Note 496 — BOOK VII.
William Julius Mickle translation
Who spurns the muse.—Similarity of condition has produced similarity of sentiment in Camoëns and Spenser. Each was the ornament of his country and his age, and each was cruelly neglected by the men of power, who, in truth, were incapable to judge of their merit, or to relish their writings. We have seen several of the strictures of Camoëns on the barbarous nobility of Portugal. The similar complaints of Spenser will show, that neglect of genius, however, was not confined to the court of Lisbon:—
"O grief of griefs! O gall of all good hearts! To see that virtue should despised be Of such as first were raised for virtue's parts, And now, broad spreading like an aged tree, Let none shoot up that nigh them planted be. O let not those of whom the muse is scorn'd, Alive or dead be by the muse adorn'd." Ruins of Time.
It is thought Lord Burleigh, who withheld the bounty intended by Queen Elizabeth, is here meant. But he is more clearly stigmatized in these remarkable lines, where the misery of dependence on court favour is painted in colours which must recall several strokes of the Lusiad to the mind of the reader:—
"Full little knowest thou that hast not tried, What hell it is, in suing long to bide; To lose good days, that might be better spent, To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow, To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow; To have thy princess' grace, yet want her peers'; To have thy asking, yet wait many years. To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares, To eat thy heart thro' comfortless despairs; To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run, To spend, to give, to want, to be undone." Mother Hubberd's Tale.
These lines exasperated still more the inelegant, illiberal Burleigh. So true is the observation of Mr. Hughes, that, "even the sighs of a miserable man are sometimes resented as an affront by him that is the occasion of them."