[584] _Wide o'er the
beauteous
isle the lovely fair.
Camoes - Lusiades
Stukely.
In the same manner Cupid, in the fable of
Psyche, is interpreted by mythologists, to signify the Divine Love
weeping over the degeneracy of human nature.
[581]
_At strife appear the lawns and purpled skies,
Who from each other stole the beauteous dyes. --_
On this passage Castera has the following sensible, though turgid, note:
"This thought," says he, "is taken from the idyllium of Ausonius on the
rose:--
'Ambigeres raperetne rosis Aurora ruborem,
An daret, et flores tingere torta dies. '
Camoens who had a genius rich of itself, still further enriched it at
the expense of the ancients. Behold what makes great authors! Those who
pretend to give us nothing but the fruits of their own growth, soon
fail, like the little rivulets which dry up in the summer, very
different from the floods, who receive in their course the tribute of a
hundred and a hundred rivers, and which even in the dog-days carry their
waves triumphant to the ocean. "
[582] _The hyacinth bewrays the doleful_ Ai. --Hyacinthus, a youth
beloved of Apollo, by whom he was accidentally slain, and afterwards
turned into a flower:--
"Tyrioque nitentior ostro
Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia: si non,
Purpureus color huic, argenteus esset in illis.
Non satis hoc Phaebo est: is enim fuit auctor honoris.
Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit; et Ai, Ai,
Flos habet inscriptum: funestaque littera ducta est. "
OVID, Met.
[583] _The second Argonauts. _--The expedition of the Golden Fleece was
esteemed, in ancient poetry, one of the most daring adventures, the
success of which was accounted miraculous. The allusions of Camoens to
this voyage, though in the spirit of his age, are by no means improper.
[584] _Wide o'er the beauteous isle the lovely fair. _--We now come to
the passage condemned by Voltaire as so lascivious, that no nation in
Europe, except the Portuguese and Italians, could bear it. The fate of
Camoens has hitherto been very peculiar. The mixture of Pagan and
Christian mythology in his machinery has been anathematized, and his
island of love represented as a brothel. Yet both accusations are the
arrogant assertions of the most superficial acquaintance with his works.
His poem itself, and a comparison of its parts with the similar conduct
of the greatest modern poets, will clearly evince, that in both
instances no modern epic writer of note has given less offence to true
criticism.
Not to mention Ariosto, whose descriptions will often admit of no
palliation, Tasso, Spenser, and Milton, have always been esteemed among
the chastest of poets, yet in that delicacy of warm description, which
Milton has so finely exemplified in the nuptials of our first parents,
none of them can boast the continued uniformity of the Portuguese poet.
Though there is a warmth in the colouring of Camoens which even the
genius of Tasso has not reached: and though the island of Armida is
evidently copied from the Lusiad, yet those who are possessed of the
finer feelings, will easily discover an essential difference between the
love-scenes of the two poets, a difference greatly in favour of the
delicacy of the former. Though the nymphs in Camoens are detected naked
in the woods, and in the stream, and though desirous to captivate, still
their behaviour is that of the virgin who hopes to be the spouse. They
act the part of offended modesty; even when they yield they are silent,
and behave in every respect like Milton's Eve in the state of innocence,
who--
"What was honour knew,"
And who displayed--
"Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,
That would be wooed, and not unsought be won. "
To sum up all, the nuptial sanctity draws its hallowed curtains, and a
masterly allegory shuts up the love-scenes of Camoens.
How different from all this is the island of Armida in Tasso, and its
translation, the bower of Acrasia in Spenser! In these virtue is
seduced; the scene therefore is less delicate. The nymphs, while they
are bathing, in place of the modesty of the bride as in Camoens, employ
all the arts of the lascivious wanton. They stay not to be wooed; but,
as Spenser gives it--
_The amorous sweet spoils to greedy eyes reveal. _
One stanza from our English poet, which, however, is rather fuller than
the original, shall here suffice:--
"Withal she laughed and she blush'd withal,
That blushing to her laughter gave more grace,
And laughter to her blushing, as did fall.
