John Hoole

John Hoole (December 1727 - 2 August 1803) was an English poet and translator.

John Hoole (1727-1803). Portrait by George Dance the younger (1741-1825), 1793. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Life

Overview

Hoole, son of a watch-maker and inventor, was born in London, and was in the India House, of which he rose to be principal auditor (1744-83). He translated Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1763), and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1773-83), plus other works from the Italian. He was also the author of 3 dramas, which failed. He is described by Scott as "a noble transmuter of gold into lead."

Youth and education

Hoole was born in Moorfields, London, the son of Samuel Hoole, a watchmaker and inventive mechanician, and Sarah (Drury), the daughter of James Drury, clockmaker. He was educated in Grub Street, under an uncle who was an acquaintance of Samuel Johnson. He afterwards learnt Latin, French, and a little Greek in a school at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, kept by James Bennet, editor of Ascham's English works.

Career

Hoole's nearsightedness disqualified him for his father's trade, and a place was obtained for him in the East India Company. He often attended Covent Garden Theatre, to which his father was machinist; but, at his father's desire, repressed an ambition to become an actor. He once, however, acted the ghost in Hamlet. He then spent his leisure in studying Italian in order to read ‘Ariosto,’ having been fascinated when a boy (probably at Bennet's) by Sir John Harington's translation.

In 1757 he married Susannah Smith of Bishop Stortford, known as "the handsome quaker," and through her became acquainted with John Scott of Amwell, whose Life he wrote in 1785. He had to eke out a small income by extra working as a clerk and translating documents relating to the French operations in India during the Seven Years' War.

On his promotion to the office of auditor of Indian accompts, he became more independent, and was, it is said, encouraged by the head of the office, a Mr. Oldmixon, also an Italian scholar, to write his tragedy Cyrus. It was written in "rural retirement' in a house at Wandsworth, which he found so pleasant that he remained there for some years, going to the India House by water.

Hoole's writings brought him the acquaintance of literary persons, and in 1761 he was introduced by Hawkesworth to Samuel Johnson. In 1763 Johnson wrote a dedication to the queen of Hoole's Tasso, in 1774 corrected Hoole's tragedy ‘Cleonice,’ and in 1781 applied to Warren Hastings to patronise Hoole's ‘Ariosto.’ Boswell records several meetings at the house of Hoole, who got up a city club for Johnson about 1781, and was a member of the Essex Head Club in 1784 (Boswell, ed. Hill, iv. 86, 258). Hoole attended Johnson during his last illness, and kept a diary of his visits, printed in the ‘European Magazine’ for September 1799, and reprinted in Croker's ‘Johnsoniana.’ Hoole and his son were among the friends to whom Johnson left books in his last will.

On his promotion to the office of auditor of Indian accounts, he became more independent, and was, it is said, encouraged by the head of the office, a Mr. Oldmixon, also an Italian scholar, to write his tragedy Cyrus. It was written in "rural retirement" in a house at Wandsworth, which he found so pleasant that he remained there for some years, going to the India House by water.

A fracture of the kneecap in 1770, the consequences of which were cured by 2 subsequent fractures, is almost the only personal incident recorded of him. A State of East Indian Affairs, drawn up under his inspection, was printed in 1772. On Oldmixon's death he became principal auditor at the India House.

Last years

Hoole resigned his post about the end of 1785. In April 1786 he retired with his wife and son, Rev. Samuel Hoole, to the parsonage at Abinger, Surrey. He afterwards lived at Tenterden, Kent, with his aged mother and 2 sisters.

He died when on a visit to Dorking 2 Aug. 1803.

Writing

Hoole's translations are taken by Macaulay (‘Addison’) as typical specimens of the smooth decasyllable couplets of Pope's imitators. Scott, Southey, and Lamb, who ironically calls Hoole "the great boast and ornament of the India House" (Letters, by Ainger, i. 59), had anticipated Macaulay, and only Johnson's praise (see Life of Waller) and the sale of several editions convince us that they were ever read.

