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.
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.
He wrote three plays, all performed at Covent Garden, the two first 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’ (first acted on 2 March 1775), 1775.
‘Cleonice’ and ‘Cyrus’ are in Bell's ‘British Theatre,’ vol. xxiv.; and ‘Timanthes’ in the same collection, vol. xxxiv.
[Nichols's Anecdotes, ii. 404–7; Anecdotes … by John Hoole's surviving brother, Samuel Hoole, 1804; Biog. Dram.; Gent. Mag. vol. lxxiii.; European Mag. March 1792 (with portrait); Genest's Hist. of the Stage, iv. 238, 284, 463; Boswell's Johnson.]
HOOPER, EDMUND (1553?–1621), organist and composer, was born about 1553 at Halberton near Tiverton, Devon, and was brought up at Bradninch in the same county, until he was sent by Sir James Dyer to school at Greenwich. Hooper joined the choir of Westminster Abbey probably in 1581; was appointed master of the children on 3 Dec. 1588; became shortly afterwards organist, in succession to Neeve, and was in 1606 the first regularly appointed organist of the abbey (Rimbault). His duties included repair of the organs and transcription of choir music. He was admitted a gentleman of the Chapel Royal on 1 March 1603. He died on 14 July 1621, and was buried on the 16th in the abbey cloisters, near his first wife. He was survived by his second wife, Margaret, and twelve sons and daughters. His eldest son, James (d. 1651), was a ‘singing man’ at Westminster; his grandson, William (1611–1663), petticannon, was probably the Hooper who took Pepys into the choir, where he ‘sang with them their service’ (29 Dec. 1661).
Hooper composed much church music of merit. There are printed in Barnard's ‘First Book of Selected Church Music,’ London, 1641, his full anthems, ‘Teach me Thy way’ (a 4), ‘O Thou God Almighty’ (a 5), and ‘Behold it is Christ’ (a 5). In Leighton's ‘Teares or Lamentacions,’ London, 1614, are published Hooper's ‘Alas! that I offended ever’ (a 4), and ‘Wellspring of Bounty’ (a 5). Hooper contributed several harmonised psalm-tunes to Este's ‘Whole Booke of Psalms,’ 1592. Manuscript copies of Hooper's ‘Evening Services’ (long, in D, and short, in C or A minor) are in the libraries of Ely Cathedral and Peterhouse, Cambridge. A collection of manuscript music (thought by Husk to have belonged to Barnard, and now in the library of the Royal College of Music) contains Hooper's preces, psalms, and responses, and six unpublished verse anthems: ‘Hearken, ye nations,’ ‘O God of Gods,’ ‘O how glorious!’ ‘O Lord, in Thee is all,’ ‘O Lord, turn not away,’ ‘Sing unto the Lord.’
[Rimbault's Old Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal, passim; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers, pp. 118, 145, 158; Pepys's Diary, i. 307; P.C.C. Registers, Dale, fol. 67; Husk's Cat. of the Sacred Harmonic Society, pp. 188–190; Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 746; authorities cited.]
HOOPER, GEORGE (1640-1727), bishop of Bath and Wells, was born at Grimley in Worcestershire, 18 Nov. 1640. His father, also George Hooper, appears to have been a gentleman of independent means; his mother, Joan Hooper, was daughter of Edmund Giles, gent., of White Ladies Aston, Worcestershire. From Grimley his parents removed to Westminster. He was elected a scholar of St. Paul’s School while John Langley was high-master (1640-1657) (Gardiner, St. Paul’s School Reg., p.47), but was soon removed to
