Theodore Hook

Theodore Edward Hook (September 22, 1788 - August 24, 1841), English author, was born in London. Image File history File links Theodore_Edward_Hook. ... Image File history File links Theodore_Edward_Hook. ... September 22 is the 265th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (266th in leap years). ... 1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining. ... take you to calendar). ...

He spent a year at Harrow, and subsequently matriculated at Oxford, but he never actually resided at the university. His father, James Hook (1746-1827), the composer of numerous popular songs, took great delight in exhibiting the boy's extraordinary musical and metrical gifts, and the precocious Theodore became the little pet lion of the green room. Harrow School Crest Harrow School is a British public school, located in Harrow on the Hill in North West London. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...

At the age of sixteen, in conjunction with his father, he scored a dramatic success with The Soldier's Return, a comic opera, and this he rapidly followed up with a series of over a dozen sparkling ventures, the instant popularity of which was hardly dependent on the inimitable acting of John Liston and Charles Mathews. John Liston (c. ... Charles Mathews (June 28, 1776 - June 28, 1835) was an English theatre manager and comic actor, well-known during his time for his gift for impersonation. ...

But Hook gave himself up for some ten of the best years of his life to the pleasures of the town, winning a foremost place in the world of fashion by his matchless powers of improvisation and mimicry, and startling the public by the audacity of his practical jokes. His unique gift of improvising the words and the music of songs eventually charmed the prince Regent into a declaration that something must be done for Hook. The prince was as good as his word, and Hook, in spite of a total ignorance of accounts, was appointed accountant-general and treasurer of the Mauritius with a salary of £2000 a year. For five delightful years he was the life and soul of the island, but in 1817, a serious deficiency having been discovered in the treasury accounts, he was arrested and brought to England on a criminal charge. A sum of about £12,000 had been abstracted by a deputy official, and for this amount Hook was held responsible. The Prince Frederick, Prince of Wales (Frederick Louis) (February 1, 1707 - March 31, 1751) was a member of the British Royal Family, the eldest son of King George II. He was born into the House of Hanover and was known as Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Hanover. ...

During the tardy scrutiny of the audit board he lived obscurely and maintained himself by writing for magazines and newspapers. In 1820 he launched the newspaper John Bull, the champion of high Toryism and the virulent detractor of Queen Caroline. Witty, incisive criticism and pitiless invective secured it a large circulation, and from this source alone Hook derived, for the first year at least, an income of £2000. He was, however, arrested for the second time on account of his debt to the state, which he made no effort to defray. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Margravine Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (or Anspach) (Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline) (1 March 1683 – 20 November 1737) as Queen Caroline was the queen consort of King George II of Great Britain 1727-1737. ...

In a sponging-house, where he was confined for two years, he wrote the nine volumes of stories afterwards collected under the title of Sayings and Doings (1826-1829). In. the remaining twenty-three years of his life he poured forth no fewer than thirty-eight volumes, besides numberless articles, squibs and sketches. His novels are not works of enduring interest, but they are saved from mediocrity by frequent passages of racy narrative and vivid portraiture. The best are Maxwell (1830), Love and Pride (1833), the autobiographic Gilbert Gurney (1836), Jack Brag (1837), Gurney Married (1838) and Peregrine Bunce (1842).

Incessant work had already begun to tell on his health, when Hook returned to his old social habits, and a prolonged attempt to combine industry and dissipation resulted in the confession that he was done up in purse, in mind and in body too at last. He died on the 24th of August 1841.

His writings in great part are of a purely ephemeral character; and the greatest triumphs of the improvisatore may be said to have been writ in wine. Putting aside, however, his claim to literary greatness, Hook will be remembered as one of the most brilliant, genial and original figures of Georgian times. The Georgian era is a period of British history, normally defined as including the reigns of the kings George I, George II, George III and George IV, i. ...

See the Rev. RHD Barham's Life and Remains of Hook (3rd ed, 1877); and an article by JG Lockhart in the Quarterly Review (May 1843) and "The Man Who Was John Bull" by Bill Newton Dunn, publ 1996 by Allendale Publishing, 27 Sterndale Road, London W14 Richard Harris Barham (December 6, 1788 - June 17, 1845), English humourist, better known by his nom de plume of Thomas Ingolosby, was born at Canterbury. ... John Gibson Lockhart (July 14, 1794 - November 25, 1854), Scottish writer and editor, was born in the manse of Cambusnethan in Lanarkshire, where his father, Dr John Lockhart, transferred in 1796 to Glasgow, was minister. ...

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910-1911) represents the sum of human knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century; indeed, it was advertised as such. ...

External links

• James Hook: English Composer