[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.
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 of only one prince, by which this stroke of Camoëns, in the spirit of Shakespeare, is reduced to a piece of unmeaning frippery.
[249] The Muliya, a river of Morocco.—Ed.
[250] See the first Æneid.
[251] Goliath, the Philistine champion.—Ed.
[252] David, afterwards king of Israel.—Ed.