HALIFAX, CHARLES MONTAGU, 1ST EARL of (1661-1715). —A famous wit, statesman, and patron of literature, was ed. at Westminster School and Trinity Coll., Camb. Entering Parliament he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1694, and First Lord of the Treasury 1697. Vain and arrogant, he soon lost popularity and power. His chief literary effort was his collaboration with Prior in The Town and Country Mouse (1687), a parody of and reply to Dryden's Hind and Panther. H. was the friend and patron of Addison, Steele, Congreve, and many other of the classical writers of his day. He became a peer in 1701.
HALL, MRS. ANNA MARIA (FIELDING) (1800-1881). —Novelist, was b. in Dublin, but left Ireland at the age of 15. Nevertheless, that country gave her the motive of several of her most successful books, such as Sketches of Irish Character (1829), Lights and Shadows of Irish Character (1838), Marian (1839), and The White Boy (1845). Other works are The Buccaneer, and Midsummer Eve, a fairy tale, and many sketches in the Art Journal, of which her husband, SAMUEL CARTER HALL (1800-1889), was ed. With him she also collaborated in a work entitled Ireland, its Scenery, Character, etc. Mrs. H. was a very voluminous writer; her descriptive talents were considerable, as also was her power of depicting character. Her husband was likewise a writer of some note, chiefly on art.
HALL, BASIL (1788-1844). —Traveller, s. of Sir James H., an eminent man of science, was in the navy, and rose to be captain. He was one of the first to visit Corea, and wrote Voyage of Discovery to Corea (1818), also Travels in North America in 1827-28, a lively work which gave some offence in the U.S., Fragments of Voyages and Travels (1831-40), and some tales and romances. He was latterly insane.
HALL, or HALLE, EDWARD (1499?-1547). —Chronicler, b. in London, studied successively at Camb. and Oxf. He was a lawyer, and sat in Parliament for Bridgnorth, and served on various Commissions. He wrote a history of The Union of the two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke, commonly called Hall's Chronicle. It was pub. after the author's death by Richard Grafton, and was prohibited by Queen Mary.
HALL, JOSEPH (1574-1656). —Divine, b. at Ashby-de-la-Zouche, and ed. at Camb., he entered the Church, and became in 1627 Bishop of Exeter, and in 1641 Bishop of Norwich. He had a chequered career. He accompanied James I. to Scotland in 1617, and was a Deputy to the Synod of Dort. Accused of Puritanism, and at enmity with Laud, he fell on troublous days, and was, in 1641, imprisoned in the Tower for joining those bishops who protested against the validity of laws passed during their exclusion (owing to tumult in the streets) from Parliament. Returning to Norwich he found that his revenues had been sequestrated, and his private property seized. In 1647 he retired to a small farm near Norwich, where he passed the remainder of his life. Among his works are Contemplations, Characters of Virtues and Vices (1614), and his Virgidemiarum, or Satires (1597-8), the last written before he was in orders, and condemned by Archbishop Whitgift to be burned. Pope, however, thought them "the best poetry and truest satire in the English language." H.'s Divine Right of Episcopacy gave rise to much controversy, in which Archbishop Ussher, Milton, and the writers who called themselves "Smectymnuus" (a combination of their initials) took part.
HALL, ROBERT (1764-1831). —Divine, b. at Arnsby, Leicestershire, the s. of a Baptist minister of some note, was ed. at a Baptist Academy, and at the Univ. of Aberdeen, from which he received the degree of D.D. in 1817. He ministered to congregations at Bristol, Cambridge, Leicester, and again at Bristol, and became one of the greatest pulpit orators of his day. His most famous sermon was that on the Death of the Princess Charlotte (1817). Another which created a great impression was that on Modern Infidelity. H. was a life-long sufferer, and was occasionally insane, yet his intellectual activity was unceasing. After his death a collection of 50 of his sermons was pub. (1843), and Miscellaneous Works and Remains (1846).