Psyche, is interpreted by mythologists, to signify the Divine Love
weeping over the degeneracy of human nature.
[581]
_At strife appear the lawns and purpled skies,
Who from each other stole the beauteous dyes. --_
On this passage Castera has the following sensible, though turgid, note:
"This thought," says he, "is taken from the idyllium of Ausonius on the
rose:--
'Ambigeres raperetne rosis Aurora ruborem,
An daret, et flores tingere torta dies. '
Camoens who had a genius rich of itself, still further enriched it at
the expense of the ancients. Behold what makes great authors! Those who
pretend to give us nothing but the fruits of their own growth, soon
fail, like the little rivulets which dry up in the summer, very
different from the floods, who receive in their course the tribute of a
hundred and a hundred rivers, and which even in the dog-days carry their
waves triumphant to the ocean. "
[582] _The hyacinth bewrays the doleful_ Ai. --Hyacinthus, a youth
beloved of Apollo, by whom he was accidentally slain, and afterwards
turned into a flower:--
"Tyrioque nitentior ostro
Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia: si non,
Purpureus color huic, argenteus esset in illis.
Non satis hoc Phaebo est: is enim fuit auctor honoris.
Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit; et Ai, Ai,
Flos habet inscriptum: funestaque littera ducta est. "
OVID, Met.
[583] _The second Argonauts. _--The expedition of the Golden Fleece was
esteemed, in ancient poetry, one of the most daring adventures, the
success of which was accounted miraculous. The allusions of Camoens to
this voyage, though in the spirit of his age, are by no means improper.
[584] _Wide o'er the beauteous isle the lovely fair. _--We now come to
the passage condemned by Voltaire as so lascivious, that no nation in
Europe, except the Portuguese and Italians, could bear it. The fate of
Camoens has hitherto been very peculiar. The mixture of Pagan and
Christian mythology in his machinery has been anathematized, and his
island of love represented as a brothel. Yet both accusations are the
arrogant assertions of the most superficial acquaintance with his works.
His poem itself, and a comparison of its parts with the similar conduct
of the greatest modern poets, will clearly evince, that in both
instances no modern epic writer of note has given less offence to true
criticism.
Not to mention Ariosto, whose descriptions will often admit of no
palliation, Tasso, Spenser, and Milton, have always been esteemed among
the chastest of poets, yet in that delicacy of warm description, which
Milton has so finely exemplified in the nuptials of our first parents,
none of them can boast the continued uniformity of the Portuguese poet.
Though there is a warmth in the colouring of Camoens which even the
genius of Tasso has not reached: and though the island of Armida is
evidently copied from the Lusiad, yet those who are possessed of the
finer feelings, will easily discover an essential difference between the
love-scenes of the two poets, a difference greatly in favour of the
delicacy of the former. Though the nymphs in Camoens are detected naked
in the woods, and in the stream, and though desirous to captivate, still
their behaviour is that of the virgin who hopes to be the spouse. They
act the part of offended modesty; even when they yield they are silent,
and behave in every respect like Milton's Eve in the state of innocence,
who--
"What was honour knew,"
And who displayed--
"Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,
That would be wooed, and not unsought be won. "
To sum up all, the nuptial sanctity draws its hallowed curtains, and a
masterly allegory shuts up the love-scenes of Camoens.
How different from all this is the island of Armida in Tasso, and its
translation, the bower of Acrasia in Spenser! In these virtue is
seduced; the scene therefore is less delicate. The nymphs, while they
are bathing, in place of the modesty of the bride as in Camoens, employ
all the arts of the lascivious wanton. They stay not to be wooed; but,
as Spenser gives it--
_The amorous sweet spoils to greedy eyes reveal. _
One stanza from our English poet, which, however, is rather fuller than
the original, shall here suffice:--
"Withal she laughed and she blush'd withal,
That blushing to her laughter gave more grace,
And laughter to her blushing, as did fall.
