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SUMMARY.—B. 1711, ed. at Edin., tries law and commerce, but decides for literature, goes to France 1734-37, pub. Human Nature 1739, Essays Moral and Philosophical 1741-2, governor to M. of Annandale 1745, accompanies expedition to L'Orient, engaged diplomatically 1748, pub. Philosophical Essays, including Miracles 1748, Enquiry into Principles of Morals 1751, Political Discourses 1752, Keeper of Advocates' Library 1752, pub. History of England 1754-62, Four Dissertations 1757, Charge d'Affaires at Paris 1763, became acquainted with Rousseau, under-sec. of State 1767-8, retires and settles in Edin. 1769.
Life by Hill Burton (2 vols., 1846), shorter ones by Huxley, Knight, and Calderwood. Works ed. by Green and Grose (4 vols., 1874). History often reprinted with Smollett's continuations.
HUNNIS, WILLIAM (d. 1597).—Poet, was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal to Edward VI., imprisoned during the reign of Mary, but after the accession of Elizabeth was released, and in 1566 made "master of the children" of the Chapel Royal. He wrote metrical versions of the Psalms, and some vols. of verse, A Hiveful of Honey, and A Handful of Honeysuckles.
HUNT, JAMES HENRY LEIGH (1784-1859).—Essayist and poet, was b. at Southgate, and ed. at Christ's Hospital. A selection of his earliest poems was pub. by his f. in 1801 under the title of Juvenilia. In 1805 he joined his brother John in conducting a paper, the News, which the latter had started. Thereafter the brothers embarked upon the Examiner, a paper of pronounced Radical views. The appearance in this journal of an article on the Prince Regent in which he was described in words which have been condensed into "a fat Adonis of fifty," led to H. being fined L500 and imprisoned for two years. With his customary genial philosophy, however, the prisoner made the best of things, turned his cell into a study, with bookcases and a piano, and his yard into a garden. He had the sympathy of many, and received his friends, including Byron, Moore, and Lamb. On his release he pub. his poem, The Story of Rimini. Two other vols. of poetry followed, The Feast of the Poets and Foliage, in 1814 and 1818 respectively. In the latter year he started the Indicator, a paper something in the style of the Spectator or Tatler, and after this had run its course the Companion, conceived on similar lines, took its place in 1828. In 1822 H. went to Italy with Byron, and there established the Liberal, a paper which did not prove a success. Disillusioned with Byron, H. returned home, and pub. in 1828 Lord Byron and his Contemporaries, a work which gave great offence to Byron's friends, who accused the author of ingratitude. In 1834 H. started the London Journal, which he ed. for two years. Among his later works are Captain Sword and Captain Pen (1835), The Palfrey, a poem, A Legend of Florence (drama), Imagination and Fancy (1844), Wit and Humour (1846), A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla (1848), The Old Court Suburb (1855), The Town, Sir Ralph Esher, a novel, and his Autobiography (1850). Although his poems have considerable descriptive power and brightness, he had not the depth and intensity to make a poet, and his reputation rests rather upon his essays, which are full of a genial philosophy, and display a love of books, and everything pleasant and beautiful. He did much to popularise the love of poetry and literature in general among his fellow-countrymen.
HURD, RICHARD (1720-1808).—Divine, and miscellaneous writer, b. at Congreve, Staffordshire, was ed. at Camb., and entering the Church, became Bishop successively of Lichfield and Worcester. He produced an ed. of the Ars Poetica of Horace, Dissertations on Poetry, Dialogues on Sincerity, Letters on Chivalry and Romance, and An Introduction to the Prophecies. He was in 1783 offered, but declined, the Primacy.
HUTCHESON, FRANCIS (1694-1746).—Philosopher, b. in Ireland, and ed. for the Presbyterian ministry at Glasgow Univ. After keeping an academy at Dublin for some years he pub. his Enquiry into Beauty and Virtue, which won for him a great reputation. In 1729 he became Prof. of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow, where he exercised a great influence over his students, and also upon the Scottish system of philosophy. In his philosophical views he was to some extent a disciple of Shaftesbury. He introduced the term, "moral sense," which he defined as a power of perceiving moral attributes in action. His System of Moral Philosophy appeared posthumously in two vols.
HUTCHINSON, MRS. LUCY (b. 1620).—Biographer, dau. of Sir Allan Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, m. in 1638 John, afterwards Colonel, Hutchinson, one of those who signed the death-warrant of Charles I., but who afterwards protested against the assumption of supreme power by Cromwell. She has a place in literature for her Life of her husband, one of the most interesting biographies in the language, not only on account of its immediate subject, but of the light which it throws upon the characteristics and conditions of the life of Puritans of good family. Originally intended for her family only, it was printed by a descendant in 1806, and did much to clear away the false impressions as to the narrowness and austerity of the educated Puritans which had prevailed. Colonel H. and his wife were noble representatives of their class.
HUTTON, RICHARD HOLT (1826-1897).—Essayist and miscellaneous writer, was brought up as a Unitarian, and for some time was a preacher of that body, but coming under the influence of F.D. Maurice and others of his school, joined the Church of England. He was a frequent contributor to various magazines and reviews, and assisted Walter Bagehot in ed. the National Review. In 1861 he became joint-proprietor and ed. of the Spectator. Among his other writings may be mentioned Essays, Theological and Literary (1871), Modern Guides of English Thought (1887), and Contemporary Thought and Thinkers (1894), which were more or less reprints or expansions of his work in periodicals, and a memoir of Bagehot prefixed to an ed. of his works.
HUXLEY, THOMAS HENRY (1825-1895).—Scientific writer, s. of an assistant master in a public school, was b. at Ealing. From childhood he was an insatiable reader. In his 13th year he became a medical apprentice, and in 1842 entered Charing Cross Hospital. Thereafter he was for a few months surgeon on board the Victory at Haslar, and was then appointed surgeon on H.M.S. Rattlesnake, which was sent to make surveys at Torres Strait. While in this position he made numerous observations, which he communicated to the Linnaean Society. In 1851 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1854 Prof. of Natural History at the School of Mines. Henceforth his life was a very full one, divided between scientific investigation and public work. He was recognised as the foremost English biologist, and was elected Pres. of the Royal Society 1883. He served on the London School Board and on various Royal Commissions. His writings are in the main distinguished by a clearness, force, and charm which entitle them to a place in literature; and besides the addition which they made to the stock of human knowledge, they did much to diffuse a love and study of science. H. was a keen controversialist, contending for the strictly scientific view of all subjects as distinguished from the metaphysical or theological, and accordingly encountered much opposition, and a good deal of abuse. Nevertheless, he was not a materialist, and was in sympathy with the moral and tender aspects of Christianity. He was a strong supporter of the theory of evolution. Among the more eminent of his opponents were Bishop Wilberforce and Mr. Gladstone. His pub. works, including scientific communications, are very numerous. Among the more important are those on the Medusae, Zoological Evidences of Man's Place in Nature (1863), Elementary Lessons on Physiology (1866), Evolution and Ethics (1893), Collected Essays (9 vols. 1893-4). He was also an admirable letter-writer, as appears from the Life and Letters, ed. by his son, and to him we owe the word, and almost the idea, "Agnostic."
INCHBALD, MRS. ELIZABETH (SIMPSON) (1753-1821).—Novelist and dramatist, dau. of a Suffolk farmer. In a romantic fit she left her home at the age of 16, and went to London, where she became acquainted with Inchbald the actor, who m. her in 1772. Seven years later her husband d., and for the next ten years she was on the stage, chiefly in Scotland and Ireland. She produced many plays, including Mogul Tale (1784), I'll Tell you What (1785), Appearance is against Them (1785), Such Things Are, The Married Man, The Wedding Day, and two novels, A Simple Story (1791), and Nature and Art (1796), which have been frequently reprinted. She also made a collection of plays, The Modern Theatre, in 10 vols. Her life was remarkable for its simplicity and frugality, and a large part of her earnings was applied in the maintenance of a delicate sister. Though of a somewhat sentimental and romantic nature, she preserved an unblemished reputation.
INGELOW, JEAN (1820-1897).—Poetess and novelist, dau. of a banker at Boston, Lincolnshire, pub. three vols. of poems, of which perhaps the best known individual piece is "The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire," and several successful novels, including Off the Skelligs (1872), Fated to be Free (1875), and Sarah de Berenger (1879). She also wrote excellent stories for children, Mopsa the Fairy, Stories told to Children, etc. Her poems show a considerable lyric gift.
INNES, COSMO (1798-1874).—Historian and antiquary, was called to the Scottish Bar in 1822, and was appointed Prof. of Constitutional Law and History in the Univ. of Edin. in 1846. He was the author of Scotland in the Middle Ages (1860), and Sketches of Early Scottish History (1861). He also ed. many historical MSS. for the Bannatyne and other antiquarian clubs. Much learning is displayed in his works.
INNES, THOMAS (1662-1744).—Historian, was descended from an old Roman Catholic family in Aberdeenshire. He studied in Paris at the Scots Coll., of which he became Principal. He was the author of two learned works, Critical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of the Northern Parts of Britain (1729), and Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, 80 to 818 (pub. by the Spalding Club, 1853).
IRELAND, WILLIAM HENRY (1777-1835).—Forger of Shakespeare manuscripts, s. of an antiquarian bookseller in London. He claimed to have discovered the MSS. in the house of a gentleman of fortune. The forgeries included various deeds, a Protestant confession of faith by Shakespeare, letters to Ann Hathaway, Southampton, and others, a new version of King Lear, and a complete drama, Vortigern and Rowena. He completely deceived his f. and various men of letters and experts, but was detected by Malone, and the representation of Vortigern on the stage completed the exposure. I. then tried novel-writing, in which he failed. He pub. a confession in regard to the forgeries, in which he asserted that his f. had no part in the imposture, but had been completely deceived by it.
