Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/279

 dean of Worcester, and [q. v.], the humorist. Hook, the composer, was himself a wit. His second wife died 5 April 1873.

Hook composed over two thousand songs, and wrote music for the organ, pianoforte, and other instruments, an oratorio, catches and glees, dramatic pieces, and an instruction book, ‘Guida di Musica.’ His knowledge of the works of other musicians was great, and he was charged by his contemporaries with unscrupulously adapting their musical ideas to his own purposes. Hook probably appropriated much that would have otherwise been sooner forgotten or never even known. His choice of materials and his perception of the public mood rendered him very popular. The originality of his most famous songs does not appear to have been questioned. His ‘Scotch’ ballad ‘Within a mile’ was sung by Incledon in the ‘Gentle Shepherd’ in 1795, and with the ‘greatest applause by Mrs. Mountain in Harlequin Faustus,’ probably in the same year. ‘The Lass of Richmond Hill,’ as happily ‘English’ as the former was ‘Scotch,’ was composed about 1787, and sung by Incledon probably in the following year. (See Notes and Queries, 5th ser. ix. 495, and x. 169.)

Among Hook's dramatic and concerted vocal pieces, some of them with words by Theodore Hook, are: ‘Ode on the Opening of the new Exhibition Room’ (on the site of which the Lyceum now stands), 1765; ‘Dido,’ 1771; ‘The Divorce,’ 1771 (produced in 1781 at Drury Lane), ‘Trick upon Trick,’ ‘Il Dilettante,’ ‘Cupid's Revenge,’ ‘Country Courtship’ (Sadler's Wells), and ‘One Morning Dame Turner’ (prize catch), all in 1772; ‘Apollo and Daphne,’ 1773; ‘The Ascension’ (oratorio), and ‘The Fair Peruvian,’ 1776; ‘The Lady of the Manor,’ 1778; ‘Come, kiss me, dear Dolly’ (prize catch), 1780; ‘Ode on the Return of Peace,’ and ‘Too civil by half,’ 1783; ‘The Double Disguise’ (written by Miss Madden), 1784; ‘Jack of Newbury,’ 1795; ‘Diamond cut Diamond,’ 1797; ‘Wilmore Castle,’ 1800; ‘The Soldier's Return,’ 1805; ‘Tekeli,’ and ‘Catch him who can,’ 1806; ‘Music Mad,’ and ‘The Fortress,’ 1807; ‘The Siege of St. Quintin’ (at Drury Lane), 1808; ‘Killing no Murder,’ and ‘Safe and Sound,’ 1809. Many of Hook's songs appear in ‘Collections of Songs sung at Vauxhall,’ ‘The Anchoret,’ ‘Hours of Love,’ ‘L'année,’ ‘The Aviary,’ ‘Nursery Songs,’ &c. Eleven of his glees and catches are published in ‘Warren's Collections,’ vols. i–iii.



HOOK, JAMES (1772?–1828), dean of Worcester, son of [q. v.], musical composer, and brother of [q. v.], was born in London, probably in 1772 (his son's biographer says June 1771, but as he is recorded to have entered Westminster School in 1788 at the age of fifteen, and to have died in February 1828, aged 55, this cannot be the case). While at Westminster he edited the school magazine, ‘The Trifler,’ and by an unlucky attempt to satirise Eton provoked the well-known epigram of Canning on the ‘heavy fellows’ of Westminster in the ‘Microcosm,’ the Etonian Magazine. He made the best retort possible, but the honours of the contest certainly did not rest with him. He inherited his father's skill in music and his mother's skill in painting: he wrote in youth the librettos of two of his father's musical entertainments, ‘Jack of Newbury’ and ‘Diamond cut Diamond,’ which were performed, but never printed; and his juvenile sketches, which included a set of caricatures of leading public men, induced Sir Joshua Reynolds to recommend that he should be educated as an artist. In 1792 he was a candidate for election from Westminster to Christ Church, Oxford, but was excluded for ‘acts of insubordination,’ to which he had also invited others. He proceeded to Oxford nevertheless, and graduated from St. Mary Hall in 1796. In the same year, yielding to the strong wish of his mother, he took holy orders, and in the following year contracted a most advantageous marriage with Anne, daughter of Sir, bart. [q. v.], physician and confidential friend of the Prince of Wales, whose private chaplain he became. His rise in the church was consequently very rapid. After having held livings in Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, and Hertfordshire, he became in 1814 archdeacon of Huntingdon, in 1817 rector of Whippingham in the Isle of Wight, and in 1825 dean of Worcester, an appointment bringing with it two valuable livings. He did not enjoy it long, dying at Worcester 5 Feb. 1828. He was buried in the cathedral, and his epitaph was written by the bishop (Folliott H. W. Cornewall). Notwithstanding his accumulated preferment, he left his family in straitened circumstances. [q. v.] was his son.

Hook published (1802) ‘Anguis in Herba,’ a defence of the clergy against certain imputations, and some sermons and charges. The review of Moore's ‘Loves of the Angels,’ published among his brother's works, is probably from his pen. He was also author of a pamph-