1800. | 
(V1. 13.), which reconciled two hoftile 
armies: why may not Cyrus be extolled 
in it by the popular name Solomon? tne 
poem would then fuit and eftablif the 
union of Cyrus and Shelomith. Now, if 
Efther was the daughter of Cyrus by 
Shelomith, her relationfhip both to Cyrus 
and Mordecai, and her elevation to -the 
Perfian throne, would accord with the tef- 
timony of the Jewith {criptures, ana of 
Herodotus. 
It is however exprefsly ftated, that Ether 
(II. 15, and 1X. 29,) was the daughter of 
Abihail. This teitimony it would be dif- 
ficult to weaken. Is the odjeStion fatal? 
Is the whole pedigree of Artiffona from 
Cyrus an afterthought to ennoble a fa- 
vorite miftre{s ? 
Another epithalamium occurs in the 
Book of Pfaims, which is fingularly weil 
adapted for the marriage of Darius and 
Efther.. It is inicribed to the chief mufi- 
cian in Shufhan, where the marriage 
(Ether IT. 5,) was celebrated. It de- 
icribes the royal bridegroom (Pfalm XLV. 
2 and 3,)°as the fairejt and bravett of men, 
almoft in the words of the in{cription con- 
cerning Darius, preferved (Melpomene 91.) 
by Herodotus. The bride is reprefented 
as differing in religion and nation from 
her hufbaind, and ts advifed to forget this 
difference, to conform. An allufion oc- 
curs (v. 16.) to the misfortunes of her 
fathers, which can apply to no Jewifh 
princefs before the captivity ; but of her 
Accquut of the Cardinal Duke of York. 
devolved the charge on Mordecai. 
455 
children it is faid, ‘* thou mayeft make 
them princes in all the earth,’ which could 
fcarcely be predicated unlefs of a queen 
of Perfia, In this poem Efther (tor to 
ber marriage furely it muft be allowed to 
relate) is called ‘* the king’s daughter.” 
‘ During the anarchy which fucceeded the 
death of Cyrus, and which continued until 
the reduction of Babylon by Darius, no 
doubt the royal eftablifhments were difperf= 
ed ; and the feveral ladies oi the houfehold 
(the threef{core queens and fourfcore concu- 
bines*, if the numbers of a poet can be truft- 
ed) retired to the houfes of their natural 
protectors, their neareft married male rela- 
tions. Had the Babylonian name of 
Hananiah, the brother of Shelomith, in- 
ftead of Shadrach (Daniel I. 7.), been’ 
Abdihail, one might iuppofe Efther, along 
“with her mother, to have fought an alylum 
under his roof; and to have been adopted 
by him as a daughter, before his death 
Was 
Meihullam perhaps, or fome other brother 
of Shelomith, this proteétor, and fo called? 
The fuppofition is very natural, and does. 
away the only remaining difficulty, the 
denomination given to Either of Abihail’s 
daughter. 
On the fuppofition then that Vafhti 
is the Atoffa, and Efther the Artiftona, of 
Herodotus, the Jewifh and Greek accounts 
can wholly be reconciled. 
Ms i } 

ee 
* Solomon’s Song, VI. 8. 


ANECDOTES OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
r Se 
ACCOUNT of the CARDINAL DUKE of 
YORK, UNCLE fo thé LATE PRETEN- 
DER, “ow living at ROME. 
ENRY Benepicrt Srvarrt, titular 
lL Duke of York, was born in Rome the 
6th of March, 1725. He was the younger 
fon of the famous Pretender, better known 
under the name of the Chevalicr de St. 
George, and confequently the grandion of 
King James I]. His royal ancettors, as 
well as their misfortunes, are too well 
known fo all.our readers to require men- 
tion of them in this place. 
Prince Henry evinced from his earlieft 
agea great predileétion for the ecclefiafti- 
cal ftate; and in this he was warmly {e- 
conded by his father, who entertained not 
the leaft doubt but that by this means he 
_ would occupy fome confiderable dignities 
in the church. He was not miftaken; for 
as foon as he afcended the foperior orders, 
in 1747, the immortal Pope Benedict XIV. 
beftowed upon him the red-hat. He was 
at that time but little above twenty-two 
years of age. 
It is remarkable, and equally true, that 
many Romans, and a vaft number of Ira- 
lians, now in their old age, recolleSt, with 
the moft lively fenfe of pleafmre, the en- 
thufiaftic joy which the promotion of 
Prince Henry to the purple gave hirth to. 
everal circumftances tended to render it 
realiy an uncommon event. An Englifh 
Cardinal had not been feen in the facred 
college eyer fince the reformation; James 
II. was Jpoken cf with ‘regret, honour, 
and gratitude. The Pretender refided in 
Rome under the name of James III. and 
thus ‘the ancient and reiterated misfor- 
tunes of the royal family of Stuart be- 
came frefher in memory, and more inte- 
refiing 5 added to which, the Prince had 
: the 


