IIOOKT, PETER CORNELIUS. 



HOOK, THEODORE EDWARD. 



nd continued to supply the best of iU contribution < till ithi-i about 



month before M death. Those who bar* mul the work, nod have 

 a Ustc for wit, humour, and character, will not rradily forget his 



SchoolniutreM Abroad,' ' Mr*. Gardener.' M><1 bi novel of ' Our 

 Family,' which was interrupted by bit last illm-a* Mid death : the latt 

 chapters were in fact written by him when ho was propped up by 

 pillow* in bed. He bad the couaoUUon, a nhort time before hi* 

 death, of having a government penaion of lOOt a-year, which wai 

 offer, d to him by Sir Robert Peel, tranaferred at hii own requeet to 

 hi* wife. Aftir a lethargy, which continued four days, he died, 

 Hay S, 1845. He wai buried on the Ipth of May in Kenrall Green 

 Cemetery. Hood left two children, n girl and a boy, for whom, with 

 hi* widow, soon after hi* death a subscription wai act on foot, which 

 realise.! a band*ome anm. 



Hood was undoubtedly a man of genius. HU mind waa itorcd 

 with a rut collection of material* drawn from a great Taritty of 

 ourcr*, but especially hi* own observation* ; and lie pnnaomed the 

 power of working up thote materials into combinations of wit and 

 immour and pathoe of the most original and varied kinds. His vigi- 

 lance of observation must have been extraordinary. The appearances 

 of nature, the forms anil usages of society, great diversity of cha- 

 racters, all arts, profestions, and trades lie ready in his mind to 

 supply the demands of his rapid, subtle, and versatile imagination. 

 He has wit of the highest quality, as original and as abundant as 

 Butler's or Cowley's, drawn from as extensive an observation of 

 nature and life, if not from so wide a reach of learning, and combined 

 with a richness of humour of which Duller had little and Cowley 

 none. His humour is frequently a* extravagantly broad as that of 

 llabelais, but he has sometimes the delicate, touches of Addison. As 

 a punster he stands alone. His puns do not consist merely of double 

 meanings of words, a low kind of punning of which minds of a low 

 older are capable, and with which his imitators have deluged English 

 comedy and comic literature, but of double meanings of words com- 

 bined with double meanings of sense in such a manner as to produce 

 the most extraordinary effects of surprise and admiration. His power 

 of exciting laughter is wonderful, Ms drollery indescribable, inimita- 

 ble. His pathetic power is not equal to his comic, but it is very 

 great In some of his ' National Tales,' as well as in his singular 

 poem of ' Eugene Aram's Dream,' he produces an effect upon the 

 feelings which is sometimes littlu less than sublime. 'Hi* Song of 

 the Shirt,' which he wrote a short time before bis death, was a burst 

 of poetry and indignant passion by which he produced tears almost 

 as irrepresaibly as in other cases he produci-s laughter. In bis ' Plea 

 of the Midsummer Fairies, Hero and Leauder, Lycus the Centaur, and 

 other Poems,' he supports a poetic character quito different from 

 tlioto in which be usually appeared. Without a trace of anything 

 that can be called wit or humour or punning, he displays a graceful- 

 ness and delicacy of fancy, a tenderness and sweetness of feeling, a 

 choice of diction, Mid beauty of versification, which render these 

 serious poems exceedingly delightful ; but the poetry is not poetry for 

 the many, though, from its elaborate structure, it may be inferred 

 that it cost him much labour, if not much time. As n novelist Hood 

 has considerable faults. His pages overflow with the exuberance of 

 his imagination to such a degree as to interrupt the course of the nar- 

 rative, and, by diverting the reader's attention, to weaken his interest 

 in the story. Some of the characters too are injured by what may be 

 called the intruaiveucss of his wit, by which both the thoughts and 

 language are often rendered leas appropriate to the characters than 

 they would have been without it 



The rude but graphic and humorous sketches by which many of his 

 comic works are illustrated, are for the most part very slightly con- 

 nected with the pieces to which they are annexed, and seem to be 

 introduced merely for the sake of the whim, as some pun or odd fancy 

 occurred to him. 



HOOFT, PETER CORNELIUS, one of the most eminent poets 

 and prose writers of Holland, was born on the 16th of March 1581, 

 at Amsterdam, where his fatlitr was an eminent burghermaster. 

 After studying at the high-school at Lcydeu be travelled to Italy, the 

 tudy of whose literature and poetry chiefly occupied him during his 

 stay there. _0n his return in 1602, after an absence of three years, he 

 published his tragedy of ' Granida/ which for harmony and elegance 

 of diction it still considered one of the choicest specimens of the 

 Dutch language. Thus lie may be said to have polished his native' 

 idiom all at once, and to have refined it, from the harshness nd utiil- 

 new in which h found it, into such melodiousness and flexibility Unit 

 he left others more to imitate than to improve upon. He composed 

 aeveral otht-r tragedies* and may be considered in some degree as the 

 founder of the Dutch stage. These pieces, like those of his great 

 contemporary Vond. 1, are all on the Greek model, and interspersed 

 with choruses. But it is in his lesser productions, his ' Minncdigtc, 

 or amatory compositions, that Uooft displays most originality. Many 

 of tbe*e are replete with Anacreontic playfulness, naivete', and elegance. 

 Hooft attained equal celebrity as a prose writer; for he suctv 

 the difficult task of establishing a correct and harmonious style of 

 prate, of which bis ' History of the N. therlands ' is esteemed a model, 

 remarkable both for its purity and its vigour. Hooft was twice 

 married : his first wife died in 1024, hi* second survived him. In her 

 society and that of hi* numerous friend* the last twenty yean of his 



life wero passed in lettered ease and enjoyment HU ch&teau at 

 Muiden was the rendezvous of all who were distinguished for talents. 

