Great,’ 1829; ‘The Dragon's Gift,’ 1830; ‘The Ice Witch’ and ‘Hyder Ali,’ 1831; ‘St. Patrick's Eve,’ 1832. For Macready's productions of ‘The Midsummer Night's Dream,’ 1840; ‘Acis and Galatea,’ 1842; ‘King Arthur,’ 1842, &c., Cooke ‘arranged’ the incidental music, relying, in the case of the two last, chiefly upon the compositions of Handel and Purcell; in ‘King Arthur’ he drew upon Purcell's other works to a large extent, sacrificing some of the best numbers in the composer's score. One of his last works for the stage was ‘The Follies of a Night’ (Planché), 1845. Of all his compositions, one song alone, ‘Love's Ritornella’ from ‘The Brigand,’ achieved a lasting success. From about 1830 onwards he had given a good deal of attention to glee composition, and several of his productions in this branch of art gained prizes at the catch and glee clubs. ‘Six Glees for Three and Four Voices’ were published in 1844, and others singly. As early as 1828 he published a treatise entitled ‘Singing exemplified in a Series of Solfeggi and Exercises, progressively arranged,’ and he subsequently became a widely popular singing master. Among his many distinguished pupils the most eminent is Mr. Sims Reeves, whose first London appearance was made under Cooke's auspices. In 1846 he was appointed leader at the Concerts of Antient Music, succeeding John Fawcett Loder in that capacity. He died at his house in Great Portland Street, 26 Feb. 1848, and was buried at Kensal Green.
[Grove's Dict. of Music; Gent. Mag. 2nd ser. xxix. 559; Quarterly Musical Mag. x. 371, &c.]
COOKE, WILLIAM (d. 1553), judge, was born at Chesterton, Cambridgeshire, and educated in the university of Cambridge. He studied law first at Barnard's Inn and subsequently at Gray's Inn, of which he was admitted a member in 1528. He was called to the bar in 1530. In Lent 1544 he was elected reader at Gray's Inn, but in consequence of an outbreak of the plague did not read. On 2 Dec. 1545 he was elected recorder of Cambridge. He was also counsel to King's Hall, and steward of Corpus Christi College, Christ's College, Trinity Hall, and Gonville Hall. In autumn 1546 he was again elected reader at Gray's Inn, having received in the previous Trinity term a writ of summons to take the degree of serjeant. The ceremony took place on 3 Feb. 1545–6, Cooke receiving from Gray's Inn a present of 8l. towards the expenses connected therewith. The usual feast was held at the invitation of Lord-chancellor Wriothesley in Lincoln's Inn Hall. He was appointed king's serjeant on 22 Oct. 1550, and on 15 Nov. 1552 received a puisne judgeship in the common pleas. He died on 24 Aug. 1553. He was buried in the church of Milton, Cambridgeshire, where a brass with two Latin inscriptions still preserves his memory.
[Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, i. 429, 435, 452, v. 265; Dugdale's Orig. 117, 137, 293; Chron. Ser. 88, 89; Foss's Lives of the Judges; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab.]
COOKE, WILLIAM (d. 1780), a writer on numismatic and antiquarian subjects, was instituted to the vicarage of Enford, Wiltshire, in 1733, and held it until his death. He was also rector of Oldbury and Didmarton, Gloucestershire, and chaplain to the Earl of Suffolk. He published: 1. ‘The Works of Sallust translated into English … ,’1746, 8vo. 2. ‘An Inquiry into the Patriarchal and Druidical Religion, Temples, &c., … with an introduction in vindication of the several Hieroglyphical figures described and exhibited in the course of the work,’ London, 1754, 4to. 3. Second edition of No. 2, with additions, and the title, ‘An Inquiry into Patriarchal and Druidical Religion, Temples, &c., being the substance of some letters to Sir Hildebrand Jacob, Bart., wherein the Primæval Institution and Universality of the Christian Scheme is manifested; the Principles of the Patriarchs and Druids are laid open and shown to correspond entirely with each other, and both with the doctrines of Christianity …’ Illustrated with copper-plates. Second edition, London, 1755, 4to. 4. Boyse's ‘New Pantheon,’ sixth edition, revised and corrected by W. C., 1772, 12mo; another edition, 1777, 8vo.
Cooke died at Enford on 25 Feb. 1780. For some time previously he had suffered from ill-health, but managed to compile and send to press a laborious numismatic work, which was corrected and published by his son in 1781, with the title, ‘The Medallic History of Imperial Rome, from the first triumvirate … to the removal of the Imperial seat by Constantine the Great … ,’ 2 vols., London, 1781, 4to. Cooke applies coins to the illustration of Roman history and the lives of the emperors. The plan of the book is good, but the engravings are very poor. Most of the coins seem to have been previously published in other works.
[Gent. Mag. 25 Feb. 1780, vol. l.; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 264–7; Hoare's Wiltshire, s. v. ‘Enford;’ Brit. Mus. Cat.]
COOKE, WILLIAM (1711–1797), provost of King's College, Cambridge, was born in St. James's, Westminster, 15 Oct. 1711. He was sent to Harrow in 1718, and placed
