[3] The laws of Portugal were peculiarly severe against those who
carried on a love-intrigue within the palace: they punished the offence
with death.
carried on a love-intrigue within the palace: they punished the offence
with death.
Camoes - Lusiades
But such the deeds thy radiant morn portends,
Aw'd by thy frown ev'n now old Atlas bends
His hoary head, and Ampeluza's fields
Expect thy sounding steeds and rattling shields.
And shall these deeds unsung, unknown, expire!
Oh, would thy smiles relume my fainting ire!
I, then inspir'd, the wond'ring world should see
Great Ammon's warlike son reviv'd in thee;
Reviv'd, unenvied[679] of the muse's flame
That o'er the world resounds Pelides'[680] name.
"O let th' Iambic Muse revenge that wrong
Which cannot slumber in thy sheets of lead;
Let thy abused honour crie as long
As there be quills to write, or eyes to reade:
On his rank name let thine own votes be turn'd,
_Oh may that man that hath the Muses scorn'd
Alive, nor dead, be ever of a Muse adorn'd_. "
THE END.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING
CROSS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Poems of Luis de Camoens, with Remarks on his Life and Writings. _
By Lord Viscount Strangford. Fifth edition. London, 1808.
[2] The Cama{ o}. Formerly every well-regulated family in Spain
retained one of these terrible attendants. The infidelity of its
mistress was the only circumstance which could deprive it of life. This
odious distrust of female honour is ever characteristic of a barbarous
age.
[3] The laws of Portugal were peculiarly severe against those who
carried on a love-intrigue within the palace: they punished the offence
with death. Joam I. suffered one of his favourites to be burnt alive for
it. --_Ed. _
[4] The Maekhaun, or Camboja. --_Ed. _
[5] Thomas Moore Musgrave's translation of The Lusiad is in blank verse,
and is dedicated to the Earl of Chichester. I vol. 8vo. Murray; 1826.
[6] A document in the archives of the Portuguese India House, on which
Lord Strangford relies, places it in 1524, or the following year. --_Ed. _
[7] The French translator gives us so fine a description of the person
of Camoens, that it seems borrowed from the Fairy Tales. It is
universally agreed, however, that he was handsome, and had a most
engaging mien and address. He is thus described by Nicolas Antonio
"_Mediocri statura fuit, et carne plena, capillis usque ad croci colorem
flavescentibus, maxime in juventute. Eminebat ei frons, et medius nasus,
caetera longus, et in fine crassiusculus.
