The
insertion
of this pastoral
landscape, between the terrific scenes which precede and follow, has a
fine effect.
landscape, between the terrific scenes which precede and follow, has a
fine effect.
Camoes - Lusiades
Her own death
soon followed. Her husband, who had been long enamoured of her beauty,
received her last breath in a distracted embrace. Immediately, he
snatched his third child in his arms, and uttering the most lamentable
cries, he ran into the thickest of the wood, where the wild beasts were
soon heard to growl over their prey. Of the whole four hundred who
escaped the waves, only six and twenty arrived at another village, whose
inhabitants were more civilized, and traded with the merchants of the
Red Sea, from whence they found a passage to Europe, and brought the
tidings of the unhappy fate of their companions. Jerome de Cortereal, a
Portuguese poet, has written an affecting poem on the shipwreck, and
deplorable catastrophe of Don Emmanuel, and his beloved spouse. --_Partly
from_ Castera.
[366] The giants or Titans; called "sons of God" in Gen. vi. 2. --_Ed. _
[367] Briareus.
[368] Doris, the sister and spouse of Nereus, and mother of the
Nereides. By Nereus, in the physical sense of the fable, is understood
the water of the sea, and by Doris, the bitterness or salt, the supposed
cause of its prolific quality in the generation of fishes.
[369] _And give our wearied minds a lively glow. _--Variety is no less
delightful to the reader than to the traveller, and the imagination of
Camoens gave an abundant supply.
The insertion of this pastoral
landscape, between the terrific scenes which precede and follow, has a
fine effect. "Variety," says Pope, in one of his notes on the Odyssey,
"gives life and delight; and it is much more necessary in epic, than in
comic or tragic, poetry, sometimes to shift the scenes, to diversify and
embellish the story. "
The Portuguese, sailing upon the Atlantic Ocean, discovered the most
southern point of Africa: here they found an immense sea, which carried
them to the East Indies. The dangers they encountered in the voyage, the
discovery of Mozambique, of Melinda, and of Calecut, have been sung by
Camoens, whose poem recalls to our minds the charms of the Odyssey, and
the magnificence of the AEneid. --MONTESQUIEU, Spirit of Laws, bk. xxi. c.
21.
[370] Virgil.
[371] A small island, named _Santa Cruz_ by Bartholomew Diaz, who
discovered it. According to Faria y Sousa, he went twenty-five leagues
further, to the river Del Infante, which, till passed by GAMA, was the
utmost extent of the Portuguese discoveries.
[372] It was the force of this rushing current which retarded the
further discoveries of Diaz. GAMA got over it by the assistance of a
tempest. The seasons when these seas are safely navigable, are now
perfectly known.
[373] The wise men of the East, or magi, whom the Roman Catholic writers
will have to have been kings. --_Ed.
soon followed. Her husband, who had been long enamoured of her beauty,
received her last breath in a distracted embrace. Immediately, he
snatched his third child in his arms, and uttering the most lamentable
cries, he ran into the thickest of the wood, where the wild beasts were
soon heard to growl over their prey. Of the whole four hundred who
escaped the waves, only six and twenty arrived at another village, whose
inhabitants were more civilized, and traded with the merchants of the
Red Sea, from whence they found a passage to Europe, and brought the
tidings of the unhappy fate of their companions. Jerome de Cortereal, a
Portuguese poet, has written an affecting poem on the shipwreck, and
deplorable catastrophe of Don Emmanuel, and his beloved spouse. --_Partly
from_ Castera.
[366] The giants or Titans; called "sons of God" in Gen. vi. 2. --_Ed. _
[367] Briareus.
[368] Doris, the sister and spouse of Nereus, and mother of the
Nereides. By Nereus, in the physical sense of the fable, is understood
the water of the sea, and by Doris, the bitterness or salt, the supposed
cause of its prolific quality in the generation of fishes.
[369] _And give our wearied minds a lively glow. _--Variety is no less
delightful to the reader than to the traveller, and the imagination of
Camoens gave an abundant supply.
The insertion of this pastoral
landscape, between the terrific scenes which precede and follow, has a
fine effect. "Variety," says Pope, in one of his notes on the Odyssey,
"gives life and delight; and it is much more necessary in epic, than in
comic or tragic, poetry, sometimes to shift the scenes, to diversify and
embellish the story. "
The Portuguese, sailing upon the Atlantic Ocean, discovered the most
southern point of Africa: here they found an immense sea, which carried
them to the East Indies. The dangers they encountered in the voyage, the
discovery of Mozambique, of Melinda, and of Calecut, have been sung by
Camoens, whose poem recalls to our minds the charms of the Odyssey, and
the magnificence of the AEneid. --MONTESQUIEU, Spirit of Laws, bk. xxi. c.
21.
[370] Virgil.
[371] A small island, named _Santa Cruz_ by Bartholomew Diaz, who
discovered it. According to Faria y Sousa, he went twenty-five leagues
further, to the river Del Infante, which, till passed by GAMA, was the
utmost extent of the Portuguese discoveries.
[372] It was the force of this rushing current which retarded the
further discoveries of Diaz. GAMA got over it by the assistance of a
tempest. The seasons when these seas are safely navigable, are now
perfectly known.
[373] The wise men of the East, or magi, whom the Roman Catholic writers
will have to have been kings. --_Ed.
