HEMANS, FELICIA DOROTHEA (BROWNE) (1793-1835). —Poetess, dau. of a Liverpool merchant, who, owing to reverses, retired to North Wales. While yet little more than a child she pub. her first poems, the reception of which was not encouraging. In the same year, 1808, a further publication appeared which drew a letter from Shelley. Her first important work, The Domestic Affections, appeared in 1812, in which year she was m. to Captain Hemans, an Irish officer. The union, however, was not a happy one, and her husband practically deserted her and her five sons in 1818. Her literary activity was continued during the whole of her short life, and her works include, The Vespers of Palermo, a drama, which was not successful, The Forest Sanctuary (1826), her best poem, Records of Woman, Lays of Leisure Hours, Songs of the Affections, Hymns for Childhood, and Thoughts during Sickness (1834), her last effort. In 1829 she visited Scotland, where she was the guest of Scott, who held her in affectionate regard. She also enjoyed the friendship of Wordsworth. Always somewhat delicate, her health latterly entirely gave way, and she d. of a decline in 1835. Her shorter pieces enjoyed much popularity, and still, owing to their grace and tenderness, retain a certain place, but her long poems are lacking in energy and depth, and are forgotten.
HENLEY, WILLIAM ERNEST (1849-1903). —Poet and critic, b. at Gloucester, made the acquaintance of Robert Louis Stevenson (q.v.), and collaborated with him in several dramas, including Deacon Brodie, and Robert Macaire. He engaged in journalism, and became ed. of The Magazine of Art, The National Observer, and The New Review, compiled Lyra Heroica, an anthology of English poetry for boys, and, with Mr. Farmer, ed. a Dictionary of Slang. His poems, which include Hospital Rhymes, London Voluntaries, The Song of the Sword, For England's Sake, and Hawthorn and Lavender, are very unequal in quality, and range from strains of the purest music to an uncouth and unmusical realism of no poetic worth. He wrote with T.F. Henderson a Life of Burns, in which the poet is set forth as a "lewd peasant of genius."
Complete works, 7 vols., 1908.
HENRY VIII. (1491-1547). —Besides writing songs including The Kings Ballad, was a learned controversialist, and contended against Luther in Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (Defence of the Seven Sacraments), a treatise which gained for him the title of Defender of the Faith.
HENRY of HUNTINGDON (1084-1155). —Historian, was Archdeacon of Huntingdon from 1109. His Historia Anglorum (History of the English) comes down to 1154. He also wrote a treatise, De Contemptu Mundi (on Contempt of the World).
HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714). —Commentator, s. of Philip H., a learned Nonconformist divine, was b. in Flintshire. He was originally destined for the law, and studied at Gray's Inn, but turned his mind to theology, and, in 1687, became minister of a Nonconformist church at Chester. Here he remained until 1712, when he went to take the oversight of a congregation at Hackney, where he d. two years later. He wrote many religious works, but is chiefly remembered by his Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, which he did not live to complete beyond the Acts. The comment on the Epistles was, however, furnished after his death by 13 Nonconformist divines. Though long superseded from a critical point of view, the work still maintains its place as a book of practical religion, being distinguished by great freshness and ingenuity of thought, and pointed and vigorous expression.
HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790). —Historian, b. at St. Ninians, Stirlingshire, entered the Church of Scotland, becoming one of the ministers of Edin. He wrote the History of Great Britain on a New Plan (1771-93), in 6 vols., covering the period from the Roman invasion until the reign of Henry VIII. The novelty consisted in dividing the subjects into different heads, civil history, military, social, and so on, and following out each of them separately. The work was mainly a compilation, having no critical qualities, and is now of little value. Notwithstanding the persistent and ferocious attacks of Dr. Gilbert Stewart (q.v.), it had a great success, and brought the author over £3000, and a government pension of £100.
HENRY, THE MINSTREL, (see BLIND HARRY).
