A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

by John W. Cousin

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.

HOOK, THEODORE EDWARD (1788-1841). —Dramatist and novelist, s. of James H., music-hall composer, was b. in London, and ed. at Harrow. As a boy he wrote words for his father's comic dramas. In 1805 he produced a comic opera, The Soldier's Return, which was followed by Catch Him who Can. Both of them were highly successful, and were followed by many others. His marvellous powers as a conversationalist and improvisatore made him a favourite in the highest circles. In 1812 he received the appointment of Accountant-General of Mauritius, which he held for 5 years, when serious irregularities were discovered, and he was sent home in disgrace, prosecuted by Government for a claim of £12,000, and imprisoned. It subsequently appeared that the actual peculation had been the work of a subordinate, and that H. himself was only chargeable with gross neglect of duty, but though he was released the claims against him were not departed from. He then became ed. of John Bull, a journal of high Tory and aristocratic proclivities, which he conducted with great ability; he also ed. the New Monthly Magazine, and wrote many novels, among which were Sayings and Doings (3 series), Gilbert Gurney, and Jack Brag. Though making a large income, he was always in difficulties, and, after a long struggle with broken health and spirits, he d. at Fulham in 1841.

HOOK, WALTER FARQUHAR (1798-1875). —Biographer, s. of James H., Dean of Worcester, b. at Worcester, and ed. at Winchester and Oxf. Entering the Church, he held various benefices, and became Vicar of Leeds (where, largely owing to his exertions, 20 new churches and many schools were built), and afterwards Dean of Chichester. Besides his labours as a churchman he was a voluminous author, his works including Church Dictionary (1842), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Biography (1845-52), and Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury (1860-75), on which he was still engaged at his death, and which he had brought down to Juxon, vol. xi. His sermon Hear the Church (1838), in which he affirmed the Apostolical succession of the Anglican episcopate, attracted much attention.

HOOKER, RICHARD (1554?-1600). —Theologian, b. near Exeter, of a family the original name of which was Vowell. His ability and gentleness as a schoolboy recommended him to the notice of Bishop Jewel, who sent him to Corpus Christi Coll., Oxf., where he graduated and became a Fellow in 1577. His proficiency in Hebrew led to his appointment in 1579 as Deputy Prof. Two years later, 1581, he took orders, and soon thereafter advantage was taken of his simplicity to entrap him into an unsuitable marriage with a woman named Joan Churchman, whose mother had nursed him in an illness. As might have been expected, the connection turned out unhappily, his wife being a scold, and, according to Anthony Wood, "a silly, clownish woman." His fate may, however, have been mitigated by the fact that his own temper was so sweet that he is said never to have been seen angry. Some doubt, moreover, has been cast on some of the reported details of his domestic life. In 1584 he received the living of Drayton-Beauchamp, in Bucks, and in the following year was appointed Master of the Temple. Here he had for a colleague as evening lecturer Walter Travers, a man of mark among the Puritans. Though both men were of the finest moral character, their views on ecclesiastical questions were widely different, and as neither was disposed to conceal his opinions, it came to be said that in the Temple "the pulpit spake pure Canterbury in the morning and Geneva in the afternoon." Things developed into an animated controversy, in which H. was considered to have triumphed, and the Archbishop (Whitgift) suspended Travers. The position, however, had become intolerable for H. who respected his opponent in spite of their differences, and he petitioned Whitgift that he might retire to the country and find time and quiet to complete his great work, the Ecclesiastical Polity, on which he was engaged. He was accordingly, in 1591, presented to the living of Boscombe near Amesbury, and made sub-Dean and a minor Prebendary of Salisbury. Here he finished The Four Books of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity, pub. in 1594. The following year he was presented by Queen Elizabeth to the living of Bishopsbourne, Kent. Here the fifth book was pub. (1597), and here he d. in 1600. The sixth and eighth books were not pub. until 1648, and the seventh only appeared in 1662. The Ecclesiastical Polity is one of the greatest achievements alike in English theology and English literature, a masterpiece of reasoning and eloquence, in a style stately and sonorous, though often laborious and involved. Hallam considered that no English writer had better displayed the capacities of the language. The argument is directed against the Romanists on the one hand and the Puritans on the other, and the fundamental idea is "the unity and all embracing character of law as the manifestation of the divine order of the universe." The distinguishing note of H.'s character was what Fuller calls his "dove-like simplicity." Izaak Walton, his biographer, describes him as "an obscure, harmless man, in poor clothes, of a mean stature and stooping ... his body worn out, not with age, but study, and holy mortification, his face full of heat-pimples ... and tho' not purblind, yet short, or weak, sighted." In his calling as a parish priest he was faithful and diligent. In preaching "his voice was low ... gesture none at all, standing stone-still in the pulpit." The sixth book of the Ecclesiastical Polity has been considered of doubtful authority, and to have no claim to its place, and the seventh and eighth are believed to have been put together from rough notes. Some of his MSS. were destroyed after his death by his wife's relatives. The epithet "judicious" attached to his name first appears in the inscription on his monument at Bishopsbourne.