NORES, JASON DE

NORES, JASON DE, a scholar, poet, and philosopher,

Norfolk. was born at Nicosia, in Cyprus. Having lost his fortune when the Turks made themselves masters of that island in 1570, he retired to Padua, where he acquired great reputation by teaching ethical philosophy. His character had that cast of severity which is often the consequence of scholastic habits. He was one of those men who discuss every thing without being capable of thoroughly understanding any thing. The Pastor Fido of Guarini made its appearance, and in consequence pastorals became a fashionable species of reading throughout all Italy. Nores, who did not relish works of this kind, attacked the production of Guarini, who entirely confuted him in a little piece printed at Ferrara in 1588. Nores made a reply two years afterwards; and the poet was preparing an answer still more severe than the former, when his antagonist died of grief, occasioned by the banishment of his only son for having killed a Venetian in single combat. He left behind him a great many works, some in Italian, and others in Latin. The principal of his Italian works are, 1. Poetics, Padua, 1588, 4to; 2. A Treatise on Republics, 1578, 4to; 3. A Treatise on the World and its Parts, Venice, 1571, 8vo; 4. Introduction to three books of Aristotle's Rhetoric, Venice, 1548, 4to; 5. A Treatise on the aid which Comedy, Tragedy, and Epic Poetry, may receive from Moral Philosophy. His Latin works are, 1. Institutio in Philosophiam Ciceronis, Padua, 1576, 8vo; 2. Brevis et distincta Summa Preceptorum de Arte Discendi, ex libris Ciceronis collecta, Venice, 1553, 8vo; 3. De Constitutione partium Humane et Civilis Philosophiae, 4to; 4. Interpretatio in Artem Poeticam Horatii. In all his works we remark great perspicuity and accuracy, profound erudition, and happy expressions, with a compact and sometimes forcible style.