John Hookham Frere

The eldest son of the antiquary John Frere, J. H. Frere studied at Putney and at Eton (1785-89), where he edited the Microcosm with Canning (1786-87). He attended Caius College Cambridge (B.A. 1792, M.A. 1795, Fellow 1791-1816), sat in Parliament (1796-1802), was under secretary in the foreign office (1799-1800), envoy to Lisbon (1800-02) and Madrid (1802-04, 1808-09). Frere contributed to the Anti-Jacobin (1797-98), George Ellis's Specimens of the Early English Poets (1801) and Southey's Chronicle of the Cid (1808) and History of the Peninsular War (1823-32); he was a founder of the Quarterly Review. Frere retired to Malta in 1820, where he died in his seventy-seventh year.

TEXT RECORDS:

1817["The Monks and the Giants." Cantos I and II.]
1818["The Monks and the Giants." Cantos III and IV.]

PUBLICATIONS:

The microcosm; a periodical work [ed. Frere, Canning]. 1790.
The anti-jacobin [ed. Frere, Canning, et. al.] 1799.
Prospectus and specimen of an intended national work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft. 1817.
The monks and giants. 1818.
Fables for five-years old. 1830.
Aristophanes, The frogs [trans. Frere]. 1839.
Psalms. 1839?
A metrical version of the Acharnians, the Knights, and the Birds [by Aristophanes]. 1840.
Theognis restitutus. 1842.
Works in prose and verse, ed. Sir Bartle Frere. 2 vols, 1872; 3 vols, 1874.
Parodies and other burlesque pieces [with Canning and Ellis], ed. Henry Morley. 1890.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Putney School
Eton College
Gonville and Caius College Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
College Fellow
Member of Parliament

diplomat
secretary
essayist
poet
translator
journalist

The Anti-Jacobin
The Literary Gazette
Quarterly Review

Lord Byron
George Canning
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
George Ellis
William Gifford
John Murray
Sir Walter Scott
Robert Southey

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; CBEL (3rd ed).

A New Biographical Dictionary of 3000 Cotemporary Public Characters (1825); John Gibson Lockhart, in Life of Scott (1837-38); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine NS 25 (March 1846) 312-14; Mary Russell Mitford, "Mock-Heroic Poetry" in Recollections (1852) 474-87; Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Charles Eliot Norton, "John Hookham Frere" North American Review 107 (1868); The English Poets, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880); George Barnett Smith, "John Hookham Frere" Gentleman's Magazine 264 (1888); Gabrielle Festing, John Hookham Frere and his Friends (1899); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Eton College Register, 1753-1790 (1921); R. D. Waller, ed. The Monks and Giants (1926); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1940-54); Jack, OHEL (1963); Donald H. Reiman, introduction to Prospectus and Specimen (1978); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for John Hookham Frere:

1.	1800  Robert Southey to William Taylor of Norwich, 26 November 1800; J. W. Robberds, Memoir of the Life and Writings of William Taylor of Norwich (1843) 1:363.
2.	1802  Charles Lamb, "Messrs. Canning and Frere" 1802; Works of Charles Lamb, ed. Lucas (1903-05) 5:102.
3.	1808  Henry Crabb Robinson, 20 October 1808; Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence (1870; 1872) 1:144-45.
4.	1816  Samuel Taylor Coleridge to John Murray, 4 July 1816; Smiles, in A Publisher and his Friends: Memoir of John Murray (1891) 1:305.
5.	1817  Ant. Jacob., "Canto Pre-Preliminary" Morning Chronicle (17, 23 July 1817).
6.	1818  Francis Hodgson, in Childe Harold's Monitor (1818) 37.
7.	1818  John Hookham Frere to John Murray, 27 April 1818; Smiles, A Publisher and his Friends: Memoir of John Murray (1891) 2:21-23.
8.	1819  George Ticknor, Journal Entry, 1819; Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor (1876) 1:267.
9.	1819  John Herman Merivale, Diary Entry, 15 May 1819; Anna Wilhelmina Merivale, Family Memorials (1884) 201-02.
10.	1819  Ugo Foscolo, in "Narrative and Romantic Poems of the Italians" Quarterly Review 21 (April 1819) 498-503.
11.	1820  Anonymous, in "Ballidehob: a Poem" The Literary Gazette (22 July 1820) 476.
12.	1820  Robert Southey to Walter Savage Landor, 20 February 1820; Life and Correspondence (1849-1850) 5:21.
13.	1828  Leigh Hunt, in Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries (1828) 133.
14.	1831  Walter Scott, 26 November 1831; The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, 1825-32 (1891) 860-61.
15.	1831  Mrs. John Davy, 1831; Lockhart, Life of Scott (1837-38, 1902) 5:383-84.
16.	1851  David Macbeth Moir, in Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851; 1852) 192.
17.	1852  Mary Russell Mitford, "Mock-Heroic Poetry. John Hookham Frere" Recollections of a Literary Life; or Books, Places, and People (1852) 474-87.
18.	1854  Robert Shelton Mackenzie, Note in Noctes Ambrosianae, ed. Mackenzie (1854) 4:417-18n.
19.	1856  Samuel Rogers, in Table Talk (1856) 192.
20.	1862  Mary Russell Mitford, in Recollections of a Literary Life; or Books, Places, and People (1852) 474.
21.	1880  Austin Dobson, in The English Poets: Selections with Critical Introductions, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880) 4:240.
22.	1882  Margaret Oliphant, in The Literary History of England (1882) 2:48-49.
23.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 273.
24.	1898  Rowland E. Prothero, in Byron, Letters and Journals, ed. Rowland E. Prothero (1898-1901) 2:336-37n.
25.	1906  George Saintsbury, in History of English Prosody (1906-10) 2:99-101.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for John Hookham Frere:

1.	1825  Anonymous, "The Freres" A New Biographical Dictionary of 3000 Cotemporary Public Characters (1825) 2:162.
2.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:366-68.
3.	1846  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine NS 25 (March 1846) 312-14.
4.	1890  Henry Morley, Memoir in Parodies and other Burlesque Pieces of Canning, Ellis, and Frere (1890) 53-54.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1818  John Hookham Frere:   John Hookham Frere to John Murray, 27 April 1818; Smiles, A Publisher and his Friends: Memoir of John Murray (1891) 2:21-23.