So when in child-birth of her Jove-sprung load,
The fylvan goddess and the bowyer god,
In friendly pity of Latona's woes 1.
Amid the waves the Delian ifle arofe.
And now led smoothly o'er the furrow'd tide,
Right to the ifle of joy the veffels glide:
The bay they enter, where on every hand,
Around them clafps the flower-enamell'd land;
A fafe retreat, where not a blatt may shake ́
Its fluttering pinions o'er the tilly lake.
With purple thells, transfus'd as marble veins,
The yellow fands celeftial Venus stains,
With graceful pride three hills of softest green
Rear their fair bofoms o'er the fylvan scene;
Their fides embroider'd boast the rich array`
Of flowery fhrubs in all the pride of May;
The purple lotos and the fnowy thorn,
And yellow pod-flowers every flope adorn.
From the green fummits of the leafy hills
Defcend with murmuring lapfe three limpid rills;
Beneath the rofe-trees loitering flow they glide,
Now tumbles o'er fome rock their chryftal pride;
Sonorous now they roll adown the glade,
Now plaintive tinkle in the secret shade,
Now from the darkling grove, beneath the beam
Of ruddy morn, like melted filver ftream,
Edging the painted margins of the bowers,
And breathing liquid freshness on the flowers.
Where bright reflected in the pool below
The vermil apples tremble on the bough;
Where o'er the yellow fands the waters fleep
The primrosed banks, inverted, dew drops weep;
Where murmuring o'er the pebbles parls the stream
The filver trouts in playful curvings gleam.
Long thus and various every riv❜let trays,
Till clofing now their long meandring maze,
Where in a smiling vale the mountains end,
Form'd in a chryftal lake the waters blend *:
chediva for fresh water. While he was here careening his fhips, fays Faria, a pirate named Timoja, attacked him with eight small veffels, fo linked together and covered with boughs, that they formed the appearance of a floating island. This, fays Caftera. afforded the fiction of the floating island of Venus. "The fictions of Camoëns, fays he, sont d'autant plus merveilleuses, qu'elles ont toutes leur fondement dans l'hiftoire, are the more marvellous, because they are all founded in history. It is not difficult to find why he makes his ifland of Anchediva to wander on the waves; it is in allufion to a fingular event related by Barros." He then proceeds to the ftory of Timoja, as if the genius of Camoëns flood in need of fo weak an affiftance."
In friendly pity of Latona's woes -Latona, in pregnancy by Jupiter, was per fecuted by Juno, who fent the ferpent Python in pursuit of her. Neptune, in pity of her distress, raised the island of Delos for her refuge, where he was delivered of Apollo and Diana.'- -OVID. MET.
Form'd in a chryftal lake the waters blend.- -Caftera alfo attributes this to hiftory." The Portuguese actually found in this ifland, fays he, a fine piece of
Fring'd was the border with a woodland fhade,
In every leaf of various green array'd,
Each yellow-ting'd, each mingling tint between
The dark afh-verdure and the filvery green.
The trees now bending forward slowly shake
Their lofty honours o'er the chrystal lake;
Now from the flood the graceful boughs retire
With coy referve, and now again admire
Their various liveries by the fummer dreft,
Smooth glofs'd and foften'd in the mirror's breast.
So by her glass the wifhful virgin stays,
And oft retiring fteals the lingering gaze.
A thousand boughs aloft to heaven difplay
Their fragrant apples fhining to the day;
The orange here perfumes the buxom † air,
And boafts the golden hue of Daphne's hair.
Near to the ground cach fpreading bough defcends,
Beneath her yellow load the citron bends;
The fragrant lemon fçents the cooly grove;
Fair as when ripening for the days of love
The virgin's breafts the gentle fwell avow,
So the twin fruitage fwell on every bough.
Wild forest trees the mountains fides array'd
With curling foliage and romantic fhade:
Here fpreads the poplar, to Alcides dear;
And dear to Phœbus, ever verdant here,
water ornamented with hewn ftones and magnificent aqueducts; an ancient and fuperb work, of which nobody knew the author."
In 1505 Don Francisco Almeyda built a fort in this island. In digging among fome ancient ruins he found many crucifixes of black and red colour, from whence the Portuguese conjectured, fays Oforius, that the Anchedivian islands had in former ages been inhabited by Chriftians.' Vid. Ofor. L. iv.
