A NEW AND GENERAL Jarmouth BIOGRAPHICA Abock DICTIONARY; CONTAINING AN HISTOTICAL, CRITICAL, AND IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE LIVES AND WRITINGS OF THE Moft Eminent Perfons IN EVERY NATION IN THE WORLD, From the Earliest Accounts of Time to the prefent Period; WHEREIN THEIR REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND SUFFERINGS, ARE ACCURATELY RECORDED AND DISPLAYED: WITH CATALOGUES OF THEIR LITERARY PRODUCTIONS. A NEW EDITION, IN EIGHT VOLUMES. Corrected, Enlarged, and greatly Improved; with the Addition of many Hundreds of New Lives, never Published before. AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY. MDCCXCV. ACCOUNTS OF THE LIVES AND WRITINGS OF THE MOST Eminent Perfons IN EVERY AGE AND NATION. C AMOENS (LEWIS), a celebrated Portugueze poet, called the Virgil of Portugal, from his much admired poem “the Lufiadas, or conqueft of the Indies by the Portugueze," was born of a good family at Lisbon, about 1527. He ftudied in the university of Coimbra, and gave proofs of his genius for poetry while he was very young. However, not being born to a fortune, he was obliged to quit books, and have recourfe to arms. He was fent to Ceuta in Africa, which the Portugueze were in poffeffion of at that time, and acquitted himself like a good foldier upon many occafions, but at last had the misfortune to lose one of his eyes, in defence of that town against the Moors. From thence he returned to Portugal, but did not yet find himself in a condition to live as he would, and therefore went in an expedition to the Eaft-Indies. In this abfence The compofed a great many poems, which gained him the good will and affection of the commanding officer and others, who had a tincture of polite literature; but happening unluckily to be fevere upon one who did not understand the privilege of poets, he was forced to withdraw to be out of the reach of his anger. He went to the frontiers of China, where he found means of being conveyed to Goa, and thence to Portugal. In his paffage thither, he was thipwrecked by a ftorm, loft all his effects, and with great difficulty faved his life. He did not lofe however, fays Ballet, his fenfes in the midst of all this danger; but had the prefen ce of mind to preferve his "Lufiadas," VOL. III. A 2 which which he held in his left hand, while he fwam with his right. As foon as he was fettled again in his own country, he put the finishing hand to this poem, and dedicated it in 1569 to don Sebaftian, king of Portugal, in hopes of making his fortune by it. But that prince being then very young, and the courtiers no admirers of poetry, the unfortunate Camoens was entirely disappointed. He did not however travel again in fearch of farther adventures, but spent the remainder of his life at Lifbon; where, to the eternal reproach of his countrymen, he died miferably poor and unregarded, in 1579. It is generally agreed, that Camoens had a most extraordinary genius for poetry; that he had an abundance of that "vivida vis animi," which is neceffary to conftitute a poet; that he had a fertile invention, a fublime conception, and an eafe and aptitude in his make, which could accommodate itself to any fubject. Nicholas Antonio, from whom we collected the above circumftances of his life, fays, that he perfectly fucceeded in all fubjects of the heroic kind; that he had a peculiar talent in defcribing perfons and places; that his comparisons were great and noble, his epifodes very agreeable and diverfified, yet never leading his reader from the prin cipal object of his poem; and that he had mixed a great deal of learning in it, without the leaft appearance of affectation and pedan try." Rapin has criticifed the "Lufiadas" fomewhat feverely, and tells us, that as divine a poet as Camoens may pafs for with the Portugueze, yet he is exceptionable on many accounts. His verfes are often fo obfcure, that they may feem rather to be myfteries or oracles. The defign is too vaft, without proportion or juftnefs; and, in fhort, it is a very bad model for an epic poem." He adds, that "Camoens has fhewn no judgment in compofition; that he has mixed indifcriminately Venus, Bacchus, and other Heathen divinities in a Christian poem; and that he has conducted it no better in many other refpects.' But notwithstanding Rapin's diflike of this poem, it has been often reprinted and tranflated into feveral languages. It has been tranflated once into French, twice into Italian, four times into Spanish; and lately, with uncommon excellence, nto English by Mr. Mickle. It was tranflated into Latin by Thomas de Faria, bishop of Targa in Africa; who, concealing his name, and faying nothing of it's being a translation, made fome believe that the "Lufiadas" was originally in Latin. Large commentaries have been written. upon the Lufiadas;" the most confiderable of which are thofe of Emanuel Faria de Soufa, printed in two volumes folio, at Madrid, 1639. Theft commentaries were followed the year after with the publication of another volume in folio, written to defend them; befides eight volumes of "Obfervations upon the Mifcellaneous Poems of Camoens," which this commentator left behind him in manufcript. We cannot conclude our account of this poet, with out : |