IRVING, EDWARD (1792-1834).—Theologian and orator, b. at Annan, Dumfriesshire, and ed. at Edin. Univ., for some years thereafter was engaged in teaching at Kirkcaldy. Ordained to the ministry of the Church of Scotland he became, in 1819, assistant to Dr. Chalmers in Glasgow, after which he went to the Scotch Church in Hatton Gardens, London, where he had an almost unprecedented popularity, his admirers including De Quincey, Coleridge, Canning, Scott, and others. The effect of his spoken oratory is not preserved in his writings, and was no doubt in a considerable degree due to his striking appearance and fine voice. He is described as "a tall, athletic man, with dark, sallow complexion and commanding features; long, glossy black hair, and an obvious squint." Soon after removing to a new church in Regent Square he began to develop his views relative to the near approach of the Second Advent; and his Homilies on the Sacraments involved him in a charge of heretical views on the person of Christ, which resulted in his ejection from his church, and ultimately in his deposition from the ministry. Thereafter his views as to the revival, as in the early Church, of the gifts of healing and of tongues, to which, however, he made no personal claim, underwent rapid development, and resulted in the founding of a new communion, the Catholic Apostolic Church, the adherents of which are commonly known as "Irvingites." Whether right or mistaken in his views there can be no doubt of the personal sincerity and nobility of the man. His pub. writings include For the Oracles of God, For Judgment to Come, and The Last Days, and contain many passages of majestic eloquence.
IRVING, WASHINGTON (1783-1859).—Essayist and historian, b. in New York, s. of William I. who had emigrated from Scotland. He was in his youth delicate, and his education was somewhat desultory, but his f. had a fine library, of which he had the run, and he was an omnivorous reader. In 1799 he entered a law office, but a threatening of consumption led to his going, in 1804, on a European tour in search of health. On his return in 1806 he was admitted to the Bar. He did not, however, prosecute law, but joined his brothers in business as a sleeping partner, while he devoted himself to literature. In 1807 he conducted Salmagundi, an amusing miscellany, and in 1809 appeared A History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker, a burlesque upon the old Dutch settlers, which has become a classic in America. He made in 1815 a second visit to Europe, from which he did not return for 17 years. In England he was welcomed by Thomas Campbell, the poet, who introduced him to Scott, whom he visited at Abbotsford in 1817. The following year the firm with which he was connected failed, and he had to look to literature for a livelihood. He produced The Sketch-Book (1819), which was, through the influence of Scott, accepted by Murray, and had a great success on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1822 he went to Paris, where he began Bracebridge Hall, followed in 1824 by Tales of a Traveller. In 1826 Everett, the American minister at Madrid, invited him to come and assist him by making translations relative to Columbus, which opened up to him a new field hitherto little cultivated. The result was a series of fascinating historical and romantic works, beginning with History of the Life and Voyages of Columbus (1828), and including The Conquest of Granada (1829), Voyages of the Companions of Columbus (1831), The Alhambra (1832), Legends of the Conquest of Spain (1835), and Mahomet and his Successors (1849). Meanwhile he had returned to England in 1829, and to America in 1832. In 1842 he was appointed Minister to Spain, and in 1846 he finally returned to America. In the same year he pub. a Life of Goldsmith, and his great work, the Life of Washington, came out 1855-59, Wolfert's Roost, a collection of tales and essays, appeared in 1855. I. was never m.: in his youth he had been engaged to a girl who d., and whose memory he faithfully cherished. His last years were spent at Sunnyside, an old Dutch house near his "sleepy hollow," and there he d. suddenly on Nov. 28, 1859. Though not, perhaps, a writer of commanding power or originality, I., especially in his earlier works, imparted by his style and treatment a singular charm to every subject he touched, and holds a high place among American men of letters, among whom he is the first who has produced what has, on its own merits, living interest in literature. He was a man of high character and amiable disposition.
JAMES I., KING of SCOTLAND (1394-1437).—Poet, the third s. of Robert III., was b. at Dunfermline. In 1406 he was sent for safety and education to France, but on the voyage was taken prisoner by an English ship, and conveyed to England, where until 1824 he remained confined in various places, but chiefly in the Tower of London. He was then ransomed and, after his marriage to Lady Jane or Joan Beaufort, dau. of the Duke of Somerset, and the heroine of The King's Quhair (or Book), crowned at Scone. While in England he had been carefully ed., and on his return to his native country endeavoured to reduce its turbulent nobility to due subjection, and to introduce various reforms. His efforts, however, which do not appear to have been always marked by prudence, ended disastrously in his assassination in the monastery of the Black Friars, Perth, in February, 1437. J. was a man of great natural capacity both intellectual and practical—an ardent student and a poet of no mean order. In addition to The King's Quhair, one of the finest love poems in existence, and A Ballad of Good Counsel, which are very generally attributed to him, he has been more doubtfully credited with Peeblis to the Play and Christis Kirke on the Greene.
JAMES, GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD (1801-1860).—Novelist and historical writer, s. of a physician in London, was for many years British Consul at various places in the United States and on the Continent. At an early age he began to write romances, and continued his production with such industry that his works reach to 100 vols. This excessive rapidity was fatal to his permanent reputation; but his books had considerable immediate popularity. Among them are Richelieu (1829), Philip Augustus (1831), The Man at Arms (1840), The Huguenot (1838), The Robber, Henry of Guise (1839), Agincourt (1844), The King's Highway (1840). In addition to his novels he wrote Memoirs of Great Commanders, a Life of the Black Prince, and other historical and biographical works. He held the honorary office of Historiographer Royal.
JAMESON, MRS. ANNA BROWNELL (MURPHY) (1794-1860).—Writer on art, dau. of Denis B.M., a distinguished miniature painter, m. Robert Jameson, a barrister (afterwards Attorney-General of Ontario). The union, however, did not turn out happily: a separation took place, and Mrs. J. turned her attention to literature, and specially to subjects connected with art. Among many other works she produced Loves of the Poets (1829), Celebrated Female Sovereigns (1831), Beauties of the Court of Charles II. (1833), Rubens (translated from the German), Hand Book to the Galleries of Art, Early Italian Painters, Sacred and Legendary Art (1848), etc. Her works show knowledge and discrimination and, though now in many respects superseded, still retain interest and value.
JEBB, SIR RICHARD CLAVERHOUSE (1841-1905).—B. at Dundee, and ed. at St. Columba's Coll., Dublin, Charterhouse, and Camb., at the last of which he lectured on the classics, and was in 1869 elected Public Orator. After being Prof. of Greek at Glasgow, he held from 1889 the corresponding chair at Camb., and for a time represented the Univ. in Parliament. He was one of the founders of the British School of Archaeology at Athens. Among his works are The Attic Orators, An Introduction to Homer, Lectures on Greek Poetry, Life of Richard Bentley (English Men of Letters Series), and he ed. the works of Sophocles, and the Poems and Fragments of Bacchylides, discovered in 1896. J. was one of the most brilliant of modern scholars.
JEFFERIES, RICHARD (1848-1887).—Naturalist and novelist, s. of a farmer, was b. at Swindon, Wilts. He began his literary career on the staff of a local newspaper, and first attracted attention by a letter in the Times on the Wiltshire labourer. Thereafter he wrote for the Pall Mall Gazette, in which appeared his Gamekeeper at Home, and Wild Life in a Southern County (1879), both afterwards repub. Both these works are full of minute observation and vivid description of country life. They were followed by The Amateur Poacher (1880), Wood Magic (1881), Round about a Great Estate (1881), The Open Air (1885), and others on similar subjects. Among his novels are Bevis, in which he draws on his own childish memories, and After London, or Wild England (1885), a romance of the future, when London has ceased to exist. The Story of My Heart (1883) is an idealised picture of his inner life. J. d. after a painful illness, which lasted for six years. In his own line, that of depicting with an intense sense for nature all the elements of country and wild life, vegetable and animal, surviving in the face of modern civilisation, he has had few equals. Life by E. Thomas.
JEFFREY, FRANCIS (1773-1850).—Critic and political writer, s. of a legal official, b. in Edinburgh, ed. at the High School there, and at Glasgow and Oxf., where, however, he remained for a few months only. Returning to Edinburgh he studied law, and was called to the Bar in 1794. Brought up as a Tory, he early imbibed Whig principles, and this, in the then political state of Scotland, together with his strong literary tendencies, long hindered his professional advancement. Gradually, however, his ability, acuteness, and eloquence carried him to the front of his profession. He was elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates in 1829 and, on the accession to power of the Whigs in 1830, became Lord Advocate, and had a large share in passing the Reform Bill, in so far as it related to Scotland. In 1832 he was elected M.P. for Edinburgh, and was raised to the Bench as Lord Jeffrey in 1834. His literary fame rests on his work in connection with the Edinburgh Review, which he edited from its commencement in 1802 until 1829, and to which he was a constant contributor. The founding of this periodical by a group of young men of brilliant talents and liberal sympathies, among whom were Brougham, Sydney Smith, and F. Horner, constituted the opening of a new epoch in the literary and political progress of the country. J.'s contributions ranged over literary criticism, biography, politics, and ethics and, especially in respect of the first, exercised a profound influence; he was, in fact, regarded as the greatest literary critic of his age, and although his judgments have been far from universally supported either by the event or by later critics, it remains true that he probably did more than any of his contemporaries to diffuse a love of literature, and to raise the standard of public taste in such matters. A selection of his papers, made by himself, was pub. in 4 vols. in 1844 and 1853. J. was a man of brilliant conversational powers, of vast information and sparkling wit, and was universally admired and beloved for the uprightness and amiability of his character.
JERROLD, DOUGLAS WILLIAM (1803-1857).—Dramatist and miscellaneous writer, s. of an actor, himself appeared as a child upon the stage. From his 10th to his 12th year he was at sea. He then became apprentice to a printer, devoting all his spare time to self-education. He early began to contribute to periodicals, and in his 18th year he was engaged by the Coburg Theatre as a writer of short dramatic pieces. In 1829 he made a great success by his drama of Black-eyed Susan, which he followed up by The Rent Day, Bubbles of the Day, Time works Wonders, etc. In 1840 he became ed. of a publication, Heads of the People, to which Thackeray was a contributor, and in which some of the best of his own work appeared. He was one of the leading contributors to Punch, in which Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures came out, and from 1852 he ed. Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper. Among his novels are St. Giles and St. James, and The Story of a Feather. J. had a great reputation as a wit, was a genial and kindly man, and a favourite with his fellow litterateurs, who raised a fund of L2000 for his family on his death.
JESSE, JOHN HENEAGE (1815-1874).—Historical writer, ed. at Eton, was a clerk in the Admiralty. He wrote Memoirs of the Court of England, of G. Selwyn and his contemporaries (1843), of the Pretender (1845), etc., and Celebrated Etonians (1875).
