← A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature
Chapter 5
List of Contractions Used Throughout the Work (part 4)
MARLOWE, CHRISTOPHER (1564-1593). —Dramatist, s. of a shoemaker at Canterbury, where he was b., was ed. at the King's School there, and in 1581 went to Benet's (now Corpus Christi) Coll., Camb., where he graduated B.A. 1583, and M.A. in 1587. Of his life after he left the Univ. almost nothing is known. It has, however, been conjectured, partly on account of his familiarity with military matters, that he saw service, probably in the Low Countries. His first play, Tamburlaine, was acted in 1587 or 1588. The story is drawn from the Spanish Life of Timur by Pedro Mexia. Its resounding splendour, not seldom passing into bombast, won for it immediate popularity, and it long held the stage. It was followed in 1604 by Faustus, a great advance upon Tamburlaine in a dramatic sense. The absence of "material horror" in the treatment, so different in this respect from the original legend, has often been remarked upon. M.'s handling of the subject was greatly admired by Goethe, who, however, in his own version, makes the motive knowledge, while M. has power, and the mediæval legend pleasure. In his next play, The Jew of Malta, M. continues to show an advance in technical skill, but the work is unequal, and the Jew Barabas is to Shylock as a monster to a man. In Edward II., M. rises to his highest display of power. The rhodomontade of Tamburlaine and the piled-up horror of The Jew are replaced by a mature self-restraint, and in the whole workmanship he approaches more nearly to Shakespeare than any one else has ever done. Speaking of it Lamb says, "The death scene of Marlowe's King moves pity and terror beyond any scene, ancient or modern, with which I am acquainted." M. is now almost certainly believed to have had a large share in the three parts of Henry VI., and perhaps also he may have collaborated in Titus Andronicus. His next plays, The Massacre of Paris and The Tragedy of Dido (written with Nash, q.v.), both show a marked falling off; and it seems likely that in his last years, perhaps, breaking down under the effects of a wild life, he became careless of fame as of all else. Greene, in his Groat's Worth of Wit, written on his deathbed, reproaches him with his evil life and atheistic opinions, and a few days before his hapless death an information was laid against him for blasphemy. The informer was next year hanged for an outrageous offence, and his witness alone might not be conclusive, but M.'s life and opinions, which he made no secret of, were notorious. On the other hand, his friends, Shakespeare, Nash, Drayton, and Chapman, all make kindly reference to him. To escape the plague which was raging in London in 1593, he was living at Deptford, then a country village, and there in a tavern brawl he received a wound in the head, his own knife being turned against him by a serving man, upon whom he had drawn it. The quarrel was about a girl of the town. The parish record bears the entry, "Christopher Marlowe, slain by ffrancis Archer, the 1 of June 1593." M. is the father of the modern English drama, and the introducer of the modern form of blank verse. In imagination, richness of expression, originality, and general poetic and dramatic power he is inferior to Shakespeare alone among the Elizabethans. In addition to his plays he wrote some short poems (of which the best known is Come live with me and be my love), translations from Ovid's Amores and Lucan's Pharsalia, and a glowing paraphrase of Musaeus' Hero and Leander, a poem completed by Chapman.
Ed. of Works by Dyce, Cunningham, and Bullen; Ingram's C. Marlowe and his Associates, etc.
MARMION, SHACKERLEY (1603-1639). —Dramatist, s. of a country gentleman of Northamptonshire, was ed. at Oxford. After a youth of extravagance, he fought in the Low Countries. His writings consist of an epic, Cupid and Psyche, and three comedies, Holland's Leaguer, A Fair Companion, and The Antiquary. His plays show some power of satire, and were popular, but he had little of the dramatist.
MARRYAT, FREDERICK (1792-1848). —Novelist, s. of a West India merchant, was b. in London. In 1806 he entered the navy as a midshipman under Lord Cochrane (afterwards Earl of Dundonald), and saw much service in the Mediterranean, at Walcheren, and in the Burmese War of 1824. He returned in 1830 as a Captain and C.B. The scenes and experiences through which he had passed were the preparation for and the foundation of his numerous novels, of which the first, Frank Mildmay, was pub. in 1829. It was followed by over 30 others, of which perhaps the best are Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful (1834), Mr. Midshipman Easy (1836), The Dog Fiend (1837), and The Phantom Ship (1839). M. is the prince of sea story-tellers; his knowledge of the sea, vigorous definition of character, and hearty and honest, if somewhat broad, humour never failing to please.
MARSH, HERBERT (1757-1839). —Theologian and controversialist, s. of a clergyman, ed. at Canterbury, Cambridge, and Leipsic, was the first to introduce the German methods of Biblical criticism into England, and gave lectures on the subject at Camb., which excited great interest and controversy. In 1816 he was made Bishop of Llandaff, and was translated to Peterborough in 1819. His critical views and his opposition to the evangelical party in the Church, to the Bible Society, to hymns in Divine service, and to Catholic emancipation, involved him in controversy with high, low, and broad churchmen alike. He was the author of a History of the Politics of Great Britain and France (1799), Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome, and Horæ Pelasgicæ.
MARSTON, JOHN (1575?-1634). —Dramatist and satirist, b. at Coventry, was ed. at Oxf. In later life he gave up writing for the stage, took orders, and was incumbent of Christchurch, Hants, 1616-31. He began his literary career in 1598 with satire, The Scourge of Villanie and The Metamorphosis of Pygmalion's Image (1598), the latter of which was burned by order of Archbishop Whitgift. In 1602 appeared The History of Antonio and Mellida, and its sequel, Antonio's Revenge, ridiculed by Ben Jonson. In repayment of this M. co-operated with Dekker in attacking Jonson in Satiromastix (a Whip for the Satirist). A reconciliation, however, took place, and his comedy, The Malcontent (1604), was dedicated to J., another, Eastward Ho (1605), was written in collaboration with him and Chapman. Other plays of his are Sophonisba, What You Will (1607), and possibly The Insatiate Countess (1613). Amid much bombast and verbiage there are many fine passages in M.'s dramas, especially where scorn and indignation are the motives. Sombre and caustic, he has been called "a screech-owl among the singing birds."
MARSTON, PHILIP BOURKE (1850-1887). —Poet, was b. in London, and lost his sight at the age of 3. His poems, Song-tide, All in All, and Wind Voices bear, in their sadness, the impress of this affliction, and of a long series of bereavements. He was the friend of Rossetti and of Swinburne, the latter of whom has written a sonnet to his memory.
MARTIN, SIR THEODORE (1816-1909). —Poet, biographer, and translator, s. of James M., solicitor in Edin., where he was b. and ed. at the High School and Univ. He practised as a solicitor in Edin. 1840-45, after which he went to London and became head of the firm of Martin and Leslie, parliamentary agents. His first contribution to literature was The Bon Gaultier Ballads, written along with W.E. Aytoun (q.v.), full of wit and humour, which still retain their popularity; originally contributed to a magazine, they appeared in book form in 1855. His translations include Dante's Vila Nuova, Œhlenschläger's Correggio and Aladdin, Heine's Poems and Ballads, Schiller's Song of the Bell, and Hertz's King René's Daughter. He also pub. a complete translation of Horace with a Life, and one of Catullus. He is, however, perhaps best known for his Life of the Prince Consort (1874-80), the writing of which was committed to him by Queen Victoria, a work which he executed with such ability and tact as to win for him her lifelong friendship. He also wrote Lives of Prof. Aytoun and Lord Lyndhurst. He m. in 1851 Miss Helen Faucit (d. 1898), the well-known actress, and authoress of studies on Shakespeare's Female Characters, whose Life he pub. in 1901. M. kept up his intellectual activity into old age, pub. in 1905 a translation of Leopardi's poems, and Monographs (1906). He was Lord Rector of St. Andrews 1881, LL.D. of Edin. 1875, and K.C.B. 1880.
MARTINEAU, HARRIET (1802-1876). —Novelist and economist, b. at Norwich, where her f., descended from a French family, was a manufacturer. From her earliest years she was delicate and very deaf, and took to literary pursuits as an amusement. Afterwards, when her f. had fallen into difficulties, they became her means of support. Her first publication was Devotional Exercises for Young Persons (1823). Becoming interested in political economy, she endeavoured to illustrate the subject by tales, of which two were The Rioters and The Turn-out. Later she pub. a more serious treatment of it in Illustrations of Political Economy (1832-4), Poor Law and Paupers (1833), and Illustrations of Taxation (1834). About this time she went to London, and was regarded as an authority on economic questions, being occasionally consulted by Cabinet Ministers. Among her books of travel are Society in America (1837), and Eastern Life, Present and Past (1848), which she considered her best book: in it she declared herself no longer a believer in revelation. She also wrote two novels, Deerbrook (1839), and The Hour and the Man (1840), also a number of books for children. Perhaps her most important work is her History of England during the Thirty Years' Peace, 1816-46, which appeared in 1849. She translated Comte's Philosophy (1853), and pub. a collection of letters between herself and Mr. H.G. Atkinson On the Laws of Man's Nature and Development, which encountered severe criticism. In addition to her separate publications she wrote innumerable articles for newspapers, specially the Daily News, and for periodicals. In 1845 she settled in the Lake District, where she died.
MARTINEAU, JAMES (1805-1900). —Unitarian theologian, younger brother of the above, was b. at Norwich. Possessed of considerable inventive and mathematical talents, he was originally intended for engineering, but studied for the Unitarian ministry, to which he was ordained in 1828. After serving as pastor in various places he became in 1840 Prof. of Mental and Moral Philosophy in the Manchester New Coll. (subsequently removed to London), and Principal 1869-85. Among his writings, which were very influential, are Rationale of Religious Inquiry (1836), Ideal Substitutes for God (1879), Study of Spinoza (1882), Types of Ethical Theory (1885), Study of Religion (1888), Seat of Authority in Religion (1890), and religious poems and hymns. M. was a man of very elevated character and powerful intellect; of great acuteness, candour, and openness to new ideas. He was D.D. of Edin. 1884, and D.C.L. of Oxf. 1888.
MARVELL, ANDREW (1621-1678). —Poet and satirist, s. of the Rector of Winestead, Yorkshire, where he was b., ed. Camb., and thereafter travelled in various Continental countries. He sat in Parliament for Hull, proving himself an assiduous and incorruptible member, with strong republican leanings. In spite of this he was a favourite of Charles II., who took pleasure in his society, and offered him a place at Court, and a present of £1000, which were both declined. In his own day he was best known as a powerful and fearless political writer, and for some time from 1657 was assistant to Milton as Latin Sec. After the Restoration he wrote against the Government, his chief work in this kind being on the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England (1677). He was also the author of an Historical Essay regarding General Councils. His controversial style was lively and vigorous, but sometimes coarse and vituperative. His fame now rests on his poems which, though few, have many of the highest poetical qualities. Among the best known are The Emigrants in the Bermudas, The Nymph complaining for the Death of her Fawn, and Thoughts in a Garden. Of the last Palgrave says that "it may be regarded as a test of any reader's insight into the most poetical aspects of poetry," and his Horatian Ode on Cromwell's Return from Ireland. The town of Hull voted him a monument, which was, however, forbidden by the Court. His appearance is thus described, "He was of middling stature, pretty strong-set, roundish-faced, cherry-cheeked, hazel-eyed, brown-haired."
Life and Works by Cooke, 1726, reprinted 1772; Thomson, 1726; Dove, 1832; and specially Grosart (4 vols., 1872-74).
MASON, WILLIAM (1724-1797). —Poet, s. of a clergyman, was b. at Hull, and ed. at Camb. He took orders and rose to be a Canon of York. His first poem was Musæus, a monody on the death of Pope, and his other works include Elfrida (1752), and Caractacus (1759), dramas—an Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, the architect, in which he satirised some modern fashions in gardening, The English Garden, his largest work, and some odes. He was a close friend of Gray, whose Life he wrote. His language was too magnificent for his powers of thought, but he has passages where the rich diction has a pleasing effect.
MASSEY, GERALD (1828-1907). —Poet, b. near Tring, Herts. As a boy he worked in a silk-factory, and as a straw-plaiter and errand boy. When he was 15 he came to London, where he was taken up by Maurice and Kingsley. His first book was pub. in 1851, but he first attracted attention by Babe Christabel (1854). This was followed by War Waits, Craigcrook Castle, and Havelock's March. A selection from these was pub. 1889, under the title of My Lyrical Life. Later he wrote and lectured on spiritualism, and produced prose works on the origin of myths and mysteries in The Book of Beginnings (1881), The Natural Genesis (1883), and Ancient Egypt: the Light of the World (1907). He also wrote a book on the sonnets of Shakespeare. M. had a true lyrical vein, but though often musical, he was at times harsh and rugged, and did not give sufficient attention to form and finish.
MASSINGER, PHILIP (1583-1640). —Dramatist, was probably b. at Salisbury. His f. appears to have been a retainer of the Earl of Pembroke, by whom and by Queen Elizabeth he was employed in a confidential capacity. M. was at Oxf., but quitted the Univ. suddenly without graduating. He is next found in London writing for the stage, frequently in collaboration with others. Few details of his life have come down, but it seems that he was on the whole unfortunate. He was found dead in bed on March 16, 1640, and was buried in St. Saviour's, Southwark, by some of the actors. The burial register has the entry, "buried Philip Massinger, a stranger." Of the many plays which he wrote or had a hand in, 15 believed to be entirely his are extant, other 8 were burned by a servant in the 18th century. He, however, collaborated so much with others—Fletcher, Dekker, etc., that much fine work probably his can only be identified by internal evidence. Among his plays may be mentioned The Unnatural Combat (pr. 1639), The Virgin Martyr (1622) (partly by Dekker), which contains perhaps his finest writing. His best plays on the whole, however, are The City Madam (1632), and A New Way to pay Old Debts (pr. 1633), which latter kept the stage until the 19th century. He is believed to have joined with Fletcher and Shakespeare in Henry VIII. and The Two Noble Kinsmen. Other plays which he wrote or had a hand in are The Duke of Milan, The Bondman, The Renegado, The Roman Actor, The Great Duke of Florence, The Maid of Honour, The Picture, and The Fatal Dowry. His verse is fluent and sweet, and in his grave and reflective passages he rises to a rich and stately music. He often repeats himself, has little humour, and is not seldom coarse. He has, however, much skill in the construction and working out of a story.
MASSON, DAVID (1822-1907). —Biographer and historian, b. at Aberdeen, and ed. at Marischal Coll. there and at Edin., where he studied theology under Chalmers. He did not, however, enter the Church, but began a literary career by ed. a newspaper in Aberdeen. He then returned to Edin., where he worked for the brothers Chambers, the eminent publishers, and where he became acquainted with Wilson, Sir William Hamilton, and Chalmers, for the last of whom he cherished an extraordinary veneration. Going to London in 1847 he wrote extensively in reviews, magazines, and encyclopædias. In 1852 he became Prof. of English Literature in Univ. Coll., and in 1858 ed. of Macmillan's Magazine. He was appointed in 1865 Prof. of English Literature in Edin., where he exercised a profound influence on his students, many of whom have risen to high positions in literature. Though a most laborious student and man of letters, M. took a warm interest in various public questions, including Italian emancipation, and the higher education of women. He was the author of many important works, including Essays Biographical and Critical (1856), British Novelists (1859), and Recent British Philosophy (1865). His magnum opus is his monumental Life of John Milton (6 vols., 1859-80) the most complete biography of any Englishman, dealing as it does not only with the personal life of the poet, but with the history, political, social, and religious of his time. Other books are Drummond of Hawthornden (1873), De Quincey (in English Men of Letters Series) (1878), Edinburgh Sketches and Memories (1892), and Carlyle Personally and in his Writings. He also ed. the standard ed. of De Quincey's works, and the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, his introductions in connection with which are of great historical value. He was appointed Historiographer for Scotland in 1893. M. was full of learning guided by sagacity, genial, broad-minded, and sane in his judgments of men and things, and thoroughly honest and sincere.
MATHER, COTTON (1663-1728). —Divine, s. of Increase M., a leading American divine, was ed. at Harvard, became a minister, and was colleague to his f. He was laborious, able, and learned, but extremely bigoted and self-sufficient. He carried on a persecution of so-called "witches," which led to the shedding of much innocent blood; on the other hand he was so much of a reformer as to advocate inoculation for small-pox. He was a copious author, his chief work being Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), an ecclesiastical history of New England. Others were Late Memorable Providences relating to Witchcraft and Possession (1689), and The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693). In his later years he admitted that "he had gone too far" in his crusade against witches.
MATHIAS, THOMAS JAMES (1754?-1835). —Satirist, ed. at Camb., and held some minor appointments in the Royal household. He was an accomplished Italian scholar, and made various translations from the English into Italian, and vice versâ. He also produced a fine ed. of Gray, on which he lost heavily. His chief work, however, was The Pursuits of Literature (1794), an undiscriminating satire on his literary contemporaries which went through 16 ed., but is now almost forgotten.
MATURIN, CHARLES ROBERT (1782-1824). —Novelist, b. in Dublin of Huguenot ancestry, was ed. at Trinity Coll. there, and taking orders held various benefices. He was the author of a few dramas, one of which, Bertram, had some success. He is, perhaps, better known for his romances in the style of Mrs. Radcliffe and "Monk" Lewis. The first of these, The Fatal Revenge appeared in 1807, and was followed by, among others, The Milesian Chief (1812), Women, which was the most successful, and lastly by Melmoth, in which he outdoes his models in the mysterious, the horrible, and indeed the revolting, without, except very occasionally, reaching their power. His last work, The Albigenses, in a somewhat different style, was pub. in the year of his death.
MAURICE, FREDERICK DENISON (1805-1872). —Divine, s. of a Unitarian minister, was b. at Normanston, near Lowestoft, and studied at Camb., but being then a Dissenter, could not graduate. He went to London, and engaged in literary work, writing for the Westminster Review and other periodicals, and for a short time ed. the Athenæum. His theological views having changed, he joined the Church of England, went to Oxf., graduated, and was ordained 1834. He became Chaplain to Guy's Hospital, and held other clerical positions in London. In 1840 he was appointed Prof. of English Literature and History at King's Coll., and subsequently Prof. of Theology. He became a leader among the Christian socialists, and for a short time ed. their paper. On the publication of his Theological Essays in 1853 he was asked to resign his professorship at King's Coll. In 1854 he was one of the founders of the Working Men's Coll., of which he became Principal, and in 1866 he was made Prof. of Moral Philosophy at Camb. Among his writings are The Religions of the World and their Relation to Christianity, Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, The Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament (1853), The Doctrine of Sacrifice, and Theological Essays. M.'s style was copious, and was often blamed as obscure; nevertheless, he exercised an extraordinary influence over some of the best minds of his time by the originality of his views, and the purity and elevation of his character.
MAXWELL, WILLIAM HAMILTON (1792-1850). —Novelist, a Scoto-Irishman, b. at Newry, and ed. at Trinity Coll., Dublin, entered the army, and saw service in the Peninsula, and at Waterloo. Afterwards he took orders, but was deprived of his living for non-residence. His novels, O'Hara, and Stories from Waterloo, started the school of rollicking military fiction, which culminated in the novels of Lever. M. also wrote a Life of the Duke of Wellington, and a History of the Irish Rebellion.
MAX-MÜLLER, FRIEDRICH (1823-1900). —Philologist, s. of the German poet, Wilhelm M., was b. at Dessau, and ed. at Leipzig, Berlin, and Paris. In 1846 he was requested by the East India Company to ed. the Rig Veda. He settled at Oxf. in 1848, and in 1850 was appointed deputy Taylorian Prof. of Modern European languages, becoming Prof. 4 years later, and Curator of the Bodleian Library in 1856. In 1868 he was elected first Prof. of Comparative Philology. He ed. Sacred Books of the East, and wrote in English Chips from a German Workshop (1867-75). He did much to stimulate the study of comparative religion and philology. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1896.
MAY, THOMAS (1595-1650). —Poet and historian, b. in Sussex, s. of Sir Thomas M., of Mayfield, went to Camb., and thence to Gray's Inn, but discarded law for literature. In 1622 he produced his first comedy, The Heir, and also a translation of Virgil's Georgics. Six years later, 1627, appeared his translation of Lucan, which gained him the favour of Charles I. at whose command he wrote two poems, The Reigne of King Henry II., and The Victorious Reigne of King Edward III., each in 7 books. When the Civil War broke out M., to the disappointment of his friends, took the side of the Parliament, and was made Sec. to the Long Parliament, the historian of which he became, pub. 1647, The History of the Parliament of England, which began Nov. 3, 1640. This work he prefaced with a short review of the preceding reigns from that of Elizabeth. The narrative closes with the Battle of Newbury, 1643, and is characterised by fulness of information and candour. M. was also the author of several tragedies, including Antigone, of no great merit.
MAY, SIR THOMAS ERSKINE, 1ST BARON FARNBOROUGH (1815-1886). —Jurist and historian, ed. at Bedford School, and after holding various minor offices became in 1871 clerk to the House of Commons, retiring in 1886, when he was raised to the peerage. He had previously, 1866, been made K.C.B. He was the author of a treatise on the laws, privileges, etc., of Parliament, which, first pub. in 1844, reached in 1901 its tenth ed., and was translated into various languages. His Constitutional History of England, 1760-1860 is practically a continuation of Hallam's great work. He also wrote Democracy in Europe. As an historical writer M. was learned, painstaking, and impartial.
MAYNE, JASPER (1604-1672). —Dramatist, was at Oxf., entered the Church, and became Archdeacon of Chichester. He wrote two dramas, The City Match (1639), and The Amorous War (1648), in neither of which did he sustain the clerical character. He had, however, some humour.
MAYNE, JOHN (1759-1836). —Poet, was b. in Dumfries. In 1780 he pub. the Siller Gun in its original form in Ruddiman's Magazine. It is a humorous poem descriptive of an ancient custom in Dumfries of shooting for the "Siller Gun." He was continually adding to it, until it grew to 5 cantos. He also wrote a poem on Hallowe'en, and a version of the ballad, Helen of Kirkconnel. His verses were admired by Scott.
MELVILLE, HERMAN (1819-1891). —Novelist, b. in New York, and took to the sea, which led to strange adventures, including an imprisonment of some months in the hands of cannibals in the Marquesas Islands. His first novel, Typee (1846), is based upon this experience. Omoo followed in 1847, Moby Dick, or the White Whale, a powerful sea story, in 1852, and Israel Potter in 1855. He was a very unequal writer, but occasionally showed considerable power and originality.
MELVILLE, JAMES (1556-1614). —Scottish divine and reformer, s. of the laird of Baldovie, in Forfarshire, and nephew of the great reformer and scholar, Andrew M., by whom, when Principal of the Univ. of Glasgow, he was chosen to assist him as a regent or professor. When, in 1580, Andrew became Principal of St. Mary's Coll., St. Andrews, James accompanied him, and acted as Prof. of Hebrew and Oriental Languages. He wrote many poems, but his chief work was his Diary, an original authority for the period, written with much naïveté, and revealing a singularly attractive personality. M., who for his part in Church matters, had been banished to England, d. at Berwick on his way back to Scotland.
MELVILLE, SIR JAMES (1535-1617). —Historian, s. of Sir John M., of Hallhill, was a page to Mary Queen of Scots at the French Court, and afterwards one of her Privy Council. He also acted as her envoy to Queen Elizabeth and the Elector Palatine. He was the author of an autobiography which is one of the original authorities for the period. The MS., which lay for long hidden in Edin. Castle, was discovered in 1660, and pub. 1683. A later ed. was brought out in 1827 by the Bannatyne Club. The work is written in a lively style, but is not always to be implicitly relied upon in regard either to facts or the characters attributed to individuals.
MEREDITH, GEORGE (1828-1909). —Novelist and poet, b. at Portsmouth, s. of Augustus M., a naval outfitter, who afterwards went to Cape Town, and ed. at Portsmouth and Neuwied in Germany. Owing to the neglect of a trustee, what means he had inherited were lost, and he was in his early days very poor. Articled to a lawyer in London, he had no taste for law, which he soon exchanged for journalism, and at 21 he was writing poetry for magazines, his first printed work, a poem on the Battle of Chillianwallah, appearing in Chambers's Journal. Two years later he pub. Poems (1851), containing Love in the Valley. Meantime he had been ed. a small provincial newspaper, and in 1866 he was war correspondent in Italy for the Morning Post, and he also acted for many years as literary adviser to Chapman and Hall. By this time, however, he had produced several of his novels. The Shaving of Shagpat had appeared in 1856, Farina in 1857, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel in 1859, Evan Harrington in 1861, Emilia in England (also known as Sandra Belloni) in 1864, its sequel, Vittoria, in 1866, and Rhoda Fleming in 1865. In poetry he had produced Modern Love and Poems of the English Roadside (1862), generally regarded as his best poetical work. These were followed by The Adventures of Harry Richmond (1871), Beauchamp's Career (1875), said to be the author's favourite, The Egoist (1879), which marks the beginning of a change in style characterised by an even greater fastidiousness in the choice of words, phrases, and condensation of thought than its predecessors, The Tragic Comedians (1880), and Diana of the Crossways, the first of the author's novels to attain anything approaching general popularity. The same period yielded in poetry, Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth (1883), Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life (1887), and A Reading of Earth (1888). His later novels, One of our Conquerors (1891), Lord Ormont and his Aminta (1894), and The Amazing Marriage (1895), exhibit a tendency to accentuate those qualities of style which denied general popularity to all of M.'s works, and they did little to add to his reputation. The contemporary poems include The Empty Purse and Jump to Glory Jane (1892). In 1905 he received the Order of Merit, and he d. on May 19, 1909. He was twice m., his first wife, who d. 1860, being a dau. of Thomas Love Peacock (q.v.). This union did not prove in all respects happy. His second wife was Miss Vulliamy, who d. 1885. In his earlier life he was vigorous and athletic, and a great walker; latterly he lost all power of locomotion.
Though the writings of M. never were and probably never will be generally popular, his genius was, from the very first, recognised by the best judges. All through he wrote for the reader who brought something of mind, thought, and attention, not for him who read merely to be amused without trouble; and it is therefore futile to attribute failure to him because he did not achieve what he did not aim at. Nevertheless, the long delay in receiving even the kind of recognition which he sought was a disappointment to him. Few writers have striven to charge sentences and even words so heavily with meaning, or to attain so great a degree of condensation, with the result that links in the chain of thought are not seldom omitted and left for the careful reader to supply. There is also a tendency to adopt unusual words and forms of expression where plainness and simplicity would have served as well, and these features taken together give reason for the charges of obscurity and affectation so often made. Moreover, the discussion of motive and feeling is often out of proportion to the narrative of the events and circumstances to which they stand related. But to compensate us for these defects he offers humour, often, indeed, whimsical, but keen and sparkling, close observation of and exquisite feeling for nature, a marvellous power of word-painting, the most delicate and penetrating analysis of character, and an invincible optimism which, while not blind to the darker aspects of life, triumphs over the depression which they might induce in a weaker nature. In matters of faith and dogma his standpoint was distinctly negative.