HALLAM, HENRY (1777-1859). —Historian, s. of a Dean of Wells, was b. at Windsor, and ed. at Eton and Oxf. He was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple, and appointed a Commissioner of Stamps. Among his earliest writings were papers in the Edinburgh Review; but in 1818 he leaped into a foremost place among historical writers by the publication of his View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages. This was followed in 1827 by The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II., and his third great work, Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries, in 4 vols., appeared in 1837-39. All these, which have gone through several ed., and have been translated into the principal languages of Europe, are characterised by wide and profound learning, indefatigable research, and judicial impartiality. They opened a new field of investigation in which their author has had few, if any, superiors. In politics H. was a Whig; but he took no active share in party warfare. He had two sons of great promise, both of whom predeceased him. Of these the elder, ARTHUR HENRY, is the subject of Tennyson's In Memoriam, and of him his f. wrote a touching memoir prefixed to his literary remains.
HALLECK, FITZGREENE (1790-1867). —Poet, b. at Guilford, Conn., wrote, with Rodman Drake, a young poet who d. at 25, The Croaker Papers, a series of satirical and humorous verses, and Fanny, also a satire. In 1822 he visited Europe, and the traces of this are found in most of his subsequent poetry, e.g. his lines on Burns, and on Alnwick Castle.
HALLIWELL-PHILLIPS, JAMES ORCHARD (1820-1889). —Archæologist and Shakespearian scholar, ed. at Camb., was the author of a Life of Shakespeare (1848), New Boke about Shakespeare and Stratford upon Avon (1850), Folio Edition of Shakespeare (1853-65), and various other works relative to him, also Dictionary of Old English Plays (1860). He also ed. works for the Camden and Percy Societies, and compiled a Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words. In 1872 he added his wife's name of Phillips to his own.
HAMERTON, PHILIP GILBERT (1834-1894). —Artist and writer on æsthetics, s. of a solicitor, was b. near Oldham. Originally intended for the Church, he decided for art and literature. After working as an artist in the Highlands with his wife, who was a Frenchwoman, he settled in France, and devoted himself to writing on art. Among his works are Etching and Etchers, etc. (1868), Painting in France after the Decline of Classicism (1869), The Intellectual Life (1873), Human Intercourse (1884), The Graphic Arts (1882), Landscape (1885), some of which were magnificently illustrated. He also left an autobiography. His writings had a great influence upon artists, and also in stimulating and diffusing the love of art among the public.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER (1757-1804). —Statesman and political writer, b. in the West Indies, was one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States, and was the first Sec. of the national Treasury. He was one of the greatest of American statesmen, and has also a place in literature as the principal writer in the Federalist, a periodical founded to expound and defend the new Constitution, which was afterwards pub. as a permanent work. He contributed 51 of its 85 articles.
HAMILTON, ELIZABETH (1758-1816). —Wrote The Cottagers of Glenburnie, a tale which had much popularity in its day, and perhaps had some effect in the improvement of certain aspects of humble domestic life in Scotland. She also wrote Letters on Education, Essays on the Human Mind, and The Hindoo Rajah.
HAMILTON, THOMAS (1789-1842). —Novelist, brother of Sir William Hamilton (q.v.), wrote a novel, Cyril Thornton (1827), which was received with great favour. He was an officer in the army, and, on his retirement, settled in Edin., and became a contributor to Blackwood. He was also the author of Annals of the Peninsular Campaign (1829), and Men and Manners in America (1833).
HAMILTON, WILLIAM (OF BANGOUR) (1704-1754). —Poet, was b. at the family seat in Linlithgowshire. Cultivated and brilliant, he was a favourite of society, and began his literary career by contributing verses to Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany. He joined the Pretender in 1745, and celebrated the Battle of Prestonpans in Gladsmuir. After Culloden he wandered in the Highlands, where he wrote his Soliloquy, and escaped to France. His friends, however, succeeded in obtaining his pardon, and he returned to his native country. In 1750, on the death of his brother, he succeeded to the family estate, which, however, he did not long live to enjoy. He is best remembered for his fine ballad of The Braes of Yarrow. He also wrote The Episode of the Thistle. He d. at Lyons.
HAMILTON, WILLIAM (OF GILBERTFIELD) (1665?-1751). —Poet, served in the army, from which he retired with the rank of Lieutenant. He wrote poetical Epistles to Allan Ramsay, and an abridgment in modern Scotch of Blind Harry's Life of Sir William Wallace.
HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM (1788-1856). —Metaphysician, b. in Glasgow, in the Univ. of which his f. and grandfather successively filled the Chair of Anatomy and Botany, ed. there and at Balliol Coll., Oxf., was called to the Scottish Bar, at which he attained little practice, but was appointed Solicitor of Teinds. In 1816 he established his claim to the baronetcy of H. of Preston. On the death of Dr. Thomas Brown in 1820, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Chair of Moral Philosophy in Edin., but in the following year he was appointed Prof. of History. It was not until 1829 that he gave full proof of his remarkable powers and attainments as a philosopher in a famous article in the Edinburgh Review, a critique of Victor Cousin's doctrine of the Infinite. This paper carried his name over Europe, and won for him the homage of continental philosophers, including Cousin himself. After this H. continued to contribute to the Review, many of his papers being translated into French, German, and Italian. In 1852 they were coll. with notes and additions, and pub. as Discussions in Philosophy and Literature, etc. In 1836 H. was elected Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Edinburgh, which office he held with great reputation until his death, after which the lectures he had delivered were edited and pub. by Prof. Mansel and Veitch. His magnum opus was his edition of the Works of Dr. Thomas Reid, left unfinished, and completed by Mansel. H. was the last, and certainly the most learned and accomplished, of the Scottish school of philosophy, which he considered it his mission to develop and correlate to the systems of other times and countries. He also made various important contributions to the science of logic. During his later years he suffered from paralysis of one side, which, though it left his mind unaffected, impaired his powers of work. A Memoir of H. by Prof. Veitch appeared in 1869.
HANNA, WILLIAM (1808-1882). —Divine and biographer, s. of Samuel H., Prof. of Divinity in the Presbyterian Coll., Belfast, was b. there, became a distinguished minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and colleague of Dr. T. Guthrie (q.v.). He wrote an admirable Life of Dr. Chalmers, whose son-in-law he was, and ed. his works. He also ed. the Letters of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen (q.v.), and wrote various theological works.
HANNAY, JAMES (1827-1873). —Novelist and journalist, was b. at Dumfries, and after serving for some years in the navy took to literature, and became ed. of the Edinburgh Courant. He wrote two novels, Singleton Fontenoy (1850), and Eustace Conyers (1855); also Lectures on Satire and Satirists, and Studies on Thackeray. For the last five years of his life he was British Consul at Barcelona.
HARE, AUGUSTUS JOHN CUTHBERT (1834-1903). —Youngest s. of Francis H., and nephew of Aug. and Julius H. (q.v.), b. at Rome, practically adopted by his aunt, the widow of Aug. H., and ed. at Harrow. He was the author of a large number of books, which fall into two classes: biographies of members and connections of his family, and descriptive and historical accounts of various countries and cities. To the first belong Memorials of a Quiet Life (his adoptive mother's), Story of Two Noble Lives (Lady Canning and Lady Waterford), The Gurneys of Earlham, and an inordinately extended autobiography; to the second, Walks in Rome, Walks in London, Wanderings in Spain, Cities of Northern, Southern, and Central Italy (separate works), and many others. His writings are all interesting and informing, but in general suffer from his tendency to diffuseness.
HARE, AUGUSTUS WILLIAM (1792-1834). —Was the s. of Francis Hare-Naylor, who m. a cousin of the famous Duchess of Devonshire, and was the author of a history of Germany. He was sent by the widow of Sir W. Jones, whose godson he was, to Winchester, and New Coll., Oxf., in the latter of which he was for some time a tutor. Entering the Church he became incumbent of the rural parish of Alton Barnes where, leading an absolutely unselfish life, he was the father and friend of his parishioners. In addition to writing in conjunction with his brother Julius (q.v.), Guesses at Truth, a work containing short essays on multifarious subjects, which attracted much attention, he left two vols. of sermons.
