No More Learning

[533] _The glorious Henry. _--In pursuance of the reasons assigned in the
preface, the translator has here taken the liberty to make a
transposition in the order of his author. In Camoens, Don Pedro de
Menezes, and his son De Vian, conclude the description of the pictured
ensigns. Don Henry, the greatest man perhaps that ever Portugal
produced, has certainly the best title to close this procession of the
Lusian heroes. And, as he was the father of navigation, particularly of
the voyage of GAMA, to sum up the narrative with his encomium has even
some critical propriety.

These observations were suggested by the conduct of Camoens, whose
design, like that of Virgil, was to write a poem which might contain all
the triumphs of his country. As the shield of AEneas supplies what could
not be introduced in the vision of Elysium, so the ensigns of GAMA
complete the purpose of the third and fourth Lusiads. The use of that
long episode, the conversation with the King of Melinda, and its
connection with the subject, have been already observed. The seeming
episode of the pictures, while it fulfills the promise--

_And all my country's wars the song adorn,_

is also admirably connected with the conduct of the poem. The Hindoos
naturally desire to be informed of the country, the history, and power
of their foreign visitors, and Paulus sets it before their eyes. In
every progression of the scenery the business of the poem advances. The
regent and his attendants are struck with the warlike grandeur and power
of the strangers, and to accept of their friendship, or to prevent the
forerunners of so martial a nation from carrying home the tidings of the
discovery of India, becomes the great object of their consideration.

[534] _But ah, forlorn, what shame to barb'rous pride. _--In the
original. --

_Mas faltamlhes pincel, faltamlhes cores,
Honra, premio, favor, que as artes criao.
_

"But the pencil was wanting, colors were wanting, honour, reward,
favour, the nourishers of the arts. " This seemed to the translator as in
impropriety, and contrary to the purpose of the whole speech of Paulus,
which was to give the catual a high idea of Portugal. In the fate of the
imaginary painter, the Lusian poet gives us the picture of his own,
resentment wrung this impropriety from him. The spirit of the complaint,
however, is preserved in the translation. The couplet--

"Immortal fame his deathless labours gave;
Poor man, he sunk neglected to the grave! "

is not in the original. It is the sigh of indignation over the unworthy
fate of the unhappy Camoens.

[535] _The ghost-like aspect and the threat'ning look. _--Mohammed, by
some historians described as of a pale livid complexion, and _trux
aspectus et vox terribilis_, of a fierce threatening aspect, voice, and
demeanour.

[536]

_When, softly usher'd by the milky dawn,
The sun first rises. --_

"I deceive myself greatly," says Castera, "if this simile is not the
most noble and the most natural that can be found in any poem. It has
been imitated by the Spanish comedian, the illustrious Lopez de Vega, in
his comedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, act i. sc. 1:--

"_Como mirar puede ser
El sol al amanecer,
I quando se enciende, no. _"

Castera adds a very loose translation of these Spanish lines in French
verse. The literal English is, _As the sun may be beheld at its rising,
but, when illustriously kindled, cannot_.