HENRYSON, ROBERT (1430?-1506?). —Scottish poet. Few details of his life are known, even the dates of his birth and death being uncertain. He appears to have been a schoolmaster, perhaps in the Benedictine Convent, at Dunfermline, and was a member of the Univ. of Glasgow in 1462. He also practised as a Notary Public, and may have been in orders. His principal poems are The Moral Fables of Esope the Phrygian, The Testament of Cresseide, a sequel to the Troilus and Cressida of Chaucer, to whom it was, until 1721, attributed, Robene and Makyne, the first pastoral, not only in Scottish vernacular, but in the English tongue, The Uplandis Mous and The Burges Mous (Country and Town Mouse), and the Garmond of Gude Ladeis. H., who was versed in the learning and general culture of his day, had a true poetic gift. His verse is strong and swift, full of descriptive power, and sparkling with wit. He is the first Scottish lyrist and the introducer of the pastoral to English literature.
HENTY, GEORGE ALFRED (1832-1902). —Boys' novelist, wrote over 80 books for boys, which had great popularity. Among them are By England's Aid, Dash for Khartoum, Facing Death, In Freedom's Cause, Out on the Pampas, etc., all full of adventure and interest, and conveying information as well as amusement.
HERAUD, JOHN ABRAHAM (1799-1887). —Poet, b. in London, of Huguenot descent, he contributed to various periodicals, and pub. two poems, which attracted some attention, The Descent into Hell (1830), and The Judgment of the Flood (1834). He also produced a few plays, miscellaneous poems, books of travel, etc.
HERBERT, of CHERBURY, EDWARD, 1ST LORD (1583-1648). —Philosopher and historian, was the eldest s. of Richard H., of Montgomery Castle, and was b. there or at Eyton, Shropshire. He was at Oxf., and while there, at the age of 16, he m. a kinswoman four years his senior, the dau. of Sir William H. Thereafter he returned to the Univ. and devoted himself to study, and to the practice of manly sports and accomplishments. At his coronation in 1603 James I. made him a Knight of the Bath, and in 1608 he went to the Continent, where for some years he was engaged in military and diplomatic affairs, not without his share of troubles. In 1624 he was cr. an Irish, and a few years later, an English, peer, as Baron H., of Cherbury. On the outbreak of the Civil War he sided, though somewhat half-heartedly, with the Royalists, but in 1644 he surrendered to the Parliament, received a pension, held various offices, and d. in 1648. It was in 1624 that he wrote his treatise, De Veritate, "An empirical theory of knowledge," in which truth is distinguished from (1) revelation, (2) the probable, (3) the possible, (4) the false. It is the first purely metaphysical work written by an Englishman, and gave rise to much controversy. It was reprinted in 1645, when the author added two treatises, De Causis Errorum (concerning the Causes of Errors), and De Religione Laici (concerning the Religion of a Layman). His other chief philosophical work was De Religione Gentilium (1663), of which an English translation appeared in 1705, under the title of The Ancient Religion of the Gentiles and Cause of their Errors considered. It has been called "the charter of the Deists," and was intended to prove that "all religions recognise five main articles—(1) a Supreme God, (2) who ought to be worshipped, (3) that virtue and purity are the essence of that worship, (4) that sin should be repented of, and (5) rewards and punishments in a future state." Among his historical works are Expeditio Buckinghamii Ducis (1656), a vindication of the Rochelle expedition, a Life of Henry VIII. (1649), extremely partial to the King, his Autobiography, which gives a brilliant picture of his contemporaries, and of the manners and events of his time, and a somewhat vainglorious account of himself and his doings. He was also the author of some poems of a metaphysical cast. On the whole his is one of the most shining and spirited figures of the time.
Autobiography ed. by S. Lee (1886). Poems ed. by J. Churton Collins, etc.
HERBERT, GEORGE (1593-1633). —Poet, brother of above, was ed. at Westminster School and Trinity Coll., Camb., where he took his degree in 1616, and was public orator 1619-27. He became the friend of Sir H. Wotton, Donne, and Bacon, the last of whom is said to have held him in such high esteem as to submit his writings to him before publication. He acquired the favour of James I., who conferred upon him a sinecure worth £120 a year, and having powerful friends, he attached himself for some time to the Court in the hope of preferment. The death of two of his patrons, however, led him to change his views, and coming under the influence of Nicholas Ferrar, the quietist of Little Gidding, and of Laud, he took orders in 1626 and, after serving for a few years as prebendary of Layton Ecclesia, or Leighton Broomswold, he became in 1630 Rector of Bemerton, Wilts, where he passed the remainder of his life, discharging the duties of a parish priest with conscientious assiduity. His health, however, failed, and he d. in his 40th year. His chief works are The Temple, or Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (1634), The Country Parson (1652), and Jacula Prudentium, a collection of pithy proverbial sayings, the two last in prose. Not pub. until the year after his death, The Temple had immediate acceptance, 20,000 copies, according to I. Walton, who was H.'s biographer, having been sold in a few years. Among its admirers were Charles I., Cowper, and Coleridge. H. wrote some of the most exquisite sacred poetry in the language, although his style, influenced by Donne, is at times characterised by artificiality and conceits. He was an excellent classical scholar, and an accomplished musician.
