The Lusiad; Or, The Discovery of India, an Epic Poem
Penthesilea refert: magnoque ululante tumultu
Foeminea exsultant lunatis agmina peltis._ VIRG. Æn. xi. 659.
[212] It may, perhaps, be agreeable to the reader, to see the
description of a bull-fight as given by Homer.
_As when a lion, rushing from his den,
Amidst the plain of some wide-water'd fen,_
(_Where num'rous oxen, as at ease they feed,
At large expatiate o'er the ranker mead_;)
_Leaps on the herds before the herdsman's eyes:
The trembling herdsman far to distance flies:
Some lordly bull_ (_the rest dispers'd and fled_)
_He singles out, arrests, and lays him dead.
Thus from the rage of Jove-like Hector flew
All Greece in heaps; but one he seiz'd, and slew
Mycenian Periphas.----_
POPE, II. xv.
[213] A shirt of mail, formed of small iron rings.
[214] Mohammed.
[215] There is a passage in Xenophon, upon which perhaps Camoëns had his
eye. [Greek: Epei de elêxen hê machê, parên idein, tên men gên haimati
pephyrmenên], &c. "When the battle was over, one might behold through
the whole extent of the field the ground purpled with blood; the bodies
of friends and enemies stretched over each other, the shields pierced,
the spears broken, and the drawn swords, some scattered on the earth,
some plunged in the bosoms of the slain, and some yet grasped in the
hands of the dead soldiers."
[216] This memorable battle was fought in the plains of _Ourique_, in
1139. The engagement lasted six hours; the Moors were totally routed
with incredible slaughter. On the field of battle Alonzo was proclaimed
King of Portugal. The Portuguese writers have given many fabulous
accounts of this victory. Some affirm that the Moorish army amounted to
380,000, others, 480,000, and others swell it to 600,000, whereas Don
Alonzo's did not exceed 13,000. Miracles must also be added. Alonzo,
they tell us, being in great perplexity, sat down to comfort his mind by
the perusal of the Holy Scriptures. Having read the story of Gideon, he
sunk into a deep sleep, in which he saw a very old man in a remarkable
dress come into his tent, and assure him of victory. His chamberlain
coming in, awoke him, and told him there was an old man very importunate
to speak with him. Don Alonzo ordered him to be brought in, and no
sooner saw him than he knew him to be the old man whom he had seen in
his dream. This venerable person acquainted him that he was a fisherman,
and had led a life of penance for sixty years on an adjacent rock, where
it had been revealed to him, that if the count marched his army the next
morning, as soon as he heard a certain bell ring, he should receive the
strongest assurance of victory. Accordingly, at the ringing of the bell,
the count put his army in motion, and suddenly beheld in the eastern sky
the figure of the cross, and Christ upon it, who promised him a complete
victory, and commanded him to accept the title of king, if it were
offered him by the army. The same writers add, that as a standing
memorial of this miraculous event, Don Alonzo changed the arms which his
father had given, of a cross azure in a field argent, for five
escutcheons, each charged with five bezants, in memory of the wounds of
Christ. Others assert, that he gave, in a field argent, five escutcheons
azure in the form of a cross, each charged with five bezants argent,
placed saltierwise, with a point sable, in memory of five wounds he
himself received, and of five Moorish kings slain in the battle. There
is an old record, said to be written by Don Alonzo, in which the story
of the vision is related upon his majesty's oath. The Spanish critics,
however, have discovered many inconsistencies in it. They find the
language intermixed with phrases not then in use: and it bears the date
of the year of our Lord, at a time when that era had not been introduced
into Spain.
[217] Troy.
[218] The tradition, that Lisbon was built by Ulysses, and thence called
_Olyssipolis_, is as common as, and of equal authority with, that which
says, that Brute landed a colony of Trojans in England, and gave the
name of Britannia to the island.
[219] The conquest of Lisbon was of the utmost importance to the infant
monarchy. It is one of the finest ports in the world, and before the
invention of cannon, was of great strength. The old Moorish wall was
flanked by seventy-seven towers, was about six miles in length, and
fourteen in circumference. When besieged by Don Alonzo, according to
some, it was garrisoned by an army of 200,000 men. This is highly
incredible. However, that it was strong and well garrisoned is certain,
as also that Alonzo owed the conquest of it to a fleet of adventurers,
who were going to the Holy Land, the greater part of whom were English.
One Udal op Rhys, in his tour through Portugal, says, that Alonzo gave
them Almada, on the side of the Tagus opposite to Lisbon, and that Villa
Franca was peopled by them, which they called Cornualla, either in
honour of their native country, or from the rich meadows in its
neighbourhood, where immense herds of cattle are kept, as in the English
Cornwall.
[220] Jerusalem.
[221] _Unconquer'd towers._--This assertion of Camoëns is not without
foundation, for it was by treachery that Herimeneric, the Goth, got
possession of Lisbon.
[222] The aqueduct of Sertorius, here mentioned, is one of the grandest
remains of antiquity. It was repaired by John III. of Portugal about
A.D. 1540.
[223] Badajoz.
[224] The history of this battle wants authenticity.
[225] As already observed, there is no authentic proof that Don Alonzo
used such severity to his mother as to put her in chains. Brandan says
it was reported that Don Alonzo was born with both his legs growing
together, and that he was cured by the prayers of his tutor, Egas Nunio.
