a path so varied, long and ard’uous way!
Lend me your favour while my way shall wind
o’er the deep Ocean ’mid the Storm’s affray;
for sore I fear me an ye leave the helm
the waves my fragile barque shall overwhelm.
79
See how my Lay so long to sing hath striven
your Tagus and the Lusians dear to you,
how oft this exile Fate from home hath driven,
new labours ever suff’ering, losses new:
Now tempting Ocean, then all helpless driven
the dread Mavortian risks and wrongs to rue;
self-doomed as Canacé to death abhor’d,
in this hand aye the Pen, in that the Sword:
80
Now sunk by hateful scornèd Penury
to chew the bitter bit of beggar-bread:
Then mockt by Hope already brought so nigh
to be anew and more than e’er misled:
Then with bare life in hand condemned to fly
where life depended from so fine a thread;
only a greater miracle could save,
than what to Judah’s King161 new life-lease gave.
81
And still, my Nymphs! ’twas not enough of pain
such sorrow-clouds around my life should close;
but they, for whom I sang the patriot-strain,
with sad return must pay my toils, my throes:
In place of Peace and Rest I hoped to gain,
in lieu of Bay-wreaths bound around my brows,
troubles by men unseen they must invent,
when ills of every kind my soul torment.
82
Behold, ye Nymphs! what high-bred Lords and wise
breedeth your Tagus, what a gen’erous race,
who in such fashion with such favours prize
the Bard whose boon hath lent their lordships grace!
For coming writers what examples rise
to raise Man’s genius to its Pride of Place,
to shrine memorious in the Poet’s story
Deeds that deserve to gain eternal glory!
83
But since such hosts of ills around me lie,
let not my Fancy of your favour fail
here chiefest wanted as the goal draws nigh,
that mighty feats wax mightier by my tale:
Aid me you only, long indeed sware I
no grace to grant where good doth not prevail,
and none to flatter whatso their degrees,
on pain of losing all my pow’er to please.
84
Think not, ah no, my Nymphs! I would enfame
the man who dares his country and his King
forget for private int’erest’s pit’iful claim,
by law of God and Man a felon thing.
Nor poor ambition, whose degraded aim
is to win office, shall my Song e’er sing,
whose only object in th’ ignoble prize
is larger range of Vice and Infamies.
85
None, who misusing pow’ers on him confer’d,
makes them the panders of his ugly greed;
none, who to court and cringe before the herd
in change of figure Proteus shall exceed.
From me, Camenae, fear no fav’ouring word
for him who comes, in grave and honest weed,
in new-born rank his King contenting more,
to fleece and flay the miserable poor.
86
Nor him who, holding ’tis but just and right,
his King’s severest orders to fulfil,
holds it not Justice fitly to requite
the servile brows that weary sweat distil:
Nor him whose bosom, lacking pract’ical light,
seeketh for causes, and by prudent skill
taxeth with niggard heart and hand unfair,
the toils of aliens which he doth not share.
87
Only of men I’ll sing the glorious name
who riskèd darling life for God, for King;
when losing life they lengthened life by fame,
and well deserved the best that Bard can sing.
Apollo and the Nine, who with me came,
redoubled fury to my song shall bring
when rest and breathing from my travail tane
I to my toil refresht shall come again.
Canto VIII
The Governor of Calecut seeth various pictures upon the banners of the Armada; and heareth the account of them given by Paul da Gama: Origin of the word “Lusitania”: Glorious feats of the Portugueze Kings (and of their Vassals) till the reign of King D. Afonso V: The Samori ordereth the Haruspices to consult futurity respecting the Armada: They report to him evil of the Navigators: They attempt to destroy Da Gama who satisfieth the King in a notable speech.
Seen are the Founders of the Lusian race, (1–42)
And Braves whose valiant actions brightest shine,
On Mem’ory’s page deserving highest place,
And tuneful hymn, and Poet’s numbered line:
What way of Calecut the Regents base (43–end)
Consult the famous Augurs who design,
Bought with all-puissant bribes, to show their skill,
And by their cunning the Discov’erers kill.
1
Tarried the Cat’ual, standing mute before
the first of painted forms that stood in sight;
who for Device in hand a leaf-branch bore,
with meteor-beard, long-flowing, flossy-white.
“Whose counterfeit presentment this; wherefore
the strange device he holdeth in his right?”
When Paul, with sober accents answering said—
while the wise Moor for both interpretèd:—
2
“All of these figures which to thee are shown
so bold in bearing, dreadful to behold,
and bolder, dreader far, the men were known
in mouth of Fame, for words and works of old:
Ancients yet moderns are, still brighter grown
with names in Genius’ highest rank enrol’d:
This first in sight is Lusus, from whose fame
our ‘Lusitania’ gained her royal name.
3
“He was the Theban’s son or comrade tried,
the God who divers regions overran;
it seems he came to hold our Spanish nide,
pursuing conquests which his youth began:
Douro’s and Guadiána’s plains of pride,
of yore ‘Elysian Fields,’ his fancy wan
so much, he there would give his weary bones
the Tomb eterne, the term our country owns.
4
“The branch-Device, thou see’st him bear in hand,
is the green Thyrsus Bacchus wont to wield,
which to our cent’ury doth belief command
he was a comrade or belovèd child.
See’st thou yon other treading Tagus-land,
the Plow’er who long hath plow’d the wild Sea-field,
where the perpetual walls he reared on high,
and fane of Pallas for all memory?
5
“Ulysses ’tis who builds that sacred fane
to her, whose favour tongue facund supplies;
if there he fired tall Troy on Asian plain
here made he mighty Lisbon’s walls arise.”
“Whom have we here, who cumbers with the
