Lisbon the honour of having produced the poet. The strongest objection which could be made, if such were needful after what has been written concerning this event, against the claim of Santarem, might be furnished by the works of Camoens himself. In the Elegy which he wrote on his banishment, when comparing his fate to that of the poet Ovid, he states that like him he was an exile. As the place of his exile was known to be Santarem, and the city he was to leave was acknowledged to be Lisbon, the conclusion to be drawn is, that the latter was the place of his birth.

The abettors of the claim of Alenquer had very futile grounds for giving to it their support. This claim was founded merely upon an expression of Camoens, in a sonnet which he wrote in the Indian Seas, and which com

mences

"No mundo poucos annos e cansados," &c.

In this sonnet is the following passage:

Criou-me Portugal, na verde e chara

"Patria minha Alenquer."

Camoens evidently wrote this sonnet to the memory of some soldier, who died probably either from the effects of the climate, or by accident, when accompanying the armada which sailed from Goa for the Red Sea. In this composition the poet makes the deceased relate his misfortunes, and lament that his death should take place so far distant from his country, to which he was attached. Some of the Commentators on the Rimas of Camoens have stated their opinion, that the sonnet had reference to the punishment of death, by drowning, inflicted upon a soldier named Ruy Diaz, by Affonso d'Albuquerque, for having seduced one of his slaves. Dom Jozé Maria de Souza writes, that it was composed on the death of a soldier then navigating the Red Sea, but did not allude to the misfortune of Ruy Diaz.

Lord Strangford has translated this sonnet, and in a note, certainly entertains the idea, that in it the poet refers to his own sufferings. His lordship considered the expression

"Me fex manjar de peixes em ti bruto
"Mar, que bates a Abasia fera, e avara,”

(made me food for fishes) as not very graceful; and accordingly changed it "to combat "perils strange."

Faria e Sousa, however, quotes similar expressions in Ovid and Tasso; and Camoens himself, in Canto iv. st. 90. has

"Onde seja de peixes mantimento."

In the following passages, amongst many others, Camoens particularly celebrates the River, which ran past his native City:

E vós, Tagides Minhas, pois creado

Tendes em mi hum novo engenho ardente;

Se sempre em verso humilde celebrado

Foi de mi vosso rio alegremente;

Dai-me agora hum som alto, e sublimado;

Hum estylo grandiloquo, e corrente;

Lusiad. Canto I. st. 4.

And you, fair Nymphs of Tagus, parent stream!
If e'er your meadows were my pastoral theme,
While you have listened, and by moonshine seen
My footsteps wander o'er your banks of Green,
O come auspicious, and the song inspire.

Mickle.

Poem tu, Nympha, em effeito meu desejo,
Como merece a gente Lusitana;
Que veja e saiba o mundo que do Tejo
O licor de Aganippe corre, e mana.
Deixa as flores de Pindo, que já vejo
Banhar-me Apollo na agua soberana;
Senão direi, que tens algum receio,
Que se escureça o teu querido Orpheio.
Lusiad. Cant. III. st. 2.

Then aid, O fairest Nymph, my fond desire,

And give my verse the Lusian warlike fire:

Fired by the song, the listening world shall know

That Aganippe's streams from Tagus flow.

Oh, let no more the flowers of Pindus shine

On thy fair breast, or round thy temples twine:

On Tago's banks a richer chaplet blows,

And with the tuneful God my bosom glows.

I feel, I feel the mighty power infuse,

And bathe my spirit in Aonian dews.

Mickle.

........ mas o cego

Eu! que cometto insano, e temerario,

Sem vós, Nymphas do Tejo, e do Mondego.

Lusiad. Canto VII. st. 78.

But I, fond man ..................

Where would I speed, as mad'ning in a dream, Without your aid, ye Nymphs of Tago's stream! Or yours, ye Dryads of Mondego's bowers.

Mickle.

Neither Severim de Faria, nor Faria e Sousa, gives us any information respecting Camoens, from the period of his birth until he was sent to the University of Coimbra; nor has the time at which he arrived in that city been ascertained. It has however been generally supposed, and has been stated by modern biographers of the poet to have taken place when he was twelve years old. I regard this date as rather too remote; because, if the circumstances be correct that the University was only removed to Coimbra, and finally re-established there in 1537; allowing him to have been one of the earliest students, he would be in his fourteenth year; which period I would prefer to assign for his becoming a member.

The University of Coimbra was founded during the reign of the King Dom Diniz; a patron of learning, and a vernacular poet. The life of this Monarch was truly dedicated to the welfare of his kingdom, and to the people over whom he was ordained to rule; yet amidst the duties which this solicitude imposed upon him, he managed his arrangements so admirably, as to have time to cultivate poetry, and