HARE, JULIUS CHARLES (1795-1855). —Essayist, etc., younger brother of the above, was b. at Vicenza. When two years old his parents left him to the care of Clotilda Tambroni, female Prof. of Greek at Bologna. Ed. at Charterhouse and Camb., he took orders and, in 1832, was appointed to the rich family living of Hurstmonceau, which Augustus had refused. Here he had John Sterling (q.v.) for curate, and Bunsen for a neighbour. He was also Archdeacon of Lewes and a Chaplain to the Queen. His first work was Guesses at Truth (1827), jointly with his brother, and he also pub., jointly with Thirlwall (q.v.), a translation of Niebuhr's History of Rome, wrote The Victory of Faith and other theological books and pamphlets on Church and other questions, A Life of Sterling, and a Vindication of Luther. H., though a lovable, was an eccentric, man of strong antipathies, unmethodical, and unpunctual.
HARINGTON, SIR JOHN (1561-1612). —Miscellaneous writer, and translator, b. at Kelston Park near Bath, and ed. at Eton and Camb., became a courtier of Queen Elizabeth, whose godson he was. In 1599 he served in Ireland under Essex, by whom he was knighted on the field, a stretch of authority which was much resented by the Queen. While there he wrote A Short View of the State of Ireland, first pub. 1880. He was in repute for his epigrams, of which some have wit, but others are only indelicate. His translation of the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, in the metre of the original, is a somewhat free paraphrase, and is now superseded. It first appeared in the form of extracts, which were handed in MS. about the Court until they reached the Queen, who reprimanded the translator for corrupting the morals of her ladies by translating the most unedifying passages, and banished him to his country seat until he should have translated the whole poem. His most valuable work is one which was pub. in 1769 by a descendant, under the title of Nugæ Antiquæ (Old-time Trifles), a miscellaneous collection from his writings and papers, containing many things of interest, e.g., a minute account of the Queen's last illness, and letters and verses by her and other eminent persons.
HARLAND, HENRY (1861-1905). —Novelist, b. of American parentage at St. Petersburg, and ed. at Rome. Thereafter he went to Paris, and thence to America, where he graduated at Harvard, and settled in New York. His literary career falls into two distinctly marked sections, very diverse in character. During the first of these he produced, under the pseudonym of "Sidney Luska," a series of highly sensational novels, thrown off with little regard to literary quality, and which it was his wish should be forgotten; but about 1890 his aspirations underwent a complete change, and he became an enthusiast in regard to style and the mot propre. The first novels of this new era, Mademoiselle Miss (1893), Grey Roses (1895), and Comedies and Errors (1898), though obtaining the approval of the literary elect, had little general popularity; but the tide turned with the appearance of The Cardinal's Snuff-box (1900), which was widely admired. It was followed by The Lady Paramount (1901), and My Friend Prospero (1903). H. d. at San Remo after a prolonged illness.
HARRINGTON, JAMES (1611-1677). —Political theorist, s. of Sir Sapcotes H., was b. at Upton, Northamptonshire, and ed. at Oxf., where he was a pupil of Chillingworth. After leaving the university he travelled on the Continent, visiting, among other places, The Hague and Venice, where he imbibed republican principles. He was for some time a groom of the bedchamber to Charles I. On the outbreak of the Civil War he sided with the Parliament, but disapproved of the execution of the King, for whom he appears, notwithstanding his political theories, to have cherished a personal attachment. Thereafter he withdrew from active life, and devoted himself to composing his political romance (as it may be called) of Oceana, which he pub. in 1656, and in which Oceana represents England, Marpesia Scotland, and Panopæa Ireland. In this work he propounds the theory that the natural element of power in states is property, of which land is the most important. He further endeavoured to propagate his views by establishing a debating society called the Rota, and by his conversations with his friends. After the Restoration he was confined in the Tower, and subsequently at Plymouth. He issued several defences of Oceana, and made translations from Virgil. In his later years he laboured under mental delusions. Aubrey describes him as of middle stature, strong, well-set, with quick, fiery hazel eyes, and thick curly hair.
HARRIS, JAMES (1709-1780). —Grammarian, was a wealthy country gentleman and member of Parliament, who held office in the Admiralty and the Treasury. He was the author of a singular and learned work entitled Hermes, or a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal Grammar. For the purpose which it had in view it is useless; but it contains much curious matter. His s. was the eminent diplomatist, James H., 1st Earl of Malmesbury.
