HOLBERG, BARON LUDVIG. 



HOLKAR, MULHAR RAO. 



453 



public characters, that he had no leisure in England for historical 

 painting. Of his skill in this department he bad given decided proofs 

 before he left Basel, and many of his pictures are still to be seen in 

 that city. It appears however that he adorned the walls of a saloon 

 in the palace of Whitehall with two great allegorical compositions 

 representing the triumphs of riches and poverty. He likewise executed 

 large pictures of various public transactions, such as Henry VIII. 

 giving a charter to the barber-surgeons, and Edward VI. giving the 

 charter for the foundation of Bridewell Hospital. Holbein waa equally 

 remarkable for the freedom and spirit of his pencil, the lightness of 

 his touch, clearness and brilliancy of tone, and exquisite finishing. 

 Though from his long residence in England his original pictures must 

 have been very numerous, yet there can be no doubt that, as they 

 represented well-known characters, many copies, of various degrees of 

 merit, were made even during his life. This fact is too little considered 

 in England, where portraits wholly unworthy of him are ascribed to 

 hU pencil by persons who forget that in refined feeling for nature, 

 accurate delineation of the parts, and vigour of style, his best portraits 

 have an honourable place beside those of the greatest masters. He 

 died at London of the plague in 1554. 



HOLBERG, BARON LUDVIG, or LEWIS, who may be regarded 

 as the father, or, as he has been styled by some, the Colossus of 

 modem Danish literature, was born at Bergen in Norway, in 1684. 

 So far from being the inheritor of title or patrimony, he was of 

 obscure family, his father having been originally a common soldier, 

 though afterwards promoted to tho rank of colonel. His death how- 

 ever, which happened while Ludvig was quite a child, left the family 

 in very straitened circumstances, to that, as soon as the son had 

 completed his studies at Copenhagen, he had no other resource than 

 to become a private tutor. It was not long before a strong inclina- 

 tion for travelling led him, in Bpite of his exceedingly scanty finances, 

 to set out for Amsterdam, where ha had the misfortune to be attacked 

 by a fever. He afterwards made big way back to Chrietianstad, where 

 he endeavoured to gain a subsistence by teaching French ; but that 

 failing he camo to England, where he stayed about two years at Oxford. 

 On returning to Copenhagen he obtained the situation of tutor to the 

 son of a we ilthy iudividual, with whom he travelled through Ger- 

 many. On another occasion he contrived to proceed as far as Rome, 

 journeying for the most part, like Goldsmith, on foot. On his return 

 to Denmark he obtained a maintenance by teaching languages, until 

 he wag appointed professor of metaphysics, and in 1720 professor of 

 eloquence. Ho was now in tolerably easy and improving circumstances, 

 and had for the first time leisure to apply himself to his pen, and turn 

 to account the multifarious stock of learning which he had picked up 

 in the course of his unsettled life. He had now passed his youth, nor 

 had he given any symptoms of a talent for poetry, when he astonished 

 and delighted his countrymen by his satires, and that masterpiece of 

 heroic comic-poetry, his ' 1'eder Paars." This production has acquired 

 for its author the title of the Danish Butler ; not however on account 

 of any similarity of subject with ' Hudibrag,' but merely as being a 

 national and popular work of the same genus. With less wit and 

 learning than its English rival, ' Peder I'aars ' is quito as lively and 

 diverting, and replete with humorous incidents from beginning 

 to end. 



Tho most formidable rival to the author of ' Peder Paars ' is Hol- 

 bcrg the dramatist ; for his comedies have rendered the poem only his 

 secondary title to fame. These productions, amounting to nearly forty, 

 and composed between 1723 and 1746, exhibit very strong graphic and 

 comic power. Yet it must bo acknowledged that his dramas are not 

 free from defects, although they possess such vigour and spirit that 

 we cheerfully excuse them. His ' Metamorphoses,' in which he has 

 reversed Ovid's system, transforming animals into men, instead of men 

 into animals, is ingenious in idea and happy in execution. But that 

 to which some have assigned the foremost place among his productions 

 is ' Niels Klims' Subterraneous Journey,' first published in 1741, and 

 written in Latin, but translated not only into Danish (by Rulibek), but 

 into almost every other European tongue. In this philosophical satire 

 Holberghas shown himself perhaps the imitator, but perhaps also the 

 rival, of Lucian and Swift. 



These works would indicate no little industry, yet they constitute 

 but an inconsiderable portion of Holberg's writings, whose pen was 

 ag prolific as that of Voltaire, there being hardly a department of 

 literature which he left unessayed, if we except tragedy. The annals 

 of literature afford probably no parallel instance of a comic author 

 so admirable, and also so fertile, who was at the same time so universal. 

 History, biography, philosophy, politics, all employed his pen iu turn, 

 and to such extent that it would occupy too much space were we to 

 specify severally his writings of this class. Suffice it then to mention 

 merely his ' History of Denmark," 'Church History,' 'Higtoria Univer- 

 gftlis.' What would be the exact amount of all that he wrote, if 

 printed iu a uniform series, we know not, but his select works alone, 

 as edited by Rahbek, 1304-14, extend to twenty-one octavo volumes. 

 Nor is our wonder at their vast number and variety diminished when 

 we consider that he hail hardly commenced authorship at a period of 

 life when many have already produced their chiuf works, and that be 

 did not live to a remarkably advanced age, for he died January 27, 

 1754, ia his seventieth year : he had been created a noblu by Frederick V. 

 in 1747. Baron Ilolberg had raised himself to afllueuce by his writings, 



and having no family, for he was never married, he bequeathed the 

 bulk of his property (amounting to 70,000 dollars) to the Academy 

 of Soroe. 