MERES, FRANCIS (1565-1647). —Miscellaneous author, was of a Lincolnshire family, studied at Camb. and Oxf., and became Rector of Wing in Rutland. He pub. in 1598 Palladis Tamia: Wit's Treasury, containing a comparison of English poets with Greek, Latin, and Italian.
MERIVALE, CHARLES (1808-1893). —Historian, s. of John Herman M., a translator and minor poet, b. in London, ed. at Harrow, Haileybury, and Camb., he took orders, and among other preferments held those of chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, 1863-69, and Dean of Ely. From his college days he was a keen student of Roman history, and between 1850 and 1864 he pub. his History of the Romans under the Empire, an able and scholarly work, though considered by some critics to be too favourable to the Emperors, and the imperial idea. An earlier work was The Fall of the Roman Republic (1853).
MERRIMAN, H. SETON, (see SCOTT, H.S.).
MESTON, WILLIAM (1688?-1745). —S. of a blacksmith, was ed. at Marischal Coll., Aberdeen, took part in the '15, and had to go into hiding. His Knight of the Kirk (1723) is an imitation of Hudibras. It has little merit.
MICKLE, WILLIAM JULIUS (1735-1788). —Poet, s. of the minister of Langholm, Dumfriesshire, was for some time a brewer in Edin., but failed. He went to Oxf., where he was corrector for the Clarendon Press. After various literary failures and minor successes he produced his translation of the Lusiad, from the Portuguese of Camoens, which brought him both fame and money. In 1777 he went to Portugal, where he was received with distinction. In 1784 he pub. the ballad of Cumnor Hall, which suggested to Scott the writing of Kenilworth. He is perhaps best remembered, however, by the beautiful lyric, There's nae luck aboot the Hoose, which, although claimed by others, is almost certainly his.
MIDDLETON, CONYERS (1683-1750). —Divine and scholar, b. at Richmond, Yorkshire, and ed. at Camb. He was the author of several latitudinarian treatises on miracles, etc., which brought him into controversy with Waterland (q.v.) and others, and of a Life of Cicero (1741), largely plagiarised from William Bellenden, a Scottish writer of the 17th century. Another of his controversies was with Bentley on college administration. He was master of a very fine literary style.
MIDDLETON, THOMAS (1570-1627). —Dramatist, was a Londoner and city chronologer, in which capacity he composed a chronicle of the city, now lost. He wrote over 20 plays, chiefly comedies, besides masques and pageants, and collaborated with Dekker, Webster, and other playwrights. His best plays are The Changeling, The Spanish Gipsy (both with Rowley), and Women beware Women. Another, The Game of Chess (1624), got the author and the players alike into trouble on account of its having brought the King of Spain and other public characters upon the stage. They, however, got off with a severe reprimand. M. was a keen observer of London life, and shone most in scenes of strong passion. He is, however, unequal and repeats himself. Other plays are: The Phœnix, Michaelmas Term (1607), A Trick to Catch the old One (1608), The Familie of Love (1608), A Mad World, My Masters (1608), The Roaring Girl (1611) (with Dekker), The Old Law (1656) (with Massinger and Rowley), A Faire Quarrel (1617); and among his pageants and masques are The Triumphs of Truth (1613), The Triumphs of Honour and Industry (1617), The Inner Temple Masque (1619), etc.
MILL, JAMES (1773-1836). —Philosopher and historian, s. of a shoemaker, was b. at Montrose, and showing signs of superior ability, was sent to the Univ. of Edin. with a view to the ministry. He was licensed as a preacher in 1798, but gave up the idea of the Church, and going to London in 1802 engaged in literary work, ed. the St. James's Chronicle, and wrote for the Edinburgh Review. In 1806 he began his History of British India (1817-18), and in 1819 received the appointment of Assistant Examiner to the India Office, and in 1834 became head of the department. M. had meanwhile become the intimate friend of Jeremy Bentham, was perhaps the chief exponent of the utilitarian philosophy, and was also one of the founders of the London Univ. His philosophical writings include Elements of Political Economy (1821), and Analysis of the Human Mind (1824). M.'s intellect was powerful, though rigid and somewhat narrow; his style was clear and precise, and his conversational powers very remarkable, and influential in moulding the opinions of those who came into contact with him, especially his distinguished son, John Stuart (q.v.).
MILL, JOHN STUART (1806-1873). —Philosopher, s. of the above, b. in London, was ed. by his f. with the view of making him the successor of Bentham and himself, as the exponent of the Utilitarian philosophy. In all respects he proved an apt pupil, and by his 15th year had studied classical literature, logic, political economy, and mathematics. In that year he went to France, where he was under the charge of Sir S. Bentham, a brother of Jeremy. His studies had led him to the adoption of the utilitarian philosophy, and after his return he became acquainted with Grote, the Austins, and other Benthamites. In 1823 he entered the India House as a clerk, and, like his f., rose to be examiner of Indian correspondence; and, on the dissolution of the Company, retired on a liberal pension. In 1825 he ed. Bentham's Rationale of Judicial Evidence. During the following years he was a frequent contributor to Radical journals, and ed. the London Review. His Logic appeared in 1843, and produced a profound impression; and in 1848 he pub. Principles of Political Economy. The years between 1858 and 1865 were very productive, his treatises on Liberty, Utilitarianism, Representative Government, and his Examination of Sir W. Hamilton's Philosophy being pub. during this period. In 1865 he entered the House of Commons as one of the members for Westminster, where, though highly respected, he made no great mark. After this political parenthesis he returned to his literary pursuits, and wrote The Subjection of Women (1869), The Irish Land Question (1870), and an Autobiography. M. had m. in 1851 Mrs. Taylor, for whom he showed an extraordinary devotion, and whom he survived for 15 years. He d. at Avignon. His Autobiography gives a singular, and in some respects painful account of the methods and views of his f. in his education. Though remaining all his life an adherent of the utilitarian philosophy, M. did not transmit it to his disciples altogether unmodified, but, finding it too narrow and rigid for his own intellectual and moral requirements, devoted himself to widening it, and infusing into it a certain element of idealism.
Bain's Criticism with Personal Recollections (1882), L. Courtney's John Stuart Mill (1889), Autobiography, Stephens's Utilitarians, J. Grote's Examination of the Utilitarian Philosophy of Mill, etc.
MILLER, HUGH (1802-1856). —Geologist, and man of letters, b. at Cromarty, had the ordinary parish school education, and early showed a remarkable love of reading and power of story-telling. At 17 he was apprenticed to a stonemason, and his work in quarries, together with rambles among the rocks of his native shore, led him to the study of geology. In 1829 he pub. a vol. of poems, and soon afterwards threw himself as an ardent and effective combatant into the controversies, first of the Reform Bill, and thereafter of the Scottish Church question. In 1834 he became accountant in one of the local banks, and in the next year brought out his Scenes and Legends in the North of Scotland. In 1840 the popular party in the Church, with which he had been associated, started a newspaper, The Witness, and M. was called to be ed., a position which he retained till the end of his life, and in which he showed conspicuous ability. Among his geological works are The Old Red Sandstone (1841), Footprints of the Creator (1850), The Testimony of the Rocks (1856), and Sketch-book of Popular Geology. Other books are: My Schools and Schoolmasters, an autobiography of remarkable interest, First Impressions of England and its People (1847), and The Cruise of the Betsy. Of the geological books, perhaps that on the old red sandstone, a department in which M. was a discoverer, is the best: but all his writings are distinguished by great literary excellence, and especially by a marvellous power of vivid description. The end of his life was most tragic. He had for long been overworking his brain, which at last gave way, and in a temporary loss of reason, he shot himself during the night.
Life and Letters, P. Bayne (1871), etc.
MILLER, THOMAS (1807-1874). —Poet and novelist, of humble parentage, worked in early life as a basket-maker. He pub. Songs of the Sea Nymphs (1832). Going to London he was befriended by Lady Blessington (q.v.) and S. Rogers (q.v.), and for a time engaged in business as a bookseller, but was unsuccessful and devoted himself exclusively to literature, producing over 40 vols., including several novels, e.g., Royston Gower (1838), Gideon Giles the Roper, and Rural Sketches. In his stories he successfully delineated rural characters and scenes.
MILMAN, HENRY HART (1791-1868). —Poet and historian, s. of Sir Francis M., a distinguished physician, ed. at Eton and Oxf. Taking orders he became in 1835 Rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and in 1849 Dean of St. Paul's. He also held the professorship of Poetry at Oxf. 1821-31. Among his poetical works may be mentioned Fazio (drama) (1815), Samor (epic) (1818), The Fall of Jerusalem (1820), The Martyr of Antioch (1822), and Anne Boleyn (1826). It is, however, on his work as an historian that his literary fame chiefly rests, his chief works in this department being his History of the Jews (1830), History of Christianity (1840), and especially The History of Latin Christianity (6 vols. 1854-56), which is one of the most important historical works of the century, characterised alike by literary distinction and by learning and research. M. also brought out a valuable ed. of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, and wrote a History of St. Paul's Cathedral.
MILNES, R. MONCKTON, (see HOUGHTON).
MILTON, JOHN (1608-1674). —Poet, was b. 9th December 1608 in Bread Street, London. His f., also John, was the s. of a yeoman of Oxfordshire, who cast him off on his becoming a Protestant. He had then become a scrivener in London, and grew to be a man of good estate. From him his illustrious s. inherited his lofty integrity, and his love of, and proficiency in, music. M. received his first education from a Scotch friend of his father's, Thomas Young, a Puritan of some note, one of the writers of Smectymnuus. Thereafter he was at St. Paul's School, and in 1625 went to Christ's Coll., Camb., where for his beauty and his delicacy of mind he was nicknamed "the lady." His sister Anne had m. Edward Phillips, and the death of her first child in infancy gave to him the subject of his earliest poem, On the death of a Fair Infant (1626). It was followed during his 7 years' life at the Univ., along with others, by the poems, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629), On the Circumcision, The Passion, Time, At a Solemn Music, On May Morning, and On Shakespeare, all in 1630; and two sonnets, To the Nightingale and On arriving at the Age of Twenty-three, in 1631. In 1632, having given up the idea of entering the Church, for which his f. had intended him, he lived for 6 years at Horton, near Windsor, to which the latter had retired, devoted to further study. Here he wrote L'Allegro and Il Penseroso in 1632, Arcades (1633), Comus in 1634, and Lycidas in 1637. The first celebrates the pleasures of a life of cheerful innocence, and the second of contemplative, though not gloomy, retirement, and the last is a lament for a lost friend, Edward King, who perished at sea. Arcades and Comus are masques set to music by Henry Lawes, having for their motives respectively family affection and maiden purity. Had he written nothing else these would have given him a place among the immortals. In 1638 he completed his education by a period of travel in France and Italy, where he visited Grotius at Paris, and Galileo at Florence. The news of impending troubles in Church and State brought him home the following year, and with his return may be said to close the first of three well-marked divisions into which his life falls. These may be called (1) the period of preparation and of the early poems; (2) the period of controversy, and of the prose writings; and (3) the period of retirement and of the later poems. Soon after his return M. settled in London, and employed himself in teaching his nephews, Edward and John Phillips, turning over in his mind at the same time various subjects as the possible theme for the great poem which, as the chief object of his life, he looked forward to writing. But he was soon to be called away to far other matters, and to be plunged into the controversies and practical business which were to absorb his energies for the next 20 years. The works of this period fall into three classes—(1) those directed against Episcopacy, including Reformation of Church Discipline in England (1641), and his answers to the writings of Bishop Hall (q.v.), and in defence of Smectymnuus (see under Calamy); (2) those relating to divorce, including The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643), and The Four Chief Places of Scripture which treat of Marriage (1645); and (3) those on political and miscellaneous questions, including the Tractate on Education (1644), Areopagitica (1644), A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing (his greatest prose work), Eikonoklastes, an answer to the Eikon Basiliké of Dr. Gauden (q.v.), The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649), in defence of the execution of Charles I., which led to the furious controversy with Salmasius, the writing of Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (1650), the second Defensio (1654), which carried his name over Europe, and The Ready and Easy Way to establish a Free Commonwealth, written on the eve of the Restoration. In 1643 M. had m. Mary Powell, the dau. of an Oxfordshire cavalier, a girl of 17, who soon found her new life as the companion of an austere poet, absorbed in severe study, too abrupt a change from the gay society to which she had been accustomed, and in a month returned to her father's house on a visit. When the time fixed for rejoining her husband arrived, she showed no disposition to do so, upon which he began to aim at a divorce, and to advocate in the works above mentioned "unfitness and contrariety of mind" as a valid ground for it, views which incurred for him much notoriety and unpopularity. A reconciliation, however, followed in 1645, and three dau. were born of the marriage. In 1649 the reputation of M. as a Latinist led to his appointment as Latin or Foreign Sec. to the Council of State, in the duties of which he was, after his sight began to fail, assisted by A. Marvell (q.v.) and others, and which he retained until the Restoration. In 1652 his wife d., and four years later he entered into a second marriage with Katharine Woodcock, who d. in child-birth in the following year. To her memory he dedicated one of the most touching of his sonnets. At the Restoration he was, of course, deprived of his office, and had to go into hiding; but on the intercession of Marvell (q.v.), and perhaps Davenant (q.v.), his name was included in the amnesty. In 1663, being now totally blind and somewhat helpless, he asked his friend Dr. Paget to recommend a wife for him. The lady chosen was Elizabeth Minshull, aged 25, who appears to have given him domestic happiness in his last years. She survived him for 53 years. The Restoration closed his second, and introduced his third, and for his fame, most productive period. He was now free to devote his whole powers to the great work which he had so long contemplated. For some time he had been in doubt as to the subject, had considered the Arthurian legends, but had decided upon the Fall of Man. The result was Paradise Lost, which was begun in 1658, finished in 1664, and pub. in 1667. A remark of his friend, Thomas Ellwood (q.v.), suggested to him the writing of Paradise Regained, which, along with Samson Agonistes, was pub. in 1671. Two years before he had printed a History of Britain, written long before, which, however, is of little value. The work of M. was now done. In addition to his blindness he suffered from gout, to which it was partly attributable, and, his strength gradually failing, but with mind unimpaired and serene, he d. peacefully on November 8, 1674. In M. the influences of the Renaissance and of Puritanism met. To the former he owed his wide culture and his profound love of everything noble and beautiful, to the latter his lofty and austere character, and both these elements meet in his writings. Leaving Shakespeare out of account, he holds an indisputable place at the head of English poets. For strength of imagination, delicate accuracy and suggestiveness of language, and harmony of versification, he is unrivalled, and almost unapproached; and when the difficulties inherent in the subject of his great masterpiece are considered, the power he shows in dealing with them appears almost miraculous, and we feel that in those parts where he has failed, success was impossible for a mortal. In his use of blank verse he has, for majesty, variety, and music, never been approached by any of his successors. He had no dramatic power and no humour. In everything he wrote, a proud and commanding genius manifests itself, and he is one of those writers who inspire reverence rather than affection. His personal appearance in early life has been thus described, "He was a little under middle height, slender, but erect, vigorous, and agile, with light brown hair clustering about his fair and oval face, with dark grey eyes."
SUMMARY.—B. 1608, ed. at St. Paul's School and Camb., and while at the latter wrote earlier poems including The Nativity and Sonnets, lived for 6 years at Horton and wrote L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Arcades, Comus, and Lycidas, travelled in France and Italy 1638, settled in London, entered on his political and controversial labours, and wrote inter alia on Reform of Discipline 1641, Divorce 1643-45, Education 1644, Areopagitica 1644, and the two Defences 1650 and 1654, appointed Latin Sec. 1649, this period closed by Restoration 1660, Paradise Lost written 1658-64, pub. 1667, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes 1671, d. 1674, m. first 1643 Mary Powell, second 1652 Katharine Woodcock, third 1663 Eliz. Minshull, who survived till 1727.
Life by Prof. Masson (6 vols. 1859-80), also short Lives by M. Patteson (1880), Garnett (1889). Ed. of Works by Boydell, Sir E. Brydges, and Prof. Masson.
MINOT, LAURENCE (1300?-1352?). —Poet. Nothing is certainly known of him. He may have been a soldier. He celebrates in northern English and with a somewhat ferocious patriotism the victories of Edward III. over the Scots and the French.
MINTO, WILLIAM (1845-1893). —Critic and biographer, b. at Alford, Aberdeenshire, and ed. at Aberdeen and Oxf., went to London, and became ed. of the Examiner, and also wrote for the Daily News and the Pall Mall Gazette. In 1880 he was appointed Prof. of Logic and Literature at Aberdeen. He wrote a Manual of English Prose Literature (1873), Characteristics of the English Poets (1874), and a Life of Defoe for the Men of Letters Series.
MITCHELL, JOHN (1815-1875). —Journalist and political writer, s. of a Presbyterian minister, was b. in Ulster. For some time he practised as a solicitor, but becoming acquainted with Thomas Davis (q.v.), he associated himself with the Young Ireland party, and was a leading contributor to the Nation newspaper. His political sympathies and acts were carried so far as to bring about in 1848 his trial for treason-felony, and his transportation for 14 years. After his release he resided chiefly at New York, and ed. various papers, and opposed the abolition of slavery; but in 1874 he was elected M.P. for Tipperary, for which, however, he was declared incapable of sitting. On a new election he was again returned, but d. before the resulting petition could be heard. He wrote a Jail Journal, a work of great power, The Last Conquest of Ireland (perhaps) (1860), and a History of Ireland of little value.
MITFORD, MARY RUSSELL (1787-1855). —Poetess and novelist, b. at Alresford, Hants, dau. of a physician, without practice, selfish and extravagant, who ran through three fortunes, his own, his wife's, and his daughter's, and then lived on the industry of the last. After a vol. of poems which attracted little notice, she produced her powerful tragedy, Julian. In 1812, what ultimately became the first vol. of Our Village appeared in the Lady's Magazine. To this four additional vols. were added, the last in 1832. In this work Miss M. may be said to have created a new branch of literature. Her novel, Belford Regis (1835), is somewhat on the same lines. She added two dramas, Rienzi (1828), and Foscari, Atherton and other Tales (1852), and Recollections of a Literary Life, and d. at her cottage at Swallowfield, much beloved for her benevolent and simple character, as well as valued for her intellectual powers.
MITFORD, WILLIAM (1744-1827). —Historian, e.s. of John M. of Exbury, Hants, descended from an old Northumbrian family, was b. in London, and ed. at Cheam School and Oxf. He studied law, but on succeeding to the family estates devoted himself to study and literature, and to his duties as an officer of the militia. His first pub. was an Essay on the Harmony of Language (1774). His great work, The History of Greece, is said to have been undertaken at the suggestion of Gibbon, who was a fellow-officer in the South Hants Militia. This work, the successive vols. of which appeared at considerable intervals between 1784 and 1810, was long a standard one, though it is now largely superseded by the histories of Thirwall and Grote. M. wrote with strong prejudices against democracy, and in defence of tyrants, but his style is forcible and agreeable, and he brought learning and research to bear on his subject. He sat for many years in Parliament.
MOIR, DAVID MACBETH (1798-1851). —Poet and miscellaneous writer, was a doctor at Musselburgh, near Edin., and a frequent contributor, under the signature of Δ, to Blackwood's Magazine in which appeared Mansie Waugh, a humorous Scottish tale. He also wrote The Legend of Genevieve (1824), Domestic Verses (1843), and sketches of the poetry of the earlier half of the 19th century. His poetry was generally grave and tender, but occasionally humorous.
MONBODDO, JAMES BURNETT, LORD (1714-1799). —Philosopher and philologist, b. at the family seat in Kincardineshire, was ed. at the Univ. of Aberdeen, Edin., and Groningen, and called to the Scottish Bar in 1737. Thirty years later he became a judge with the title of Lord Monboddo. He was a man of great learning and acuteness, but eccentric and fond of paradox. He was the author of two large works alike learned and whimsical, An Essay on the Origin and Progress of Language (6 vols. 1773-92), and Ancient Metaphysics (6 vols. 1779-99). He mooted and supported the theory that men were originally monkeys, and gradually attained to reason, language, and civilisation by the pressure of necessity. His doctrines do not sound so absurd now as they did in his own day. He was visited by Dr. Johnson at Monboddo.
MONTAGU, ELIZABETH (ROBINSON) (1720-1800). —Critic, dau. of a gentleman of Yorkshire, m. a grandson of Lord Sandwich. She was one of the original "blue-stockings," and her house was a literary centre. She wrote an Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare (1769), in which she compared him with the classical and French dramatists, and defended him against the strictures of Voltaire. It had great fame in its day, but has long been superseded.
MONTAGU, LADY MARY WORTLEY (PIERREPONT) (1690-1762). —Letter-writer, was the eldest dau. of the 1st Duke of Kingston. In her youth she combined the attractions of a reigning beauty and a wit. Her early studies were encouraged and assisted by Bishop Burnet, and she was the friend of Pope, Addison, and Swift. In 1712 she m., against the wishes of her family, Edward Wortley-Montagu, a cousin of the celebrated Charles Montagu, afterwards Earl of Halifax. Her husband having been appointed Ambassador to the Porte, she accompanied him, and wrote the sparkling Letters from the East which have given her a place high among the great letter-writers of the world. While in Turkey she became acquainted with the practice of inoculation against smallpox, which she did much to introduce into western countries. After her return to England she settled at Twickenham, and renewed her friendship with Pope, which, however, ended in a violent quarrel, arising out of her publication of Town Eclogues. She was furiously attacked by both Pope and Swift, and was not slow to defend herself. In 1737, for reasons which have never been explained, she left her husband and country, and settled in Italy. Mr. M. having d. 1761, she returned at the request of her dau., the Countess of Bute, but d. the following year.
MONTGOMERIE, ALEXANDER (1545?-1610?). —Poet, probably b. in Ayrshire, was in the service of the Regent Morton and James VI., by whom he was pensioned. He is sometimes styled "Captain," and was laureate of the Court. He appears to have fallen on evil days, was imprisoned on the Continent, and lost his pension. His chief work is The Cherrie and the Slae (1597), a somewhat poor allegory of Virtue and Vice, but with some vivid description in it, and with a comparatively modern air. He also wrote Flyting (scolding) betwixt Montgomerie and Polwart, pub. 1621, and other pieces.
MONTGOMERY, JAMES (1771-1854). —Poet, s. of a pastor and missionary of the Moravian Brethren, was b. at Irvine, Ayrshire, and ed. at the Moravian School at Fulneck, near Leeds. After various changes of occupation and abode, he settled in Sheffield in 1792 as clerk to a newspaper. In 1796 he had become ed. of the Sheffield Iris, and was twice imprisoned for political articles for which he was held responsible. In 1797 he pub. Prison Amusements; but his first work to attract notice was The Wanderer of Switzerland (1806). It was followed by The West Indies (1809), The World before the Flood (1812), Greenland (1819), and The Pelican Island (1828), all of which contain passages of considerable imaginative and descriptive power, but are lacking in strength and fire. He himself expected that his name would live, if at all, in his hymns, and in this his judgment has proved true. Some of these, such as For ever with the Lord, Hail to the Lord's Anointed, and Prayer is the Soul's sincere Desire, are sung wherever the English language is spoken. M. was a good and philanthropic man, the opponent of every form of injustice and oppression, and the friend of every movement for the welfare of the race. His virtues attained wide recognition.
MONTGOMERY, ROBERT (1807-1855). —Poet, a minister of the Scottish Episcopal Church, wrote some ambitious religious poems, including The Omnipresence of the Deity and Satan, which were at first outrageously puffed, and had a wide circulation. Macaulay devoted an essay to the demolition of the author's reputation, in which he completely succeeded.
MOORE, EDWARD (1712-1757). —Fabulist and dramatist, s. of a dissenting minister, was b. at Abingdon. After being in business as a linen-draper, in which he was unsuccessful, he took to literature, and wrote a few plays, of which The Gamester (1753) had a great vogue, and was translated into various languages. He is best known by his Fables for the Female Sex (1744), which rank next to those of Gay (q.v.).
MOORE, JOHN (1729 or 1730-1802). —Physician and miscellaneous writer, s. of an Episcopal minister, was b. in Stirling. After studying medicine at Glasgow, he acted as a surgeon in the navy and the army, and ultimately settled in Glasgow as a physician. In 1779 he pub. View of Manners and Society in France, Switzerland, and Germany, which was well received. A similar work, relating to Italy, followed in 1781. He is, however, chiefly remembered by his romance Zeluco (1786?). One or two other novels followed, and his last works are a Journal during a Residence in France (1792), and Causes and Progress of the French Revolution (1795), the latter of which was used both by Scott and Carlyle. M. was one of the friends of Burns, and was the f. of Sir John M., the hero of Corunna.
MOORE, THOMAS (1779-1852). —Poet, b. in Dublin, s. of a grocer and wine-merchant in a small way, was ed. at Trinity Coll., after which he went to London, and studied law at the Middle Temple, 1799. He took with him a translation of Anacreon, which appeared, dedicated to the Prince Regent, in 1800, was well received, and made a position for him. In the following year appeared Poems by Thomas Little. In 1803 he received the appointment of Admiralty Registrar at Bermuda, and after visiting the island and travelling in America, he committed his official duties to a deputy (an unfortunate step as it proved), and returned to England. The literary fruit of this journey was Epistles, Odes, and other Poems (1806). In 1807 M. found his true poetic vocation in his Irish-Melodies—the music being furnished by Sir John Stevenson, who adapted the national airs. The reception they met with was enthusiastic, and M. was carried at once to the height of his reputation. They continued to appear over a period of 25 years, and for each of the 130 songs he received 100 guineas. His charming singing of these airs, and his fascinating conversational and social powers made him sought after in the highest circles. In 1815 there appeared National Airs which, however, cannot be considered equal to the Melodies. After making various unsuccessful attempts at serious satire, he hit upon a vein for which his light and brilliant wit eminently qualified him—the satirical and pungent verses on men and topics of the day, afterwards coll. in The Twopenny Post Bag, in which the Prince Regent especially was mercilessly ridiculed, and about the same time appeared Fables for the Holy Alliance. In 1818 he produced the Fudge Family in Paris, written in that city, which then swarmed with "groups of ridiculous English." Lalla Rookh, with its gorgeous descriptions of Eastern scenes and manners, had appeared in the previous year with great applause. In 1818 the great misfortune of his life occurred through the dishonesty of his deputy in Bermuda, which involved him in a loss of £6000, and necessitated his going abroad. He travelled in Italy with Lord John Russell, and visited Byron. Thereafter he settled for a year or two in Paris, where he wrote The Loves of the Angels (1823). On the death of Byron his memoirs came into the hands of Moore, who, in the exercise of a discretion committed to him, destroyed them. He afterwards wrote a Life of Byron (1830), which gave rise to much criticism and controversy, and he also ed. his works. His last imaginative work was The Epicurean (1827). Thereafter he confined himself almost entirely to prose, and pub. Lives of Sheridan (1827), and Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1831). His last work, written in failing health, was a History of Ireland for Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia, which had little merit. Few poets have ever enjoyed greater popularity with the public, or the friendship of more men distinguished in all departments of life. This latter was largely owing to his brilliant social qualities, but his genuine and independent character had also a large share in it. He left behind him a mass of correspondence and autobiographical matter which he committed to his friend Lord John (afterwards Earl) Russell for publication. They appeared in 8 vols. (1852-56).