JEVONS, WILLIAM STANLEY (1835-1882).—Logician and economist, b. in Liverpool, s. of an iron merchant, his mother was the dau. of W. Roscoe (q.v.). He was ed. at the Mechanics Institute High School, Liverpool, and at University Coll., London. After studying chemistry for some time he received in 1853 the appointment of assayer to the mint at Sydney, where he remained until 1859, when he resigned his appointment, and came home to study mathematics and economics. While in Australia he had been a contributor to the Empire newspaper, and soon after his return home he pub. Remarks on the Australian Goldfields, wrote in various scientific periodicals, and from time to time pub. important papers on economical subjects. The position which he had attained as a scientific thinker and writer was recognised by his being appointed in 1863 tutor, and in 1866, Prof. of Logic, Political Economy, and Mental and Moral Philosophy in Owen's Coll., Manchester. In 1864 he pub. Pure Logic and The Coal Question; other works were Elementary Lessons in Logic (1870), Principles of Science (1874), and Investigations in Currency and Finance (1884), posthumously. His valuable and promising life was brought to a premature close by his being drowned while bathing. His great object in his writings was to place logic and economics in the position of exact sciences, and in all his work he showed great industry and care combined with unusual analytical power.
JEWSBURY, GERALDINE ENDSOR (1812-1880).—Novelist, wrote several novels, of which Zoe, The Half-Sisters, and Constance Herbert may be mentioned. She also wrote stories for children, and was a contributor to various magazines.
JOHN of SALISBURY (1120?-1180?).—B. at Salisbury, studied at Paris. He became sec. to Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury, and retained the office under Becket. In 1176 he was made Bishop of Chartres. He wrote in Latin, in 8 books, Polycraticus, seu De Nugis Curialium et Vestigiis Philosophorum (on the Trifles of the Courtiers, and the Footsteps of the Philosophers). In it he treats of pastimes, flatterers, tyrannicide, the duties of kings and knights, virtue and vice, glory, and the right of the Church to remove kings if in its opinion they failed in their duty. He also wrote a Life of Anselm. He was one of the greatest scholars of the Middle Ages.
JOHNSON, LIONEL (1867-1902).—Poet and critic. Ireland and other Poems (2 vols.) (1897), The Art of Thomas Hardy, and miscellaneous critical works.
JOHNSON, SAMUEL (1649-1703).—Political writer, sometimes called "the Whig" to distinguish him from his great namesake. Of humble extraction, he was ed. at St. Paul's School and Camb., and took orders. He attacked James II. in Julian the Apostate (1682), and was imprisoned. He continued, however, his attacks on the Government by pamphlets, and did much to influence the public mind in favour of the Revolution. Dryden gave him a place in Absalom and Achitophel as "Benjochanan." After the Revolution he received a pension, but considered himself insufficiently rewarded by a Deanery, which he declined.
JOHNSON, SAMUEL (1709-1784).—Moralist, essayist, and lexicographer, s. of a bookseller at Lichfield, received his early education at his native town, and went in 1728 to Oxf., but had, owing to poverty, to leave without taking a degree. For a short time he was usher in a school at Market Bosworth, but found the position so irksome that he threw it up, and gained a meagre livelihood by working for a publisher in Birmingham. In 1735, being then 26, he m. Mrs. Porter, a widow of over 40, who brought him L800, and to whom he was sincerely attached. He started an academy at Ediol, near Lichfield, which, however, had no success, only three boys, one of whom was David Garrick (q.v.), attending it. Accordingly, this venture was given up, and J. in 1737 went to London accompanied by Garrick. Here he had a hard struggle with poverty, humiliation, and every kind of evil, always, however, quitting himself like the true man he was. He contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine, furnishing the parliamentary debates in very free and generally much improved form, under the title of "Debates of the Senate of Lilliput." In 1738 appeared London, a satire imitated from Juvenal which, pub. anonymously, attracted immediate attention, and the notice of Pope. His next work was the life of his unfortunate friend Savage (q.v.) (1744); and in 1747 he began his great English Dictionary. Another satire, The Vanity of Human Wishes, appeared in 1749, and in the same year Irene, a tragedy. His next venture was the starting of the Rambler, a paper somewhat on the lines of the Spectator; but, sententious and grave, it had none of the lightness and grace of its model, and likewise lacked its popularity. It was almost solely the work of J. himself, and was carried on twice a week for two years. In 1752 his wife, "his dear Tetty" d., and was sincerely mourned; and in 1755 his Dictionary appeared. The patronage of Lord Chesterfield (q.v.), which he had vainly sought, was then offered, but proudly rejected in a letter which has become a classic. The work made him famous, and Oxf. conferred upon him the degree of M.A. He had become the friend of Reynolds and Goldsmith; Burke and others were soon added. The Idler, a somewhat less ponderous successor of the Rambler, appeared in 1758-60, and Rasselas, his most popular work, was written in 1759 to meet the funeral expenses of his mother, who then d. at the age of 90. At last the tide of his fortunes turned. A pension of L300 was conferred upon him in 1762, and the rest of his days were spent in honour, and such comfort as the melancholy to which he was subject permitted. In 1763 he made the acquaintance, so important for posterity, of James Boswell; and it was probably in the same year that he founded his famous "literary club." In 1764 he was introduced to Mr. Thrale, a wealthy brewer, and for many years spent much of his time, an honoured guest, in his family. The kindness and attentions of Mrs. T., described by Carlyle as "a bright papilionaceous creature, whom the elephant loved to play with, and wave to and fro upon his trunk," were a refreshment and solace to him. In 1765 his ed. of Shakespeare came out, and his last great work was the Lives of the Poets, in 10 vols. (1779-81). He had in 1775 pub. his Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland, an account of a tour made in the company of Boswell. His last years were darkened by the loss of friends such as Goldsmith and Thrale, and by an estrangement from Mrs. T., on her marriage with Piozzi, an Italian musician. Notwithstanding a lifelong and morbid fear of death, his last illness was borne with fortitude and calmness, soothed by the pious attentions of Reynolds and Burke, and he d. peacefully on December 13, 1784. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and a monument in St. Paul's was erected by the "club." Statues of him were also erected in Lichfield and Uttoxeter. He had received from Oxf. and Dublin the degree of LL.D.
Though of rough and domineering manners, J. had the tenderest of hearts, and his house was for years the home of several persons, such as Mrs. Williams and Levett, the surgeon, who had no claim upon him but their helplessness and friendlessness. As Goldsmith aptly said, he "had nothing of the bear but his skin." His outstanding qualities were honesty and courage, and these characterise all his works. Though disfigured by prejudice and, as regards matters of fact, in many parts superseded, they remain, as has been said, "some excellent, all worthy and genuine works;" and he will ever stand one of the greatest and most honourable figures in the history of English literature. Boswell's marvellous Life has made J.'s bodily appearance, dress, and manners more familiar to posterity than those of any other man—the large, unwieldy form, the face seamed with scrofula, the purblind eyes, the spasmodic movements, the sonorous voice, even the brown suit, metal buttons, black worsted stockings, and bushy wig, the conversation so full of matter, strength, sense, wit, and prejudice, superior in force and sparkle to the sounding, but often wearisome periods of his written style. Of his works the two most important are the Dictionary, which, long superseded from a philological point of view, made an epoch in the history of the language, and the Lives of the Poets, many of them deformed by prejudice and singularly inadequate criticism, others, almost perfect in their kind, and the whole written in a style less pompous and more natural and lively than his earlier works.
SUMMARY.—B. 1709, ed. Oxf., usher and hack writer, starts academy at Ediol, goes to London 1737, reports parliamentary debates, pub. London 1738, Life of Savage 1744, began Dictionary 1747, pub. Vanity of Human Wishes and Irene 1749, conducts Rambler 1750-52, pub. Dictionary 1755, Idler appears 1758-60, pub. Rasselas 1759, receives pension 1762, became acquainted with Boswell 1763, pub. ed. of Shakespeare 1765, and Lives of Poets 1779-81, d. 1784.
Recollections, etc., by Mrs. Piozzi, Reynolds, and others, also Johnsoniana (Mrs. Napier, 1884), Boswell's Life, various ed., including that of Napier, 1884, and Birkbeck Hill, 1889.
JOHNSTON, ARTHUR (c. 1587-1641).—Poet in Latin, b. near Aberdeen, studied medicine at Padua, where he graduated. After living for about 20 years in France, he returned to England, became physician to Charles I., and was afterwards Rector of King's Coll., Aberdeen. He attained a European reputation as a writer of Latin poetry. Among his works are Musae Aulicae (1637), and a complete translation of the Psalms, and he ed. Deliciae Poetarum Scotorum, a collection of Latin poetry by Scottish authors.
JOHNSTONE, CHARLES (1719?-1800).—Novelist. Prevented by deafness from practising at the Irish Bar, he went to India, where he was proprietor of a newspaper. He wrote one successful book, Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea, a somewhat sombre satire, and some others now utterly forgotten.
JONES, EBENEZER (1820-1860).—Poet, wrote a good deal of poetry of very unequal merit, but at his best shows a true poetic vein. He was befriended by Browning and Rossetti. His chief work was Studies of Sensation and Event (1843). His most widely appreciated poems were "To the Snow," "To Death," and "When the World is Burning." He made an unhappy marriage, which ended in a separation.
JONES, ERNEST CHARLES (1819-1869).—Poet, novelist, and Chartist, s. of Major J., equerry to the Duke of Cumberland, afterwards King of Hanover, was b. at Berlin. He adopted the views of the Chartists in an extreme form, and was imprisoned for two years for seditious speeches, and on his release conducted a Chartist newspaper. Afterwards, when the agitation had died down, he returned to his practice as a barrister, which he had deserted, and also wrote largely. He produced a number of novels, including The Maid of Warsaw, Woman's Wrongs, and The Painter of Florence, also some poems, The Battle Day (1855), The Revolt of Hindostan (1857), and Corayda (1859). Some of his lyrics, such as The Song of the Poor, The Song of the Day Labourers, and The Factory Slave, were well known.
