Lusiads

LUSIADS, The. Lusiadas') by Camoens (Luis de Camties, 1524 or 1525-1580), published in 1572, is the great Portuguese national epic and is by far the out standing masterpiece of Portuguese literature, as also one of the great epics of the modern world. More than possibly any other epic it may be called national in that the poets at tempt is to picture the great glory of his people, the pleasantness and beauty of his na tive land and the generous deeds of her princes on land and Sea. It is an epic in 10 cantos containing altogether 1,102 eight-line stanzas of the same verse form as Ariosto's 'Orlando Furioso.' Even more striking than the Italian model is the influence of Virgil in the celestial machinery of the poem and the frequent refer ence to classical mythology. The poem is, how ever, by no means imitative; for the funda mental conception and its working out are vigorous and original. Unlike the working it deals not with the exploits of one hero, but with the Portuguese nation.

The story is told, however, through the per son of an immediate hero, Vasco da Gama, and it deals with his great voyage of 1497-98 to India. After a spirited and serious invocation of 18 stanzas, the expedition is described as well on its way. Meanwhile the gods and god desses of Olympus are holding conclave to determine the fate of the adventurers. The chief disputants are Venus, who was much af fected toward the Portuguese, and Bacchus, who feared that, should the Portuguese succeed in reaching India, his renowned name would he "buried in the dark vase of the water of oblivion.• Venus prevails, and the Portuguese are hospitably received at Mozambique and Mombasa and other towns on the east coast of Africa. At Melinde, Vasco da Gama, in the third and fourth cantos of the epic, relates the story of the Portuguese nation from the time of the hero, Viriatus, and the Lusitanian shep herds, who fought against the power of Rome, through the stirring days of Aljubarotta, down to the voyage to India. Most of the deeds are martial, as the account of the heroism of Alfonso Henriques, the sacrifice of Egas Moniz and the chastising of the Saracens by Sancho.

The loveliest and best-known episode is the tale of Inez de Castro. The famous story shows the gentle, more pathetic side of the poem, the tenderness of the poet for his na tive land. The stanzas in which da Gama relates the leavetaking at Lisbon show with impressive dignity the sadness of such a scene, and the old man who addresses his warning from the sea-shore typifies the spirit of the Portuguese people who, like other unambitious folk, are unable to see good of such lust for fame and glory.

In the fifth canto, da Gama continues his narrative, confining himself to the story of the voyage. Escaping from various snares of the natives, they double the Cape of Storms (now the Cape of Good Hope). The tem pestuousness of the sea and the savage aspect of the land is personified to the mariners by the giant Adamastor. This derelict Titan, in corporated forever in the rocky headland, rails at them as they pass and foretells the unending series of disasters which shall follow them and other mariners from their audacious voyage. The sultan of Melinde, pleased with the story and the martial aspect of the Portuguese, dis misses them with pilots to show the way to India. Bacchus, however, has not done with them. He succeeded in persuading flEolus and Neptune to harry them between Melinde and Calicut. Their journey is beguiled by half legendary tales of Portuguese honor or of Portuguese adventure, and they reach Calicut in safety.

The seventh and eighth cantos tell what hap pened in India. The ruler of. Calicut gives them leave to trade and visit, and his wonder at the armament of the Portuguese, and his curiosity with regard to their banners and en signs, gives Paulo da Gama an opportunity to recount the warlike deeds of his countrymen. This he does in spirited language and with no repetitions of the story told by his brother at Melinde. The nabob, however, is corrupted by Bacchus, with the result that the Portuguese have a narrow escape from treachery. Then the fleet, well laden with merchandise, explores the coast further to the east and finally turns back toward Lisbon.