[1] Lord Campbell, _Lives of the Lord Chancellors_, v. 43 (London,
1846).
HARDY, ALEXANDRE (1569?-1631), French dramatist, was born in Paris. He
was one of the most fertile of all dramatic authors, and himself claimed
to have written some six hundred plays, of which, however, only
thirty-four are preserved. He seems to have been connected all his life
with a troupe of actors headed by a clever comedian named
Valleran-Lecomte, whom he provided with plays. Hardy toured the
provinces with this company, which gave some representations in Paris
in 1599 at the Hotel de Bourgogne. Valleran-Lecomte occupied the same
theatre in 1600-1603, and again in 1607, apparently for some years. In
consequence of disputes with the Confrerie de la Passion, who owned the
privilege of the theatre, they played elsewhere in Paris and in the
provinces for some years; but in 1628, when they had long borne the
title of "royal," they were definitely established at the Hotel de
Bourgogne. Hardy's numerous dedications never seem to have brought him
riches or patrons. His most powerful friend was Isaac de Laffemas (d.
1657), one of Richelieu's most unscrupulous agents, and he was on
friendly terms with the poet Theophile, who addressed him in some verses
placed at the head of his _Theatre_ (1632), and Tristan l'Hermite had a
similar admiration for him. Hardy's plays were written for the stage,
not to be read; and it was in the interest of the company that they
should not be printed and thus fall into the common stock. But in 1623
he published _Les Chastes et loyales amours de Theagene et Cariclee_, a
tragi-comedy in eight "days" or dramatic poems; and in 1624 he began a
collected edition of his works, _Le Theatre d'Alexandre Hardy,
parisien_, of which five volumes (1624-1628) were published, one at
Rouen and the rest in Paris. These comprise eleven tragedies: _Didon se
sacrifiant_, _Scedase ou l'hospitalite violee_, _Panthee_, _Meleagre_,
_La Mort d'Achille_, _Coriolan_, _Marianne_, a trilogy on the history of
Alexander, _Alcmeon, ou la vengeance feminine_; five mythological
pieces; thirteen tragi-comedies, among them _Gesippe_, drawn from
Boccaccio; _Phraarte_, taken from Giraldi's _Cent excellentes nouvelles_
(Paris, 1584); _Cornelie_, _La Force du sang_, _Felismene_, _La Belle
Egyptienne_, taken from Spanish subjects; and five pastorals, of which
the best is _Alphee, ou la justice d'amour_. Hardy's importance in the
history of the French theatre can hardly be over-estimated. Up to the
end of the 16th century medieval farce and spectacle kept their hold on
the stage in Paris. The French classical tragedy of Etienne Jodelle and
his followers had been written for the learned, and in 1628 when Hardy's
work was nearly over and Rotrou was on the threshold of his career, very
few literary dramas by any other author are known to have been publicly
represented. Hardy educated the popular taste, and made possible the
dramatic activity of the 17th century. He had abundant practical
experience of the stage, and modified tragedy accordingly, suppressing
chorus and monologue, and providing the action and variety which was
denied to the literary drama. He was the father in France of
tragi-comedy, but cannot fairly be called a disciple of the romantic
school of England and Spain. It is impossible to know how much later
dramatists were indebted to him in detail, since only a fraction of his
work is preserved, but their general obligation is amply established. He
died in 1631 or 1632.
The sources for Hardy's biography are extremely limited. The account
given by the brothers Parfaict in their _Hist. du theatre francais_
(1745, &c., vol. iv. pp. 2-4) must be received with caution, and no
documents are forthcoming. Many writers have identified him with the
provincial playwright picturesquely described in chap. xi. of _Le Page
disgracie_ (1643), the autobiography of Tristan l'Hermite, but if the
portrait is drawn from life at all, it is more probably drawn from
Theophile. See _Le Theatre d'Alexandre Hardy_, edited by E. Stengel
(Marburg and Paris, 1883-1884, 5 vols.); E. Lombard, "Etude sur
Alexandre Hardy," in _Zeitschr. fur neufranz. Spr. u. Lit._ (Oppeln
and Leipzig, vols. i. and ii., 1880-1881); K. Nagel, _A. Hardy's
Einfluss auf Pierre Corneille_ (Marburg, 1884); and especially E.
Rigal, _Alexandre Hardy ..._ (Paris, 1889) and _Le Theatre francais
avant la periode classique_ (Paris, 1901.)
