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/297

 A N T O N I D F. S. 261 honour of AntoniJes, to have wri'ten vvhnt mi;;ht be adopted by Co great a poet as Vondcl w.is acknowledged to br. Upon the conclufion of the peu-r hetvvixt (1 M-.it Britain and Holland, in the year 1^97, Antonides wrote :i pieie, intitled " Btllona ajn band," i. e. " Jlellona ch.iim ii," a vcrv ele- gant poem, roniUHng of feveral hundied crfes. The .ip- plaufc with which this piece was received, excited him to tr his cenius in fomethlng more confiderable : he accordingly wrote an epic p^em, whkh he intitled " The R.:ver ." The dcCcripiion of (his river, or rather lake, is the fubj-j-.t of the poem, which is divided into tour books ; in the rirlt the pcet gives a very pompous del'cription of all that is re- markable on that bank of the Y, on which Amllerdam is built. In the fecond he opens to himfelf a l.u^er fit-Id ; he begins with the praifcs of navigation, and d'.-^rih.rs the large fleets which cover the Y, as an immenfe forcit, and thence 2;o to every part of the wjrld, to brinj^ ho ne whatever may fatisfy the neccfiity, luxury, or pride of irun. I'he third book is an ingenious fiction; which Cuppof s the pose all of a fudden carried to the bottom of the fiver Y, where he lees the deity of the river, with his demi-gooBs and nymphs, adorning and dreding themlelves to ^o to a feaft, which was to be celebrated it Neptune's court, upon t'le anniverfiry of the marriage of Thetis with Pcleuv. In the fourth boi k he defcnbes the other bank of the Y, adorned with feveral cities of North Holland; and in the c!"ie of tie work ud-irtfles himlelf to the magiftrates of Amfterd^m, to whole wildorn he afcribes the riches and flourifhing condition of chat power- ful city. Antonides's parents had bred him up an apothecary; but his remarkable genius for poetry form gained him the ellcem and friendship of feveral perfons of ciiftindYicn ; and partiru- iy of Mr. Buifeio, one of the lords of the arninlity at A:;i- lierdam, and a greur lover o' pottrv, who lent him at his own expence to purfue his Itu/it--. at l.r-yden : where he re- mained till he took his degree of doctor of phyfic, and thrn his patron gave him a place in the- admiiality. In it>~,*, Antonides married Sufanna Hermans, a min fi.-i's daughter, who had allo a talent for poetry. In the pull e to his hn> poem, he promifed the life of the apoille Fsnl, which, 1: Virgil's 7neid, was to be divided into twelve houks ; bi:c he never hnifhed thatdefign, only a lew fragments of it ing appeared. He was afraid of theological liibjeots. Afut marriage, he did not much indulge his poe;ir H< mil-: ; nnd withina few years he fell into a confumption, c" .hirh >.< / ' S 7,