93
And bridle Av’arice-sin with iron bit,
rein that Ambition which o’er-reigns your race
in thousand fashions, and the base conceit
of vicious Tyr’anny breeding vile disgrace:
Such tinkling honours, gold so counterfeit,
to true and honest worth ne’er raised the base:
Better to merit and the meed to miss,
than, lacking merit, every meed possess.
94
Or give us Peace, and Laws impartial deal,
that baulk the rich from plund’ering poorer men;
or cloak your forms in coats of flashing steel,
and crush the law of hostile Saracen:
Thus shall your valour raise the Commonweal
all gaining ampler, none a smaller gain;
deservèd riches shall to you be rife
with Honours, alt-relief of human life.
95
Thus shall ye serve the King ye love so dear
now with your proffer’d counsels sagely bold
then by the Sword, that shall your names uprear
to dizzy heights where trod your sires of old:
To ’tempt impossibilities forbear;
who wills aye finds a way; and thus enrol’d,
your names shall rival this heroick band,
and gain fair greeting in Dame Venus’ land.
Canto X
Tethys inviteth the Navigators: The Siren’s prophetick Song, wherein she toucheth upon the principal achievements and conquests of the Portugueze Viceroys, the Governors, and the Captains in India until the days of D. Joam de Castro: Tethys with Da Gama ascendeth a Mount, whence she showeth him the Spheres, terrestrial and celestial: Description of the Globe, especially of Asia and Africa: The Navigators quit the Island; and, pursuing their Voyage, happily reach Lisbon.
At tables spread with life-restoring food, (1–74)
’Companied by their Nymphs, the Lusians bold
Hear of their Future singular and good,
And daring deeds in number’d verses told:
Tethys displays them all that Ocean-flood (75–143)
Girdeth, and circleth Heaven’s luminous fold,
Dwarfed to a scanty volume; when the Fleet (144–end)
Homewards her well-loved Tagus flies to greet.
1
Now had the glowing Amourist, who won
fair faithless Larissaea’s love, incline’d
his steeds where lies, girt by the great Lagoon191
Temistitam, the western world behind:
Favonius’ breath the brenning of the Sun
cooleth, and o’er the nat’ural tanks his wind
crisps the sea-mirror, and awakes the Lily
slumb’ering with Jasmin through the noontide stilly:
2
When the fair Nymphs, who each her lover led,
hand linkt in hand, conforming and content,
trooped where the radiant Pleasaunce reared its head
all gay with gold and metals lucident;
when bade the Queen that tables there be spread
with varied viands chosen, excellent
for loved and loving vigour to restore,
the pow’ers which Love from weary nature bore.
3
There on the radiant thrones, rich, crystalline,
sit the blithe couples, cavalier and dame;
while on the golden dais in state recline
the lovely Goddess, Gama loved by Fame:
Delicious dainties, delicate, divine,
that ántique Egypt’s lux’ury sink to shame,
heap the huge chargers of the tawny gold
from far Atlantis-treas’ury hither roll’d.
4
The wines of fragrant scent not sole excel
Falernus’ vintage, proud Italia’s boast,
but e’en th’ Ambrosia Jove esteems so well
and eke esteems his sempiternal Host;
in cups where steely file may not prevail,
they spume crisp foam that glads man’s innermost
bosom, and warms his heart with sudden glow;
and with ice-water temper’d, leap and flow.
5
Told were a thousand tales of joy and mirth;
sweet smiles met subtle sayings warm with wit
which to this course and that gave double worth,
and sharpened edge to blunted appetite:
Nor of the Harp harmonious was there dearth,
(which in profoundest Pit the naked Sprite
awhile can respite from eternal pain),
sweeten’d by Siren-voice of Angel-strain.
6
Thus sang that Nymph, the fairest of her kind—
her descant ech’oing down the halls sublime—
with consonance of instrument combine’d
and all conforming to one tone and time:
A sudden silence husheth every Wind,
and makes the Wavelet plash with softer chime,
while salvage animals in nat’ural lair
to slumber charmed, a dreamy music hear.
7
Her voice of silver raiseth to the skies
the coming race of Barons high renown’d,
whose prototypes were shown to Proteus’ eyes
within the hollow Sphere’s diaph’anous round;192
Jove’s goodly present and the choicest prize
giv’en him in vision. To the Realm profound
the tale prophetick told he, and the Maid
in Mem’ory’s depths the glorious hist’ory laid.
8
Subject of buskin ’tis, and not for sock,
what in that vasty Lake the Nymph made known,
things from Iópas hid and Demodoque;
Phoeacian this, and that of Carthage-town.
Thee, my Calliope! I now invoke
in this mine éxtreme labour, thou alone
canst for my writing to my sprite restore
the gust of writing, which I ’joy no more.
9
My years glide downwards, and my Summer’s pride
mergeth in Autumn, passing, ah! how soon;
Fortune my Genius chills, and loves to chide
my Poet-soul no more my boast and boon:
Hopes long deferrèd bear me to the tide
of black Oblivion, and eternal Swoon:
But deign to grant me thou, the Muses’ Queen,
to praise my People with my proper strain!
10
Sang the fair Goddess how the wide Seas o’er
from Tagus bank, whence Gama cut his path,
shall sail strong Navies, conq’uering ev’ry shore
where Indic Ocean sucks his mighty breath:
How all the Kings, who Géntoo gods adore,
and dare our yoke reject shall rue the wrath
of hard and hardy Arms, with steel and lowe,
till low to Gama or to Death they bow:193
11
Of one she chaunted that in Malabar194
held of the Priesthood highest dignity,
who, lest be loosen’d with the singular
Barons the knot of love and amity,
shall see his towns, his cities in the war
with fire and sword, and wrath and cruelty
undone, which potent Samorim shall wage:
Against the stranger such shall be his rage.
12
And eke she singeth how shall join the Fleet
in Belem moor’d, to ’bate this deadly bane,
when of his burden nought could Ocean weet,
our great Pacheco,195 ’Achilles Lusitan:
Lo! as he ent’ereth all his weight shall greet
the curvèd timber and the fervid Main,
as in the waters every keel that groaneth
sits deeper swimming