JONES, SIR WILLIAM (1746-1794).—Orientalist and jurist, was b. in London, and ed. at Harrow and Oxf. He lost his f., an eminent mathematician, at 3 years of age. He early showed extraordinary aptitude for acquiring languages, specially those of the East, and learned 28. Devoting himself to the study of law he became one of the most profound jurists of his time. He was appointed one of the Judges in the Supreme Court of Bengal, knighted in 1783, and started for India, whence he never returned. While there, in addition to his judicial duties, he pursued his studies in Oriental languages, from which he made various translations. Among his original works are The Enchanted Fruit, and A Treatise on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India. He founded the Bengal Asiatic Society. He left various works unfinished which, with his other writings, were coll. and ed. by Lord Teignmouth. He d. universally beloved and honoured at the early age of 48. His chief legal work was The Institutes of Hindu Law or the Ordinances of Manu.
JONSON, BEN or BENJAMIN (1573-1637).—Poet and dramatist, was probably b. in Westminster. His f., who d. before Ben was four, seems to have come from Carlisle, and the family to have originally belonged to Annandale. He was sent to Westminster School, for which he seems to have been indebted to the kindness of W. Camden (q.v.), who was one of the masters. His mother, meanwhile, had m. a bricklayer, and he was for a time put to that trade, but disliking it, he ran away and joined the army, fighting against the Spaniards in the Low Countries. Returning to England about 1592 he took to the stage, both as an actor and as a playwright. In the former capacity he was unsuccessful. In 1598, having killed a fellow-actor in a duel, he was tried for murder, but escaped by benefit of clergy. About the same time he joined the Roman Catholic Church, in which he remained for 12 years. It was in 1598 also that his first successful play, Every Man in his Humour, was produced, with Shakespeare as one of the players. Every Man out of his Humour (1599), Cynthia's Revels (1600), and The Poetaster (1601), satirising the citizens, the courtiers, and the poets respectively, followed. The last called forth several replies, the most notable of which was the Satiromastix (Whip for the Satirist) of Dekker (q.v.), a severe, though not altogether unfriendly, retort, which J. took in good part, announcing his intention of leaving off satire and trying tragedy. His first work in this kind was Sejanus (1603), which was not very favourably received. It was followed by Eastward Ho, in which he collaborated with Marston and Chapman. Certain reflections on Scotland gave offence to James I., and the authors were imprisoned, but soon released. From the beginning of the new reign J. devoted himself largely to the writing of Court masques, in which he excelled all his contemporaries, and about the same time entered upon the production of the three great plays in which his full strength is shown. The first of these, Volpone, or the Fox, appeared in 1605; Epicaene, or the Silent Woman in 1609, and The Alchemist in 1610. His second and last tragedy, Catiline, was produced in 1611. Two years later he was in France as companion to the son of Sir W. Raleigh, and on his return he held up hypocritical Puritanism to scorn in Bartholomew Fair, which was followed in 1616 by a comedy, The Devil is an Ass. In the same year he coll. his writings—plays, poems, and epigrams—in a folio entitled his Works. In 1618 he journeyed on foot to Scotland, where he was received with much honour, and paid his famous visit to Drummond (q.v.) at Hawthornden. His last successful play, The Staple of Newes, was produced in 1625, and in the same year he had his first stroke of palsy, from which he never entirely recovered. His next play, The New Inn, was driven from the stage, for which in its rapid degeneracy he had become too learned and too moral. A quarrel with Inigo Jones, the architect, who furnished the machinery for the Court masques, lost him Court favour, and he was obliged, with failing powers, to turn again to the stage, for which his last plays, The Magnetic Lady and The Tale of a Tub, were written in 1632 and 1633. Town and Court favour, however, turned again, and he received a pension of L100; that of the best poets and lovers of literature he had always kept. The older poets were his friends, the younger were proud to call themselves, and be called by him, his sons. In 1637, after some years of gradually failing health, he d., and was buried in Westminster Abbey. An admirer caused a mason to cut on the slab over his grave the well-known inscription, "O Rare Ben Jonson." He left a fragment, The Sad Shepherd. His works include a number of epigrams and translations, collections of poems (Underwoods and The Forest); in prose a book of short essays and notes on various subjects, Discoveries.
J. was the founder of a new style of English comedy, original, powerful, and interesting, but lacking in spontaneity and nature. His characters tend to become mere impersonations of some one quality or "humour," as he called it. Thus he is the herald, though a magnificent one, of decadence. He painted in general with a powerful, but heavy hand; in his masques, however, he often shows a singular gracefulness, especially in the lyrics which he introduces. His character, as given by Drummond, is not a particularly attractive one, "a great lover and praiser of himself, a contemner and scorner of others, given rather to lose a friend than a jest, jealous of every word and action of those about him, especially after drink ... a dissembler of ill parts which reign in him, a bragger of some good that he wanteth ... passionately kind and angry ... oppressed with fantasy which hath ever mastered his reason." There must, however, have been far other qualities in a man who could command, as J. undoubtedly did, the goodwill and admiration of so many of the finest minds of his time. In person he was tall, swarthy, marked with small-pox, and in later years burly.
SUMMARY.—B. 1573, ed. Westminster School, serves in Low Countries, returns to England 1592, and takes to stage, kills actor in brawl 1598, a Romanist c. 1598-c. 1610, Every Man in his Humour 1598, Every Man out of his Humour 1599, and other plays till 1633, coll. works pub. 1616, visits Drummond 1618, loses and recovers Court favour, d. 1637.
Among the ed. of J.'s works may be mentioned those of Gifford (9 vols., 1816), re-issued (1875), selected plays Mermaid Series (3 vols., 1893-5), Morley (1884), and Symonds (1886). Lives and studies by Symonds (English Worthies), and Swinburne (1890).
JORTIN, JOHN (1698-1770).—Ecclesiastical historian, ed. at Camb., and entering the Church held various benefices, becoming in 1764 Archdeacon of London. He pub. Remarks on Ecclesiastical History (1751-54), a Life of Erasmus, and various miscellaneous pamphlets and tracts; 7 vols. of sermons appeared after his death. All his works show learning, and are written in a lively style.
JOWETT, BENJAMIN (1817-1893).—Scholar, was b. at Camberwell, and ed. at St. Paul's School and Balliol Coll., where he had a distinguished career, becoming Fellow 1838, Tutor 1840, and Master 1870. He held the Regius Professorship of Greek 1855-93, though for the first 10 years he was, owing to the opposition of his theological opponents in the Univ., deprived of a large part of the usual emoluments. He was a keen and formidable controversialist, and was usually found on what was, for the time, the unpopular side. His contribution (an essay on The Interpretation of Scripture) to the famous Essays and Reviews, which appeared in 1860, brought him into strong collision with powerful sections of theological opinion, to which he had already given offence by his commentaries on the Epistles to the Thessalonians, Galatians, and Romans. His views were, indeed, generally considered to be extremely latitudinarian. Latterly he exercised an extraordinary influence in the Univ., and was held in reverence by his pupils, many of whom have risen to eminence. His chief works are translations, with learned introductions, of The Dialogues of Plato, of Thucydides, and of the Politics of Aristotle. He also, in conjunction with Prof. Campbell, brought out an ed. of The Republic of Plato. He held the degree of LL.D. from the Univ. of Edin. (1884), and Camb. (1890), and Doctor of Theology of Leyden (1875).
JUDD, SYLVESTER (1813-1853).—Novelist, b. at Westhampton, Mass., studied for the ministry at Yale, and became a Unitarian pastor. He pub. Philo, a religious poem, followed by Margaret, a Tale of the Real and the Ideal (1845), Richard Edney, A Rus-Urban Tale (1850). He also produced some theological works. His work is very unequal, but often, as in Margaret, contains fine and true descriptive passages both of nature and character.
KAMES, HENRY HOME, LORD (1696-1782).—Miscellaneous writer, s. of Geo. H., of Kames, Berwickshire, was admitted an advocate in 1723, and raised to the Bench in 1752. In 1748 he pub. a collection of Decisions of the Court of Session. It is, however, on his philosophical and historical writings that his literary fame rests. His writings include Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion (1751), The Elements of Criticism (1762), in which he sought for principles based on the elements of human nature; Sketches of the History of Man (1774), and Loose Hints on Education, in which many modern views are anticipated. In all these works, while the style is stiff and crabbed, there is much original thought. Lord K. was also an eminent authority upon agriculture, on which he in 1777 pub. a work entitled The Gentleman Farmer.
KAVANAGH, JULIA (1824-1877).—Novelist, dau. of Morgan K., poet, and philologist, wrote many novels, of which the scene is usually in France, among which are Madeleine (1848), Adele, and Daisy Burns; also biographical works, Woman in France in the 18th Century (1850), etc.
KAYE, SIR JOHN WILLIAM (1814-1876).—Historian and biographer, s. of a London solicitor, was ed. at Eton and Addiscombe. After serving for some time in the Bengal Artillery, he succeeded J.S. Mill as sec. to the political and secret department in the East India Office. His first literary work was a novel pub. in 1845, and he then began his valuable series of histories and biographies illustrative of the British occupation of India, including The War in Afghanistan (1851), and The Sepoy War in India, which he did not live to finish, and which was completed by G.B. Malleson as The History of the Indian Mutiny (6 vols., 1890); also histories of the East India Company and of Christianity in India, and Lives of Sir John Malcolm and other Indian soldiers and statesmen. All his writings are characterised by painstaking research, love of truth, and a style suited to the importance of his subjects. He was made K.C.S.I. in 1871.
KEARY, ANNIE (1825-1879).—Novelist, wrote some good novels, including Castle Daly, A Doubting Heart, and Oldbury, also books for children and educational works.