HARRIS, JOEL CHANDLER (1848-1908). —Writer of tales, etc., b. at Eatonton, Georgia, was successively printer, lawyer, and journalist. He struck out an original line in his stories of animal life as it presents itself to the mind of the Southern negro, in whose dialect they are written. These not only achieved and retain an exceptional popularity among children, to whom they were in the first instance addressed, but attracted the attention of students of folklore and anthology. Among his writings are Uncle Remus (1880), Nights with Uncle Remus (1884), Mr. Rabbit at Home (1895), Aaron in the Wild Woods (1897), Chronicles of Aunt Minervy Ann (1899), etc.
HARTE, FRANCIS BRET (1839-1902). —American humorist, b. in Albany, N.Y., but when still a boy went to California. He had a somewhat varied career as a teacher, miner, and journalist, and it is as a realistic chronicler of the gold-field and an original humorist that his chief literary triumphs were achieved. Among his best known writings are Condensed Novels, in which he showed great skill as a parodist, The Luck of Roaring Camp, The Idyll of Red Gulch, and The Heathen Chinee. In 1880 he came to Glasgow as U.S. Consul, and from 1885 he lived in London. His writings often show the tenderness and fine feeling that are allied to the higher forms of humour, and he may be said to have created a special form of short story in his Californian tales and prose idylls.
HARTLEY, DAVID (1705-1757). —Philosopher, b. at Luddenden, Yorkshire, and ed. at Camb., studied for the Church, but owing to theological difficulties turned to medicine as a profession, and practised with success at various places, including London and Bath. He also attained eminence as a writer on philosophy, and indeed may be said to have founded a school of thought based upon two theories, (1) the Doctrine of Vibrations, and (2) that of Association of Ideas. These he developed in an elaborate treatise, Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations. Though his system has long been discarded, its main ideas have continued to influence thought and investigation.
HARVEY, GABRIEL (1545?-1630). —Poet, s. of a ropemaker, was b. at Saffron Walden, ed. at Camb., and became the friend of Spenser, being the Hobbinol of The Shepheard's Calendar. He wrote various satirical pieces, sonnets, and pamphlets. Vain and ill-tempered, he was a remorseless critic of others, and was involved in perpetual controversy, specially with Greene and Nash, the latter of whom was able to silence him. He wrote treatises on rhetoric, claimed to have introduced hexameters into English, was a foe to rhyme, and persuaded Spenser temporarily to abandon it.
HAWES, STEPHEN (d. 1523?). —Poet; very little concerning him is known with certainty. He is believed to have been b. in Suffolk, and may have studied at Oxf. or Camb. He first comes clearly into view as a Groom of the Chamber in 1502, in which year he dedicated to Henry VII. his Pastyme of Pleasure, first printed in 1509 by Wynkyn de Worde. In the same year appeared the Convercyon of Swerers (1509), and A Joyful Meditacyon of all England (1509), on the coronation of Henry VIII. He also wrote the Exemple of Vertu. H. was a scholar, and was familiar with French and Italian poetry. No great poet, he yet had a considerable share in regularising the language.
HAWKER, ROBERT STEPHEN (1804-1875). —Poet and antiquary, ed. at Cheltenham and Oxf., became parson of Morwenstow, a smuggling and wrecking community on the Cornish coast, where he exercised a reforming and beneficent, though extremely unconventional, influence until his death, shortly before which he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He wrote some poems of great originality and charm, Records of the Western Shore (1832-36), and The Quest of the Sangraal (1863) among them, besides short poems, of which perhaps the best known is Shall Trelawny Die? which, based as it is on an old rhyme, deceived both Scott and Macaulay into thinking it an ancient fragment. He also pub. a collection of papers, Footprints of Former Men in Cornwall (1870).
HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL (1804-1864). —Novelist, b. at Salem, Massachusetts, s.. of a sea captain, who d. in 1808, after which his mother led the life of a recluse. An accident when at play conduced to an early taste for reading, and from boyhood he cherished literary aspirations. His education was completed at Bowdoin Coll., where he had Longfellow for a fellow-student. After graduating, he obtained a post in the Custom-House, which, however, he did not find congenial, and soon gave up, betaking himself to literature, his earliest efforts, besides a novel, Fanshawe, which had no success, being short tales and sketches, which, after appearing in periodicals, were coll. and pub. as Twice-told Tales (1837), followed by a second series in 1842. In 1841 he joined for a few months the socialistic community at Brook Farm, but soon tired of it, and in the next year he m. and set up house in Concord in an old manse, formerly tenanted by Emerson, whence proceeded Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). It was followed by The Snow Image (1851), The Scarlet Letter (1850), his most powerful work, The House of Seven Gables, and The Blithedale Romance (1852), besides his children's books, The Wonder Book, and The Tanglewood Tales. Such business as he had occupied himself with had been in connection with Custom-House appointments at different places; but in 1853 he received from his friend Franklin Pierce, on his election to the Presidency, the appointment of United States Consul at Liverpool, which he retained for four years, when, in consequence of a threatened failure of health, he went to Italy and began his story of The Marble Faun, pub. in England in 1860 under the title of The Transformation. The last of his books pub. during his lifetime was Our Old Home (1863), notes on England and the English. He had returned to America in 1860, where, with failing health and powers, he passed his remaining four years. After his death there were pub. The Ancestral Footstep, Septimus Felton, Dr. Grimshawe's Secret, and The Dolliver Romance, all more or less fragmentary. Most of H.'s work is pervaded by a strong element of mysticism, and a tendency to dwell in the border-land between the seen and the unseen. His style is characterised by a distinctive grace and charm, rich, varied, suggestive, and imaginative. On the whole he is undoubtedly the greatest imaginative writer yet produced by America.
There are several ed. of the Works, e.g. Little Classics, 25 vols.; Riverside, 15 vols.; Standard Library, 15 vols.; the two last have biographies. Lives by his son Julian, H. James (English Men of Letters, 1850), M.D. Conway (Great Writers, 1890), etc.
HAY, JOHN (1838-1906). —Diplomatist and poet, b. at Salem, Indiana, ed. at Brown Univ., and called to the Illinois Bar, served in the army, and was one of President Lincoln's secs. He then held diplomatic posts at Paris, Madrid, and Vienna, was Ambassador to Great Britain, and was in 1898 appointed Sec. of State. He has a place in literature by virtue of his Pike County Ballads, and Castilian Days (1871).
HAYLEY, WILLIAM (1745-1820). —Poet and biographer, was b. at Chichester, and ed. at Eton and Camb. Though overstrained and romantic, he had some literary ability, and was a good conversationalist. He was the friend of Cowper, whose Life he wrote; and it was to his influence with Pitt that the granting of a pension to the poet was due. He was the author of numerous poems, including The Triumph of Temper, and of Essays on History and Epic Poetry, and, in addition to his biography of Cowper, wrote a Life of Milton. On the death of Thos. Warton in 1790 he was offered, but declined, the Laureateship. Of him Southey said, "Everything about that man is good except his poetry."
HAYNE, PAUL HAMILTON (1830-1886). —Poet, b. at Charleston, S. Carolina, of an old family, contributed to various magazines, and pub. Poems (1885), containing "Legends and Lyrics." His graceful verses show the influence of Keats. His sonnets are some of his best work.
HAYWARD, ABRAHAM (1802-1884). —Miscellaneous writer, belonged to an old Wiltshire family and was ed. at Tiverton School. He studied law at the Inner Temple, and was called to the Bar 1832. He had a great reputation as a raconteur and sayer of good things, and he was a copious contributor to periodicals, especially the Quarterly Review. Many of his articles were reprinted as Biographical and Critical Essays, and Eminent Statesmen and Writers; he also wrote Lives of George Selwyn and Lord Chesterfield, and books on Whist, Junius, and The Art of Dining. His Select Correspondence appeared posthumously.
HAYWARD, SIR JOHN (1564?-1627). —Historian, b. at Felixstowe, was the author of various historical works, the earliest of which, The First Part of the Life and Reign of King Henry IV., was pub. in 1599, and gave such offence to Queen Elizabeth that the author was imprisoned. He, however, managed to ingratiate himself with James I. by supporting his views of kingly prerogative. He also, at the request of Prince Henry, wrote a History of the three Norman Kings of England (William I., William II., and Henry I.) The Life and Reign of Edward VI. was pub. posthumously in 1630.
