John Hall (poet)
Encyclopedia
John Hall was an English poet, essayist and pamphleteer of the Commonwealth period. After a short period of adulation at university, he became a writer in the Parliamentary cause and Hartlib Circle
member.
in August 1627, was educated at Durham School
, and was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge
, on 26 February 1646. Hall remained at Cambridge till May 1647, but considered his real merits unrecognised there. He later entered Gray's Inn
.
Hall was not initially against the monarchy; but his early views were reforming and utopian. He was much influenced by Baconianism
and the chance of a renewal of learning. Blair Worden
describes Hall as "elusive" in the period from 1649, but points out parallels with the political development in the views of John Milton
.
By command of the Council of State
he accompanied Oliver Cromwell
in 1650 to Scotland. His friend John Davies states that Hall was awarded a pension of £100 per annum by Cromwell and the council for his pamphleteering services.
Hall died on 1 August 1656, leaving unpublished works. Thomas Hobbes
frequently visited him; another of his friends was Samuel Hartlib
.
At the age of nineteen he published Horæ Vacivæ, or Essays. Some occasional Considerations, 1646, which he dedicated to the master of his college, John Arrowsmith
. Commendatory verses in English were prefixed; Henry More
contributed Greek elegiacs; and Hall's tutor, John Pawson, wrote a preface. A biographical notice in Hall's posthumous Hierocles, 1657 by his friend John Davies of Kidwelly declares that these essays made Hall's reputation international. Hall sent a copy to James Howell
, whose letter of acknowledgment is printed in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. The essays were followed by a collection of poems published at Cambridge in January 1647; they were reprinted by Samuel Egerton Brydges
in 1816. Commendatory verses by Henry More and others were prefixed, and the volume was dedicated to Thomas Stanley. The general title-page is dated 1646, but ‘The Second Book of Divine Poems’ has a new title-page dated 1647. Some of the divine poems were afterwards included in Emblems with Elegant Figures newly published. By J. H., esquire [1648], 2 parts, which was dedicated by the publisher to Mrs. Stanley (wife of Thomas Stanley), and has a commendatory preface by John Quarles
.
Other literary work
In 1647 Hall edited Robert Hegge
's In aliquot Sacræ Paginæ loca Lectiones. He contributed to the Lacrimae Musarum (1649) of Richard Brome
. The prose works of William Drummond of Hawthornden
were published through the efforts of Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet, his brother-in-law, and Hall edited the History of Scotland (1655), writing a preface. Other non-political writings were:
Translations
In 1647 Hall translated from Latin for Hartlib two works of Comenius
, as A Modell of a Christian Society and the Right Hand of Christian Love Offered.
At the time of his death he was engaged on a translation of Procopius
.
Educational reform
An early work that remained in manuscript was A Method in History, discussing an education in history mainly in terms of classical authors. In 1649 Hall published the tract An Humble Motion to the Parliament of England concerning the Advancement of Learning and Reformation of the Universities. In it he complains that the revenues of the universities are misspent and the course of study is too restricted; he advocates that the number of fellowships should be reduced and more professorships endowed. The line taken was parallel with the writings of Milton and Hartlib on education. With his other works of the period, it helped catch the eye of the political agent Gualter Frost and forward his career as a state-paid writer. Parts of the Method in History were used in the Advancement. His views on the curriculum were practically-oriented and pansophist, closer to those of John Dury
; the model of Jesuit colleges was preferred to the existing colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, as far as rigour and discipline went.
Journalism
In 1648 Hall was writing the Mercurius Britanicus (sic) of the Second English Civil War
, not the only time this title was used since there was a Mercurius Britanicus of the First English Civil War
also , and the Mercurius Censorius, newsletters published in the Parliamentary interest. Journalism of this period was venal, and writers for hire, and he was paid by William Lilly
the astrologer to further his verbal feud with George Wharton. Hall's Mercurius Britanicus Alive Again was a response to the revived royalist Mercurius Aulicus
, appeared from 16 May, and ran for 16 issues to August. The rival to the Mercurius Britanicus was the Mercurius Pragmaticus of Marchamont Nedham (who, confusingly enough, had edited the first Mercurius Britanicus, but at this time was writing for the royalists). Hall's writing style and Nedham's are judged very similar; and they are believed to have colluded covertly to take opposite points of view. By 1650 Hall and Nedham were both on the side of Parliament in their journalism, with Hall writing for Nedham's Mercurius Politicus.
