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FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

TO GILBERT STUART, ESQ.

Upon his intended portrait of the beautiful wife of one of our naval heroes-having already completed that of her illustrious husband.

STUART, I charge thy genius, try

To catch the enchantment of that eye;
Let her the fairest of the fair-
The myrtle wreaths of Venus wear,
While round her happy hero's brow
The laurels of a nation flow.

That neck let floating curls entwine,
Make all its pearly treasures thine,
Be thy creative thought obeyed,
And call to life the featured shade:
Just touch the cheek with dawning red,

Soft as the leaf from roses shed.

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But for the deeper lip prepare,

The rubied bud which ripens there

Since, never to thy critic eyes,

May there an earthly equal rise;
I charge thy genius, let it be

Reflecting her, and speaking thee.

S. W.

MORTUARY-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

DEPARTED this life, at New Orleans, on the 28th of Febru. ary, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, Mr. GEORGE ANDREWS, youngest son of the Rev. John Andrews, D. D. late Provost of the University of Pennsylvania.

The early principles of piety and of a correct education, with which his youthful mind was imbued by his parents, combining with natural gentleness of disposition, and great urbanity of manners, commanded the respect and esteem of all who enjoyed the pleasure of his acquaintance.

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THIS view on Lake Champlain is taken about two miles from S. Keensborough (or, as it is sometimes called, Whitehall) at the bottom of the lake where the steamboat starts for St. Johns. At this end of the lake it becomes very narrow and reduced nearly to the size of a creek: the scenery on either side is rocky, and in many places rises almost perpendicular, which, with the abrupt turnings of this narrow termination of the lake, often presents beautiful subjects for the pencil.

CRITICISM.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

CUM TABULIS ANIMUM CENSORIS SUMET HONESTI.

-Hor.

Memoirs of the life of George Frederick Cooke, esquire, late of the Theatre Covent Garden, by William Dunlap. 2 vols. Newyork, published by D. Longworth. pp. 803.

AN important change is now taking place in the minds of our countrymen on the subject of departed men. "De mortuis

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nil nisi bonum," was, formerly, a maxim held in profound veneration; and which, in fact, amounted to this, that it was clearly justifiable to tell a falshood when no one could be benefited by the declaration. We rejoice to find that good sense has at last prevailed and established the opinion, that the dead as well as the living, must both be tried by their merits. The author of the present work has, with an honest hardihood, stood forth the champion of this principle, and has illustrated, by appropriate facts and circumstances, the changing and versatile character of Mr. Cooke.

George Frederick Cooke, notwithstanding he was so confidently pronounced to be an Irishman, was born at Westminster. After the death of his father, the family removed to the town of Berwick upon Tweed. He became first enamoured with the stage, from the perusal of Otway's tragedy of Venice Preserved. This gave him an early bias, and frequent visits to the little provincial theatres of his neighbourhood only tended to deepen such impressions. Unsatisfied with becoming a spectator merely, he now burned to take an active part in such employment. His mother, alarmed by such repeated indications of his growing propensities, bound him an apprentice to a respectable printer in Berwick. That town was shortly afterwards visited by a party of strolling players, and Cooke embarked his fortune with them, and proceeded, in their company, to London. He had now the happiness of beholding those characters to whom the whole theatrical world has done reverence. The following is an extract from his journal:

"The characters," says Cooke, "I had the happiness of seeing that grand master of the stage, Garrick, illustrate, were Lear; Hamlet (twice;) Leon (twice;) Benedick (twice;) Don Felix (twice;) and Kitely. Alas! no more. Lear was the last. He took his leave after Don Felix, in a farewell address, on the 10th of June, 1776."

Mr. Cooke was at length regularly engaged at the Manchester theatre, where he acted several characters-Tancred, Major O'Flaherty, Joseph Surface, Moody, Rover-and, probably for the first time, Lear, for his own benefit. At this time, and when he had arrived at the age of thirty-five years, says his biographer, "Those habits which continued with Mr. Cooke to the end of his life, had taken pretty firm hold of him, but the worst of them had not yet grown to

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