Legendary as this may appear, this however is deducible from it, that
from his birth there was something amiss about his legs. When he was
prisoner to his son-in-law, Don Fernando, king of Leon, he recovered his
liberty ere his leg, which was fractured in the battle, was restored, on
condition that as soon as he was able to mount on horseback, he should
come to Leon, and in person do homage for his dominions. This condition,
so contrary to his coronation agreement, he found means to avoid. He
ever after affected to drive in a calash, and would never mount on
horseback more. The superstitious of those days ascribed this infirmity
to the curses of his mother.
[226] _Phasis._--A river of Colchis.
[227] A frontier town on the Nile, bordering on Nubia.
[228] _Colchis._--A country of Asia Minor bordering on the Black
Sea.--_Ed._
[229]
_Tu quoque littoribus nostris, Æneia nutrix, Æternam moriens famam,
Caieta, dedisti._ VIRG. Æn. vii.
[230] _i.e._ Tangiers, opposite to Gibraltar.--_Ed._
[231] This should be _Emir el Moumeneen_, _i.e._, Commander of the
Faithful.--_Ed._
[232] The Mondego is the largest river having its rise within the
kingdom of Portugal and entering no other state.--_Ed._
[233] _Miramolin._--Not the name of a person, but a title, _quasi
Sultan_; _the Emperor of the Faithful_.
[234] In this poetical exclamation, expressive of the sorrow of Portugal
on the death of Alonzo, Camoëns has happily imitated some passages of
Virgil.
----_Ipsæ te, Tityre, pinus,
Ipsi te fontes, ipsa hæc arbusta vocabant._
ECL. i.
----_Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua,
Ah miseram Eurydicen, anima fugiente, vocabat:
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripæ._
GEORG. iv.
----_littus, Hyla, Hyla, omne sonaret._
ECL. vi.
[235] The Guadalquiver, the largest river in Spain.--_Ed._
[236] The Portuguese, in their wars with the Moors, were several times
assisted by the English and German crusaders. In the present instance
the fleet was mostly English, the troops of which nation were, according
to agreement, rewarded with the plunder, which was exceeding rich, of
the city of Silves. _Nuniz de Leon as cronicas dos Reis de Port_, A.D.
1189.--_Ed._
[237] Barbarossa, A.D. 1189.--_Ed._
[238] _Unlike the Syrian_ (rather _Assyrian_).--Sardanapalus.
[239] _When Rome's proud tyrant far'd._--Heliogabalus, infamous for his
gluttony.
[240] Alluding to the history of Phalaris.
[241] Camoëns, who was quite an enthusiast for the honour of his
country, has in this instance disguised the truth of history. Don Sancho
was by no means the weak prince here represented, nor did the miseries
of his reign proceed from himself. The clergy were the sole authors of
his, and the public, calamities. The Roman See was then in the height of
its power, which it exerted in the most tyrannical manner. The
ecclesiastical courts had long claimed the sole right to try an
ecclesiastic: and, to prohibit a priest to say mass for a twelve-month,
was by the brethren, his judges, esteemed a sufficient punishment for
murder, or any other capital crime. Alonzo II., the father of Don
Sancho, attempted to establish the authority of the king's courts of
justice over the offending clergy. For this the Archbishop of Braga
excommunicated Gonzalo Mendez, the chancellor; and Honorius, the pope,
excommunicated the king, and put his dominions under an interdict. The
exterior offices of religion were suspended, the people fell into the
utmost dissoluteness of manners; Mohammedanism made great advances, and
public confusion everywhere prevailed. By this policy the Church
constrained the nobility to urge the king to a full submission to the
papal chair. While a negotiation for this purpose was on foot Alonzo
died, and left his son to struggle with an enraged and powerful clergy.
Don Sancho was just, affable, brave, and an enamoured husband. On this
last virtue faction first fixed its envenomed fangs. The queen was
accused of arbitrary influence over her husband; and, according to the
superstition of that age, she was believed to have disturbed his senses
by an enchanted draught. Such of the nobility as declared in the king's
favour were stigmatized, and rendered odious, as the creatures of the
queen. The confusions which ensued were fomented by Alonso, Earl of
Bologna, the king's brother, by whom the king was accused as the author
of them. In short, by the assistance of the clergy and Pope Innocent
IV., Sancho was deposed, and soon after died at Toledo. The beautiful
queen, Donna Mencia, was seized upon, and conveyed away by one Raymond
Portocarrero, and was never heard of more. Such are the triumphs of
faction!
[242] Alexander the Great.
[243] Mondego, the largest exclusively Portuguese river.--_Ed._
[244] The _baccaris_, or Lady's glove, a herb to which the Druids and
ancient poets ascribed magical virtues.
----_Baccare frontem
Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro._
VIRG. Ecl. vii.
[245] Semiramis, who is said to have invaded India.--_Ed._
[246] Attila, a king of the Huns, surnamed "The Scourge of God." He
lived in the fifth century. He may be reckoned among the greatest of
conquerors.
[247] _His much-lov'd bride._--The Princess Mary. She was a lady of
great beauty and virtue, but was exceedingly ill used by her husband,
who was violently attached to his mistresses, though he owed his crown
to the assistance of his father-in-law, the King of Portugal.
[248]
_By night our fathers' shades confess their fear,
Their shrieks of terror from the tombs we hear.--_
Camoëns says, "A mortos faz espanto;" to give this elegance in English
required a paraphrase. There is something wildly great, and agreeable to
the superstition of that age, to suppose that the dead were troubled in
their graves on the approach of so terrible an army. The French
translator, contrary to the original, ascribes this terror to the ghost