Works with Life by Izaak Walton, ed. by Coleridge, 1846, etc.
HERBERT, SIR THOMAS (1606-1682). —Traveller and historian, belonged to an old Yorkshire family, studied at Oxf. and Camb., and went in connection with an embassy to Persia, of which, and of other Oriental countries, he pub. a description. On the outbreak of the Civil War he was a Parliamentarian, but was afterwards taken into the household of the King, to whom he became much attached, was latterly his only attendant, and was with him on the scaffold. At the Restoration he was made a Baronet, and in 1678 pub. Threnodia Carolina, an account of the last two years of the King's life.
HERD, DAVID (1732-1810). —Scottish anthologist, s. of a farmer in Kincardineshire, was clerk to an accountant in Edin., and devoted his leisure to collecting old Scottish poems and songs, which he first pub. in 1769 as Ancient Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. Other and enlarged ed. appeared in 1776 and 1791. Sir W. Scott made use of his MS. collections in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.
HERRICK, ROBERT (1591-1674). —Poet, b. in London, was apprenticed as a goldsmith to his uncle, Sir William H., with whom he remained for 10 years. Thereafter he went to Camb., took orders, and was in 1629 presented by Charles I. to the living of Dean Prior, a remote parish in Devonshire, from which he was ejected in 1647, returning in 1662. In the interval he appears to have lived in Westminster, probably supported, more or less, by the gifts of wealthy Royalists. His Noble Numbers or Pious Pieces was pub. in 1647, his Hesperides or Works both Human and Divine in 1648, and the two together in one vol. in the latter year. Over 60, however, of the lighter poems included in Hesperides had previously appeared anonymously in a collection entitled Wit's Recreations. H.'s early life in London had been a free one, and his secular poems, in which he appears much more at ease than in his sacred, show him to have been a thorough Epicurean, though he claims that his life was not to be judged by his muse. As a lyric poet H. stands in the front rank for sweetness, grace, and true poetic fire, and some of his love songs, e.g. Anthea, and Gather ye Rose-buds, are unsurpassed in their kind; while in such exquisite little poems as Blossoms, Daffodils, and others he finds a classic expression for his love of nature and country life. In his epigrams, however, he falls much below himself. He has been described as "the most frankly pagan of English poets."
Poems ed. by Nutt (1810), Grosart (1876), Pollard (preface by Swinburne, 1891).
HERSCHEL, SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM (1792-1871). —S. of Sir William H., the eminent astronomer and discoverer of the planet Uranus, was b. at Slough, and ed. at Camb., where he was Senior Wrangler and first Smith's prizeman. He became one of the greatest of English astronomers. Among his writings are treatises on Sound and Light, and his Astronomy (1831) was for long the leading manual on the subject. He also pub. Popular Lectures and Collected Addresses, and made translations from Schiller, and from the Iliad.
HERVEY, JAMES (1714-1758). —Religious writer, Rector of Weston Favell, Northants, was the author of Meditations among the Tombs (1745-47), Theron and Aspasio, and other works, which had a great vogue in their day. They are characterised by over-wrought sentiment, and overloaded with florid ornament. H. was a devout and unselfish man, who by his labours broke down a delicate constitution.
HERVEY, JOHN, LORD (1696-1743). —Writer of memoirs, was a younger s. of the 1st Earl of Bristol. Entering Parliament he proved an able debater, and held various offices, including that of Lord Privy Seal. He was a favourite with Queen Caroline, and a dexterous and supple courtier. He wrote Memoirs of the Reign of George II., which gives a very unfavourable view of the manners and morals of the Court. It is written in a lively, though often spiteful style, and contains many clever and discriminating character sketches. He was satirised by Pope under the name of "Sporus" and "Lord Fanny."
