do Tejo" was written at the period of embarkation, and a second elegy also bears internal evidence of having been composed about this time. In 1552 we find him again in Lisbon, where, it is said, he had to mourn over the death of Dona Catarina; but this is probably an error, originating with some biographer, who has confounded the poet's mistress with a relative of his, Dona Catarina de Almayda, frequently alluded to in his poems. In March, 1553, still eager for adventure, Camoens embarked in the Sâo Benito, the only one of four vessels, fitted out under the distinguished navigator Cabral, which escaped shipwreck. In one of his letters he tells us that, as he stepped on board the ship, he adopted the words of Scipio Africanus, Ingrata patria, non mea ossa possidebis. When off the Cape of Good Hope, the Sâo Benito experienced a violent storm, which perhaps suggested the vision of Adamastor, the supposed guardian of that terrible spot, in his great poem. Arriving at Goa in September, 1553, we find him, two months afterwards, engaged in an expedition against the king of Pimenta, in favour of the king of Cochin, who at that time was an ally of the Portuguese. Nearly all his companions perished, and he returned to Goa. He was next employed in an expedition against the Arabian corsairs of the Red Sea, who, in conjunction with the Venetians, still kept up a precarious traffic by the overland route with India, and were thus considered as rivals by the adventurers who had recently opened the route by the Cape of Good Hope. The expedition wintered in the island of Ormuz, and here he found time to exercise his poetical powers. Returning to Goa in 1555, he found a new governor in power, and satirized the abuses which surrounded this functionary in some verses entitled "Disparates na India" (Vagaries in India), which cost him a term of banishment in the island of Macao. These four years of exile form, perhaps, the most tranquil and productive epoch in the poet's life. Soon after his arrival, according to the most probable narration, he heard of the death of the lady to whom he had been so fondly attached, and perhaps it was to dissipate the grief thus occasioned that he undertook a voyage to the Moluccas. Returning to Macao, by the favour of a successor of the hostile governor at Goa, he obtained an office (administrator of the effects of deceased persons), which placed him above want during the remainder of his residence in the island. The grotto of Camoens, where the greater part of the "Lusiad" was composed, is still shown to visitors. In 1560 he was recalled to Goa, but suffered shipwreck on the coast of Cochin China, and barely escaped with his life by swimming, saving only his "Lusiad." Arrived at Goa, fresh troubles awaited him. He was thrown into prison on a charge of misconduct in his office, and, when this was disposed of, a claim for an alleged debt was set up, which detained him for some time longer in captivity. It was not till 1569 that Camoens again beheld the waters of the Tagus, nor was he even then permitted to touch the soil of his native land; for, owing to the great plague which then raged, all ingress was strictly forbidden. In 1570, however, he landed at Lisbon, and in 1572 was published his great work, "Os Lusiados" (The Portuguese), with a manly dedication to the young King Sebastian, who was t hen but ten years of age. The poem reached a second edition within the year—a success then almost without precedent—and Tasso, who was then writing his Jerusalem Delivered, addressed a sonnet to the author. But court favour in those days was reserved for other than poetical merits, and beyond a pension equal to about £5 per annum (which perhaps he was entitled to on other grounds), no mark of royal or national gratitude seems to have been bestowed on him. Camoens had brought home only his "Lusiad" from the land whence so many had returned laden with wealth, and the remaining years of his life were spent in the most abject poverty. A poor Japanese slave, who had come to Europe with him, supported his master by begging in the streets, and when this faithful dependent died, Camoens was carried to a public hospital. Here he lingered long enough to hear of the battle of Alcacer-Quivir in 1578 in which the king fell, and with him the Portuguese monarchy. With a better feeling than he had manifested in earlier days, he wrote in one of his latest letters—"I have so loved my country, that I rejoice not only to die on her soil, but to die with her." He died in the beginning of 1579, and was buried in the church of Santa Anna. No stone marked the spot till 1593, when a generous Portuguese erected a simple tablet, recording that he, "the prince of poets, lived poor and miserable, and died so." The church itself was destroyed by the earthquake of 1755.