Political writings
In 1648 he published A Satire against Presbytery. In Scotland he drew up The Grounds and Reasons of Monarchy, with an appendix of An Epitome of Scottish Affairs, printed at Edinburgh and reprinted at London. His approach to political theory is close to Hobbes in De Cive
.
Other political pamphlets were
The Discoverer has been attributed to Hall or John Canne
. It was a two-part attack in 1649 on the leadership of the Levellers
, and is presumed to have been backed by the Council of State.
He also put forth a new edition, dedicated to Cromwell, of A Treatise discovering the horrid Cruelties of the Dutch upon our People at Amboyna, 1651, which had originally appeared in 1624; the Dutch ambassador complained about this rehash of the Amboyna massacre
.
Hartlib Circle
The Hartlib Circle refers primarily to the correspondence network set up in Western and Central Europe by Samuel Hartlib, an intelligencer based in London, and his associates, in the period 1630 to 1660.-Structure:J. T. Young writes:...
member.
Life
The son of Michael Hall, he was born at DurhamDurham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
in August 1627, was educated at Durham School
Durham School
Durham School, headmaster Martin George , is an independent British day and boarding school for boys and girls in Durham....
, and was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
, on 26 February 1646. Hall remained at Cambridge till May 1647, but considered his real merits unrecognised there. He later entered Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
.
Hall was not initially against the monarchy; but his early views were reforming and utopian. He was much influenced by Baconianism
Baconianism
Baconianism may refer to:*Baconian method, scientific methods as theorised by Francis Bacon.*Baconian theory, the theory that Francis Bacon wrote the works of Shakespeare....
and the chance of a renewal of learning. Blair Worden
Blair Worden
Blair Worden is a British historian, among the leading authorities on the period of the English Civil War and on relations between literature and history more generally in the early modern period. He matriculated as an undergraduate at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1963. After spending a year as a...
describes Hall as "elusive" in the period from 1649, but points out parallels with the political development in the views of John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
.
By command of the Council of State
English Council of State
The English Council of State, later also known as the Protector's Privy Council, was first appointed by the Rump Parliament on 14 February 1649 after the execution of King Charles I....
he accompanied Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
in 1650 to Scotland. His friend John Davies states that Hall was awarded a pension of £100 per annum by Cromwell and the council for his pamphleteering services.
Hall died on 1 August 1656, leaving unpublished works. Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
frequently visited him; another of his friends was Samuel Hartlib
Samuel Hartlib
Samuel Hartlib was a German-British polymath. An active promoter and expert writer in many fields, he was interested in science, medicine, agriculture, politics, and education. He settled in England, where he married and died...
.
Works
Early worksAt the age of nineteen he published Horæ Vacivæ, or Essays. Some occasional Considerations, 1646, which he dedicated to the master of his college, John Arrowsmith
John Arrowsmith (scholar)
John Arrowsmith was an English theologian and academic.-Life:He was born near Gateshead and entered St John's College, Cambridge in 1616. In 1623 he entered the fellowship of St Catherine Hall, Cambridge....
. Commendatory verses in English were prefixed; Henry More
Henry More
Henry More FRS was an English philosopher of the Cambridge Platonist school.-Biography:Henry was born at Grantham and was schooled at The King's School, Grantham and at Eton College...
contributed Greek elegiacs; and Hall's tutor, John Pawson, wrote a preface. A biographical notice in Hall's posthumous Hierocles, 1657 by his friend John Davies of Kidwelly declares that these essays made Hall's reputation international. Hall sent a copy to James Howell
James Howell
James Howell was a 17th-century Anglo-Welsh historian and writer who is in many ways a representative figure of his age. The son of a Welsh clergyman, he was for much of his life in the shadow of his elder brother Thomas Howell, who became Lord Bishop of Bristol.-Education:In 1613 he gained his B.A...
