See also
1. Charles HOPKINS, son of Right Rev Ezekiel HOPKINS (1634-1689) and Alicia MOORE (1645?-1681), was born in [Julian] 1664. He died in 1699 (estimated).
Son of Ezekiel bishop of Londonderry (who married the lady Araminta one of the 4 daughters of John Lord Robartes afterwards earl of Radnor). He was born at Exeter; but, his father being taken chaplain to Ireland by lord Robartes when lord lieutenant in 1669, our poet received the early part of his education at Trinity College, Dublin; and afterwards was a student at Cambridge. On the rebellion in Ireland in 1688, he returned thither, and exerted his early valour in the cause of his country, religion, and liberty. When public tranquillity was restored, he came again into England, and fell into an acquaintance with gentlemen of the best wit, whose age and genius were most agreeable to his own. In 1694 he published some "Epistolarly Poems and Translations," which will all be inserted in this volume; and in 1695, he shewed his genius as a dramatic writer by "Pyrrhus king of Egypt," a tragedy, to which Mr. Congreve wrote the epilogue (see English Poets, vol. XXIX. p. 84). He published that year "The History of Love," a connexion of select fables from Ovid's Metamorphoses, 1695; which, by the sweetness of his numbers and the easiness of his thoughts, procured him a considerable reputation. With Mr. Dryden in particular he became a great favourite. He afterwards published the "Art of Love," which, Jacob says, "added to his fame, and happily brought him acquainted with the earl of Dorset and other persons of distinction, [p. 183 / 184] who were fond of his company, throught the agreeableness of his temper and the pleasantry of his conversation. It was in his power to have made his fortune in any scene of life; but he was always more ready to serve others than mindful of his own affairs; and, by the excesses of hard drinking, and too passionate fondness for the fair sex, he died a martyr to the cause in the 36th year of his age." I shall preserve in this collection an admirable Hymn "written about an hour before his death, when in great pain." His "Court-Prospect," in which many of the principal nobility are very handsomely complimented, is called by Jacob "an excellent piece;" and of his other poems, he adds, "that they are all remarkable for the purity of their diction, and the harmony of their numbers." Mr. Hopkins was also the author of two other tragedies; "Boadicea Queen of Britain," 1697; and "Friendship improved, or the Female Warrior," with a humourous prologe, comparing a poet to a merchant, a comparison which will hold in most particulars except that of accumulating wealth. Our author, who was at Londonderry when this tragedy came out, inscribed it to Edward Coke of Norfolk, esquire, in a dedication, dated Nov. I. 1699, so modest and pathetic that I am persuaded I shall stand excused if I print it at full length: "[Dedication quoted for 3 pages, 184-187; ii.187:] His feelings were prophetic; he died, I believe, in the course of that winter. N. [ii.187].
A Note on Charles Hopkins (c. 1671-1700) Author(s): Alice E. Jones Source: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Mar., 1940), pp. 191-194 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2910905 . Accessed: 28/06/2014 10:25 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Modern Language Notes. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.220.202.116 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:25:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhup http://www.jstor.org/stable/2910905?origin=JSTOR-pdf http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
A NOTE ON CHARLES HOPKINS (c. 1671-1700) 191 Finally, Wordsworth quotes two instances of the pathetic fallacy, both of which he approves as products of the creative faculty, the first being an instance of mere fanicy, while the second is the product of imagination. I will content myself with placing a conceit (ascribed to Lord Chesterfield) in contrast with a passage from the 'Paradise Lost ':- The dews of the evening most carefully shun, They are the tears of the sky for the loss of the sun. After the transgression of Adam, Milton, with other appearances of sym- pathising Nature, thus marks the immediate consequence, Sky lowered, and muttering thunder, some sad drops Wept at completion of the mortal sin. The associating link is the same in each instance: Dew and rain, not distinguishable fiom the liquid substance of tears, are employed as indica- tions of sorrow. A flash of surprise is the effect in the former case; a flash of surprise, and nothing more; for the nature of things does not sustain the combination. In the latter, the effects from the act, of which there is this immediate consequence and visible sign, are so momentous, that the mind acknowledges the justice and reasonableness of the sympathy in nature so manifested; and the sky weeps drops of water as if with human eyes.1' Evidently Wordsworth