HARDY, THOMAS (1840- ), English novelist, was born in Dorsetshire on
the 2nd of June 1840. His family was one of the branches of the Dorset
Hardys, formerly of influence in and near the valley of the Frome,
claiming descent from John Le Hardy of Jersey (son of Clement Le Hardy,
lieutenant-governor of that island in 1488), who settled in the west of
England. His maternal ancestors were the Swetman, Childs or Child, and
kindred families, who before and after 1635 were small landed
proprietors in Melbury Osmond, Dorset, and adjoining parishes. He was
educated at local schools, 1848-1854, and afterwards privately, and in
1856 was articled to Mr John Hicks, an ecclesiastical architect of
Dorchester. In 1859 he began writing verse and essays, but in 1861 was
compelled to apply himself more strictly to architecture, sketching and
measuring many old Dorset churches with a view to their restoration. In
1862 he went to London (which he had first visited at the age of nine)
and became assistant to the late Sir Arthur Blomfield, R.A. In 1863 he
won the medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects for an essay
on _Coloured Brick and Terra-cotta Architecture_, and in the same year
won the prize of the Architectural Association for design. In March 1865
his first short story was published in _Chambers's Journal_, and during
the next two or three years he wrote a good deal of verse, being
somewhat uncertain whether to take to architecture or to literature as a
profession. In 1867 he left London for Weymouth, and during that and the
following year wrote a "purpose" story, which in 1869 was accepted by
Messrs Chapman and Hall. The manuscript had been read by Mr George
Meredith, who asked the writer to call on him, and advised him not to
print it, but to try another, with more plot. The manuscript was
withdrawn and re-written, but never published. In 1870 Mr Hardy took Mr
Meredith's advice too literally, and constructed a novel that was all
plot, which was published in 1871 under the title _Desperate Remedies_.
In 1872 appeared _Under the Greenwood Tree_, a "rural painting of the
Dutch school," in which Mr Hardy had already "found himself," and which
he has never surpassed in happy and delicate perfection of art. _A Pair
of Blue Eyes_, in which tragedy and irony come into his work together,
was published in 1873. In 1874 Mr Hardy married Emma Lavinia, daughter
of the late T. Attersoll Gifford of Plymouth. His first popular success
was made by _Far from the Madding Crowd_ (1874), which, on its
appearance anonymously in the _Cornhill Magazine_, was attributed by
many to George Eliot. Then came _The Hand of Ethelberta_ (1876),
described, not inaptly, as "a comedy in chapters"; _The Return of the
Native_ (1878), the most sombre and, in some ways, the most powerful and
characteristic of Mr Hardy's novels; _The Trumpet-Major_ (1880); _A
Laodicean_ (1881); _Two on a Tower_ (1882), a long excursion in
constructive irony; _The Mayor of Casterbridge_ (1886); _The
Woodlanders_ (1887); _Wessex Tales_ (1888); _A Group of Noble Dames_
(1891); _Tess of the D'Urbervilles_ (1891), Mr Hardy's most famous
novel; _Life's Little Ironies_ (1894); _Jude the Obscure_ (1895), his
most thoughtful and least popular book; _The Well-Beloved_, a reprint,
with some revision, of a story originally published in the _Illustrated
London News_ in 1892 (1897); _Wessex Poems_, written during the previous
thirty years, with illustrations by the author (1898); and _The Dynasts_
(2 parts, 1904-1906). In 1909 appeared _Time's Laughing-stocks and other
Verses_. In all his work Mr Hardy is concerned with one thing, seen
under two aspects; not civilization, nor manners, but the principle of
life itself, invisibly realized in humanity as sex, seen visibly in the
world as what we call nature. He is a fatalist, perhaps rather a
determinist, and he studies the workings of fate or law (ruling through
inexorable moods or humours), in the chief vivifying and disturbing
influence in life, women. His view of women is more French than English;
it is subtle, a little cruel, not as tolerant as it seems, thoroughly a
man's point of view, and not, as with Mr Meredith, man's and woman's at
once. He sees all that is irresponsible for good and evil in a woman's
character, all that is untrustworthy in her brain and will, all that is
alluring in her variability. He is her apologist, but always with a
reserve of private judgment. No one has created more attractive women of
a certain class, women whom a man would have been more likely to love or
to regret loving. In his earlier books he is somewhat careful over the
reputation of his heroines; gradually he allows them more liberty, with
a franker treatment of instinct and its consequences. _Jude the Obscure_
is perhaps the most unbiassed consideration in English fiction of the
more complicated questions of sex. There is almost no passion in his
work, neither the author nor his characters ever seeming able to pass
beyond the state of curiosity, the most intellectually interesting of
limitations, under the influence of any emotion. In his feeling for
nature, curiosity sometimes seems to broaden into a more intimate
communion. The heath, the village with its peasants, the change of every
hour among the fields and on the roads of that English countryside which
he has made his own--the Dorsetshire and Wiltshire "Wessex"--mean more
to him, in a sense, than even the spectacle of man and woman in their
blind and painful and absorbing struggle for existence. His knowledge of
woman confirms him in a suspension of judgment; his knowledge of nature
brings him nearer to the unchanging and consoling element in the world.