+ The orange bere perfumes the buxom air,
And boafts the golden bue of Daphne's bair.--Frequent allufions to the fables of the ancients form a characteristical feature of the poetry of the 16th and 17th centuries. A profufion of it is pedantry; a moderate ufe of it however in a poem of thefe times pleafes, because it difcovers the ftages of compofition, and has in itself a fine effect, as it illuftrates its fubject by prefenting the claffical reader with fome little landscapes of that country through which he has travelled. The defcription of forefts is a favourite topic in poetry. Chaucer, Taffo, and Spenfer, have been happy in it, but both have copied an admired paffage in Statius;
Chaonimque nemus, brumæque illæfa cupreffus;
Procumbunt piceæ, flammis alimenta fupremis,
Ornique, iliceæque trabes, metuandaque fulco
Taxus, & infandos belli potúra cruores
Fraxinus, atque fitu non expugnabile robur :
Hinc audax abies, & odoro vulnere pinus
Scinditur, acclinant intonfa cacumina terræ
Alnus amica fretis, nec inhofpita vitibus ulmus.
In rural defcriptions three things are neceffary to render them poetical; the happinefs of epithet, of picturesque arrangement, and of little landscape views. Without thefe, all the names of trees and flowers, though ftrung together in tolerable num-bers, contain no more poetry than a nurseryman or a florift's catalogue. In Statius, in Taffo and Spenfer's admired forefts (Gier. Liber. C. 3. St. 75, 76, and F. Queen, B. 1. C. 1. St. 8, 9.) the poetry confifts entirely in the happiness of the epithets. In Camoëns, all the three requifites are admirably attained, and blended together."
The laurel joins the bowers for ever green,
The myrtle bowers belov'd of beauty's queen.
To Jove the oak his wide spread branches rears;
And high to heaven the fragrant cedar bears:
Where through the glades appear the cavern'd rocks,
The lofty pine-tree waves her fable locks;
Sacred to Cybele the whispering pine
Loves the wild grottoes where the white cliffs fhine;
Here towers the cyprefs, preacher to the wife,
Lefs'ning from earth her fpiral honours rife,
Till, as a fpear-point rear'd, the topmost spray
Points to the Eden of eternal day.
Here round her foftering elm the fmiling vine
In fond embraces gives her arms to twine,
The numerous clusters pendant from the boughs,
The green here gliftens, here the purple glows;
For here the genial feafons of the year
Danc'd hand in hand, no place for winter here;
His grifly vifage from the fhore expell'd,
United fway the fmiling feafons held.
Around the fwelling fruits of deepening red,
Their fnowy hues the fragrant bloffoms spread;
Between the bursting buds of lucid green
The apple's ripe vermillion bluth is feen;
For here each gift Pomona's hand bestows
In cultur'd garden, free, uncultur'd flows,
The flavour fweeter, and the hue more fair,
Than e'er was fofter'd by the hand of care.
The cherry here in fhining crimfon glows;
And ftain'd with lover's blood 1, in pendent rows,
The bending boughs the mulberries o'erload;
The bending boughs carefs'd by Zephyr nod.
The generous peach, that strengthens in exile
Far from his native earth, the Persian soil,
The velvet peach of fofteft gloffy blue
Hangs by the pomegranate of orange hue,
Whose open heart a brighter red difplays
Than that which sparkles in the ruby's blaze.
Here, trembling with their weight, the branches bear,
Delicious as profufe, the tapering pear.
For thee, fair fruit, the fongfters of the grove
With hungry bills from bower to arbour rove.
Ah, if ambitious thou wilt own the care
To grace the feaft of heroes and the fair,
I' And fain'd with lover's blood.-Pyramus and Thibe:
Arborei fætus afpergine cædis in atram
Vertuntur faciem : madefactaque fanguine radix
Puniceo tingit pendentia mora colore..
At tu quo ramis arbor miferabile corpus
Nunc tegis unius, mox es tectura duorum ;
Signa tene cædis: pullofque et luctibus aptos
Semper habe fœtus gemini monumenta cruoris. OVID, MET.
Soft let the leaves with grateful umbrage hide
The green-ting'd orange of thy mellow fide.
A thousand flowers of gold, of white and red
Far o er the fhadowy vale their carpets spread,
Of fairer tapestry, and of richer bloom,
Than ever glow'd in Perfia's boafted loom :
As glittering rainbows o'er the verdure thrown,
Oer every woodland walk the embroidery fhone.
Here o'er the watery mirror's lucid bed
Narciffus, felf enamour'd, hangs the head;
And here, bedew d with love's celestial tears,
The woe-markt flower of flain Adonis † rears
Its purple head, prophetic of the reign,
When loft Adonis fhall revive again.
At frife appear the lawns and purpled skies,
Which from each other ftole the beauteous ‡ dyes:
The lawn in all Aurora's luftre glows,
Aurora fteals the blushes of the rofe,
The rofe difplays the blushes that adorn
The fpotlefs virgin on the nuptial morn.
