An accidental circumstance having led me to re-peruse the article
entitled _Hugh Holland and his works_ (Vol. ii., p. 265.), I feel myself
called on, as a lover of facts, to notice some of the statements which
it contains.
1. "He was born at Denbigh in 1558." He was born at Denbigh, but not in
1558. In 1625 he thus expressed himself:
"Why was the fatall spinster so vnthrifty?
To draw my third four yeares to tell and fifty!"
2. "In 1582 he matriculated at Baliol College, Oxford." He did not quit
Westminster School till 1589. If he ever pursued his studies at Baliol
College, it was some ten years afterwards.
3. "About 1590 he succeeded to a fellowship at Trinity College,
Cambridge." In 1589 he was elected from Westminster to a _scholarship_
in Trinity College, Cambridge--not to a _fellowship_. At a later period
of life, he may have succeeded to a fellowship.
4. "Holland published two works: 1. _Monumenta sepulchralia Sancti
Pauli_, London, 1613, 4to. 2. _A cypress garland_ etc., London, 1625,
4to." Hugh Holland was not the compiler of the first-named work: the
initials H. H admit of another interpretation. This, however, is a very
pardonable oversight. I could give about twenty authorities for
ascribing the work to Hugh Holland.
5. The dates assigned to the _Monumenta Sancti Pauli_ are "1613, 1616,
1618, and 1633." Here are three errors in as many lines. The _first_
edition is dated in 1614. The edition of 1633, which is entitled
_Ecclesia Sancti Pavli illvstrata_, is the _second_. No other editions
exist.
6. "Holland also printed a copy of Latin verses before Alexander's
_Roxana_, 1632." No such work exists. He may have printed verses before
the _Roxana_ of W. Alabaster, who was his brother-collegian.
The authorities which I have consulted are Fuller, Anthony à Wood, Henry
Holland, son of the celebrated Philemon Holland, Hugh Holland, and
Joseph Welch; and in submitting the result of my researches to critical
examination, I must commend the writer of the article in question for
his continued efforts to produce new facts, and to explode current
errors.
Insensible as modern critics may be to the poetical merits of Hugh
Holland, we find him described by Camden as one of the _most pregnant
wits_ of those times; and he certainly gave a notable proof of his
wit--for fame is that which _all hunt after_--in contributing some lines
to _Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, and tragedies_.
On that account, if on no other, the particulars of his life should be
inquired into and recorded. His _Cypress garland_, a copy of which I
possess, is rich in autobiographical anecdote; and I have collected some
of his fugitive verses, a specimen of which may amuse. As one of the
shortest, I transcribe the lines which he addressed to Giles Farnaby, a
musical composer of some eminence, on the publication of his _Canzonets
to fowre voyces_, A. D. 1598.
"_M. Hu. Holland to the author._
I would both sing thy praise, and praise thy singing,
That in the winter nowe are both a-springing;
But my muse must be stronger,
And the daies must be longer.
When the sunne's in his hight with ye bright Barnaby,
Then should we sing thy praises, gentle Farnaby."