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"Transfix't with three Iberian spears, the gay,
"The knightly lover, young Hilario lay:
"Though, like a rofe, cut off in opening bloom,
"The hero weeps not for his early doom;
"Yet trembling in his fwimming eye appears
"The pearly drop, while his pale cheek he rears;
"To call his loved Antonia's name he tries,
"The name half utter'd, down he finks, and m dies."

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Now through his fhatter'd ranks the monarch ftrode,
And now before his rally'd fquadrons rode :
Brave Nunio's danger from afar he fpies,
And instant to his aid impetuous flies.
So when returning from the plunder'd folds,
The lionefs her emptied den beholds,
Enraged she stands, and liftening to the gale,
She hears her whelps low howling in the vale;
The living sparkles flashing from her eyes,
To the Maffylian shepherd-tents fhe " flies;
She groans, fhe roars, and echoing far around
The feven twin-mountains tremble at the found:

So

m These lines marked in the text with turned commas, are not in the common editions of Camoëns. They confift of three ftanzas in the Portuguese, and are faid to have been left out by the author himself in his fecond edition. The translator, however, as they breathe the true spirit of Virgil, was willing to preferve them with this acknowledgment. In this he has followed the example of Castera.

n To the Maffylian shepherd tents.—Maffylia, a province in Numidia, greatly infefted with lions, particularly that part of it called Os fete montes irmaós, the

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So raged the king, and with a chofen train
He pours refiftlefs o'er the heaps of flain.
Oh bold companions of my toils, he cries,
Our dear-loved freedom on our lances lies ;
Behold your friend, your monarch, leads the way,
And dares the thickest of the iron fray;

Say, fhall the Lufian race forsake their king,
Where fpears infuriate on the bucklers ring!

He fpoke; then four times round his head he whirl'd His ponderous fpear, and midft the foremost hurl'd; Deep through the ranks the forceful weapon paft, And many a gasping warrior figh'd his laft.

With

• And many a gafping warrior figh'd his laft. This, which is almost literal

from

Muitos lançaraō o ultimo suspiro

and the preceding circumftance of Don John's brandishing his lance four times,

E fopefando a lança quatro vezes—

are truly poetical, and in the spirit of Homer. They are omitted, however, by Caftera, who substitutes the following in their place, “Il dit, et d'un bras, "&c. He faid, and with an arm whose blows are inevitable, he threw his

javelin against the fierce Maldonat. Death and the weapon went toge"ther. Maldonat fell, pierced with a large wound, and his horse tumbled "over him." Befides Maldonat, Caftera has, in this battle, introduced feveral other names which have no place in Camoëns. Carillo, Robledo, John of Lorca, Salazar of Seville were killed, he tells us: and, " Velafques "and Sanches, natives of Toledo, Galbes, furnamed the Soldier without "Fear, Montanches, Oropefa, and Mondonedo, all fix of proved valour, "fell by the hand of young Antony, qui porte dans le combat ou plus d'adresse "( ou plus de bonbeur qu'eux, who brought to the fight either more address or "better fortune than thefe." Not a word of this is in the Portuguese.

The

With noble shame inspired, and mounting rage,
His bands rush on, and foot to foot engage;
Thick bursting sparkles from the blows afpire;
Such flashes blaze, their swords seem dipt in P fire;
The belts of fteel and plates of brafs are riven,
And wound for wound, and death for death is given.

The first in honour of Saint Jago's band, A naked ghost now fought the gloomy ftrand ;

And

The fate of another hero fhall conclude the fpecimens of the manner of Caftera. The following is literally translated: "Guevar, a`vain man, "nourished in indolence, stained his arms and face with the blood of the "dead whom he found ftretched on the duft. Under the cover of this "frivolous impofture, he pretended to pass himself for a formidable war"rior. He published, with a high voice, the number of the enemies he had "thrown to the ground. Don Pedro interrupted him with a blow of his "fabre: Guevar loft his life; his head, full of fumes of a ridiculous pride, "bounded far away from his body, which remained defiled with its own "blood; a just and terrible punishment for the lies he had told." It is almost unneceffary to add, that there is not one word of this in the original.

Their fwords feem dipt in fire.-This is as literal as the idiom of the two languages would allow. Dryden has a thought like this of Camoëns, but which is not in his original:

Their bucklers clash: thick blows defcend from high,
And flakes of fire from their hard helmets fly.