KEATS, JOHN (1795-1821).—Poet, s. of the chief servant at an inn in London, who m. his master's dau., and d. a man of some substance. He was sent to a school at Enfield, and having meanwhile become an orphan, was in 1810 apprenticed to a surgeon at Edmonton. In 1815 he went to London to walk the hospitals. He was not, however, at all enthusiastic in his profession, and having become acquainted with Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt, Shelley, and others, he gave himself more and more to literature. His first work—some sonnets—appeared in Hunt's Examiner, and his first book, Poems, came out in 1817. This book, while containing much that gave little promise of what was to come, was not without touches of beauty and music, but it fell quite flat, finding few readers beyond his immediate circle. Endymion, begun during a visit to the Isle of Wight, appeared in 1818, and was savagely attacked in Blackwood and the Quarterly Review. These attacks, though naturally giving pain to the poet, were not, as was alleged at the time, the cause of his health breaking down, as he was possessed of considerable confidence in his own powers, and his claim to immortality as a poet. Symptoms of hereditary consumption, however, began to show themselves and, in the hope of restored health, he made a tour in the Lakes and Scotland, from which he returned to London none the better. The death soon after of his brother Thomas, whom he had helped to nurse, told upon his spirits, as did also his unrequited passion for Miss Fanny Brawne. In 1820 he pub. Lamia and Other Poems, containing Isabella, Eve of St. Agnes, Hyperion, and the odes to the Nightingale and The Grecian Urn, all of which had been produced within a period of about 18 months. This book was warmly praised in the Edinburgh Review. His health had by this time completely given way, and he was likewise harassed by narrow means and hopeless love. He had, however, the consolation of possessing many warm friends, by some of whom, the Hunts and the Brawnes, he was tenderly nursed. At last in 1821 he set out, accompanied by his friend Severn, on that journey to Italy from which he never returned. After much suffering he d. at Rome, and was buried in the Protestant cemetery there. The character of K. was much misunderstood until the publication by R.M. Milnes, afterwards Lord Houghton (q.v.), of his Life and Letters, which gives an attractive picture of him. This, together with the accounts of other friends, represent him as "eager, enthusiastic, and sensitive, but humorous, reasonable, and free from vanity, affectionate, a good brother and friend, sweet-tempered, and helpful." In his political views he was liberal, in his religious, indefinite. Though in his life-time subjected to much harsh and unappreciative criticism, his place among English poets is now assured. His chief characteristics are intense, sensuous imagination, and love of beauty, rich and picturesque descriptive power, and exquisitely melodious versification.
Life, Letters, etc., by R.M. Milnes (1848), Poems and Letters (Forman, 5 vols., 1900). Keats (Men of Letters Series, Colvin, 1887), etc. Poems (1817), Endymion (1818), Lamia and Other Poems (1820).
KEBLE, JOHN (1792-1866).—Poet and divine, s. of the Rev. John K., Vicar of Coln St. Aldwyn's, Gloucestershire, b. at Fairford in the same county, ed. by his f. and at Oxf., where he was elected a Fellow of Oriel Coll., and was for some years tutor and examiner in the Univ. His ideal life, however, was that of a country clergyman, and having taken orders in 1815, he became curate to his f. Meantime he had been writing The Christian Year, which appeared in 1827, and met with an almost unparalleled acceptance. Though at first anonymous, its authorship soon became known, with the result that K. was in 1831 appointed to the Chair of Poetry at Oxf., which he held until 1841. In 1833 his famous sermon on "national apostasy" gave the first impulse to the Oxf. movement, of which, after the secession of Newman to the Church of Rome, he, along with Pusey, was regarded as the leader, and in connection with which he contributed several of the more important "tracts" in which were enforced "deep submission to authority, implicit reverence for Catholic tradition, firm belief in the divine prerogatives of the priesthood, the real nature of the sacraments, and the danger of independent speculation." His f. having d., K. became in 1836 Vicar of Hursley, near Winchester, where he remained until his death. In 1846 he pub. another book of poems, Lyra Innocentium. Other works were a Life of Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, and an ed. of the Works of Hooker. After his death appeared Letters of Spiritual Counsel, and 12 vols. of Parish Sermons. The literary position of K. must mainly rest upon The Christian Year, Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays, and Holidays throughout the Year, the object of which was, as described by the author, to bring the thoughts and feelings of the reader into unison with those exemplified in the Prayer Book. The poems, while by no means of equal literary merit, are generally characterised by delicate and true poetic feeling, and refined and often extremely felicitous language; and it is a proof of the fidelity to nature with which its themes are treated that the book has become a religious classic with readers far removed from the author's ecclesiastical standpoint and general school of thought. K. was one of the most saintly and unselfish men who ever adorned the Church of England, and, though personally shy and retiring, exercised a vast spiritual influence upon his generation.
Life by J.D. Coleridge (1869), another by Rev. W. Lock (1895).
KEIGHTLEY, THOMAS (1789-1872).—Historian, ed. at Trinity Coll., Dublin, wrote works on mythology and folklore, and at the request of Dr. Arnold of Rugby, a series of text-books on English, Greek, and other histories. His History of Greece was translated into modern Greek. Among his other books are Fairy Mythology (1850), and Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy, and a work on Popular Tales and their transmission from one country to another.
KEITH, ROBERT (1681-1757).—Historian, b. in Kincardineshire, belonged to the family of the Earls Marischal, and was Bishop of Fife in the Scottish Episcopal Church. He was deeply versed in Scottish antiquities, and pub. History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland during the Reformation. He also compiled A Catalogue of the Bishops of Scotland (1755).
KELLY, HUGH (1739-1777).—Dramatist, s. of a Dublin publican, worked in London as a staymaker, 1760, and after ed. various journals, wrote Memoirs of a Magdalen (1767). His play, False Delicacy (1768), had an extraordinary success, and was translated into French, German, and Portuguese. His other plays had no great success. He left off writing for the stage in 1774, and endeavoured to practise as a barrister, but without success. He also wrote political pamphlets, for which he received a pension from Government.
KEN, THOMAS (1637-1711).—Religious writer, s. of an attorney, was b. at Little Berkhampstead, ed. at Winchester and Oxf., and entering the Church received the living of Brightstone, Isle of Wight, where he composed his Morning, Evening, and Midnight Hymns, perhaps the most widely known of English hymns. These he was accustomed to sing daily to the lute. After holding other benefices he became Bishop of Bath and Wells, and a Chaplain to Charles II. He was one of the "Seven Bishops" sent to the Tower by James II. Refusing to take the oaths to William and Mary, he was deprived, and spent his later years in comparative poverty, though he found an asylum at Longleat with Lord Weymouth. Izaak Walton was his brother-in-law. K. wrote a manual of prayers for Winchester School, and other devotional works.
KENNEDY, JOHN PENDLETON (1795-1870).—Novelist, b. in Baltimore, was distinguished as a lawyer and politician. He wrote three novels, Swallow Barn (1832), Horse Shoe Robinson (1835), and Rob of the Bowl (1838), which give a vivid presentation of life in the Southern States.
KENNEDY, WALTER (fl. 1500).—S. of Lord K., was ed. at Glasgow, and is perhaps best known as Dunbar's antagonist in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy. Other poems are Praise of Aige (Age), Ane Ballat in Praise of Our Lady, and The Passion of Christ. Most of his work is probably lost.
KILLIGREW, THOMAS (1612-1683).—Dramatist, s. of Sir Robert K., of Hanworth, was a witty, dissolute courtier of Charles II., and wrote nine plays, each in a different city. Of them the best known is The Parson's Wedding.
KING, HENRY (1592-1669).—Poet, s. of a Bishop of London, was ed. at Westminster School and Oxf. He entered the Church, and rose in 1642 to be Bishop of Chichester. The following year he was deprived, but was reinstated at the Restoration. He wrote many elegies on Royal persons and on his private friends, who included Donne and Ben Jonson. A selection from his Poems and Psalms was pub. in 1843.
KINGLAKE, ALEXANDER WILLIAM (1809-1891).—B. near Taunton, ed. at Eton and Camb., was called to the Bar in 1837, and acquired a considerable practice, which in 1856 he abandoned in order to devote himself to literature and public life. His first literary venture had been Eothen, a brilliant and original work of Eastern travel, pub. in 1844; but his magnum opus was his Invasion of the Crimea, in 8 vols. (1863-87), which is one of the most effective works of its class. It has, however, been charged with being too favourable to Lord Raglan, and unduly hostile to Napoleon III., for whom the author had an extreme aversion. Its great length is also against it.
KINGSFORD, WILLIAM (1819-1898).—Historian, b. in London, served in the army, and went to Canada, where he was engaged in surveying work. He has a place in literature for his History of Canada in 10 vols., a work of careful research, though not distinguished for purely literary merits.
KINGSLEY, CHARLES (1819-1875).—Novelist and historian, s. of a clergyman, was b. at Holne Vicarage near Dartmoor, but passed most of his childhood at Barnack in the Fen country, and Clovelly in Devonshire, ed. at King's Coll., London, and Camb. Intended for the law, he entered the Church, and became, in 1842, curate, and two years later rector, of Eversley, Hampshire. In the latter year he pub. The Saints' Tragedy, a drama, of which the heroine is St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Two novels followed, Yeast (1848) and Alton Locke (1850), in which he deals with social questions as affecting the agricultural labouring class, and the town worker respectively. He had become deeply interested in such questions, and threw himself heart and soul, in conjunction with F.D. Maurice and others, into the schemes of social amelioration, which they supported under the name of Christian socialism, contributing many tracts and articles under the signature of "Parson Lot." In 1853 appeared Hypatia, in which the conflict of the early Christians with the Greek philosophy of Alexandria is depicted; it was followed in 1855 by Westward Ho, perhaps his most popular work; in 1857 by Two Years Ago, and in 1866 by Hereward the Wake. At Last (1870), gave his impressions of a visit to the West Indies. His taste for natural history found expression in Glaucus, or the Wonders of the Shore (1855), and other works. The Water Babies is a story for children written to inspire love and reverence of Nature. K. was in 1860 appointed to the Professorship of Modern History at Camb., which he held until 1869. The literary fruit of this was Roman and Teuton (1864). In the same year he was involved in a controversy with J.H. Newman, which resulted in the publication by the latter of his Apologia. K., who had in 1869 been made a Canon of Chester, became Canon of Westminster in 1873. Always of a highly nervous temperament, his over-exertion resulted in repeated failures of health, and he d. in 1875. Though hot-tempered and combative, he was a man of singularly noble character. His type of religion, cheerful and robust, was described as "muscular Christianity." Strenuous, eager, and keen in feeling, he was not either a profoundly learned, or perhaps very impartial, historian, but all his writings are marked by a bracing and manly atmosphere, intense sympathy, and great descriptive power.
KINGSLEY, HENRY (1830-1876).—Novelist, brother of the above, ed. at King's Coll., London, and Oxf., which he left without graduating, and betook himself to the Australian gold-diggings, being afterwards in the mounted police. On his return in 1858 he devoted himself industriously to literature, and wrote a number of novels of much more than average merit, including Geoffrey Hamlyn (1859), The Hillyars and the Burtons (1865), Ravenshoe (1861), and Austin Elliot (1863). Of these Ravenshoe is generally regarded as the best. In 1869 he went to Edinburgh to ed. the Daily Review, but he soon gave this up, and became war correspondent for his paper during the Franco-German War.
