_He_ (_constant_, and with noble _anger_ hot)
His haughty _menace_ weighs not at _two chips_.
His haughty _menace_ weighs not at _two chips_.
Camoes - Lusiades
Solyman, regardless chief, awake!
In happier hours thy grateful slumber take:
Beneath a foreign yoke thy subjects bend,
And strangers o'er thy land their rule extend:
Here dost thou sleep? here close thy careless eyes,
While uninterr'd each lov'd associate lies?
Here where thy fame has felt the hostile scorn,
Canst thou, unthinking, wait the rising morn? "
The conclusion of this canto has been slightly altered by the
translator. Camoens, adhering to history, makes GAMA (when his factors
are detained on shore) seize upon some of the native merchants as
hostages. At the intreaty of their wives and children the zamorim
liberates his captives; while GAMA, having recovered his men and the
merchandise, sailed away, carrying with him the unfortunate natives,
whom he had seized as hostages.
As there is nothing heroic in this dishonourable action of GAMA'S,
Mickle has omitted it, and has altered the conclusion of the
canto. --_Ed. _
[550] Mickle, in place of the first seventeen stanzas of this canto, has
inserted about three hundred lines of his own composition; in this
respect availing himself of the licence he had claimed in his
preface. --_Ed. _
[551] _Thy sails, and rudders too, my will demands. _--According to
history.
[552] _My sov'reign's fleet I yield not to your sway. _--The circumstance
of GAMA'S refusing to put his fleet into the power of the zamorim, is
thus rendered by Fanshaw:--
"The Malabar protests that he shall rot
In prison, if he send not for the _ships_.
_He_ (_constant_, and with noble _anger_ hot)
His haughty _menace_ weighs not at _two chips_. "
[553] _Through Gata's hills. _--The hills of Gata or Gate, mountains
which form a natural barrier on the eastern side of the kingdom of
Malabar.
"Nature's rude wall, against the fierce Canar
They guard the fertile walls of Malabar. "
LUSIAD, vii.
[554] _Then, furious, rushing to the darken'd bay. _--For the
circumstances of the battle, and the tempest which then happened, see
the Life of GAMA.
[555] _I left my fix'd command my navy's guard. _--See the Life of GAMA.
[556] _Unmindful of my fate on India's shore. _--This most magnanimous
resolution, to sacrifice his own safety or his life for the safe return
of the fleet, is strictly true. --See the Life of GAMA.
[557] _Abrupt--the monarch cries_--"_What yet may save! _"--GAMA'S
declaration, that no message from him to the fleet could alter the
orders he had already left, and his rejection of any further treaty,
have a necessary effect in the conduct of the poem. They hasten the
catastrophe, and give a verisimilitude to the abrupt and full submission
of the zamorim.
[558] _The rollers_--_i.
In happier hours thy grateful slumber take:
Beneath a foreign yoke thy subjects bend,
And strangers o'er thy land their rule extend:
Here dost thou sleep? here close thy careless eyes,
While uninterr'd each lov'd associate lies?
Here where thy fame has felt the hostile scorn,
Canst thou, unthinking, wait the rising morn? "
The conclusion of this canto has been slightly altered by the
translator. Camoens, adhering to history, makes GAMA (when his factors
are detained on shore) seize upon some of the native merchants as
hostages. At the intreaty of their wives and children the zamorim
liberates his captives; while GAMA, having recovered his men and the
merchandise, sailed away, carrying with him the unfortunate natives,
whom he had seized as hostages.
As there is nothing heroic in this dishonourable action of GAMA'S,
Mickle has omitted it, and has altered the conclusion of the
canto. --_Ed. _
[550] Mickle, in place of the first seventeen stanzas of this canto, has
inserted about three hundred lines of his own composition; in this
respect availing himself of the licence he had claimed in his
preface. --_Ed. _
[551] _Thy sails, and rudders too, my will demands. _--According to
history.
[552] _My sov'reign's fleet I yield not to your sway. _--The circumstance
of GAMA'S refusing to put his fleet into the power of the zamorim, is
thus rendered by Fanshaw:--
"The Malabar protests that he shall rot
In prison, if he send not for the _ships_.
_He_ (_constant_, and with noble _anger_ hot)
His haughty _menace_ weighs not at _two chips_. "
[553] _Through Gata's hills. _--The hills of Gata or Gate, mountains
which form a natural barrier on the eastern side of the kingdom of
Malabar.
"Nature's rude wall, against the fierce Canar
They guard the fertile walls of Malabar. "
LUSIAD, vii.
[554] _Then, furious, rushing to the darken'd bay. _--For the
circumstances of the battle, and the tempest which then happened, see
the Life of GAMA.
[555] _I left my fix'd command my navy's guard. _--See the Life of GAMA.
[556] _Unmindful of my fate on India's shore. _--This most magnanimous
resolution, to sacrifice his own safety or his life for the safe return
of the fleet, is strictly true. --See the Life of GAMA.
[557] _Abrupt--the monarch cries_--"_What yet may save! _"--GAMA'S
declaration, that no message from him to the fleet could alter the
orders he had already left, and his rejection of any further treaty,
have a necessary effect in the conduct of the poem. They hasten the
catastrophe, and give a verisimilitude to the abrupt and full submission
of the zamorim.
[558] _The rollers_--_i.
