adverse to his efforts, or he was negligent of Commerce; and his wishes were disappointed. However this might be, the leisure he obtained was devoted to the Muses, and the result was, his then commencing that grand production, universally known and admired, under the title of the "Lusiad."

On his return from the Indies, he had the misfortune, like Cæsar, to suffer shipwreck; and like Cæsar, who, under similar circumstances, (it is said,) swam with one hand, and held his "Commentaries" above water with the other, Camoens preserved his Poem.

The

This great work was finished in 1569; but the pestilence which then raged in Lisbon prevented its appearance until two years afterwards, when he published it, with a Dedication to King Sebastian. But, as if Misfortune had "marked him for her own," his hopes of Royal patronage were cruelly disappointed. Monarch, either insensible to the merits of the poem, or instigated to act coldly to the poet by the enemies of Camoens, received with coolness what he ought to have considered as an honour done even to a sovereign, and rewarded the writer with a neglect which left him

in all the wretchedness of indigent virtue, to expire amid his ungrateful fellow-citizens, a prey to that penury, the bitterness of which, in 1579, put an end to his existence, and left an everlasting stain on his king and country.

Some authors pretend that Sebastian allowed him a pension of 4000 reals, on condition of his residing at Court; but that it was withdrawn by Cardinal Henry, who succeeded to the crown of Portugal, lost by Sebastian at the battle of Alcazar. But this battle took place only a year before the death of Camoens, and would not have justified the following epitaph, which was inscribed on his grave :

"Here lies Luis de Camoens,

Prince of the Poets of his time.
He lived poor and miserable, and died
Anno Domini 1579."

A tradition has prevailed in the Portuguese settlement of Macao, that a cave, situated in a garden a little below the loftiest eminence in the town, is the place in which the celebrated poem of the "Lusiad" was written: it still bears the name of Camoens, and partakes of the veneration due to his talents and his memory.

RELIGIOUS CONFESSIONS OF FRENCH POETS.

WHEN MALHERBE, the French poet, was in his last illness, they had much ado to persuade him to confess. He excused himself by saying, he never used to confess but at Easter. However, he was persuaded to the contrary at last. Could such a confession be serviceable to the poet, or those around him?

SANTEUIL, the French poet, used to tell the following story very frequently :-"I was one day seated in a confession-chair, a lady came and kneeled down by me, and gave me the history of her whole life. Finding I did not make any answer at the conclusion of the recital, she demanded absolution. • Do you take me for a priest, madam?' said I.-'If you are not,' replied the lady, 'why did you listen I will go and inform against you to the prior.'-' And I, madam, will go and inform your husband.'”

to me

When BOILEAU, on a fast-day, attended the rector of his parish, in order to go through his confessions, the priest asked him what employ-

ment he followed. "I write verses," replied the poet. "So much the worse," said the priest; "but of what kind?"-" Satires.”"Worse and worse; but against whom?"Against bad poets, the vices of the age, pernicious books, romances, operas, &c."—" Very well," rejoined the confessor; "there is no harm in that, and my objections are at an end.” And, therefore, we may suppose, the priest absolved Boileau from that in which there was no harm.

JUDICIOUS REVISION.

A FRENCH Poetaster once read to Boileau a miserable rondeau of his own, and made him remark as a very ingenious peculiarity in the composition, that the letter G was not to be found in it. "Would you wish to improve it still further?" said the critic. "To be sure," replied the other, "perfection is my object." "Then take all the other letters out of it," replied the witty Satirist.

DES MARETS.

DES MARETS wrote an epic poem, called

Clovis," (which has, for many years, slept in Oblivion's lap,) and was of opinion, after several years' labour bestowed upon it, that it would have cost a great many more to have finished it, if Providence had not designed to make use of his pen in works of devotion." This little mystery, too, is revealed to us by himself; for he begins his "Delices de l'Esprit," with a kind of prodigy, which he pretends happened to him; it is this, as he says, that he was so sensibly assisted by God Almighty "in finishing the great work of his Clovis,' that he might the sooner attach him to subjects much more useful, more delicate, and more exalted, that he durst not say in how short a time he had finished the nine remaining books of that poem, and re-touched the rest.”

The Messieurs De Port Royal (in their "Visionnaires," letter I.) have made the following just reflection upon this passage:"Thus, as Des Marets would have it, it was the Spirit of God which enabled him to compose those nine books, to re-touch the rest, and caused him to publish this work. It was the Spirit of Truth which assisted him in spreading