyond control:
'To th' Infidel, O Lord! to th' Infidel:¹
Not, Lord, to me who know Thy pow'er so well. '
"Such gracious marvel in such manner sent
'flamed the Lusians' spirits fierce and high,
towards their nat'ural King, that excellent
Prince, unto whom love-boon none could deny:
Aligned to front the foeman prepotent,
they shouted res'onant slogan to the sky,
and fierce the 'larum rose, 'Real, real,
for high Afonso, King of Portugal! '
"Accomplished his act of arms victorious,
home to his Lusian realm Afonso sped,
to gain from Peace-tide triumphs great and glorious,
as those he gained in wars and battles dread;
when the sad chance, on History's page memorious,
which can unsepulchre the sheeted dead,
befell that ill-starr'd, miserable Dame
who, foully slain, a throned Queen became.
"Thou, only thou, pure Love, whose cruel might
obligeth human hearts to weal and woe,
thou, only thou, didst wreak such foul despight,
as though she were some foul perfidious foe.
Thy burning thirst, fierce Love, they say aright,
may not be quencht by saddest tears that flow;
Nay, more, thy sprite of harsh tyrannick mood
would see thine altars bathed with human blood.
"He placed thee, fair Ignèz! in soft retreat,
culling the first-fruits of thy sweet young years,
in that delicious Dream, that dear Deceit,
whose long endurance Fortune hates and fears:
Hard by Mondego's yearned-for meads thy seat,
where linger, flowing still, those lovely tears,
until each hill-born tree and shrub confest
the name of Him deep writ within thy breast.
¹I. e. , disclose Thyself; show a sign.
2 Alfonso IV. (1325-1357).
Writing his name upon the tree-trunks and leaves.
3
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3149
"There, in thy Prince awoke responsive-wise,
dear thoughts of thee which soul-deep ever lay;
which brought thy beauteous form before his eyes,
whene'er those eyne of thine were far away;
Night fled in falsest, sweetest phantasies,
in fleeting, flying reveries sped the Day;
and all, in fine, he saw or cared to see
were memories of his love, his joys, his thee.
"Of many a dainty dame and damosel
The coveted nuptial couches he rejecteth;
for naught can e'er, pure Love! thy care dispel,
when one enchanting shape thy heart subjecteth.
These whims of passion to despair compel
the Sire, whose old man's wisdom aye respecteth,
his subjects murmuring at his son's delay
to bless the nation with a bridal day.
"To wrench Ignèz from life he doth design,
better his captured son from her to wrench;
deeming that only blood of death indign
the living lowe of such true Love can quench.
What Fury willed it that the steel so fine,
which from the mighty weight would never flinch
of the dread Moorman, should be drawn in hate
to work that hapless delicate Ladye's fate?
"The horrible Hangmen hurried her before
the King, now moved to spare her innocence;
but still her cruel murther urged the more
the People, swayed by fierce and false pretence.
She with her pleadings pitiful and sore,
that told her sorrows and her care immense
for her Prince-spouse and babes, whom more to leave
than her own death the mother's heart did grieve:
"And heav'enwards to the clear and crystalline skies,
raising her eyne with piteous tears bestainèd;
her eyne, because her hands with cruel ties
one of the wicked Ministers constrainèd:
And gazing on her babes in wistful guise,
whose pretty forms she loved with love unfeigned,
whose orphan'd lot the Mother filled with dread,
until their cruel grandsire thus she said: —
"If the brute-creatures, which from natal day
on cruel ways by Nature's will were bent;
## p. 3150 (#120) ###########################################
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or feral birds whose only thought is prey,
upon aërial rapine all intent;
if men such salvage be'ings have seen display
to little children loving sentiment,
e'en as to Ninus' mother did befall,
and to the twain who rear'd the Roman wall:
"O thou, who bear'st of man the gest and breast,
(an it be manlike thus to draw the sword
on a weak girl because her love imprest
his heart, who took her heart and love in ward);
respect for these her babes preserve, at least!
since it may not her òbscure death retard:
Moved be thy pitying soul for them and me,
although my faultless fault unmoved thou see!
