As a writer Hood possessed, as many critics have remarked, an almost Shakspearean versatility of talent. At one time he is treading in the steps of the Elizabethan poets in his fanciful "Plea of the Fairies"—at another catching the satirical power of Pope, in his "Ode to Roe Wilson," or singing a ballad equal to any that the troubadours or minstrels ever produced, and then striking out for himself an entirely new path in the "Song of the Shirt," "The Bridge of Sighs," and the "Lay of the Labourer." With these poems originated a school of poetry which has done, and will do, much for the social—and perchance the eternal—welfare of people of all classes. The ease of his rhymes, of which he is as prodigal as he is of his puns, the music of his verse, and the vivid word-painting he was capable of, may be noted, especially in "Miss Kilmansegg," "The Dream of Eugene Aram," and "The Haunted House." His life, though marked by no striking incidents, is valuable in the records of literature. He was eminently a domestic man, a character the world is prone to deny to men of literary genius. His home was the centre of all his happiness. Without the health, and with little inclination for the gaieties of a London literary life, he found by his own fireside, with his wife and children, the calm and enjoyment of an honest, loving, and useful life. Without a large circle of acquaintances, he had tender and true friends, ready to sympathize with and aid him in his struggles. One persecution he was subject to, and one thing he hated, as he hated no other thing in the world—the thing was cant, the persecution was that of its disciples. Only those who know how, from the time of his mother's death until his own, he was the victim of these mistaken people, can reconcile with his general sweetness of temper, and gentle consideration for the weaknesses of others, the almost fierce expression of his intolerance, to which he was once or twice goaded. In his desire to clear off his encumbrances—for which he was but little blameable—by honest conscientious labour of the pen, rather than by the easier processes permitted by the law, he stands almost alone by Sir Walter Scott. But the most curious trait in his character is the indomitable humour, which no misery or suffering can quench, but whose sparkles never seem to strike us discordantly. For instance, when the physicians declared his heart to be enlarged, and to be situated lower than is usual in his chest, instead of getting alarmed and querulous, he finds in the facts a subject for a sad smiling allusion. To his wife he writes that if his heart is large the more he has to give her, while to another friend he says, "If it is hung too low anatomically, the more need to keep it up," or "You shall always find it in the right place." In a similar spirit, in a farewell letter to Dr. Moir shortly before his death, he says, "I drop these lines as in a bottle from a ship water-logged and on the brink of foundering, being in the last stage of dropsical debility; but though suffering in body, serene in mind." His personal appearance was grave, his disposition retiring. Two portraits of him, one an engraving from an oil painting, the other from a bust by Mr. Davis, are prefixed to his works. Both are excellent likenesses, although we look in vain in them for the traces of the punster and humorist. It has been said of Hood most justly, that he has not yet gathered all his fame. His works are daily becoming more generally known and loved; and he is losing in the reputation of a true poet and earnest philanthropist, his real character, the less honourable distinction of being an unrivalled comic writer, a part which, however congenial to his wit and adapted to his talent, was the result less of a paramount inclination for that class of composition than of the necessity of obtaining a livelihood, as the stern laws of supply and demand dictate.
Of Hood's labours some entertain very erroneous ideas. A writer in the Athenæum, for instance, in the face of the evidence of Hood's own letters, and the testimony of his children and his medical man, is so impressed with this idea that he says, "literary toil" is misapplied to his easy writing. The truth is that Hood was often so ill that his book was not even begun when the day advertised for its publication arrived. As soon as health permitted (and it was observed that, the day once irretrievably gone by, he grew better from the removal of the pressure and anxiety), night and day alike were devoted to the completion of the work. No doubt many believed the reason of this delay to be idleness, not illness, and fancied the celerity with which the work was done was the cause, and not the consequence, of the lateness of its commencement.—T. H.