Memoir, Journal, and Correspondence, by Lord John Russell (1856).
MORE, HANNAH (1745-1833). —Miscellaneous and religious writer, was one of the five daughters of a schoolmaster at Stapleton, Gloucestershire. The family removed to Bristol, where Hannah began her literary efforts. Some early dramas, including The Search after Happiness and the Inflexible Captive brought her before the public, and she went to London in 1774, where, through her friend, Garrick, she was introduced to Johnson, Burke, and the rest of that circle, by whom she was highly esteemed. After publishing some poems, now forgotten, and some dramas, she resolved to devote herself to efforts on behalf of social and religious amelioration, in which she was eminently successful, and exercised a wide and salutary influence. Her works written in pursuance of these objects are too numerous to mention. They included Hints towards forming the Character of a young Princess (1805), written at the request of the Queen for the benefit of the Princess Charlotte, Cœlebs in search of a Wife (1809), and a series of short tales, the Cheap Repository, among which was the well-known Shepherd of Salisbury Plain. This enterprise, which had great success, led to the formation of the Religious Tract Society. The success of Miss M.'s literary labours enabled her to pass her later years in ease, and her sisters having also retired on a competency made by conducting a boarding-school in Bristol, the whole family resided on a property called Barley Grove, which they had purchased, where they carried on with much success philanthropic and educational work among the people of the neighbouring district of Cheddar. Few persons have devoted their talents more assiduously to the well-being of their fellow-creatures, or with a greater measure of success.
MORE, HENRY (1614-1687). —Philosopher, b. at Grantham, and ed. at Camb., took orders, but declined all preferment, including two deaneries and a bishopric; and also various appointments in his Univ., choosing rather a quiet life devoted to scholarship and philosophy, especially the study of writings of Plato and his followers. He led a life of singular purity and religious devotion, tinged with mysticism, and his writings had much popularity and influence in their day. Among them may be mentioned Psychozoia Platonica (1642), repub. (1647) as Philosophicall Poems, Divine Dialogues (prose) (1668), The Mystery of Godliness, and The Mystery of Iniquity. His life was written by his friend Richard Ward.
MORE, SIR THOMAS (1478-1535). —Historical and political writer, s. of Sir John M., a Justice of the King's Bench, was b. in London. In his 16th year he was placed in the household of Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was wont to say, "This child here waiting at the table ... will prove a marvellous man." In 1497 he went to Oxf., where he became the friend of Erasmus and others, and came in contact with the new learning. He studied law at New Inn and Lincoln's Inn, and for some time thought of entering the Church. He was, however, in 1504 sent up to Parliament, where his powerful speaking gained for him a high place. Meanwhile, he had brilliant success in the Law Courts, and was introduced by Wolsey to Henry VIII., with whom he soon rose into high favour. He became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1523, and was sent on missions to Charles V. and Francis I. At length, on the fall of Wolsey, M. was, much against his will, appointed Lord Chancellor, an office which he filled with singular purity and success, though he was harsh in his dealings with persons accused of heresy. But differences with the King soon arose. M. disapproved of Henry's ecclesiastical policy, as well as of his proceedings in regard to the Queen, and in 1532 he resigned his office. In 1534 he refused the oath which pledged him to approval of the King's marriage to Anne Boleyn, and for this he was imprisoned in the Tower, and on July 7, 1535, beheaded. His body was buried in St. Peter's in the Tower, and his head exhibited on London Bridge, whence it was taken down and preserved by his dau., the noble Margaret Roper. All Catholic Europe was shocked at the news of what was truly a judicial murder. Among his works are a Life of Picus, Earl of Mirandula (1510), and a History of Richard III., written about 1513. His great work, Utopia, was written in Latin in two books—the second 1515, and the first 1516. It had immediate popularity, and was translated into French 1530, English 1551, German 1524, Italian 1548, and Spanish 1790. It gives an account of an imaginary island and people, under cover of which it describes the social and political condition of England, with suggested remedies for abuses. The opinions on religion and politics expressed in it are not, however, always those by which he was himself guided. M. wrote many works of controversy, among which are Dyaloge concerning Heresies, also epigrams and dialogues in Latin. His pure and religious character, his sweet temper, his wit, his constancy and fortitude under misfortune combine to render him one of the most attractive and admirable figures in English history.
Life by W. Roper (son-in-law), Lord Campbell, Lives of Chancellors, Utopia was translated by Robinson (1551, etc.), Bishop Burnet (1684, etc.), and ed. by Lupton (1895), and Michelis (1896).
MORGAN, LADY (SYDNEY OWENSON) (1780?-1859). —Novelist, dau. of Robert Owenson, an actor, was the author of several vivacious Irish tales, including The Wild Irish Girl (1806), O'Donnel (1814), and The O'Briens and the O'Flaherties (1827); also two books on society in France and in Italy characterised by "more vivacity and point than delicacy," and a Life of Salvator Rosa.
MORIER, JAMES JUSTINIAN (1780?-1849). —Traveller and novelist, s. of Isaac M., descended from a Huguenot family resident at Smyrna, where he was b., was ed. at Harrow. Returning to the East he became in 1809 Sec. of Legation in Persia. He wrote accounts of travels in Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor; also novels, in which he exhibits a marvellous familiarity with Oriental manners and modes of thought. The chief of these are The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1824), and Hajji Baba in England (1828), Zohrab the Hostage (1832), Ayesha (1834), and The Mirza (1841). All these works are full of brilliant description, character-painting, and delicate satire.
MORISON, JAMES COTTER (1832-1888). —Was ed. at Oxf. He wrote Lives of Gibbon (1878), and Macaulay (1882); but his best work was his Life of St. Bernard (1863). The Service of Man (1887) is written from a Positivist point of view.
MORLEY, HENRY (1822-1894). —Writer on English literature, s. of an apothecary, was b. in London, ed. at a Moravian school in Germany, and at King's Coll., London, and after practising medicine and keeping schools at various places, went in 1850 to London, and adopted literature as his profession. He wrote in periodicals, and from 1859-64 ed. the Examiner. From 1865-89 he was Prof. of English Literature at Univ. Coll. He was the author of various biographies, including Lives of Palissy, Cornelius Agrippa, and Clement Marot. His principal work, however, was English Writers (10 vols. 1864-94), coming down to Shakespeare. His First Sketch of English Literature—the study for the larger work—had reached at his death a circulation of 34,000 copies.
MORRIS, SIR LEWIS (1833-1907). —Poet, b. at Penrhyn, Carnarvonshire, and ed. at Sherborne and Oxf., was called to the Bar, and practised as a conveyancer until 1880, after which he devoted himself to the promotion of higher education in Wales, and became honorary sec. and treasurer of the New Welsh Univ. In 1871 he pub. Songs of Two Worlds, which showed the influence of Tennyson, and was well received, though rather by the wider public than by more critical circles. It was followed in 1876-77 by The Epic of Hades, which had extraordinary popularity, and which, though exhibiting undeniable talent both in versification and narrative power, lacked the qualities of the higher kinds of poetry. It deals in a modern spirit with the Greek myths and legends. Other works are A Vision of Saints, Gwen, The Ode of Life, and Gycia, a tragedy.
MORRIS, WILLIAM (1834-1896). —Poet, artist, and socialist, b. at Walthamstow, and ed. at Marlborough School and Oxf. After being articled as an architect he was for some years a painter, and then joined in founding the manufacturing and decorating firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., in which Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and other artists were partners. By this and other means he did much to influence the public taste in furnishing and decoration. He was one of the originators of the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, to which he contributed poems, tales, and essays, and in 1858 he pub. Defence of Guenevere and other Poems. The Life and Death of Jason followed in 1867, The Earthly Paradise in 1868-70, and Love is Enough in 1875. In the last mentioned year he made a translation in verse of Virgil's Æneid. Travels in Iceland led to the writing of Three Northern Love Stories, and the epic of Sigurd the Volsung (1876). His translation of the Odyssey in verse appeared 1887. A series of prose romances began with The House of the Wolfings (1889), and included The Roots of the Mountains, Story of the Glittering Plain, The Wood beyond the World, The Well at the World's End (1896), and posthumously The Water of the Wondrous Isles, and Story of the Sundering Flood. In addition to poems and tales M. produced various illuminated manuscripts, including two of Fitzgerald's Omar Khayyam, and many controversial writings, among which are tales and tracts in advocacy of Socialism. To this class belong the Dream of John Ball (1888), and News from Nowhere (1891). In 1890 M. started the Kelmscott Press, for which he designed type and decorations. For his subjects as a writer he drew upon classic and Gothic models alike. He may perhaps be regarded as the chief of the modern romantic school, inspired by the love of beauty for its own sake; his poetry is rich and musical, and he has a power of description which makes his pictures live and glow, but his narratives sometimes suffer from length and slowness of movement.
Life by J.W. Mackail (2 vols., 1899), The Books of W. Morris, Forman, etc.
MORTON, THOMAS (1764-1838). —Dramatist, b. in Durham, came to London to study law, which he discarded in favour of play-writing. He wrote about 25 plays, of which several had great popularity. In one of them, Speed the Plough, he introduced Mrs. Grundy to the British public.
MOTHERWELL, WILLIAM (1797-1835). —Poet, b. and ed. in Glasgow, he held the office of depute sheriff-clerk at Paisley, at the same time contributing poetry to various periodicals. He had also antiquarian tastes, and a deep knowledge of the early history of Scottish ballad literature, which he turned to account in Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern (1827), a collection of Scottish ballads with an historical introduction. In 1830 he became ed. of the Glasgow Courier, and in 1832 he coll. and pub. his poems. He also joined Hogg in ed. the Works of Burns.
MOTLEY, JOHN LOTHROP (1814-1877). —Historian, b. at Dorchester, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, was ed. at Harvard, where O.W. Holmes (q.v.), afterwards his biographer, was a fellow-student. After graduating he went to Europe, studied at Göttingen and Berlin, and visited Italy. On his return he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1837. He did not, however, practise, and was in 1840 sent to St. Petersburg as Sec. of Legation. Meanwhile, having pub. two novels, Morton's Hope and Merry Mount, which had little success, he turned to history, and attracted attention by some essays in various reviews. Having decided to write an historical work on Holland, he proceeded in 1851 to Europe to collect materials, and in 1856 pub. The Rise of the Dutch Republic. It was received with the highest approval by such critics as Froude and Prescott, and at once took its place as a standard work. It was followed in 1860 by the first two vols. of The United Netherlands. The following year M. was appointed Minister at Vienna, and in 1869 at London. His latest works were a Life of Barneveldt, the Dutch statesman, and A View of ... the Thirty Years' War. M. holds a high place among historical writers both on account of his research and accuracy, and his vivid and dramatic style, which shows the influence of Carlyle.
MOULTRIE, JOHN (1799-1874). —Poet, ed. at Eton and Camb., took orders and was Rector of Rugby. He wrote several books of poetry, his best known pieces are My Brother's Grave, and Godiva.
MULOCK, DINAH MARIA (MRS. CRAIK) (1826-1887). —Novelist, dau. of a Nonconformist minister of Irish descent. Beginning with stories for children, she developed into a prolific and popular novelist. Her best and most widely known book is John Halifax, Gentleman (1857), which had a wide popularity, and was translated into several languages. Others are The Head of the Family, Agatha's Husband, A Life for a Life, and Mistress and Maid. She also wrote one or two vols. of essays.
MUNDAY, ANTHONY (1553-1633). —Dramatist, poet, and pamphleteer, s. of a draper in London, appears to have had a somewhat chequered career. He went to Rome in 1578, and pub. The Englyshe Romayne Life, in which he gives descriptions of rites and other matters fitted to excite Protestant feeling; and he appears to have acted practically as a spy upon Roman Catholics. He had a hand in 18 plays, of which four only are extant, including two on Robert, Earl of Huntingdon (Robin Hood) (1598), and one on the Life of Sir John Oldcastle. He was ridiculed by Ben Jonson in The Case is Altered. He was also a ballad-writer, but nothing of his in this kind survives, unless Beauty sat bathing in a Spring be correctly attributed to him. He also wrote city pageants, and translated popular romances, including Palladino of England, and Amadis of Gaule. He was made by Stow the antiquary (q.v.) his literary executor, and pub. his Survey of London (1618).
MURE, WILLIAM (1799-1860). —Scholar, laird of Caldwell, Ayrshire, ed. at Westminster, Edin., and Bonn, sat in Parliament for Renfrewshire 1846-55. He was a sound classical scholar, and pub. A Critical History of the Language and Literature of Ancient Greece (5 vols., 1850-57). He held the view that the Iliad and Odyssey are now substantially as they were originally composed. M. was Lord Rector of Glasgow Univ. 1847-48.
MURPHY, ARTHUR (1727-1805). —Actor and dramatist, b. in Ireland, and ed. at St. Omer, went on the stage, then studied for the Bar, to which he was ultimately admitted after some demur on account of his connection with the stage. His plays were nearly all adaptations. They include The Apprentice (1756), The Spouter, and The Upholsterer. He also wrote an essay on Dr. Johnson, and a Life of Garrick.
MURRAY, LINDLEY (1745-1826). —Grammarian, was b. in Pennsylvania, and practised as a lawyer. From 1785 he lived in England, near York, and was for his last 16 years confined to the house. His English Grammar (1795) was long a standard work, and his main claim to a place in literature. His other writings were chiefly religious.
MYERS, FREDERIC WILLIAM HENRY (1843-1901). —Poet and essayist, s. of a clergyman, was b. at Keswick, and ed. at Cheltenham and Camb. He became an inspector of schools, and was the author of several vols. of poetry, including St. Paul (1867). He also wrote Essays Classical and Modern, and Lives of Wordsworth and Shelley. Becoming interested in mesmerism and spiritualism he aided in founding the Society for Psychical Research, and was joint author of Phantasms of the Living. His last work was Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death (1903).
NABBES, THOMAS (fl. 1638). —Dramatist, was at Oxf. in 1621. He lived in London, and wrote comedies, satirising bourgeois society. He was most successful in writing masques, among which are Spring's Glory and Microcosmus. He also wrote a continuation of Richard Knolles' History of the Turks.
NAIRNE, CAROLINA (OLIPHANT), BARONESS (1766-1845). —B. at the House of Gask ("the auld house"), m. in 1806 her second cousin, Major Nairne, who on reversal of attainder became 5th Lord Nairne. On his death, after residing in various places in England, Ireland, and on the Continent, she settled at the new house of Gask (the old one having been pulled down in 1801). Of her songs—87 in number—many first appeared anonymously in The Scottish Minstrel (1821-24); a collected ed. with her name, under the title of Lays' from Strathearn, was pub. after her death. Although the songs, some of which were founded on older compositions, had from the first an extraordinary popularity, the authoress maintained a strict anonymity during her life. For direct simplicity and poetic feeling Lady N. perhaps comes nearer than any other Scottish song-writer to Burns, and many of her lyrics are enshrined in the hearts of her fellow-countrymen. Among the best of them are The Land of the Leal (1798), Caller Herrin', The Laird o' Cockpen, The Auld House, The Rowan Tree, The Hundred Pipers, and Will ye no come back Again? The Jacobitism of some of these and many others was, of course, purely sentimental and poetical, like that of Scott. She was a truly religious and benevolent character, and the same modesty which concealed her authorship withdrew from public knowledge her many deeds of charity.
NAPIER, MARK (1798-1879). —Historian, s. of a lawyer in Edinburgh, was called to the Bar, practised as an advocate, and was made Sheriff of Dumfries and Galloway. He pub. Memoirs of the Napiers, of Montrose, and of Graham of Claverhouse, the last of which gave rise to much controversy. N. wrote from a strongly Cavalier and Jacobite standpoint, and had remarkably little of the judicial spirit in his methods. His writings, however, have some historical value.
NAPIER, SIR WILLIAM FRANCIS PATRICK (1785-1860). —was one of the sons of Col. the Hon. George N. and Lady Sarah Lennox, dau. of the 2nd Duke of Richmond, and the object of a romantic attachment on the part of George III. One of his brothers was Sir Charles N., the conqueror of Scinde. Entering the army at 15, he served with great distinction in the Peninsula under Moore and Wellington. His experiences as a witness and participator in the stupendous events of the war combined with the possession of remarkable acumen and a brilliant style to qualify him for the great work of his life as its historian. The History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France from 1807-14 (1828-40) at once took rank as a classic, and superseded all existing works on the subject. Though not free from prejudice and consequent bias, it remains a masterpiece of historical writing, especially in the description of military operations. It was translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Persian. N. also pub. The Conquest of Scinde (1844-46), mainly a defence of his brother Charles, whose life he subsequently wrote. He became K.C.B. in 1848, and General 1859.
NASH, THOMAS (1567-1601). —Satirist, etc., b. at Lowestoft, ed. at Camb. A reckless life kept him in perpetual poverty, and a bitter and sarcastic tongue lost him friends and patrons. He cherished an undying hatred for the Puritans, and specially for Gabriel Hervey, with whom he maintained a lifelong controversy, and against whose attacks he defended Robert Greene (q.v.). Among his writings are Anatomy of Absurdities (1589), Have with you to Saffron Walden, and Pierce Pennilesse, his Supplication to the Divell (1592), all against the Puritans. In Summer's (a jester of Henry VIII.) Last Will and Testament occurs the well-known song, "Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant King." Christ's Tears over Jerusalem (1593) may have indicated some movement towards repentance. Another work in a totally different style, The Unfortunate Traveller, or the Life of Jack Wilton (1594), a wild tale, may be regarded as the pioneer of the novel of adventure. It had, however, so little success that the author never returned to this kind of fiction. A comedy, The Isle of Dogs (now lost), adverted so pointedly to abuses in the state that it led to his imprisonment. His last work was Lenten Stuffe (1599), a burlesque panegyric on Yarmouth and its red herrings. N.'s verse is usually hard and monotonous, but he was a man of varied culture and great ability.
NAYLER, JAMES (1617?-1660). —Quaker theologian, s. of a Yorkshire yeoman, who, after serving in the Parliamentary army, joined the Quakers in 1651, became one of Foxe's most trusted helpers, and exercised a powerful influence. By some of the more enthusiastic devotees of the sect he was honoured with such blasphemous titles as "the Lamb of God," which, however, he did not arrogate to himself, but asserted that they were ascribed to "Christ in him." He was found guilty of blasphemy, pilloried, whipped, and branded, and cast into prison, from which he was not released until after the death of Cromwell, when he made public confession and resumed preaching. He was the author of a number of short works both devotional and controversial. He ranks high among the Quakers for eloquence, insight, and depth of thought.
NEAL, JOHN (1793-1876). —Novelist and poet, b. at Portland, Maine, was self-educated, kept a dry goods store, and was afterwards a lawyer. He wrote several novels, which show considerable native power, but little art, and are now almost forgotten. Among those which show the influence of Byron and Godwin are Keep Cool (1818), Logan (1822), and Seventy-six (1823). His poems have the same features of vigour and want of finish. In 1823 he visited England, and became known to Jeremy Bentham. He contributed some articles on American subjects to Blackwood's Magazine.
NEAVES, CHARLES, LORD (1800-1876). —Miscellaneous author, b. and ed. in Edinburgh, was called to the Bar, and became a judge. He was a frequent contributor to Blackwood's Magazine. His verses, witty and satirical, were coll. as Songs and Verses, Social and Scientific. He wrote also on philology, and pub. a book on the Greek Anthology.
NECKHAM, ALEXANDER (1157-1217). —Scholar, b. at St. Albans, was foster-brother to Richard Cœur de Lion. He went to Paris in 1180, where he became a distinguished teacher. Returning, to England in 1186 he became an Augustinian Canon, and in 1213 Abbot of Cirencester. He is one of our earliest men of learning, and wrote a scientific work in Latin verse. De Naturis Rerum (c. 1180-94) in 10 books. Other works are De Laudibus Divinæ Sapientiæ (in Praise of the Divine Wisdom), and De Contemptu Mundi (on Despising the World), and some grammatical treatises.
NEWCASTLE, MARGARET, DUCHESS of (1624?-1674). —Dau. of Sir Thomas Lucas, and a maid of honour to Queen Henrietta. Maria, m. in 1645 the 1st Duke of Newcastle (then Marquis), whom she regarded in adversity and prosperity with a singular and almost fantastic devotion, which was fully reciprocated. The noble pair collaborated (the Duchess contributing by far the larger share) in their literary ventures, which filled 12 vols., and consisted chiefly of dramas (now almost unreadable), and philosophical exercitations which, amid prevailing rubbish, contain some weighty sayings. One of her poems, The Pastimes and Recreations of the Queen of Fairies in Fairyland has some good lines. Her Life of her husband, in which she rates him above Julius Cæsar, was said by Lamb to be "a jewel for which no casket was good enough."
NEWMAN, FRANCIS WILLIAM (1805-1897). —Scholar and theological writer, brother of Cardinal N., b. in London, and ed. at Oxf. After spending three years in the East, he became successively classical tutor in Bristol Coll., Professor of Classical Literature in Manchester New Coll. (1840), and of Latin in Univ. Coll., London, 1846-63. Both brought up under evangelical influences, the two brothers moved from that standpoint in diametrically opposite directions, Francis through eclecticism towards scepticism. His writings include a History of the Hebrew Monarchy (1847), The Soul (1849), and his most famous book, Phases of Faith (1850), a theological autobiography corresponding to his brother's Apologia, the publication of which led to much controversy, and to the appearance of Henry Rogers' Eclipse of Faith. He also pub. Miscellanea in 4 vols., a Dictionary of modern Arabic, and some mathematical treatises. He was a vegetarian, a total abstainer, and enemy of tobacco, vaccination, and vivisection. Memoir by I.G. Sieveking, 1909.
NEWMAN, JOHN HENRY (1801-1890). —Theologian, s. of a London banker, and brother of the above, was ed. at Ealing and Trinity Coll., Oxf., where he was the intimate friend of Pusey and Hurrell Froude. Taking orders he was successively curate of St. Clement's 1824, and Vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford, 1828. He was also Vice-principal of Alban Hall, where he assisted Whately, the Principal, in his Logic. In 1830 he definitely broke with the evangelicalism in which he had been brought up; and in 1832, accompanied by H. Froude, went to the South of Europe, and visited Rome. During this lengthened tour he wrote most of his short poems, including "Lead Kindly Light," which were pub. 1834 as Lyra Apostolica. On his return he joined with Pusey, Keble, and others in initiating the Tractarian movement, and contributed some of the more important tracts, including the fateful No. xc., the publication of which brought about a crisis in the movement which, after two years of hesitation and mental and spiritual conflict, led to the resignation by N. of his benefice. In 1842 he retired to Littlemore, and after a period of prayer, fasting, and seclusion, was in 1845 received into the Roman Catholic Church. In the following year he went to Rome, where he was ordained priest and made D.D., and returning to England he established the oratory in Birmingham in 1847, and that in London in 1850. A controversy with C. Kingsley, who had written that N. "did not consider truth a necessary virtue," led to the publication of his Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864), one of the most remarkable books of religious autobiography ever written. N.'s later years were passed at the oratory at Birmingham. In 1879 he was summoned to Rome and cr. Cardinal of St. George in Velabro. Besides the works above mentioned he wrote, among others, The Arians of the Fourth Century (1833), Twelve Lectures (1850), Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics (1851), Idea of a University, Romanism and Popular Protestantism, Disquisition on the Canon of Scripture, and his poem, The Dream of Gerontius. Possessed of one of the most keen and subtle intellects of his age, N. was also master of a style of marvellous beauty and power. To many minds, however, his subtlety not seldom appeared to pass into sophistry; and his attitude to schools of thought widely differing from his own was sometimes harsh and unsympathetic. On the other hand he was able to exercise a remarkable influence over men ecclesiastically, and in some respects religiously, most strongly opposed to him. His sermons place him in the first rank of English preachers.
Lives or books about him by R.H. Hutton, E.A. Abbott. Works (36 vols., 1868-81), Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864), etc.
NEWTON, SIR ISAAC (1642-1727). —Natural philosopher, b. at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, the s. of a small landed proprietor, and ed. at the Grammar School of Grantham and at Trinity Coll., Camb. By propounding the binomial theorem, the differential calculus, and the integral calculus, he began in 1665 the wonderful series of discoveries in pure mathematics, optics, and physics, which place him in the first rank of the philosophers of all time. He was elected Lucasian Prof. of Mathematics at Camb. in 1669, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1672, over which body he presided for 25 years from 1703. In the same year his new theory of flight was pub. in a paper before the society. His epoch-making discovery of the law of universal gravitation was not promulgated until 1687, though the first glimpse of it had come to him so early as 1665. The discovery of fluxions, which he claimed, was contested by Leibnitz, and led to a long and bitter controversy between the two philosophers. He twice sat in Parliament for his Univ., and was Master of the Mint from 1699, in which capacity he presented reports on the coinage. He was knighted in 1705, and d. at Kensington in 1727. For a short time, after an unfortunate accident by which a number of invaluable manuscripts were burned, he suffered from some mental aberration. His writings fall into two classes, scientific and theological. In the first are included his famous treatises, Light and Colours (1672), Optics (1704), the Principia (1687), in Latin, its full title being Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. In the second are his Observations upon the Prophecies of Holy Writ and An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture. In character N. was remarkable for simplicity, humility, and gentleness, with a great distaste for controversy, in which, nevertheless, he was repeatedly involved. Life by Sir D. Brewster, second ed., 1855, etc.
NEWTON, JOHN (1725-1807). —Divine and hymn-writer, s. of a shipmaster, was b. in London, and for many years led a varied and adventurous life at sea, part of the time on board a man-of-war and part as captain of a slaver. In 1748 he came under strong religious convictions, and after acting as a tide-waiter at Liverpool for a few years, he applied for orders in 1758, and was ordained curate of Olney in 1764. Here he became the intimate and sympathetic friend of Cowper, in conjunction with whom he produced the Olney Hymns. In 1779 he was translated to the Rectory of St. Mary, Woolnoth, London, where he had great popularity and influence, and wrote many religious works, including Cardiphonia, and Remarkable Passages in his Own Life. He lives, however, in his hymns, among which are some of the best and most widely known in the language, such as In evil long I took delight, Glorious things of Thee are Spoken, How Sweet the Name of Jesus sounds, and many others. In his latter years N. was blind.
NICHOL, JOHN (1833-1894). —Poet and biographer, s. of John P.N., Prof. of Astronomy in Glasgow, ed. at Glasgow and Oxf., and held the chair of English Literature in Glasgow, 1862-1889. Among his writings are Hannibal (1873), a drama, Death of Themistocles and other Poems (1881), Fragments of Criticism, and American Literature; also Lives of Bacon, Burns, Carlyle, and Byron.
NOEL, HON. RODEN BERKELEY WRIOTHESLEY (1834-1894). —Poet, s., of the 1st Earl of Gainsborough, was ed. at Camb. He wrote Behind the Veil (1863), The Red Flag (1872), Songs of the Heights and Deeps (1885), and Essays on various poets, also a Life of Byron.