Zephyr and Flora emulous conspire
To breathe their graces o'er the field's attire;
The one gives healthful freshness, one the hue,
Fairer than e'er creative pencil drew.
Pale as the love-fick hopeless maid they dye
The modeft violet; from the curious eye
The fhadowy vale-Literal from the original,-which Fanfhaw however has tranflated, "the gloomy valley," and thus has given us a funereal, where the author intended a feftive landscape. It must be confefled however, that the defcription of the island of Venus, is infinitely the best part of all Fanfhaw's translation. And indeed the dulleft profe tranflation might obscure, but could not poffibly throw a total eclipse over so admirable an original.'
The woe-markt flower of flain Adonis-quater'd by the tears of love.-The Anemone. "This, fays Caftera, is applicable to the celeftial Venus, for according to mythology, her amour with Adonis had nothing in it impure, but was only the love which nature bears to the fun." The fables of antiquity have generally a threefold interpretation, an hiftorical allufion, a phyfical and metaphyfical allegory. In the latter view, the fable of Adonis is only applicable to the celeftial Venus. A divine youth is outrageously flain, but fhall revive again at the reftoration of the golden age. Several nations, it is well known, under different names, celebrated the myfteries, or the death and refurrection of Adonis; among whom were the Bri tish Druids, as we are told by Dr. Stukely. In the fame manner Cupid, in the fable of Pfyche, is interpreted by mythologifts, to fignify the divine love weeping over the degeneracy of human nature.'
At ftrife appear the latons and purpled fkies, who from each other fiole the beauteous dyes. On this paffage Caftera has the following fenfible though turgid note: "This thought, fays he, is taken from the idyllium of Aufonius on the rofe:
Ambigeres raperetne rofis Aurora ruborem,
An daret, & flores tingere torta dies.
Camoens who had a genius rich of itself, ftill farther enriched it at the expence of the ancients. Behold what makes great authors! Thofe who pretend to give us nothing but the fruits of their own growth, foon fail, like the little rivulets which dry up in the fummer, very different from the floods, who receive in their courfe the tribute of an hundred and an hundred rivers, and which even in the dog days carry their waves triumphant to the ocean,
The modeft violet turns her gentle head,
And by the thorn weeps o'er her lowly bed.
Bending beneath the tears of pearly dawn
The fnow white lilly glitters o'er the lawn;
Low from the bough reclines the damask rofe,
And o'er the lilly's milk white bofom glows.
Fresh in the dew far o'er the painted dales,
Each fragrant herb her sweeteft fcent exhales.
The hyacinth bewrays the doleful di*,
And calls the tribute of Apollo's figh;
Still on its bloom the mournful flower retains
The lovely blue that dy'd the ftripling's veins.
Pomona fir'd with rival envy views
The glaring pride of Flora's darling hues;
Where Flora bids the purple iris fpread,
She hangs the wilding's bloffom white and red;
Where wild thyme purples, where the daify fnows
The carving flopes, the melon's pride fhe throws;
Where by the ftream the lilly of the vale,
Primrose, and cowflip meek, perfume the gale,
Beneath the lilly and the cowflip's bell
The scarlet strawberries luxurious swell.
Nor these alone the teeming Eden-yields,
Each harmless beftial crops the flowery fields;
And birds of every note and every wing
Their loves refponfive thro' the branches fing:
In fweet vibrations thrilling o'er the skies,
High pois'd in air the lark his warbling tries;
The fwan flow failing o'er the chrystal lake
Tunes his melodious note; from every brake
The glowing strain the nightingale returns,
And in the bowers of love the turtle mourns.
Pleas'd to behold his branching horn appear,
O'er the bright fountain bends the fearless deer;
The hare ftarts trembling from the bushy shade,
And swiftly circling, croffes oft the glade.
Where from the rocks the bubbling founts diftil,
The milk-white lambs come bleating down the hill;
The dappled heifer feeks the vales below,
And from the thicket springs the bounding doe.
To his lov'd neft, on fondly fluttering wings,
In chirping bill the little fongfter brings
The food untafted! tranfport thrills his breaft;
'Tis nature's touch, 'tis inftin&t's heav'n-like feast.
• The byacinth bewrays the doleful Ai.--Hyacinthus, a youth beloved of pello, by whom he was accidentally flain, and afterwards turned into a flower:
Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia: fi non,
Purpureos color huic, argenteus effet in illis.
Non fatis hoc Phabo eft: is enim fuit auctor honoris,
Ipfe fuos gemitus foliis infcribit; & Ai, Ai,
Flos habet infcriptum; funestaque littera ducta eft.”
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