The Lusiad; Or, The Discovery of India, an Epic Poem

OR,
TRANSLATED FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF LUIS DE CAMOËNS.
WITH A LIFE OF THE POET.
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.
TO THE
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.
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.
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.