NORRIS, JOHN (1657-1711). —Philosopher and poet, ed. at Oxf., took orders, and lived a quiet and placid life as a country parson and thinker. In philosophy he was a Platonist and mystic, and was an early opponent of Locke. His poetry, with occasional fine thoughts, is full of far-fetched metaphors and conceits, and is not seldom dull and prosaic. From 1692 he held G. Herbert's benefice of Bemerton. Among his 23 works are An Idea of Happiness (1683), Miscellanies (1687), Theory and Regulation of Love (1688), Theory of the Ideal and Intelligible World (1701-4), and a Discourse concerning the Immortality of the Soul (1708).
NORTH, SIR THOMAS (1535?-1601?). —Translator, 2nd s. of the 1st Lord N., may have studied at Camb. He entered Lincoln's Inn 1557, but gave more attention to literature than to law. He is best known by his translation of Plutarch, from the French of Amyot, in fine, forcible, idiomatic English, which was the repertory from which Shakespeare drew his knowledge of ancient history: in Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus North's language is often closely followed. Another translation was from an Italian version of an Arabic book of fables, and bore the title of The Morale Philosophie of Doni.
NORTON, CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH (SHERIDAN) (1808-1877). —Grand-daughter of Richard Brinsley S. (q.v.), m. in 1827 the Hon. G.C. Norton, a union which turned out most unhappy, and ended in a separation. Her first book, The Sorrows of Rosalie (1829), was well received. The Undying One (1830), a romance founded upon the legend of the Wandering Jew, followed, and other novels were Stuart of Dunleath (1851), Lost and Saved (1863), and Old Sir Douglas (1867). The unhappiness of her married life led her to interest herself in the amelioration of the laws regarding the social condition and the separate property of women and the wrongs of children, and her poems, A Voice from the Factories (1836), and The Child of the Islands (1845), had as an object the furtherance of her views on these subjects. Her efforts were largely successful in bringing about the needed legislation. In 1877 Mrs. N. m. Sir W. Stirling Maxwell (q.v.).
NORTON, CHARLES ELIOT, LL.D., D.C.L., etc. (1827-1909). —American biographer and critic. Church Building in the Middle Ages (1876), translation of the New Life (1867), and The Divine Comedy of Dante (1891); has ed. Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson (1883), Carlyle's Letters and Reminiscences (1887), etc.
OCCAM or OCKHAM, WILLIAM (1270?-1349?). —Schoolman, b. at Ockham, Surrey, studied at Oxf. and Paris, and became a Franciscan. As a schoolman he was a Nominalist and received the title of the Invincible Doctor. He attacked the abuses of the Church, and was imprisoned at Avignon, but escaped and spent the latter part of his life at Munich, maintaining to the last his controversies with the Church, and with the Realists. He was a man of solid understanding and sense, and a masterly logician. His writings, which are of course all in Latin, deal with the Aristotelean philosophy, theology, and specially under the latter with the errors of Pope John XXII., who was his bête-noir.
OCCLEVE, (see HOCCLEVE).
OCKLEY, SIMON (1678-1720). —Orientalist, b. at Exeter, and ed. at Camb., became the greatest Orientalist of his day, and was made in 1711 Prof. of Arabic in his Univ. His chief work is the Conquest of Syria, Persia, and Egypt by the Saracens (3 vols., 1708-57), which was largely used by Gibbon. The original documents upon which it is founded are now regarded as of doubtful authority. O. was a clergyman of the Church of England.
O'KEEFFE, JOHN (1747-1833). —Dramatist, wrote a number of farces and amusing dramatic pieces, many of which had great success. Among these are Tony Lumpkin in Town (1778), Wild Oats, and Love in a Camp. Some of his songs set to music by Arnold and Shield, such as I am a Friar of Orders Grey, and The Thorn, are still popular. He was blind in his later years.
OLDHAM, JOHN (1653-1683). —Satirist and translator, s. of a Nonconformist minister, was at Oxf., and was the friend of most of the literary men of his time, by whom his early death from smallpox was bewailed. He made clever adaptations of the classical satirists, wrote an ironical Satire against Virtue, and four severe satires against the Jesuits. He is cynical to the verge of misanthropy, but independent and manly.
OLDMIXON, JOHN (1673-1742). —Historical and miscellaneous writer, belonged to an old Somersetshire family, wrote some, now forgotten, dramas and poems which, along with an essay on criticism, in which he attacked Addison, Swift, and Pope, earned for him a place in The Dunciad. He was also the author of The British Empire in America (1708), Secret History of Europe (against the Stuarts), and in his Critical History (1724-26) attacked Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. All these works are partisan in their tone. O. was one of the most prolific pamphleteers of his day.
OLDYS, WILLIAM (1696-1761). —Antiquary, wrote a Life of Sir W. Raleigh prefixed to an ed. of his works (1736), a Dissertation on Pamphlets (1731), and was joint ed. with Dr. Johnson of the Harleian Miscellany. He amassed many interesting facts in literary history, the fruits of diligent, though obscure, industry. The only poem of his that still lives is the beautiful little anacreontic beginning "Busy, curious, thirsty Fly." O. held the office of Norroy-King-at-Arms. He produced in 1737 The British Librarian, a valuable work left unfinished.
OLIPHANT, LAURENCE (1829-1888). —Novelist and miscellaneous writer, s. of Sir Anthony O., Chief Justice of Ceylon. The first 38 years of his life were spent in desultory study, travel, and adventure, varied by occasional diplomatic employment. His travels included, besides Continental countries, the shores of the Black Sea, Circassia, where he was Times correspondent, America, China, and Japan. He was in the Crimean War, Indian Mutiny, Chinese War, the military operations of Garibaldi, and the Polish insurrection, and served as private sec. to Lord Elgin in Washington, Canada, and China, and as Sec. of Legation in Japan. In 1865 he entered Parliament, and gave promise of political eminence, when in 1867 he came under the influence of Thomas L. Harris, an American mystic of questionable character, went with him to America, and joined the Brotherhood of the New Life. In 1870-71 he was correspondent for the Times in the Franco-German War. Ultimately he broke away from the influence of Harris and went to Palestine, where he founded a community of Jewish immigrants at Haifa. After revisiting America he returned to England, but immediately fell ill and d. at Twickenham. O. was a voluminous and versatile author, publishing books of travel, novels, and works on mysticism. The most important are as follows: The Russian Shores of the Black Sea (1853), Minnesota and the Far West (1855), The Transcaucasian Campaign (1856), Patriots and Fillibusters (adventures in Southern States) (1860), Narrative of a Mission to China and Japan (1857-59), The Land of Gilead (1880), Piccadilly (1870), and Altiora Peto (1883) (novels), and Scientific Religion.
OLIPHANT, MRS. MARGARET OLIPHANT (WILSON) (1828-1897). —Novelist and miscellaneous writer, was b. near Musselburgh. Her literary output began when she was little more than a girl, and was continued almost up to the end of her life. Her first novel, Mrs. Margaret Maitland, appeared in 1849, and its humour, pathos, and insight into character gave the author an immediate position in literature. It was followed by an endless succession, of which the best were the series of The Chronicles of Carlingford (1861-65), including Salem Chapel, The Perpetual Curate, and Miss Marjoribanks, all of which, as well as much of her other work, appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, with which she had a lifelong connection. Others of some note were The Primrose Path, Madonna Mary (1866), The Wizard's Son, and A Beleaguered City. She did not, however, confine herself to fiction, but wrote many books of history and biography, including Sketches of the Reign of George II. (1869), The Makers of Florence (1876), Literary History of England 1790-1825, Royal Edinburgh (1890), and Lives of St. Francis of Assisi, Edward Irving, and Principal Tulloch. Her generosity in supporting and educating the family of a brother as well as her own two sons rendered necessary a rate of production which was fatal to the permanence of her work. She was negligent as to style, and often wrote on subjects to which her intellectual equipment and knowledge did not enable her to do proper justice. She had, however, considerable power of painting character, and a vein of humour, and showed untiring industry in getting up her subjects.
OPIE, MRS. AMELIA (ALDERSON) (1769-1853). —Novelist, dau. of a medical man, was b. at Norwich. In 1798 she m. John Opie, the painter. Her first acknowledged work was Father and Daughter (1801), which had a favourable reception, and was followed by Adeline Mowbray (1804), Temper (1812), Tales from Real Life (1813), and others, all having the same aim of developing the virtuous affections, the same merit of natural and vivid painting of character and passions, and the same fault of a too great preponderance of the pathetic. They were soon superseded by the more powerful genius of Scott and Miss Edgeworth. In 1825 she became a Quaker. After this she wrote Illustrations of Lying (1825), and Detraction Displayed (1828). Her later years, which were singularly cheerful, were largely devoted to philanthropic interests.
ORDERICUS VITALIS (1075-1143?). —Chronicler, b. near Shrewsbury, was in childhood put into the monastery of St. Evroult, in Normandy, where the rest of his life was passed. He is the author of a chronicle, Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy (c. 1142) in 13 books. Those from the seventh to the thirteenth are invaluable as giving a trustworthy, though not very clear, record of contemporary events in England and Normandy. It was translated into English in 1853-55.
ORM, or ORMIN (fl. 1200). —Was an Augustinian canon of Mercia, who wrote the Ormulum in transition English. It is a kind of mediæval Christian Year, containing a metrical portion of the Gospel for each day, followed by a metrical homily, largely borrowed from Ælfric and Bede. Its title is thus accounted for, "This boc iss nemmed the Ormulum, forthi that Orm it wrohhte."
ORME, ROBERT (1728-1801). —Historian, s. of an Indian army doctor, b. at Travancore, and after being at Harrow, entered the service of the East India Company. Owing to failure of health he had to return home in 1760, and then wrote his History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan from 1745 (1763-78), a well-written and accurate work, showing great research. He also pub. Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire, the Morattoes and English Concerns in Indostan from 1659 (1782). His collections relating to India are preserved at the India Office.
ORRERY, ROGER BOYLE, 1ST EARL of (1621-1679). —Statesman and dramatist, third s. of the Earl of Cork, was ed. at Trinity Coll., Dublin. After having fought on the Royalist side he was, on the death of the King, induced by Cromwell to support him in his Irish wars and otherwise. After the death of the Protector he secured Ireland for Charles II., and at the Restoration was raised to the peerage. He wrote a romance in 6 vols., entitled Parthenissa, some plays, and a treatise on the Art of War. He has the distinction of being the first to introduce rhymed tragedies.
O'SHAUGHNESSY, ARTHUR WILLIAM EDGAR (1844-1881). —Poet, b. in London, entered the library of the British Museum, afterwards being transferred to the natural history department, where he became an authority on fishes and reptiles. He pub. various books of poetry, including Epic of Women (1870), Lays of France (1872), and Music and Moonlight (1874). Jointly with his wife he wrote Toyland, a book for children. He was associated with D.G. Rossetti and the other pre-Raphaelites. There is a certain remoteness in his poetry which will probably always prevent its being widely popular. He has a wonderful mastery of metre, and a "haunting music" all his own.
OTWAY, CÆSAR (1780-1842). —Writer of Irish tales. His writings, which display humour and sympathy with the poorer classes in Ireland, include Sketches in Ireland (1827), and A Tour in Connaught (1839). He was concerned in the establishment of various journals.
OTWAY, THOMAS (1651 or 1652-1685). —Dramatist, s. of a clergyman, was b. near Midhurst, Sussex, and ed. at Oxf., which he left without graduating. His short life, like those of many of his fellows, was marked by poverty and misery, and he appears to have d. practically of starvation. Having failed as an actor, he took to writing for the stage, and produced various plays, among which Don Carlos, Prince of Spain (1676), was a great success, and brought him some money. Those by which he is best remembered, however, are The Orphan (1680), and Venice Preserved (1682), both of which have been frequently revived. O. made many adaptations from the French, and in his tragedy of Caius Marius incorporated large parts of Romeo and Juliet. He has been called "the most pathetic and tear-drawing of all our dramatists," and he excelled in delineating the stronger passions. The grossness of his comedies has banished them from the stage. Other plays are The Cheats of Scapin, Friendship in Fashion, Soldier's Fortune (1681), and The Atheist.
OUIDA, (see RAMÉE).
OUTRAM, GEORGE (1805-1856). —Humorous poet, was a Scottish advocate, a friend of Prof. Wilson, and for some time ed. of the Glasgow Herald. He printed privately in 1851 Lyrics, Legal and Miscellaneous, which were pub. with a memoir in 1874. Many of his pieces are highly amusing, the Annuity being the best.
OVERBURY, SIR THOMAS (1581-1613). —Poet and miscellaneous writer, ed. at Oxf., became the friend of Carr, afterwards Earl of Rochester and Somerset, and fell a victim to a Court intrigue connected with the proposed marriage of Rochester and Lady Essex, being poisoned in the Tower with the connivance of the latter. He wrote a poem, A Wife, now a Widowe, and Characters (1614), short, witty descriptions of types of men. Some of those pub. along with his are by other hands.
OWEN, JOHN (1560-1622). —Epigrammatist, b. at Plas Dhu, Carnarvonshire, ed. at Winchester and Oxf., and became head master of King Henry VIII. School at Warwick. His Latin epigrams, which have both sense and wit in a high degree, gained him much applause, and were translated into English, French, German, and Spanish.
OWEN, JOHN (1616-1683). —Puritan divine, b. at Stadhampton, Oxfordshire, and ed. at Oxf., from which he was driven by Laud's statutes. Originally a Presbyterian, he passed over to Independency. In 1649 he accompanied Cromwell to Ireland, and in 1650 to Edinburgh. He was Dean of Christ Church, Oxf. (1651-60), and one of the "triers" of ministers appointed by Cromwell. After the Restoration he was ejected from his deanery, but was favoured by Clarendon, who endeavoured to induce him to conform to the Anglican Church by offers of high preferment. Strange to say Charles II. also held him in regard, and gave him money for the Nonconformists; and he was allowed to preach to a congregation of Independents in London. His great learning and ability rendered him a formidable controversialist, specially against Arminianism and Romanism. His works fill 28 vols; among the best known being The Divine Original, etc., of the Scriptures, Indwelling Sin, Christologia, or ... The Person of Christ, and a commentary on Hebrews.
OWEN, ROBERT (1771-1858). —Socialist and philanthropist, b. at Newton, Montgomeryshire, had for his object the regeneration of the world on the principles of socialism. His sincerity was shown by the fact that he spent most of the fortune, which his great capacity for business enabled him to make, in endeavours to put his theories into practice at various places both in Britain and America. He was sincerely philanthropic, and incidentally did good on a considerable scale in the course of his more or less impracticable schemes. He propounded his ideas in New Views of Society, or Essays on the Formation of the Human Character (1816).
OXFORD, EDWARD DE VERE, EARL of (1550-1604). —Was a courtier of Queen Elizabeth, who lost his friends by his insolence and pride, and his fortune by his extravagance. He m. a dau. of Lord Burghley, who had to support his family after his death. He had some reputation as a writer of short pieces, many of which are in the Paradise of Dainty Devices.
PAINE, THOMAS (1737-1809). —Political and anti-Christian writer, s. of a stay-maker and small farmer of Quaker principles at Thetford, became with large classes perhaps the most unpopular man in England. After trying various occupations, including those of schoolmaster and exciseman, and having separated from his wife, he went in 1774 to America where, in 1776, he pub. his famous pamphlet, Common Sense, in favour of American independence. He served in the American army, and also held some political posts, including that of sec. to a mission to France in 1781. Returning to England in 1787 he pub. his Rights of Man (1790-92), in reply to Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution. It had an enormous circulation, 1,500,000 copies having been sold in England alone; but it made it necessary for him to escape to France to avoid prosecution. Arrived in that country he was elected to the National Convention. He opposed the execution of Louis XVI., and was, in 1794, imprisoned by Robespierre, whose fall saved his life. He had then just completed the first part of his Age of Reason, of which the other two appeared respectively in 1795 and 1807. It is directed alike against Christianity and Atheism, and supports Deism. Becoming disgusted with the course of French politics, he returned to America in 1802, but found himself largely ostracised by society there, became embroiled in various controversies, and is said to have become intemperate. He d. at New York in 1809. Though apparently sincere in his views, and courageous in the expression of them, P. was vain and prejudiced. The extraordinary lucidity and force of his style did much to gain currency for his writings.
PAINTER, WILLIAM (1540?-1594). —Translator, etc., ed. at Camb., was then successively schoolmaster at Sevenoaks, and Clerk of the Ordnance, in which position his intromissions appear to have been of more advantage to himself than to the public service. He was the author of The Palace of Pleasure (1566), largely consisting of translations from Boccaccio, Bandello, and other Italian writers, and also from the classics. It formed a quarry in which many dramatists, including Shakespeare, found the plots for their plays.
PALEY, WILLIAM (1743-1805). —Theologian, s. of a minor canon of Peterborough, where he was b., went at 15 as a sizar to Christ's Coll., Camb., where he was Senior Wrangler, and became a Fellow and Tutor of his coll. Taking orders in 1767 he held many benefices, and rose to be Archdeacon of Carlisle, and Sub-Dean of Lincoln. P., who holds one of the highest places among English theologians, was the author of four important works—Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785), Horæ Paulinæ, his most original, but least popular, book (1790), View of the Evidences of Christianity (1794), and Natural Theology (1802). Though now to a large extent superseded, these works had an immense popularity and influence in their day, and are characterised by singular clearness of expression and power of apt illustration. The system of morals inculcated by P. is Utilitarian, modified by theological ideas. His view of the "divine right of Kings" as on a level with "the divine right of constables" was unpleasing to George III., notwithstanding which his ecclesiastical career was eminently successful. His manners were plain and kindly.
PALGRAVE, SIR FRANCIS (1788-1861). —Historian, s. of Meyer Cohen, a Jewish stockbroker, but at his marriage in 1823, having previously become a Christian, assumed his mother-in-law's name of Palgrave. He studied law, and was called to the Bar in 1827. From 1838 until his death in 1861 he was Deputy Keeper of the Records, and in that capacity arranged a vast mass of hitherto inaccessible documents, and ed. many of them for the Record Commission. His historical works include a History of England in Anglo-Saxon Times (1831), Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth (1832), and History of Normandy and England (4 vols., 1851-64), pub. posthumously. He was knighted in 1832. His works are of great value in throwing light upon the history and condition of mediæval England.
PALGRAVE, FRANCIS TURNER (1824-1897). —Poet and critic, s. of the above, ed. at Oxf., was for many years connected with the Education Department, of which he rose to be Assistant Sec.; and from 1886-95 he was Prof. of Poetry at Oxf. He wrote several vols. of poetry, including Visions of England (1881), and Amenophis (1892), which, though graceful and exhibiting much poetic feeling, were the work rather of a man of culture than of a poet. His great contribution to literature was his anthology, The Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics (1864), selected with marvellous insight and judgment. A second series showed these qualities in a less degree. He also pub. an anthology of sacred poetry.
PALTOCK, ROBERT (1697-1767). —Novelist, was an attorney, and wrote The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man (1751), admired by Scott, Coleridge, and Lamb. It is somewhat on the same plan as Robinson Crusoe, the special feature being the gawry, or flying woman, whom the hero discovered on his island, and married. The description of Nosmnbdsgrutt, the country of the flying people, is a dull imitation of Swift, and much else in the book is tedious.
PARDOE, JULIA (1806-1862). —Novelist and miscellaneous writer, b. at Beverley, showed an early bias towards literature, and became a voluminous and versatile writer, producing in addition to her lively and well-written novels many books of travel, and others dealing with historical subjects. She was a keen observer, and her Oriental travels had given her an accurate and deep knowledge of the peoples and manners of the East. Among her books are The City of the Sultan (1836), Romance of the Harem, Thousand and One Days, Louis XIV. and the Court of France, Court of Francis I., etc.
PARIS, MATTHEW (c. 1195-1259). —Chronicler, entered in 1217 the Benedictine Monastery of St. Albans, and continued the work of Roger de Wendover (q.v.) as chronicler of the monastery. In 1248 he went on the invitation of Hacon King of Norway to reform the Abbey of St. Benet Holm. In this he was successful, and on his return to England enjoyed the favour of Henry III., who conversed familiarly with him, and imparted information as to matters of state, which constitutes a valuable element in his histories. He had a high reputation for piety and learning, was a patriotic Englishman, and resisted the encroachments of Rome. His chief work is Historia Major, from the Conquest until 1259. In it he embodied the Flores Historiarum of his predecessor Roger, and the original part is a bold and vigorous narrative of the period (1235-59). He also wrote Historia Minor and Historia Anglorum, a summary of the events (1200-1250).
PARK, MUNGO (1771-1806). —Traveller, b. near Selkirk, studied medicine at Edin. As a surgeon in the mercantile marine he visited Sumatra, and on his return attracted the attention of various scientific men by his botanical and zoological investigations. In 1795 he entered the service of the African Association, and made a voyage of discovery on the Niger. His adventures were pub. in Travels in the Interior of Africa (1799), which had great success. He m. and set up in practice in Peebles; but in 1805 accepted an invitation by Government to undertake another journey in Africa. From this he never returned, having perished in a conflict with natives. His narratives, written in a straightforward and pleasing style, are among the classics of travel.
PARKER, THEODORE (1810-1860). —Theologian, b. at Lexington, Massachusetts, ed. at Harvard, was an indefatigable student, and made himself master of many languages. In 1837 he was settled at West Roxbury as a Unitarian minister, but the development of his views in a rationalistic direction gradually separated him from the more conservative portion of his co-religionists. He lectured on theological subjects in Boston in 1841, travelled in Europe, and in 1845 settled in Boston, where he lectured to large audiences, and exercised a wide influence. He took a leading part in the anti-slavery crusade, and specially in resisting the Fugitive Slave Act. In 1859 his health, which had never been robust, gave way; he went to Italy in search of restoration, but d. at Florence. Although he was a powerful theological and social influence, his writings are not of corresponding importance: it was rather as a speaker that he influenced his countrymen, and he left no contribution to literature of much permanent account, though his coll. works fill 14 vols. Among the most outstanding of his writings are A Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion, and Sermons for the Times.
PARKMAN, FRANCIS (1823-1893). —Historian, s. of a Unitarian minister in Boston, Massachusetts, graduated at Harvard, and qualified as a lawyer, but never practised, and though hampered by a state of health which forbade continuous application, and by partial blindness, devoted himself to the writing of the history of the conflict between France and England in North America. This he did in a succession of works—The Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851), The Pioneers of France in the New World (1865), The Jesuits in North America (1867), La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1869), The Old Regime in Canada (1874), Count Frontenac and New France (1877), Montcalm and Wolfe (1884), and A Half Century of Conflict (1892). In these the style, at first somewhat turgid, gradually improved, and became clear and forcible, while retaining its original vividness. P. spared no labour in collecting and sifting his material, much of which was gathered in the course of visits to the places which were the scenes of his narrative, and his books are the most valuable contribution in existence to the history of the struggle for Canada and the other French settlements in North America. He also wrote two novels, which had little success, and a book upon rose-culture.
PARNELL, THOMAS (1679-1718). —Poet, b. and ed. in Dublin, took orders in 1700, and was Vicar of Finglas and Archdeacon of Clogher. The death of his young wife in 1706 drove him into intemperate habits. He was a friend of Swift and Pope, a contributor to the Spectator, and aided Pope in his translation of the Iliad. He wrote various isolated poems showing a fine descriptive touch, of which the most important are The Hermit, The Night Piece, and The Hymn to Contentment. P. was a scholar, and had considerable social gifts. His Life was written by Goldsmith.
PARR, DR. SAMUEL (1747-1825). —Scholar, s. of an apothecary at Harrow, where and at Camb. he was ed. He was successively an assistant-master at Harrow and headmaster of schools at Colchester and Norwich, and having taken orders, finally settled down at Hatton, Warwickshire, where he took private pupils. He was undoubtedly a great Latinist, but he has left no work to account for the immense reputation for ability which he enjoyed during his life. His chief power appears to have been in conversation, in which he was bold, arrogant, and epigrammatic. He was nicknamed "the Whig Johnson," but fell very far short of his model. His writings, including correspondence, were pub. in 8 vols.
PATER, WALTER HORATIO (1839-1894). —Essayist and critic, s. of Richard G.P., of American birth and Dutch extraction, a benevolent physician, b. at Shadwell, and ed. at the King's School, Canterbury, and at Queen's Coll., Oxf., after leaving which he made various tours in Germany and Italy where, especially in the latter, his nature, keenly sensitive to every form of beauty, received indelible impressions. In 1864 he was elected a Fellow of Brasenose, and in its ancient and austere precincts found his principal home. As a tutor, though conscientious, he was not eminently successful; nevertheless his lectures, on which he bestowed much pains, had a fit audience, and powerfully influenced a few select souls. He resigned his tutorship in 1880, partly because he found himself not entirely in his element, and partly because literature was becoming the predominant interest in his life. In 1885 he went to London, where he remained for 8 years, continuing, however, to reside at Brasenose during term. The reputation as a writer which he had gained made him welcome in whatever intellectual circles he found himself. Leaving London in 1893 he settled in a house in St. Giles, Oxf. In the spring of 1894 he went to Glasgow to receive the honorary degree of LL.D., a distinction which he valued. In the summer he had an attack of rheumatic fever, followed by pleurisy. From these he had apparently recovered, but he succumbed to an attack of heart-failure which immediately supervened. Thus ended prematurely in its 55th year a life as bare of outward events as it was rich in literary fruit and influence.
P. is one of the greatest modern masters of style, and one of the subtlest and most penetrating of critics. Though not a philosopher in the technical sense, he deeply pondered the subjects with which philosophy sets itself to deal; but art was the dominating influence in his intellectual life, and it was said of him that "he was a philosopher who had gone to Italy by mistake instead of to Germany." He may also be called the prophet of the modern æsthetic school. His attitude to Christianity, though deeply sceptical, was not unsympathetic. As a boy he came under the influence of Keble, and at one time thought of taking orders, but his gradual change of view led him to relinquish the idea. Among his works may be mentioned an article on Coleridge, and others on Winckelmann, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, etc., which were coll. and pub. as Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873); Appreciations (1889) contained his great essays on Æsthetic Poetry and Style, various Shakespearian studies and papers on Lamb and Sir T. Browne; Imaginary Portraits, and Greek Studies (1894); Plato and Platonism (1893). His masterpiece, however, is Marius the Epicurean (1885), a philosophical romance of the time of Marcus Aurelius. The style of P. is characterised by a subdued richness, and complicated, but perfect structure of sentences. In character he was gentle, refined, and retiring, with a remarkable suavity of manner and dislike of controversy.
PATMORE, COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON (1823-1896). —Poet, s. of Peter George P., also an author, b. at Woodford, Essex, was in the printed book department of the British Museum. He pub. Tamerton Church Tower (1853), and between 1854 and 1862 the four poems which, combined, form his masterpiece, The Angel in the House, a poetic celebration of married love. In 1864 he entered the Church of Rome. Thereafter he pub. The Unknown Eros (1877), Amelia (1878), and Rod, Root, and Flower (1895), meditations chiefly on religious subjects. His works are full of graceful and suggestive thought, but occasionally suffer from length and discursiveness. He was successful in business matters, and in character was energetic, masterful, and combative. He numbered Tennyson and Ruskin among his friends, was associated with the pre-Raphaelites, and was a contributor to their organ, the Germ.
