BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF EURIPIDES. This THE pleasure which we receive from the admired writings of antiquity in a manner allies our minds to the minds of the illustrious writers; we contract a love for them, and interest ourselves in every circumstance that interested them. affection, which arises from the love of excellence, natural to the well-disposed mind, induces us to inquire after even the minutest particulars of their lives and fortunes; and Homer, poor and blind, is not less the object of our attention than his hero Achilles. The life of a retired scholar cannot indeed be supposed to present us with great and striking events; but it may convey more useful instructions, such as come nearer to our own business and bosoms; it may encourage the man of genius to exert his talents so as to render himself agreeable and useful to his fellow-citizens, to procure their esteem while he lives, and to preserve his name from oblivion, so dreaded by the generous mind. Few of the great writers of ancient times have a juster claim to this attention than the virtuous, the modest, the amiable poet, with whose remaining works the English reader is now presented. The prodigious armament with which Xerxes invaded Greece is well known when he was advancing towards Attica, to revenge the defeat of his father's forces at Marathon, the Athenians, by the advice of Themistocles, retired with their effects to Salamis, Trozene, and Ægina. Among those who took refuge at Salamis were Mnesarchus and Clito, the parents of Euripides, who was born in that island on the very day in which the Grecians there gained that memorable victory over the Persian fleet. From the best authorities we learn that his parents were persons of rank and fortune; particularly that his mother was of very noble birth; for no regard is due to Aristophanes, who spared no good man, and who hated Euripides. They educated their son with great attention, and at a considerable expense: besides the athletic exercises, in which he excelled, he was : taught grammar, music, and painting in this enchanting art he made a great proficiency, particularly in historical pictures, and first designed the figure of Agamemnon at the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the execution of which has rendered the name of Timanthes immortal. He now applied himself to the study of oratory under the refined and learned Prodicus, who admitted none to his school but the sons of great and noble families: the celebrated Pericles was also formed under this excellent master, who is well known from his elegant and instructive fable, the Judgment of Hercules, which has been adorned with all the graces of English poetry from this school Euripides derived that copious stream of eloquence which flows through all his writings, and which rendered him the poet of orators. Demosthenes was so sensible of his superior excellence in this, that he studied him with peculiar attention; Cicero held him in the highest estimation even to his last moments; for when those that murdered him came up to his litter, they found him reading the Medea of this author; and Quintilian recommends him to the real orator as a more useful model than either the sublime and daring Eschylus, or the grave and majestic Sophocles. |