No More Learning

--_

Had this been mentioned sooner, the interest of the catastrophe of the
poem must have languished. Though he is not a warrior, the unexpected
friend of GAMA bears a much more considerable part in the action of the
Lusiad than the faithful Achates, the friend of the hero, bears in the
business of the AEneid.

[560] _There wast thou call'd to thy celestial home. _--This exclamatory
address to the Moor Monzaida, however it may appear digressive, has a
double propriety. The conversion of the Eastern world is the great
purpose of the expedition of GAMA, and Monzaida is the first fruits of
that conversion. The good characters of the victorious heroes, however
neglected by the great genius of Homer, have a fine effect in making an
epic poem interest us and please. It might have been said, that Monzaida
was a traitor to his friends, who crowned his villainy with apostacy.
Camoens has, therefore, wisely drawn him with other features, worthy of
the friendship of GAMA. Had this been neglected, the hero of the Lusiad
might have shared the fate of the wise Ulysses of the Iliad, against
whom, as Voltaire justly observes, every reader bears a secret ill will.
Nor is the poetical character of Monzaida unsupported by history. He was
not an Arab Moor, so he did not desert his countrymen. These Moors had
determined on the destruction of GAMA; Monzaida admired and esteemed
him, and therefore generously revealed to him his danger. By his
attachment to GAMA he lost all his effects in India, a circumstance
which his prudence and knowledge of affairs must have certainly
foreseen. By the known dangers he encountered, by the loss he thus
voluntarily sustained, and by his after constancy, his sincerity is
undoubtedly proved.

[561] _The joy of the fleet on the homeward departure from India.
_--We
are now come to that part of the Lusiad, which, in the conduct of the
poem, is parallel to the great catastrophe of the Iliad, when, on the
death of Hector, Achilles thus addresses the Grecian army--

"Ye sons of Greece, in triumph bring
The corpse of Hector, and your paeons sing:
Be this the song, slow moving toward the shore,
'Hector is dead, and Ilion is no more. '"

Our Portuguese poet, who in his machinery, and many other instances, has
followed the manner of Virgil, now forsakes him. In a very bold and
masterly spirit he now models his poem by the steps of Homer. What of
the Lusiad yet remains, in poetical conduct (though not in an imitation
of circumstances), exactly resembles the latter part of the Iliad. The
games at the funeral of Patroclus, and the redemption of the body of
Hector, are the completion of the rage of Achilles. In the same manner,
the reward of the heroes, and the consequences of their expedition
complete the unity of the Lusiad. I cannot say it appears that Milton
ever read our poet (though Fanshaw's translation was published in his
time); yet no instance can be given of a more striking resemblance of
plan and conduct, than may be produced in two principal parts of the
poem of Camoens, and of the Paradise Lost. --See the Dissertation which
follows this book.

[562] _Near where the bowers of Paradise were plac'd. _--Between the
mouth of the Ganges and Euphrates.

[563] Swans.

[564] _His falling kingdom claim'd his earnest care. _--This fiction, in
poetical conduct, bears a striking resemblance to the digressive
histories with which Homer enriches and adorns his poems, particularly
to the beautiful description of the feast of the gods with "the
blameless Ethiopians. " It also contains a masterly commentary on the
machinery of the Lusiad. The Divine Love conducts GAMA to India. The
same Divine Love is represented as preparing to reform the corrupted
world, when its attention is particularly called to bestow a foretaste
of immortality on the heroes of the expedition which discovered the
eastern world.