PATTISON, MARK (1813-1884). —Scholar and biographer, b. at Hornby, Yorkshire, s. of a clergyman, ed. privately and at Oxf., where in 1839 he became Fellow of Lincoln Coll., and acquired a high reputation as a tutor and examiner. At first strongly influenced by Newman and the Tractarian movement, he ultimately abandoned that school. In 1851, failing to be elected head of his coll., he threw up his tutorship, and devoted himself to severe study, occasionally writing on educational subjects in various reviews. In 1861, however, he attained the object of his ambition, being elected Rector of Lincoln Coll. In 1883 he dictated a remarkable autobiography, coming down to 1860. In 1875 he had pub. a Life of Isaac Casaubon, and he left materials for a Life of Scaliger, which he had intended to be his magnum opus. He also wrote Milton for the English Men of Letters Series, and produced an ed. of his sonnets.
PAULDING, JAMES KIRKE (1779-1860). —Novelist, etc., b. in the state of New York, was chiefly self-educated. He became a friend of W. Irving, and was part author with him of Salmagundi—a continuation of which by himself proved a failure. Among his other writings are John Bull and Brother Jonathan (1812), a satire, The Dutchman's Fireside (1831), a romance which attained popularity, a Life of Washington (1835), and some poems.
PAYN, JAMES (1830-1898). —Novelist, s. of an official in the Thames Commission, ed. at Eton, Woolwich, and Camb. He was a regular contributor to Household Words and to Chambers's Journal, of which he was ed. 1859-74, and in which several of his works first appeared; he also ed. the Cornhill Magazine 1883-96. Among his novels—upwards of 60 in number—may be mentioned Lost Sir Massingberd, The Best of Husbands, Walter's Word, By Proxy (1878), A Woman's Vengeance, Carlyon's Year, Thicker than Water, A Trying Patient, etc. He also wrote a book of poems and a volume of literary reminiscences.
PEACOCK, THOMAS LOVE (1785-1866). —Novelist, b. at Weymouth, the only child of a London merchant, was in boyhood at various schools, but from the age of 13 self-educated. Nevertheless, he became a really learned scholar. He was for long in the India Office, where he rose to be Chief Examiner, coming between James Mill and John Stuart Mill. He was the author of several somewhat whimsical, but quite unique novels, full of paradox, prejudice, and curious learning, with witty dialogue and occasional poems interspersed. Among them are Headlong Hall (1816), Nightmare Abbey (1818), Maid Marian (1822), Misfortunes of Elphin (1829), Crotchet Castle (1831), and Gryll Grange (1860). He was the intimate friend of Shelley, memoirs of whom he contributed to Fraser's Magazine.
PEARSON, CHARLES HENRY (1830-1894). —B. at Islington, ed. at Rugby and King's Coll., London, at the latter he became Prof. of Modern History. Owing to a threatened failure of sight he went to Australia, where he remained for 20 years, and was for a time Minister of Education of Victoria. Returning to England in 1892 he wrote his National Life and Character: a Forecast, in which he gave utterance to very pessimistic views as to the future of the race. He also wrote a History of England during the Early and Middle Ages (1867).
PEARSON, JOHN (1613-1686). —Theologian, s. of an archdeacon of Suffolk, b. at Great Snoring, Norfolk, ed. at Eton and Camb., took orders, and after holding various preferments, including the archdeaconry of Surrey, the mastership of Jesus Coll., and of Trinity Coll., Camb., was made, in 1673, Bishop of Chester. His Exposition of the Creed (1659) has always been regarded as one of the most finished productions of English theology, remarkable alike for logical argument and arrangement, and lucid style. He was also the author of other learned works, including a defence of the authenticity of the epistles of Ignatius. In his youth P. was a Royalist, and acted in 1645 as a chaplain in the Royal army. He was one of the commissioners in the Savoy Conference.
PECOCK, REGINALD (1395?-1460?). —Theologian, b. in Wales, entered the Church, and rose to be successively Bishop of St. Asaph 1444, and of Chichester 1450. He was a strenuous controversialist, chiefly against the Lollards; but his free style of argument, and especially his denial of the infallibility of the Church, led him into trouble, and on being offered the choice of abjuration or death at the stake, he chose the former, but nevertheless was deprived of his bishopric, had his books burned, and spent his latter days in the Abbey of Thorney, Cambridgeshire. His chief work is The Repressor of overmuch blaming of the Clergy (1455), which, from its clear, pointed style, remains a monument of 15th century English. The Book of Faith (1456) is another of his writings.
PEELE, GEORGE (1558?-1597?). —Dramatist and poet, s. of a salter in London, ed. at Christ's Hospital and Oxf., where he had a reputation as a poet. Coming back to London about 1581 he led a dissipated life. He appears to have been a player as well as a playwright, and to have come into possession of some land through his wife. His works are numerous and consist of plays, pageants, and miscellaneous verse. His best plays are The Arraignment of Paris (1584), and The Battle of Alcazar (1594), and among his poems Polyhymnia (1590), and The Honour of the Garter (1593). Other works are Old Wives' Tale (1595), and David and Fair Bethsabe (1599). P. wrote in melodious and flowing blank verse, with abundance of fancy and brilliant imagery, but his dramas are weak in construction, and he is often bombastic and extravagant.
PENN, WILLIAM (1644-1718). —Quaker apologist, s. of Sir William P., a celebrated Admiral, was b. in London, and ed. at Oxf., where he became a Quaker, and was in consequence expelled from the Univ. His change of views and his practice of the extremest social peculiarities imposed by his principles led to a quarrel with his f., who is said to have turned him out of doors. Thereafter he began to write, and one of his books, The Sandy Foundation Shaken (c. 1668), in which he attacked the doctrines of the Trinity, the atonement, and justification by faith, led to his being, in 1668, imprisoned in the Tower, where he wrote his most popular work, No Cross, No Crown (1668), and a defence of his own conduct, Innocency with her Open Face (1668), which resulted in his liberation. Shortly after this, in 1670, on the death of his f., who had been reconciled to him, P. succeeded to a fortune, including a claim against the Government amounting to £15,000, which was ultimately in 1681 settled by a grant of the territory now forming the state of Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, however, he had again suffered imprisonment for preaching, and employed his enforced leisure in writing four treatises, of which one, The Great Cause of Liberty of Conscience (c. 1671), is an able defence of religious toleration. In 1682, having obtained the grant above referred to, he set sail for America, with the view of founding a community based upon the principles of toleration. Having established a Constitution and set matters in working order there, P. returned to England in 1684 and busied himself in efforts for the relief of those Quakers who had remained at home. The peculiar position of affairs when James II. was endeavouring to use the Dissenters as a means of gaining concessions to the Roman Catholics favoured his views, and he was to some extent successful in his efforts. His connection with the Court at that time has, however, led to his conduct being severely animadverted upon by Macaulay and others. In 1690 and for some time thereafter he was charged with conspiring against the Revolution Government, but after full investigation was completely acquitted. His later years were embittered by troubles in Pennsylvania, and by the dishonesty and ingratitude of an agent by whose defalcations he was nearly ruined, as a consequence of which he was imprisoned for debt. He d. soon after his release in 1718.
PENNANT, THOMAS (1726-1798). —Naturalist and traveller, b. in Flintshire, and ed. at Oxf., was one of the most distinguished naturalists of the 18th century, and pub., among other works on natural history, British Zoology (1768), and History of Quadrupeds (1781). In literature he is, however, best remembered by his Tours in Scotland (1771-75), which did much to make known the beauties of the country to England. He also travelled in Ireland and Wales, and on the Continent, and pub. accounts of his journeys. Dr. Johnson said of him, "he observes more things than any one else does."
PEPYS, SAMUEL (1633-1703). —Diarist, s. of John P., a London tailor, but of good family and connected with Sir E. Montague, afterwards Earl of Sandwich, was ed. at St. Paul's School and at Camb. After leaving the Univ. he entered the household of Montagu, who became his life long patron. He held various Government posts, including that of Surveyor-General of the Victualling Office, in which he displayed great administrative ability and reforming zeal, and in 1672 he became Sec. of the Admiralty. After being imprisoned in the Tower on a charge in connection with the Popish plot, and deprived of his office, he was in 1686 again appointed Sec. of the Admiralty, from which, however, he was dismissed at the Revolution. Thereafter he lived in retirement chiefly at Clapham. P. was a man of many interests, combining the characters of the man of business, man of pleasure, and virtuoso, being skilled in music and a collector of books, manuscripts, and pictures, and he was Pres. of the Royal Society for two years. He wrote Memoirs of the Royal Navy (1690), but his great legacy to literature is his unique and inimitable Diary, begun January 1, 1660, and coming down to May 31, 1669, when the failure of his sight prevented its further continuance. As an account by an eye-witness of the manners of the Court and of society it is invaluable, but it is still more interesting as, perhaps, the most singular example extant of unreserved self-revelation—all the foibles, peccadilloes, and more serious offences against decorum of the author being set forth with the most relentless naïveté and minuteness, it was written in a cypher or shorthand, which was translated into long-hand by John Smith in 1825, and ed. by Lord Braybrooke, with considerable excisions. Later and fuller ed. have followed. P. left his books, MSS., and collections to Magdalene Coll., Camb., where they are preserved in a separate library.
PERCIVAL, JAMES GATES (1795-1854). —Poet, b. at Berlin, Conn., was a precocious child, and a morbid and impractical, though versatile man, with a fatal facility in writing verse on all manner of subjects and in nearly every known metre. His sentimentalism appealed to a wide circle, but his was one of the tapers which were extinguished by Lowell. He had also a reputation as a geologist. His poetic works include Prometheus and The Dream of a Day (1843).
PERCY, THOMAS (1729-1811). —Antiquary and poet, s. of a grocer at Bridgnorth, where he was b., ed. at Oxf., entered the Church, and became in 1778 Dean of Carlisle, and in 1782 Bishop of Dromore. He pub. various antiquarian works, chiefly with reference to the North of England; but is best remembered for his great service to literature in collecting and ed. many ancient ballads, pub. in 1765 as Reliques of Ancient Poetry, which did much to bring back interest in the ancient native literature, and to usher in the revival of romanticism.
PHILIPS, AMBROSE (1675?-1749). —Poet, b. in Shropshire and ed. at Camb., wrote pastorals and dramas, was one of the Addison circle, and started a paper, the Freethinker, in imitation of the Spectator. He also made translations from Pindar and Anacreon, and a series of short complimentary verses, which gained for him the nickname of "Namby Pamby." His Pastorals, though poor enough, excited the jealousy of Pope, who pursued the unfortunate author with life-long enmity. P. held various Government appointments in Ireland.
PHILIPS, JOHN (1676-1709). —Poet, s. of an archdeacon of Salop, and ed. at Oxf. His Splendid Shilling, a burlesque in Miltonic blank verse, still lives, and Cyder, his chief work, an imitation of Virgil's Georgics, has some fine descriptive passages. P. was also employed by Harley to write verses on Blenheim as a counterblast to Addison's Campaign. He d. at 33 of consumption.
PHILLIPS, SAMUEL (1814-1854). —Novelist, of Jewish descent, studied for the Church at Göttingen and Camb., but his f. dying, he was obliged to give up his intention and take to business, in which, however, he was unsuccessful, and fell into great straits. He then tried writing, and produced some novels, of which the best known was Caleb Stukely, which appeared in Blackwood in 1842. He was latterly a leader-writer for the Times.
PICKEN, ANDREW (1788-1833). —Miscellaneous writer, b. in Paisley, was in business in the West Indies, and in Glasgow and Liverpool, but not being successful, went to London to try his fortunes in literature. His earlier writings, Tales and Sketches of the West of Scotland and The Sectarian (1829), gave offence in dissenting circles: his next, The Dominie's Legacy (1830), had considerable success, and a book on Travels and Researches of Eminent Missionaries (1830) did something to rehabilitate him with those whom he had offended. His last work, The Black Watch (1833), had just appeared when he d. of an apoplectic seizure. His best work is somewhat like that of Galt (q.v.).
PIERPONT, JOHN (1785-1860). —Poet, b. at Litchfield, Conn., was first a lawyer, then a merchant, and lastly a Unitarian minister. His chief poem is The Airs of Palestine.
PIKE, ALBERT (1809-1891). —Poet, b. at Boston, Mass., was in his early days a teacher, and afterwards a successful lawyer. His now little-remembered poems were chiefly written under the inspiration of Coleridge and Keats. His chief work, Hymns to the Gods, which appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, closely imitates the latter. He also wrote prose sketches.
PINDAR, PETER, (see WOLCOT, J.).
PINKERTON, JOHN (1758-1826). —Historian and Antiquary, b. in Edin., was apprenticed to a lawyer, but took to literature, and produced a number of works distinguished by painstaking research, but disfigured by a controversial and prejudiced spirit. His first publication was Select Scottish Ballads (1783), some of which, however, were composed by himself. A valuable Essay on Medals (1784) introduced him to Gibbon and Horace Walpole. Among his other works are Ancient Scottish Poems (1786), Dissertation on the Goths (1787), Medallic History of England (1790), History of Scotland (1797), and his best work, Treatise on Rocks (1811). One of his most inveterate prejudices was against Celts of all tribes and times. He d. in obscurity in Paris.
PINKNEY, EDWARD COATE (1802-1828). —B. in London, where his f. was U.S. ambassador. He wrote a number of light, graceful short poems, but fell a victim to ill-health and a morbid melancholy at 25. His longest poem is Rudolph (1825).
PIOZZI, HESTER LYNCH (SALUSBURY) (1741-1821). —Miscellaneous writer, m. Henry Thrale, a wealthy brewer, and, after his death, Gabriel Piozzi, an Italian musician. Her chief distinction is her friendship with Dr. Johnson, who was for a time almost domesticated with the Thrales. Her second marriage in the year of Johnson's death, 1784, broke up the friendship. She wrote Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, a work which had a favourable reception, and gives a lifelike picture of its subject, and left an Autobiography. Her poem, The Three Warnings, is supposed to have been touched up by Johnson. Many details of her friendship with J. are given in the Diary of Madame D'Arblay (q.v.).
PLANCHÉ, JAMES ROBINSON (1796-1880). —Dramatist and miscellaneous writer, b. in London of Huguenot descent, was in the Herald Office, and rose to be Somerset Herald, in which capacity he was repeatedly sent on missions to invest foreign princes with the Order of the Garter. He produced upwards of 90 adaptations, and about 70 original pieces for the stage. He also wrote a History of British Costumes, The Pursuivant of Arms (1852), and The Conqueror and his Companions (1874), besides autobiographical Recollections (1872).
POE, EDGAR ALLAN (1809-1849). —Poet and writer of tales, was b. at Boston, where his parents, who were both actors, were temporarily living. He was left an orphan in early childhood in destitute circumstances, but was adopted by a Mr. Allan of Richmond, Virginia. By him and his wife he was treated with great indulgence, and in 1815 accompanied them to England, where they remained for five years, and where he received a good education, which was continued on their return to America, at the Univ. of Virginia. He distinguished himself as a student, but got deeply into debt with gaming, which led to his being removed. In 1829 he pub. a small vol. of poems containing Al Araaf and Tamerlane. About the same time he proposed to enter the army, and was placed at the Military Academy at West Point. Here, however, he grossly neglected his duties, and fell into the habits of intemperance which proved the ruin of his life, and was in 1831 dismissed. He then returned to the house of his benefactor, but his conduct was so objectionable as to lead to a rupture. In the same year P. pub. an enlarged ed. of his poems, and in 1833 was successful in a competition for a prize tale and a prize poem, the tale being the MS. found in a Bottle, and the poem The Coliseum. In the following year Mr. Allan d. without making any provision for P., and the latter, being now thrown on his own resources, took to literature as a profession, and became a contributor to various periodicals. In 1836 he entered into a marriage with his cousin Virginia Clemm, a very young girl, who continued devotedly attached to him notwithstanding his many aberrations, until her death in 1847. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym appeared in 1838, and in 1839 P. became ed. of the Gentleman's Magazine, in which appeared as Tales of the Arabesque and Grotesque many of his best stories. In 1845 his famous poem, The Raven, came out, and in 1848 Eureka, a Prose Poem, a pseudo-scientific lucubration. The death of his wife gave a severe shock to his constitution, and a violent drinking bout on a visit to Baltimore led to his death from brain fever in the hospital there. The literary output of P., though not great in volume, limited in range, and very unequal in merit, bears the stamp of an original genius. In his poetry he sometimes aims at a musical effect to which the sense is sacrificed, but at times he has a charm and a magic melody all his own. His better tales are remarkable for their originality and ingenuity of construction, and in the best of them he rises to a high level of imagination, as in The House of Usher, while The Gold Beetle or Golden Bug is one of the first examples of the cryptogram story; and in The Purloined Letters, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue he is the pioneer of the modern detective story.
Life, Woodberry (American Men of Letters). Works ed. by Woodberry and Stedman (10 vols.), etc.
POLLOK, ROBERT (1789-1827). —Poet, b. in Refrewshire, studied for the ministry of one of the Scottish Dissenting communions. After leaving the Univ. of Glasgow he pub. anonymously Tales of the Covenanters, and in 1827, the year of his untimely death from consumption, appeared his poem, The Course of Time, which contains some fine passages, and occasionally faintly recalls Milton and Young. The poem went through many ed. in Britain and America. He d. at Shirley, near Southampton, whither he had gone in search of health.
POMFRET, JOHN (1667-1702). —Poet, s. of a clergyman, entered the Church. He wrote several rather dull poems, of which the only one remembered, though now never read, is The Choice, which celebrates a country life free from care, and was highly popular in its day.
POPE, ALEXANDER (1688-1744). —Poet, was b. in London, of Roman Catholic parentage. His f. was a linen-merchant, who m. as his second wife Edith Turner, a lady of respectable Yorkshire family, and of some fortune, made a competence, and retired to a small property at Binfield, near Windsor. P. received a somewhat desultory education at various Roman Catholic schools, but after the age of 12, when he had a severe illness brought on by over-application, he was practically self-educated. Though never a profound or accurate scholar, he had a good knowledge of Latin, and a working acquaintance with Greek. By 1704 he had written a good deal of verse, which attracted the attention of Wycherley (q.v.), who introduced him to town life and to other men of letters. In 1709 his Pastorals were pub. in Tonson's Miscellany, and two years later The Essay on Criticism appeared, and was praised by Addison. The Rape of the Lock, which came out in 1714, placed his reputation on a sure foundation, and thereafter his life was an uninterrupted and brilliant success. His industry was untiring, and his literary output almost continuous until his death. In 1713 Windsor Forest (which won him the friendship of Swift) and The Temple of Fame appeared, and in 1715 the translation of the Iliad was begun, and the work pub. at intervals between that year and 1720. It had enormous popularity, and brought the poet £5000. It was followed by the Odyssey (1725-26), in which he had the assistance of Broome and Fenton (q.v.), who, especially the former, caught his style so exactly as almost to defy identification. It also was highly popular, and increased his gains to about £8000, which placed him in a position of independence. While engaged upon these he removed to Chiswick, where he lived 1716-18, and where he issued in 1717 a coll. ed. of his works, including the Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady and the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard. In 1718, his f. having d., he again removed with his mother to his famous villa at Twickenham, the adornment of the grounds of which became one of his chief interests, and where, now the acknowledged chief of his art, he received the visits of his friends, who included the most distinguished men of letters, wits, statesmen, and beauties of the day. His next task was his ed. of Shakespeare (1725), a work for which he was not well qualified, though the preface is a fine piece of prose. The Miscellanies, the joint work of Pope and Swift, were pub. in 1727-28, and drew down upon the authors a storm of angry comment, which in turn led to the production of The Dunciad, first pub. in 1728, and again with new matter in 1729, an additional book—the fourth—being added in 1742. In it he satirised with a wit, always keen and biting, often savage and unfair, the small wits and poetasters, and some of a quite different quality, who had, or whom he supposed to have, injured him. Between 1731 and 1735 he produced his Epistles, the last of which, addressed to Arbuthnot, is also known as the Prologue to the Satires, and contains his ungrateful character of Addison under the name of "Atticus;" and also, 1733, the Essay on Man, written under the influence of Bolingbroke. His last, and in some respects best, works were his Imitations of Horace, pub. between 1733 and 1739, and the fourth book of The Dunciad (1742), already mentioned. A naturally delicate constitution, a deformed body, extreme sensitiveness, over-excitement, and overwork did not promise a long life, and P. d. on May 30, 1744, aged 56.
His position as a poet has been the subject of much contention among critics, and on the whole is lower than that assigned him by his contemporaries and immediate successors. Of the higher poetic qualities, imagination, sympathy, insight, and pathos, he had no great share; but for the work which in his original writings, as distinguished from translations, he set himself to do, his equipment was supreme, and the medium which he used—the heroic couplet—he brought to the highest technical perfection of which it is capable. He wrote for his own age, and in temper and intellectual and spiritual outlook, such as it was, he exactly reflected and interpreted it. In the forging of condensed, pointed, and sparkling maxims of life and criticism he has no equal, and in painting a portrait Dryden alone is his rival; while in the Rape of the Lock he has produced the best mock-heroic poem in existence. Almost no author except Shakespeare is so often quoted. His extreme vanity and sensitiveness to criticism made him often vindictive, unjust, and venomous. They led him also into frequent quarrels, and lost him many friends, including Lady M. Wortley Montagu, and along with a strong tendency to finesse and stratagem, of which the circumstances attending the publication of his literary correspondence is the chief instance, make his character on the whole an unamiable one. On the other hand, he was often generous; he retained the friendship of such men as Swift and Arbuthnot, and he was a most dutiful and affectionate son.
SUMMARY.—B. 1688, ed. at various Romanist schools, introduced to Wycherley 1704, pub. Pastorals 1709, Essay on Criticism 1711, Rape of the Lock 1714, Windsor Forest and Temple of Fame 1713, translation of Iliad 1715-20, Odyssey 1725-26, coll. Works 1717, buys villa at Twickenham 1718, pub. ed. of Shakespeare 1725, Miscellanies 1727-28, Dunciad 1728 (fourth book 1742), Epistles 1731-35, Essay on Man 1733, Imitations of Horace 1733-39, d. 1744.
The best ed. of the Works is that of Elwin and Courthope, with Life by Courthope (10 vols., 1871-89).
PORDAGE, SAMUEL (1633-1691?). —Poet, s. of a clergyman in Berks, ed. at Merchant Taylor's School, studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and made various translations, wrote some poems, two tragedies, Herod and Mariamne (1673), and The Siege of Babylon (1678), and a romance, Eliana. He is best known by his Azaria and Hushai (1682), in reply to Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, distinguished from the other replies by its moderation and freedom from scurrility.
PORSON, RICHARD (1759-1808). —Scholar, s. of the parish clerk of E. Ruston, Norfolk, was distinguished from childhood by a marvellous tenacity of memory which attracted the attention of the curate of the parish, who ed. him, after which he was sent by a gentleman to Eton. Subsequently a fund was collected for the purpose of maintaining him at Camb., where he had a brilliant career, and became a Fellow of Trinity Coll. This position he lost by refusing to take orders. In 1792 he was appointed Prof. of Greek in the Univ., but resided for the most part in London, where he was much courted by literary men, but unfortunately fell into extremely intemperate habits. P. was one of the very greatest of Greek scholars and critics; but he has left little permanent work of his own. He ed. four plays of Euripides, viz., Hecuba, Orestes, Phœnissæ, and Medea. His most widely read work was his Letters to Archdeacon Travis on the disputed passage, 1 John v. 7, which is considered a masterpiece of acute reasoning. He is buried in the chapel of Trinity Coll.
PORTER, ANNA MARIA (1780-1832), PORTER, JANE (1776-1850). —Novelists, were the dau. of an Irish army surgeon, and sisters of Sir Robert Ker P., the painter and traveller. After the death of the f. the family settled in Edin., where they enjoyed the friendship of Scott. ANNA at the age of 12 pub. Artless Tales, the precursor of a series of tales and novels numbering about 50, the best being Don Sebastian (1809). JANE, though the elder by four years, did not pub. until 1803, when her first novel, Thaddeus of Warsaw, appeared. The Scottish Chiefs followed in 1810. Both of these works, especially the latter, had remarkable popularity, the Chiefs being translated into German and Russian. She had greater talent than her sister, but like her, while possessed of considerable animation and imagination, failed in grasping character, and imparting local verisimilitude. Both were amiable and excellent women. A romance, Sir Edward Seaward's Diary (1831), purporting to be a record of actual circumstances, and ed. by Jane, is generally believed to have been written by a brother, Dr. William Ogilvie P.
POWELL, FREDERICK YORK (1850-1904). —Historian, ed. at Rugby and Oxf., called to the Bar at the Middle Temple 1874, became an ardent student of history, and succeeded Froude as Prof. of Modern History at Oxf. in 1894. Absorbed in study, he wrote less than his wide and deep learning qualified him for. Among his works are A History of England to 1509, and he also wrote on Early England up to the Conquest, and on Alfred and William the Conqueror.
PRAED, WINTHROP MACKWORTH (1802-1839). —Poet, s. of a sergeant-at-law, was b. in London, ed. at Eton and Camb., and called to the Bar 1829. He sat in Parliament for various places, and was Sec. to the Board of Control 1834-35. He appeared to have a brilliant career before him, when his health gave way, and he d. of consumption in 1839. His poems, chiefly bright and witty skits and satirical pieces, were pub. first in America 1844, and appeared in England with a memoir by Derwent Coleridge in 1864. His essays appeared in 1887.
PRESCOTT, WILLIAM HICKLING (1796-1859). —Historian, b. at Salem, Massachusetts, the s. of an eminent lawyer, was ed. at Harvard, where he graduated in 1814. While there he met with an accident to one of his eyes which seriously affected his sight for the remainder of his life. He made an extended tour in Europe, and on his return to America he m., and abandoning the idea of a legal career, resolved to devote himself to literature. After ten years of study, he pub. in 1837 his History of Ferdinand and Isabella, which at once gained for him a high place among historians. It was followed in 1843 by the History of the Conquest of Mexico, and in 1847 by the Conquest of Peru. His last work was the History of Philip II., of which the third vol. appeared in 1858, and which was left unfinished. In that year he had an apoplectic shock, and another in 1859 was the cause of his death, which took place on January 28 in the last-named year. In all his works he displayed great research, impartiality, and an admirable narrative power. The great disadvantage at which, owing to his very imperfect vision, he worked, makes the first of these qualities specially remarkable, for his authorities in a foreign tongue were read to him, while he had to write on a frame for the blind. P. was a man of amiable and benevolent character, and enjoyed the friendship of many of the most distinguished men in Europe as well as in America.
