HOLINSHED (or Hollingshead), RAPHAEL (d. c. 1580), English chronicler, belonged probably to a Cheshire family, and according to Anthony Wood was educated at one of the English universities, afterwards becoming a “minister of God’s Word.” The authenticity of these facts is doubtful, although it is possible that Raphael was the Holinshed who matriculated from Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1544. About 1560 he came to London and was employed as a translator by Reginald or Reyner Wolfe, to whom he says he was “singularly beholden.” Wolfe was already engaged in the preparation of a universal history, and Holinshed worked for some years on this undertaking; but after Wolfe’s death in 1573 the scope of the work was abridged, and it appeared in 1578 as the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The work was in two volumes, which were illustrated, and although Holinshed did a great deal of the work he received valuable assistance from William Harrison (1534-1593) and others, while the part dealing with the history of Scotland is mainly a translation of Hector Boece’s Scotorum historiae. Afterwards, as is shown by his will, Holinshed served as steward to Thomas Burdet of Bramcott, Warwickshire, and died about 1580.
A second edition of the Chronicles, enlarged and improved but without illustrations, which appeared in 1587, contained statements which were offensive to Queen Elizabeth and her advisers, and immediately after publication some of the pages were excised by order of the privy council. These excisions were published separately in 1723. An edition of the Chronicles, in accordance with the original text, was published in six volumes in 1808. The work contains a large amount of information, and shows that its compilers were men of great industry; but its chief interest lies in the fact that it was largely used by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists; Shakespeare, who probably used the edition of 1587, obtaining from the Chronicles material for most of his historical plays, and also for Macbeth, King Lear and part of Cymbeline. A single manuscript by Holinshed is known to be extant. This is a translation of Florence of Worcester, and is in the British Museum. See W. G. Boswell-Stone, Shakspere’s Holinshed. The Chronicle and the historical plays compared (London, 1896).
HOLKAR, the family name of the Mahratta ruler of Indore (q.v.), which has been adopted as a dynastic title. The termination -kar implies that the founder of the family came from the village of Hol near Poona.
HOLL, FRANK (1845-1888), English painter, was born in London on the 4th of July 1845, and was educated chiefly at University College School. He was a grandson of William Holl, an engraver of note, and the son of Francis Holl, A.R.A., another engraver, whose profession he originally intended to follow. Entering the Royal Academy schools as a probationer in painting in 1860, he rapidly progressed, winning silver and gold medals, and making his début as an exhibitor in 1864 with “A Portrait,” and “Turned out of Church,” a subject picture. “A Fern Gatherer” (1865); “The Ordeal” (1866); “Convalescent” (the somewhat grim pathos of which attracted much attention), and “Faces in the Fire” (1867), succeeded. Holl gained the travelling studentship in 1868; the successful work was characteristic of the young painter’s mood, being “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.” His insatiable zeal for work of all kinds began early to undermine the artist’s health, but his position was assured by the studentship picture, which created a sort of furore, although, as with most of his works, the blackness of its coloration, probably due to his training as an engraver, was even more decidedly against it than the sadness of its theme. Otherwise, this painting exhibited nearly all the best technical qualities to which he ever attained, except high finish and clearness, and a very sincere vein of pathos. Holl was much below Millais In portraiture, and far inferior In all the higher ways of design; in technical resources, relatively speaking, he was but scantily provided. The range of his studies and the manner of his painting were narrower than those of Josef Israels, with whom, except as a portrait-painter, he may better be compared than with Millais. In 1870 he painted “Better is a Dinner of Herbs where Love is, than a Stalled Ox and Hatred therewith”; “No Tidings from the Sea,” a scene in a fisherman’s cottage, in 1871—a story told with breath-catching pathos and power; “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (1872); “Leaving Home” (1873), “Deserted” (1874), both of which had great success; “Her First-born,” girls carrying a baby to the grave (1876); and “Going Home” (1877). In 1877 he painted the two pictures “Hush” and “Hushed.” “Newgate, Committed for Trial,” a very sad and telling piece, first attested the breaking down of the painter’s health in 1878. In this year he was elected A.R.A., and exhibited “The Gifts of the Fairies,” “The Daughter of the House,” “Absconded,” and a very fine portrait of Samuel Cousins, the mezzotint engraver. This last canvas is a masterpiece, and deserved the success which attended the print engraved from it. Holl was overwhelmed with commissions, which he would not decline. The consequences of this strain upon a constitution which was never strong were more or less, though unequally, manifest in “Ordered to the Front,” a soldier’s departure (1880); “Home Again,” its sequel, in 1883 (after which he was made R.A.). In 1886 he produced a portrait of Millais as his diploma work, but his health rapidly declined and he died at Hampstead, on the 31st of July 1888. Holl’s better portraits, being of men of rare importance, attest the commanding position he occupied in the branch of art he so unflinchingly followed. They include likenesses of Lord Roberts, painted for queen Victoria (1882); the prince of Wales, Lord Dufferin, the duke of Cleveland (1885); Lord Overstone, Mr Bright, Mr Gladstone, Mr Chamberlain, Sir J. Tenniel, Earl Spencer, Viscount Cranbrook, and a score of other important subjects.
(F. G. S.)
HOLLAND, CHARLES (1733-1769), English actor, was born in Chiswick, the son of a baker. He made his first appearance on the stage in the title rôle of Oroonoko at Drury Lane in 1755, John Palmer, Richard Yates and Mrs Cibber being in the cast. He played under Garrick, and was the original Florizel in the latter’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale. Garrick thought highly of him, and wrote a eulogistic epitaph for his monument in Chiswick church.
His nephew, Charles Holland (1768-1849) was also an actor, who played with Mrs Siddons and Kean.