No More Learning

[588] _Spread o'er the eastern world the dread alarms. _--This admonition
places the whole design of the poem before us. To extirpate
Mohammedanism, and propagate Christianity, were professed as the
principal purpose of the discoveries of Prince Henry and King Emmanuel.
In the beginning of the seventh Lusiad, the nations of Europe are
upbraided for permitting the Saracens to erect and possess an empire,
which alike threatened Europe and Christianity. The Portuguese, however,
the patriot poet concludes, will themselves overthrow their enormous
power: an event which is the proposed subject of the Lusiad, and which
is represented as, in effect, completed in the last book. On this
system, adopted by the poet, and which on every occasion was avowed by
their kings, the Portuguese made immense conquests in the East. Yet, let
it be remembered, to the honour of GAMA, and the first commanders who
followed his route, that the plots of the Moors, and their various
breaches of treaty, gave rise to the first wars which the Portuguese
waged in Asia. On finding that all the colonies of the Moors were
combined for their destruction, the Portuguese declared war against the
eastern Moors, and their allies, wherever they found them. The course of
human things, however, soon took place, and the sword of victory and
power soon became the sword of tyranny and rapine.

[589] _Far o'er the silver lake of Mexic. _--The city of Mexico is
environed with an extensive lake; or, according to Cortez, in his second
narration to Charles V. , with two lakes, one of fresh, the other of salt
water, in circuit about fifty leagues. This situation, said the
Mexicans, was appointed by their God Vitzliputzli, who, according to the
explanation of their picture-histories, led their forefathers a journey
of fourscore years, in search of the promised land. Four of the
principal priests carried the idol in a coffer of reeds. Whenever they
halted they built a tabernacle for their god in the midst of their camp,
where they placed the coffer and the altar.
They then sowed the land,
and their stay or departure, without regard to the harvest, was directed
by the orders received from their idol, till at last, by his command,
they fixed their abode on the site of Mexico.

[590] _Before the love-sick Roman. _--Mark Antony.

[591] _The beverage--the fountain's cooling aid confess'd. _--It was a
custom of the ancients in warm climates to mix the coolest spring water
with their wine, immediately before drinking; not, we may suppose, to
render it less intoxicating, but on account of the cooling flavour it
thereby received. Homer tells us that the wine which Ulysses gave to
Polyphemus would bear twenty measures of water. Modern luxury has
substituted preserved ice, in place of the more ancient mixture.

[592] _Music, such as erst subdued the horrid frown of hell_,
etc. --Alluding to the fable of Orpheus. Fanshaw's translation, as
already observed, was published fourteen years before the Paradise Lost.
These lines of Milton--

"What could it less, when spirits immortal sung?
Their song was partial, but the harmony
Suspended hell, and took with ravishment
The thronging audience,"

bear a resemblance to these of Fanshaw--

"Musical instruments not wanting, such
As to the damn'd spirits once gave ease
In the dark vaults of the infernal hall. "

To _slumber_ amid their punishment, though omitted by Fanshaw, is
literal:--

"Fizerao descancar da eterna pena. "


[593] _No more the summer of my life remains. _--It is not certain when
Camoens wrote this. It seems, however, not long to have preceded the
publication of his poem, at which time he was in his fifty-fifth year.