Nor leave the youths their lovely brides behind, In bridal fmiles, attends each lovely maid. That whisper'd peace, soft swell'd the steady sails: Smooth by enabling himself to record their actions and conquests in the East. As he was one of the first writers on that subject, his geography is often imperfect. This defect is remedied in the writings of John de Barros, who was particularly attentive to this head. But the two most eminent, as well as fulleft writers on the transactions of the Portuguese in the Eaft, are Manuel de Faria y Soufa, knight of the order of Chrift, and Hieronimus Oforius, bishop of Sylves. Faria, who wrote in Spanish, was a laborious enquirer, and is very full and circumstantial. With honeft indignation he reprehends the rapíne of commanders, and the errors and unworthy resentments of kings. But he is often fo drily particular, that he may rather be called a journalist than an historian. And by this uninteresting minuteness, his ftyle for the greatest part is rendered inelegant. The bishop of Sylves, however, claims a different character. His Latin is elegant, and his manly and fentimental manner entitles him to the name of historian, even where a Livy, or a Tacitus, are mentioned. But a fentence from himself, unexpected in a father of the communion of Rome, will characterife the liberality of his mind. Talking of the edict of king Emmanuel, which compelled the Jews to embrace Christianity, under fevere perfecution; Nec ex lege, nec ex religione factum . . . . . . . tibi affumas, (says he,), ut libertatem voluntatis impedias, et vincula mentibus effrenatis injicias? At id neque fieri poteft, neque Christi sanctiffimum numen approbat. Voluntarium enim facrificium non vi mala coactum ab hominibus expetit: neque vim mentibus inferri, fed voluntates ad ftudium veræ religionis allici & invitari jubet. It is faid, in the Preface to Oforius, that his writings were highly efteemed by Queen Mary of England, wife of Philip II. What a pity is it, that this manly indignation of the good bishop against the impiety of religious perfecution, made no impreffion on the mind of that bigotted princefs! Smooth as on wing unmoved the eagle flies, The hero band adorn their monarch's name; Enough, my mufe, thy wearied wing no more Oh, P And the wide Eaft is doom'd to Lufian fway.-Thus in all the force of ancient fimplicity, and the true fublime, ends the poem of Camoëns. What follows, is one of those exuberances we have already endeavoured to defend in our author, nor in the strictest sense is this concluding one without propriety. A part of the propofition of the poem is artfully addreffed to king Sebaftian, and he is now called upon in an addrefs, which is an artful fecond part to the former, to behold and preserve the glories of his throne. Oh, be it thine thefe glories to renew, And John's bold path and Pedro's course a pursue: The statesman prelate, to his vows confine, The priest, in whose meek heart heaven pours its fires In dying notes the barbarous age deplore. Sinks as the nameless flave, extinct in duft. r Revived, ¶ And John's bold path and Pedro's course pursue― John I. and Pedro the Juft, two of the greatest of the Portuguese monarchs. Great Ammon's warlike fon revived in thee. tranflated into Italian by Guarini. Con fi fublime ftil' forfe cantato -Thus imitated, or rather Havrei del mio Signor l'armi e l'honori, Similarity Revived, unenvied of the mufe's flame That o'er the world refounds Pelides' name. Similarity of condition, we have already obferved, produced similarity of complaint and fentiment in Spenfer and Camoëns. Each was unworthily neglected by the Gothic grandees of his age, yet both their names will live, when the remembrance of the courtiers who fpurned them shall fink beneath their mountain tombs. Three beautiful ftanzas from Phinehas Fletcher's Purple Island, on the memory of Spenfer, may also serve as an epitaph for Camoëns. The unworthy neglect, which was the lot of the Portuguese bard, but too well appropriates to him the elegy of Spenfer. And every reader of taste, who has perufed the Lufiad, will think of the Cardinal Henrico, and feel the indignation of these manly lines Witneffe our Colin *, whom tho' all the Graces And all the learn'd and all the shepherds throng; Poorly (poor man) he liv'd; poorly (poor man) he died. Ah lies full low) piti'd thy woful plight, Unbleft, nor grac'd with any common rite: Yet fhalt thou live, when thy great foe § fhall fink O let th' Iambic Muse revenge that wrong Which cannot flumber in thy sheets of lead; *Colin Clout, Spenfer. + Glorian, Elizabeth in the Faerie Queen. The Earl of Effex. § Lord Burleigh. Let |