All the entertainment which he gets out of life comes to him from his
contemplation of the peasant, as himself a rooted part of the earth,
translating the dumbness of the fields into humour. His peasants have
been compared with Shakespeare's; he has the Shakespearean sense of
their placid vegetation by the side of hurrying animal life, to which
they act the part of chorus, with an unconscious wisdom in their close,
narrow and undistracted view of things. The order of merit was conferred
upon Mr Hardy in July 1910.
See Annie Macdonell, _Thomas Hardy_ (London, 1894); Lionel P. Johnson,
_The Art of Thomas Hardy_ (London, 1894). (A. Sy.)
HARDY, SIR THOMAS DUFFUS (1804-1878), English antiquary, was the third
son of Major Thomas Bartholomew Price Hardy, and belonged to a family
several members of which had distinguished themselves in the British
navy. Born at Port Royal in Jamaica on the 22nd of May 1804, he crossed
over to England and in 1819 entered the Record Office in the Tower of
London. Trained under Henry Petrie (1768-1842) he gained a sound
knowledge of palaeography, and soon began to edit selections of the
public records. From 1861 until his death on the 15th of June 1878 he
was deputy-keeper of the Record Office, which just before his
appointment had been transferred to its new London headquarters in
Chancery Lane. Hardy, who was knighted in 1873, had much to do with the
appointment of the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1869.
Sir T. Hardy edited the Close Rolls, _Rotuli litterarum clausarum,
1204-1227_ (2 vols., 1833-1844), with an introduction entitled "A
Description of the Close Rolls, with an Account of the early Courts of
Law and Equity"; and the Patent Rolls, _Rotuli litterarum patentium,
1201-1216_ (1835), with introduction, "A Description of the Patent
Rolls, to which is added an Itinerary of King John." He also edited
the _Rotuli de oblatis et finibus_ (1835), which deal also with the
time of King John; the _Rotuli Normanniae, 1200-1205_, and _1417-1418_
(1835), containing letters and grants of the English kings concerning
the duchy of Normandy; the Charter Rolls, _Rotuli chartarum,
1199-1216_ (1837), giving with this work an account of the structure
of charters; the Liberate Rolls, _Rotuli de liberate ac de misis et
praestitis regnante Johanne_ (1844); and the _Modus tenendi
parliamentum_, with a translation (1846). He wrote _A Catalogue of
Lords Chancellors, Keepers of the Great Seal, Masters of the Rolls and
Officers of the Court of Chancery_ (1843); the preface to Henry
Petrie's _Monumenta historica Britannica_ (1848); and _Descriptive
Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and
Ireland_ (3 vols., 1862-1871). He edited William of Malmesbury's _De
gestis regum anglorum_ (2 vols., 1840); he continued and corrected
John le Neve's _Fasti ecclesiae Anglicanae_ (3 vols., Oxford, 1854);
and with C. T. Martin he edited and translated _L'Estorie des Engles_
of Geoffrey Gaimar (1888-1889). He wrote _Syllabus in English of
Documents in Rymer's Foedera_ (3 vols., 1869-1885), and gave an
account of the history of the public records from 1837 to 1851 in his
_Memoirs of the Life of Henry, Lord Langdale_ (1852), Lord Langdale
(1783-1851), master of the rolls from 1836 to 1851, being largely
responsible for the erection of the new Record Office. Hardy took part
in the controversy about the date of the Athanasian creed, writing
_The Athanasian Creed in connection with the Utrecht Psalter_ (1872);
and _Further Report on the Utrecht Psalter_ (1874).
His younger brother, SIR WILLIAM HARDY (1807-1887), was also an
antiquary. He entered the Record Office in 1823, leaving it in 1830 to
become keeper of the records of the duchy of Lancaster. In 1868, when
these records were presented by Queen Victoria to the nation, he
returned to the Record Office as an assistant keeper, and in 1878 he
succeeded his brother Sir Thomas as deputy-keeper, resigning in 1886. He
died on the 17th of March 1887.
Sir W. Hardy edited Jehan de Waurin's _Recueil des croniques et
anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne_ (5 vols., 1864-1891); and
he translated and edited the _Charters of the Duchy of Lancaster_
(1845).
