Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/153

 NARRATIVE BY JOHN HOOLE

��[Published in the European Magazine for September, 1779,

P- J 53-

For John Hoole, see Life y ii. 289 ; iv. 70.

Lamb wrote in 1797 : * Fairfax I have been in quest of a long time. Johnson in his Life of Waller gives a most delicious specimen of him, and adds, in the true manner of that delicate critic, as well as amiable man, " It may be presumed that this old version will not be much read after the elegant translation of my friend, Mr. Hoole." I endeavoured I wished to gain some idea of Tasso from this Mr. Hoole, the great boast and ornament of the India House, but soon desisted. I found him more vapid than small beer '* sun-vinegared." '

What Johnson wrote was : * Fairfax's work, after Mr. Hoole's translation, will perhaps not be soon reprinted/ Works, vii. 216.

Lady Louisa Stuart writing to Sir Walter Scott on Feb. 10, 1817, thus describes Hoole : ' He once fell in my way near thirty years ago. He was a clerk in the India House, a man of business of that ancient breed, now extinct, which used to be as much marked by plaited cambric ruffles, a neat wig, a snuff-coloured suit of clothes, and a corresponding sobriety of look, as one race of spaniels is by the black nose and silky hair. " When I have been long otherwise employed, and out of the habit of writing verse," said he, " I find it rather difficult and get on slowly ; but

VOL. II. L after

�� �