His works are: ‘Monody on Death of Mrs. Woffington,’ 1760 (reprinted in Pearch's ‘Collection of Poems’ and Bell's ‘Fugitive Pieces’). ‘Tasso's Jerusalem delivered … from the Italian of Tasso,’ 2 vols. 8vo, 1763; other editions in 1767, 1783, 1797, 1807, 1816, 1818, 1819, and in Chalmers's ‘Poets,’ vol. xxi. ‘Dramas of Metastasio,’ 2 vols. 1767; and (with additional dramas) in 3 vols. 1800. ‘Orlando Furioso’ (first ten books), 1773, 1 vol. ‘Orlando Furioso,’ 5 vols. 1783; later editions in 1785, 1791, 1807, 1816, 1818, 1819, and in Chalmers's ‘Poets,’ vol. xxi. He also published ‘The Orlando of Ariosto, reduced to twenty-four books, the Narrative connected, and the Story disposed in a regular series,’ 1791. ‘Life of John Scott of Amwell,’ 1785 (prefixed to Scott's ‘Critical Essays’). ‘Tasso's Rinaldo,’ 1792.

Plays

He wrote 3 plays, all performed at Covent Garden, 2 with fair success, the last a failure: ‘Cyrus’ (from Metastasio's ‘Ciro Riconosciuto,’ first acted on 3 Dec. 1768), 1768; 3rd edit. 1772. ‘Timanthes’ (from Metastasio's ‘Demofonte;’ first acted 24 Feb. 1770), 1770; 3rd edit. 1771. ‘Cleonice’ (1st acted on 2 March 1775), 1775.

Recognition

Hoole's plays Cleonice and Cyrus are in Bell's British Theatre, vol. xxiv.; and Timanthes in the same collection, vol. xxxiv.

His Monody to the Memory of Mrs. Margaret Woffington was included in Pearch's Collection of Poems in Four Volumes; by several hands (1770).

His portrait was drawn by George Dance the younger in 1793.

Publications

Poetry

• A Monody to the Memory of Mrs. Margaret Woffington. London: R. Withy, 1760.

Plays

• Cyrus: A tragedy. London: T. Davies, 1768.
• Timanthes: A tragedy. London: T. Becket, 1770.
• Cleonice, Princess of Bithynia: A tragedy. London: T. Evans, 1775; Dublin: W. Spottiswoode, 1775.
• Plays (edited by Donald T. Siebert). New York: Garland, 1980.

Non-fiction

• The Present State of the English East-India Company's Affairs. London: T. Evans, 1772.
• "An Account of the Life and Writings of John Scott" in John Scott, Critical Essays on Some of the Poems of Several English Poets. London: James Phillips, 1785; Farnborough, UK: Gregg, 1969.

Translated

• Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered: An heroic poem translated from the Italian. (2 volumes), London: R. & J. Dodsley, 1763. Volume I, Volume II
• Pietro Metastatio, The Works. (2 volumes), London: T. Davies, 1767. Volume I, Volume II
• Lodovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso: Translated into English verse. (5 volumes), London: C. Bathurst, 1783; (6 volumes), London: Otridge, 1807. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III,Volume IV, Volume V, Volume VI
  • abridged as The Orlando: Reduced to XXIV books. (2 volumes), London: J. Dodsley, 1791. Volume I, Volume II
• Torquato Tasso, Rinaldo: A poem, in XII books. London: J. Dodsley, 1792.

Collected editions

• Anecdotes Respecting the Life of the Late Mr. John Hoole ... to which are added some pieces ... never before printed (edited by Samuel Hoole). London: 1803.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets
• List of English-language playwrights

References

•  Stephen, Leslie (1891) "Hoole, John" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 27 London: Smith, Elder, p. 300  . Wikisource, Web, July 14, 2016.

External linkes

Poems

• John Hoole at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive ("A Monody to the Memory of Mrs. Margaret Waffingdon")

Prose

• Preface to Orlando Furioso

About

• John Hoole (1727-1803) at English Poetry, 1579-1830

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Hoole, John