Page:The Lusiad (Camões, tr. Mickle, 1791), Volume 2.djvu/70


 * Yet love full oft with wild delirium blinds,

And fans his basest fires in noblest minds: The female garb the great Alcides wore, And for his Omphale the distaff bore. For Cleopatra's frown the world was lost: The Roman terror, and the Punic boast, Cannæ's great victor, for a harlot's smile, Resign'd the harvest of his glorious toil. And who can boast he never felt the fires, The trembling throbbings of the young desires, When he beheld the breathing roses glow, And the soft heavings of the living snow; The waving ringlets of the auburn hair, And all the rapturous graces of the fair! Oh! what defence, if fixt on him, he spy The languid sweetness of the stedfast eye! Ye who have felt the dear luxurious smart, When angel-charms oppress the powerless heart, In pity here relent the brow severe, And o'er Fernando's weakness drop the tear.