KINGSLEY, MARY HENRIETTA (1862-1900).—Traveller, dau. of George Henry K. (himself a traveller, and author of South Sea Bubbles, a very successful book), and niece of Charles K. (q.v.). She travelled in West Africa, where she made valuable observations and collections. Her Travels in West Africa is one of the most original and stimulating books of its class. Miss K. had a singular power of viewing the religious rites of savage peoples from their point of view. She was about to undertake another journey, but stopped to nurse Boer prisoners, and d. of fever.
KINGSTON, WILLIAM HENRY GILES (1814-1880).—Writer of tales for boys, b. in London, but spent much of his youth in Oporto, where his f. was a merchant. His first book, The Circassian Chief, appeared in 1844. His first book for boys, Peter the Whaler, was pub. in 1851, and had such success that he retired from business and devoted himself entirely to the production of this kind of literature, in which his popularity was deservedly great; and during 30 years he wrote upwards of 130 tales, including The Three Midshipmen (1862), The Three Lieutenants (1874), The Three Commanders (1875), The Three Admirals (1877), Digby Heathcote, etc. He also conducted various papers, including The Colonist, and Colonial Magazine and East India Review. He was also interested in emigration, volunteering, and various philanthropic schemes. For services in negotiating a commercial treaty with Portugal he received a Portuguese knighthood, and for his literary labours a Government pension.
KIRKLAND, JOSEPH (1830-1894).—Novelist, b. in New York State, was a lawyer in Chicago, then served in the war. He is remembered as the author of two very vivid and life-like novels of pioneer life in the Far West, Illinois Zury and The McVeys. Other works are The Captain of Company K. and The Story of Chicago.
KITTO, JOHN (1804-1854).—Biblical scholar, s. of a Cornish stonemason, was b. at Plymouth. At the age of 12 a fall led to his becoming totally deaf. From poverty and hardship he was rescued by friends, to whom his mental powers had become known, and the means of education were placed within his reach. By these he profited so remarkably that he became a valuable contributor to Biblical scholarship. He travelled much in the East in the pursuit of his favourite studies. Among his works are Scripture Lands, Daily Bible Illustrations, and The Lost Senses in 2 vols., one dealing with Deafness and the other with Blindness. He also ed. The Pictorial Bible, The Journal of Sacred Literature, The Cyclopaedia of Bible Literature, and contributed to various periodicals. He received a pension of L100 from Government. In 1844 the Univ. of Giessen conferred upon him the degree of D.D.
KNIGHT, CHARLES (1791-1873).—Publisher and writer, b. at Windsor, where his f.. was a bookseller. After serving his apprenticeship with him he went to London, and in 1823 started business as a publisher, and co-operated effectively with Brougham and others in connection with The Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge. He was publisher for the Society, and issued The Penny Magazine, Penny Cyclopaedia, Pictorial History of England, etc. He ed. with success The Pictorial Shakespeare, and was the author of a vol. of essays, Once upon a Time, an autobiography, Passages from a Working Life (1863), a History of the Thirty Years' Peace, which was completed by Miss Harriet Martineau, and various other works.
KNIGHT, HENRY GALLY (1786-1846).—A country gentleman of Yorkshire, ed. at Eton and Camb., was the author of several Oriental tales, Ilderim, a Syrian Tale (1816), Phrosyne, a Grecian Tale, and Alashtar, an Arabian Tale (1817). He was also an authority on architecture, and wrote various works on the subject, including The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy, and The Normans in Sicily, which brought him more reputation than his novels.
KNOLLES, RICHARD (1550?-1610).—Historian, b. at Coldashby, Northamptonshire, and ed. at Oxf., pub. in 1603 The History of the Turks, which went through many ed. Its principal value now is as a piece of fine English of its time, for which it is ranked high by Hallam. K. was master of a school at Sandwich. The History was continued by Sir Paul Rycaut (1628-1700).
KNOWLES, HERBERT (1798-1817).—Poet, author of the well-known Stanzas written in Richmond Churchyard, which gave promise of future excellence. But he d. a few weeks after he had been enabled, through the help of Southey to whom he had sent some of his poems, to go to Camb.
KNOWLES, JAMES SHERIDAN (1784-1862).—Dramatist, s. of James K., schoolmaster and lexicographer, was b. at Cork. He was the author of a ballad, The Welsh Harper, which had great popularity, and gained for him the notice of Hazlitt and others. For some years he studied medicine, which, however, he abandoned for literature, and produced several plays, including Caius Gracchus (1815), Virginius (1820), The Hunchback (1832), and The Love Chase (1837), in some of which he acted. He gave up the stage in 1843, became a preacher in connection with the Baptist communion, and enjoyed great popularity. He pub. two polemical works, The Rock of Rome, and The Idol demolished by its own Priests.
KNOX, JOHN (1505?-1572).—Reformer and historian, was b. near Haddington, and ed. at the Grammar School there and at Glasgow. He is believed to have had some connection with the family of K. of Ranfurly in Renfrewshire. The year of his birth was long believed to be 1505, but of late some writers have found reason to hold that he was really b. some years later, 1510 or even 1513. At Glasgow he was the pupil of John Major (q.v.), and became distinguished as a disputant. He is believed to have been ordained a priest about 1530, after which he went to St. Andrews and taught. About this time, however, there is a gap of 12 years or more, during which almost nothing is known of his life. About 1545 he came under the influence of George Wishart, who was burned as a heretic at St. Andrews in the following year, and embraced the Reformation principles, of which he became a champion on the Continent, in England, and finally and especially in Scotland. He joined the reforming party in St. Andrews in 1547, and was, much against his will, elected their minister. The next year he was made prisoner, sent to France, and condemned to the galleys, where he remained for nearly two years. For the next five years he was in England, chiefly at Newcastle and Berwick, where he was zealously engaged in propagating and defending the reformed doctrines. On the accession of Mary in 1553 K. escaped to the Continent, where he remained—at Dieppe, Frankfort on the Maine, and Geneva—until 1559. During this period, in addition to his pastoral and ecclesiastical activities, he wrote copiously, the best known of his works of that time being his First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment [government] of Women. The first, it proved also the last, as he never produced the other two which he promised or threatened. He finally returned to Scotland in 1559, and was at once the chief actor and the chief narrator of the crowded and pregnant events which culminated in the abdication of Queen Mary and the establishment of Protestantism in Scotland. As minister of the High Church of Edin. K. was at the centre of events, which he probably did more to mould than any other man. As Carlyle says, "He is the one Scotchman to whom, of all others, his country and the world owe a debt." Here, after his long battle with principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places, his triumphs, and disappointments, after growing weakness and becoming "weary of the world," he d. on November 24, 1572. His place in literature he has by virtue of his Historie of the Reformation in Scotland. It extends from 1558-67. Its language is much more English than that spoken and written in Scotland at the time. It is of the highest historical value, and in style terse, vigorous, with flashes of a quiet, somewhat saturnine humour, and of vivid description—the writing of a great man of action dealing with the events in which he had been the leading actor. His own figure and that of the Queen are those round which the drama turns. The leading features of his character were courage and intense earnestness. "Here," said the Regent Morton, "lies a man who never feared the face of man." And with all his sternness there was in him a vein of cordial friendliness and humour. He has been accused of intolerance, and of harshness in his dealings with the Queen. But as Carlyle has said, as regards the second accusation, "They are not so coarse, these speeches; they seem to me about as fine as the circumstances would permit. It was unfortunately not possible to be polite with the Queen of Scotland unless one proved untrue to the nation."
Lives by M'Crie (1812), and Prof. Hume Brown (1895). Works ed. by D. Laing.
KNOX, VICESIMUS (1752-1821).—Essayist, etc., ed. at Oxf., took orders, and became Head Master of Tunbridge School. He pub. Essays Moral and Literary (1778), and compiled the formerly well-known Elegant Extracts, often reprinted.
KNOX, WILLIAM (1789-1825).—Poet, s. of a farmer in Roxburghshire, wrote several books of poetry, The Lonely Hearth, Songs of Israel, Harp of Zion, etc., which gained him the friendship of Scott. He fell into dissipated habits, was latterly a journalist in Edin., and d. at 36.
KYD, THOMAS (1558-1595).—Dramatist, s. of a London scrivener, ed. at Merchant Taylor's School, appears to have led the life of hardship so common with the dramatists of his time, was for a short time imprisoned for "treasonable and Atheistic views," and made translations from the French and Italian. His drama, The Spanish Tragedy (1594), had extraordinary popularity, and was translated into Dutch and German. Some of the scenes are believed to have been contributed by another hand, probably by Ben Jonson. He also produced a play on the story of Hamlet, not now in existence, and he may have written the first draft of Titus Andronicus. Other plays which have been attributed to him are The First Part of Jeronimo (1605), Cornelia (1594), The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune, and The Tragedye of Solyman and Perseda (1599). But, although one of the best known dramatists in his day, very little is now certain either as to his personal history or his works.
LAIDLAW, WILLIAM (1780-1845).—Poet, s. of a border farmer, became steward and amanuensis to Sir W. Scott, and was the author of the beautiful and well-known ballad, Lucy's Flittin'.
LAING, DAVID (1793-1878).—Antiquary, s. of a bookseller in Edin., with whom he was in partnership until his appointment, in 1837, as librarian of the Signet Library. He ed. many of the publications of the Bannatyne Club, of which he was sec. (1823-61). He was also Honorary Prof. of Antiquities to the Royal Scottish Academy. Among the more important works which he ed. were Baillie's Letters and Journals (1841-2), John Knox's Works (1846-64), and the poems of Sir D. Lyndsay, Dunbar, and Henryson.
LAING, MALCOLM (1762-1818).—Was a country gentleman in Orkney. He completed Henry's History of Great Britain, and wrote a History of Scotland from the Union of the Crowns to the Union of the Kingdoms (1802). He was an assailant of the authenticity of the Ossianic poems, and wrote a dissertation on the Participation of Mary Queen of Scots in the Murder of Darnley. He did much to improve the agriculture of Orkney.
LAMB, LADY CAROLINE (1785-1828).—Novelist, dau. of 3rd Earl of Bessborough, m. the Hon. William Lamb, afterwards Lord Melbourne and Prime Minister. She wrote three novels, which, though of little literary value, attracted much attention. The first of these, Glenarvon (1816), contained a caricature portrait of Lord Byron, with whom the authoress had shortly before been infatuated. It was followed by Graham Hamilton (1822), and Ada Reis (1823). Happening to meet the hearse conveying the remains of Byron, she became unconscious, and fell into mental alienation, from which she never recovered.
