17975 
On trembling wings far round and round they, 
And fill, with difmal clang, their native fky. 
Thefe lines are very beautiful, but not 
a fingle image contained in them is to be 
found in the Portuguefe ; there is fcarcely 
a paffage in the tranflation from which 
fimilar inftances might not be produced. 
«He who can conftrue (fays Mr. 
Mickle) may perform all that is claimed 
by the literal tranflator. He who ar- 
tempts the manner of tranflation pre- 
fcribed by Horace, ventures upon a taik 
of genius; yet, however daring the un- 
dertaking, and however he may have 
failed in it, the tranflator acknowledges 
that, in this fpirit, he endeavoured to 
give the Lufiad in Englifh. Even far- 
ther liberties, im-one or two inftances, 
feemed to him advantageous; but a 
minutenefs in the mention of thefe will 
not, in thefe pages, appear with a good 
grace. He fhall oe add, in this new 
edition, that fome of the moft eminent of 
the Portuguefe literati, both in: Exgland 
and on fhe continent, have approved\of 
thele freedoms, and the original i Is in the 
hands of the world.’? In the note to 
this paffage, he points out two of thefe 
farther liberties; one of them trifling, 
the other of importance ; ana adds, ¢¢ it 
was not to gratify the dull few whofe 
greateft pleafure in reading a tranflation 
is to fee what the author exaétly fays, 
it was to give a poem that might live in the 
Engl fo language, which was the ambition 
of the tranflator.”’ b 
And Mr. Mickle certainly hes pro- 
duced a poem that will live in the Eng- 
lith language, and that weil deferves to 
live. he Orlando Innamorato is bet- 
ter known as the poem of the reverfifer 
than of the author, but Mr. Mickle has 
done more for Camoens than Berni did 
for Boardo. They -who have read Sir 
Martyn, know what powers of defctip- 
tion he ‘polleffed ; I inftance this poem, 
for Almada ftiil is unworthy of his 
genius; thofe powers he has unfparingly 
employed to ornament the Lufiad. A 
fingle ftanza * of Camoens is dilated in 
the tranflation into twenty lines ; and to 
this dilation it is indebted for all its 
merit. The note fays, Camoens, in 
this paflage, has imitated Homer, in the 
manner of Virgil: by diverfifying the 
{cene, he has made the defeription his 
own.’ Thus has he contrived to. praife 



* Canto I, ft. 58, of the fecond edition of 
the tranflation, p 22. “ Now thooting oer the 
flood his fervid blaze,” 
Critique on Mickle’s Lufiad. 
.emotions: of genuine nature;’’ 
oie) 
himfelf, for no imitation can be traced 
in the original, yet he has, with implied 
cenlure, pointed out the interpolations of 
Cafiera, and where Fanfhaw has altered a 
fact, though only to make it hiftorically 
correct, he calls it ‘an unwatrantabie 
liberty.” 
However I may detraét from Mr. 
Mickle’s merits as a faithful tranflator, 
I would give him all due praiie as 3 
poet; and acomplete ftarement of whar 
belongs to him, ie to Camoens, would: 
increate his reputation initead of impair- 
ing it. JI never read a chyme poem of 
any confiderable ee n, that wearied me 
fo little as the Englith Lufiad; the ver- 
fification has the eafe of Dryden without 
his negligence, and the harmony of Pope 
without his cloying {weetnels. 
The tranflator’s admiration of his 
author, has fometimes made him lavith 
commendations upon paflages wholly wa- 
ae of them. In the fecond beok, 
Moorith pilot is fteering the Portuguefe 
ee i a ridge of rocks, from which 
they are faved by the fea nymphs. awe, 
Mr. Mickle-fays, isin the fpirit of 
Homer; but, whatever the allegory may 
be, the agency is difguftingly violent 5 
the nymphs are reprefented as toiling: 
and ftrainiag and panting to puth of the 
veffels, and Venus, who leads them on, 
puts her breaft againft the prow of Gama’s 
ihip, and thus thrufts it off. In the 
{peech of Inez de Caftro, he fays, “ the 
beautiful viétim exprefies the ftrong 
now it is 
abfurd to: reprefent a women agitated 
with fuch agonizing werror as Inez, 
making a long {peech: the poet, as well 
as the: painter, fhould know where to 
draw the veil. Itis the ftory only that 
has made this part of Camoens popular ; 
when the reader pictures to himfelf the 
fituation of [nez, he does not attend to 
the nonfenfe fhe talks about Romulus 
and Remus, the burning plains of Lybia, 
and the fnow-clad rock s of Scythia’s 
frozen fhore. 
The “* prince of the poets of Spain’ 
cannot rank highly as an, epic writer 5 
but the faul's of Camoens will be excufed 
when we remember that bis poems were 
written in difficulties, and dangers, and 
affiiction, like our own Spencer. 
ec Poorly, poor man! he lived; poorly, poor 
man! he died ;"’ 
and, in the melancholy biography of men 
of eS there is no life more melan- 
choly than that of Camoen’s. Poor and 
perfecuted in Portugal, after wafting his 
youth, and lofing ene eye, in the fervice 
of 