PRICE, RICHARD (1723-1791). —Writer on morals, politics, and economics, s. of a dissenting minister, was b. at Tynton in Wales, ed. at a dissenting coll. in London, and was then for some years chaplain to a Mr. Streatfield, who left him some property. Thereafter he officiated as minister to various congregations near London. In 1758 his Review of the Principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals, a work of considerable metaphysical power, appeared; and it was followed in 1766 by a treatise on The Importance of Christianity. In 1769 his work on Reversionary Payments was pub., and his Northampton Mortality Table was about the same time constructed. These, though long superseded, were in their day most valuable contributions to economical science. His most popular work, Observations on Civil Liberty and the Justice and Policy of the War with America, appeared in 1776, had an enormous sale, and led to his being invited to go to America and assist in establishing the financial system of the new Government. This he declined chiefly on the score of age. Simplicity, uprightness, and toleration of opinions opposed to his own appear to have been marked traits in his character.
PRIDEAUX, HUMPHREY (1648-1724). —Divine and scholar, belonged to an ancient Cornish family, was b. at Padstow, and ed. at Westminster School and at Oxf. He first attracted notice by his description of the Arundel Marbles (1676), which gained for him powerful patrons, and he rose to be Dean of Norwich. Among his other works are a Life of Mahomet (1697), and The Old and New Testament connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations (1715-17), long an important work, of which many ed. were brought out.
PRIESTLY, JOSEPH (1733-1804). —Chemist, theologian, and political writer, s. of a draper at Fieldhead, Yorkshire, where he was b. Brought up as a Calvinist, he gradually became a modified Unitarian, and after attending a dissenting academy at Daventry, he became minister to various congregations. About 1756 he pub. The Scripture Doctrine of Remission, denying the doctrine of atonement, and in 1761 succeeded Dr. Aiken as teacher of languages and belles-lettres in the dissenting academy at Warrington. About the same time he became acquainted with Franklin and Dr. Price (q.v.), and began to devote himself to science, the fruits of which were his History and Present State of Electricity (1767), and Vision, Light, and Colours. He also became a distinguished chemist, and made important discoveries, including that of oxygen. In 1773 he travelled on the Continent as companion to Lord Shelburne, where he was introduced to many men of scientific and literary eminence, by some of whom he was rallied upon his belief in Christianity. In reply to this he wrote Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever (1774), and in answer to the accusations of Atheism brought against him at home, he pub. (1777) Disquisition relating to Matter and Spirit. In 1780 he settled in Birmingham, in 1782 pub. his Corruptions of Christianity, and in 1786 his History of Early Opinions concerning Jesus Christ. He was one of those who wrote replies to Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, one consequence of which was his election as a French citizen, and another the destruction of his chapel, house, papers, and instruments by a mob. Some years later he went to America, where he d. P. has been called the father of modern chemistry. He received many scientific and academic honours, being a member of the Royal Society, of the Academies of France, and of St. Petersburg, and an LL.D. of Edin. He was a man of powerful and original mind, of high character, and of undaunted courage in maintaining his opinions, which were usually unpopular.
PRINGLE, THOMAS (1789-1834). —Poet, b. in Roxburghshire, studied at Edin., and became known to Scott, by whose influence he obtained a grant of land in South Africa, to which he, with his f. and brothers, emigrated. He took to literary work in Cape Town, and conducted two papers, which were suppressed for their free criticisms of the Colonial Government. Thereupon he returned and settled in London, where he pub. African Sketches. He also produced a book of poems, Ephemerides.
PRIOR, MATTHEW (1664-1721). —Poet, b. near Wimborne Minster, Dorset, s. of a joiner who, having d., he was ed. by an uncle, and sent to Westminster School. Befriended by the Earl of Dorset he proceeded to Camb., and while there wrote, jointly with Charles Montague, The Town and Country Mouse, a burlesque of Dryden's Hind and Panther. After holding various diplomatic posts, in which he showed ability and discretion, he entered Parliament in 1700, and, deserting the Whigs, joined the Tories, by whom he was employed in various capacities, including that of Ambassador at Paris. On the death of Queen Anne he was recalled, and in 1715 imprisoned, but after two years released. In 1719 a folio ed. of his works was brought out, by which he realised £4000, and Lord Harley having presented him with an equal sum, he looked forward to the peace and comfort which were his chief ambition. He did not, however, long enjoy his prosperity, dying two years later. Among his poems may be mentioned Solomon, which he considered his best work, Alma, or the Progress of the Mind, The Female Phaeton, To a Child of Quality, and some prose tales. His chief characteristic is a certain elegance and easy grace, in which he is perhaps unrivalled. His character appears to have been by no means unimpeachable, but he was amiable and free from any trace of vindictiveness.
PROCTER, ADELAIDE ANN (1825-1864). —Poetess, eldest dau. of Bryan W.P. (q.v.). Many of her poems were first pub. in Household Words and All the Year Round, and afterwards coll. under the title of Legends and Lyrics (1858), of which many ed. appeared. In 1851 Miss P. became a Roman Catholic. She took much interest in social questions affecting women. She wrote the well-known songs, Cleansing Fires and The Lost Chord, and among her many hymns are, I do not ask, O Lord, that Life may be, and My God, I thank Thee who hast made.
PROCTER, BRYAN WALLER ("BARRY CORNWALL") (1787-1874). —Poet, b. at Leeds, and ed. at Harrow, went to London and practised successfully as a solicitor. Thereafter he became a barrister, and was, 1832-61, a Commissioner of Lunacy. By 1823 he had produced four vols. of poetry and a tragedy, Mirandola (1821). His works include Dramatic Scenes (1819), A Sicilian Story, Marcian Colonna (1820), The Flood of Thessaly (1823), and English Songs (1832), which last will perhaps survive his other writings. P. was the friend of most of his literary contemporaries, and was universally beloved.
PROUT, FATHER, (see MAHONY, F.S.).
PRYNNE, WILLIAM (1600-1669). —Controversial writer, b. near Bath, ed. at Oxf., studied law at Lincoln's Inn, of which he became a bencher, but soon became immersed in the writing of controversial pamphlets. After the Unloveliness of Lovelocks and Health's Sicknesse (1627-30) appeared his best known controversial work, Histrio-Mastix, or a Scourge for Stage Players (1633), a bitter attack on most of the popular amusements of the day. It was punished with inhuman severity. P. was brought before the Star Chamber, fined £5000, pilloried, and had both his ears cut off. Undeterred by this he issued from his prison a fierce attack upon Laud and the hierarchy, for which he was again fined, pilloried, and branded on both cheeks with the letters S.L. (seditious libeller). Removed to Carnarvon Castle he remained there until liberated in 1641 by the Long Parliament. He soon after became a member of the House, and joined with extreme, but not inexcusable, rancour in the prosecution of Laud. After this he turned his attention to the Independents, whom he hated scarcely less than the Prelatists, and was among those expelled from the House of Commons by Cromwell, whom he had opposed in regard to the execution of the King with such asperity that he again suffered imprisonment, from which he was released in 1652. He supported the Restoration, and was by Charles II. appointed Keeper of the Records in the Tower. Here he did good service by compiling the Calendar of Parliamentary Writs and Records. He pub. in all about 200 books and pamphlets.
PSALMANAZAR, GEORGE (1679?-1763). —Literary impostor. His real name is unknown. He is believed to have been a native of France or Switzerland, but represented himself as a native of the island of Formosa, and palmed off a Formosan language of his own construction, to which he afterwards added a description of the island. For a time he was in the military service of the Duke of Mecklenburg, and formed a connection with William Innes, chaplain of a Scottish regiment, who collaborated with him in his frauds, and introduced various refinements into his methods. Innes, however, was appointed chaplain to the forces in Portugal, and P. was unable to maintain his impositions, and was exposed. After a serious illness in 1728 he turned over a new leaf and became a respectable and efficient literary hack; his works in his latter days included a General History of Printing, contributions to the Universal History, and an Autobiography containing an account of his impostures.
PURCHAS, SAMUEL (1575?-1626). —Compiler of travels, b. at Thaxton, and ed. at Camb., took orders, and held various benefices, including the rectory of St. Martin's, Ludgate Hill. The papers of R. Hakluyt (q.v.) came into his hands, and he made several compilations relating to man, his nature, doings, and surroundings. His three works are (1) Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages and Places, etc.; (2) Purchas his Pilgrim, Microcosmus, or the History of Man, etc.; and (3) Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes, containing a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Land Travels, etc. Although credulous, diffuse, and confused, these works have preserved many interesting and curious matters which would otherwise have been lost.
PUSEY, EDWARD BOUVERIE (1800-1882). —Scholar and theologian, b. at Pusey, Berks, ed. at Eton and Oxf., belonged to the family of Lord Folkstone, whose name was Bouverie, his f. assuming that of P. on inheriting certain estates. After studying in Germany, he became in 1828 Regius Prof. of Hebrew at Oxf. His first important work was an Essay on the Causes of Rationalism in German Theology, and the arrest of similar tendencies in England became one of the leading objects of his life. He was one of the chief leaders of the Tractarian movement, and contributed tracts on Baptism and on Fasting. In consequence of a sermon on the Eucharist, he was in 1843 suspended from the office of Univ. Preacher which he then held. Later writings related to Confession and The Doctrine of the Real Presence, and in 1865 he issued an Eirenicon in support of union with the Church of Rome. He was prominent in all movements and controversies affecting the Univ., and was foremost among the prosecutors of Jowett (q.v.). Among his other literary labours are commentaries on Daniel and the minor Prophets, a treatise on Everlasting Punishment, and a Catalogue of the Arabic MS. in the Bodleian Library.
PUTTENHAM, GEORGE (1530?-1590). —Was one of the s. of Robert P., a country gentleman. There has been attributed to him the authorship of The Arte of Poesie, a treatise of some length divided into three parts, (1) of poets and poesy, (2) of proportion, (3) of ornament. It is now thought rather more likely that it was written by his brother RICHARD (1520?-1601). George was the author of an Apologie for Queen Elizabeth's treatment of Mary Queen of Scots.
PYE, HENRY JAMES (1745-1813). —A country gentleman of Berkshire, who pub. Poems on Various Subjects and Alfred, an Epic, translated the Poetics of Aristotle, and was Poet Laureate from 1790. In the last capacity he wrote official poems of ludicrous dulness, and was generally a jest and a byword in literary circles.
QUARLES, FRANCIS (1592-1644). —Poet, b. at the manor-house of Stewards near Romford, was at Camb., and studied law at Lincoln's Inn. Thereafter he went to the Continent, and at Heidelberg acted as cup-bearer to Elizabeth of Bohemia, dau. of James I. He next appears as sec. to Archbishop Ussher in Ireland, and was in 1639 Chronologer to the City of London. On the outbreak of the Civil War he sided with the Royalists, and was plundered by the Parliamentarians of his books and rare manuscripts, which is said to have so grieved him as to bring about his death. His first book of poems was A Feast for Worms (1620); others were Hadassa (Esther) (1621), Sion's Elegies (1625), and Divine Emblems (1635), by far his most popular book. His style was that fashionable in his day, affected, artificial, and full of "conceits," but he had both real poetical fire and genuine wit, mixed with much that was false in taste, and though quaint and crabbed, is seldom feeble or dull. He was twice m., and had by his first wife 18 children.
RADCLIFFE, MRS. ANN (WARD) (1764-1823). —Novelist, only dau. of parents in a respectable position, in 1787 m. Mr. William Radcliffe, ed. and proprietor of a weekly newspaper, the English Chronicle. In 1789 she pub. her first novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, of which the scene is laid in Scotland. It, however, gave little promise of the future power of the author. In the following year appeared The Sicilian Romance, which attracted attention by its vivid descriptions and startling incidents. Next came The Romance of the Forest (1791), followed by The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), and The Italian (1797), a story of the Inquisition, the last of her works pub. during her life-time. Gaston de Blondeville, ed. by Sergeant Talfourd, was brought out posthumously. Mrs. R. has been called the Salvator Rosa of British novelists. She excels in the description of scenes of mystery and terror whether of natural scenery or incident: in the former displaying a high degree of imaginative power, and in the latter great ingenuity and fertility of invention. She had, however, little power of delineating character. Though her works belong to a type now out of fashion, they will always possess an historical interest as marking a stage in the development of English fiction.
"RAINE, ALLEN" (MRS. BEYNON PUDDICOMBE). —Novelist. A Welsh Singer (1897), Tom Sails (1898), A Welsh Witch (1901), Queen of the Rushes (1906), etc.
RALEIGH, SIR WALTER (1552?-1618). —Explorer, statesman, admiral, historian, and poet, s. of Walter R., of Fardel, Devonshire, was b. at Hayes Barton in that county. In 1568 he was sent to Oxf., where he greatly distinguished himself. In the next year he began his career of adventure by going to France as a volunteer in aid of the Huguenots, serving thereafter in the Low Countries. The year 1579 saw him engaged in his first voyage of adventure in conjunction with his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Their object was to discover and settle lands in North America; but the expedition failed, chiefly owing to opposition by the Spaniards. The next year he was fighting against the rebels in Ireland; and shortly thereafter attracted the notice of Queen Elizabeth, in whose favour he rapidly rose. In 1584 he fitted out a new colonising expedition to North America, and succeeded in discovering and occupying Virginia, named after the Queen. On his return he was knighted. In the dark and anxious days of the Armada, 1587-88, R. was employed in organising resistance, and rendered distinguished service in action. His favour with the Queen, and his haughty bearing, had, however, been raising up enemies and rivals, and his intrigue and private marriage with Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the maids of honour, in 1593, lost him for a time the favour of the Queen. Driven from the Court he returned to the schemes of adventure which had so great a charm for him, and fired by the Spanish accounts of the fabulous wealth of Guiana, he and some of his friends fitted out an expedition which, however, though attended with various brilliant episodes, proved unsuccessful. Restored to the favour of the Queen, he was appointed an Admiral in the expeditions to Cadiz, 1596, and in the following year was engaged in an attack on the Azores, in both of which he added greatly to his reputation. The death of Elizabeth in 1603 was the turning point in R.'s fortunes. Thenceforward disaster clouded his days. The new sovereign and his old enemies combined to compass his ruin. Accused of conspiring against the former he was, against all evidence, sentenced to death, and though this was not at the time carried out, he was imprisoned in the Tower and his estates confiscated. During this confinement he composed his History of the World, which he brought down to 130 B.C. It is one of the finest specimens of Elizabethan prose, reflective in matter and dignified and grave in style. Released in 1615 he set out on his last voyage, again to Guiana, which, like the former, proved a failure, and in which he lost his eldest s. He returned a broken and dying man, but met with no pity from his ungenerous King who, urged, it is believed, by the King of Spain, had him beheaded on Tower Hill, October 29, 1618. R. is one of the most striking and brilliant figures in an age crowded with great men. Of a noble presence, he was possessed of a commanding intellect and a versatility which enabled him to shine in every enterprise to which he set himself. In addition to his great fragment the History of the World, he wrote A Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Azores, and The Discoverie of the Empire of Guiana, besides various poems chiefly of a philosophic cast, of which perhaps the best known are The Pilgrimage, and that beginning "Go, Soul, the Body's Guest."
The most recent Lives are by Stebbing (1892), and Hume (1898). Works (1829), with Lives by Oldys and Birch.
RAMÉE, LOUISE DE LA ("OUIDA") (1840?-1908). —Novelist, b. at Bury St. Edmunds, dau. of an English f. and a French mother. For many years she lived in London, but about 1874 she went to Italy, where she d. She wrote over 40 novels, which had considerable popularity. Among the best known of them are Under Two Flags, Puck, Two Little Wooden Shoes, In a Winter City, In Maremma. She also wrote a book of stories for children, Bimbi. Occasionally she shows considerable power, but on the whole her writings have an unhealthy tone, want reality, and are not likely to have any permanent place in literature.
RAMSAY, ALLAN (1686-1758). —Poet, s. of a mine-manager at Leadhills, Dumfriesshire, who claimed kin with the Ramsays of Dalhousie. In his infancy he lost his f., and his mother m. a small "laird," who gave him the ordinary parish school education. In 1701 he came to Edinburgh as apprentice to a wig-maker, took to writing poetry, became a member of the "Easy Club," of which Pitcairn and Ruddiman, the grammarian, were members, and of which he was made "laureate." The club pub. his poems as they were thrown off, and their appearance soon began to be awaited with interest. In 1716 he pub. an additional canto to Christ's Kirk on the Green, a humorous poem sometimes attributed to James I., and in 1719 he became a bookseller, his shop being a meeting-place of the literati of the city. A coll. ed. of his poems appeared in 1720, among the subscribers to which were Pope, Steele, Arbuthnot, and Gay. It was followed by Fables and Tales, and other poems. In 1724 he began the Tea Table Miscellany, a collection of new Scots songs set to old melodies, and the Evergreen, a collection of old Scots poems with which R. as ed. took great liberties. This was a kind of work for which he was not qualified, and in which he was far from successful. The Gentle Shepherd, by far his best known and most meritorious work, appeared in 1725, and had an immediate popularity which, to a certain extent, it retains. It is a pastoral drama, and abounds in character, unaffected sentiment, and vivid description. After this success R., satisfied with his reputation, produced nothing, more of importance. He was the first to introduce the circulating library into Scotland, and among his other enterprises was an unsuccessful attempt to establish a theatre in Edin. On the whole his life was a happy and successful one, and he had the advantage of a cheerful, sanguine, and contented spirit. His foible was an innocent and good-natured vanity.
RAMSAY, EDWARD BANNERMAN (1793-1872). —A clergyman of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and Dean of Edinburgh in that communion from 1841, has a place in literature by his Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character, which had gone through 22 ed. at his death. It is a book full of the engaging personality of the author, and preserves many interesting and entertaining traits and anecdotes which must otherwise, in all probability, have perished. The Dean was deservedly one of the most popular men in Scotland.
RANDOLPH, THOMAS (1605-1635). —Poet and dramatist, ed. at Westminster School and Camb., was a friend of Ben Jonson, and led a wild life in London. He wrote six plays, including The Jealous Lovers, Amyntas, and The Muses' Looking-glass, and some poems. He was a scholar as well as a wit, and his plays are full of learning and condensed thought in a style somewhat cold and hard.
RAPIN DE THOYRAS, PAUL (1661-1725). —Historian, b. at Castres, Languedoc, belonged to a Protestant Savoyard family, and came to England on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1686. He afterwards served with William III. in Holland, and accompanied him to England in 1688. His History of England, written in French, was translated into English, and continued by various writers, and was the standard history until the appearance of Hume's.
RASPE, RUDOLF ERIC- (1737-1794). —B. in Hanover, was a prof. in Cassel, and keeper of the Landgrave of Hesse's antique gems and medals, in the purloining of some of which he was detected, and fled to England. Here he won for himself a certain place in English literature by the publication in 1785 of Baron Munchausen's Narrative. Only a small portion of the work in its present form is by R., the rest having been added later by another hand. He appears to have maintained more or less during life his character of a rogue, and is the prototype of Douster-swivel in Scott's Antiquary.
RAWLINSON, GEORGE (1812-1902). —Historian, b. at Chadlington. Oxfordshire, and ed. at Oxf., took orders, and was Canon of Canterbury from 1872. He held the Camden Professorship of Ancient History at Oxf. from 1861. Among his works are a translation of Herodotus (1858-62) (with his brother, Sir Henry R., q.v.), Historical Evidences of the Truth of the Scripture Records, The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World (1862-67), Manual of Ancient History (1869), The Sixth and Seventh Great Oriental Monarchies (1873-77), History of Ancient Egypt (1881), Histories of the Phœnicians and Parthians, Memoirs of Sir H.C. Rawlinson (1898).
RAWLINSON, SIR HENRY CRESSWICKE (1810-1895). —Brother of the above, entered the service of the East India Company, and held many important diplomatic posts. He studied the cuneiform inscriptions, and pub. The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia (1861-80), Outlines of the History of Assyria (1852). He deciphered most of the inscriptions discovered by Sir A.H. Layard (q.v.).
RAY, JOHN (1627-1705). —Naturalist, s. of a blacksmith at Black Notley, Essex, was at Camb., where he became a Fellow of Trinity, and successively lecturer on Greek and mathematics. His first publication was a Latin catalogue of plants growing near Cambridge, which appeared in 1660. Thereafter he made a tour of Great Britain, and pub. in 1670 his Catalogue of the Plants of England and the adjacent Isles. In 1663 he had travelled on the Continent for three years with his pupil-friend, F. Willughby, and in 1673 appeared Observations on his journeys, which extended over the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France, with a catalogue of plants not native to England. On the death of Willughby, R. ed. his sons, and in 1679 retired to his native village, where he continued his scientific labours until his death. These included the ed. of W.'s History of Birds and Fishes, a collection of English proverbs, Historia Plantarum Generalis (1686-1704), and Synopsis Methodica Animalium. He was for long popularly known by his treatise, The Wisdom of God manifested in the works of the Creation (1691), a precursor of Paley's Natural Theology. R. is the father of English botany, and appears to have grasped the idea of the natural classification of plants, afterwards developed by Jussieu and other later naturalists. His greatest successors, including Cuvier, highly commended his methods and acquirements.
READ, THOMAS BUCHANAN (1822-1872). —American poet, was a portrait-painter, and lived much abroad. He wrote a prose romance, The Pilgrims of the Great St. Bernard, and several books of poetry, including The New Pastoral, The House by the Sea, Sylvia, and A Summer Story. Some of the shorter pieces included in these, e.g., "Sheridan's Ride," "Drifting," and "The Closing Scene," have great merit.
READE, CHARLES (1814-1884). —Novelist, s. of a country gentleman of Oxfordshire, ed. at Oxf., and called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn 1843. He did not, however, practise, but began his literary career with some dramas, of which the most remarkable were Masks and Faces, Gold, and Drink. He afterwards rewrote the first of these as a novel, Peg Woffington (1852), which attained great popularity. It is never too late to Mend appeared in 1856, his historical novel, The Cloister and the Hearth, generally regarded as his masterpiece (1861), Hard Cash (1863), Griffith Gaunt (1867), Foul Play (1869), Put Yourself in his Place (1870), and A Terrible Temptation (1871). Critics have differed very widely as to the merits of R. as a novelist, and have attributed to, and denied him the same qualities; but it will be generally admitted that, while very unequal, he was at his best a writer of unusual power and vividness. Nearly all are agreed as to the great excellence of The Cloister and the Hearth, Mr. Swinburne placing it "among the very greatest masterpieces of narrative." Many of his novels were written with a view to the reformation of some abuse. Thus Hard Cash exposes certain private asylums, and Foul Play, written in collaboration with Dion Boucicault, is levelled against ship-knackers.
REED, HENRY (1808-1854). —Critic, was Prof. of English Literature in the Univ. of Pennsylvania. He d. in a shipwreck. He was a sympathetic and delicate critic, and was among the first of American men of letters to appreciate the genius of Wordsworth, of whose works he brought out an ed. in 1837. His lectures on English Literature, English History, and English Poets were pub.
REEVE, CLARA (1729-1807). —Novelist, was the author of several novels, of which only one is remembered—The Old English Baron (1777), written in imitation of, or rivalry with, H. Walpole's Castle of Otranto, with which it has often been printed.
REEVE, HENRY (1813-1895). —Editor, etc., s. of a physician, was on the staff of the Times, the foreign policy of which he influenced for many years. He was ed. of the Edinburgh Review 1855-95, and of the Greville Memoirs 1865. He held a leading place in society, and had an unusually wide acquaintance with men of letters all over the continent.
REID, MAYNE (1818-1883). —Novelist, b. in the north of Ireland, he set off at the age of 20 for Mexico to push his fortunes, and went through many adventures, including service in the Mexican War. He also was for a short time settled in Philadelphia engaged in literary work. Returning to this country he began a long series of novels of adventure with The Rifle Rangers (1849). The others include The Scalp Hunters, Boy Hunters, and Young Voyagers, and had great popularity, especially with boys.
REID, THOMAS (1710-1796). —Philosopher, was the s. of the minister of Strachan, Kincardineshire, where he was b. His mother was one of the gifted family of the Gregorys. At the age of 12 he was sent to Marischal Coll., Aberdeen, where he graduated, and thereafter resided for some time as librarian, devoting himself to study, especially of mathematics and the Newtonian philosophy. He was in 1737 ordained minister of New Machar, Aberdeen, and in 1748 he communicated to the Royal Society an Essay on Quantity. Four years later he became one of the Prof. of Philosophy (including mathematics and natural philosophy) in King's Coll., Aberdeen, and in 1763 he was chosen to succeed Adam Smith as Prof. of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow. In the following year he pub. his great work, Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense, directed against Hume's Essay on Human Nature. Up to the appearance of the latter work in 1739 R. had been a follower of Berkeley, but the conclusions drawn therein from the idealistic philosophy led him to revise his theories, and to propound what is usually known as the "common sense" philosophy, by which term is meant the beliefs common to rational beings as such. In 1785 he pub. his Essay on the Intellectual Powers, which was followed in 1788 by that On the Active Powers. R., who, though below the middle size, was strong and fond of exercise, maintained his bodily and mental vigour until his death at 86. His writings, distinguished by logical rigour of method and clearness of style, exercised a profound influence in France as well as at home; but his attempted refutation of Berkeley is now generally considered to have failed.
Works ed. by Sir W. Hamilton and H.L. Mansel. Sketch by Prof. A.C. Fraser (1898).
REID, SIR THOMAS WEMYSS (1842-1905). —Novelist and biographer, b. at Newcastle, and after being connected with various provincial newspapers came to London in 1887 as manager for Cassell and Co. Thereafter he was, 1890-99, ed. of The Speaker. Among his more permanent writings are The Land of the Bey (1882), Gladys Fane (1883), and Lives of W.E. Forster (1888), and Lords Houghton (1891), and Playfair (1899), and William Black (1902). He was knighted in 1894.
REYNOLDS, SIR JOSHUA (1723-1792). —Painter and writer on art, s. of a clergyman and schoolmaster at Plympton, Devonshire. After studying art in Italy, he settled in London, where he attained extraordinary fame as a portrait-painter. He is regarded as the greatest English representative of that art, and was first Pres. of the Royal Academy. He was the intimate friend of Johnson, Burke, Goldsmith, and indeed of most of the celebrated men of his time. He has also a place in literature for his Fifteen Discourses on painting, delivered to the Academy. He also contributed to the Idler, and translated Du Fresney's Art of Painting. He suffered from deafness, and in his latter years from failure of sight. He was a man of great worth and amiability. He was knighted in 1769.
RHODES, WILLIAM BARNES (1772-1826). —Dramatist, was in the Bank of England, of which he became Chief Teller. He wrote a burlesque, Bombastes Furioso, which achieved great popularity.
RHYMER, THOMAS THE, (see ERCILDOUN).
RICARDO, DAVID (1772-1823). —Political economist, s. of a Jewish stockbroker, himself followed the same business, in which he acquired a large fortune. On his marriage he conformed to Christianity. He was an original and powerful writer on economic subjects, his chief work being The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817). After retiring from business he entered the House of Commons, where, owing to his remarkable power of lucid exposition, combined with his reputation as a highly successful man of business, he acquired great influence. The writings of R. are among the classics of his subject.
RICE, JAMES (1844-1882). —Novelist, was ed. at Camb., and studied law, from which he drifted into literature. He wrote a number of successful novels in collaboration with W. Besant (q.v.).