"And if thou know'est to deal in direful fight
the doom of brand and blade to Moorish host,
Know also thou to deal of life the light
to one who ne'er deserved her life be lost;
But an thou wouldst mine inno'cence thus requite,
place me for aye on sad exilèd coast,
in Scythian sleet, on seething Libyan shore,
with life-long tears to linger evermore.
"Place me where beasts with fiercest rage abound,-
Lyons and Tygers,-there, ah! let me find
if in their hearts of flint be pity found,
denied to me by heart of humankind.
There with intrinsic love and will so fond
for him whose love is death, there will I tend
these tender pledges whom thou see'st; and so
shall the sad mother cool her burning woe. '
"Inclin'ed to pardon her the King benign,
moved by this sad lament to melting mood;
but the rude People and Fate's dure design
(that willed it thus) refused the pardon sued:
They draw their swords of steely temper fine,
They who proclaim as just such deed of blood:
Against a ladye, caitiff, felon wights!
how showed ye here, brute beasts or noble Knights? -
"Thus on Polyxena, that beauteous maid,
last solace of her mother's age and care,
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3151
when doom'd to die by fierce Achilles' shade,
the cruel Pyrrhus hasted brand to bare:
But she (a patient lamb by death waylaid)
with the calm glances which serene the air,
casts on her mother, mad with grief, her eyes
and silent waits that awesome sacrifice.
"Thus dealt with fair Ignèz the murth'erous crew,
in th' alabastrine neck that did sustain
the charms whereby could Love the love subdue
of him, who crown'd her after death his Queen;
bathing their blades; the flow'ers of snowy hue,
which often water'ed by her eyne had been,
are blood-dyed; and they burn with blinding hate,
reckless of tortures stor'd for them by Fate.
"Well mightest shorn of rays, O Sun! appear
to fiends like these on day so dark and dire;
as when Thyestes ate the meats that were
his seed, whom Atreus slew to spite their sire.
And you, O hollow Valleys! doomed to hear
her latest cry from stiffening lips expire-
her Pedro's name,- did catch that mournful sound,
whose echoes bore it far and far around!
"E'en as Daisy sheen, that hath been shorn
in time untimely, floret fresh and fair,
and by untender hand of maiden torn
to deck the chaplet for her wreathèd hair;
gone is its odor and its colours mourn;
So pale and faded lay that Ladye there;
dried are the roses of her cheek, and fled
the white live color, with her dear life dead.
"Mondego's daughter-Nymphs the death obscure
wept many a year, with wails of woe exceeding;
and for long mem'ry changed to fountain pure
the floods of grief their eyes were ever feeding:
The name they gave it, which doth still endure,
revived Ignéz, whose murthered love lies bleeding,
see yon fresh fountain flowing 'mid the flowers,
tears are its waters, and its name 'Amores! '¹
"Time ran not long, ere Pedro saw the day
of vengeance dawn for wounds that ever bled;
The famous Fonte-dos-Amores, near Coimbra.
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3152
who, when he took in hand the kingly sway,
eke took the murth'erers who his rage had fled:
Them a most cruel Pedro did betray;
for both, if human life the foemen dread,
made concert savage and dure pact, unjust as
Lepidus made with Anthony' and Augustus. "
Co
THE CANZON OF LIFE
OME here! my confidential Secretary
Of the complaints in which my days are rife,
Paper, whereon I gar my griefs o'erflow.
Tell we, we twain, Unreasons which in life
Deal me inexorable, contrary
I
―
Destinies surd to prayer and tearful woe.
Dash we some water-drops on muchel lowe,
Fire we with outcries storm of rage so rare
That shall be strange to mortal memory.
Such misery tell we
To God and Man, and eke, in fine, to air,
Whereto so many times did I confide
My tale and vainly told as I now tell;
But e'en as error was my birthtide-lot,
That this be one of many doubt I not.
And as to hit the butt so far I fail
E'en if I sinnèd her cease they to chide:
Within mine only Refuge will I 'bide
To speak and faultless sin with free intent.
Sad he so scanty mercies must content!
II
Long I've unlearnt me that complaint of dole
Brings cure of dolours; but a wight in pain
To greet is forced an the grief be great.