HOOFT, Pieter Korneliszoon, whom the Dutch have celebrated as their Homer and their Tacitus, was born at Amsterdam, March 17, 1581. His father, Kornelis Pieterszoon, was a famous burgomaster of Amsterdam, and sometimes designated the Dutch Cato. Pieter was well educated, and early distinguished himself by his remarkable knowledge and mastery of the Dutch language. Till then it had been little cultivated, and was indeed considered incapable of being turned to the account of the higher purposes of literature. At eighteen Pieter Hooft undertook a continental tour which lasted two years, during which period he visited the chief cities of France and Italy, taking Germany on his homeward route. His visit to Italy was of immense value to him; and his ear was so refined by the "harmony of sweet sounds" in Tuscany and elsewhere, that his natural powers were greatly aided, and he was better fitted to roll away the reproach, as old as Martial's time, of the Batava auris. His great zeal for the study and improvement of his native language led to his election as member of the Old Amsterdam Rhetoric hall, where the advanced spirits of the day sought to elevate the character and increase the efficiency of their language. Some time after his first journey to Italy, Hooft appears to have undertaken a second, as is shown by a letter of his from Florence in 1607 or 1608. At this time his style was far in advance of that of any of his contemporaries, and his compositions have a softness and a harmony, a grace and a finish, an ease and a freedom, which is extraordinary. Prince Maurice appointed Hooft drost, or prefect, of Muiden and bailiff of Gooiland, and in these offices he continued the rest of his life. He was the friend of Grotius and many other learned men, and kept out of the religions dissensions of his time. His first known poem was composed about 1602, and he continued to write till he died at the Hague in 1647. About 1628 he commenced a history of Holland from Charles V.; but he was only able to bring it down to the end of Dudley's administration. This work is much valued for its accuracy and fidelity, and also for its style, which is pure and finished, rapid and concise. Hooft made Tacitus his model; he read his works fifty times, and wrote a translation of them. He wrote a life of Henry IV. of France, which Louis XIII, rewarded with the cordon of the order of St. Michael, His "House of the Medici" is valuable. His letters are interesting and instructive, and of public utility. His dramatic pieces are numerous and in a classical form; some of them are even now popular. He wrote various minor poems, sacred and secular. He is honoured greatly for all these works, the publication of which marks an era in the history of his native language.—B. H. C.
HOOGE, Pieter de, a Dutch painter, the pupil of Berchem, and distinguished for the skill with which he painted the effects of ordinary daylight or sunlight in interiors. His colouring is not so happy as his lighting, which is perfect. The circumstances of his life are unknown; but he was probably born about 1635, and as the pupil of Berchem, may have belonged to Haarlem. There is a good picture by De Hooge dated 1658.—R. N. W.
HOOGEVEN, Hendrik, a distinguished Dutch classical scholar, was born at Leyden in 1712, of poor parents, who, however, sent him to the gymnasium at Leyden, where he gradually made way, although much discouraged at first by the master Torrenius. His means did not permit him to finish the theological course. In 1732 he became master of a school at Gorcum, and afterwards at Woerden and Kuilenburg. In 1745 he removed to the college at Breda, and sixteen years after accepted a professorship at Dordtrecht or Dort, which he exchanged in 1764 for a similar post at Delft, where he continued till his death in 1791. He is best known by his edition of Viger's Greek Idioms, and his work on Greek particles, Viger's work underwent a complete transformation in his hands. His work on the Doctrine of the Greek particles, which, Zeunius says, was published "non sine præcipua Anglorum liberalitate," was, like the other, useful at the time (1769); but, like it, is now only useful for occasional reference, having been superseded by works on more scientific critical principles.—B. H. C.
HOOGHE, Romeyn de, a Dutch engraver, was born at the Hague about 1638, He engraved a large number of plates, representing passing events, as the murder of Jan and Cornelius de Witt; William III. at the Boyne; Marlborough defeating the French at Hochstadt; a series of plates, representing the excesses of the French in Holland in 1672-73, &c., chiefly from his own designs, which show considerable spirit, inventive power, and knowledge of effect, without much refinement of feeling. As an