RICH, BARNABE (1540?-1620?). —Writer of romances, b. in Essex, saw military service in the Low Countries. He began to write in 1574, and took Lyly's Euphues as his model. Among his numerous romances is The Strange and Wonderful Adventures of Simonides, a Gentleman Spaniard and Riche, his Farewell to the Military Profession (1581), which furnished Shakespeare with the plot for Twelfth Night.
RICHARDSON, SAMUEL (1689-1761). —Novelist, s. of a joiner, was b. at Derby. His f. had intended him for the Church, but means failed, and at the age of 17 he went to London, and was apprenticed to a printer. Careful and diligent, he prospered in business, became printer of the Journals of the House of Commons, and in the year before his death purchased the moiety of the patent of King's Printer. He was twice m., and each of his wives brought him six children, of whom, however, only four daughters were living at his death. R., who was the originator of the modern novel, did not take seriously to literature until he was past 50 when, in 1740, Pamela appeared. It originated in a proposal by two printers that R. should write a collection of model letters for the use of persons unaccustomed to correspondence, but it soon developed in his hands into a novel in which the story is carried on in the form of a correspondence. With faults and absurdities, it struck a true note of sentiment, and exploded the prevalent idea that dukes and princesses were the only suitable heroes and heroines (Pamela was a maid-servant), and it won immediate and phenomenal popularity. In 1748 Clarissa Harlow, his masterpiece, was pub., and in 1753 Sir Charles Grandison, in which the author embodies his ideal of a Christian gentleman. All these surfer from an elaboration of detail which often becomes tedious; but in deep acquaintance with the motives of conduct, and especially of the workings of the female heart, they are almost unrivalled; their pathos also is genuine and deep. R. had an unusual faculty as the platonic friend and counsellor of women, and was the centre of an admiring circle of the sex, who ministered to a vanity which became somewhat excessive. R. has also the distinction of evoking the genius of Fielding, whose first novel, Joseph Andrews, was begun as a skit or parody upon Pamela. R. is described as "a stout, rosy, vain, prosy little man." Life by Sir W. Scott in Ballantyne's Novelists Library. Works with preface by L. Stephen (12 vols., 1883), etc.
RITCHIE, LEITCH (1800?-1865). —Novelist, b. at Greenock and in business as a clerk in Glasgow, but about 1820 adopted literature as his profession. He wrote several novels of which the best known is Wearyfoot Common; others were The Robber of the Rhine and The Magician. In his later years he ed. Chambers's Journal.
RITSON, JOSEPH (1752-1803). —Antiquary and critic, b. at Stockton-on-Tees, settled in London as a conveyancer, at the same time devoting himself to the study of ancient English poetry. By his diligence as a collector and acuteness as a critic he rendered essential service to the preservation and appreciation of our ancient poetry. His chief works are A Collection of English Songs (1783), Ancient Songs from Henry III. to the Revolution (1790), A Collection of Scottish Songs (1794), and A Collection of all the Ancient Poems, etc., relating to Robin Hood (1795). Of a jealous and quarrelsome temper, R. was continually in controversy with his fellow-collectors and critics, including Johnson, Warton, and Percy. His acuteness enabled him to detect the Ireland forgeries. He d. insane.
ROBERTSON, FREDERICK WILLIAM (1816-1853). —Divine, s. of Captain Frederick R., of the Royal Artillery, was b. in London, and ed. at Edin. and Oxf. After holding various curacies he became in 1847 incumbent of Trinity Chapel, Brighton, where his preaching, though it brought him under the suspicion both of the High and Evangelical parties in the Church, had an extraordinary influence. Always of delicate and highly-strung constitution, his health gave way after his ministry in Brighton had extended to six years, and he d. in 1853. The beauty of his life and character had almost conquered the suspicion and dislike with which his views had inspired many. His sermons, of which five series were pub. posthumously, have had a very wide popularity.
ROBERTSON, THOMAS WILLIAM (1829-1871). —Dramatist, belonged to a family famous for producing actors. Never a successful actor himself, he produced a number of plays, which had unusual popularity. Among these are David Garrick, Society, Caste, and School.
ROBERTSON, WILLIAM (1721-1793). —Historian, s. of the parish minister of Borthwick, Midlothian, where he was b., received his earlier ed. at Dalkeith, which then had a school of some repute; but his f. being translated to Edin., he attended school, and afterwards the Univ. there, studying for the Church. In 1743 he became minister of Gladsmuir, near Prestonpans. In the '45 he showed his loyalty by offering himself to Sir J. Cope as a volunteer, a service which was, however, declined. He soon began to take a prominent part in the debates of the General Assembly, of which he rose to be the undisputed leader. In 1758 he became one of the city ministers of Edin., and in the following year pub. his History of Scotland, which had an extraordinary success, and at once raised him to a foremost place among British historians. Preferment immediately followed: he was made Chaplain of Stirling Castle 1759, King's Chaplain for Scotland 1760, Principal of the Univ. of Edin. 1761, and Historiographer for Scotland 1763. In 1769 appeared the History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V., in 1777 The History of America, and in 1791 Historical Disquisition on Ancient India. In 1780 R. retired from the management of Church affairs, in which he had shown conspicuous ability, and gave himself to study, and the society of his friends, among whom were most of his distinguished contemporaries. As a writer he possessed a finished style, clear, measured, and stately, which carried his well-arranged narrative as on a full and steady stream; he was also cool and sagacious but, like Hume, he was apt to take his facts at second hand, and the vast additional material which has been in course of accumulation since his day has rendered the value of his work more and more literary, and less and less historical.
Lives by Dugald Stewart (1801), Bishop Gleig (1812), and Lord Brougham in Men of Letters.
ROBINSON, HENRY CRABB (1775-1867). —Diarist, b. at Bury St. Edmunds, was articled to an attorney in Colchester. Between 1800 and 1805 he studied at various places in Germany, and became acquainted with nearly all the great men of letters there, including Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Wieland, etc. Thereafter he became war correspondent to the Times in the Peninsula. On his return to London he studied for the Bar, to which he was called in 1813, and became leader of the Eastern Circuit. Fifteen years later he retired, and by virtue of his great conversational powers and other qualities, became a leader in society, going everywhere and knowing everybody worth knowing. He d. unmarried, aged 91, and his Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence, which stands in the forefront of its class, was pub. in 1869.
ROCHESTER, JOHN WILMOT (2ND EARL OF) (1647-1680). —Poet, s. of the 1st Earl, b. at Ditchley in Oxfordshire, and ed. at Oxf., saw some naval service when he showed conspicuous bravery. He became one of the most dissolute of the courtiers of Charles II., and wore himself out at 33 by his wild life. He was handsome, and witty, and possessed a singular charm of manner. He wrote a number of light, graceful poems, many of them extremely gross. Bishop Burnet, who attended him on his deathbed, believed him to have been sincerely repentant. In addition to his short pieces he wrote a Satyr against Mankind, and a tragedy, Valentinian, adapted from Beaumont and Fletcher.
ROGERS, HENRY (1806-1877). —Critic and theologian, was a minister of the Congregationalist Church, and ultimately Prof. of English Literature in Univ. Coll., London. He was a contributor to the Edinburgh Review, and is best known by his Eclipse of Faith (1852), a reply to F.W. Newman's Phases of Faith. This work, which displays remarkable acuteness and logical power, had great popularity.
ROGERS, SAMUEL (1763-1855). —Poet, s. of a banker in London, received a careful private education, and entered the bank, of which, on his father's death, he became the principal partner. From his early youth he showed a marked taste for literature and the fine arts, which his wealth enabled him to gratify; and in his later years he was a well-known leader in society and a munificent patron of artists and men of letters, his breakfasts, at which he delighted to assemble celebrities in all departments, being famous. He was the author of the following poems: The Pleasures of Memory (1792), Columbus (1810), Jacqueline (1814), Human Life (1819), and Italy (1822). R. was emphatically the poet of taste, and his writings, while full of allusion and finished description, rarely show passion or intensity of feeling; but are rather the reflections and memory-pictures of a man of high culture and refinement expressed in polished verse. He had considerable powers of conversation and sarcasm. He was offered, but declined, the laureateship.
ROLLE, RICHARD (1290?-1349). —Hermit and poet, b. at Thornton, Yorkshire, was at Oxf. Impressed by the uncertainty and the snares of life he decided to become a hermit, a resolution which he carried out with somewhat romantic circumstances. He wrote various religious treatises in Latin and English, turned the Psalms into English verse, and composed a poem—The Pricke of Conscience—in 7 books, in which is shown the attitude of protest which was rising against certain Papal pretensions and doctrines.
ROLLOCK, ROBERT (1555?-1599). —Theologian and scholar, b. in Stirlingshire, was first a Prof. in St. Andrews, and then the first Principal of the Univ. of Edin. He also held office as Prof. of Theology, and was one of the ministers of the High Church. He was one of the earliest of Protestant commentators. He wrote chiefly in Latin, but some of his sermons and commentaries are in vernacular Scotch.
ROPER, WILLIAM (1496-1578). —Biographer, s. of a Kentish gentleman, m. Margaret, dau. of Sir Thomas More. He has a place in literature for his excellent and appreciative biography of his father-in-law. He was a member of various Parliaments between 1529 and 1558. Although he remained a Roman Catholic, he was permitted to retain his office of prothonotary of the Court of King's Bench after the accession of Elizabeth.
ROSCOE, WILLIAM (1753-1831). —Historian, s. of a market-gardener near Liverpool, for a time assisted his f., devoting all his spare time to mental improvement. Subsequently he entered the office of an attorney, and in due time went into business on his own account, continuing, however, his literary studies. In 1799 he joined a local bank as partner and manager, which proved an unfortunate step, as the bank was obliged, in 1816, to suspend payment. In 1795 he rose into fame at a bound by his Life of Lorenzo de' Medici. It was followed in 1805 by the Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth, which, though also a work of great ability, had not the same success—his treatment of the Reformation offending Protestants and Roman Catholics alike. Both works were translated into various languages. He also wrote some poems, including The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast, and several pamphlets on political questions, including the slave-trade, of which he was a determined opponent. He also took a leading part in the public life of Liverpool, which he represented in Parliament for a few years. He was an accomplished botanist.
ROSCOMMON, WENTWORTH DILLON, 4TH EARL of (1633?-1685). —Poet, nephew of the famous Earl of Strafford, was b. in Ireland. He studied and travelled on the Continent, and enjoyed a considerable literary reputation in his own day on the strength of a poetical Essay on Translated Verse, and translations from Horace's Art of Poetry.
ROSE, WILLIAM STEWART (1775-1843). —Poet and translator, s. of George R., who held various Government offices, including that of Treasurer of the Navy. After being ed. at Eton and Camb., he was appointed Reading Clerk to the House of Lords. He translated the romance of Amadis de Gaul (1803), Partenopex de Blois (1807), etc., and from 1823-31 was occupied with the principal work of his life, his translations from the Italian, including the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, in which he was encouraged by Sir W. Scott, whose friend he was. He also produced a vol. of poems, The Crusade of St. Louis (1810).
ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA GEORGINA (1830-1894). —Poetess, sister of Dante Gabriel R. (q.v.), was b. in London, where she lived all her life. She began to write poetry in early girlhood, some of her earliest verse appearing in 1850 in the Germ, the magazine of the pre-Raphaelites, of which her brother was one of the founders. Her subsequent publications were Goblin Market and other Poems (1862), The Prince's Progress (1866), A Pageant and other Poems (1881), and Verses (1893). New Poems (1896) appeared after her death. Sing-Song was a book of verses for children. Her life was a very retired one, passed largely in attending on her mother, who lived until 1886, and in religious duties. She twice rejected proposals of marriage. Her poetry is characterised by imaginative power, exquisite expression, and simplicity and depth of thought. She rarely imitated any forerunner, and drew her inspiration from her own experiences of thought and feeling. Many of her poems are definitely religious in form; more are deeply imbued with religious feeling and motive. In addition to her poems she wrote Commonplace and other Stories, and The Face of the Deep, a striking and suggestive commentary on the Apocalypse.
ROSSETTI, DANTE GABRIEL (1828-1882). —Poet and painter, was b. in London. His f. was Gabriele Rossetti, an Italian scholar, who came to England in 1824, and was Prof. of Italian in King's Coll., London. His mother was Frances Polidori, English on her mother's side, so that the poet was three-fourths Italian, and one-fourth English. He was ed. at King's Coll. School, and began the systematic study of painting in 1842, and in 1848, with Holman Hunt, Millais, and others, founded the pre-Raphaelite school of painting. In 1849 he exhibited the "Girlhood of Mary Virgin," and among his other pictures are "Beata Beatrix," "Monna Vanna," and "Dante's Dream." Simultaneously with art he worked hard at poetry, and by 1847 he had written The Blessed Damozel and Hand and Soul (both of which appeared in the Germ, the magazine of the pre-Raphaelites), Retro me Sathanas, The Portrait, and The Choice, and in 1861 he brought out a vol. of translations from the early Italian poets under the title of Dante and his Circle. The death of his wife in 1862, after a married life of less than two years, told heavily upon him, as did various attacks upon his poetry, including that of Robert Buchanan (q.v.)—The Fleshly School of Poetry—to which he replied with The Stealthy School of Criticism. His Poems which, in the vehemence of his grief, he had buried in the coffin of his wife, and which were afterwards exhumed, appeared in 1870; and his last literary effort, Ballads and Sonnets, containing the sonnets forming The House of Life, in 1881. In his later years he suffered acutely from neuralgia, which led to the habit of taking chloral. Rossetti was fastidious in composition; his poems are as remarkable for condensation, finish, and exact expression of the poet's thought as for their sumptuous colouring and rich concrete imagery. In later years he was subject to depression, and became somewhat embittered, and much of a recluse.
Life by A.C. Benson (English Men of Letters). Family Letters and Memoir by W.M. Rossetti. Poetical Works with preface by the same, etc.
ROUS, FRANCIS (1579-1659). —Versifier of the Psalms, a Cornishman, and a prominent Puritan, took a leading part in Parliament, was Provost of Eton, and wrote several theological and devotional works. His memory has, however, been chiefly kept green by his translation of the Psalms into verse, which with some modifications was adopted by the Church and Parliament of Scotland for use in public worship, a position which it held almost exclusively until the middle of the 19th century. It is still in universal use in the Presbyterian churches of that country, though now accompanied by hymns. Though rough, and sometimes, through the endeavour to maintain literalness, grotesque, it is strong and simple, and not seldom rises to a certain severe beauty; and association has endeared it to many generations of Scottish Christians.
ROW, JOHN (1568-1646). —Scottish ecclesiastical historian, b. at Perth, s. of John R., one of the Scottish Reformers, was minister of Carnock in Fife, and a leading opponent of Episcopacy. His Historie of the Kirk of Scotland, 1558-1637, left by him in manuscript, was printed in 1842 for the Wodrow Society. It is an original authority for the period.
ROWE, NICHOLAS (1674-1718). —Dramatist and poet, b. of a good family at Little Barford, Bedfordshire, was bred to the law, but inheriting an income of £300 a year, he devoted himself to literature, and produced several dramas, including The Ambitious Stepmother, The Fair Penitent, and Jane Shore. The last, which is his best, contains some scenes of true pathos, and holds its place. He also wrote some poems, and translated Lucan. R., who was a man of very engaging manners, was the friend of Pope, Swift, and Addison, and received many lucrative appointments, including that of Under-Sec. of State. He has the distinction of being the first ed. and biographer of Shakespeare (1709). He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1715, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, with an epitaph by Pope.
ROWLEY, WILLIAM (1585?-1642?). —Dramatist, was an actor in the Queen's Company 1610. He collaborated with Middleton in A Fair Quarrel and The Changeling, and in others with Dekker, Webster, etc., and wrote unassisted A New Wonder, A Match at Midnight, A Shoemaker, a Gentleman, and several others; also a picture of life in London called A Search for Money. R. was vigorous and humorous, but his verse lacked sweetness and smoothness.
RUDDIMAN, THOMAS (1674-1757). —Grammarian, b. in Banffshire, and ed. at King's Coll., Aberdeen, obtained a position in the Advocates' Library in Edin., of which in 1730 he became Librarian. In 1714 he pub. his Rudiments of the Latin Tongue, which was for long the recognised Latin grammar in the schools of Scotland. He was made printer to the Univ. in 1728. R., who was one of the greatest of Scottish Latinists, produced an ed. of the works of George Buchanan, and an ed. of Livy said to be "immaculate." He also reprinted, with notes, Gavin Douglas's version of the Æneid.
RUSKIN, JOHN (1819-1900). —Writer on art, economics, and sociology, was b. in London, the s. of a wealthy wine merchant, a Scotsman. Brought up under intellectually and morally bracing Puritan influences, his education was mainly private until he went to Oxf. in 1836; he remained until 1840, when a serious illness interrupted his studies, and led to a six months' visit to Italy. On his return in 1842 he took his degree. In 1840 he had made the acquaintance of Turner, and this, together with a visit to Venice, constituted a turning point in his life. In 1843 appeared the first vol. of Modern Painters, the object of which was to insist upon the superiority in landscape of the moderns, and especially of Turner, to all the ancient masters. The earnestness and originality of the author and the splendour of the style at once called attention to the work which, however, awakened a chorus of protest from the adherents of the ancients. A second vol. appeared in 1846, the third and fourth in 1856, and the fifth in 1860. Meanwhile he had pub. The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), The Stones of Venice (1851-53), perhaps his greatest work, Lectures on Architecture and Painting (1854), Elements of Drawing (1856), and Elements of Perspective (1859). During the 17 years between the publication of the first and the last vols. of Modern Painters his views alike on religion and art had become profoundly modified, and the necessity of a radical change in the moral and intellectual attitude of the age towards religion, art, and economics in their bearing upon life and social conditions had become his ruling idea. He now assumed the rôle of the prophet as Carlyle, by whose teaching he was profoundly influenced, had done, and the rest of his life was spent in the endeavour to turn the mind of the nation in the direction he desired. The Political Economy of Art (1857) showed the line in which his mind was moving; but it was in Unto this Last, pub. in the Cornhill Magazine in 1860, that he began fully to develop his views. It brought down upon him a storm of opposition and obloquy which continued for years, and which, while it acted injuriously upon his highly sensitive nervous system, had no effect in silencing him or modifying his views. There followed Munera Pulveris (Gifts of the Dust), The Crown of Wild Olive, Sesame and Lilies (1865), Time and Tide by Wear and Tyne, and innumerable fugitive articles. In 1869 R. was appointed first Slade Prof. of the Fine Arts at Oxf., and endowed a school of drawing in the Univ. His successive courses of lectures were pub. as Aratra Pentelici (Ploughs of Pentelicus) (1870), The Eagle's Nest (1872), Ariadne Florentina (1872), and Love's Meinie (1873). Contemporaneously with these he issued with more or less regularity, as health permitted, Fors Clavigera (Chance the Club-bearer), a series of miscellaneous notes and essays, sold by the author himself direct to the purchasers, the first of a series of experiments—of which the Guild of St. George, a tea room, and a road-making enterprise were other examples—in practical economics. After the death of his mother in 1871 he purchased a small property, Brantwood, in the Lake district, where he lived for the remainder of his life, and here he brought out in monthly parts his last work, Præterita, an autobiography, 24 parts of which appeared, bringing down the story to 1864. Here he d. on January 20, 1900. R. was a man of noble character and generous impulses, but highly strung, irritable, and somewhat intolerant. He is one of our greatest stylists, copious, eloquent, picturesque, and highly coloured. His influence on his time was very great, at first in the department of art, in which he was for a time regarded as the supreme authority, later and increasingly in the realms of economics and morals, in which he was at first looked upon as an unpractical dreamer. He m. in 1848, but the union proved unhappy, and was dissolved in 1855.
For his Life see his own works, especially Præterita. Life and Works by Collingwood (2 vols., 1893). Bibliography, T.J. Wise (1889-93). Shorter works by Mrs. Meynell, J.A. Hobson, F. Harrison, etc.
RUSSELL, LORD JOHN, 1ST EARL RUSSELL (1792-1878). —Statesman, biographer, and historical writer, third s. of the 6th Duke of Bedford, was ed. at Westminster School and the Univ. of Edin. He entered Parliament in 1813, and became one of the most eminent English statesmen of the 19th century. He uniformly acted with the Whig and afterwards with the Liberal party, advocated all measures of progress, especially the removal of tests, the extension of education, and Parliamentary reform. He was the leader of his party in the House of Commons from 1834-55, represented the City of London from 1841 until his elevation to the peerage in 1861, and held the offices of Paymaster of the Forces, Home Sec., Colonial Sec., Foreign Sec., and Prime Minister, which last he held twice, 1846-52, and 1865-66. His contributions to literature were considerable, both in number and importance, and include Essay on the English Constitution (1821), Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht (1824), Correspondence of the 4th Duke of Bedford, Life, Diary, and Letters of Thomas Moore, Correspondence of Charles James Fox, and a Life of the same statesman, Essays on the Rise and Progress of the Christian Religion in the West of Europe (1873), and Recollections and Suggestions (1875).
RUSSELL, WILLIAM (1741-1793). —Historian, b. in Selkirkshire, and apprenticed to a bookseller in Edin., he was patronised by Lord Elibank, and went to London, where he followed literature as a profession. He wrote poems and fables, a History of America (1779), and a History of Modern Europe, which he left unfinished.
RUSSELL, SIR WILLIAM HOWARD (1821-1907). —War correspondent, b. in Co. Dublin, was called to the Bar in 1850. Having joined the staff of the Times, he was sent as war correspondent to the Crimea, his letters from which caused a profound sensation, and led to an improved condition of things in regard to the army. He was also correspondent in India during the Mutiny, in America during the Civil War, and during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and the Franco-German War of 1870-71, in South Africa in 1879, and in Egypt in 1883. Among his books are The Adventures of Dr. Brady (1868), Hesperothen (1882), A Visit to Chili (1890), and The Great War with Russia (1895). He was knighted in 1895, and also received various foreign decorations.
RUTHERFORD, SAMUEL (1600?-1661). —Theologian and controversialist, b. at Nisbet, Roxburghshire, ed. at Edin. Univ., where he became in 1623 Regent of Humanity (Prof. of Latin). In 1627 he was settled as minister of Anwoth in Galloway, whence he was banished to Aberdeen for nonconformity. On the re-establishment of Presbytery in 1638 he was made Prof. of Divinity at St. Andrews, and in 1651 Principal of St. Mary's Coll. there, and he was one of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. At the Restoration he was deprived of all his offices. He was a formidable controversialist, and a strenuous upholder of the divine right of Presbytery. Among his polemical works are Due Right of Presbyteries (1644), Lex Rex (1644), and Free Disputation against Pretended Liberty of Conscience. Lex Rex was, after the Restoration, burned by the common hangman, and led to the citation of the author for high treason, which his death prevented from taking effect. His chief fame, however, rests upon his spiritual and devotional works, such as Christ Dying and drawing Sinners to Himself, but especially upon his Letters, which display a fervour of feeling and a rich imagery which, while highly relished by some, repel others.
RYCAUT, or RICAUT, SIR PAUL (1628-1700). —Historian, was at Camb., and held various diplomatic positions. He wrote Present State of the Ottoman Empire (1668), and a continuation of Knolles's General Historie of the Turks, and translated Platina's Latin History of the Popes.
RYMER, THOMAS (1641-1713). —Archæologist and critic, ed. at Camb., became a barrister at Gray's Inn. He pub. in 1678 Tragedies of the last Age Considered, in which he passed judgments, very unfavourable, upon their authors, including Shakespeare. He was of much more use as the collector of English treaties, which he pub. under the title of Fædera, in 20 vols., the last 5 of which were ed. after his death by R. Sanderson (q.v.). R. also pub. poems and a play, Edgar. He held the office of historiographer to William III. His learning and industry have received the recognition of many subsequent historians.
ST. JOHN, H., (see BOLINGBROKE).
SALA, GEORGE AUGUSTUS HENRY (1828-1895). —Journalist and novelist, b. in London of Italian ancestry, began life as an illustrator of books and scene-painter, afterwards taking to literature. He contributed to many periodicals, including Household Words, and the Illustrated London News, and was the founder and first ed. of Temple Bar. Among his novels were The Buddington Peerage and Quite Alone. He also wrote books of travel, and an autobiographical work, his Life and Adventures (1895).
SALE, GEORGE (1697?-1736). —Orientalist, a Kentish man, and practising solicitor. In 1734 he pub. a translation of the Koran. He also assisted in the Universal History, and was one of the correctors of the Arabic New Testament issued by the S.P.C.K.
SANDERSON, ROBERT (1587-1663). —Theologian and casuist, b. of good family at Rotherham in Yorkshire, was at Oxf. Entering the Church he rose to be Bishop of Lincoln. His work on logic, Logicæ Artis Compendium (1615), was long a standard treatise on the subject. His sermons also were admired; but he is perhaps best remembered by his Nine Cases of Conscience Resolved (1678), in consideration of which he has been placed at the head of English casuists. He left large collections of historical and heraldic matter in MS.
SANDS, ROBERT CHARLES (1799-1832). —Miscellaneous writer, b. at New York, was a scholarly and versatile writer, but without much originality. His best work is in his short stories. His chief poem was Yamoyden, an Indian story written in collaboration with a friend.
SANDYS, GEORGE (1578-1644). —Traveller and translator, s. of an Archbishop of York, b. at Bishopsthorpe, and ed. at Oxf., is one of the best of the earlier travellers, learned, observant, and truth-loving. He pub. in 1615 an account of his journeys in the East which was highly popular. He also translated when in America the Metamorphoses of Ovid, produced a metrical Paraphrase on the Psalms, with music by Henry Lawes, and another on the Canticles, and wrote Christ's Passion, a tragedy. He held various public offices, chiefly in connection with the colony of Virginia.
SAVAGE, RICHARD (1697?-1743). —Poet, was probably of humble birth, but claimed to be the illegitimate s. of the Countess of Macclesfield. He was the friend of Johnson in the early and miserable days of the latter in London; and in The Lives of the Poets J. has given his story as set forth by himself, which is, if true, a singular record of maternal cruelty. There are strong reasons, however, for doubting whether it was anything but a tissue of falsehoods mingled with gross exaggerations of fact. He led a wildly irregular life, killed a gentleman in a tavern brawl, for which he was sentenced to death, but pardoned; and by his waywardness alienated nearly all who wished to befriend him. For a time he had a pension of £50 from Queen Caroline on condition of his writing an ode yearly on her birthday. He wrote Love in a Veil (1718) (comedy) and Sir Thomas Overbury (1723) (tragedy), and two poems, The Bastard (1728) and The Wanderer (1729). He d. in prison at Bristol.
SAVILE, SIR HENRY (1549-1622). —Scholar, ed. at Oxf., where he lectured on mathematics. He was afterwards Warden of Merton Coll. and Provost of Eton, and made a translation from Tacitus entitled, The Ende of Nero and Beginning of Galba, etc. (1581), and in the same year pub. Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam Præcipui, a collection of some of the chronicles subsequent to Bede, William of Malmesbury, Roger of Hoveden, etc. He founded the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy and Geometry at Oxf.
