[402] Dr. Wilhelm Storck, the author of the most elaborate life of Camões in existence, considered that the words _quando vim da materna sepultura_ in one of Camões’ poems could only mean that his mother (Anna de Macedo) died at his birth, and that he was survived by Anna de Sá, his stepmother. It may have been so, but there is not a scrap of evidence in favour of the theory nor were the words _materna sepultura_ anything more than a conventional phrase. Cf. Antonio Feo, _Trattados Quadragesimais_ (1609), pt. 1, f. 2: _Como Nazianzeno diz ... e tumulo prosiliens ad tumulum iterum contendo, em nacendo saimos de hũa sepultura que foi as entranhas da mãi e morrendo entramos noutra._ So Pinto, _Imagem_, pt. 2, 1593 ed., f. 342 v.: _tornar nu ao ventre de sua mãi, o qual é a sepultura da terra_, and Bernardes, _Nov. Flor._ i. 122: _A terra e nossa mãe, de cujo tenebroso ventre que é a sepultura_, &c. [403] She may have been a distant relation of the poet’s: the name was a common one, but Camões was connected with the Gamas, and the wife and granddaughter of the first Conde de Vidigueira were both named Catherina de Athaide. [404] According to Dr. Storck he was banished in 1549, and in the same year, after the sentence of banishment had been commuted to service in Africa, left Portugal, returning to Lisbon in the autumn of 1551. Others believe that he was in Lisbon again in 1550 and that his two years in Africa must be placed between 1546 and 1549. [405] The important document containing his pardon is printed in Juromenha’s edition of his works, i. 166-7. [406] This quotation is assigned to various other persons, as to Nuno da Cunha when arranging that he should be buried at sea. [407] _O poeta Simonides fallando._ [408] Cf. _Lus._ i. 19, 43; ii. 20, 67; v. 19-22; vi. 70-9. [409] _Desejei tanto._ [410] Couto, in the _Dialogo do Soldado Pratico_, remarks that if a man is given a post at the age of twenty he only receives it at the age of sixty (p. 99). The soldier, who wishes _ter logo em tres annos vinte mil cruzados_, suggests, among other posts for himself, that of _Provedor dos Defuntos: porque com qualquer destes ficarei mui bem remediado_. To which the _Desembargador_ objects: _he necessario que quem houver de servir esses cargos seja letrado e visto em ambos os Direitos_. [411] _Vinde cá._ It is advisable to give the first words of his poems without the number until there is a definitive edition of his works. [412] It is uncertain whether Camões’ ship was the _Santa Clara_ or the _Fe_. [413] Barros, _Decada_, III. ix. 1. [414] It is about the sum (apart from any grant of _pimenta_) which a common soldier on active service might earn in India (see Barros, I. viii. 3: 1,200 × 12 = 14,400); _environ huit cents livres de notre monnoie d’aujourd’hui_ (Voltaire). It would scarcely correspond to more than £50 of to-day. [415] _Lus._ V. 45.