HEYLIN, PETER (1600-1662). —Ecclesiastical writer, b. at Burford, Oxon., was one of the clerical followers of Charles I., who suffered for his fidelity, being deprived under the Commonwealth of his living of Alresford, and other preferments. After the Restoration he was made sub-Dean of Westminster, but the failure of his health prevented further advancement. He was a voluminous writer, and a keen and acrimonious controversialist against the Puritans. Among his works are a History of the Reformation, and a Life of Laud (Cyprianus Anglicanus) (1668).
HEYWOOD, JOHN (1497?-1580?). —Dramatist and epigrammatist, is believed to have been b. at North Mimms, Herts. He was a friend of Sir Thomas More, and through him gained the favour of Henry VIII., and was at the Court of Edward VI. and Mary, for whom, as a young Princess, he had a great regard. Being a supporter of the old religion, he enjoyed her favour, but on the accession of Elizabeth, he left the country, and went to Mechlin, where he d. He was famous as a writer of interludes, a species of composition intermediate between the old "moralities" and the regular drama, and displayed considerable constructive skill, and a racy, if somewhat broad and even coarse, humour. Among his interludes are The Play of the Wether (1532), The Play of Love (1533), and The Pardoner and the Frere. An allegorical poem is The Spider and the Flie (1556), in which the Spider stands for the Protestants, and the Flie for the Roman Catholics. H. was likewise the author of some 600 epigrams, whence his title of "the old English epigrammatist."
HEYWOOD, THOMAS (d. 1650). —Dramatist. Few facts about him have come down, and these are almost entirely derived from his own writings. He appears to have been b. in Lincolnshire, and was a Fellow of Peterhouse, Camb., and an ardent Protestant. His literary activity extends from about 1600 to 1641, and his production was unceasing; he claims to have written or "had a main finger in" 220 plays, of which only a small proportion (24) are known to be in existence, a fact partly accounted for by many of them having been written upon the backs of tavern bills, and by the circumstance that though a number of them were popular, few were pub. Among them may be mentioned The Four Prentices of London (1600) (ridiculed in Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle), Edward IV. (2 parts) in 1600 and 1605, The Royal King and the Loyal Subject (1637), A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603), Rape of Lucrece (1608), Fair Maid of the Exchange (1607), Love's Mistress (1636), and Wise Woman of Hogsdon (1638). H. also wrote an Apology for Actors (1612), a poem, Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels (1635), and made various translations. He was thoroughly English in his subjects and treatment, and had invention, liveliness, and truth to nature, but lacked the higher poetic sense, and of course wrote far too much to write uniformly well.
HIGDEN, RANULF or RALPH (d. 1364). —Chronicler, is believed to have been b. in the West of England, took the monastic vow (Benedictine), at Chester in 1299, and seems to have travelled over the North of England. His fame rests on his Polychronicon, a universal history reaching down to contemporary events. The work is divided into 7 books and, though of no great value as an authority, has an interest as showing the state of historical and geographical knowledge at the time. Written in Latin, it was translated into English by John of Trevisa (q.v.) (1387), and printed by Caxton (1482), and by others. Another translation of the 15th century was issued in the Rolls Series. For two centuries it was an approved work. H. wrote various other treatises on theology and history.
HILL, AARON (1685-1750). —Dramatist and miscellaneous writer, s. of a country gentleman of Wiltshire, was ed. at Westminster School, and thereafter made a tour in the East. He was the author of 17 dramatic pieces, some of them, such as his versions of Voltaire's Zaire and Merope, being adaptations. He also wrote a quantity of poetry, which, notwithstanding some good passages, is as a general rule dull and pompous. Having written some satiric lines on Pope he received in return a niche in The Dunciad, which led to a controversy, in which H. showed some spirit. Afterwards a reconciliation took place. He was a friend and correspondent of Richardson, whose Pamela he highly praised. In addition to his literary pursuits H. was a great projector, but his schemes were usually unsuccessful. He was a good and honourable man, but over-impressed with his own importance.
HINTON, JAMES (1822-1875). —Writer on sociology and psychology, s. of a Baptist minister, became a successful aurist, but his attention being arrested by social questions, he gave more and more of his time to the consideration and exposition of these. Open-minded and altruistic, his books are full of thought and suggestion. Among his writings may be mentioned Man and his Dwelling-place (1859), The Mystery of Pain (1866), The Law of Human Life (1874), Chapters on the Art of Thinking (1879), and Philosophy and Religion (1881).