DRYD. VIRG. Æn. XII.

9 The firft in honour of Saint Jago's band.-Grand mafter of the order of St. James, named Don Pedro Nunio. He was not killed, however, in this battle, which was fought on the plains of Aljubarota, but in that of Valverda, which immediately followed. The reader may perhaps be surprised to find, that every foldier mentioned in these notes is a Don, a lord. The following piece of history will account for the number of the Portuguese nobles. Don Alonzo Enriquez, Count of Portugal, when faluted king by his army at the battle of Ourique; in return, dignified every man in his army with the rank of nobility. Vid. the 9th Stat. of Lamego.

And he, of Calatrave the fovereign knight,

Girt with whole troops his arm had flain in sight,
Descended murmuring to the fhades of night.
Blafpheming heaven, and gash'd with many a wound
Brave Nunio's rebel kindred gnaw'd the ground,

And curs'd their fate, and dy'd. Ten thousands more
Who held no title and no office bore,

And nameless nobles who, promiscuous fell,
Appeas'd that day the foaming dog of hell.
Now low the proud Castilian standard lies
Beneath the Lufian flag, a vanquish'd prize.
With furious madnefs fired, and ftern difdain,
The fierce Iberians to the fight again
Rufh headlong; groans and yellings of defpair
With horrid uproar rend the trembling air.
Hot boils the blood, thirft burns, and every breast
Pants, every limb with fainty weight opprest
Slow now obeys the will's ftern ire, and flow
From every fword defcends the feeble blow;

}

Till

r groans and yellings of despair.—The last efforts of rage and despair are thus defcribed in Pope's tranflation of the fifth battle at the ships. Il. xv.

Thou wouldst have thought, so furious was their fire,
No force could tame them, and no toil could tire;

As if new vigour from new fights they won,
And the long battle was but then begun.
Greece yet unconquer'd kept alive the war,
Secure of death, confiding in despair.
Troy in proud hopes already view'd the main,

Bright with the blaze, and red with heroes flain;
Like ftrength is felt from hope and from despair,
And each contends as his were all the war.

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Till rage grew languid, and tired slaughter found
No arm to combat, and no breaft to wound.
Now from the field Cafteel's proud monarch flies,
In wild difmay he rowls his maddening eyes,

And leads the pale-lipt flight: Swift wing'd with fear,
As drifted smoke, at distance disappear

The dusty squadrons of the scatter'd rear;

Blafpheming heaven, they fly, and him who first Forged murdering arms, and led to horrid wars accurst.

The feftive days by heroes old ordain'd

}

The glorious victor on the field remain'd.

The

s Now from the field Cafeel's proud monarch flies.This tyrant, whofe unjuft pretenfions to the crown of Portugal laid his own and that kingdom in blood, was on his final defeat overwhelmed with all the frenzy of grief. In the night after the decifive battle of Aljubarota, he fled upwards of thirty miles upon a mule. Don Laurence, archbishop of Braga, in a letter written in old Portuguese to Don John, abbot of Alcohaça, gives this account of his behaviour. "O condeftrabre à me far faber ca o rey de Caftella fe viera à Santaren

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como bomen trefvaliado, quem maldezia seu viver, è puxava polas barbas; è à "bo fè, bom amigo, melhor e que o faga ca non fagermolo nos, ca bomen, quem "fuas barbas arrepela mao lavor faria das alheas. i. e. The conftable has in"formed me that he saw the king of Caftile at Santaren, who behaved as a "madman, curfing his exiftence, and tearing the hairs of his beard. And "in good faith, my good friend, it is better that he fhould do fo to himself "than to us; the man who thus plucks his own beard, would be much "better pleased to do so to others." The writer of this letter, though a prelate, fought at the battle of Aljubarota, where he received on the face a large wound from a fabre. Caftera relates this anecdote of him: the flattery of a sculptor had omitted the deep scar: when the archbishop saw the statue, he laid hold of an attendant's sword, with which he disfigured the face. I have now, faid he, fupplied what it wanted.

The feftive days by heroes old ordain'd. -As a certain proof of the victory, it was required, by the honour of thefe ages, that the victor should encamp three days on the field of battle. By this knight-errantry, the ad

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