House of the Seven Gables, The.—A romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1851. “In The House of the Seven Gables,” says R. H. Hutton, “we have a picture studied to impress on us that both personal character and the malign influences of evil action are transmitted, sometimes with accumulating force, even through centuries, blighting every generation through which they pass. The subject would apparently involve a series of sketches, but only two are introduced from the past, and the family characteristics are so anxiously preserved as to make even these seem like slight modifications of some of the living group. The only incident in the tale is the light thrown upon a crime—which had been committed thirty years before the story opens—by the sudden death of the principal representative of a family from the same disease, in the same chair, and under the same circumstances, as those of the old ancestor and founder of the family, whose picture hangs above the chair.”
Hubbard, Old Mother.—A well-known nursery rhyme. Mother Hubbard’s Tale, by Edmund Spenser, is a satirical fable in the style of Chaucer.
Hubert de Burgh (börg, or berg).—Justice of England, created Earl of Kent, introduced by Shakespeare into King John. He is the one to whom the young prince addresses his piteous plea for life. The lad was found dead soon afterward, either by accident or foul play.
Hubert, Saint.—The legend of Saint Hubert makes him a patron saint of huntsmen.
Hudibras (hū´di-bras).—The title and hero of a celebrated satirical poem by Samuel Butler. Hudibras is a Presbyterian justice of the time of the commonwealth.
Hugh of Lincoln.—A legendary personage who forms the subject of Chaucer’s Prioress’ Tale, and also of an ancient English ballad. Wordsworth has given a modernized version of this tale.
Hugo Hugonet.—Castle Dangerous, Scott. Minstrel of the earl of Douglas.
Humphrey.—The imaginary collector of the tales in Master Humphrey’s Clock, by Charles Dickens.
Humpty Dumpty.—The hero of a well-known nursery rhyme. The name signifies humped and dumpy, and is the riddle for an egg.
Huon de Bordeaux (ü-ôn´de bor-dō´).—A hero of one of the romances of chivalry bearing this name.