The Lusiad; Or, The Discovery of India, an Epic Poem
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THE LUSIAD.
THE LUSIAD;
OR,
THE DISCOVERY OF INDIA.
_AN EPIC POEM._
TRANSLATED FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF LUIS DE CAMOËNS.
WITH A LIFE OF THE POET.
BY WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE.
_FIFTH EDITION, REVISED,_
BY E. RICHMOND HODGES, M.C.P.,
HON. LIBRARIAN TO THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCHÆOLOGY,
_Editor of "Cory's Ancient Fragments," "The Principia Hebraica," etc., etc._
LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.
1877.
"As the mirror of a heart so full of love, courage, generosity, and
patriotism as that of Camoëns, The Lusaid can never fail to please us,
whatever place we may assign to it in the records of poetical
genius."--HALLAM.
[ORIGINAL DEDICATION, 1776.]
TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUGH.
MY LORD,
The first idea of offering my LUSIAD to some distinguished personage,
inspired the earnest wish, that it might be accepted by the illustrious
representative of that family under which my father, for many years,
discharged the duties of a clergyman.
Both the late Duke of BUCCLEUGH, and the Earl of DALKEITH, distinguished
him by particular marks of their favour; and I must have forgotten him,
if I could have wished to offer the first Dedication of my literary
labours to any other than the Duke of BUCCLEUGH.
I am, with the greatest respect,
My Lord,
Your Grace's most devoted
And most obedient humble servant,
WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
In undertaking, at the publishers' request, the function of editor of
Mickle's Lusiad, I have compared the translation with the original, and,
in some places, where another translation seemed preferable to, or more
literal than, Mickle's, I have, in addition, given that rendering in a
foot-note. Moreover, I have supplied the arguments to the several
cantos, given a few more explanatory notes, and added a table of
contents.
"The late ingenious translator of the Lusiad," says Lord Strangford,[1]
"has portrayed the character, and narrated the misfortunes of our poet,
in a manner more honourable to his feelings as a man than to his
accuracy in point of biographical detail. It is with diffidence that the
present writer essays to correct his errors; but, as the real
circumstances of the life of Camoëns are mostly to be found in his own
minor compositions, with which Mr. Mickle was unacquainted, he trusts
that certain information will atone for his presumption."
As Lord Strangford professes to have better and more recent sources of
information regarding the illustrious, but unfortunate, bard of
Portugal, I make no apology for presenting to the reader an abstract of
his lordship's memoir. Much further information will be found, however,
in an able article contained in No. 53 of the _Quarterly Review_ for
July, 1822, from the pen, I believe, of the poet Southey. "The family of
Camoëns was illustrious," says Lord Strangford, "and originally Spanish.
They were long settled at Cadmon, a castle in Galicia, from which they
probably derived their patronymic appellation. However, there are some
who maintain that their name alluded to a certain wonderful bird,[2]
whose mischievous sagacity discovered and punished the smallest
deviation from conjugal fidelity. A lady of the house of Cadmon, whose
conduct had been rather indiscreet, demanded to be tried by this
extraordinary judge. Her innocence was proved, and, in gratitude to the
being who had restored him to matrimonial felicity, the contented
husband adopted his name." It would appear that in a dispute between the
families of Cadmon and De Castera, a cavalier of the latter family was
slain. This happened in the fourteenth century. A long train of
persecution followed, to escape which, Ruy de Camoëns, having embraced
the cause of Ferdinand, removed with his family into Portugal, about
A.D. 1370. His son, Vasco de Camoëns, was highly distinguished by royal
favour, and had the honour of being the ancestor of our poet, who
descended from him in the fourth generation. Luia de Camoëns, the author
of the Lusiad, was born at Lisbon about A.D. 1524. His misfortunes began
with his birth--he never saw a father's smile--for Simon Vasco de
Camoëns perished by shipwreck in the very year which gave being to his
illustrious son. The future poet was sent to the university of
Coimbra--then at the height of its fame,--"and maintained there by the
provident care of his surviving parent."
"Love," says Lord Strangford, "is very nearly allied to devotion, and it
was in the exercise of the latter, that Camoëns was introduced to the
knowledge of the former. In the Church of Christ's Wounds at Lisbon, on
11th April, 1542, Camoëns first beheld Doña Caterina de Atayde, the
object of his purest and earliest attachment ... and it was not long
before Camoëns enjoyed an opportunity of declaring his affection, with
all the romantic ardour of eighteen and of a poet." The peculiar
situation of the lady, as one of the maids of honour to the queen,
imposed a restraint upon her admirer which soon became intolerable; and
he, for having violated the sanctity of the royal precincts, was in
consequence banished from the court. Whatever may have been the nature
of his offence, "it furnished a pretext to the young lady's relations
for terminating an intercourse which worldly considerations rendered
highly imprudent."
But Love consoled his votary: his mistress, on the morning of his
departure, confessed the secret of her long-concealed affection, and the
sighs of grief were soon lost in those of mutual delight. The hour of
parting was, perhaps, the sweetest of our poet's existence.
