He was deformed, and surnamed in consequence the Hunchback of Arras. He took monastic orders, but his taste and talent for secular composition, and, probably still more, his violent love for a girl of remarkable charms, induced him very early to obtain absolution from his vows. He was no sooner married than his feelings towards his wife became entirely reversed, and he consequently abandoned her and her native town; his poem, "C' est li congiés Adan d'Aras," commemorates this occasion. In 1282 he went in the suite of Robert, count of Artois, to Naples, who was sent thither by Philip the Hardy to assist the king in avenging the massacre of the Sicilian Vespers. Adam de la Hale is remarkable as being the author of the earliest comic opera in existence, "Le jeu de Robin et de Marion," both the words and music of which are his composition. A manuscript of this work is preserved in the imperial library at Paris, and was printed complete in 1822 by the Bibliographical Society of that city, some extracts from it having been previously published. It consists of spoken dialogue interspersed with songs, but contains no concerted music. Of still greater importance in the history of music are the chansons and motets of this primitive musician, which are preserved in the same library. These, though of a few years' later date than Mr. Chappell assigns to an English contrapuntal composition, are amongst the earliest examples of harmony now extant, and they must have preceded even the productions of Binchois. The motets consist for the most part of a plain song, given as a ground bass with florid counterpoint for two upper voices, which has the French words of love songs, while the plain song has the text of a Latin hymn. These constitute an interesting link between the first crude attempts in ecclesiastical music, and the greatly advanced state of the art in the fourteenth century.—G. A. M.
HALE, Sir Matthew, an English lawyer of eminence during the reigns of Charles I., Cromwell, and Charles II., was born at Alderley in Gloucestershire, on the 1st November, 1609. His father was a member of the society of Lincoln's inn, and for some time practised as a barrister. But he was a man of such rare delicacy of conscience that he abandoned the profession at a late period of life from a dislike to the equivocal subtleties of forensic pleading, and retired to an estate which he owned in the country. Mr. Hale died in 1614; his wife had predeceased him; and their child was consequently thrown an orphan upon the world at the age of five. Matthew's guardian was a Mr. Anthony Kingscot, who intrusted him to the charge of a puritanical divine, named Staunton, vicar of Wootton-under-Edge. In 1626, in his seventeenth year. Hale was admitted to Magdalen hall, Oxford, where another clergyman of the same opinions as Staunton, Obadiah Sedgwick, became his tutor. The reactionary influence of puritanical doctrines made itself manifest here as elsewhere. Hale insensibly acquired habits of dissipation and gaiety, which rendered him impatient of study or any regular pursuits; and Mr. Sedgwick, having accepted an appointment as chaplain to an English force under orders for the Netherlands, Hale resolved to throw away his chances of taking a degree, and to embark with Sedgwick for Holland with a view to enlisting in the prince of Orange's army. A fortunate circumstance occurred at this juncture, to prevent him from carrying out the wild and reckless scheme. A lawsuit with Sir William Whitmore, who asserted a claim to a portion of his estate, kept the young libertine in England; and another circumstance, apparently no less accidental, arose out of the litigation, which fixed Hale's future career. The counsel for the defendant in Whitmore v. Hale, happened to be Serjeant Glanvile. Glanvile, having occasion to confer with the intended recruit on points connected with the business in hand, and observing his capacity and intelligence, persuaded him to renounce all idea of a military life, and to go to the bar. This advice was followed. Hale entered himself at his father's inn on the 8th November, 1629, set to work in earnest, and studied fifteen or sixteen hours a day; instead of his former companions at Magdalen he now associated with none but men of character and learning, and whatever moments could be spared from his profession he devoted to religious duties. His extraordinary application and exemplary mode of life soon recommended Hale to the notice of several distinguished lawyers of the day; among others were Attorney-general Noy and the great scholar Selden, both of whom entertained for him the highest respect and esteem, and encouraged him to persevere in the acquisition of knowledge in its various branches, not restricting himself too exclusively to the mastery of law. Under these auspices, and by dint of early rising and abstemious diet, the young student was able to accumulate a vast fund of learning. Hale was a miracle of industry. At table he was almost an ascetic. It was his constant rule to rise from dinner with an appetite, and he bestowed his undivided attention upon his work, indulging neither in irrelevant reading nor in light conversation. Current topics occupied him very little. He discoursed on familiar subjects as rarely as possible, and then only with those with whom he was peculiarly intimate; and his correspondence was of the most limited extent.