HOADLEY, BENJAMIN (1676-1761). —Theologian and controversialist, ed. at Camb., entered the Church, and became Bishop successively of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He was a great supporter of the Revolution, and controvertor of the doctrines of divine right and passive obedience. His works were generally either the causes of controversy or elicited by it. One of his sermons, On the Nature of the Kingdom or Church of Christ was the originating cause of what was known as the Bangorian controversy, which raged for a long time with great bitterness.
HOBBES, THOMAS (1588-1679). —Philosopher, was b. at Malmesbury, the s. of a clergyman, and ed. at Oxf. Thereafter he travelled as tutor through France, Italy, and Germany, with William Lord Cavendish, afterwards 2nd Earl of Devonshire, with whom he remained as sec. after the completion of the tour. While engaged in this capacity he became acquainted with Bacon (whose amanuensis he is said to have been), Herbert of Cherbury, and Ben Jonson. In 1629 he pub. a translation of Thucydides. After the death of his patron, which took place in 1626, he went in 1628 to Paris, where he remained for 18 months, and in 1631 he assumed the position of tutor to his s., afterwards the 3rd Earl, with whom he went in 1634 to France, Italy, and Savoy. When in Italy he was the friend of Galileo, Gassendi, and other eminent men. Returning to England he remained in the Earl's service, and devoted himself to his studies on philosophy and politics. The commotions of the times, however, disturbed him; and his Royalist principles, expounded in his treatise, De Corpore Politico, led to his again, in 1641, leaving England and going to Paris, where he remained until 1652. While there, he entered into controversy on mathematical subjects with Descartes, pub. some of his principal works, including Leviathan, and received, in 1647, the appointment of mathematical tutor to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II., who was then in that city. The views expressed in his works, however, brought him into such unpopularity that the Prince found it expedient to break the connection, and H. returned to England. In 1653 he resumed his relations with the Devonshire family, living, however, in London in habits of intimacy with Selden, Cowley, and Dr. Harvey. On the Restoration the King conferred upon him a pension of £100, but like most of the Royal benefactions of the day, it was but irregularly paid. His later years were spent in the family of his patron, chiefly at Chatsworth, where he continued his literary activity until his death, which occurred in 1679, in his 91st year. H. was one of the most prominent Englishmen of his day, and has continued to influence philosophical thought more or less ever since, generally, however, by evoking opposition. His fundamental proposition is that all human action is ultimately based upon selfishness (more or less enlightened), allowing no place to the moral or social sentiments. Similarly in his political writings man is viewed as a purely selfish being who must be held in restraint by the strong hand of authority. His chief philosophical works are De Corpore Politico, already mentioned, pub. in 1640; Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and Society, originally in Latin, translated into English in 1650; Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil (1651); Treatise on Human Nature (1650); and Letters upon Liberty and Necessity (1654). Generally speaking, all his works led him into controversy, one of his principal opponents being Clarendon. The Letters upon Liberty and Necessity, which is one of the ablest of them, and indeed one of the ablest ever written on the subject, brought him into collision with Bramhall, Bishop of Londonderry, whom he completely overthrew. He was not, however, so successful in his mathematical controversies, one of the chief of which was on the Quadrature of the Circle. Here his antagonist was the famous mathematician Wallis, who was able easily to demonstrate his errors. In 1672, when 84, H. wrote his autobiography in Latin verse, and in the same year translated 4 books of the Odyssey, which were so well received that he completed the remaining books, and also translated the whole of the Iliad. Though accurate as literal renderings of the sense, these works fail largely to convey the beauties of the original, notwithstanding which three ed. were issued within 10 years, and they long retained their popularity. His last work was Behemoth, a history of the Civil War, completed just before his death, which occurred at Hardwick Hall, one of the seats of the Devonshire family. Although a clear and bold thinker, and a keen controversialist, he was characterised by a certain constitutional timidity believed to have been caused by the alarm of his mother near the time of his birth at the threatened descent of the Spanish Armada. Though dogmatic and impatient of contradiction, faults which grew upon him with age, H. had the courage of his opinions, which he did not trim to suit the times.
