oil portraits by Holbein at Hampton court; but no doubt many pictures are attributed to this great painter which are the ordinary work of the most ordinary painters of his time. The best of his most authentic works is the "Family of the Burgomaster Meyer" at Dresden.—(See Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, &c., ed. Wornum; and Waagen, Treasures, &c.; and the Handbook of Painting.)—R. N. W.
HOLBERG, Ludvig, Baron, properly the father of modern Danish literature, and a man of rare genius and learning, was born at Bergen in Norway some time during the year 1684; but the precise date is uncertain. His family was obscure; and at his father's death, which occurred when Ludvig was only a child, the boy was left in very straitened circumstances. He was therefore obliged, after completing his studies at Copenhagen, to gain a livelihood by private tuition. An unconquerable desire for travelling, however, led him several times to make on the slenderest means the tour-of Europe; during one of which journeys he visited England, and spent two years at Oxford. On his return to Denmark he supported himself by teaching languages, and was ultimately appointed professor of history in the university of Copenhagen. He succeeded in acquiring affluence by his writings, and was raised to the rank of a noble by Frederick V. in 1747. His death occurred on the 27th January, 1754. The most celebrated works of Holberg are "Peder Paars," a masterpiece of heroic-comic poetry; "Niels Klim's Subterranean Journey," a profound half-philosophical, half-satirical romance; and the immortal "Comedies," that have given their author a foremost place in the ranks of great European dramatists. In Holberg the humorous faculty was wonderfully developed; and his knowledge of human nature was deep, discriminating, and extensive. He published a multitude of other works on almost every subject—history, biography, philosophy, and politics. These are generally solid and meritorious performances, although devoid of the real genius that pervades the comedies. So vast and unwearied was his industry that the edition of his select works alone extends to no fewer than twenty-one octavo volumes. Holberg's marked nationality and original intellect have exerted a very powerful influence on the literature of Denmark.—J. J.
HOLBOURNE, Sir Robert, a lawyer and writer on law, first emerges as the zealous royalist member for St. Michael's, Cornwall, in the Long parliament, although it seems he had previously been an opponent of ship-money. He sat in Charles I.'s Oxford parliament, was knighted, made attorney-general to the prince of Wales, and was on more than one occasion a commissioner of the king's in his negotiations with the Long parliament. He had been Lent reader at Lincoln's inn in 1641, but on returning to London had to compound for his estate, and was not allowed to resume the active practice of his profession. He died in 1647. His chief legal treatises are his "Readings in Lincoln's Inn on the Statute of Treason, 25 Edward III., c. 2," and the "Freeholder's Grand Inquest touching our Sovereign Lord the King and his Parliament," which was published in 1679 as the work of Sir Robert Fiemer, and to strengthen the cause of prerogative. He also revived William Tothill's Transactions of the High Court of Chancery, which appeared in 1649 "Revised by Sir Robert Holbourne."—F. E.
HOLCROFT, Thomas, a dramatist and miscellaneous writer of some repute in his own day, was born at London, December 10, 1744. His father was a shoemaker in Leicester Fields, but had, it seems, occasional transactions in horse-flesh. Holcroft's first step in life was as stable-boy to Mr. Vernon; and his zeal and ability speedily gained him the confidence of his employer. In his "Memoirs" published in 1816 by Mr. Hazlitt, the author narrates with singular fulness and candour all the details of his early struggles. He was eminently a self-taught man; every leisure moment which could be snatched from his duties was devoted to the acquisition of knowledge, and after a while to the mastery of languages. In course of time Holcroft rendered himself competently familiar with French, German, and Italian. About 1760, after a series of vicissitudes into which it would be impossible to enter in any brief compass, he turned schoolmaster, and married; and, to make an addition to his probably very scanty income at this period, he contributed papers for a short time to the Whitehall Evening Post. Tuition, however, had no permanent charms for him, and he successively became actor, translator, and dramatic author. Holcroft spent a portion of his later years on the continent, and we have the result of some of his experience in his "Travels into France," a work little known, though deserving perhaps to rank among the best of his remains. He died on the 23rd March, 1809. A somewhat lofty estimate was formed at the time of Holcroft's poems dramas, and fictions. But few of the compositions which he has left behind him have borne the test of time; and it is doubtful whether any of his performances, except a few of his translations, will live. The best of his novels are his "Tales of the Castle," from De Genlis; and the "Marriage of Figaro." He possessed little or no original power, and all his compositions carry traces of his obscure origin and imperfect education. An abridged version of the "Memoirs," which were originally published in three volumes, forms one of the books in the collection known as the Family Library.—W. C. H.
