reprinted at Oxford in 1805. In 1650 he lost his canonry because he refused to subscribe the engagement demanded by parliament, but through the influence of the university he was allowed to retain his professorship. In 1655 he was in danger of losing his rectory under Cromwell's Triers, on the charge of "ignorance and insufficiency," but Owen at once interposed for the scholar, and he kept his place. At the Restoration he was reinstalled in his canonry, and the same year he printed, at the expense of Mr. Boyle, an Arabic translation of Grotius de Veritate, a faithful and admirable version. In 1663 was printed at Oxford his great work in two quarto volumes, the Arabic text of the Historia Dynastica of Abu-l-Pharag (Abulfaragius), with an excellent Latin translation. After a long life of intense scholarly industry, Pocock died at Oxford 12th September, 1691, in his eighty-seventh year. Pocock's biblical works have been collected into two folios, 1740, with a life of the author, by the editor Leonard Twells. These comprehend the famous Porta Mosis, a production of Maimonides, originally written in Arabic, and containing dissertations on sections of the Mishna, which Pocock printed in Hebrew letters, with a Latin version and numerous and diversified editorial notes, showing great ingenuity and rabbinical erudition. The commentaries on Hosea, Joel, Micah, and Malachi, are in English, and are full to plethora of learning and illustration. Pocock poured out his oriental lore without stint or measurement. While Lightfoot was beyond him in rabbinical wealth, he had no compeer as an Arabic scholar, for he spoke Arabic like a native, and gave no little assistance to the London Polyglot. In 1658 he published in Arabic an edition of the Annals of Eutychius, Pocock has left a deservedly great name, which cannot be easily eclipsed.—J. E.
POCOCK, Sir George, an English admiral, born in 1706. In 1758 he commanded the English squadron on the East India station, where he encountered the French squadron commanded by M. D'Aché. After two indecisive engagements the French withdrew from those seas to the isle of Bourbon, leaving Pocock in possession. In 1762, being appointed to command a naval expedition against the Spanish West Indies, after much hazardous sailing in the Caribbean sea and an arduous siege, the English took possession of the Havanna. Admiral Pocock rendered other important services to his country, and died in 1792.—R. H.
POCOCKE, Richard, LL.D., was born at Southampton in 1704. He was educated at Corpus Christi college, Oxford. He proceeded LL.B. in 1731, and LL.D. in 1733. After this he spent some time in the East, from which he returned in 1742. He was successively precentor of Waterford, 1744; bishop of Ossory, 1756; and bishop of Meath, 1765. He died soon after being translated to this see in the same year. He is chiefly known for his "Description of the East and of some other countries," London, 1743, 3 vols., folio, a work reprinted by Pinkerton in his collection of Voyages and Travels. Pococke also issued a work on ancient inscriptions collected by him in the course of his travels, folio, London, 1752.—W. L. A.
