John Hoole (December 1727 – 2 August 1803) was an English translator, the son of Samuel Hoole (born 1692), a mechanic, and Sarah Drury (c. 1700 – c. 1793), the daughter of a Clerkenwell clockmaker. He became a personal friend of Samuel Johnson's.

Family

Hoole was born in

Moorfields Moorfields was an open space, partly in the City of London, lying adjacent to – and outside – its northern wall, near the eponymous Moorgate. It was known for its marshy conditions, the result of the defensive wall acting like a dam, ...

, London, and married in 1757 Susannah Smith (c. 1730 – 1808), a Quaker from Bishop's Stortford. They had a son, Rev. Samuel Hoole, who became a poet and religious writer of some distinction.Vivienne W. Painting: Hoole, John (1727–1803). ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP), 2004 Retrieved 16 April 2018.]

Works

John Hoole worked in India House (1744–83), of which he rose to be principal auditor. In connection with his post, he wrote ''Present State of the English East India Company's Affairs'' (1772). Meanwhile he translated

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' ( Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

's ''

Jerusalem Delivered ''Jerusalem Delivered'', also known as ''The Liberation of Jerusalem'' ( it, La Gerusalemme liberata ; ), is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, first published in 1581, that tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusad ...

'' (1763), and

Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...

's '' Orlando Furioso'' (1773–83), as well as other works from the Italian. He was also the author of '' Cleonice, Princess of Bithynia'' and of two other dramas which failed. Samuel Johnson was a personal friend of Hoole, who described Johnson's final days in the ''

European Magazine ''The European Magazine'' (sometimes referred to as ''European Magazine'') was a monthly magazine published in London. Eighty-nine semi-annual volumes were published from 1782 until 1826. It was launched as the ''European Magazine, and London Re ...

'' of 1799.

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

recalled that Hoole's ''Jerusalem Delivered'' was "the first book he ever possessed," apart from a set of sixpenny children's books. Hoole was a genial character, but termed as a translator not unfairly by Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

as "a noble transmuter of gold into lead".

David Barclay of Youngsbury David Barclay of Youngsbury (1729–1809), also known as David Barclay of Walthamstow or David Barclay of Walthamstow and Youngsbury, was an English Quaker merchant, banker, and philanthropist. He is notable for an experiment in "gratuitous ma ...

turned to Hoole to write the biography of his friend

John Scott of Amwell John Scott (January 9, 1731 – December 12, 1783), known as Scott of Amwell, was an English landscape gardener and writer on social matters. He was also the first notable Quaker poet, although in modern times he is remembered for only one anti ...

, when Johnson, his first choice, died before he could do so.Spenserians, John Hoole, ''An Account of the Life and Writings of John Scott, Esq.'', Scott, Critical Essays (1785) i-lxxxix.
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Selected works

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Cyrus Cyrus ( Persian: کوروش) is a male given name. It is the given name of a number of Persian kings. Most notably it refers to Cyrus the Great ( BC). Cyrus is also the name of Cyrus I of Anshan ( BC), King of Persia and the grandfather of Cyrus ...

'' (1768, play) *''

Timanthes Timanthes of Cythnus ( el, Τιμάνϑης) was an ancient Greek painter of the fourth century BC. The most celebrated of his works was a picture representing the sacrifice of Iphigenia, in which he finely depicted the emotions of those who to ...

'' (1770, play) *'' Cleonice, Princess of Bithynia'' (1775, play)

References

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External links

John Hoole
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoole, John 1727 births 1803 deaths Writers from London English male writers 18th-century British translators