HOLDEN, Henry, an English divine, born in Lancashire in 1596 of Roman catholic parents, who sent him to Douay, whence he removed to Paris. He took orders, and officiated as a priest in Paris. Holden published in 1652 his "Analysis Fidei," which was afterwards translated into English by W. G., who appears to have been one of the English catholics at that time in France. At its close there are two essays—one on schism and another on usury; the latter not included in the first edition. In 1660 Holden edited the New Testament, with annotations. He addressed two letters to Arnauld on the controversy respecting grace. He died at Paris in March, 1662.—B. H. C.
HOLDER, William, a learned divine and philosopher, born in Nottinghamshire, was educated in Pembroke hall, Cambridge, and in 1642 became rector of Blechingdon, Oxfordshire. He acquired great distinction by teaching a young gentleman, who was born deaf and dumb to speak. In 1669 he published a work on the "Elements of Speech," in the appendix to which he relates how he effected the cure. He wrote also a "Treatise on the Natural Grounds of Harmony;" and a "Discourse concerning Time." He died in January, 1697.—G. BL.
HOLDSWORTH, Edward, was born—probably at North Stoneham, Hants, of which place his father was rector—in 1688, and after the usual course of studies at Winchester school, removed to Magdalen hall, Oxford. In 1715 he was elected to a fellowship; but refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the house of Hanover, he quitted the university, and obtained a situation as travelling tutor. This kind of situation suiting his tastes, he continued to act in such a capacity till his death, and had a succession of distinguished pupils. Holdsworth died suddenly at Coleshill, Warwickshire, the seat of Lord Digby, of a fever, 30th December, 1747. He has left "Remarks and Dissertations on Virgil, with some other classical observations," published in 1768; and "Muscipula, or the mousetrap," a poem, 1709, 8vo, Lat. and Eng. Again, in Eng., in a new translation, by R. Lewis, 1728, 8vo.—W. C. H.
HOLDSWORTH, Richard, sometimes called Oldsworth or Oldisworth, a theologian of good abilities, whose royalist preferences, and the troubles in which they involved him, made him somewhat prominent in the time of Charles I., was the son of a clergyman at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and born in 1590. He entered at St. John's college, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship. The principles of Archbishop Laud were congenial to his spirit, and for some time a source of profit: for about 1625 he was appointed to the rectory of St. Peter-le-Poor in London; in 1629 he was elected to the divinity professorship of Gresham college; not long after a prebend in Lincoln cathedral was presented to him, and he was also made archdeacon of Huntingdon; finally, in 1637, the mastership of Emmanuel college, Cambridge, was conferred upon him, and he was created doctor of divinity. But after the outbreak of the civil war, and the great changes made in the constitution of the church. Dr. Holdsworth was, in Heylin's words, "sequestered, plundered, imprisoned in Ely house, then in the Tower," about 1642, for his refusal to comply with the new regulations. In 1647 Charles I. was at Hampton court, and Dr. Holdsworth was among those who attended upon him; he was, however, a second time imprisoned, and it is supposed the execution of the king shortened his life, as he died in 1649. He left a selection of his sermons entitled "The Valley of Vision," and in 1661 appeared his "Prælectiones Theologicæ," a devotional work, with an account of his life.—B. H. C.
HOLE, Richard, a miscellaneous writer, was born at Exeter about 1750, and received his later education at Exeter college, Oxford. In the heyday of Macpherson's Ossian, he published a poetical version of it. In 1792 he became rector of Farringdon,
