Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/296

 2 6o ANTON I A N O. himfelf to Philip Neri, and accepted the office of fecretary to the facred college, offered him by Pius V. which he exe- cuted for five-and-twenty years vviih the reputation of an honeft and able man. He refufed a bifJbopric which Gre- gory XIV. would have given him, but he accepted the office of fecretary to the briefs, offered him by Clement VIII. who made him his chamberlain, and afterwards a cardinal. It is reported, t'^at cardinal Alexander de Montaho, who 'had behaved a little too haughtily to Antoniano, faid, when he faw him promoted to the purple, that for the future he would not defpife a man of the cafTuck and little band, h.6w- ever low and defpicable he mi^ht appear, fmce it might hap- pen that he whom he haJ defpifed, might not only become his equal, but even his fuperior. Antoniano killed himfelf by too great fatigue, for he fpent whole nights in writing letters, which brought on a ficknefs, whereof he died, in the iixty-third year of his age. He wrote with fuch cafe and fluency, that he fcarcely ever made a blot or rafure ; and ifi Ibid. p. 36. is faid of him, that he preferved the flower of his virginity during his whole life. He was the author of many pieces in verie and profe. ANTONIDFS VANDER GOES (JOHN), an eminen? poet, born at Goes in Zealand, Ap.il 3, 1647. His parents were Anabaptift^, people Of good character, but of low circumfhnces. They went to live at Amfterdam, when Antonides was about four years old ; and in the ninth year of his age he began his ftudfes, under the direction of Hadrian Junius and James Cocceius. Antonides took great pleafure in reading the Latin poets, and carefully compared them ti'ith Grotius, Heinfius, e. By this means he acquired a tafle for poetry, and enriched his mind with noble ideas. He firft attempted to tranflate Tome pieces of Ovid, Horace, and other ancients ; and having formed his tafte on thefe excellent models, he at at length undertook; one of the moft difficult tafks in poetry, to write a tragedy ; this was intitled was fo modeft: as not to permit it to he publifhed. Vondel, who was then engaged in a dramatic piece, which was taken alfo from fome event that happened in China, read Anto- nides's tragedy, and was fa well pleafed with it, that he de- Ib : d. clared, if the author would not print it, he would take fome pafiages out of it, and make ufe of them in his own tragedy, which he did accordingly} and it was reckoned much to the honour
 * ' Trazil, or The Invaiion of China." Antonides however