 Ho died May 21st, ' 



HOOGK, PKTKR HE, was born about 1613, but the place of his 

 birth U uncertain, a* well as the master under whom ho st 

 though some say it was Borghem. At all oventi it U evident from his 

 works that he had studied in some good school. " HU pictures," says 

 Dr. Waagen, " are a striking proof that an artist has but to produce 

 something excellent even iu a lower detriment of the art, in order 

 to make hU works highly attractive. For tho actions in which hU 

 persons are engaged are in general very indifferent, tho faces monoto- 

 nous and vacant, and the execution often careless ; but then be under- 

 stands how to represent the effects of the light of the sun in the most 

 marvellous force and clearness, and to avail himself, with the finest 

 tact, of all the advantages of his art by soft gradations and striking 

 contrasU." Hi* pictures, of which there are some capital spec 



n.l, sell at high prices. There U no work by him in either the 

 National or tho Dulwich Gallery. 



HOOGEVEEN, HEXRY, was born at Loyden in January 171-'. 

 HU parents, who were in humble circumstances, sent him t 

 ryiunasium in hU native town, where, like many other persona who 

 iave distinguished themselves in after-life, he did not at first make 

 much progress in hU studies But a he advanced to maturr 

 merit became apparent, and he was appointed at the ago of tv. 

 co-director of the school of Gorinchem, and in the following year 

 [1733) was placed at the head of the gymnasium at W.*T ., ! !! 

 filled successively the office of rector at the gymnasiums of K 



iv, Breili, Dort, and Delft, at the last of which places be die 1 in 

 1791. 



The principal work of Hoogeveen U a treatise on the < 

 Particles (2 volx. 4to, Leyd., 1769), of which an abridgment was 

 made by Schiitz (Leip., 1806). He also published an edition of Vi.-< r 

 on the Greek Particles, with numerous notes; but neither this work 

 nor his treatise on tho Greek Particles give us a high opinion of his 

 scholarship. A useful work of Hoogeveen, entitled ' Dictionarium 

 Aualogicum Lingua) Grxcte,' was published after his death at > 

 bri'lge, iu 1 800. This dictionary is merely a list of the words in the 

 Greek language, arranged in alphabetical order, according to their final 

 letters. All words with the same termination of course come together, 

 and thus a comparison can bu instituted between them, which often 

 leads to valuable etymological results. 



HOOK, JAMES CLARKE, A.R.A. From choice of subjects or 

 nianin r of treatment, it often happen* that painters, highly esteemed 

 by their brother-artists, and well known to the admirers and students 

 of art, are slow to catch the popular eye : so it has been with Mr. 

 Hook. While his pictures year after year have shown great and 

 steadily-increasing artistic knowledge, and a highly cultivated mind, 

 and though they have secured high professional recognition, they have 

 failed to win for the painter hitherto much notice beyond art n 

 His earlier pictures, besides portraits, were chiefly of Italian subject* ; 

 admirably painted, and showing a range of reading beyond that < 

 among English artists, as well as much observation, but having little 

 general interest Of these, among the more important were ' Pain- 

 philus relating his 81017,' exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1844 ; 

 'Otho IV. of Florence and tho Maid Gauldrada,' 1848; M: 

 Capello,' 1849; 'A Dream of Venice,' and 'Escape, of Francesco de 

 Carrara,' 1850; 'Rescue of the Brides of Venice,' 1851; and the 

 'Return of Torello,' 1852. In these pictures tho iniluenco of the 

 painter's admiration of Sir Charles. Eastlake, on whose style that of 

 Hook was evidently formed, waa especially manifest; but it was 

 scarcely less evident in hU Shakspcrian and historical works, such as 

 'Othello's First Suspicion,' 1849; 'The Defeat of Shylock,' . 

 ' Othello's Description of Desdemoua,' 1852 ; and ' The Chevalier Bayard 

 wounded at Brescia,' 1849, one of Hook's best historical works, 

 and that which secured him his election into the Royal Academy. 

 Some of hia later works of this order, as 'The Time of the Persecution 

 of the Christian Reformers in Puris ' (1854), have shown a more self- 

 reliant style; while his latest scriptural piece, 'Gratitude of the Mother 

 of Moses for the Safety of her Child ' (1855), is a thoroughly admirable 

 work, oriental in character, original as well as chaste in style, and 

 reverential in feeling. In 1854 Mr. Hook struck into a new path. He 

 had been studying English country life and scenery, and, as the result. 

 he sent to the Academy exhibition some pictures in which figures of 

 a moderate size were very happily introduced in combination with 

 pastoral and sea-side landscapes, so that each helped the other (as in 

 Collins'* better works) to tell the story. This vein he has pursued ; 

 and, judging from the specimens which he sent to the exhibition 

 of 1866, there can be little doubt that it will be in every sense a 

 profitable one. Among his productions in this line may be named, 

 'Tho Market Morning,' and 'The Shepherd Boy,' 1S55; 'The Bram- 

 bles in the Way,' onny Lass,' and 

 'The Fisherman's Good Night,' 1856. Though of a homely class, 

 they exhibit all tho careful painting, harmonious colouring, Ma 

 relined taste of hU more pretentious works, and they arc thoroughly 

 English in character. Mr. Hook was elected on Associate of the Royal 

 Academy in 1850. 



1IO< iK, Til l.< il)i)I;E El i WARD, was born on the 22nd of Septem- 

 ber 1768, in CbarloUsvttrttt, Bedford-square, London. He was the 



