"How stern of lineament, how grim
The father was of Tuscan song."
[STANZA XXXVIII.]
"Time, like a wind, blows through the lyric leaves
Above his head, and from the shaken boughs
Æonian music falls;"
ἀμφὶ δὲ ψῦχρον κελάδει δι' ὔσδων
μαλίνων, αἰθυσσομένων δὲ φύλλων
κῶμα καταρρεῖ.
Sappho.
[STANZA XLV.]
... "the demon-haunted cliff."
The Cape of Good Hope, originally called the Cape of Tempests. It is here that the spectral ship of Vanderdecken is supposed to be seen in stormy weather, still battling against the insuperable wind. Vanderdecken, the "Flying Dutchman," tried to double the cape in spite of a heavy gale. Baffled again and again, he swore that he would carry out his purpose in spite of God or the Devil, though he had to sail till the Day of Judgment. For this blasphemy he was doomed to be taken at his word, and became a sort of Ahasuerus of the sea. This cape is also the scene of that tremendous passage in the "Lusiad," where the giant, Adamastor, appears in cloud and storm to the adventurous Portuguese sailors, and warns them back from their enterprise:
"Não acabava, quando uma figura
Se nos mostra no ar, robusta e válida,
De disforme e grandissima estatura,
O rosto carregado, a barba esquálida:
Os olhos encovados, e a postura
Medonha e má, e a côr terrena e pállida;
Cheios de terra, e crespos os cabellos,
A bocca negra, os dentes amarellos.
"Tam grande era de membros, que bem posso
Certificar-te, que este era o segundo
De Rhodes estranhissimo colosso,
Que um dos sete milagres foi do mundo:
C' um tom de voz nos falla horrendo e grosso,
Que pareceu sair do mar profundo:
Arripiam-se as carnes, e o cabello
A mi, e a todos, so de ouvil-o, e vello.