I will outgreet; but weak my voice and vain
To express the sorrows which oppress my soul;
For nor with greeting shall my dole abate.
Who then shall grant me, to relieve my weight
Of sorrow, flowing tears and infinite sighs
Equal those miseries my Sprite o'erpower?
But who at any hour,
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3153
Can measure miseries with his tears or cries?
I'll tell, in fine, the love for me design'd
By wrath and woe and all their sovenance;
For other dole hath qualities harder, sterner.
Draw near and hear me each despairing Learner!
And fly the many fed on Esperance
Or wights who fancy Hope will prove her kind;
For Love and Fortune willed, with single mind,
To leave them hopeful, so they comprehend
What measure of unweal in hand they hend.
III
When fro' man's primal grave, the mother's womb,
New eyes on earth I oped, my hapless star
To mar my Fortunes 'gan his will enforce;
And freedom (Free-will given me) to debar:
I learnt a thousand times it was my doom
To know the Better and to work the Worse:
Then with conforming tormentize to curse
My course of coming years, when cast I round
A boyish eye-glance with a gentle zest,
It was my Star's behest
A Boy born blind should deal me life-long wound.
Infantine tear-drops wellèd out the deep
With vague enamoured longings, nameless pine:
My wailing accents fro' my cradle-stound
Already sounded me love-sighing sound.
Thus age and destiny had like design:
For when, peraunter, rocking me to sleep
They sung me Love-songs wherein lovers weep,
Attonce by Nature's will asleep I fell,
So Melancholy witcht me with her spell!
IV
My nurse some Feral was; Fate nilled approve
By any Woman such a name be tane
Who gave me breast; nor seemed it suitable.
Thus was I suckled that my lips indrain
E'en fro' my childhood venom-draught of Love,
Whereof in later years I drained my fill,
Till by long custom failed the draught to kill.
VI-198
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3154
Then an Ideal semblance struck my glance
Of that fere Human deckt with charms in foyson,
Sweet with the suavest poyson,
Who nourisht me with paps of Esperance;
Till later saw mine eyes the original,
Which of my wildest, maddest appetite
Makes sinful error sovran and superb.
Meseems as human form it came disturb,
But scintillating Spirit's divinest light.
So graceful gait, such port imperial
Were hers, unweal vainglory'd self to weal
When in her sight, whose lively sheen and shade
Exceeded aught and all things Nature made.
V
What new unkindly kind of human pain
Had Love not only doled for me to dree
But eke on me was wholly execute?
Implacable harshness cooling fervency
Of Love-Desire (thought's very might and main)
Drave me far distant fro' my settled suit,
Vext and self-shamed to sight its own pursuit.
Hence sombre shades phantastick born and bred
Of trifles promising rashest Esperance;
While boons of happy chance
Were likewise feignèd and enfigurèd.
But her despisal wrought me such dismay
That made my Fancy phrenesy-ward incline,
Turning to disconcert the guiling lure.
Here mine 'twas to divine, and hold for sure,
That all was truest Truth I could divine;
And straightway all I said in shame to unsay;
To see whatso I saw in còntrayr way;
In fine, just Reasons seek for jealousy
Yet were the Unreasons eather far to see.
VI
I know not how she knew that fared she stealing
With Eyën-rays mine inner man which flew
Her-ward with subtlest passage through the eyne
Little by little all fro' me she drew,
E'en as from rain-wet canopy, exhaling
The subtle humours, sucks the hot sunshine.
The pure transparent geste and mien, in fine,
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Wherefore inadequate were and lacking sense
"Beauteous" and "Belle" were words withouten weight;
The soft, compassionate
Eye-glance that held the spirit in suspense:
Such were the magick herbs the Heavens all-wise
Drave me a draught to drain, and for long years
To other Being my shape and form transmew'd;
And this transforming with such joy I view'd
That e'en my sorrows snared I with its snares;
And, like the doomèd man, I veiled mine eyes
To hide an evil crescive in such guise;
Like one caressèd and on flattery fed
Of Love, for whom his being was born and bred.
VII
Then who mine absent Life hath power to paint
Wi' discontent of all I bore in view;
That Bide, so far from where she had her Bide,
Speaking, which even what I spake unknew,
Wending, withal unseeing where I went,
And sighing weetless for what cause I sigh'd?
