The Lusiad Part 36

[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 t.i.tle, _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 pa.s.sages of Virgil.

----_Ipsae te, t.i.tyre, 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 a.s.sisted 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 _a.s.syrian_).--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 ma.s.s 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 n.o.bility 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 superst.i.tion of that age, she was believed to have disturbed his senses by an enchanted draught. Such of the n.o.bility 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 a.s.sistance 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 G.o.d." 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 a.s.sistance 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 superst.i.tion 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 crus.h.i.+ng 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 n.o.ble disposition. La Neufville, Le Clede, and other historians, a.s.sert 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 pa.s.sion. Afraid, however, of his father's resentment, the severity of whose temper he knew, his intercourse with Donna Inez pa.s.sed 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 n.o.bility 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 clum 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 pa.s.sion 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 impa.s.sioned encomiums on the fair s.e.x 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 pa.s.sion 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 a.s.sa.s.sination, 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.