Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/198

186 no poetic worth. He wrote with T.F. Henderson a Life of Burns in which the poet is set forth as a "lewd peasant of genius."

Complete works, 7 vols., 1908.

 Author:Henry VIII of England (1491-1547).—Besides writing songs including The King's Ballad, was a learned controversialist, and contended against Luther in Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (Defence of the Seven Sacraments), a treatise which gained for him the title of Defender of the Faith.

 Author:Henry of Huntingdon (1084-1155).—Historian, was Archdeacon of Huntingdon from 1109. His Historia Anglorum (History of the English) comes down to 1154. He also wrote a treatise, De Contemptu Mundi (on Contempt of the World).

 Author:Matthew Henry (1662-1714).—Commentator, s. of Philip H., a learned Nonconformist divine, was b. in Flintshire. He was originally destined for the law, and studied at Gray's Inn, but turned his mind to theology, and, in 1687, became minister of a Nonconformist church at Chester. Here he remained until 1712, when he went to take the oversight of a congregation at Hackney, where he d. two years later. He wrote many religious works, but is chiefly remembered by his Exposition of the Old and New Testaments which he did not live to complete beyond the Acts. The comment on the Epistles was, however, furnished after his death by 13 Nonconformist divines. Though long superseded from a critical point of view, the work still maintains its place as a book of practical religion, being distinguished by great freshness and ingenuity of thought, and pointed and vigorous expression.

 Author:Robert Henry (1718-1790).—Historian, b. at St. Ninians, Stirlingshire, entered the Church of Scotland, becoming one of the ministers of Edin. He wrote the History of Great Britain on a New Plan (1771-93), in 6 vols., covering the period from the Roman invasion until the reign of Henry VIII. The novelty consisted in dividing the subjects into different heads, civil history, military, social, and so on, and following out each of them separately. The work was mainly a compilation, having no critical qualities, and is now of little value. Notwithstanding the persistent and ferocious attacks of (q.v.), it had a great success, and brought the author over £3000, and a government pension of £100.

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 Author:Robert Henryson (1430?-1506?).—Scottish poet. Few details of his life are known, even the dates of his birth and death being uncertain. He appears to have been a schoolmaster perhaps in the Benedictine Convent, at Dunfermline, and was a member of the Univ. of Glasgow in 1462. He also practised as a Notary Public, and may have been in orders. His principal poems are The Moral Fables of Esope the Phrygian, The Testament of Cresseide, a sequel to the Troilus and Cressida of, to whom it was, until 1721, attributed, Robene and Makyne, the first pastoral not only in Scottish vernacular, but in the English tongue, The Uplandis Mous and The Burges Mous (Country and Town Mouse), and