Then, as those torments last endurance tried,
That dreadful dolour which from Tartarus's waves
Shot up on earth and racketh more than all,
Wherefrom shall oft befall
It turn to gentle yearning rage that raves?
Then with repine-ful fury fever-high
Wishing yet wishing not for Love's surceàse;
Shifting to other side for vengeance,
Desires deprived of their esperance,
What now could ever change such ills as these?
Then the fond yearnings for the things gone by,
Pure torment sweet in bitter faculty,
Which from these fiery furies could distill
Sweet tears of Love with pine the soul to thrill?
VIII
For what excuses lone with self I sought,
When my suave Love forfended me to find
Fault in the Thing beloved and so lovèd?
Such were the feigned cures that forged my mind
In fear of torments that for ever taught
Life to support itself by snares approvèd.
Thus through a goodly part of Life I rovèd,
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Wherein if ever joyed I aught content
Short-lived, immodest, flaw-full, without heed,
'Twas nothing save the seed
That bare me bitter tortures long unspent.
This course continuous dooming to distress,
These wandering steps that strayed o'er every road
So wrought, they quencht for me the flamy thirst
I suffered grow in Sprite, in Soul I nurst
With Thoughts enamoured for my daily food,
Whereby was fed my Nature's tenderness:
And this by habit's long and asperous stress,
Which might of mortals never mote resist,
Was turned to pleasure-taste of being triste.
IX
Thus fared I Life with other interchanging;
I no, but Destiny showing fere unlove;
Yet even thus for other ne'er I'd change.
Me from my dear-loved patrial nide she drove
Over the broad and boisterous Ocean ranging,
Where Life so often saw her èxtreme range.
Now tempting rages rare and missiles strange
Of Mart, she willèd that my eyes should see
And hands should touch, the bitter fruit he dight:
That on this Shield they sight
In painted semblance fire of enemy,
Then ferforth driven, vagrant, peregrine,
Seeing strange nations, customs, tongues, costumes;
Various heavens, qualities different,
Only to follow, passing-diligent
Thee, giglet Fortune! whose fierce will consumes
Man's age upbuilding aye before his eyne
A Hope with semblance of the diamond's shine:
But, when it falleth out of hand we know,
'Twas fragile glass that showed so glorious show.
X
Failed me the ruth of man, and I descried
Friends to unfriendly changèd and contràyr,
In my first peril; and I lacked ground,
Whelmed by the second, where my feet could fare;
Air for my breathing was my lot denied,
[round.
Time failed me, in fine, and failed me Life's dull
What darkling secret, mystery profound
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This birth to Life, while Life is doomed withhold
Whate'er the world contain for Life to use!
Yet never Life to lose
Though 'twas already lost times manifold!
In brief my Fortune could no horror make,
Ne certain danger ne ancipitous case
(Injustice dealt by men, whom wild-confused
Misrule, that rights of olden days abused,
O'er neighbour-men upraised to power and place! )
I bore not, lashed to the sturdy stake,
Of my long suffering, which my heart would break
With importuning persecuting harms
Dasht to a thousand bits by forceful arms.
XI
Number I not so numerous ills as He
Who, 'scaped the wuthering wind and furious flood,
In happy harbour tells his travel-tale;
Yet now, e'en now, my Fortune's wavering mood
To so much misery obligeth me
That e'en to pace one forward pace I quail:
No more shirk I what evils may assail;
No more to falsing welfare I pretend;
For human cunning naught can gar me gain.
In fine on sovran Strain
Of Providence divine I now depend:
This thought, this prospect 'tis at times I greet
My sole consoler for dead hopes and fears.
But human weakness when its eyne alight
Upon the things that fleet, and can but sight
The sadding Memories of the long-past years;
What bread such times I break, what drink I drain,
Are bitter tear-floods I can ne'er refrain,
Save by upbuilding castles based on air,
Phantastick painture fair and false as fair.