SUMMARY.—B. 1588, ed. Oxf., became acquainted with Bacon, went to Paris 1628, in Italy 1634, pub. De Corpore Politico (1640), again in Paris 1641-52, and while there was in controversy with Descartes, and pub. Leviathan (1651), appointed mathematical tutor to Charles II. 1647, returned to England 1652, pensioned at Restoration, later years spent at Chatsworth, pub. Human Nature 1650, Liberty and Necessity 1654, controversy with Bramhall and Wallis, writes autobiography 1672, translates Homer, pub. Behemoth 1679, d. 1679.
Works ed. by Sir W. Molesworth (16 vols. 1839-46), monograph by Croom Robertson. Life by L. Stephen (English Men of Letters Series).
HOBY, SIR THOMAS (1530-1566). —Translator, b. at Leominster, and ed. at Camb., translated Bucer's Gratulation to the Church of England, and The Courtyer of Count Baldessar Castilio, the latter of which had great popularity. H. d. in Paris while Ambassador to France.
HOCCLEVE, or OCCLEVE, THOMAS (1368?-1450?). —Poet, probably b. in London, where he appears to have spent most of his life, living in Chester's Inn in the Strand. Originally intended for the Church, he received an appointment in the Privy Seal Office, which he retained until 1424, when quarters were assigned him in the Priory of Southwick, Hants. In 1399 a pension of £10, subsequently increased to £13, 6s. 8d., had been conferred upon him, which, however, was paid only intermittently, thus furnishing him with a perpetual grievance. His early life appears to have been irregular, and to the end he was a weak, vain, discontented man. His chief work is De Regimine Principum or Governail of Princes, written 1411-12. The best part of this is an autobiographical prelude Mal Regle de T. Hoccleve, in which he holds up his youthful follies as a warning. It is also interesting as containing, in the MS. in the British Museum, a drawing of Chaucer, from which all subsequent portraits have been taken.
HOFFMAN, CHARLES FENNO (1806-1884). —Poet, etc., b. in New York, s. of a lawyer, was bred to the same profession, but early deserted it for literature. He wrote a successful novel, Greyslaer, and much verse, some of which displayed more lyrical power than any which had preceded it in America.
HOGG, JAMES (THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD) (1770-1835). —Poet, and writer of tales, belonged to a race of shepherds, and began life by herding cows until he was old enough to be trusted with a flock of sheep. His imagination was fed by his mother, who was possessed of an inexhaustible stock of ballads and folk-lore. He had little schooling, and had great difficulty in writing out his earlier poems, but was earnest in giving himself such culture as he could. Entering the service of Mr. Laidlaw, the friend of Scott, he was by him introduced to the poet, and assisted him in collecting material for his Border Minstrelsy. In 1796 he had begun to write his songs, and when on a visit to Edin. in 1801 he coll. his poems under the title of Scottish Pastorals, etc., and in 1807 there followed The Mountain Bard. A treatise on the diseases of sheep brought him £300, on the strength of which he embarked upon a sheep-farming enterprise in Dumfriesshire which, like a previous smaller venture in Harris, proved a failure, and he returned to Ettrick bankrupt. Thenceforward he relied almost entirely on literature for support. With this view he, in 1810, settled in Edin., pub. The Forest Minstrel, and started the Spy, a critical journal, which ran for a year. In 1813 The Queen's Wake showed his full powers, and finally settled his right to an assured place among the poets of his country. He joined the staff of Blackwood, and became the friend of Wilson, Wordsworth, and Byron. Other poems followed, The Pilgrims of the Sun (1815), Madoc of the Moor, The Poetic Mirror, and Queen Hynde (1826); and in prose Winter Evening Tales (1820), The Three Perils of Man (1822), and The Three Perils of Woman. In his later years his home was a cottage at Altrive on 70 acres of moorland presented to him by the Duchess of Buccleuch, where he d. greatly lamented. As might be expected from his almost total want of regular education, H. was often greatly wanting in taste, but he had real imagination and poetic faculty. Some of his lyrics like The Skylark are perfect in their spontaneity and sweetness, and his Kilmeny is one of the most exquisite fairy tales in the language. Hogg was vain and greedy of praise, but honest and, beyond his means, generous. He is a leading character, partly idealised, partly caricatured, in Wilson's Noctes Ambrosianæ.
