Note 549 — BOOK VIII.
William Julius Mickle translation
As in the sun's bright beam.—Imitated from Virgil, who, by the same simile, describes the fluctuation of the thoughts of Æneas, on the eve of the Latian war:—
"Laomedontius heros Cuncta videns, magno curarum fluctuat æstu, Atque animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit illuc, In partesque rapit varias, perque omnia versat. Sicut aquæ tremulum labris ubi lumen ahenis Sole repercussum, aut radiantis imagine Lunæ, Omnia pervolitat late loca: jamque sub auras Erigitur, summique ferit laquearia tecti." "This way and that he turns his anxious mind, Thinks, and rejects the counsels he design'd; Explores himself in vain, in ev'ry part, And gives no rest to his distracted heart: So when the sun by day or moon by night Strike on the polish'd brass their trembling light, The glitt'ring species here and there divide, And cast their dubious beams from side to side; Now on the walls, now on the pavement play, And to the ceiling flash the glaring day."
Ariosto has also adopted this simile in the eighth book of his Orlando Furioso:—
"Qual d'acqua chiara il tremolante lume Dal Sol per percossa, o da' notturni rai, Per gli ampli tetti và con lungo salto A destra, ed a sinistra, e basso, ed alto." "So from a water clear, the trembling light Of Phœbus, or the silver ray of night, Along the spacious rooms with splendour plays, Now high, now low, and shifts a thousand ways." Hoole.
But the happiest circumstance belongs to Camoëns. The velocity and various shiftings of the sun-beam, reflected from a piece of crystal or polished steel in the hand of a boy, give a much stronger idea of the violent agitation and sudden shiftings of thought than the image of the trembling light of the sun or moon reflected from a vessel of water. The brazen vessel, however, and not the water, is only mentioned by Dryden. Nor must another inaccuracy pass unobserved. That the reflection of the moon flashed the glaring day is not countenanced by the original.
We have already seen the warm encomium paid by Tasso to his contemporary, Camoëns. That great poet, the ornament of Italy, has also testified his approbation by several imitations of the Lusiad. Virgil, in no instance, has more closely copied Homer, than Tasso has imitated the appearance of Bacchus, or the evil demon, in the dream of the Moorish priest. The enchanter Ismeno thus appears to the sleeping Solyman:—
"Soliman' Solimano, i tuoi silenti Riposi à miglior tempo homai riserva: Che sotto il giogo de straniere genti La patria, ove regnasti, ancor' e serva. In questa terra dormi, e non rammenti, Ch'insepolte de' tuoi l'ossa conserva? Ove si gran' vestigio e del tuo scorno, Tu neghittoso aspetti il nuovo giorno?"
Thus elegantly translated by Mr. Hoole:—
"Oh! Solyman, regardless chief, awake! In happier hours thy grateful slumber take: Beneath a foreign yoke thy subjects bend, And strangers o'er thy land their rule extend: Here dost thou sleep? here close thy careless eyes, While uninterr'd each lov'd associate lies? Here where thy fame has felt the hostile scorn, Canst thou, unthinking, wait the rising morn?"
The conclusion of this canto has been slightly altered by the translator. Camoëns, adhering to history, makes Gama (when his factors are detained on shore) seize upon some of the native merchants as hostages. At the intreaty of their wives and children the zamorim liberates his captives; while Gama, having recovered his men and the merchandise, sailed away, carrying with him the unfortunate natives, whom he had seized as hostages.
As there is nothing heroic in this dishonourable action of Gama's, Mickle has omitted it, and has altered the conclusion of the canto.—Ed.