156 Canto IV. Estancia 69, &c.
157 Canto IV. est. 90, &c.
158 The old man exclaims:—
159 This passage is one of the most celebrated in the Lusiad. It commences with the following stanzas:—
But a stanza still more admired, is that in which the gigantic spirit describes his rage on discovering that he was embracing a rock, while he fancied he held in his arms the goddess of whom he was enamoured:—
160 Canto V. Estancia 35.—The recollection of this merry shipmate seems to have been preserved among Portuguese seamen, from Vasco da Gama’s time down to the age of Camoens.
163 In quoting the commencement of this description it is difficult to know where to stop:—
The flowers of this enchanted garden are then described with the most charming luxuriance.
164 The festival commences with the following description of the simulated flight of the nymphs when they first espy the Portuguese:—
166 The translator who undertakes to produce a good version of the Lusiad, must, in the first place, adopt no other metre than that of the original, for on the structure of the verse the style of the poem materially depends. He must, moreover, diffuse over the whole composition a character equally natural and dignified, and, where mythological ornament is not introduced, perfectly simple. Finally, he must avoid all antiquated and uncommon turns of expression; for the language of Camoens is always elegant and modern.
167 Manuel de Faria y Sousa was the first who started this question, which is now generally decided against Diogo Bernardes. Notices on this subject maybe found in the prefaces to the third and fourth volumes of the new and elegant edition of the Obras de Luis de Camoõe, segunda edição da que se fez em Lisboa, nos annos 1779 e 1780. Lisbon 1782, in five small volumes. A mythological and historical index to the Lusiad, though a very imperfect one, enhances the value of this edition. The older editions of the works of Camoens are noticed by Dieze in his appendix to Velasquez. Manuel de Faria y Sousa’s commentary on the works of Camoens, pedantic as it is, contains some useful historical elucidations.
168 For instance the following, which certainly takes a very bold flight, in order to place in a new point of view the marvellous beauty of the lady to whom it is addressed:—
169 Such, for example, is the romantic reminiscence of the fourteen years service of the patriarch Jacob. This sonnet is particularly esteemed, and has been glossed by other poets.
170 Can any thing more strongly resemble Petrarch, both in spirit and style than the following stanza? The whole cançaõ is, however, imitated from Bembo.
171 The following is a specimen of a lyric description of morning in a lover’s taste:—
174 The first of these elegies commences very much like versified prose, and in a manner which would scarcely induce the reader to suppose he was perusing even the opening of an epistle. The spirit of the composition does not begin to manifest itself until the sixteenth line:—
175 The following passage, which is from the beautiful fifth elegy, must not be omitted in this collection:—
176 The principal idea of this song of sorrow, the beauties of which are perfectly national, is the comparison of the present and the past in the situation of the poet, with an imaginary Babylon and Sion. Sion represents the past. The first half of the poem affords no anticipation of the nature of the second half:—
Among the most beautiful stanzas are those in which the poet celebrates the power of song in sorrow, and the limits of that power.
178 For example:—
179 For example:—
180 That a short specimen of Camoens’s dramatic style may not be wanting in this collection of examples, a passage is here subjoined from a scene which is intended to be jocular. Duriano is a spruce country lover, and Solina is his town-bred mistress.
184 The different editions of the Cancionero, or the collection of the miscellaneous poems of Montemayor, are noticed by Barbosa Machado, under the head Jorge de Montemayor.
185 This neat edition is entitled, Poezias de Pedro de Andrade Caminha, mandadas a publicar pela real Academia das Sciencias de Lisboa, Lisb. 1791, in 8o. The preface contains the history of the discovery of these poems, and notices of the manuscript copies of them which are contained in different libraries.
186 In his second epistle he thus addresses his own book, that is to say, his collection of poems:—
187 For example, he thus addresses himself to Ferreira as a friend and pupil:—
188 To such critics he very properly says:—
189 The following is the commencement of an elegy on Winter, which was probably intended as a companion to Ferreira’s elegy on May:—
190 The following epitaph on Queen Maria is none of the most insignificant.
191 As in the following epitaph on Prince Dom Duarte:—
194 As in the epigrammatic description of Echo, or the transformed nymph of that name:—
195 In one of the epigrams he thus speaks of the wounds of love:—
196 For example, the following on a nosegay:—
197 The following is on an eccentric poet:—
198 The article Diogo Bernardes in Barbosa Machado’s Lexicon of learned men, is very honourable to Bernardes; and this writer is mentioned in terms of still higher commendation in the biographical preface to the new edition of Ferreira’s poems. (See p. 114 of the present vol.) Barbosa Machado also gives notices of the old editions of the various works of this poet, who is scarcely known on this side of the Pyrenees even by name.
199 Varias rimas ao bom Jesus, e à virgem gloriosa sua mái, &c. Com outras mais do honesta e proveitosa liçam. Por Diogo Bernardes, natural de Ponte de Lima. Lisboa, 1770, 1 vol. octavo. This new edition proves that the recollection of Bernardes has been again revived among the Portuguese public, and also that poetic works of devotion are still well received in Portugal.
200 The two following opening stanzas of a hymn by Bernardes to the Virgin, are only a higher kind of litany:—