HOGG, THOMAS JEFFERSON (1792-1862). —Biographer, s. of John H., a country gentleman of Durham, ed. at Durham Grammar School, and Univ. Coll., Oxf., where he made the acquaintance of Shelley, whose lifelong friend and biographer he became. Associated with S. in the famous pamphlet on The Necessity of Atheism, he shared in the expulsion from the Univ. which it entailed, and thereafter devoted himself to the law, being called to the Bar in 1817. In 1832 he contributed to Bulwer's New Monthly Magazine his Reminiscences of Shelley, which was much admired. Thereafter he was commissioned to write a biography of the poet, of which he completed 2 vols., but in so singular a fashion that the material with which he had been entrusted was withdrawn. The work, which is probably unique in the annals of biography, while giving a vivid and credible picture of S. externally, shows no true appreciation of him as a poet, and reflects with at least equal prominence the humorously eccentric personality of the author, which renders it entertaining in no common degree. Other works of H. were Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff, and a book of travels, Two Hundred and Nine Days (1827). He m. the widow of Williams, Shelley's friend, who was drowned along with him.
HOLCROFT, THOMAS (1745-1809). —Dramatist, s. of a small shoemaker in London, passed his youth as a pedlar, and as a Newmarket stable boy. A charitable person having given him some education he became a schoolmaster, but in 1770 went on the provincial stage. He then took to writing plays, and was the first to introduce the melodrama into England. Among his plays, The Road to Ruin (1792) is the best, and is still acted; others were Duplicity (1781), and A Tale of Mystery. Among his novels are Alwyn (1780), and Hugh Trevor, and he wrote the well-known song, Gaffer Gray. H. was a man of stern and irascible temper, industrious and energetic, and a sympathiser with the French Revolution.
HOLINSHED, or HOLLINGSHEAD, RAPHAEL or RALPH d. (1580?). —Belonged to a Cheshire family, and is said by Anthony Wood to have been at one of the Univ., and to have been a priest. He came to London, and was in the employment of Reginald Wolf, a German printer, making translations and doing hack-work. His Chronicles of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande, from which Shakespeare drew much of his history, was based to a considerable extent on the collections of Leland, and he had the assistance of W. Harrison, R. Stanyhurst, and others. The introductory description of England and the English was the work of Harrison, Stanyhurst did the part relating to Ireland, and H. himself the history of England and Scotland, the latter being mainly translated from the works of Boece and Major. Pub. in 1577 it had an eager welcome, and a wide and lasting popularity. A later ed. in 1586 was ed. by J. Hooker and Stow. It is a work of real value—a magazine of useful and interesting information, with the authorities cited. Its tone is strongly Protestant, its style clear.
HOLLAND, JOSIAH GILBERT (1819-1881). —Novelist and poet, b. in Massachusetts, helped to found and ed. Scribner's Monthly (afterwards the Century Magazine), in which appeared his novels, Arthur Bonnicastle, The Story of Sevenoaks, Nicholas Minturn. In poetry he wrote Bitter Sweet (1858), Kathrina, etc.
HOLLAND, PHILEMON (1552-1637). —Translator, b. at Chelmsford, and ed. at Camb., was master of the free school at Coventry, where he also practised medicine. His chief translations, made in good Elizabethan English, are of Pliny's Natural History, Plutarch's Morals, Suetonius, Xenophon's Cyropædia, and Camden's Britannia. There are passages in the second of these which have hardly been excelled by any later prose translator of the classics. His later years were passed in poverty.
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL (1809-1894). —Essayist, novelist, and poet, was b. of good Dutch and English stock at Camb., Massachusetts, the seat of Harvard, where he graduated in 1829. He studied law, then medicine, first at home, latterly in Paris, whence he returned in 1835, and practised in his native town. In 1838 he was appointed Prof. of Anatomy and Physiology at Dartmouth Coll., from which he was in 1847 transferred to a similar chair at Harvard. Up to 1857 he had done little in literature: his first book of poems, containing "The Last Leaf," had been pub. But in that year the Atlantic Monthly was started with Lowell for ed., and H. was engaged as a principal contributor. In it appeared the trilogy by which he is best known, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1857), The Professor, The Poet (1872), all graceful, allusive, and pleasantly egotistical. He also wrote Elsie Venner (1861), which has been called "the snake story of literature," and The Guardian Angel. By many readers he is valued most for the poems which lie imbedded in his books, such as "The Chambered Nautilus," "The Last Leaf," "Homesick in Heaven," "The Voiceless," and "The Boys."