HARDY, SIR THOMAS MASTERMAN, Bart. (1769-1839), British vice-admiral, of
the Portisham (Dorsetshire) family of Hardy, was born on the 5th of
April 1769, and in 1781 began his career as a sailor. He became
lieutenant in 1793, and in 1796, being then attached to the "Minerve"
frigate, attracted the attention of Nelson by his gallant conduct. He
continued to serve with distinction, and in 1798 was promoted to be
captain of the "Vanguard," Nelson's flagship. In the "St George" he did
valuable work before the battle of Copenhagen in 1801, and his
association with Nelson was crowned by his appointment in 1803 to the
"Victory" as flag-captain, in which capacity he was engaged at the
battle of Trafalgar in 1805, witnessed Nelson's will, and was in close
attendance on him at his death. Hardy was created a baronet in 1806. He
was then employed on the North American station, and later (1819), was
made commodore and commander-in-chief on the South American station,
where his able conduct came prominently into notice. In 1825 he became
rear-admiral, and in December 1826 escorted the expeditionary force to
Lisbon. In 1830 he was made first sea lord of the admiralty, being
created G.C.B. in 1831. In 1834 he was appointed governor of Greenwich
hospital, where thenceforward he devoted himself with conspicuous
success to the charge of the naval pensioners; in 1837 he became
vice-admiral. He died at Greenwich on the 20th of September 1839. In
1807 he had married Anne Louisa Emily, daughter of Sir George Cranfield
Berkeley, under whom he had served on the North American station, and by
her he had three daughters, the baronetcy becoming extinct.
See Marshall, _Royal Naval Biography_, ii. and iii.; Nicolas,
_Despatches of Lord Nelson_; Broadley and Bartelot, _The Three Dorset
Captains at Trafalgar_ (1906), and _Nelson's Hardy, his Life, Letters
and Friends_ (1909).
HARDYNG or HARDING, JOHN (1378-1465), English chronicler, was born in
the north, and as a boy entered the service of Sir Henry Percy
(Hotspur), with whom he was present at the battle of Shrewsbury (1403).
He then passed into the service of Sir Robert Umfraville, under whom he
was constable of Warkworth Castle, and served in the campaign of
Agincourt in 1415 and in the sea-fight before Harfleur in 1416. In 1424
he was on a diplomatic mission at Rome, where at the instance of
Cardinal Beaufort he consulted the chronicle of Trogus Pompeius.
Umfraville, who died in 1436, had made Hardyng constable of Kyme in
Lincolnshire, where he probably lived till his death about 1465. Hardyng
was a man of antiquarian knowledge, and under Henry V. was employed to
investigate the feudal relations of Scotland to the English crown. For
this purpose he visited Scotland, at much expense and hardship. For his
services he says that Henry V. promised him the manor of Geddington in
Northamptonshire. Many years after, in 1439, he had a grant of L10 a
year for similar services. In 1457 there is a record of the delivery of
documents relating to Scotland by Hardyng to the earl of Shrewsbury, and
his reward by a further pension of L20. It is clear that Hardyng was
well acquainted with Scotland, and James I. is said to have offered him
a bribe to surrender his papers. But the documents, which are still
preserved in the Record Office, have been shown to be forgeries, and
were probably manufactured by Hardyng himself. Hardyng spent many years
on the composition of a rhyming chronicle of England. His services under
the Percies and Umfravilles gave him opportunity to obtain much
information of value for 15th century history. As literature the
chronicle has no merit. It was written and rewritten to suit his various
patrons. The original edition ending in 1436 had a Lancastrian bias and
was dedicated to Henry VI. Afterwards he prepared a version for Richard,
duke of York (d. 1460), and the chronicle in its final form was
presented to Edward IV. after his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville in
1464.
The version of 1436 is preserved in Lansdowne MS. 204, and the best of
the later versions in Harley MS. 661, both in the British Museum.
Richard Grafton printed two editions in January 1543, which differ
much from one another and from the now extant manuscripts. Stow, who
was acquainted with a different version, censured Grafton on this
point somewhat unjustly. Sir Henry Ellis published the longer version
of Grafton with some additions from the Harley MS. in 1812.
See Ellis' preface to Hardyng's _Chronicle_, and Sir F. Palgrave's
_Documents illustrating the History of Scotland_ (for an account of
Hardyng's forgeries). (C. L. K.)