Hale was called to the bar by the benchers of Lincoln's inn some years prior to the commencement of the civil war. He was speedily known as an industrious and able barrister. Though his sympathies were with the king's party, he firmly adhered to the resolution which he had formed at the outset, to keep aloof from politics, or at least from political warfare. Hale was one of the counsel engaged in the case of Wentworth, earl of Strafford, of that of King Charles himself, and of those of Archbishop Laud, the earl of Holland, Lord Capel, and Lord Craven. In all important trials at this date his services appear to have been thought sufficiently valuable to be secured. In 1643 Hale took the Covenant, and was present on several occasions (in common with other laymen) at the Assembly of Divines. Though an ardent royalist and a personal admirer of Charles I., he subsequently accepted "the engagement;" and in January, 1652, he was appointed one of the committee of legal reform. In the ensuing year he obtained his serjeant's gown, and became a judge of the common bench; but after going two or three circuits, he declined to try any more criminals, from a secret doubt which had lurked in his mind from the beginning of his judicial career touching the legitimacy of the Cromwellian power. In 1658 Hale excused himself alike from wearing mourning for the lord high protector and from responding to the summons of Richard Cromwell to take his seat on the bench; his reason was "that he could act no longer under such authority." Nevertheless, in the parliament of 1658-59, he consented to represent the university of Oxford, although in that of 1655 he had refused to take part.
In the "healing" parliament of 1660, which witnessed the Restoration, Hale was one of the knights returned for Gloucestershire. In June of that year the king issued a new writ appointing him sergeant-at-law, and in November he nominated him chief baron of the exchequer with a knighthood, the latter honour, the biographies say, neither sought nor relished by the recipient. Sir Matthew continued to preside over the court of exchequer till 1671, when he was elevated to the chief-justiceship of the king's bench. He held this office till 1675, and was then obliged by the state of his health to tender his resignation. For some time the old judge had been afflicted with asthma, and dropsy supervening proved fatal on Christmas-day, 1676.
To everybody at all familiar with the history of England and of English law, the character of Sir Matthew Hale must be too well-known to require in this place any minute delineation. His life has been written by Burnet, Roscoe, and Williams, and glimpses of the man may be caught here and there in Roger North's Life of Lord Keeper Guilford. Hale was a man who had not been formed by his temper and habits to lead a party or to sacrifice himself to a cause. His heart was with the royalists; but living at a period when the fortunes of that party were for the most part at a low ebb, he was far too fond of life and liberty to proclaim in any ostentatious manner his political creed. Through the whole course of the civil war, and during the first and second protectorates, his public life presented a singular series of inconsistencies. His mind was in a perpetual state of dubiety. He knew perfectly well what he ought to do, and he also knew the hazard attending the adoption of a decided course. The truth is that he was not born to be a hero, any more than a martyr. As a judge it may be granted that, in an age of corruption, he was impartial and upright; and as a scholar he possessed vast and varied erudition at a period rather remarkable for neglect of sound literature. But with all these qualities his mind was weak, narrow, and prejudiced; and no one was more tenacious of the opinions of his youth. In his earlier years Hale had been led to believe in witchcraft, and that deplorable superstition clung to him through life. While he was upon the bench several persons, including two women, were brought before him on the charge, and all were sentenced to death. Hale is even accused of having hurried the execution of a man whom he had condemned, in order to forestall an expected reprieve. The works