, whose letter of acknowledgment is printed in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. The essays were followed by a collection of poems published at Cambridge in January 1647; they were reprinted by Samuel Egerton Brydges
Samuel Egerton Brydges
Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, 1st Baronet was an English bibliographer and genealogist. He was also Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1812 to 1818....
in 1816. Commendatory verses by Henry More and others were prefixed, and the volume was dedicated to Thomas Stanley. The general title-page is dated 1646, but ‘The Second Book of Divine Poems’ has a new title-page dated 1647. Some of the divine poems were afterwards included in Emblems with Elegant Figures newly published. By J. H., esquire [1648], 2 parts, which was dedicated by the publisher to Mrs. Stanley (wife of Thomas Stanley), and has a commendatory preface by John Quarles
John Quarles
John Quarles was an English poet.-Life:One of the eighteen children of Francis Quarles, he is said to have been born in Essex in 1624...
.
Other literary work
In 1647 Hall edited Robert Hegge
Robert Hegge
-Life:Born at Durham in 1599, he was the son of Stephen Hegge, notary public there, by Anne, daughter of Robert Swyft, LL.D., prebendary of Durham. On 7 November 1614 he was admitted scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. on 13 February 1617 and M.A. on 17 March 1620...
's In aliquot Sacræ Paginæ loca Lectiones. He contributed to the Lacrimae Musarum (1649) of Richard Brome
Richard Brome
Richard Brome was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.-Life:Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity...
. The prose works of William Drummond of Hawthornden
William Drummond of Hawthornden
William Drummond , called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet.-Life:Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle, Midlothian. His father, John Drummond, was the first laird of Hawthornden; and his mother was Susannah Fowler, sister of William Fowler, poet and courtier...
were published through the efforts of Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet, his brother-in-law, and Hall edited the History of Scotland (1655), writing a preface. Other non-political writings were:
- ‘Paradoxes,’ 1650, second and enlarged edition in 1653; as "J. de La Salle".
- ‘Hierocles upon the Golden Verses of Pythagoras; Teaching a Vertuous and Worthy Life,’ posthumously published in 1657, with commendatory verses by Richard LovelaceRichard LovelaceRichard Lovelace was an English poet in the seventeenth century. He was a cavalier poet who fought on behalf of the king during the Civil war. His best known works are To Althea, from Prison, and To Lucasta, Going to the Warres....
and others.
Translations
In 1647 Hall translated from Latin for Hartlib two works of Comenius
Comenius
John Amos Comenius ; ; Latinized: Iohannes Amos Comenius) was a Czech teacher, educator, and writer. He served as the last bishop of Unity of the Brethren, and became a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica...
, as A Modell of a Christian Society and the Right Hand of Christian Love Offered.
- A translation of ‘Longinus of the Height of Eloquence,’ 1652.
- ‘Lusus Serius, or Serious Passe-Time. A Philosophicall Discourse concerning the Superiority of Creatures under Man,’ 1654,, translated from the Latin of Michael MaierMichael MaierMichael Maier was a German physician and counsellor to Rudolf II Habsburg, a learned alchemist, epigramist and amateur composer.- Biography :...
, as "J. de La Salle".
At the time of his death he was engaged on a translation of Procopius
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
.
Educational reform
An early work that remained in manuscript was A Method in History, discussing an education in history mainly in terms of classical authors. In 1649 Hall published the tract An Humble Motion to the Parliament of England concerning the Advancement of Learning and Reformation of the Universities. In it he complains that the revenues of the universities are misspent and the course of study is too restricted; he advocates that the number of fellowships should be reduced and more professorships endowed. The line taken was parallel with the writings of Milton and Hartlib on education. With his other works of the period, it helped catch the eye of the political agent Gualter Frost and forward his career as a state-paid writer. Parts of the Method in History were used in the Advancement. His views on the curriculum were practically-oriented and pansophist, closer to those of John Dury
John Dury
John Dury was a Scottish Calvinist minister and a significant intellectual of the English Civil War period. He made efforts to re-unite the Calvinist and Lutheran wings of Protestantism, hoping to succeed when he moved to Kassel in 1661, but he did not accomplish this...
