Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/201

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Cockeram
195
Cockerell

to publish in his lifetime. The work is far more learned than the author's earlier 'Arithmetick' (No. 24). It is generally said that sixty editions of this hook appeared; but there were probably at least 112, including Scotch and Irish editions. An allusion in Murphy's farce, 'The Apprentice' (1756), is thought by De Morgan to account for the popularity of the name, but fifty editions had already appeared. 27, 28, 29. 'Cocker's Decimal Arithmetic; His Artificial Arithmetic, or Logarithms; His Algebraical Arithmetic, or Equations. Composed by Edward Cocker . . . perused and published by John Hawkins,' &c., 3 parts, 1684, 1685, 8vo. These are announced (though De Morgan asserts the contrary) in early editions of the 'Arithmetic.' A dedication in cipher to John Perkes speaks of Hawkins's labours as an editor, but does not claim the authorship. Hawkins's own works are very inferior.

III. Miscellaneous Works: 30. 'The Young Clerk's Tutor for Writing. ... A Collection of the best Presidents of Recognizances, Obligations, Bills of Sale, Warrants of Attorney, &c., by Edward Cocker. Ex Studiis N. de Latibulo Φιλονόμον' [1st ed. 1660?]. This book is by Hawkins himself, with a few plates of Cocker's writing hands at the end, and the title-page only claims the plates, not the letterpress, for Cocker. 31. 'Cocker's Urania, or the Scholar's Delight,' a series of alphabetical couplets in letterpress, 1670, 4to. 32. ' Cocker's Morals, or the Muses Spring Garden . . . containing Disticks and Poems,' 1675. 33. 'Cocker's English Dictionary . . . Historico-Poetical . . . Proper Names, &c. By Edward Cocker, the late famous Practitioner in Fair Writing and Arithmetic, from the author's correct copy. By John Hawkins,' 1704, 8vo.

[Cocker's Works in the Brit. Mus. Lib.; Massey's Origin of Letters, ii. 51; Pepys's Diary, 1664; More's Invention of Writing; Champion's Parallel Evelyn's Sculptura, p. 92; Hatton's New View of London, i. 247; Murphy's Apprentice; Miller's Fly Leaves, 1855, p. 40; Willis's Current Notes, 1851, p. 61; Wing's Ephemeris, 1669; The Newes, 1664, pp. 628, 645, 653; De Morgan's Arithmetical Books, p. 56; Budget of Paradoxes, pp. 30, 454; Correspondence of Scientific Men in Seventeenth Century, ii. 471; Athenaeum, 1869, pp. 412,463, 672, 706; All the Year Round, xxiii. 590; Once a Week, xvii. 324; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xi. 57, 2nd ser. ii. 252, 312, 4th ser. v. 63, 142, 159,205; Hawkins's Works; Baker's Northamptonshire, ii. 266; Bibliographer, 1885, ii. 25; Bagford's Collections, Harl. MS.]

J. W.-G.


COCKERAM, HENRY (fl. 1650), is known only as the author of 'The English Dictionarie, or a new Interpreter of hard English Words,' which was the first dictionary of the English language ever published. It is a small pocket volume, and, as the title indicates, does not profess to contain all the words in the language, but only those which specially require explanation. The second part, which occupies half the volume, may be called a dictionary for translating plain English into fine English, giving the ordinary words in alphabetical order, with their equivalents in the pompous literary dialect affected by writers of his period. Cockeram himself, however, was no admirer of the grandiloquent diction of his contemporaries, but remarks that he has thought it necessary to insert even ' the fustian termes used by too many who study rather to hear themselves speake than to understand themselves.' On the title-page the author is designated only as 'H. C., Gent.,' but the dedication, to Richard, earl of Cork, is signed with his name in full. In this dedication he states that he was a relative of a Sir William Hull, whom the earl had befriended, but he gives no other autobiographical information. The first edition of the book is said to have been published in 1623, and to have contained some complimentary verses by the dramatist John Webster, addressed 'To his industrious friend, Master Henry Cockeram' (Webster's Works, ed. Dyce, p. 378); but these lines were omitted in the succeeding editions. The second edition appeared in 1626, and the eleventh in 1655. A twelfth edition, 'revised and enlarged by S. C.,' in which the second part is suppressed and material alterations are made in the arrangement, was published in 1670.

[Preface and dedication to the English Dictionarie; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

H. B.


COCKERELL, CHARLES ROBERT (1788–1863), architect, the son of Samuel Pepys Cockerell [q. v.], architect was born in London on 28 April 1788. He received his earliest education at a private school near the City Road. In 1802 he went to Westminster School, continuing there until his sixteenth or seventeenth year, and then entered his father's office, with whom he remained five years. In 1809 the rebuilding of Covent Garden Theatre devolved on Sir Robert Smirke, and in the completion of this work he was assisted by young Cockerell, who acted as confidential assistant. In May 1810 he commenced a course of professional studies by exploring Greece, Asia Minor, and Sicily. These travels produced later on important results, chiefly in respect to Grecian architecture and sculpture. He