HOLCROFT, THOMAS, was born December 10, 1745 (old style). 

 His father kept a shoemaker's shop in Leicester Fields, and occasionally 

 dealt iu horses. The first six years of his life were spent at his birth- 

 place, but some change in his father's circumstances brought him into 

 Berkshire, and at last to a vagrant life. When very young he became 

 a stable-boy iu racing-stables at Newmarket, and continued iu the 

 service of training-grooms till his seventeenth year, after which time 

 he lived a desultory life as shoemaker, tramper, or schoolmaster till 

 twenty, when he married. About this time he had proceeded far 

 enough in self-education to venture to commit his performances to 

 the columns of the ' Whitehall Evening Post,' but this whim soon gave 

 way to others, and iu a short time he found himself an actor. In 

 1780, having been some time ou the London stage, he turned author, 

 producing first a novel, then a comedy, and afterwards some poems, 

 which were followed in their turn by a series of plays, and by trans- 

 lations of various French works, of which those moat remembered at 

 present are ' Tales of the Castle,' and ' The Marriage of Figaro.' In 

 1789 he lost his son, and in 1790 his third wife. Four years afterwards 

 he was implicated in the political trials relative to the Society for 

 Constitutional Information. From this time his life presents no 

 tangible points : he seems to have spent the greater part of his time 

 in writing, and in cultivating the fine arts. 



He lived much in Germany and occasionally in Paris, and of this 

 residence his ' Travels into France ' was the fruit, a book which has 

 probably been depreciated below its real merit, as his plays were 

 doubtless raised above theirs. He died March 23, 1809. 



Holcroft's chief merit lay in translation. As a translator he will 

 probably be remembered ; as an author, probably he will not. His 

 style bears all the marks of that of a half-educated man. Holcroft's 

 life has been published, partly from diaries of his own. It is a perform- 

 ance the form of which private friendship has had a large share iu 

 determining. Lengthy quotations and needless talk fill three volumes, 

 where one would have amply sufficed; divested of its superfluous 

 matter it forms a volume of Longman's ' Traveller's Library," and in 

 that shape is a much more entertaining work than as it originally 

 appeared. 



HOLINSHED, or HOLLYNSHED, RAPHAEL, the annalist, was 

 born probably during the first half of the 10th century, but when is 

 uncertain. Anthony a Wood says that he " was educated at oue of 

 the universities, and was a minister of God's word," but it appears 

 most probable that he was steward to Thomas Burdet of Bromcote in 

 Warwickshire. It is possible however that the sentence in which ho 

 refers to " his master" may be interpreted ou the supposition of his 

 having been private chaplain, which would reconcile the two state- 

 ments. He died about 1580, as his will was made fifteen mouth;! 

 before, and proved two years after that time. 



Holinshed is an important authority iu English history, and the list 

 of authors to which he refers shows him to have possessed considerable 

 learning. The first edition of his history is a very scarce black letter 

 in two folios, adorned by numerous wood-cuts. The second and 

 improved edition omits these adornments, and has suffered also from 

 the censorship of the times, which compelled the cancelling of several 

 sheets. It consists of the following items : ' Description of England,' 

 by Harrison ; of ' Ireland,' by Stanihurst ; and of ' Scotland," from 

 the Latin of Hector Boetbius, by W. H(arrison). 'History of England," 

 by R. H(olinshed) ; of ' Ireland till the Conquest/ from Giraldus 

 Cambreusis, by J. Hooker (an uncle of the divine) ; " till 1509," by 

 Holinshed ; and " till 128G," by Hooker and Stanihurst ; and of 

 ' Scotland ' till 1571, by Holinshed, and continued by others. 



(Wood, Ath. Oxon, ; Biographic, Britctnnica.) 



HOLKAR, MULHAR RAO, the first of the name known in history, 

 was a Mahratta soldier, who having been instrumental in extending 

 the conquests of his nation, under the first Peshwsv, towards the north 

 of India, received a grant of land in Malwa about 1736. Ultimately 

 one half of that large province passed under his rule ; and before his 

 death, which took place in 1766, he had rendered himself, in all but 

 name, independent of his titular superior the Peshwa. He was suc- 

 ceeded by his grandson, a minor ; but this boy soon died, and the 

 inheritance passed to Tuckagce Uolkar, a nephew of Mulhar, according 

 to Mr. Mill, but, according to Captain Duff, a stranger in blood. 

 Tuckagee, dying in 1797, left four sous, whoso patrimony was usurped 

 for a time by Scindia, the most powerful of the Mahratta chiefs. In 

 1802 Jeswunt Rao Holkar, the third son, an able, brave, unscrupulous 

 soldier of fortune, defeated Sciudia, and re-established himself in 

 Malwa. The Marquis Wellesley, then Governor-General, refused how- 

 ever to recognise his title, and in 1804 commenced a war against him, 

 which was terminated at the end of 1805 by a peace more favourable 

 than Holkar had reason to expect, which left to him the greater part 

 of his dominions. The violence of his temper ultimately grew into 

 madness ; and tho last three years of his life were passed in clo.-:e 

 confinement: he died iu 1811. When he was placed under restraint 

 his son, a minor four years old, Mulhar Rao Ilolkar, succeeded to tho 

 nominal authority; all real power being of course in the hands of oue 

 or two ministers. A wretched anarchy succeeded. After the find 

 overthrow of the Mahralta power in 1818, Mulhar was suffered to 



