LORD STRANGFORD!S TRANSLATION OF CAMOENS. 
‘The thought of you dear waters oft will rise; 
And memory oft will see you in her-dreams, 
When I on other airs shall breathe my. sighs, 
And drop far off my tears in other streams. 
* P % 
When I behold you Jady!. whem my eyes-. 
Dwell on the deep enjoyment of your sight, 
I give my spirit to that one-delight, - 
"And earth appears to me a Paradise. 
And when I hear you speak, -and see you 
o ‘smile, 
Fuil, satisfied, absorbed, my centered mind 
Deems all the world's vain hopes and joys 
the while 
‘As empty-as the unsubstantitll wind : 
Lad T feel your charms, yet dare not raise 
‘To dat high theme,the unequal song of praise. 
A power for that to language was not given, 
‘Nor marvel'I, when I these beauties view, 
Lady, that he whose power created you, 
Could form the stars, and yonder glorious 
heayen. 
_ We may perhaps have trespassed 
upon ‘the strict purport of a review in 
intruding these translations; but it was 
our wish to exemplify the real charac- 
teristic of a poet whose merits are, of all 
others, the most unduly and dispropor- 
‘tionately rated. The English Lusiad 
was certainly the most unfaithful trans- 
lation in the world, till the present vo- 
lumé appeared. Mr. D?Israeli may 
chronicle it as one of the curiosities of 
literature, that two Englishmen, of con- 
siderable genius, should have employed 
themselves at different times in interpo- 
lating a Portugueze poet. Passages of 
ten; twenty, thirty lines are continually 
‘inserted by Mickle, and the loose tex- 
ture of-the original is comprest, and 
‘thereby strengthened to make room for 
these improvements: in one place he 
-has introduced above three hundred 
lines, to the material advantage of the 
story. The fact is, that Mickle trans- 
lated the Lusiad as a speculation, think- 
ing that the subject would excite a. na- 
tional interest, and procure him patro- 
nage. When he came to. examine the 
_poem, he found it uninteresting, tedions, 
feeble, and, im fact, worthless to any 
-but a Portugueze, for we shall see. that 
-its merits-in point of language, which 
are very frail, are not to be appreciated 
by a foreigner. That.such was his own 
“conviction ‘is evident, by the, liberties 
which he has taken, and we entertain no 
-déubt Whatevér, that this opinion he ex- 
preset to ‘his confidential friends, as 
‘may possibly appear by ‘his letters, if 
ary such be in existence. Still the sub- 
+jeciawas popular, and the poem had ob- 
875 
tained’ some celebrity ; omne* ignotum pro 
magnificd. Mickle profited by this; “he 
was a.man of very considerable genius, 
and his ‘particular excellence Jay in de- 
scription, of which the Lusiad was bar- 
ren and bald. He therefore added, al- 
tered, and embellished without scruple, 
and without scr'uple praised his own in- 
terpolations with the freedom of a trans- 
lator. The English Lusiad is, there- 
fore, a refaccimiento in another language 
rather than a translation. It is still 
heavy, from the inherent and unconquer- 
able stupidity of the story; and offen- 
sive, by its monstrous and gross machi- 
nery: but Mickle has mingled so much 
ardent spirit with the meagre beverage, 
that it will keep; and the industry with 
which he has prefaced and elucidated it, 
cannot be too much praised. : 
It is not so easy to understand why 
Lord Strangford should chuse to sail 
under convoy of Camoens. Poor Mickle 
was of a calculating nation; and he 
knew also, that if original merit was 
powerful enough to attract attention, it 
infallibly excited envy also: the humbier 
claim was, therefore, to him the more 
profitable. But the rank of the present 
writer would have secured him some 
notice. and some approbation. Absit 
invidia dicto, his talents entitle him to 
both. 
We now return to the preface, which 
strictly regards Camoens. 
«© Our author, like..many others, has 
suffered. much from the cruel kindness of 
editors and commentators. After the first 
publication of his «« Rimas,” there appeared 
anumiber of spurious compositions, which, 
for some time, were attributed to him. 
Amongst these was a-poem to which notice 
js due, not on accountof its own merit, but 
from regard te the reputation of Camoens. 
It is called ‘ Phe Creation: and Composition 
of Man, and is a strange medley of anatomy, 
metaphysics, and school divinity. . In sub 
ject, and occasionally in execution, it strik- 
‘ingly resembles the purple Island of Phineas 
Fletcher; and, like it, is a cirious example 
‘of tortired ingenuity: “Onc ‘instance shalj 
‘suffice. “Man is typified undtr the symbol 
6fatower. The mouth isthe gateway, and 
the -teeth are deseribed: as’ two “nd thirty 
millers, clothed in ayhite, and- placed: as 
‘guards on either side of the poreh, His me- 
taphor is more, satirically just, when. he re- 
presents the tongue asa female, old and ex- 
pericnced, whose office was to regulate and 
‘assist ‘the efforts of the. thirty-two grinders 
aforesaid, all young men’ of ‘indispensable 
utility and extraordinary powers } 
_ es eae See 
