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572 Extracts from the. Port-folio of a Man of Letters. [July 1; 
Tydeus the engi in whose undaunted 
breast 
Th’ fEtolian God of Battles rules confest. 
ANTIGOXE, 
Ts that the chief so near allied 
To my own brother’s gentle bride 3 
How strange his arms and nodding crest, 
How rude his half-barbaric yest! 
But who is that, of front severe,’ 
Who takes near Zethus’ tomb his stand ? 
Loose o’er his shoulders flows his hair, 
And num’rous is his well-arm’d band. 
OLD MAN. 
Thine eyes, fair maid, Parthenopeus see, 
The huntress Atalanta’s progeny. 
ANTIGONE. 
But where, oh where, my ‘riend, is he, 
By Zethus’ tomb, or Dirce’s shore, 
Whom, at the self-same hour with me 
(Unhappy hour) my mother bore ? 
Say, may I trust my wandering eyes? 
Far off, on Dirce’s willow’d coast 
I see him, faintly shadow’d rise, 
The dim resemblance of a ghost. 
I know him by his royal mien, | 
His manly form, his eagle-sight, 
Ah! alter’d have the moments been 5 
Since last that manly form was seen 
On Dirce’s smooth and level green! 
Since last that keen eye’s wakerul light 
Repaid a sister’s fond caress 
With all a brotier’s tenderness. 
EMMELCES, 
Extracts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 
=e 
DON QUIXOTE, 
T seems a problem in literature, that 
a nation the gravest and most se- 
riously disposed by its natural temper and 
the gloomy despotisin of its government 
and religion, should have produced the 
most lively work that ever was written. It 
abounds in original humour and exqui- 
site satire. It displays the most copious 
invention, the most whimsicai incidents 
and the keenest remarks on the follies of 
1ts contemporaries. There is no book in 
whatever language that so eminently 
possesses the power of exciting la aughter. 
The following anecdote may be recorded 
as ail instance of it. 
Phillip If1. being one day at a balcony 
ofthe palace at Madrid, observed a young 
student on the borders of the Manza- 
nares, with a book in his hand, who, as 
he read, exhibited the most violent marks 
of extacy and admiration, by his gestures 
and the repeated peals of laughter which 
he sent forth. Struck, with the oddity of 
fhe sight, thé king turned to one of his 
courtiers, and said “ Rither that young 
man is out ef his mind, or he is reading 
Don Quixote.” The courtier descended 
for the purpose of satisfying the oh’ 
of the monarch, and discovered th 
actualiy was.a volume of Cervantes w hich 
the youth was perusing with such delight. 
TENHOVE 
There is a short and very imperfect 
account of this ingenious man prefixed to 
the Memoirs of the House of Medicis, 
written by Dr. Maclaine the translator. 
and anaotater of Mosheim. Tie fol- 
lewing account of him hasbeen obligingly 
euumunicated, by agentleman who knew 
him well, and accompanied him in _ his 
travels through Italy and Sicily. 
Terhove was born in Holland of a no- 
ble family, and by his mother’s side was 
related to Lagel, the Graud Pensionary, 
or first minister, of the United Provinces. 
He was perhaps the most elegant, if not 
the most profound scholar of his age or 
country. He was so thorongiiy skilled 
In the classics, that: ev ery el Se author 
was familiar to him, though he princi- 
pally delighted ii: poetry and the belles- 
lettres, He was so passionate an ad- 
mirer of Horace, that he could repeat al- 
most every line in that poet. .He was 
also intimately acquainted with the mos 
dern languages of Italy, Germany, France, 
England. The emcee of this country 
‘was in particular a favourite subject with 
him. Shakespear, whom he always cons 
dered the true poet of Nature, was long his 
peculiar study. French he beth spoke 
and wrote with so much fluency and ease, 
as not to be distinguished from a native 
of France. It was in the language of 
that country, that he wrote his history. 
His very afiiuent fortune enabied him to 
travel in the most sumptuous style, ac+ 
companied by a numerous train of friends 
and domestics. On his retura from Si- 
cily, he imprudently ventured to explore 
the antiquities of Pestum. The conse- 
quence proved fatal to many of his party, 
who fell victims to the mal-ar.a of that de- 
structive spot. Tenhove himself did not 
escape. Though not immediately fatal, the - 
cruel disorder hung oa him ever after, 
He lingered but a very few years after hig 
return to Holiand. 
As a Snished scholar and an elegant 
write, 
