THE

LUSIAD.

BOOK VII.

HAIL, glorious Chief! where never chief before

Forced his bold way, all hail on India's shore!
And hail, ye Lusian heroes! fair and wide
What groves of palm, to haughty Rome deny'd,
For you by Ganges' lengthening banks unfold!
What laurel forests on the shores of gold

For

you their honours ever verdant rear,

Proud with their leaves to twine the Lusian spear!

Ah heaven! what fury Europe's sons controls! What self-consuming discord fires their souls! 'Gainst her own breast her sword Germania turns; Through all her states fraternal rancour burns;

Some, blindly wandering, holy Faith disclaim*,

And fierce through all wild rages civil flame.

High sound the titles of the English crown,
King of Jerusalem†, his old renown!

Alas, delighted with an airy name,
The thin dim shadow of departed fame,

* Some, blindly wandering, holy Faith disclaim-The constitution of Germany, observes Puffendorff, may be said to verify the fable of the Hydra, with this difference, that the heads of the German state bite and devour each other. At the time when Camoens wrote, the German empire was plunged into all the miseries of a religious war, the Catholics using every endeavour to rivet the chains of Popery, the adherents of Luther as strenuously endeavouring to shake them off.

+ High sound the titles of the English crown,

King of Jerusalem-This is a mistake. The title of King of Jerusalem was never assumed by the Kings of England. Robert, Duke of Normandy, son of William the Conqueror, was elected King of Jerusalem by the army in Syria, but declined it in hope of ascending the throne of England, which attempt was defeated. Regnier, Count d'Anjou, father of Margaret, queen of Henry VI. was flattered with the mock royalty of Naples, Cyprus, and Jerusalem; his armorial bearing for the latter, Luna, a cross potent, between four crosses Sol.-Henry VIII. filled the throne of England when our author wrote this part of the Lusiad: his gothic luxury and conjugal brutality amply deserved the censure of the honest Poet.

England's stern Monarch, sunk in soft repose,
Luxurious riots mid his northern snows:

Or if the starting burst of rage succeed,

His brethren are his foes, and Christians bleed;
While Hagar's brutal race his titles stain,

In weeping Salem unmolested reign,

And with their rites impure her holy shrines profane.
And thou, O Gaul, with gaudy trophies plumed,
Most Christian named; alas, in vain assumed!
What impious lust of empire steels thy breast*
From their just Lords the Christian lands to wrest!
While Holy Faith's hereditary foes

Possess the treasures where Cynifio flows+;
And all secure, behold their harvests smile
In waving gold along the banks of Nile.

* What impious lust of empire steels thy breast-The French Translator very cordially agrees with the Portuguese Poet in the strictures upon Germany, England, and Italy. But when his own country is touched upon, Malgré l'estime, says he, que j'ai pour mon auteur, je ne craindrai pas de dire qu'il tombe ici dans une grande injustice. All Europe besides, however, will witness the truth of the assertion, which stigmatizes the French politics with the lust of extending their monarchy.

+ where Cynifio flows-A river in Africa.

And thou, O lost to glory, lost to fame,

Thou dark oblivion of thy ancient name,
By every vicious luxury debased,

Each noble passion from thy breast erased,
Nerveless in sloth, enfeebling arts thy boast,
Oh! Italy, how fallen, how low, how lost!
In vain to thee the call of glory sounds,
Thy sword alone thy own soft bosom wounds.

Ah, Europe's sons, ye brother-powers, in you The fables old of Cadmus now are true*:

*The fables old of Cadmus-Cadmus having slain the dragon which guarded the fountain of Dirce in Boeotia, sowed the teeth of the monster. A number of armed men immediately sprung up, and surrounded Cadmus, in order to kill him. By the counsel of Minerva he threw a precious stone among them, in striving for which they slew one another. Only five survived, who afterwards assisted him to build the city of Thebes. Vid. Ovid. Met. IV.

The foundation of this fable appears to be thus: Cadmus having slain a famous Freebooter, who infested Boeotia, a number of his Banditti, not improperly called his teeth, attempted to revenge his death, but quarrelling about the presents which Cadmus sent them to distribute among themselves, they fell by the swords of each other.

Terrigenæ pereunt per mutua vulnera fratres.

Fierce rose the brothers from the dragon teeth,
And each fell crimson'd with a brother's death.
So fall the bravest of the Christian name,

While dogs unclean Messiah's lore blaspheme,
And howl their curses o'er the holy tomb,
While to the sword the Christian race they doom.
from shore to distant shore,

From age to age,

By various princes led, their legions pour;
United all in one determined aim,

From every land to blot the Christian name.
Then wake, ye brother-powers, combined awake,
And from the foe the great example take.
If empire tempt ye, lo, the east expands,
Fair and immense, her summer-garden lands:
There boastful wealth displays her radiant store;
Pactol and Hermus' streams o'er golden ore
Roll their long way; but not for you they flow;

Their treasures blaze on the stern Soldan's brow:
For him Assyria plies the loom of gold,

And Afric's sons their deepest mines unfold

To build his haughty throne. Ye western powers To throw the mimic bolt of Jove is yours,