PORSENNA POUT. 



645 



while supported by Handel's adversaries, and, ir 

 1736, it entirely fell through. He had exhibitec 

 only four operas in London. During his stay there 

 he published six trios for two violins and a bass-vio 

 (Set Sinfonie di Camera), which show that he ex 

 celled much less in instrumental than 1n voca 

 music. Fie appears, however, to have been senst 

 ble of his defects ; he studied the sonatas of Corelli 

 and, in 1754, published twelve sonatas for the violin 

 which belong to the first class in this department 

 At about the same, he visited Germany again, anc 

 taught singing in Vienna. Haydn (q. v.), who was 

 then emerging from poverty, accompanied him on 

 the harpsichord, and was in his service for three 

 months. Porpora produced masterpieces for the 

 church, the chamber, and the theatre. Selvaggi 

 made a complete collection of such of his works as 

 were at Rome : there are many others at Naples 

 The prevailing character of his music is serious anc 

 elevated. In the recitative he was considered, by 

 all composers, as a model. After having been, a 

 long time, first teacher of the conservatorio degli 

 incurabili at Venice, where he composed many ad- 

 mirable masses and motets, he returned to Naples, 

 where he died in 1767 in the greatest poverty. 



PORSENNA, the king of the Etrurian city Clu- 

 sium, received the Tarquins when they fled from 

 Rome, and, after in vain endeavouring to effect 

 their restoration by negotiation, advanced with an 

 army to Rome. He would have entered the city 

 with the flying Romans, had not Horatius Cocles 

 disputed the passage until the bridge was broken 

 down. Porsenna then besieged Rome, and a famine 

 was produced in the city, when another Roman 

 youth, Mucius Scaevola gave a striking proof of 

 his patriotism and devotedness. Porbenna was 

 now inclined to negotiation. He demanded that 

 their property should be restored to the Tarquins, 

 and that the cities taken from the Veientes, in former 

 wars, should be given up. The second condition 

 was granted ; the first was rejected. A truce, 

 however, was agreed upon, for the security of which 

 the Romans sent ten young men, and as many girls, 

 as hostages, to the Etrurian camp. The latter 

 found an opportunity of escaping to Rome, by 

 swimming over the Tiber. But the consul Publi- 

 cola conveyed them back again to Porsenna, and 

 was, on this occasion, treated with the greatest in- 

 dignity by the Tarquins. Porsenna, on receiving 

 intelligence of it, immediately despatched his son 

 A runs, to protect the Romans. Indignant at the 

 perfidy of the Tarquins, and respecting the magna- 

 nimity of the Romans, the king separated himself 

 from the former, and concluded peace with the 

 latter without taking away their hostages. To re- 

 lieve the wants of the Romans, without offending 

 their pride by a formal present, he left behind, at 

 his departure, his whole camp, with all its stores. 

 In remembrance of his magnanimity, the senate 

 erected to him a monument, and presented him with 

 an ivory chair and sceptre, a golden crown, and a 

 royal robe. A subsequent proposition from Por- 

 senna to the Romans to admit the Tarquins being 

 declined, Porsenna abandoned them, lived in undis- 

 turbed friendship with the Romans, and restored to 

 them the territory of the Veientes, which they had 

 ceded at the conclusion of peace. 



PORSON, RICHARD ; a celebrated critic and 

 classical scholar, professor of Greek in the univer- 

 sity of Cambridge. He was born Dec. 25, 1759, 

 at East Ruston, in Norfolk, where his father was 

 clerk of the parish, and to him he was indebted for 

 the first rudiments of his education. He received 

 some further instruction at the village school, and 

 also from the vicar of Ruston ; after which he was 



sent to Eton, through the patronage of some gen- 

 tlemen who witnessed and admired his early pro- 

 ficiency and inclination for the study of classical 

 literature. In 1777, he became a student of Tri- 

 nity college, Cambridge, where he gained a prize 

 medal ; and, in 1781, he was chosen to a fellowship. 

 He proceeded M.A. in 17H5 ; and, not choosing to 

 take holy orders, on account of conscientious scru- 

 ples in regard to the signing of the Thirty-nine 

 Articles, he was obliged to relinquish his fellow- 

 ship. In 1793, he was unanimously elected Greek 

 professor, and, two years after, he began the publi- 

 cation of the Tragedies of Euripides, with annota- 

 tions, but continued his labours only through four 

 of these dramas Hecuba, Orestes, Phojnissse, 

 and Medea. He also assisted in editing the Gren- 

 ville Homer, published at Oxford (1800, 4 vols., 

 4to), and corrected the text of the tragedies of 

 ^Eschylus for a splendid edition, which appeared 

 from the Glasgow press, in folio, also printed in two 

 volumes octavo. He enjoyed the reputation of 

 being one of the best Greek scholars and critics of 

 the age in England, notwithstanding which, he ex- 

 perienced little patronage a circumstance partly 

 attributable to his intemperate tiabits. Towards 

 the latter part of his life, he was appointed librarian 

 to the London institution, with a salary of 200 a 

 year ; and his death took place Sept. 25, 1808, at 

 his apartments, in the house then belonging to that 

 establishment in the Old Jewry. His decease was 

 occasioned by apoplexy ; and, his body having been 

 subjected to anatomical examination, it was dis- 

 covered that his skull was one of the thickest that 

 had ever been observed. He was the author of 

 Letters to Archdeacon Travis, in Answer to his 

 Defence of the Three Heavenly Witnesses (1790, 

 Svo), in which he is allowed to have completely 

 invalidated the contested text, I John v. 7 ; and, 

 after his death, professor Monk and Mr Blomfield, 

 now bishop of London, published his Adversaria, 

 or Notes and Emendations of the Greek poets ; and 

 his Tracts and Miscellanies were edited by Mr 

 Kidd (1815). Many of these are sallies of irony 

 and humour of the most racy and peculiar kind, 

 which, with other articles abounding with leani- 

 ng and critical acumen, appeared in various of 

 the literary journals. Acuteness of discernment, 

 solidity of judgment, united to intense application 

 and a stupendous memory, rendered professor Por- 

 on a complete critic in the most honourable sense 

 of that appellation. He married Mrs Leman, sis- 

 ter to Mr Perry, proprietor of the Morning Chro- 

 nicle, in which many of his fugitive pieces appeared. 

 PORT. The name of Port wines, or Oporto 

 wines, is given, in commerce, to the produce of the 

 ineyards along the course of the Douro, in Portu- 

 ;al. Although there are, in reality, many varieties, 

 of wines produced in this district, yet such is the 

 degree to which the manipulations, admixtures and 

 adulterations of these wines have been carried, that 

 'ort wine has come to be considered as a peculiar 

 species of liquor, of nearly uniform flavour and 

 strength, varying, indeed, in quality, but admitting 

 "iew dt-grees of excellence ; whereas the liquor sold 

 inder this name is, in fact, a compound of a great 

 lumber of wines of very different quality, with a 

 arge admixture of brandy. The wine country of 

 he Upper Douro begins at about fifty miles from 

 Uporto, and is under the superintendence of a coin- 

 >any vested with great privileges. The better 

 vines, under the name olfactory wines, are destined 

 or exportation ; those designed for the English 

 narket are allied vinhos de embarque or export 

 ivines, and those for other countries vinhos sepnra- 

 ios, or assorted wines. The wine is first placed in 



