[136] The first edition of the Lusiad was printed in the year 1572, and the poem itself was chiefly written in the East Indies. Tasso read it, and praised the author in a sonnet which has been preserved. The first edition of Jerusalem Delivered appeared in 1580, and consequently, a year after the death of Camoens. (See the History of Italian Poetry and Eloquence, vol. ii. p. 226.)
[137] Even the apology for Camoens which precedes Mickle’s version of the Lusiad, defeats itself, for the English translator makes the Homeric epic his standard, and in order to justify the Lusiad misconstrues the machinery of the Iliad. The remarks on the Lusiad by Voltaire, in his Discours sur le poème épique are beneath criticism; and the judgment pronounced on this poem by Von Junk in the introduction to his Portuguese grammar, evinces a total want of poetic taste. No one should attempt a translation of the Lusiad, who does not possess an intimate acquaintance with the Portuguese language and poetry, for it is otherwise impossible to seize the spirit of Camoens. The English translation by Mickle is hitherto the only one in which it can be said that at least the elegant dignity of Camoens’s style is represented.
[138] See the History of Spanish Literature, p. [408].
[139] The edition with the commentaries of Faria e Sousa published in the year 1636, has the old title of Lusiadas; but in the book itself the poem is frequently styled the Lusiada. The latter title is, therefore, far from being a recent innovation.
[140] Camoens was no doubt influenced by the recollection of Virgil’s Arma virumque. But in his opening stanza the Portuguese poet alludes to the heroes of his native country, without distinguishing any one in particular; and thus at the very outset the Lusiad differs from the Æneid. The second stanza resembles Ariosto. The two first stanzas are here subjoined in the original:—
As Armas, e os Barões assinalados,
Que da Occidental praia Lusitana,
Por mares nunca d’antes navegados,
Passáram ainda além da Taprobana:
Que em perigos e guerras esforçados,
Mais do que promettia a força humana.
Entre gente remota edificaram
Novo Reino, que tanto sublimáram:
E tambem as memorias gloriosas
Daquelles Reis, que foram dilatando
A Fé, o Imperio; e as terras viciosas
De Africa, e de Asia, andaram devastando:
E aquelles que por obras valerosas
Se vaõ da lei da morte libertando;
Cantando espalharei por toda parte,
Se a tanto me ajudar o engenho, e arte.
Jà no largo Oceano navegavam
As inquietas ondas apartando;
Os ventos brandamente respiravam,
Das náos as vélas concavas inchando:
Da branca escuma os mares se mostravam
Cobertos, onde as proas vaõ cortando
As maritimas aguas consagradas,
Que do gado de Prótheo saõ cortadas.
Quando os deoses no Olympo luminoso,
Onde o governo está da humana gente,
Se ajuntam em concilio glorioso
Sobre as cousas futuras do Oriente:
Pizando o crystallino Ceo formoso
Vem pela Via Lactea juntamente,
Convocados da parte de Tonante,
Pelo neto gentil do velho Atlante.
[142] Thus, for example, the stormy commotion in the council of the Gods is compared to the ragings and howlings of a whirlwind in the forest:—
Qual Austro fero ou Boreas na espessura,
De sylvestre arvoredo abastecida,
Rompendo os ramos vaõ da mata escura,
Com impeto, e braveza desmedida:
Brama toda a montanha, o som murmura,
Rompem se as folhas, ferve a serra erguida;
Tal andava o tumulto levantado,
Entre os deoses no Olympo consagrado.
Cant. I. 36.