Beneath huge Etna vanquish'd Typhon lies, And vomits fmoke and fire against the darken'd skies. The warrior horfe, his ample cheft he rears, Then follows a droll defcription of one of the lords of the bedchamber: Triton, who boafts his high Neptunian race, Sprung from the God by Salace's embrace, Or through the yielding waves, his herald, bounds: But Two Gods contending-According to fable, Neptune and Minerva difputed the honour of giving a name to the city of Athens. They agreed to determine the contest by a display of their wisdom and power, in conferring the most beneficial gift on mankind. Neptune ftruck the earth with his trident and produced the horse, whose bounding motions are emblematical of the agitation of the fea. Minerva commanded the olive tree, the symbol of peace and of riches, to fpring forth. The victory was adjudged to the goddefs, from whom the city was named Athens. As the Egyptians and Mexicans wrote their history in hieroglyphics, the taste of the ancient Grecians cloathed almost every occurrence in mythological allegory. The founders of Athens, it is moft probable, difputed whether their new city fhould be named from the fertility of the foil or from the marine fituation of Attica. The former opinion prevailed, and the town received its name in honour of the goddess of the olive tree.' ↑ While Pallas bere appears to wave ber band—As Neptune struck the earth with his trident, Minerva, fays the fable, ftruck the earth with her lance. That the waved her hand while the olive toughs fpread, is a fine poetical attitude, and varies the picture from that of Neptune, which follows." A fell of purple on his bead be bore—In the Portuguese, Na cabeça por garra tinha pafla Huma mui grande cafca de lagofta. Thus rendered by Fanshaw, He had (for a Montera) on his crown The thell of a red lobfter overgrown. The description of Triton, who, as Fanshaw says, Was a great nafty clown is in the ftyle of the claffics. His parentage is differently related. Hefiod makes But all was cover'd with the flimy brood, The fnaily offspring of the unctuous flood.' This book affords us a pleafing and gallant account of a piece of chivalry between twelve Portuguese and twelve Englifh knights, for the honour of as many English ladies. The apparatus is nobly exhibited, and the intereft of fuch an affair ftrongly fuftained. The defcription of a dreadful storm, à business that had been fettled in the palace of Neptune, fucceeds. It is, indeed, horribly fublime. The following lines are a part of it: The fhriek fhrill rolling on the tempeft's wings: him the fon of Neptune and Amphitrité. By Triton, in the phyfical fenfe of the fable, is meant the noife, and by Salacé, the mother by fome afcribed to him, the falt of the ocean. The origin of the fable of Triton, it is probable, was founded on the appearance of a fea animal, which, according to fome ancient and modern naturalifts, in the upward parts refembles the human figure. Paufanias relates a wonderful ftory of a monftroufly large one, which often came afhore on the meadows of Boeotia. Over his head was a kind of finny cartilage, which, at a distance, appeared like hair, the body, covered with brown feales; the nofe and ears like the human, the mouth of a dreadful width, jagged with the teeth of a panther; the eyes of a greenish hue; the hands divided into fingers, the nails of which were crooked, and of a fhelly fubftance. This monfter, whofe extremities ended in a tail like a dolphin's, devoured both men and beasts as they chanced in his way. The citizens of Tanagra, at laft, contrived his deftruction. They fet a large veifel full of wine on the fea thore. Triton got drunk with it, and fell into a profound fcep, in which condition the Tanagrians beheaded him, and afterwards, with great propriety, hung up his body in the temple of Bacchus; where, fays Paufanias, it consinued a long time,' B 4 High High o'er the deluged hills. Along the fhore And rowls his eyes to heaven, and spreads his hands, This noble prayer was heard, and the filver star of Love' appeared in the ftorm and fhewed them the coaft of India. The feventh book celebrates the arrival of Gama in India, and here Camoëns appears to have followed Virgil more clofely than in any other part of his work. In the eighth book he pursues his original purpose of interweaving the hiftory of Portugal in his poem; and for this end the paintings on the naval enfigns are fubftituted in imitation of the hiftoric shields of Achilles and Eneas, whilft one of the heroes of the expedition explains them to the Indian king. In this book, though in general lefs interefting than the reft, we meet with many beautiful defcriptions from the original, and many ftrokes of genius from the hand of the Tranflator. Nothing can be more ele gant gant than the following fimile reprefenting the probable growth Such fhall your power before them fink decay'd, In the ninth book we are prefented with a most interesting engagement between the Indian fleet and the Europeans, during which Gama was treacheroufly detained a prifoner at the Indian court. The true hero, is, on this awful occafion, depictured in his conduct, and the ftupendous effect of fire arms on a people unaccustomed to them is again powerfully described. • When foftly usher'd by the milky darn The fun firft rifes. I deceive myself greatly, fays Caftera, if this fimile is not the moft noble and the most natural that can be found in any poem. It has been imitated by the Spanish comedian, the illuftrious Lopez de Vega, in his comedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, Act I. Scene I. Como mirar puede fer El fol al amanecer, I quando fe enciende, no." Caftera adds a very loofe tranflation of thefe Spanish lines in French verfe. The literal English is, As the fun may be beheld at its rifing, but when illuftriously kindled, cannot. Naked however as this is, the imitation of Camoëns is evident. As Caftera is fo very bold in his encomium of this fine fimile of the fun, it is but juftice to add his tranflation of it, together with the original Portuguese, and the tranflation of Fanshaw. Thus the French translator: Les yeux peuvent foûtenir la clarté du foliel naissant, mais lorsqu'il s'eft avancé dans fa carriere lumineuse, & que ses rayons répandent les ardeurs du midi, on tacheroit en vain de l'envisager; un prompt aveuglement feroit le prix de cette audace. And thus humbled by Fanfhaw; Now whilft this people's ftrength is not yet knit, He ftrikes them blind with his meridian rays; Aftor After this the Poet, as if he wifhed at once to give fome reJaxation to his hero, his readers, and himself, fets fail for the luxurious regions of love. Whether he has not here, in fome fmall degree, deviated from the LAWS of the Epic, we shall not ftop to inquire. It is a fufficient fatisfaction to us, that, if he goes out of his way, he goes-to give us pleasure: 'Give way, ye lofty billows, low subside, The grieving look, the figh, the favouring smile, She taught the nymphs-in willing breafts that heaved Sought cape or ifle from whence their boats might bring Soon as the floating verdure caught their † fight, So White as her fans-A diftant fleet compared to fwans on a lake is certainly an happy thought. The allufion to the pomp of Venus, whofe agency is immediately concerned, gives it befides a peculiar propriety. This fimilie however is not in the original. It is adopted from an uncommon liberty taken by Fanshaw ; The pregnant fayles on Neptune's furface creep, Like her own Savans, in gate, out-cheft, and fether. + Soon as the floating verdure caught their fight- -As the departure of Gama from India was abrupt (fee his life) he put into one of the beautiful iflands of An chediva |