XII
For an it possible were that Time and Tide
Could bend them backward and, like Memory, view
The faded footprints of Life's earlier day;
And, web of olden story weaving new,
In sweetest error could my footsteps guide
'Mid bloom of flowers where wont my youth to stray;
Then would the memories of the long sad way
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Deal me a larger store of Life-content;
Viewing fair converse and glad company,
Where this and other key
She had for opening hearts to new intent;-
The fields, the frequent stroll, the lovely show,
The view, the snow, the rose, the formosure,
The soft and gracious mien so gravely gay,
The singular friendship casting clean away
All villein longings, earthly and impure,
As one whose Other I can never see;-
Ah, vain, vain memories! whither lead ye me
With this weak heart that still must toil and tire
To tame (as tame it should) your vain Desire?
-
L'ENVOI
No more, Canzon! no more; for I could prate
Sans compt a thousand years; and if befall
Blame to thine over-large and long-drawn strain
We ne'er shall see (assure who blames) contain
An Ocean's water packt in vase so small,
Nor sing I delicate lines in softest tone
For gust of praise; my song to man makes known
Pure Truth wherewith mine own Experience teems;
Would God they were the stuff that builds our dreams!
ADIEU TO COIMBRA
SWEE
WEET lucent waters of Mondego-stream,
Of my Remembrance restful jouïssance,
Where far-fet, lingering, traitorous Esperance
Long whiles misled me in a blinding Dream:
Fro' you I part, yea, still I'll ne'er misdeem
That long-drawn Memories which your charms enhance
Forbid me changing and, in every chance,
E'en as I farther speed I nearer seem.
Well may my Fortunes hale this instrument
Of Soul o'er new strange regions wide and side,
Offered to winds and watery element:
But hence my Spirit, by you 'companied,
Borne on the nimble wings that Reverie lent,
Flies home and bathes her, Waters! in your tide.
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3159
THOMAS CAMPBELL
(1777-1844)
HE life of Thomas Campbell, though in large measure fortu
nate, was uneventful. It was not marked with such brill-
iant successes as followed the career of Scott; nor was
fame purchased at the price of so much suffering and error as were
paid for their laurels by Byron, Shelley, and Burns; but his star
shone with a clear and steady ray, from the youthful hours that saw
his first triumph until near life's close. The world's gifts- the poet's
fame, and the public honors and rewards that witnessed to it-were
given with a generous hand; and until the
death of a cherished wife and the loss of
his two children-sons, loved with a love
beyond the common love of fathers-broke
the charm, Campbell might almost have
been taken as a type of the happy man of
letters.
Thomas Campbell was born in Glasgow,
July 27th, 1777. His family connection was
large and respectable, and the branch to
which he belonged had been settled for
many years in Argyleshire, where they
were called the Campbells of Kirnan, from
an estate on which the poet's grandfather
resided and where he died. His third son,
Alexander, the father of the poet, was at one time the head of a
firm in Glasgow, doing a profitable business with Falmouth in
Virginia; but in common with almost all merchants engaged in the
American trade, he was ruined by the War of the Revolution. At
the age of sixty-five he found himself a poor man, involved in a
costly suit in chancery, which was finally decided against him, and
with a wife and nine children dependent upon him. All that he had
to live on, at the time his son Thomas was born, was the little that
remained to him of his small property when the debts were paid,
and some small yearly sums from two provident societies of which
he was a member. The poet was fortunate in his parents: both of
them were people of high character, warmly devoted to their child-
ren, whose education was their chief care,-their idea of education
including the training of the heart and the manners as well as the
THOMAS CAMPBELL
mind.
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THOMAS CAMPBELL
When eight years old Thomas was sent to the grammar school at
Glasgow, where he began the study of Latin and Greek.
"I was so
early devoted to poetry," he writes, "that at ten years old, when our
master, David Allison, interpreted to us the first Eclogue of Virgil,
I was literally thrilled with its beauty. In my thirteenth year I
went to the University of Glasgow, and put on the red gown. The
joy of the occasion made me unable to eat my breakfast. Whether
it was presentiment or the mere castle-building of my vanity, I had
even then a day-dream that I should one day be Lord Rector of the
university. "
As a boy, Campbell gained a considerable familiarity with the
Latin and Greek poets usually read in college, and was always more
inclined to pride himself on his knowledge of Greek poetry than on
his own reputation in the art.