Fairly to appreciate the merits of the "Lusiad," we must remember that Camoens was not only the first in modern times to venture on an epic poem, and to execute it in the course of so chequered a life, but that he had the courage, despite the classical affectation then in vogue, to choose as his theme the history of his own country. The first lines of the poem will sufficiently indicate its scope, and the models which he proposed to follow:—
" Arms and the heroes, who from Lisbon's shore,
Through seas where sail was never spread before;
Beyond where Ceylon lifts her spicy breast,
And waves her woods above the watery waste," &c.
It is an error to suppose that Camoens only intended to commemorate the achievements of the Portuguese navigators, with which the minds of his contemporaries were familiar. He aimed also to interweave with their lives the whole history of Portugal, by means of artifices which he could not fail to borrow from the classic poets, and which he has employed with perhaps not inferior skill. The groundwork of the poem is the voyage of Vasco de Gama; but from the first there is a confusion between the old pagan deities, under whose auspices the scene opens, and the newer faith of which the heroes of the poem were zealous propagators. If, however, the poem loses somewhat in artistic completeness by this intermingling of conflicting theologies, it may be said, on the other hand, that the achievements of Portuguese adventure could not have been rendered more romantic by being clothed in the drapery of a bygone age. The poem consists only of some 1100 rhymed octave stanzas in the metre of Ariosto. Vasco de Gama is introduced when cruizing near the island of Mozambique, and arrives in safety at Melinda. The king receives him hospitably, and in answer to his inquiries, Gama proceeds to describe Europe, and his own country in particular, and next relates the history of Portugal from the earliest times down to his own day. The most remarkable episode—which is told with almost rigid historical accuracy—is the well known story of Inez de Castro.
If it were needful to add to the eulogies which Tasso, Calderon, Voltaire, and Schlegel have passed on the "Lusiad," we might allude to the fact that it has been translated not only into almost every modern language, but into the Hebrew. There are three translations into English; that of Sir R. Fanshaw in 1655; that of Mickle (perhaps the best for the ordinary reader), first published in 1771; and that of Sir T. Mitchell in 1854. Mr. John Adamson, the biographer of Camoens, has also edited another version of part of the work; and Lord Strangford is the author of some elegant translations of his minor poems. A splendid edition of the original work was published in Paris in 1817. The other poems of Camoens consist of nearly 300 sonnets, of which only a few are noteworthy, as bearing the impress of the poet's chequered life; several canzoni, after the model of Petrarch; a few lyrical songs, sweet and impassioned; a poetical version of the 137th psalm; and a number of eclogues, of which all but eight are lost. It deserves to be noted, that Camoens enriched his native tongue by the addition of above 2000 new words. In person (we are told by Antoni) he was of middle stature, the face full, the brow lowering, the nose long and raised in the middle; the hair, in his youth, so fight as to be almost the colour of saffron. His life is perhaps more in harmony with his writings than that of most modern poets; and had not the political fortunes of Portugal, after his death, led to a disregard of her language and literature. we may safely say that the fame of Camoens would have been far more widely diffused.—F. M. W.
CAMPAGNOLA, Domenico, an Italian painter, surnamed Dalle Greche. He was the son of Giulio Campagnola a painter and engraver of some note. This artist flourished in the year 1543, and studied under Titian, with a success which is stated to have even excited the jealousy of his master. His best works in the Scuola del Santo, representing the "Evangelists," approximate very nearly to the grandeur of Titian, as Lanzi testifies. His drawings from the nude are described as daringly successful. As a landscape painter, of a Titianesque style, he also possessed great merit. He was a man of no limited means in art; for his repute as an engraver, on both metal and wood, is unquestionably good, though Ottley appears to bold that the wood works ascribed to him are mostly copies from his designs for the better material. Among his numerous etchings are representations of the "Adoration of the Magi;" "Dives and Lazarus;" "Christ and the Sick;" "The Holy Family;" "Venus;" and "Bacchanals."—W. T.
