HOCCLEVE, or OCCLEVE, THOMAS (1368?-1450?).—­Poet, probably b. in London, where he appears to have spent most of his life, living in Chester’s Inn in the Strand.  Originally intended for the Church, he received an appointment in the Privy Seal Office, which he retained until 1424, when quarters were assigned him in the Priory of Southwick, Hants.  In 1399 a pension of L10, subsequently increased to L13, 6s. 8d., had been conferred upon him, which, however, was paid only intermittently, thus furnishing him with a perpetual grievance.  His early life appears to have been irregular, and to the end he was a weak, vain, discontented man.  His chief work is De Regimine Principum or Governail of Princes, written 1411-12.  The best part of this is an autobiographical prelude Mal Regle de T. Hoccleve, in which he holds up his youthful follies as a warning.  It is also interesting as containing, in the MS. in the British Museum, a drawing of Chaucer, from which all subsequent portraits have been taken.

HOFFMAN, CHARLES FENNO (1806-1884).—­Poet, etc., b. in New York, s. of a lawyer, was bred to the same profession, but early deserted it for literature.  He wrote a successful novel, Greyslaer, and much verse, some of which displayed more lyrical power than any which had preceded it in America.

HOGG, JAMES (THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD) (1770-1835).—­Poet, and writer of tales, belonged to a race of shepherds, and began life by herding cows until he was old enough to be trusted with a flock of sheep.  His imagination was fed by his mother, who was possessed of an inexhaustible stock of ballads and folk-lore.  He had little schooling, and had great difficulty in writing out his earlier poems, but was earnest in giving himself such culture as he could.  Entering the service of Mr. Laidlaw, the friend of Scott, he was by him introduced to the poet, and assisted him in collecting material for his Border Minstrelsy.  In 1796 he had begun to write his songs, and when on a visit to Edin. in 1801 he coll. his poems under the title of Scottish Pastorals, etc., and in 1807 there followed The Mountain Bard.  A treatise on the diseases of sheep brought him L300, on the strength of which he embarked upon a sheep-farming enterprise in Dumfriesshire which, like a previous smaller venture in Harris, proved a failure, and he returned to Ettrick bankrupt.  Thenceforward he relied almost entirely on literature for support.  With this view he, in 1810, settled in Edin., pub. The Forest Minstrel, and started the Spy, a critical journal, which ran for a year.  In 1813 The Queen’s Wake showed his full powers, and finally settled his right to an assured place among the poets of his country.  He joined the staff of Blackwood, and became the friend of Wilson, Wordsworth, and Byron.  Other poems followed, The Pilgrims of the Sun (1815), Madoc of