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Of omen high.—And Camoens' Ghost no more
Wails the neglected Muse on Tago's shore;
No more his tears the barbarous Age[1] upbraid:
His griefs and wrongs all sooth'd, his happy Shade
Beheld th' Ulysses[2] of his age return
To Tago's banks; and earnest to adorn
The Hero's brows, he weaves the Elysian crown,
What time the letter'd Chiefs of old renown,
- ↑ Camoens, the first poet of Portugal, published his Lusiad at a time of the deepest declension of public virtue, when the Portuguese empire in India was falling into rapid decay, when literature was totally neglected, and all was luxury and imbecility at home. At the end of books V. and VII. of his Lusiad, he severely upbraids the Nobility for their barbarous ignorance. He died, neglected in a workhouse, a few months before his country fell under the yoke of Philip II. of Spain, whose policy in Portugal was of the same kind with that which he exercised in the Netherlands, endeavoring to secure submission by severity, with the view of reducing them beneath the possibility of a successful revolt.
- ↑ This title is given by the Portuguese historians to Don John, one of the younger sons of John I. of Portugal, who had visited every Court of Europe. The same title is no less due to the present illustrious descendant of his family, the Duke of Lafoens. His Grace, who has within these few years returned to his native country, was about twenty-two years absent from it. During the late War, he was a volunteer in the army of the Empress Queen, in which he served as Lieutenant-general, and particularly distinguished himself at the battle of Maxen, where the Prussians were defeated. After the peace, he not only visited every court of Europe, most of whose languages he speaks fluently, but also travelled to Turkey and Egypt, and even to Lapland. His Grace is no less distinguished by his taste for the Belles Lettres, than for his extensive knowledge of History and Science.
And