would not deny poets of the " first rank" the use of the pathetic fallacy. On the contrary, he regards this species of figurative language as the product of the creative mind, if the feeling which engendered it is true, and if its ultimate origin is an accurate observation of " things as they are in themselves." On the whole it would appear that Wordsworth anticipated the best things of Ruskin's famous essay. JAMES V. LOGAN The Ohio State University A NOTE ON CHARLES HOPKINS (c. 1671-1700) Among the lesser figures in the age of Dryden, Charles Hopkins, friend of both Dryden and Congreve, has been somewhat neglected. His reputation for amiability and good fellowship, well supported by the testimony of his more famous friends, and the merit of his best poems, a number of light love lyrics, give him a just claim to 11 Grosart, II, 142. This content downloaded from 91.220.202.116 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:25:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
192 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES, MARCH, 1940 notice. So pleasing is the impression of gaiety and charm derived from even a casual reading of his best verses, that we would gladly know more of this persuasive Irishman-Irish by early training and education at least, and possibly by birth. On a few points the present note seeks to shed some light. On the date and place of his birth the DNB. seems to have adopted the less likely alternative. Charles was the son of Bishop Ezekiel Hopkins by his first wife: so much is clear; but when he was born, and where, remain uncertain. The DNB. gives the birth date as " 1664? " and the city as Exeter. Writers who support this view, with more or less authority, are Giles Jacob,' Alexander Chal- mers,2 Thomas Fuller's successor,3 and William B. S. Taylor.4 Un- fortunately, John Prince,5 who is supposed to have known Charles's father and who, therefore, might have told us with certainty, men- tions the poet only in passing. On the other hand, we have two educational records which indi- cate that Charles was born in 1671 at Dublin. These are records of matriculation at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1685, aged 14,6 and at Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1687.V The latter record repeats the information given in the former about the boy's age, and was probably copied from it. Now, the Trinity College record appears to carry more weight than the undocumented essays of early biographers; and, indeed, a youth was more likely to enter the university at the age of 14 than 21. Moreover, the later date agrees better with what we know of his father's movements, which are fairly clear. Although Ezekiel Hopkins was apparently married to his first wife some time in the early 'sixties, he did not leave London for Exeter until 1666.8 It is difficult to see how the poet could have 1'Poetical Register, London, 1723, I, 75. 2 The General Biographical Dictionary, new edition, London, 1814, XvIIi, 157. 3History of the Worthies of England, ed. P. A. Nuttall, London, 1840, I, 449. 4History of the University of Dublin, London, 1845, p. 411. r Danmonii Orientales; or, the Worthies of Devon, Exeter, 1701. " G. D. Burtchaell and T. U. Sadleir, Alumni Dublinenses 1593-1860, new ed., Dublin, 1935, p. 410. 7John A. and John Venn, Alumni Cantabrigiensis from the earliest times to 1900, Cambridge, 1922-27, pt. i, vol. ii, 405. 8 Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxoniensis: 1500-1714, vols. i and ii, Early Series, Oxford, 1891, p. 743. This content downloaded from 91.220.202.116 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:25:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
A NOTE ON CHARLES HOPKINS (c. 1671-1700) 193 been born in either Exeter or Dublin in 1664. In 1671, on the other hand, Charles's father had just been made Bishop of Raphoe,9 county Donegal, Ireland. Charles Hopkins could, therefore, have been born in Ireland, even in Dublin, as has been suggested. If we accept the later date, Exeter might still have been his birthplace, since Prince notes that Ezekiel made an extended visit to Exeter some time while he was Bishop of Raphoe-namely, between 1671 and 1681, although it is unlikely that he would have absented him- self from his new charge immediately. On the whole it seems best to trust the matriculation records, and put his birth tentatively at Dublin in 1671. The identity of the poet's mother is also somewhat obscure. There is a record of the Bishop's second marriage, but not of his first. The first MIrs. Hopkins was, says the DNVB. (following Prince) a niece of Sir Robert Viner (or Vyner), sometime Mayor of London. How- ever, the rather full history of the Vyner family 10 shows that Sir Robert's nieces all made other marriages, or can be otherwise ac- counted for. There is another possibility. Sir Thomas Vyner, goldsmith (1588-1665), and, incidentally, uncle of Sir Robert, left Ezekiel Hopkins ten pounds in his will, dated March 16, 1664. This Sir Thomas had several nieces, and in some cases marriages for them are not recorded. Possibly Prince confused the two, and Ezekiel married one of Sir Thomas's nieces.11 A third question involves the poet's religion. The DNB. in its account of Ezekiel Hopkins states that the Protestant bishop was much grieved by the apostasy of Charles, who aided the Roman Catholics in the Irish uprising of 1688. Apparently the editors have taken this view from Prince, who says that the Bishop did not live long after his flight from Ireland, being " much broken by the publick as well as his own private calamities, (that being none of the least of them, that his son had entered himself of the Roman Catholick army in Ireland)." 