If we examine the finest effusions of genius, we shall find
that the most genuine poetical feeling has often dictated those similes
which are drawn from familiar and low objects.
that the most genuine poetical feeling has often dictated those similes
which are drawn from familiar and low objects.
Camoes - Lusiades
25.
--_Ed.
_
[126] Imitated from Virgil--
_Cymothoe simul, et Triton adnixus acuto
Detrudunt naves scopulo. _--VIRG. AEn. i.
[127] Latona, says the fable, flying from the serpent Python, and faint
with thirst, came to a pond, where some Lycian peasants were cutting the
bulrushes. In revenge of the insults which they offered her in
preventing her to drink, she changed them into frogs. This fable, says
Castera, like almost all the rest, is drawn from history. Philocorus, as
cited by Boccace, relates, that the Rhodians having declared war against
the Lycians, were assisted by some troops from Delos, who carried the
image of Latona on their standards. A detachment of these going to drink
at a lake in Lycia, a crowd of peasants endeavoured to prevent them. An
encounter ensued; the peasants fled to the lake for shelter, and were
there slain. Some months afterwards their companions came in search of
their corpses, and finding an unusual quantity of frogs, imagined,
according to the superstition of their age, that the souls of their
friends appeared to them under that metamorphosis.
To some it may, perhaps, appear needless to vindicate Camoens, in a
point wherein he is supported by the authority of Homer and Virgil. Yet,
as many readers are infected with the _sang froid_ of a Bossu or a
Perrault, an observation in defence of our poet cannot be thought
impertinent.
If we examine the finest effusions of genius, we shall find
that the most genuine poetical feeling has often dictated those similes
which are drawn from familiar and low objects. The sacred writers, and
the greatest poets of every nation, have used them. We may, therefore,
conclude that the criticism which condemns them is a refinement not
founded on nature. But, allowing them admissible, it must be observed,
that to render them pleasing requires a peculiar happiness and delicacy
of management. When the poet attains this indispensable point, he gives
a striking proof of his elegance, and of his mastership in his art. That
the similes of the emmets and of the frogs in Camoens are happily
expressed and applied, is indisputable. In that of the frogs there is a
peculiar propriety, both in the comparison itself, and in the allusion
to the fable, as it was the intent of the poet to represent not only the
flight, but the baseness of the Moors. The simile he seems to have
copied from Dante, Inf. Cant. 9--
_Come le rane innanzi a la nemica
Biscia per l'acqua si dileguan tutte
Fin che a la terra ciascuna s'abbica. _
And Cant. 22--
_E come a l'orlo de l'acqua d'un fosso
Stan li ranocchi pur col muso fuori
Si che celano i piedi, e l'altro grosso. _
[128] Barros and Castaneda, in relating this part of the voyage of Gama,
say that the fleet, just as they were entering the port of Mombas, were
driven back as it were by an invisible hand. By a subsequent note it
will appear that the safety of the Armada depended upon this
circumstance.
[129] Venus.
[130] As the planet of Jupiter is in the sixth heaven, the author has
with propriety there placed the throne of that god.
[126] Imitated from Virgil--
_Cymothoe simul, et Triton adnixus acuto
Detrudunt naves scopulo. _--VIRG. AEn. i.
[127] Latona, says the fable, flying from the serpent Python, and faint
with thirst, came to a pond, where some Lycian peasants were cutting the
bulrushes. In revenge of the insults which they offered her in
preventing her to drink, she changed them into frogs. This fable, says
Castera, like almost all the rest, is drawn from history. Philocorus, as
cited by Boccace, relates, that the Rhodians having declared war against
the Lycians, were assisted by some troops from Delos, who carried the
image of Latona on their standards. A detachment of these going to drink
at a lake in Lycia, a crowd of peasants endeavoured to prevent them. An
encounter ensued; the peasants fled to the lake for shelter, and were
there slain. Some months afterwards their companions came in search of
their corpses, and finding an unusual quantity of frogs, imagined,
according to the superstition of their age, that the souls of their
friends appeared to them under that metamorphosis.
To some it may, perhaps, appear needless to vindicate Camoens, in a
point wherein he is supported by the authority of Homer and Virgil. Yet,
as many readers are infected with the _sang froid_ of a Bossu or a
Perrault, an observation in defence of our poet cannot be thought
impertinent.
If we examine the finest effusions of genius, we shall find
that the most genuine poetical feeling has often dictated those similes
which are drawn from familiar and low objects. The sacred writers, and
the greatest poets of every nation, have used them. We may, therefore,
conclude that the criticism which condemns them is a refinement not
founded on nature. But, allowing them admissible, it must be observed,
that to render them pleasing requires a peculiar happiness and delicacy
of management. When the poet attains this indispensable point, he gives
a striking proof of his elegance, and of his mastership in his art. That
the similes of the emmets and of the frogs in Camoens are happily
expressed and applied, is indisputable. In that of the frogs there is a
peculiar propriety, both in the comparison itself, and in the allusion
to the fable, as it was the intent of the poet to represent not only the
flight, but the baseness of the Moors. The simile he seems to have
copied from Dante, Inf. Cant. 9--
_Come le rane innanzi a la nemica
Biscia per l'acqua si dileguan tutte
Fin che a la terra ciascuna s'abbica. _
And Cant. 22--
_E come a l'orlo de l'acqua d'un fosso
Stan li ranocchi pur col muso fuori
Si che celano i piedi, e l'altro grosso. _
[128] Barros and Castaneda, in relating this part of the voyage of Gama,
say that the fleet, just as they were entering the port of Mombas, were
driven back as it were by an invisible hand. By a subsequent note it
will appear that the safety of the Armada depended upon this
circumstance.
[129] Venus.
[130] As the planet of Jupiter is in the sixth heaven, the author has
with propriety there placed the throne of that god.
