Chapter Harris to Hawthorne of H by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Harris to Hawthorne

Harris, James (1709-1780).—Grammarian, was a wealthy country gentleman and member of Parliament, who held office in the Admiralty and the Treasury. He was the author of a singular and learned work entitled Hermes, or a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal Grammar. For the purpose which it had in view it is useless; but it contains much curious matter. His son was the eminent diplomatist, James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury.

Harris, Joel Chandler (1848-1908).—w riter of tales, etc., born at Eatonton, Georgia, was successively printer, lawyer, and journalist. He struck out an original line in his stories of animal life as it presents itself to the mind of the Southern negro, in whose dialect they are written. These not only achieved and retain an exceptional popularity among children, to whom they were in the first instance addressed, but attracted the attention of students of folklore and anthology. Among his writings are Uncle Remus (1880), Nights with Uncle Remus (1884), Mr. Rabbit at Home (1895), Aaron in the Wild Woods (1897), Chronicles of Aunt Minervy Ann (1899), etc.

Harte, Francis Bret (1839-1902).—American humorist, born in Albany, N.Y., but when still a boy went to California. He had a somewhat varied career as a teacher, miner, and journalist, and it is as a realistic chronicler of the gold-field and an original humorist that his chief literary triumphs were achieved. Among his best known writings are Condensed Novels, in which he showed great skill as a parodist, The Luck of Roaring Camp. The Idyll of Red Gulch, and The Heathen Chinee. In 1880 he came to Glasgow as U.S. Consul, and from 1885 he lived in London. His writings often show the tenderness and fine feeling that are allied to the higher forms of humour, and he may be said to have created a special form of short story in his Californian tales and prose idylls.

Hartley, David (1705-1757).—Philosopher, born at Luddenden, Yorkshire, and educated at Cambridge, studied for the Church, but owing to theological difficulties turned to medicine as a profession, and practised with success at various places, including London and Bath. He also attained eminence as a writer on philosophy, and indeed may be said to have founded a school of thought based upon two theories, (1) the Doctrine of Vibrations, and (2) that of Association of Ideas. These he developed in an elaborate treatise, Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations. Though his system has long been discarded, its main ideas have continued to influence thought and investigation.

Harvey, Gabriel (1545?-1630).—Poet, son of a ropemaker, was born at Saffron Walden, educated at Cambridge, and became the friend of Spenser, being the Hobbinol of The Shepheard’s Calendar. He wrote various satirical pieces, sonnets, and pamphlets. Vain and ill-tempered, he was a remorseless critic of others, and was involved in perpetual controversy, specially with Greene and Nash, the latter of whom was able to silence him. He wrote treatises on rhetoric, claimed to have introduced hexameters into English, was a foe to rhyme, and persuaded Spenser temporarily to abandon it

Hawes, Stephen (died 1523?).—Poet; very little concerning him is known with certainty. He is believed to have been born in Suffolk, and may have studied at Oxford or Cambridge He first comes clearly into view as a Groom of the Chamber in 1502, in which year he dedicated to Henry VII. his Pastyme of Pleasure, first printed in 1509 by Wynkyn de Worde. In the same year appeared the Convercyon of Swerers (1509), and A Joyful Meditacyon of all England (1509), on the coronation of Henry VIII. He also wrote the Exemple of Vertu. Hawes was a scholar, and was familiar with French and Italian poetry. No great poet, he yet had a considerable share in regularising the language.

Hawker, Robert Stephen (1804-1875).—Poet and antiquary, educated at Cheltenham and Oxford, became parson of Morwenstow, a smuggling and wrecking community on the Cornish coast, where he exercised a reforming and beneficent, though extremely unconventional, influence until his death, shortly before which he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He wrote some poems of great originality and charm, Records of the Western Shore (1832-36), and The Quest of the Sangraal (1863) among them, besides short poems, of which perhaps the best known is Shall Trelawny Die? which, based as it is on an old rhyme, deceived both Scott and Macaulay into thinking it an ancient fragment. He also published a collection of papers, Footprints of Former Men in Cornwall (1870).