LAMB, CHARLES (1775-1834).—Essayist and poet, was b. in London, his f. being confidential clerk to Samuel Salt, one of the benchers of the Inner Temple. After being at a school in the neighbourhood, he was sent by the influence of Mr. Salt to Christ's Hospital, where he remained from 1782-89, and where he formed a lifelong friendship with Coleridge. He was then for a year or two in the South Sea House, where his elder brother John was a clerk. Thence he was in 1792 transferred to the India House, where he remained until 1825, when he retired with a pension of two-thirds of his salary. Mr. Salt d. in 1792, and the family, consisting of the f., mother, Charles, and his sister Mary, ten years his senior, lived together in somewhat straitened circumstances. John, comparatively well off, leaving them pretty much to their own resources. In 1796 the tragedy of L.'s life occurred. His sister Mary, in a sudden fit of insanity, killed her mother with a table-knife. Thenceforward, giving up a marriage to which he was looking forward, he devoted himself to the care of his unfortunate sister, who became, except when separated from him by periods of aberration, his lifelong and affectionate companion—the "Cousin Bridget" of his essays. His first literary appearance was a contribution of four sonnets to Coleridge's Poems on Various Subjects (1796). Two years later he pub., along with his friend Charles Lloyd, Blank Verse, the little vol. including The Old Familiar Faces, and others of his best known poems, and his romance, Rosamund Gray, followed in the same year. He then turned to the drama, and produced John Woodvil, a tragedy, and Mr. H., a farce, both failures, for although the first had some echo of the Elizabethan music, it had no dramatic force. Meantime the brother and sister were leading a life clouded by poverty and by the anxieties arising from the condition of the latter, and they moved about from one lodging to another. L.'s literary ventures so far had not yielded much either in money or fame, but in 1807 he was asked by W. Godwin (q.v.) to assist him in his "Juvenile Library," and to this he, with the assistance of his sister, contributed the now famous Tales from Shakespeare, Charles doing the tragedies and Mary the comedies. In 1808 they wrote, again for children, The Adventures of Ulysses, a version of the Odyssey, Mrs. Leicester's School, and Poetry for Children (1809). About the same time he was commissioned by Longman to ed. selections from the Elizabethan dramatists. To the selections were added criticisms, which at once brought him the reputation of being one of the most subtle and penetrating critics who had ever touched the subject. Three years later his extraordinary power in this department was farther exhibited in a series of papers on Hogarth and Shakespeare, which appeared in Hunt's Reflector. In 1818 his scattered contributions in prose and verse were coll. as The Works of Charles Lamb, and the favour with which they were received led to his being asked to contribute to the London Magazine the essays on which his fame chiefly rests. The name "Elia" under which they were written was that of a fellow-clerk in the India House. They appeared from 1820-25. The first series was printed in 1823, the second, The Last Essays of Elia, in 1833. In 1823 the L.'s had left London and taken a cottage at Islington, and had practically adopted Emma Isola, a young orphan, whose presence brightened their lives until her marriage in 1833 to E. Moxon, the publisher. In 1825 L. retired, and lived at Enfield and Edmonton. But his health was impaired, and his sister's attacks of mental alienation were ever becoming more frequent and of longer duration. During one of his walks he fell, slightly hurting his face. The wound developed into erysipelas, and he d. on December 29, 1834. His sister survived until 1847.
The place of L. as an essayist and critic is the very highest. His only rival in the former department is Addison, but in depth and tenderness of feeling, and richness of fancy L. is the superior. In the realms of criticism there can be no comparison between the two. L. is here at once profound and subtle, and his work led as much as any other influence to the revival of interest in and appreciation of our older poetry. His own writings, which are self-revealing in a quite unusual and always charming way, and the recollections of his friends, have made the personality of Lamb more familiar to us than any other in our literature, except that of Johnson. His weaknesses, his oddities, his charm, his humour, his stutter, are all as familiar to his readers as if they had known him, and the tragedy and noble self-sacrifice of his life add a feeling of reverence for a character we already love.
Life and Letters and Final Memorials by Talfourd, also Memoir by B.W. Proctor and A. Ainger prefixed to ed. of Works (1883-88). Life, Works, and Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, in 9 vols., E.V. Lucas, and 12 vols. ed. W. Macdonald.
LANDON, LETITIA ELIZABETH (1802-1838).—Poetess, dau. of an army agent, was b. in London. She was a prolific and, in her day, remarkably popular writer, but she wrote far too easily and far too much for permanent fame. Many of her poems appeared in the Literary Gazette, and similar publications, but she pub. separately The Fate of Adelaide (1821), The Improvisatrice (1824), The Troubadour (1825), The Venetian Bracelet (1829), etc. She also wrote a few novels, of which Ethel Churchill was the best, and a tragedy Castruccio Castracani (1837). She m. a Mr. Maclean, Governor of one of the West African Colonies, where, shortly after her arrival, she was found dead from the effects of an overdose of poison, which it was supposed she had taken as a relief from spasms to which she was subject. She was best known by her initials, L.E.L., under which she was accustomed to write.
LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE (1775-1864).—Poet and miscellaneous author, s. of a physician, was b. at Ipsley Court, Warwick, the property of his mother, and ed. at Rugby and Oxf., where he earned the nickname of "the mad Jacobin," and whence he was rusticated. His whole long life thereafter was a series of quarrels, extravagances, and escapades of various kinds, the result of his violent prejudices, love of paradox, and ungovernable temper. He quarrelled with his f., his wife, most of his relations, and nearly all his friends, ran through a large fortune, and ended his days in Italy supported by a pension granted by his brothers. Yet he was not devoid of strong affections and generosity. His earliest publication was Poems (1795); Gebir (1798), an epic, had little success, but won for him the friendship of Southey. In 1808 he went to Spain to take part in the war against Napoleon, and saw some service. His first work to attract attention was his powerful tragedy of Don Julian (1811). About the same time he m. Miss Julia Thuillier—mainly, as would appear, on account of her "wonderful golden hair"—and purchased the estate of Llantony Abbey, Monmouthshire, whence, after various quarrels with the local authorities, he went to France. After a residence of a year there, he went in 1815 to Italy, where he lived until 1818 at Como, which, having insulted the authorities in a Latin poem, he had to leave. At Florence, which was his residence for some years, he commenced his famous Imaginary Conversations, of which the first two vols. appeared 1824, the third 1828, fourth and fifth 1829. Other works were The Examination of W. Shakespeare touching Deer-stealing (1834), Pericles and Aspasia (1836), Pentameron (1837), Hellenics (1847), and Poemata et Inscriptiones (1847). He quarrelled finally with his wife in 1835, and returned to England, which, however, he had to leave in 1858 on account of an action for libel arising out of a book, Dry Sticks Fagoted. He went to Italy, where he remained, chiefly at Florence, until his death. L. holds one of the highest places among the writers of English prose. His thoughts are striking and brilliant, and his style rich and dignified.
Works ed. C.G. Crump, 10 vols.
LANE, EDWARD WILLIAM (1801-1876).—Arabic scholar, s. of a prebendary of Hereford, where he was b., began life as an engraver, but going to Egypt in search of health, devoted himself to the study of Oriental languages and manners, and adopted the dress and habits of the Egyptian man of learning. He pub. Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836), which remains a standard authority, and a translation of The Thousand and One Nights (1838-40) (Arabian Nights). What was intended to be the great work of his life, his Arabic Lexicon, was left unfinished at his death, but was completed by his nephew, Prof. S.L. Poole. L. was regarded as the chief European Orientalist of his day.
LANGHORNE, JOHN (1735-1779).—Poet, s. of a clergyman, was b. at Kirkby Stephen; having taken orders, he was for two years a curate in London, and from 1776 Rector of Blagdon, Somerset, and Prebendary of Wells. He is chiefly remembered as being the translator, jointly with his brother, Rev. William L., of Plutarch's Lives, but in his day he had some reputation as a poet, his chief work in poetry being Studley Park and Fables of Flora. In his Country Justice (1774-77) he dimly foreshadows Crabbe, as in his descriptive poems he dimly foreshadows Wordsworth. He was twice married, and both of his wives d. in giving birth to a first child.
LANGLAND, WILLIAM (OR WILLIAM of LANGLEY) (1330?-1400?).—Poet. Little can be gleaned as to his personal history, and of that little part is contradictory. In a note of the 15th century written on one MS. he is said to have been b. in Oxfordshire, the s. of a freeman named Stacy de Rokayle, while Bale, writing in the 16th century, makes his name Robert (certainly an error), and says he was b. at Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire. From his great poem, Piers the Plowman, it is to be gathered that he was bred to the Church, and was at one time an inmate of the monastery at Great Malvern. He m., however, and had a dau., which, of course, precluded him from going on to the priesthood. It has further been inferred from his poem that his f., with the help of friends, sent him to school, but that on the death of these friends the process of education came to an end, and he went to London, living in a little house in Cornhill and, as he says, not only in but on London, supporting himself by singing requiems for the dead. "The tools I labour with ... [are] Paternoster, and my primer Placebo, and Dirige, and my Psalter, and my seven Psalms." References to legal terms suggest that he may have copied for lawyers. In later life he appears to have lived in Cornwall with his wife and dau. Poor himself, he was ever a sympathiser with the poor and oppressed. His poem appears to have been the great interest of his life, and almost to the end he was altering and adding to, without, however, improving it. The full title of the poem is The Vision of Piers Plowman. Three distinct versions of it exist, the first c. 1362, the second c. 1377, and the third 1393 or 1398. It has been described as "a vision of Christ seen through the clouds of humanity." It is divided into nine dreams, and is in the unrhymed, alliterative, first English manner. In the allegory appear such personifications as Meed (worldly success), Falsehood, Repentance, Hope, etc. Piers Plowman, first introduced as the type of the poor and simple, becomes gradually transformed into the Christ. Further on appear Do-well, Do-bet, Do-best. In this poem, and its additions, L. was able to express all that he had to say of the abuses of the time, and their remedy. He himself stands out as a sad, earnest, and clear-sighted onlooker in a time of oppression and unrest. It is thought that he may have been the author of a poem, Richard the Redeless: if so he was, at the time of writing, living in Bristol, and making a last remonstrance to the misguided King, news of whose death may have reached him while at the work, as it stops in the middle of a paragraph. He is not much of an artist, being intent rather on delivering his message than that it should be in a perfect dress. Prof. Manley, in the Cambridge History of English Literature, advances the theory that The Vision is not the work of one, but of several writers, W.L. being therefore a dramatic, not a personal name. It is supported on such grounds as differences in metre, diction, sentence structure, and the diversity of view on social and ecclesiastic matters expressed in different parts of the poem.