; the model of Jesuit colleges was preferred to the existing colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, as far as rigour and discipline went.
Journalism
In 1648 Hall was writing the Mercurius Britanicus (sic) of the Second English Civil War
Second English Civil War
The Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and also include the First English Civil War and the...
, not the only time this title was used since there was a Mercurius Britanicus of the First English Civil War
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...
also , and the Mercurius Censorius, newsletters published in the Parliamentary interest. Journalism of this period was venal, and writers for hire, and he was paid by William Lilly
William Lilly
William Lilly , was an English astrologer famed during his time. Lilly was particularly adept at interpreting the astrological charts drawn up for horary questions, as this was his speciality....
the astrologer to further his verbal feud with George Wharton. Hall's Mercurius Britanicus Alive Again was a response to the revived royalist Mercurius Aulicus
Mercurius Aulicus
Mercurius Aulicus was one of the "most important early newspapers" in England, famous during the English Civil War for its role in Royalist propaganda.-Creation:...
, appeared from 16 May, and ran for 16 issues to August. The rival to the Mercurius Britanicus was the Mercurius Pragmaticus of Marchamont Nedham (who, confusingly enough, had edited the first Mercurius Britanicus, but at this time was writing for the royalists). Hall's writing style and Nedham's are judged very similar; and they are believed to have colluded covertly to take opposite points of view. By 1650 Hall and Nedham were both on the side of Parliament in their journalism, with Hall writing for Nedham's Mercurius Politicus.
Political writings
In 1648 he published A Satire against Presbytery. In Scotland he drew up The Grounds and Reasons of Monarchy, with an appendix of An Epitome of Scottish Affairs, printed at Edinburgh and reprinted at London. His approach to political theory is close to Hobbes in De Cive
De Cive
De Cive is a book by Thomas Hobbes published in 1642, and one of his major works.It anticipates the classical republican line of argument in the better-known Leviathan...
.
Other political pamphlets were
- A Gagg to Love's Advocate, or an Assertion of the Justice of the Parliament in the Execution of Mr. Love, 1651, on Christopher LoveChristopher LoveChristopher Love was a Welsh Protestant preacher and advocate of Presbyterianism at the time of the English Civil War. In 1651 he was executed by the government, after it was discovered that he had been in correspondence with the exiled Stuart court...
; - Answer to the Grand Politick Informer, 1653, against John StreaterJohn StreaterJohn Streater was an English soldier, political writer and printer. An opponent of Oliver Cromwell, Streater was a "key republican critic of the regime" He was a leading example of the “commonwealthmen”, one division among the English republicans of the period, along with James Harrington, Edmund...
; and - A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country, 1653; this was a piece of apologetics on behalf of Oliver CromwellOliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
and his dissolution of the Rump ParliamentRump ParliamentThe Rump Parliament is the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....
.
The Discoverer has been attributed to Hall or John Canne
John Canne
-Life:The London separatist congregation of John Hubbard, who had moved with them to Ireland around 1621, on Hubbard’s death came back to London and chose Canne as minister. After a year or two he went to Amsterdam, and there became the successor of Henry Ainsworth as pastor of the congregation of...
. It was a two-part attack in 1649 on the leadership of the Levellers
Levellers
The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which were expressed in the manifesto "Agreement of the People". They came to prominence at the end of the First...
, and is presumed to have been backed by the Council of State.
He also put forth a new edition, dedicated to Cromwell, of A Treatise discovering the horrid Cruelties of the Dutch upon our People at Amboyna, 1651, which had originally appeared in 1624; the Dutch ambassador complained about this rehash of the Amboyna massacre
Amboyna massacre
The Amboyna massacre was the 1623 torture and execution on Ambon Island , of twenty men, ten of whom were in the service of the British East India Company, by agents of the Dutch East India Company, on accusations of treason...
.