Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/825

Rh may have been in addition to this some unintentional con tempt of the rigid court etiquette which hedged the royalty of that day ; for it was the custom that lyric offerings intended for the ladies of the queen s court should first be submitted to the chamberlain, and then by him transferred to the chief lady in waiting, who handed the effusion to the queen, she, in her turn, after perusal, passing the &quot; burning lines of passion &quot;into the hands of the damsel to vilium they were addressed. Camoens, doubtless, would essay some safer and more secret mode of conveying his offerings to the lovely Caterina. The dislike of De Lima, and the jealousy of Caminha, aided by the indiscretion and free-lance life of Camoens, may have led to this mark of the royal severity. Whether such or other causes inter vened, the fact remains that he was banished from the court. The precise locality to which he retired, however, still remains conjectural only. Adding the year of his banishment to the two years he was absent with the army of Africa at Ceata, where, in a naval engagement with the Moors, a chance splinter destroyed the sight of his right eye, we find him again in Lisbon in 1550. During the three years which intervened between Camoens s return from Ceuta and his embarkation for India in 1553, he seems to have led a careless and discredit able kind of life, consorting with the least reputable court gallants, and a certain dissolute ex-Franciscan friar, who had abandoned the cowl to adopt the role of a low comedian. Since he inherited the traditions of &quot;fidalguia,&quot; candid, brave, impetuous, and crossed in love, much of the free and careless life credited by tradition at this period to Camoens is reasonably accounted for, if it may not be con doned. At this period occurred the fracas which led to his imprisonment and subsequent embarkation for India, On the occasion of a grand procession at the festival of Corpus Christi, one of the king s equerries appears to have had a dispute with two masquerading companions of Camoens. The latter, unhappily intervening to defend one of these friends hardly pressed, wounded the equerry in the neck, his two friends escaping in the confusion. For this Camoens lay some time in prison, and was only pardoned upon the understanding that he should embark forthwith for India. Juromenha gives the full text of this pardon. With reference to the poet s departure for India in March 1553, the indefatigable Faria e Sousa discovered the following entry on the books of the registry of the Lisbon India House : &quot; Fernando Casado, inhabitant of Lisbon, went in his stead Lui;: de Camoens, son of Simon and Ana de S;i,&quot; His father did iiot offer himself as the customary surety, while it is seen from a document, dated the 7th of March that year, that he was still alive, and an inhabitant of Lisbon. Camoens, in his first letter from India, alludes to his departure from his native city ; and as he sailed out of the &quot; golden-sanded Tagus &quot; in the twilight, exclaimed in the bitterness of his heart, using the words of Scipio Africanus, &quot; Ungrateful country, thou shalt not possess my bones ! &quot; The ship in which he sailed, the &quot; San Bento,&quot; parted company with her consorts during a storm, and reached her destination in the same year, while her missing consorts did not anchor at Goa until the following spring. On landing at Goa, Camoens found the Viceroy Noronha pre paring an expedition to act against the king of Pimenta, who had invaded the territories of the allies of Portugal. With this expedition sailed Camoens ; and &quot; after chastis ing the enemy,&quot; he says, &quot; with little trouble, we destroyed the people trained to the use of the curved bow, punishing them with death and fire.&quot; He returned to Goa early in the following year, 1554. The friendly terms upon which Camoens remained with the governor, and probably his disgust at the vice and venality rampant around him, induced him to join the expedition organized with a view to check the depredations of the Moorish rovers on the coast of Arabia. The com mander, Menezes, received instructions to cruise on that coast where he expected to intercept the galleys sailing from Bassorah. The fleet cleared from Goa early in the year 1555 ; and, after seeking the Moorish galleys in vain, wintered at Oimuz. Returning in the following spring to Goa, Camoens, in cancjio 10, describes his unpleasant impressions of this voyage : &quot; Here fate s most cruel chances led me ; here in this lonely, sterile, sun-scorched land did Fortune will that part of my brief life be passed, and thus in fragments scattsred lie throughout the world.&quot; Some of Camoens s biographers allude to the governor Barreto as one of his relentless persecutors. Juromenha, however, demurs to this, alleging that two intimate friends of Camoens then at Goa, in the most frank and decided language, laud Barreto as &quot; a liberal obliging comrade, and one ever ready to overlook offences received.&quot; That Camoens was unpopular with the venal many, his expression &quot; This land is the mother of great villains and the step mother of honourable men &quot; leaves little doubt. He came to uphold the honour of Portugal, and not to intrigue, brawl, and barter his soul for gold. His satirical exposure of the abuses so rife then in the Eastern dominions of Portugal will readily account for his numerous enemies, official and lay. Festivals, banquets, and dramatic representa tions inaugurated the governorship of Barreto. Camoens s pen was not idle. He wrote a comedy for the occasion, entitled Filodtmo. Correia, who describes himself as &quot; companion in the state of India, and a great friend of Camoens,&quot; happily secured either the original MS. or a copy, which is, or was, in the national library at Lisbon. It is entitled, A Comedy made by Luis de Camoens, and represented in India during the governorship of Barreto, and in which the folloiving characters figure, &c. Camoens s unpropitious star still dominated his fate. The vices rampant in Goa &amp;gt; the drunkenness, dicing, brawl ing, and cowardice, were notorious; and during these festivities, which lasted some weeks, were more pro nounced than ever. A certain satire, said to be from the pen of Camoens, passed from hand to hand, entitled A Jest which teas made upon some men who did not think ill of nine, feigning that in Goa, at the feasts which were made on the governor s succession, these gallants went to sport with canes bearing devices on their banners, and verses conforming to their designs and inclinations. It is written chiefly in prose, having verses introduced. No names of the &quot;gallants&quot; appear. After introducing a few of these revellers, the author concludes by stating &quot; that several other illustrious personages desired to be admitted to the feasts* and sports, and to have an account of their qualifications chronicled ; &quot; but, he observes, &quot; the writing would be infinite, because all the men in India are so distinguished, and therefore let these suffice as examples.&quot; This jest, intended to satirize the corruption and immorality of the daily life of the Portuguese in India, caused intense amusement to those who did not recognize their own portraits on the canvas ; while, on the other hand, those who did, or imagined they did, were furious, so much so, that &quot; the innocent author remained ready to Jiang himself.&quot; The tradition is that this Jest was appended to Camoens s second letter from India, and that the author desired its source should remain unknown ; &quot; because I do not wish that of my little so many should eat.&quot; Be that as it may, Camoens was banished from Goa, and this Jest is said to have been the cause,- Seme of these ridiculed* 