The name of Hugh Holland has been handed down to posterity in connexion
with that of our immortal bard; but few know anything of him beyond his
commendatory verses prefixed to the first folio of Shakspeare.
He was born at Denbigh in 1558, and educated at Westminster School while
Camden taught there. In 1582 he matriculated at Baliol College, Oxford;
and about 1590 he succeeded to a Fellowship at Trinity College,
Cambridge. Thence he travelled into Italy, and at Rome was guilty of
several indiscretions by the freedom of his conversations. He next went
to Jerusalem to pay his devotions at the Holy Sepulchre, and on his
return touched at Constantinople, where he received a reprimand from the
English ambassador for the former freedom of his tongue. At his return
to England, he retired to Oxford, and, according to Wood, spent some
years there for the sake of the public library. He died in July, 1633,
and was buried in Westminster Abbey, "in the south crosse aisle, neere
the dore of St. Benet's Chapell," but no inscription now remains to
record the event.
Whalley, in Gifford's _Jonson_ (1. cccxiv.), says, speaking of Hugh
Holland--
"He wrote several things, amongst which is the life of Camden;
but none of them, I believe, have been ever published."
Holland published two works, the titles of which are as follows, and
perhaps others which I am not aware of:--