But the miscellaneous poems of Camoens, are calculated to involve the literary historian in another kind of embarrassment. They are, if not extremely numerous, at least sufficiently various; and among the number are many so poetically conceived, and admirably executed, that to give merely to one of each class of these minor poems that kind of detailed consideration which it has been thought necessary to bestow on the Lusiad, would be to incur the risk of converting the history of Portuguese poetry into a compendium of the history of the poetic works of Camoens. In every species of poetic composition then practised in Portugal, Camoens has left specimens of no common merit; and in some of those species his example has formed and fixed the favourite style for his native country. Indeed a careful perusal of the various productions of the author of the Lusiad, is alone sufficient to afford a summary notion of the whole range of Portuguese poetry in the sixteenth century. This will account for the preponderating authority still conceded to the works of this poet in the polite literature of his country. To that authority Portuguese critics and writers are always disposed to defer in discussing the merits of any poem; and when they wish to select a model in any particular kind of poetic composition, they invariably turn first to the works of Camoens. The predilection of the Portuguese for the greatest of their poets, has rendered them unjust towards the merits of others who have not chosen to compose in his manner. But in the poetry of Camoens the national style is combined with correctness and elegance, precisely in the manner which suited the taste of his country: and Portuguese taste has never risen above the degree of cultivation to which Camoens attained. In sonnets the fancy of Camoens was particularly prolific. Like Tasso, he seems throughout the whole of his life to have made it a rule to compose sonnets as long as he could compose verse. The number of his sonnets which have been preserved is three hundred and one. Some appear to be occasional sonnets; and of these several are written in fictitious names. It is known that, in India, Camoens was frequently applied to for poetic aid in affairs of the heart; for according to the spirit of the age a lover could not more elegantly recommend himself to the good graces of a fair lady than by the composition of a tender sonnet; and a poet, like Camoens, who was himself so often poetically occupied with his amatory feelings, would find but little difficulty in celebrating another lady besides his own mistress. Most of his sonnets have love for their theme, and they are of very unequal merit: some are full of Petrarchic tenderness and grace, and moulded with classic correctness; others are impetuous and romantic, or disfigured by false learning, or full of tedious pictures of the conflicts of passion with reason. Upon the whole, however, no Portuguese poet has so correctly seized the character of the sonnet as Camoens. Without apparent effort, merely by the ingenious contrast of the first eight with the six last lines, he knew how to make these little effusions convey a poetic unity of ideas and impressions, after the model of the best Italian sonnets, in so natural a manner, that the first lines or quar tets of the sonnet excite a soft expectation, which is harmoniously fulfilled by the tercets or six last lines.* In this way he has occasionally imparted a romantically beautiful effect to well known stories in the sonnet form, by the introduction of a single tender idea at the close.† Among these sonnets there are likewise some of a moral and religious character. *For instance the following, which certainly takes a very bold flight, in order to place in a new point of view the marvellous beauty of the lady to whom it is addressed :— Quando da bella vista, e doce riso, Que me faz ver na terra o Paraiso. Tanto do bem humano estou diviso, Em louvar-vos, Senhora, nao me fundo; Pois de tanta estranheza sois ao Mundo, Que quem voz fez, fizesse Ceo, e Estrellas. Such, for example, is the romantic reminiscence of the fourteen years service of the patriarch Jacob. This sonnet is particularly esteemed, and has been glossed by other poets. Sete annos de Pastor Jacob servia Labao, pai de Raquel, Serrana bella, Os dias na esperança de hum só dia In the series of the minor poems of Camoens, the sonnets are succeeded by seventeen Canções (songs) written on the model of Petrarch's canzoni. These compositions more particularly prove how deeply Camoens was penetrated with the spirit of the Petrarchic poetry. They also display the utmost elegance of language, combined with the soft harmony of the Italian verse.* In these canções, as well as in the other poems of Camoens, the painting of natural scenery, wherever the lyric picture embraces it, presents a character of Vende o triste Pastor que com enganos, Assi lhe era negada a sua Pastora, Como se a nao tivera merecida ; Começou a servir outros sete annos, Dizendo: Mais servíra, senaõ fora Pera tao longo amor taõ curta a vida. * Can any thing more strongly resemble Petrarch, both in spirit and style than the following stanza? The whole cancao is, however, imitated from Bembo. Hum nao sei que suave respirando Como eu em meu desejo, se encendiam. Que andando, co'os ditosos pès tocava: As ramas se baixavam, Ou de inveja das hervas que pizavam, De espiritos continuos influia. lively perception, which never could be imitated in the closet by any laboured exercise of the imagination.* The canções are followed by twelve compositions styled odes. In their essential characteristics, these pieces are but little distinguished from the canções, though the The following is a specimen of a lyric description of morning in a lover's taste: Já a roxa manhãa clara As portas do Oriente vinha abrindo, Dos montes descobrindo A negra escuridaõ da luz avara. O Sol, que nunca pára, Da sua alegre vista saudoso, Traz ella presuroso Nos cavallos cansados do trabalho, Que respiram nas hervas fresco orvalho, Se estende claro, alegre, e luminoso. Os passaros voando, De raminho em raminho vaõ saltando; E com suave, e doce melodia O claro dia estaõ manifestando. A manhãa bella, amena, Seu rosto descobrindo, a espessura Se cobre de verdura Clara, suave, angelica, serena. Oh deleitosa pena! Oh effeito de amor alto, e potente! Pois permitte, e consente, Que e you donde quer que eu ande, ou donde esteja, O seraphico gesto sempre veja, Por quem de viver triste sou contentes, Mas tu, Aurora pura, De tanto bem dá graças à ventura, Pois as foi pôr em ti taô excellentes, |