SAXBY, EDWARD (d. 1658). —B. in Suffolk, and was in Cromwell's Horse. His extreme republican views, however, led him into the bitterest antagonism when C. assumed the Protectorship. This received expression in his extraordinary pamphlet, Killing no Murder, in which the assassination of C. is advocated, and which displays in a remarkable degree perverted ingenuity of argument combined with considerable literary power. S. d. demented in the Tower in 1658.
SCOTT, ALEXANDER (1525?-1584?). —Scottish poet. Almost nothing is known of his life, but he is believed to have spent most of his time in or near Edin. Thirty-six short poems are attributed to him, including Ane New Yeir Gift to Quene Mary, The Rondel of Love, and a satire, Justing at the Drum. He has great variety of metre, and is graceful and musical, but his satirical pieces are often extremely coarse.
SCOTT, HUGH STOWELL (1863?-1903). —Novelist (under the name of Henry Seton Merriman). He was an underwriter in Lloyd's, but having a strong literary bent, latterly devoted himself to writing novels, many of which had great popularity. They include The Slave of the Lamp (1892), The Sowers (generally considered his best) (1896), In Kedar's Tents (1897), Roden's Corner (1898), Isle of Unrest (1900), The Velvet Glove (1901), The Vultures (1902), and Barlasch of the Guard (1903). He worked with great care, and his best books hold a high place in modern fiction. He was unusually modest and retiring in character.
SCOTT, JOHN (1730-1783). —Poet, s. of a Quaker draper who in his later years lived at Amwell, a village in Herts, which the poet celebrates in his descriptive poem, Amwell. He wrote much other verse now forgotten.
SCOTT, LADY JOHN (ALICIA ANN SPOTTISWOODE) (1801-1900). —M. Lord John Scott. She was the writer of a number of Scottish songs characterised by true poetic feeling. Among them may be mentioned Annie Laurie, Douglas, and Durrisdeer. She also composed the music for them.
SCOTT, MICHAEL (1789-1835). —Novelist, b. near and ed. at Glasgow, and settled in business at Kingston, Jamaica, which led to his making frequent sea voyages, and thus yielded him experiences which he turned to account in two vivacious novels, Tom Cringle's Log and The Cruise of the Midge, both of which first appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, where they attained deserved popularity. They have frequently been reprinted. The author, however, maintained a strict incognito during his life.
SCOTT, SIR WALTER (1771-1832). —Poet, novelist, and biographer, s. of Walter S., a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, and Margaret Rutherford, dau. of one of the Prof. of Medicine in the Univ. there. Through both parents he was connected with several old Border families; his f. was a scion of the Scotts of Harden, well known in Border history. In early childhood he suffered from a severe fever, one of the effects of which was a permanent lameness, and for some time he was delicate. The native vigour of his constitution, however, soon asserted itself, and he became a man of exceptional strength. Much of his childhood was spent at his grandfather's farm at Sandyknowe, Roxburghshire, and almost from the dawn of intelligence he began to show an interest in the traditionary lore which was to have so powerful an influence on his future life, an interest which was nourished and stimulated by several of the older members of his family, especially one of his aunts. At this stage he was a quick-witted, excitable child, who required rather to be restrained than pressed forward. At the age of 7 he was strong enough to be sent to the High School of Edinburgh, where he was more remarkable for miscellaneous and out-of-the-way knowledge and his powers of story-telling than for proficiency in the ordinary course of study; and notwithstanding his lameness, he was to be found in the forefront wherever adventure or fighting were to be had. Thereafter he was for three sessions at the Univ., where he bore much the same character as at school. He was, however, far from idle, and was all the time following the irresistible bent, which ultimately led to such brilliant results, in a course of insatiable reading of ballads and romances, to enlarge which he had by the time he was 15 acquired a working knowledge of French and Italian, and had made the acquaintance of Dante and Ariosto in the original. Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, pub. in 1765, came into his hands in 1784, and proved one of the most formative influences of this period. At 15 he was apprenticed to his f., but preferring the higher branch of the profession, he studied for the Bar, to which he was called in 1792. He did not, however, forego his favourite studies, but ransacked the Advocates' Library for old manuscripts, in the deciphering of which he became so expert that his assistance soon came to be invoked by antiquarians of much longer standing. Although he worked hard at law his ideal was not the attainment of an extensive practice, but rather of a fairly paid post which should leave him leisure for his favourite pursuits, and this he succeeded in reaching, being appointed first in 1799 Sheriff of Selkirk, and next in 1812 one of the Principal Clerks to the Court of Session, which together brought him an income of £1600. Meanwhile in 1795 he had translated Bürger's ballad of Lenore, and in the following year he made his first appearance in print by publishing it along with a translation of The Wild Huntsman by the same author. About the same time he made the acquaintance of "Monk" Lewis, to whose collection of Tales of Wonder he contributed the ballads of Glenfinlas, The Eve of St. John, and The Grey Brother; and he pub. in 1799 a translation of Goethe's Goetz von Berlichingen. In 1797 he was m. to Miss Charlotte Margaret Charpentier, the dau. of a French gentleman of good position. The year 1802 saw the publication of Scott's first work of real importance, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, of which 2 vols. appeared, the third following in the next year. In 1804 he went to reside at Ashestiel on the Tweed, where he ed. the old romance, Sir Tristrem, and in 1805 he produced his first great original work, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, which was received with great favour, and decided that literature was thenceforth to be the main work of his life. In the same year the first few chapters of Waverley were written; but the unfavourable opinion of a friend led to the MS. being laid aside for nearly 10 years. In 1806 S. began, by a secret partnership, that association with the Ballantynes which resulted so unfortunately for him 20 years later. Marmion was pub. in 1808: it was even more popular than the Lay, and raised his reputation proportionately. The same year saw the publication of his elaborate ed. of Dryden with a Life, and was also marked by a rupture with Jeffrey, with whom he had been associated as a contributor to the Edinburgh Review, and by the establishment of the new firm of J. Ballantyne and Co., of which the first important publication was The Lady of the Lake, which appeared in 1810, The Vision of Don Roderick following in 1811. In 1812 S. purchased land on the Tweed near Melrose, and built his famous house, Abbotsford, the adornment of which became one of the chief pleasures of his life, and which he made the scene of a noble and kindly hospitality. In the same year he pub. Rokeby, and in 1813 The Bridal of Triermain, while 1814 saw The Life and Works of Swift in 19 vols., and was made illustrious by the appearance of Waverley, the two coming out in the same week, the latter, of course, like its successors, anonymously. The next year, The Lord of the Isles, Guy Mannering, and The Field of Waterloo appeared, and the next again, 1816, Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk, The Antiquary, The Black Dwarf, and Old Mortality, while 1817 saw Harold the Dauntless and Rob Roy. The enormous strain which S. had been undergoing as official, man of letters, and man of business, began at length to tell upon him, and in this same year, 1817, he had the first of a series of severe seizures of cramp in the stomach, to which, however, his indomitable spirit refused to yield, and several of his next works, The Heart of Midlothian (1818), by many considered his masterpiece, The Bride of Lammermoor, The Legend of Montrose, and Ivanhoe, all of 1819, were dictated to amanuenses, while he was too ill to hold a pen. In 1820 The Monastery, in which the public began to detect a falling off in the powers of the still generally unknown author, appeared. The immediately following Abbot, however, showed a recovery. Kenilworth and The Pirate followed in 1821, The Fortunes of Nigel in 1822; Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, and St. Ronan's Well in 1823; Redgauntlet in 1824, and Tales of the Crusaders (The Betrothed and The Talisman) in 1825. By this time S. had long reached a pinnacle of fame such as perhaps no British man of letters has ever attained during his lifetime. He had for a time been the most admired poet of his day, and though latterly somewhat eclipsed by Byron, he still retained great fame as a poet. He also possessed a great reputation as an antiquary, one of the chief revivers of interest in our ancient literature, and as the biographer and ed. of several of our great writers; while the incognito which he maintained in regard to his novels was to many a very partial veil. The unprecedented profits of his writings had made him, as he believed, a man of wealth; his social prestige was immense; he had in 1820 been made a baronet, when that was still a real distinction, and he had been the acknowledged representative of his country when the King visited it in 1822. All this was now to change, and the fabric of prosperity which he had raised by his genius and labour, and which had never spoiled the simplicity and generosity of his character, was suddenly to crumble into ruin with, however, the result of revealing him as the possessor of qualities even greater and nobler than any he had shown in his happier days. The publishing and printing firms with which he had been connected fell in the commercial crisis of 1826, and S. found himself at 55, and with failing health, involved in liabilities amounting to £130,000. Never was adversity more manfully and gallantly met. Notwithstanding the crushing magnitude of the disaster and the concurrent sorrow of his wife's illness, which soon issued in her death, he deliberately set himself to the herculean task of working off his debts, asking only that time might be given him. The secret of his authorship was now, of course, revealed, and his efforts were crowned with a marvellous measure of success. Woodstock, his first publication after the crash, appeared in the same year and brought £8000; by 1828 he had earned £40,000. In 1827 The Two Drovers, The Highland Widow, and The Surgeon's Daughter, forming the first series of Chronicles of the Canongate, appeared together with The Life of Napoleon in 9 vols., and the first series of Tales of a Grandfather; in 1828 The Fair Maid of Perth and the second series of Tales of a Grandfather, Anne of Geierstein, a third series of the Tales, and the commencement of a complete ed. of the novels in 1829; a fourth and last series of Tales, History of Scotland, and other work in 1830. Then at last the overworked brain gave way, and during this year he had more than one paralytic seizure. He was sent abroad for change and rest, and a Government frigate was placed at his disposal. But all was in vain; he never recovered, and though in temporary rallies he produced two more novels, Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous, both in 1831, which only showed that the spell was broken, he gradually sank, and d. at Abbotsford on September 21, 1832.
The work which S. accomplished, whether looked at as regards its mass or its quality, is alike marvellous. In mere amount his output in each of the four departments of poetry, prose fiction, history and biography, and miscellaneous literature is sufficient to fill an ordinary literary life. Indeed the quantity of his acknowledged work in other departments was held to be the strongest argument against the possibility of his being the author of the novels. The achievement of such a result demanded a power of steady, methodical, and rapid work almost unparalleled in the history of literature. When we turn to its quality we are struck by the range of subject and the variableness of the treatment. In general there is the same fulness of mind directed by strong practical sense and judgment, but the style is often heavy, loose, and even slipshod, and in most of his works there are "patches" in which he falls far below his best. His poetry, though as a whole belonging to the second class, is full of broad and bold effects, picturesqueness, and an irresistible rush and freshness. As a lyrist, however, he stands much higher, and in such gems as "Proud Maisie" and "A weary lot is thine, Fair Maid," he takes his place among our greatest singers. His chief fame rests, of course, upon the novels. Here also, however, there is the same inequality and irregularity, but there is a singular command over his genius in virtue of which the fusing, creating imagination responds to his call, and is at its greatest just where it is most needed. For the variety, truth, and aliveness of his characters he has probably no equal since Shakespeare, and though, of course, coming far behind, he resembles him alike in his range and in his insight. The most remarkable feature in his character is the union of an imagination of the first order with practical sagacity and manly sanity, in this also resembling his great predecessor.
SUMMARY.—B. 1771, ed. Edin., called to Bar 1792, Sheriff of Selkirk 1799, Principal Clerk of Session 1812, first pub. translation of Lenore, etc., wrote ballads and made translation from German, pub. Minstrelsy of Scottish Border 1802-3, Lay of Last Minstrel 1805, began Waverley 1805, partner with Ballantynes 1806, pub. Marmion 1808, Lady of Lake 1810, began to build Abbotsford 1812, Waverley novels began and continued 1814-31, health began to fail 1817, made Baronet 1820, ruined by failure of Ballantynes 1826, devotes rest of his life to clearing off debt by novels and historical works, Tales of a Grandfather, Life of Napoleon, etc., health finally gave way 1830, d. 1832.
The great authority is the Life by Lockhart, but it has been supplemented by the Journal (1890) and Letters (1893). Short Lives by C. Gilfillan, R.H. Hutton, etc., etc.
SCOTT, WILLIAM BELL (1811-1890). —Poet and painter, s. of Robert S., an engraver, and brother of David S., painter, b. in Edin., settled in London, and painted chiefly historical subjects. He pub. five vols. of poetry, including Hades and The Year of the World, and many fine sonnets, a form of poetry in which he excelled, and in prose Half-hour Lectures on Art and The Little Masters in the Great Artists Series. He also ed. a series of "English Poets," and wrote a Life of his brother and one of Albrecht Dürer, etc.
SEDLEY, SIR CHARLES (1639?-1701). —Poet, s. and heir of a Kentish baronet, was at Oxf. and, coming to the Court of Charles II., became one of the most popular and brilliant members of its dissipated circles. He was the author of two tragedies and three comedies, now forgotten, though extravagantly lauded in their day, and of some poems and songs, of which the best known are Phyllis and Chloris. His only child was the witty and profligate Catherine S., mistress of James II., who created her Countess of Dorset. Bellamira and The Mulberry Garden, founded respectively on Terence and Molière, are his best plays. His prose in pamphlets and essays is better than his verse.
SEELEY, SIR JOHN ROBERT (1834-1895). —Historian and essayist, s. of a publisher in London, ed. at City of London School and Camb. In 1863 he became Prof. of Latin at Univ. Coll., London, and was Prof. of Modern History at Camb. from 1869 until his death. In 1865 appeared anonymously Ecce Homo, a work which created intense excitement and keen controversy in the theological and religious world. Other works were The Life and Times of Stein, the Prussian statesman (1879), Natural Religion (1882), The Expansion of England (1883), Life of Napoleon (1885), and a work on Goethe. The Growth of British Policy (1895) was left finished but unrevised at his death. In recognition of his services to the empire in his political writings he was, in 1894, made K.C.M.G.
SELDEN, JOHN (1584-1654). —Jurist and scholar, b. near Worthing, Sussex, the s. of a farmer who was also a musician, ed. at Chichester and Oxf., and studied law at Clifford's Inn and the Inner Temple. His learning soon attracted attention and, though practising little, he was consulted on points involving legal erudition. His first work, Analecton Anglo-Britannicon, a chronological collection of English records down to the Norman invasion, was written in 1606, though not pub. till 1615. In 1610 appeared a treatise on the Duello, or Single Combat; and in 1614 his largest English work on Titles of Honour, full of profound learning, and still a high authority. Three years later, 1617, he wrote in Latin his treatise, De Deis Syris (on the Gods of Syria), an inquiry into polytheism, specially with reference to the false deities mentioned in Scripture. His reputation as a scholar had now become European. In 1618 he incurred the indignation of the King and the clergy by his History of Tithes, in which he denied their claim to be a divine institution. Called before the High Commission he made a statement regretting the publication of the book though not withdrawing any of its statements. In 1621 he suffered a brief imprisonment for withstanding some of James's doctrines as to the privileges of Parliament. Two years later he was elected member for Lancaster. As a politician his views were moderate, and all along he endeavoured to repress the zeal of the extremists on both sides. He was imprisoned in the Tower for four years, 1630-34. During the final struggle of King and Parliament he was much employed; but like most men of moderate views, was frequently under suspicion, and after the execution of the King, to which he was strongly opposed, he took little to do with public matters. He was a lay member of the Westminster Assembly, 1643, where his profound knowledge of the original tongues made him somewhat of a terror to certain extremists among the divines. He had at an early age been appointed steward to the Earl of Kent, and at the house of his widow, with whom he had long lived in such close friendship as to give rise to the belief that they were m., he d. Among other works may be mentioned a description of the Arundel Marbles (1629), a treatise concerning the Jewish calendar (1646), and, specially, his Table Talk, pub. 1689, of which Coleridge said "there is more weighty bullion sense in this book than I can find in the same number of pages of any uninspired writer." He was likewise the author of various treatises on constitutional matters and the law of nations, including Mare Clausum (a Closed Sea), in defence of the property of England in its circumfluent seas. Most of these were written in Latin.
Coll. Works with Life, Dr. Wilkins (3 vols., folio, 1726), Aikin's Lives of Selden and Ussher.
SELLAR, WILLIAM YOUNG (1825-1890). —Scholar, b. in Sutherlandshire, his f. being factor to the Duke of Sutherland, ed. at Glasgow Univ. and Oxf., became in 1859 Prof. of Greek at St. Andrews and, in 1863, of Latin at Edin. He pub. a work on the Roman Poets of the Republic (1863), followed by The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. Both of these hold a high place among modern works of scholarship.
SEMPILL, ROBERT (1530?-1595), SEMPILL, ROBERT (1595?-1659?), SEMPILL, FRANCIS (1616?-1682). —Scottish poets, all belonging to the same family, the last two being f. and s. The first was mainly a satirist, was in Paris at the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and belonged to the extremist division of the Reforming party, The Regente's Tragedy laments the death of Murray, Ane Complaint upon Fortoun, the fall of Morton. The second Robert wrote The Life and Death of Habbie Simson, the Piper, a humorous description of old Scottish life. Francis wrote occasional pieces. The song She Rose and let me in, formerly attributed to him, is now known to be by Tom D'Urfey (q.v.).
SENIOR, NASSAU WILLIAM (1790-1864). —Economist and essayist, s. of a clergyman, was b. at Compton Beauchamp, Berks, ed. at Eton and Oxf., studied law, and was called to the Bar in 1819. He twice held the Professorship of Political Economy at Oxf., 1825-30 and 1847-52, rendered important service as a member of the Poor Law Commission of 1833, and wrote its Report. S. holds a high position among English economists, and made many contributions to the literature of the science, including Outline of the Science of Political Economy (1836). He was, moreover, a writer of considerable versatility, his works in general literature including Essays on Fiction (1864), Historical and Philosophical Essays (1865), and specially his notes of conversations with many eminent persons, chiefly political, e.g., De Tocqueville, Thiers, and Guizot, which combine fulness of information with discretion; he also pub. journals of his travels in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, etc.
SETTLE, ELKANAH (1648-1724). —Poet and dramatist, ed. at Oxf., was the author of a number of turgid dramas, now unreadable and unread, but which in their day were held to rival Dryden, who pilloried S. as Doeg in the second part of Absalom and Achitophel. S. essayed a reply in Absalom Senior. He wrote against the Papists, but recanted, and made amends by a Narrative of the Popish Plot, in which he exposed the perjuries of Titus Oates. He was appointed City Poet. Latterly he had a booth in Bartholomew Fair. He d. in the Charterhouse. His plays include Cambyses (1666), Empress of Morocco (1671), Love and Revenge (1675), The Female Prelate, Distressed Innocence (1691), and the Ladies' Triumph (1718).
SHADWELL, THOMAS (1640 or 1642-1692). —Dramatist and poet, belonged to a good Staffordshire family, was b. in Norfolk, ed. at Camb., and after studying law travelled, and on his return became a popular dramatist. Among his comedies, in which he displayed considerable comic power and truth to nature, may be mentioned The Sullen Lovers (1668), Royal Shepherdess (1668), The Humourists (1671), and The Miser (1672). He attached himself to the Whigs, and when Dryden attacked them in Absalom and Achitophel and The Medal, had the temerity to assail him scurrilously in The Medal of John Bayes (1682). The castigation which this evoked in MacFlecknoe and in the second part of Absalom and Achitophel, in which S. figures as "Og," has conferred upon him an unenviable immortality. He may have found some consolation in his succession to Dryden as Poet Laureate when, at the Revolution, the latter was deprived of the office.
Other plays are Epsom Wells (1673), The Virtuoso (1676), Lancashire Witches (1681), The Volunteers (1693), etc.
SHAFTESBURY, ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, 3RD EARL OF (1671-1713). —Philosopher, b. in London, grandson of the 1st Earl, the eminent statesman, the "Achitophel" of Dryden. After a private education under the supervision of Locke, and a short experience of Winchester School, he travelled much on the Continent. On succeeding to the earldom in 1699 he took a prominent part in the debates of the House of Lords, but devoted himself mainly to philosophical and literary pursuits. His coll. writings were pub. in 1711 under the title of Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Times. In his philosophy he maintains, as against Hobbes, the existence of a moral sense, a view subsequently developed by the Scottish school of philosophy. The style of S. is stately and sonorous but laboured. He d. at Naples, whither he had gone in search of health, at the early age of 42. Though his writings are directed strongly against Atheism, they have been held to be hostile to a belief in revelation.
SHAIRP, JOHN CAMPBELL (1819-1885). —Poet and critic, ed. at Glasgow and Oxf., became Prof. of Latin at St. Andrews 1861. Principal of the United Coll. there 1868, and Prof. of Poetry at Oxf. 1877-87. Among his writings are Kilmahoe and other Poems (1864), Studies in Poetry and Philosophy (1868), Culture and Religion (1870), and a Life of Burns in the English Men of Letters Series. He also collaborated with Prof. Tait in writing the Life of Principal Forbes (q.v.), and ed. the Journal of Dorothy Wordsworth.
SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM (1564-1616). —Dramatist and poet, b. at Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, on 22nd or 23rd, and baptised on 26th April, 1564. On his father's side he belonged to a good yeoman stock, though his descent cannot be certainly traced beyond his grandfather, a Richard S., settled at Snitterfield, near Stratford. His f., John S., appears to have been a man of intelligence and energy, who set up in Stratford as a dealer in all kinds of agricultural produce, to which he added the trade of a glover. He became prosperous, and gained the respect of his neighbours, as is evidenced by his election in succession to all the municipal honours of his community, including those of chief alderman and high bailiff. He m. Mary, youngest dau. of Robert Arden, a wealthy farmer at Wilmcote, and a younger branch of a family of considerable distinction, and whose tenant Richard S. had been. On her father's death Mary inherited Asbies, a house with 50 acres of land attached to it. The first children of the marriage were two dau., who d. in infancy. William was the third, and others followed, of whom three sons, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and a dau. Joan, reached maturity. He was ed. with his brother Gilbert at Stratford Grammar School, where he learned Latin from Lilly's Grammar, English, writing, and arithmetic. He probably read some of the Latin classics and may have got a little Greek, and though his learned friend Ben Jonson credits him with "little Latin and less Greek," Aubrey says he "knew Latin pretty well." This happy state of matters continued until he was about 13, when his f. fell into misfortune, which appears to have gone on deepening until the success and prosperity of the poet in later years enabled him to reinstate the family in its former position. Meanwhile, however, he was taken from school, and appears to have been made to assist his f. in his business. The next certain fact in his history is his marriage in November, 1582, when he was 18, to Ann Hathaway, dau. of a yeoman at the neighbouring hamlet of Shottery, and 8 years his senior. Various circumstances point to the marriage having been against the wishes of his own family, and pressed on by that of his wife, and that it was so urged in defence of the reputation of the lady, and as perhaps might be expected, they indicate, though not conclusively, that it did not prove altogether happy. The birth, in May, 1583, of his eldest child Susannah (who is said to have inherited something of his wit and practical ability, and who m. a Dr. John Hall), followed in the next year by that of twins, Hamnet and Judith, and the necessity of increased means, led to his departure from Stratford, whence he travelled on foot to London, where the next 23 years of his life were mainly spent. The tradition that his departure was also caused by trouble into which he had got by killing the deer of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlcote, is credible. Leaving Stratford in 1585 or the beginning of 1586, he seems at once to have turned to the theatres, where he soon found work, although, as Rowe, his first biographer, says, "in a very mean rank." It was not long, however, before he had opportunities of showing his capacities as an actor, with the result that he shortly became a member of one of the chief acting companies of the day, which was then under the patronage of the Earl of Leicester, and after being associated with the names of various other noblemen, at last on the accession of James I. became known as the King's Company. It played originally in "The Theatre" in Shoreditch, the first playhouse to be erected in England, and afterwards in the "Rose" on the Bankside, Southwark, the scene of the earliest successes of S. as an actor and playwright. Subsequently to 1594, he acted occasionally in a playhouse in Newington Butts, and between 1595 and 1599 in the "Curtain." In the latter year the "Globe" was built on the Bankside, and 10 years later the "Blackfriars:" and with these two, but especially with the former, the remainder of his professional life was associated. It is not unlikely that he visited various provincial towns; but that he was ever in Scotland or on the Continent is improbable. Among the plays in which he appeared were Jonson's Every Man in his Humour and Sejanus, and in Hamlet he played "The Ghost;" and it is said that his brother Gilbert as an old man remembered his appearing as "Adam" in As You Like It. By 1595 S. was famous and prosperous; his earlier plays had been written and acted, and his poems Venus and Adonis, and Lucrece, and probably most of the sonnets, had been pub. and received with extraordinary favour. He had also powerful friends and patrons, including the Earl of Southampton, and was known at Court. By the end of the century he is mentioned by Francis Meres (q.v.) as the greatest man of letters of the day, and his name had become so valuable that it was affixed by unscrupulous publishers to works, e.g. Locrine, Oldcastle, and The Yorkshire Tragedy, by other and often very inferior hands. He had also resumed a close connection with Stratford, and was making the restoration of the family position there the object of his ambition. In accordance with this he induced his f. to apply for a grant of arms, which was given, and he purchased New Place, the largest house in the village. With the income derived from his profession as an actor and dramatist, and his share of the profits of the Globe and Blackfriars theatres, and in view of the business capacity with which he managed his affairs, he may be regarded as almost a wealthy man, and he went on adding to his influence in Stratford by buying land. He had enjoyed the favour of Elizabeth, and her death in 1603 did nothing to disturb his fortunes, as he stood quite as well with her successor. His company received the title of the "King's Servants," and his plays were frequently performed before the Court. But notwithstanding this, the clouds had gathered over his life. The conspiracy of Essex in 1601 had involved several of his friends and patrons in disaster; he had himself been entangled in the unhappy love affair which is supposed to be referred to in some of his sonnets, and he had suffered unkindness at the hands of a friend. For a few years his dramas breathe the darkness and bitterness of a heart which has been sounding the depths of sad experience. He soon, however, emerged from this and, passing through the period of the great tragedies, reached the serene triumph and peace of his later dramas. In 1611 S. severed his long connection with the stage, and retired to Stratford, where the remaining five years of his life were spent in honour and prosperity. Early in 1616 his health began to give way, and he made his will. In the spring he received a visit from his friends, Jonson and Drayton, and the festivity with which it was celebrated seems to have brought on a fever, of which he d. on April 23. He was survived by his wife and his two dau., both of whom were married. His descendants d. out with his grand-daughter, Elizabeth Hall.
Immense research has been spent upon the writings of S., with the result of substantial agreement as to the order of their production and the sources from which their subjects were drawn; for S. rarely troubled himself with the construction of a story, but adopting one already existing reared upon it as a foundation one of those marvellous superstructures which make him the greatest painter and interpreter of human character the world has ever seen. His period of literary production extends from about 1588 to 1613, and falls naturally into four divisions, which Prof. Dowden has named, "In the Workshop" ending in 1596; "In the World" 1596-1601; "Out of the Depths" 1601-1608; and "On the Heights" 1608-1613. Of the 37 plays usually attributed to him, 16 only were pub. during his lifetime, so that the exact order in which they were produced cannot always be determined with certainty. Recent authorities are agreed to the extent that while they do not invariably place the individual plays in the same order, they are almost entirely at one as to which belong to the four periods respectively. The following list shows in a condensed form the order according to Mr. Sidney Lee (Dictionary of National Biography) with the most probable dates and the original sources on which the plays are founded.