Chapter Hook to Hooker of H by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Hook to Hooker

Hook, Theodore Edward (1788-1841).—Dramatist and novelist, son of James Hook, music-hall composer, was born in London, and educated at Harrow. As a boy he wrote words for his father’s comic dramas. In 1805 he produced a comic opera, The Soldier’s Return, which was followed by Catch Him who Can. Both of them were highly successful, and were followed by many others. His marvellous powers as a conversationalist and improvisatore made him a favourite in the highest circles. In 1812 he received the appointment of Accountant-General of Mauritius, which he held for 5 years, when serious irregularities were discovered, and he was sent home in disgrace, prosecuted by Government for a claim of £12,000, and imprisoned. It subsequently appeared that the actual peculation had been the work of a subordinate, and that Hook himself was only chargeable with gross neglect of duty, but though he was released the claims against him were not departed from. He then became editor of John Bull, a journal of high Tory and aristocratic proclivities, which he conducted with great ability; he also edited the New Monthly Magazine, and wrote many novels, among which were Sayings and Doings (3 series), Gilbert Gurney, and Jack Brag. Though making a large income, he was always in difficulties, and, after a long struggle with broken health and spirits, he died at Fulham in 1841.

Hook, Walter Farquhar (1798-1875).—Biographer, son of James Hook, Dean of Worcester, born at Worcester, and educated at Winchester and Oxford Entering the Church, he held various benefices, and became Vicar of Leeds (where, largely owing to his exertions, 20 new churches and many schools were built), and afterwards Dean of Chichester. Besides his labours as a churchman he was a voluminous author, his works including Church Dictionary (1842), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Biography (1845-52), and Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury (1860-75), on which he was still engaged at his death, and which he had brought down to Juxon, vol. xi. His sermon Hear the Church (1838), in which he affirmed the Apostolical succession of the Anglican episcopate, attracted much attention.

Hooker, Richard (1554?-1600).—Theologian, born near Exeter, of a family the original name of which was Vowell. His ability and gentleness as a schoolboy recommended him to the notice of Bishop Jewel, who sent him to Corpus Christi Coll., Oxford, where he graduated and became a Fellow in 1577. His proficiency in Hebrew led to his appointment in 1579 as Deputy Professor Two years later, 1581, he took orders, and soon thereafter advantage was taken of his simplicity to entrap him into an unsuitable marriage with a woman named Joan Churchman, whose mother had nursed him in an illness. As might have been expected, the connection turned out unhappily, his wife being a scold, and, according to Anthony Wood, “a silly, clownish woman.” His fate may, however, have been mitigated by the fact that his own temper was so sweet that he is said never to have been seen angry. Some doubt, moreover, has been cast on some of the reported details of his domestic life. In 1584 he received the living of Drayton-Beauchamp, in Bucks, and in the following year was appointed Master of the Temple. Here he had for a colleague as evening lecturer Walter Travers, a man of mark among the Puritans. Though both men were of the finest moral character, their views on ecclesiastical questions were widely different, and as neither was disposed to conceal his opinions, it came to be said that in the Temple “the pulpit spake pure Canterbury in the morning and Geneva in the afternoon.” Things developed into an animated controversy, in which Hooker was considered to have triumphed, and the Archbishop (Whitgift) suspended Travers. The position, however, had become intolerable for Hooker who respected his opponent in spite of their differences, and he petitioned Whitgift that he might retire to the country and find time and quiet to complete his great work, the Ecclesiastical Polity, on which he was engaged. He was accordingly, in 1591, presented to the living of Boscombe near Amesbury, and made sub-Dean and a minor Prebendary of Salisbury. Here he finished The Four Books of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity, published in 1594. The following year he was presented by Queen Elizabeth to the living of Bishopsbourne, Kent. Here the fifth book was published until and here he died in 1600. The sixth and eighth books were not published until 1648, and the seventh only appeared in 1662. The Ecclesiastical Polity is one of the greatest achievements alike in English theology and English literature, a masterpiece of reasoning and eloquence, in a style stately and sonorous, though often laborious and involved. Hallam considered that no English writer had better displayed the capacities of the language. The argument is directed against the Romanists on the one hand and the Puritans on the other, and the fundamental idea is “the unity and all embracing character of law as the manifestation of the divine order of the universe.” The distinguishing note of Hooker’s character was what Fuller calls his “dove-like simplicity.” Izaak Walton, his biographer, describes