[80] Sertorius, who was invited by the Lusitanians to defend them against the Romans. He had a tame white hind, which he had accustomed to follow him, and from which he pretended to receive the instructions of Diana. By this artifice he imposed upon the superstition of that people.
[81] _No more in Nysa._--An ancient city in India sacred to Bacchus.
[82] _Urania-Venus._--An Italian poet has given the following description of the celestial Venus--
_Questa è vaga di Dio Venere bella Vicina al Sole, e sopra ogni altra estella Questa è quella beata, a cui s'inchina, A cui si volge desiando amore, Chiamata cui del Ciel rara e divina Beltà che vien tra noi per nostro honore, Per far le menti desiando al Cielo Obliare l'altrui col proprio velo._--MARTEL.
[83] See the note in the Second Book on the following passage--
_As when in Ida's bower she stood of yore, etc._
[84] _The manly music of their tongue the same._--Camoëns says:
_E na lingoa, na qual quando imagina, Com pouca corrupçao cré que he Latina._
Qualifications are never elegant in poetry. Fanshaw's translation and the original both prove this:
----_their tongue Which she thinks Latin, with small dross among._
[86]---- _and the light turn'd pale._--The thought in the original has something in it wildly great, though it is not expressed in the happiest manner of Camoëns--
_O ceo tremeo, e Apollo detorvado Hum pauco a luz perdeo, como infiado._
[87] Mercury, the messenger of the gods.--_Ed._
[88] _And pastoral Madagascar._--Called by the ancient geographers, Menuthia and Cerna Ethiopica; by the natives, the Island of the Moon; and by the Portuguese, the Isle of St. Laurence, on whose festival they discovered it.
[89] _Praso._--Name of a promontory near the Red Sea.--_Ed._
[90] _Lav'd by the gentle waves._--The original says, the sea showed them new islands, which it encircled and laved. Thus rendered by Fanshaw--
_Neptune disclos'd new isles which he did play About, and with his billows danc't the hay._
[91] The historical foundation of the fable of Phaeton is this. Phaeton was a young enterprising prince of Libya. Crossing the Mediterranean in quest of adventures, he landed at Epirus, from whence he went to Italy to see his intimate friend Cygnus. Phaeton was skilled in astrology, from whence he arrogated to himself the title of the son of Apollo. One day in the heat of summer, as he was riding along the banks of the Po, his horses took fright at a clap of thunder, and plunged into the river, where, together with their master, they perished. Cygnus, who was a poet, celebrated the death of his friend in verse, from whence the fable.--Vid. Plutarch, in Vit. Pyrr.