HAYWOOD, MRS. ELIZA (FOWLER) (1693-1756). —Dramatist and novelist, b. in London, was early m. to a Mr. H., but the union turning out unhappily, she took to the stage, upon which she appeared in Dublin about 1715. She afterwards settled in London, and produced numerous plays and novels, into which she introduced scandalous episodes regarding living persons whose identity was very thinly veiled, a practice which, along with her political satires, more than once involved her in trouble, and together with certain attacks upon Pope, made in concert with Curll the bookseller, procured for her a place in The Dunciad. Her enemies called her reputation in question, but nothing very serious appears to have been proved. She is repeatedly referred to by Steele, and has been doubtfully identified with his "Sappho." Some of her works, such as The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy had great popularity. Others were The Fair Captive (1721), Idalia (1723), Love in Excess (1724), Memoirs of a Certain Island adjacent to Utopia (anonymously) (1725), Secret History of Present Intrigues at the Court of Caramania (anonymously) (1727). She also conducted The Female Spectator, and other papers.
HAZLITT, WILLIAM (1778-1830). —Essayist and critic, b. at Maidstone, was the s. of a Unitarian minister. At his father's request he studied for the ministry at a Unitarian Coll. at Hackney. His interests, however, were much more philosophical and political than theological. The turning point in his intellectual development was his meeting with Coleridge in 1798. Soon after this he studied art with the view of becoming a painter, and devoted himself specially to portraiture, but though so good a judge as his friend, J. Northcote, R.A., believed he had the talent requisite for success, he could not satisfy himself, and gave up the idea, though always retaining his love of art. He then definitely turned to literature, and in 1805 pub. his first book, Essay on the Principles of Human Action, which was followed by various other philosophical and political essays. About 1812 he became parliamentary and dramatic reporter to the Morning Chronicle; in 1814 a contributor to the Edinburgh Review; and in 1817 he pub. a vol. of literary sketches, The Round Table. In the last named year appeared his Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, which was severely attacked in the Quarterly Review and Blackwood's Magazine, to which his democratic views made him obnoxious. He defended himself in a cutting Letter to William Gifford, the ed. of the former. The best of H.'s critical work—his three courses of Lectures, On the English Poets, On the English Comic Writers, and On the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Queen Elizabeth—appeared successively in 1818, 1819, and 1820. His next works were Table Talk, in which he attacked Shelley (1821-22), and The Spirit of the Age (1825), in which he criticised some of his contemporaries. He then commenced what he intended to be his chief literary undertaking, a life of Napoleon Buonaparte, in 4 vols. (1828-30). Though written with great literary ability, its views and sympathies were unpopular, and it failed in attaining success. His last work was a Life of Titian, in which he collaborated with Northcote. H. is one of the most subtle and acute of English critics, though, when contemporaries came under review, he sometimes allowed himself to be unduly swayed by personal or political feeling, from which he had himself often suffered at the hands of others. His chief principle of criticism as avowed by himself was that "a genuine criticism should reflect the colour, the light and shade, the soul and body of a work." In his private life he was not happy. His first marriage, entered into in 1807, ended in a divorce in 1822, and was followed by an amour with his landlady's dau., which he celebrated in Liber Amoris, a work which exposed him to severe censure. A second marriage with a Mrs. Bridgewater ended by the lady leaving him shortly after. The fact is that H. was possessed of a peculiar temper, which led to his quarrelling with most of his friends. He was, however, a man of honest and sincere convictions. There is a coll. ed. of his works, the "Winterslow," by A.R. Waller and A. Glover, 12 vols., with introduction by W.E. Henley, etc.
HEAD, SIR FRANCIS BOND (1793-1875). —Traveller, essayist, and biographer, served in the Engineers, went to South America as manager of a mining company, which failed, and then turned to literature, and made considerable reputation by a book of travels, Rapid Journeys across the Pampas and among the Andes (1827), which was followed by Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau (1834). He was Governor of Upper Canada 1835-37, but was not a great success. Thereafter he contributed to the Quarterly Review, and repub. his articles as Stokers and Pokers—Highways and Byways, and wrote a Life of Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller. He was made a Baronet in 1836.