POE, Edgar Allan, an American author, peculiar in his genius and his life, was born in January, 1811, at Baltimore, U.S., where his family, a respectable one, had long been settled. His father, when a student of law, was fascinated by an English actress; marrying her he abandoned law for the stage, and, dying, left three children destitute. Edgar was a child of "remarkable beauty and precocious wit," and an acquaintance of his father's, Mr. Allan, a rich merchant, married but without family, adopted him with the intention of making him his heir. At five Poe was taken by his kind friends the Allans to England, and placed by them in a school at Stoke-Newington, near London. Of his school and school life there are some dreamy reminiscences in his semi-autobiographical tale of "William Wilson." At the age of eleven he returned to America, and was sent, after further instruction at school, to the university of Charlottesville in Virginia. There he made progress not only in learning, but unfortunately in vice, and was expelled for gambling and profligacy. He returned home to quarrel with his benefactor, who refused to pay his gambling debts, and to start for Europe with the intention of joining the Greeks in their struggle to throw off the Turkish yoke. He was first heard of at St. Petersburg in the hands of the Russian police for rioting and drunkenness, and thence, through the American minister in Russia, he was sent back to the States. The kind Mr. Allan still clung to him, and procured him a cadet's appointment at the American Sandhurst, the military academy at Westpoint. In ten months he was cashiered for drunkenness and insubordination. A little before this, the only person who had any influence over him, Mrs. Allan, died; and when Mr. Allan, who had married again, received into his house, with almost incredible kindness, the prodigal son of his adoption, Poe repaid him by lampooning his second wife, if not, as is darkly hinted, by conduct still more disgraceful. Mr. Allan very properly now discarded him for ever. Poe tried newspaper writing, and when this resource failed he enlisted. Some Westpoint friends discovered him, and were endeavouring to procure him a commission, when they found that he had deserted. He was in extreme destitution, when some prose and verse gained him the prize offered by a Baltimore paper, and introduced him to literary employment. From 1834 to 1844 he led a wandering life, making a literary reputation by his talents, but soon forfeiting any position whether as editor or contributor by fits of drunkenness, which were always accompanied by a quarrelsome insolence, and to which sometimes treachery was added. In 1844 he settled in New York, and was received into good society. Soon after his arrival he published his poem of "The Raven," which was universally applauded, and he had for some time been known as a writer of tales of a peculiar kind, in which he had no competitor. He rose to the dignity of independent editorship in the October of 1845; but in the following autumn drunkenness reduced to destitution himself and a gentle, patient wife, his cousin, whom he had married early in his career of authorship. After her death he was engaged to be married to "one of the most brilliant women in New England," but he terminated the engagement by going to her house drunk, and conducting himself so as to require his removal by the police. At last he joined the Temperance Society, and was again engaged to be married. He had been lecturing in Virginia, and had set out for New York to prepare for his marriage. Arriving at Baltimore he gave his trunk to a porter to carry it to the train for Philadelphia. He had an hour or two to spare, and he went to a tavern for refreshment. In it he met some acquaintances, who invited him to drink with them. All his resolutions were forgotten, and in a few hours he was madly drunk. After "a night of insanity and exposure" he was carried to an hospital, and there in a few days he died, in his thirty-ninth year, on the 7th of October, 1849, after a life which it would be difficult to parallel even in the Grub Street history of England in the eighteenth century. As a writer Poe displayed one of the gifts rarest in American authorship, originality. His tales have the minute finish of Balzac's, with something of Hoffmann's imagination, and a curious interfusion of American calculation and "'cuteness." In some of his poetry there is the wild piercing wail of Shelley, with the music and fancifulness of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. His poem of "The Raven" is everywhere known. To the edition of his works in three volumes, published in New York in 1850, James Russell Lowell and N. P. Willis contributed notices of his life and genius, and his literary executor, Rufus W. Griswold, an ample memoir, of which we have availed ourselves in the preparation of this sketch.—F. E.
POELLNITZ, Karl Ludwig, Freiherr von, a German historical writer, was born of a distinguished family at Issum, near Wesel, 25th February, 1692, and early displayed remarkable talents. But he soon contracted reckless habits, and entered upon a course of dissipation and adventure. After spending his fortune, he took service in the armies of Austria, Spain, and the pope. Nowhere, however, could he find a permanent situation until at last he found favour with Frederick the Great, who made him director of his court theatre. He died 23d June, 1775. His biographical and historical works, all written in French, are distinguished by a lively wit and shrewd observation. His "Lettres et Mémoires" were extensively read; a still greater fame he owed to his "Saxe Galante," which, however, by some litterateurs is ascribed to another author. His "Histoire secrète de la Duchesse d'Hanover, épouse de George I.," &c., London, 1732, must also be mentioned.—K. E.
* POERIO, Carlo, Baron, an Italian statesman, born in 1803. His father was a distinguished lawyer, whom he twice followed into exile. From an early period he devoted himself to the work of freeing his country from foreign domination, but it does not appear that he took part in any republican conspiracies. From 1837 to 1848 he was subject to incessant arrests and persecutions, but on the proclamation of the constitution in 1848, at Naples, he became prefect of police, and afterwards minister of public
