Note 135 — CHAP. II. HISTORY OF PORTUGUESE POETRY AND ELOQUENCE FROM THE EPOCH OF THE INTRODUCTION OF THE ITALIAN STYLE, TILL TOWARDS THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. (continued 2)

The original source whence these biographic notices are derived is, it must be admitted, somewhat obscure. About the middle of the seventeenth century, a writer named Manoel Severim de Faria compiled a biographical account of Camoens from the poet’s own works. This biography served as a ground work for Manoel de Faria e Sousa, who annexed a Vida del Poeta to his edition of Camoens and his commentaries on the Lusiad. The facts thus collected were afterwards rectified and arranged by subsequent writers, and among others by Barbosa Machado. Manoel de Faria attaches particular importance to the noble extraction and armorial bearings of Camoens. He gives the passage from the letter which the poet is said to have written on the approach of death, and which Barbosa Machado has re-printed. The words are:—

Quem houvio dizer nunca, que em tam pequeno theatro, como o de hum pobre leito, quisisse Fortuna representar tam grande desventura?

And again:—

Procurar resistir a tantos males, pareceria especie de desavergonhamento.