HARE, AUGUSTUS JOHN CUTHBERT (1834-1903), English writer and traveller,
was born at Rome in 1834. He was educated at Harrow school and at
University College, Oxford. His name is familiar as the author of a
large number of guide-books to the principal countries and towns of
Europe, most of which were written to order for John Murray. They were
made up partly of the author's own notes of travel, partly of quotations
from others' books taken with a frankness of appropriation that disarmed
criticism. He also wrote _Memorials of a Quiet Life_--that of his aunt
by whom he had been adopted when a baby (1872), and a tediously long
autobiography in six volumes, _The Story of My Life_. He died at St
Leonards-on-Sea on the 22nd of January 1903.
HARE, SIR JOHN (1844- ), English actor and manager, was born in
Yorkshire on the 16th of May 1844, and was educated at Giggleswick
school, Yorkshire. He made his first appearance on the stage at
Liverpool in 1864, coming to London in 1865, and acting for ten years
with the Bancrofts. He soon made his mark, particularly in T. W.
Robertson's comedies, and in 1875 became manager of the Court theatre.
But it was in association with Mr and Mrs Kendal at the St James's
theatre from 1879 to 1888 that he established his popularity in London,
in important "character" and "men of the world" parts, the joint
management of Hare and Kendal making this theatre one of the chief
centres of the dramatic world for a decade. In 1889 he became lessee and
manager of the Garrick theatre, where (though he was often out of the
cast) he produced several important plays, such as Pinero's _The
Profligate_ and _The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith_, and had a remarkable
personal success in the chief part in Sydney Grundy's _A Pair of
Spectacles_. In 1897 he took the Globe theatre, where his acting in
Pinero's _Gay Lord Quex_ was another personal triumph. He became almost
as well known in the United States as in England, his last tour in
America being in 1900 and 1901. He was knighted in 1907.
HARE, JULIUS CHARLES (1795-1855), English theological writer, was born
at Valdagno, near Vicenza, in Italy, on the 13th of September 1795. He
came to England with his parents in 1799, but in 1804-1805 spent a
winter with them at Weimar, where he met Goethe and Schiller, and
received a bias to German literature which influenced his style and
sentiments throughout his whole career. On the death of his mother in
1806, Julius was sent home to the Charterhouse in London, where he
remained till 1812, when he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. There he
became fellow in 1818, and after some time spent abroad he began to read
law in London in the following year. From 1822 to 1832 he was
assistant-tutor at Trinity College. Turning his attention from law to
divinity, Hare took priest's orders in 1826; and, on the death of his
uncle in 1832, he succeeded to the rich family living of Hurstmonceaux
in Sussex, where he accumulated a library of some 12,000 volumes,
especially rich in German literature. Before taking up residence in his
parish he once more went abroad, and made in Rome the acquaintance of
the Chevalier Bunsen, who afterwards dedicated to him part of his work,
_Hippolytus and his Age_. In 1840 Hare was appointed archdeacon of
Lewes, and in the same year preached a course of sermons at Cambridge
(_The Victory of Faith_), followed in 1846 by a second, _The Mission of
the Comforter_. Neither series when published attained any great
popularity. Archdeacon Hare married in 1844 Esther, a sister of his
friend Frederick Maurice. In 1851 he was collated to a prebend in
Chichester; and in 1853 he became one of Queen Victoria's chaplains. He
died on the 23rd of January 1855.
Julius Hare belonged to what has been called the "Broad Church party,"
though some of his opinions approach very closely to those of the
Evangelical Arminian school, while others again seem vague and
undecided. He was one of the first of his countrymen to recognize and
come under the influence of German thought and speculation, and,
amidst an exaggerated alarm of German heresy, did much to vindicate
the authority of the sounder German critics. His writings, which are
chiefly theological and controversial, are largely formed of charges
to his clergy, and sermons on different topics; but, though valuable
and full of thought, they lose some of their force by the cumbrous
German structure of the sentences, and by certain orthographical
peculiarities in which the author indulged. In 1827 _Guesses at Truth
by Two Brothers_[1] appeared. Hare assisted Thirlwall, afterwards
bishop of St David's, in the translation of the 1st and 2nd volumes of
Niebuhr's _History of Rome_ (1828 and 1832), and published a
_Vindication of Niebuhr's History_ in 1829. He wrote many similar
works, among which is a _Vindication of Luther against his recent
English Assailants_ (1854). In 1848 he edited the _Remains of John
Sterling_, who had formerly been his curate. Carlyle's _Life of John
Sterling_ was written through dissatisfaction with the "Life" prefixed
to Archdeacon Hare's book. _Memorials of a Quiet Life_, published in
1872, contain accounts of the Hare family.