HOME, JOHN (1722-1808). —Dramatist, s. of the Town-Clerk of Leith, where he was b., ed. there and at Edin., and entered the Church. Before doing so, however, he had fought on the Royalist side in the '45, and had, after the Battle of Falkirk, been a prisoner in Doune Castle, whence he escaped. His ministerial life, which was passed at Athelstaneford, East Lothian, was brought to an end by the action of the Church Courts on his producing the play of Douglas. This drama, which had been rejected by Garrick, but brought out in Edin. in 1756, created an immense sensation, and made its appearance in London the following year. H. then became private sec. to the Earl of Bute, who gave him the sinecure of Conservator of Scots Privileges at Campvere in Holland. Thereafter he was tutor to the Prince of Wales (George III.), who on his accession conferred upon him a pension of £300. Other plays were The Siege of Aquileia, The Fatal Discovery (1769), Alonzo, and Alfred (1778), which was a total failure. He also wrote a History of the Rebellion. In 1778 he settled in Edin., where he was one of the brilliant circle of literary men of which Robertson was the centre. He supported the claims of Macpherson to be the translator of Ossian.
HONE, WILLIAM (1780-1842). —Miscellaneous writer, b. at Bath, in his youth became a convinced and active democrat. His zeal in the propagation of his views, political and philanthropic, was so absorbing as to lead to a uniform want of success in his business undertakings. He pub. many satirical writings, which had immense popularity, among which were The Political House that Jack Built (1819), The Man in the Moon (1820), The Political Showman (1821), and The Apocryphal New Testament. For one of his earliest satires, The Political Litany, pub. in 1817, he was prosecuted, but acquitted. Later he brought out Ancient Mysteries (1823), Every Day Book (1826-27), Table Book (1827-28), and Year Book (1828). These works, in which he had the assistance of other writers, are full of curious learning on miscellaneous subjects, such as ceremonies, dress, sports, customs, etc. His last literary enterprise was an ed. of Strutt's Sports and Pastimes (1830). Always a self-sacrificing and honest man, he was originally an unbeliever, but in his latter years he became a sincere Christian.
HOOD, THOMAS (1799-1845). —Poet and comic writer, s. of a bookseller in London, where he was b., was put into a mercantile office, but the confinement proving adverse to his health, he was sent to Dundee, where the family had connections, and where he obtained some literary employment. His health being restored, he returned to London, and entered the employment of an uncle as an engraver. Here he acquired an acquaintance with drawing, which he afterwards turned to account in illustrating his comic writings. After working for a short time on his own account he became, at the age of 22, sub-editor of the London Magazine, and made the acquaintance of many literary men, including De Quincey, Lamb, and Hazlitt. His first separate publication, Odes and Addresses to Great People, appeared in 1825, and had an immediate success. Thus encouraged he produced in the next year Whims and Oddities, and in 1829, he commenced The Comic Annual, which he continued for 9 years, and wrote in The Gem his striking poem, Eugene Aram. Meanwhile he had m. in 1824, a step which, though productive of the main happiness and comfort of his future life, could not be considered altogether prudent, as his health had begun to give way, and he had no means of support but his pen. Soon afterwards the failure of his publisher involved him in difficulties which, combined with his delicate health, made the remainder of his life a continual struggle. The years between 1834 and 1839 were the period of most acute difficulty, and for a part of this time he was obliged to live abroad. In 1840 friends came to his assistance, and he was able to return to England. His health was, however, quite broken down, but his industry never flagged. During the five years which remained to him he acted as ed. first of the New Monthly Magazine, and then of Hood's Monthly Magazine. In his last year a Government pension of £100 was granted to his wife. Among his other writings may be mentioned Tylney Hall, a novel which had little success, and Up the Rhine, in which he satirised the English tourist. Considering the circumstances of pressure under which he wrote, it is little wonder that much of his work was ephemeral and beneath his powers, but in his particular line of humour he is unique, while his serious poems are instinct with imagination and true pathos. A few of them, such as The Song of the Shirt, and The Bridge of Sighs are perfect in their kind.
Life by his s. and dau. Ed. of Works by same (7 vols. 1862). Selections, with Biography, by Ainger, 1897.