HÖLDERLIN, Johann Christian Friedrich (1770–1843), German poet, was born March 29, 1770, at Lauffen on the Neckar. His mother removing, after a second marriage, to Niirtingen, he began his education at the classical school there, where Schelling was his schoolfellow and playmate. He was destined by his relations for the church, and with this view was later admitted to the free schools of Denkendorf and Maulbronn. At the age of eighteen, already an excellent classical scholar, he was sent to the university of Tiibingen, where, however, he showed no inclination to the study of theology. He was already the writer of occasional verses, and had begun to sketch liis first version of Hyperion, when he was introduced in 1793 to Schiller, and obtained through him the post of tutor to the young son of Frau von Kalb. A year later lie left this situation to attend Fichte s lectures, and to become a disciple of Schiller in Jena. Schiller recognized in the young poet something of his own style of genius, and encouraged his early literary attempts by sending some of them to Goethe, and by superintending the publication of others in the Thalia and Horen. In 1796 Holderlin obtained the post of tutor to the three young children of a banker named Gontard in Frank fort. Gontard s beautiful and gifted wife is the Diotima of Holderlin s Hyperion. For this lady he conceived a foolish and hopeless passion ; and she became at once his inspiration and his ruin. At the end of two years, during which time the first volume of Hyperion was published (1797), some kind of crisis appears to have occurred in their friendship, for the unhappy young poet suddenly left Frankfort and the Gontard family ; but whether he was dismissed by the indignant husband of Diotima, or was impelled by his own better resolutions, has not been explained. In spite of ill health, he now completed Hyperion, the second volume of which appeared in 1799, and he began a tragedy, Der Tod des Empedokles, which is published in an unfinished condition among his works. Some of his verses appeared in the Taschenbuch fur Frauen- zimmer in 1799 and 1800; and he contemplated starting a new literary journal, of which he was to be the editor, but the scheme was a failure. His friends now became alarmed at the alternate depression and nervous irritability from which he suffered, and he was induced to go to Switzerland, as tutor in a family at Hauptwill. There his health improved ; and several of his poems, among which are "Der blinde Sanger,""AnDie Hoffnung," and "Dichter- muth," were written at this time. In 1801 he returned home to arrange for the publication of a volume of his poems ; but, on the failure of this enterprise, he was obliged to accept another tutorship in the family of the Hamburg consul in Bordeaux. Diotima died a year later, in June 1S02, and the news is supposed to have reached Holderlin shortly afterwards, for in the following month he suddenly left Bordeaux, and travelled homewards on foot through France, arriving at Niirtingen destitute and insane. Kind treatment gradually alleviated his condition, and in lucid intervals he occupied himself by writing verses and transla ting Greek plays. Two of these translations the Antigone and (E dip us Rex of Sophocles appeared in 1804, and several of his short poems were published by Seckendorf in his Musenalmanach, 1807 and 1808. In 1804 Holderlin obtained the post of librarian to the landgrave of Homburg, and went to live in Homburg under the supervision of friends ; but the post was abandoned two years later, and he was taken to Tubingen, where lie remained, irremediably but harmlessly insane, till his death, June 7, 1843.
Holderlin s writings are the production of a beautiful and sensitive mind, a mind of high ideals and noble impulses ; but they are intensely, almost morbidly, subjective, and they lack real human strength. Perhaps his strongest characteristic was his passion for Greek subjects, and the natural result of this was that he almost entirely discarded rhyme in favour of the ancient verse measures. His poems are all short pieces ; of his tragedy only a fragment was written. Hyperion, oder der Eremit in Griechenland, is thus his one important work ; and even to this a sequel is wanting. It may be called a prose poem, and is written in the form of letters. Its exquisite language, the purity of its tone, the sad philosophical vein which permeates it, together with its autobiographic character, claim for it a unique position among German classics.
An edition of Holderlin s complete works, with his letters and biography, appeared in 1846 ; and there is a cheap edition of his selected works, with a biography by Christoph Theodor Schwab, published in 1874.
HOLESCHAU, Holleschau, or Holesov, chief town of a government district in Moravia, Austria, circle of Hradisch, is situated on the Russawa, 20 miles N.N.E. of Hradisch. It has a large castle in the Italian style (with a fine garden), a beautiful decanal church, and a synagogue. Linen and cloth-weaving are carried on, and there is some trade in honey, wax, hides, and wool. The population in 1869 was 5282, more than a third being Jews.
HOLIBUT, or Halibut (Hippoglossus vulgaris), is the largest of all Flat-fishes, specimens of 5 feet in length and of 100 in weight being frequently exposed for sale in the markets. Indeed, specimens under 2 feet in length are very rarely caught, and singularly enough, no instance is known of a very young specimen having been obtained. The holibut is much more frequent in the higher latitudes of the temperate zone than in its southern portion ; it is a circurnpolar species, being found on the northern coasts of America, Europe, and Asia, extending in the Pacific south wards to California. On the British coasts it keeps at some distance from the shore, and is generally caught in from 50 to 150 fathoms. Its flesh is considered coarse, though white and firm.
HOLINSHED, or Hollinshed, Raphael, author of Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, flourished in the 16th century. He belonged to a family settled at Bosley, in Cheshire, and according to Anthony Wood he was educated at one of the universities and took orders in the church. In the compilation of the Chronicles called by his name he bore a leading part, but he received extensive and important aid from Stow the antiquary, Harrison, chaplain to Lord Cobham, Hooker (alias Vowell), an uncle of the divine of that name, and Francis Boteville (alias Thin), a learned antiquary. Holinshed s share in the work comprised the history of England down to the year 1577, the date of the first edition. His will printed in Hearne s preface to Camden s Annales shows that in the latter part of his life he was in the service of Thomas Bendet of Bromcote, in Warwickshire. He died between 1580 and 1584. The notice of Elizabeth s reign contained matter so offensive to her and her court that in the second edition, which appeared in 1587, some of the sheets were cancelled altogether. The castrations were published separately by Dr Drake in 1728, and in subsequent reprints have been restored. The history of Scotland, in corporated by Holinshed in his Chronicles, is for the most part a translation from the Latin of Hector Boece, and is in teresting as having furnished Shakespeare with the ground work of his tragedy of Macbeth. The Chronicles, being the work of so many different hands, present great varieties of literary quality ; but the learning and research they show have made them an invaluable aid in the illustration of the early annals of England. An edition in accordance with the original text was published in 1808, 6 vols.
HOLKAR, the title of the maharaja of Indore (q.v.), whose territories are often designated Holkar’s Dominions.