Camoëns removed to Santarem, but speedily returned to Lisbon, was a
second time detected, and again driven into exile.[3]
The voice of Love inspired our poet "with the glorious resolution of
conquering the obstacles which fortune had placed between him and
felicity." He obtained permission, therefore, to accompany King John
III. in an expedition then fitting out against the Moors in Africa. In
one of the engagements with the enemy our hero had the misfortune to
lose "his right eye, by some splinters from the deck of the vessel in
which he was stationed. Many of his most pathetic compositions were
written during this campaign, and the toils of a martial life were
sweetened by the recollection of her for whose sake they were endured.
His heroic conduct at length procured his recall to court," but to find,
alas, that his mistress was no more.
Disappointed in his hope of obtaining any recognition of his valiant
deeds, he now resolved, under the burning sun of India, to seek that
independence which his own country denied. "The last words I uttered,"
says Camoëns, "on board the vessel before leaving, were those of Scipio:
'Ungrateful country! thou shalt not even possess my bones.'" "Some,"
says Lord Strangford, "attribute his departure to a very different
cause, and assert that he quitted his native shores on account of an
intrigue in which he was detected with the beautiful wife of a
Portuguese gentleman. Perhaps," says Lord Strangford, "this story may
not be wholly unfounded." On his arrival in India he contributed by his
bravery to the success of an expedition carried on by the King of
Cochin, and his allies, the Portuguese, against the Pimento Islands; and
in the following year (1555) he accompanied Manuel de Vasconcelos in an
expedition to the Red Sea. Here he explored the wild regions of East
Africa, and stored his mind with ideas of scenery, which afterwards
formed some of the most finished pictures of the Lusiad.
On his return to Goa, Camoëns devoted his whole attention to the
completion of his poem; but an unfortunate satire which, under the title
of _Disparates na India_, or Follies in India, he wrote against the
vices and corruptions of the Portuguese authorities in Goa, so roused
the indignation of the viceroy that the poet was banished to China.
Of his adventures in China, and the temporary prosperity he enjoyed
there, while he held the somewhat uncongenial office of _Provedor dos
defuntos_, i.e., Trustee for deceased persons, Mickle has given an ample
account in the introduction to the Lusiad. During those years Camoëns
completed his poem, about half of which was written before he left
Europe. According to a tradition, not improbable in itself, he composed
great part of it in a natural grotto which commands a splendid view of
the city and harbour of Macao. An engraving of it may be seen in
Onseley's Oriental Collections, and another will be found in Sir G.
Staunton's Account of the Embassy to China.
A little temple, in the Chinese style, has been erected upon the rock,
and the ground around it has been ornamented by Mr. Fitzhugh, one of our
countrymen, from respect to the memory of the poet. The years that he
passed in Macao were probably the happiest of his life. Of his departure
for Europe, and his unfortunate shipwreck at the mouth of the river
Meekhaun,[4] in Cochin China, Mickle has also given a sufficient
account.
Lord Strangford has related, on the authority of Sousa, that while our
poet was languishing in poverty at Lisbon, "a cavalier, named Ruy de
Camera, called on him one day, asking him to finish for him a poetical
version of the seven penitential psalms. Raising his head from his
wretched pallet, and pointing to his faithful Javanese attendant, he
exclaimed, 'Alas, when I was a poet, I was young, and happy, and blest
with the love of ladies; but now I am a forlorn, deserted wretch.
See--there stands my poor Antonio, vainly supplicating fourpence to
purchase a little coals--I have them not to give him.' The cavalier, as
Sousa relates, closed both his heart and his purse, and quitted the
room. Such were the grandees of Portugal." Camoëns sank under the
pressure of penury and disease, and died in an alms-house, early in
1579, and was buried in the church of Sta. Anna of the Franciscan
Friars. Over his grave Gonzalo Coutinho placed the following
inscription:--
"HERE LIES LUIS DE CAMOËNS.
HE EXCELLED ALL THE POETS OF HIS TIME.
HE LIVED POOR AND MISERABLE, AND HE DIED SO.
MDLXXIX."
The translator of the Lusiad was born, in 1734, at Langholm, in
Dumfriesshire, where his father, a good French scholar, was the
Presbyterian minister. At the age of sixteen William Julius Mickle was
removed, to his great dislike, from school, and sent into the
counting-house of a relation of his mother's, a brewer, where, against
his inclination, he remained five years. He subsequently, for family
reasons, became the head of the firm, and carried on the business. It is
not to be wondered at, however, that with his dislike to business in
general and to this one in particular, he did not succeed; and it is
quite reasonable to suppose that the cause of his failure, and
subsequent pecuniary embarrassments, arose from his having devoted those
hours to his poetical studies which should have been dedicated to
business. Mickle obtained afterwards the appointment of corrector of the
Clarendon Press in Oxford, and died at Wheatly, in Oxfordshire, in 1789.
Southey speaks of Mickle (_Quarterly Review_, liii. p. 29) as a man of
genius who had ventured upon the chance of living by his literary
labours, and says that he "did not over-rate the powers which he was
conscious of possessing, knew that he could rely upon himself for their
due exertion, and had sufficient worldly prudence to look out for a
subject which was likely to obtain notice and patronage." His other
poems, Pollio, Sir Martyn, etc., with the exception of his Cumnor Hall,
are not held in high estimation.
Describing the several poetic versions of the Lusiad, Mr. Musgrave