Charles Hopkins (1664?–1700?) was an Anglo-Irish poet and dramatist.

Life

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, Charles Hopkins was born about 1664 at Exeter and was taken early to Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and then at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1688. Returning to Ireland, Hopkins engaged in military service. He subsequently settled in England, and gained some reputation as a writer of poems and plays.

Giles Jacob Giles Jacob (1686 – 8 May 1744) was a British legal writer whose works include a well-received law dictionary that became the most popular and widespread law dictionary in the newly independent United States.McDowell, Gary. The Language of Law a ...

in the ''Poetical Register'' says that Hopkins might have made a fortune in any scene of life, but was unmotivated. His death aged 35, about the beginning of 1700, was put down to a debauched lifestyle.

Works

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

, in a letter to Mrs. Steward (7 November 1699), described Hopkins as "a poet who writes good verses without knowing how or why; I mean, he writes naturally well, without art or learning or good sense." He wrote: * ''Epistolary Poems; on several Occasions: With several of the Choicest Stories of Ovid's Metamorphoses and Tibullus's Elegies'', London, 1694, dedicated to

Anthony Hammond Anthony Hammond (1668–1738), of Somersham Place, Huntingdonshire and Lidlington, Bedfordshire, was an English official and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1695 and 1708. He was also known as a poet a ...

. One of the epistles is addressed to the

Earl of Dorset Earl of Dorset is a title that has been created at least four times in the Peerage of England. Some of its holders have at various times also held the rank of marquess and, from 1720, duke. A possible first creation is not well documented. Abou ...

; another to Walter Moyle. * ''The History of Love. A Poem: in a letter to a Lady'', London, 1695, dedicated to

Isabella FitzRoy, Duchess of Grafton Isabella Bennet FitzRoy, Duchess of Grafton and later 2nd Countess of Arlington ''suo jure'' (c. 1668 – 7 February 1723), was a British peer and heiress. Life Isabella Bennet was the only daughter of Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, a Roy ...

; translations from

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...

'' and ''

Heroides The ''Heroides'' (''The Heroines''), or ''Epistulae Heroidum'' (''Letters of Heroines''), is a collection of fifteen epistolary poems composed by Ovid in Latin elegiac couplets and presented as though written by a selection of aggrieved heroine ...

''. * ''The Art of Love: In two Books dedicated to the ladies'', London, a paraphrase of portions of Ovid's ''

Ars Amatoria The ''Ars amatoria'' ( en, The Art of Love) is an instructional elegy series in three books by the ancient Roman poet Ovid. It was written in 2 AD. Background Book one of ''Ars amatoria'' was written to show a man how to find a woman. In book tw ...

''. * ''Whitehall; or the Court of England: A Poem'', Dublin, 1698, dedicated to the Duchess of Ormonde; reprinted in Dryden's ''Miscellany Poems'' under the title of ''The Court Prospect''. Hopkins was also the author of four tragedies, three performed at

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...

: * '' Pyrrhus, King of Epirus'', 1695, to which

William Congreve William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729) was an English playwright and poet of the Restoration period. He is known for his clever, satirical dialogue and influence on the comedy of manners style of that period. He was also a mi ...

contributed a prologue. * '' Neglected Virtue'', 1696. * '' Boadicea, Queen of Britain'', 1697. * '' Friendship Improved, or the Female Warrior'', 1699. Before ''Friendship Improved'' there is a dedicatory epistle, written from Londonderry (to Edward Coke of Norfolk), in which the author refers to his failing health: "My Muse is confined at present to a weak and sickly tenement; and the winter season will go near to overbear her, together with her household." In John Nichols's ''Collection of Poems'' are preserved some verses written by Hopkins "about an hour before his death".

References

;Attribution

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Charles 1660s births 1700s deaths Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights English male poets