SOURCE: “The Lusiads” and “Camões as Lyric and Dramatic Poet,” in Luis de Camões, Oxford University Press, 1923, pp. 75-105.

In the first excerpt below, Bell examines the importance of The Lusiads to Portuguese history and notes Camões' classical and contemporary influences. In the second excerpt, Bell argues that Camões' true greatness is not as an epic poet, but as a lyric poet.

Gi; the Lusiads =~ Sthe Lusiads

Portuguese history, rich in heroic and romantic episodes, did not, during its first five centuries, inspire great epic poems. Yet in the sixteenth century, in Portugal's new glory, a great national epic had become an aspiration among the more serious Portuguese poets. Garcia de Resende had regretted in 1516 that the Portuguese were so careless in recording their deeds, and his collection of verse in the Cancioneiro Geral proved that his complaint was not unfounded. Sá de Miranda...