CAMOËNS

CAMOËNS (1524-1580), the poet of Portugal, born at Lisbon, studied at Coimbra; fell in passionate love with a lady of high rank in Lisbon, as she with him, but whom he was not allowed to marry; left Lisbon, joined the army, and fought against the Moors; volunteered service in India, arrived at Goa, and got into trouble with the Portuguese authorities; was banished to Macao, and consoled himself by writing his "Lusiad"; coming home he lost everything but his poem; died neglected and in poverty; the title of the poem is properly "The Lusiads," or the Lusitanians, i. e. the Portuguese, and is their national epic, called, not inaptly, the "Epos of Commerce"; it has been translated into most European languages, and into English alone no fewer than six times.