HEARN, LAFCADIO (1850-1906). —Journalist and writer on Japan, s. of an Irish Army surgeon and of a Greek lady, b. in Leucadia, Ionian Islands, lost his parents early, and was sent home to be taken charge of by an aunt in Wales, a Roman Catholic. On her death, when he was still a boy, he was left penniless, delicate, and half blind, and after experiencing great hardships, in spite of which he ed. himself, he took to journalism. Going to New Orleans he attained a considerable reputation as a writer with a distinctly individual style. He came under the influence of Herbert Spencer, and devoted himself largely to the study of social questions. After spending three years in the French West Indies, he was in 1890 sent by a publisher to Japan to write a book on that country, and there he remained, becoming a naturalised subject, taking the name of Yakomo Koizumi, and marrying a Japanese lady. He lectured on English literature in the Imperial Univ. at Tokio. Though getting nearer than, perhaps, any other Western to an understanding of the Japanese, he felt himself to the end to be still an alien. Among his writings, which are distinguished by acute observation, imagination, and descriptive power of a high order, are Stray Leaves from Strange Literature (1884), Some Chinese Ghosts (1887), Gleanings in Buddha Fields (1897), Ghostly Japan, Kokoro, Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life, etc. He was also an admirable letter-writer.
HEARNE, THOMAS (1678-1735). —Antiquary, b. at White Waltham., Berkshire, and ed. at Oxf., where in 1712 he became second keeper of the Bodleian Library. A strong Jacobite, he was deprived of his post in 1716, and afterwards he refused, on political grounds, the chief librarianship. He pub. a large number of antiquarian works, including Reliquiæ Bodleianæ (1703), and ed. of Leland's Itinerary and Collectanea, Camden's Annals, and Fordun's Scotochronicon. Some of his own collections were pub. posthumously.
HEBER, REGINALD (1783-1826). —Poet, s. of the Rector of Malpas, a man of family and wealth, and half-brother of Richard H., the famous book-collector, was ed. at Oxf., where he gained the Newdigate prize for his poem, Palestine, and was elected in 1805 Fellow of All Souls. After travelling in Germany and Russia, he took orders in 1807, and became Rector of the family living of Hodnet. In 1822, after two refusals, he accepted the Bishopric of Calcutta, an office in which he showed great zeal and capacity. He d. of apoplexy in his bath at Trichinopoly in 1826. In addition to Palestine he wrote Europe, a poem having reference specially to the Peninsular War, and left various fragments, including an Oriental romance based on the story of Bluebeard. H.'s reputation now rests mainly on his hymns, of which several, e.g., From Greenland's Icy Mountains, Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning, and Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, are sung wherever the English language is known. He also wrote a Life of Jeremy Taylor (1822). H. was a scholar and wit as well as a devoted Christian and Churchman.
HELPS, SIR ARTHUR (1813-1875). —Essayist and historian, was b. at Streatham, Surrey, and ed. at Eton and Camb. After leaving the Univ. he was private sec. to various public men, and in 1841, his circumstances rendering him independent of employment, he retired to Bishop's Waltham, and devoted himself for 20 years to study and writing. Appointed, in 1860, Clerk to the Privy Council, he became known to, and a favourite of, Queen Victoria, who entrusted him with the task of editing the Speeches and Addresses of the Prince Consort (1862), and her own book, Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands (1868). Of his own publications the first was Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd (1835), a series of aphorisms, and there followed, among others, Essays written in the Intervals of Business (1841), Friends in Council, 4 series (1847-59), Realmah (1869), and Conversations on War and General Culture (1871). In history H. wrote The Conquerors of the New World (1848-52), and The Spanish Conquests in America, 4 vols. (1855-61). He also wrote a Life of Thos. Brassey, and, as the demand for his historical works fell off, he repub. parts of them as individual biographies of Las Casas, Columbus, Pizarro, and Cortez. He also tried the drama, but without success. His essays are his most successful work, containing as they do the thoughts and opinions of a shrewd, experienced, and highly cultivated man, written in what Ruskin called "beautiful quiet English." They have not, however, any exceptional depth or originality.