SOURCE: The Place of Camoens in Literature, n.p., 1908, 26 p.

In this lecture, Nabuco outlines several major themes and motifs in The Lusiads: nationalism, seafaring life, imperialism, imagination, Renaissance culture, and the pursuit of greatness.

GENTLEMEN OF YALE UNIVERSITY:

When I had read the Lusiads for the first time, I at once wrote a book to tell of my wonder, offering for it the only apology that a tribute of love is always acceptable to a poet. I do not repent of having recorded in print that early impression, which has developed into years of faithful admiration and has kept company with my mind throughout life. Still I always intended to renew to Camoens on my decline the vow of my youth, and it is quite an unexpected fortune for me to be allowed to do it before a great American University.

While literary culture was chiefly under...