LANIER, SIDNEY (1842-1881).—Miscellaneous writer, s. of a lawyer of Huguenot descent, was b. at Macon, Georgia. He had a varied career, having been successively soldier, shopman, teacher, lawyer, musician, and prof. His first literary venture was a novel, Tiger Lilies (1867). Thereafter he wrote mainly on literature, his works including The Science of English Verse (1881), The English Novel (1883), and Shakespeare and his Forerunners (1902); also some poems which have been greatly admired, including "Corn," "The Marshes of Glynn," and "The Song of the Chattahoochee"; ed. of Froissart, and the Welsh Mabinogion for children. He worked under the shadow of serious lung trouble, which eventually brought about his death.
LARDNER, DIONYSIUS (1793-1859).—Scientific writer, s. of a solicitor in Dublin, and b. there, was intended for the law, but having no taste for it, he entered Trinity Coll., Dublin, and took orders, but devoted himself to literary and scientific pursuits, and became a contributor to the Edinburgh Review, and various Encyclopaedias. In 1827 he was appointed Prof. of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in the Univ. of London (afterwards Univ. Coll.), and in 1829 began his great work, The Cabinet Cyclopaedia, which was finished in 133 vols. 20 years later. In his literary undertakings, which included various other schemes of somewhat similar character, he was eminently successful, financially and otherwise. He lived in Paris from 1845 until his death.
LATIMER, HUGH (1485-1555).—Reformer and divine, s. of a Leicestershire yeoman, went to Camb. in 1500, and became Fellow of Clare Hall. Taking orders, he was at first a defender of the ancient faith, but convinced by the arguments of Bilney, embraced the reformed doctrines. He was called to appear before Wolsey, but dismissed on subscribing certain articles. His opposition to the Pope, and his support of the King's supremacy, brought him under the notice of Henry, and he was appointed chaplain to Anne Boleyn, and in 1535 Bishop of Worcester. For preaching in favour of the reformed doctrines he was twice imprisoned in the Tower, 1539 and 1546, and on the former occasion resigned his bishopric, which he declined to resume on the accession of Edward VI. On the accession of Mary he was with Ridley, Bishop of London, thrown into prison (1554), and on October 16, 1555, burned at Oxf. His words of encouragement to his fellow-martyr are well known, "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out." He holds his place in English literature by virtue of his sermons—especially that on The Ploughers—which, like himself, are outspoken, homely, and popular, with frequent touches of kindly humour.
LAUDER, SIR THOMAS DICK (1784-1848).—Novelist and miscellaneous writer, s. of a Scottish baronet, wrote two novels, Lochandhu (1825), and The Wolf of Badenoch (1827), but is best known for his Account of the Great Floods in Morayshire in 1829. He also wrote Legendary Tales of the Highlands, and contributed to scientific journals and magazines.
LAW, WILLIAM (1686-1761).—Divine, s. of a grocer at Kingscliffe, Northamptonshire, was ed. at Camb., and in 1727 became tutor to the f. of Edward Gibbon, the historian. About 1728 he pub. his best known book, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, a work which has had a profound influence upon the religious life of England, largely owing to the impression which it produced upon such minds as those of Dr. Johnson, the Wesleys, and others. In 1737 he became a student of the works of Jacob Boehmen, the German mystic, and devoted himself largely to the exposition of his views. The theological position of L. was a complicated one, combining High Churchism, mysticism, and Puritanism: his writings are characterised by vigorous thought, keen logic, and a lucid and brilliant style, relieved by flashes of bright, and often sarcastic, humour. His work attacking Mandeville's Fable of the Bees (1723) is perhaps that in which these qualities are best displayed in combination. He retired in 1740 to Kingscliffe, where he had founded a school for 14 girls.
LAWRENCE, GEORGE ALFRED (1827-1876).—Novelist, was a barrister. He wrote several novels, of which one—Guy Livingstone (1857)—had great popularity. On the outbreak of the American Civil War he went to America with the intention of joining the Confederate Army, but was taken prisoner and only released on promising to return to England.
LAYAMON (fl. 1200).—Metrical historian, the s. of Leovenath. All that is known of him is gathered from his own writings. He was a priest at Ernley (now Areley Regis), Worcestershire. In his day the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Wace, in French, were the favourite reading of the educated, and "it came to him in mind" that he would tell the story of Brut in English verse. He set out in search of books and, founding his poem on the earlier writers, he added so much from his own knowledge of Welsh and West of England tradition that while Wace's poem consists of 15,000 lines, his extends to 32,000. Among the legends he gives are those of Locrine, Arthur, and Lear. The poem is in the old English unrhymed, alliterative verse, and "marks the revival of the English mind and spirit."
LAYARD, SIR AUSTIN HENRY (1817-1894).—Explorer of Nineveh, b. at Paris, s. of a Ceylon civilian. After spending some years in the office of a London solicitor, he set out in search of employment in Ceylon, but passing through Western Asia, became interested in the work of excavating the remains of ancient cities. Many of his finds—human-headed bulls, etc.—were sent to the British Museum. Two books—Nineveh and its Remains (1848-49), and The Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (1853)—brought him fame, and on his return home he received many honours, including the freedom of the City of London, the degree of D.C.L. from Oxf., and the Lord Rectorship of Aberdeen Univ. He entered Parliament, where he sat as a Liberal. He held the offices of Under-Foreign Sec. (1861-66), and Chief Commissioner of Works (1868-69), and was Ambassador to Spain 1869, and Constantinople 1877; and on his retirement in 1878 he was made G.C.B. He was a very successful excavator, and described his work brilliantly, but he was no great linguist, and most of the deciphering of the inscriptions was done by Sir H. Rawlinson. His last work was Early Adventures in Persia, etc., and he left an autobiography, pub. in 1903. He also wrote on Italian art.
LEAR, EDWARD (1812-1888).—Artist and miscellaneous author, b. in London, and settled in Rome as a landscape painter. He was an indefatigable traveller, and wrote accounts, finely illustrated, of his journeys in Italy, Greece, and Corsica. His best known works are, however, his Book of Nonsense (1840) (full of wit and good sense), More Nonsense Rhymes (1871), and Laughable Lyrics (1876). L. had also a remarkable faculty for depicting birds.
LECKY, WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE (1838-1903).—Historian, the s. of a landed gentleman of Carlow, was b. near Dublin, and ed. at Cheltenham and Trinity Coll., Dublin. Originally intended for the Church, he devoted himself to a literary career. His first work of importance was Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland (1861) (essays on Swift, Flood, Grattan, and O'Connell). The study of Buckle's History of Civilisation to some extent determined the direction of his own writings, and resulted in the production of two important works, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe (1865), and History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (1869), both remarkable for learning, clearness, and impartiality. Both, however, gave rise to considerable controversy and criticism. His principal work is The History of England in the Eighteenth Century (1878-90). Characterised by the same sterling qualities as his preceding books, it deals with a subject more generally interesting, and has had a wide acceptance. His view of the American war, and the controversies which led to it, is more favourable to the English position than that of some earlier historians. Other works are Democracy and Liberty (1896), and The Map of Life (1899). Though of warm Irish sympathies, L. was strongly opposed to Home Rule. He sat in Parliament for his Univ. from 1895 until his death. He received many academical distinctions, and was a Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, and one of the original members of the Order of Merit.
LEE, NATHANIEL (1653?-1692).—Dramatist, s. of a clergyman at Hatfield, was ed. at Westminster School and Camb. After leaving the Univ. he went to London, and joined the stage both as actor and author. He was taken up by Rochester and others of the same dissolute set, led a loose life, and drank himself into Bedlam, where he spent four years. After his recovery he lived mainly upon charity, and met his death from a fall under the effects of a carouse. His tragedies, which, with much bombast and frequent untrained flights of imagination, have occasional fire and tenderness, are generally based on classical subjects. The principal are The Rival Queens, Theodosius, and Mithridates. He also wrote a few comedies, and collaborated with Dryden in an adaptation of Oedipus, and in The Duke of Guise.
LEE, SOPHIA (1750-1824), LEE, HARRIET (1757-1851).—Novelists and dramatists, dau. of John L., an actor, were the authors of various dramatic pieces and novels. By far their most memorable work was The Canterbury Tales, 5 vols. (1797-1805) which, with the exception of two, The Young Lady's and The Clergyman's, were all by Harriet. The most powerful of them, Kruitzner, fell into the hands of Byron in his boyhood, and made so profound an impression upon him that, in 1821, he dramatised it under the title of Werner, or the Inheritance. The authoress also adapted it for the stage as The Three Strangers. The tales are in general remarkable for the ingenuity of their plots. Harriet lived to the age of 94, preserving to the last her vigour of mind and powers of conversation. Godwin made her an offer of marriage to which, however, his religious opinions presented an insuperable barrier. Sophia's chief work was The Chapter of Accidents, a comedy, which had a great run, the profits of which enabled the sisters to start a school at Bath, which proved very successful, and produced for them a competence on which they were able to retire in their later years.
LE FANU, JOSEPH SHERIDAN (1814-1873).—Novelist, s. of a Dean of the Episcopal Church of Ireland, and grand-nephew of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, was ed. at Trinity Coll., Dublin, and became a contributor and ultimately proprietor of the Dublin University Magazine, in which many of his novels made their first appearance. Called to the Bar in 1839, he did not practise, and was first brought into notice by two ballads, Phaudrig Croohoore and Shamus O'Brien, which had extraordinary popularity. His novels, of which he wrote 12, include The Cock and Anchor (1845), Torlough O'Brien (1847), The House by the Churchyard (1863), Uncle Silas (perhaps the most popular) (1864), The Tenants of Malory (1867), In a Glass Darkly (1872), and Willing to Die (posthumously). They are generally distinguished by able construction, ingenuity of plot, and power in the presentation of the mysterious and supernatural. Among Irish novelists he is generally ranked next to Lever. |
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