12 It should be noted that Prince 9Henry Cotton, Fasti ecclesiae hibernicae, Dublin, 1848-60, II, 171-2. 10 Charles and Henry Vyner, Vyner-: A Family History, 1885. "1 Sir Thomas Vyner had ten brothers and sisters, seven of them by his father's previous marriage. Of Sir Thomas's many nieces, the most likely wife for Ezekiel Hopkins-if she was not too old-seems to be either Alice or Sara Moore. Both were daughters of Mary Vyner (b. 1575) and Samuel Moore, a goldsmith of London. No marriage is recorded for either of them. '2Loc. cit., 517. 3 This content downloaded from 91.220.202.116 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:25:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
194 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES, MARCH, 1940 does not say " his son Charles "-it may have been one of the other shadowy children of the shadowy first wife. Moreover, Nichols, in whose Miscellany many of Charles Hopkins's poems are printed, says that he " exerted his early valour in the cause of his country, religion, and liberty," 13 i. e., presumably in the cause of the Pro- testant succession. It seems more likely that Nichols is right, judg- ing by the fact that Charles later came to England under William and settled there apparently quite happily. Furthermore, his Whitehall; or the Court of England (also known as The Court Prospect) praises extravagantly William of Orange as "Restorer of the Christian World " and flatters all his court. Finally, the DNB. is also uncertain about the date of Charles Hopkins's death. This can now be fixed. The poet's dedication of his play Friendship Improv'd, dated from Londonderry, November 1, 1699, refers to his failing health, and the parish register of Derry Cathedral 14 reveals that he died in the parish of Templemore, Londonderry, and was buried on March 7, 1700. His will was probated in that year,15 but was lost in the destruction at the Four Courts, Dublin, in 1922.16 ALICE E. JONES Philadelphia THE DATING OF YOUNG'S NIGHT-THOUGHTS It has been customary to accept the year 1745 as the terminal date of the serial publication of Young's Night-Thoughts, the first part of which was published in the summer of 1742.1 The source 13 J. Nichols, A Select Collection of Poems, London, 1780, II, 183. 14 Register of Derry Cathedral, S. Columb's, Parish of Templemore, Londonderry, 1642-1703, Parish Register Society, Dublin, viii (1910), 354. 15 W. P. W. Phillimore et al., Indexes to Irish Wills, Irish Record Series, London, 1920; vol. 5 (Derry and Raphoe) edited by Gertrude Thrift. 16 Memorandum from the Deputy Keeper, January 22, 1938. I Entries in the Stationers' Register of the first eight parts have been published in W. Thomas's Le poete Edward Young (Paris, 1901, pp. 349- 352); further evidence of dating of "Nights" i-vi and viii has been pre- sented in two notes in RES for 1928 (R. W. C[hapman], " Young's 'Night Thoughts '," Iv, 330 and George Sherburn, " Edward Young and Book Advertising," iv, 414-417). Summary of this evidence appears in the ab- stract of my unpublished dissertation (Cornell University Abstracts of Theses Ithaca, N. Y., 1939, p. 43). This content downloaded from 91.220.202.116 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:25:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Article Contents p. 191 p. 192 p. 193 p. 194 Issue Table of Contents Modern Language Notes, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Mar., 1940), pp. 161-242 Rousseau et les Réformateurs du Théâtre [pp. 161-169] An Early French Adaptation of an Elizabethan Comedy: J. B. Rousseau as an Imitator of Ben Jonson [pp. 170-176] Some Notes on Eighteenth-Century Essex Plays [pp. 176-183] Milton and Edward Ecclestone's Noah's Flood [pp. 183-187] Wordsworth and the Pathetic Fallacy [pp. 187-191] A Note on Charles Hopkins (c. 1671-1700) [pp. 191-194] The Dating of Young's Night-Thoughts [pp. 194-195] Revision in Browning's Paracelsus [pp. 195-197] A Note on R. L. S. [pp. 197-198] The Dates of Some of Robert Bridges' Lyrics [pp. 199-200] Arnold, Shelley, and Joubert [pp. 201] Urfaust L. 309 [pp. 201-204] Four Text-Notes on Deor [pp. 204-207] Arcite's Maying [pp. 207-209] " As by the Whelp Chastised is the Leon " [pp. 209-210] William Taylor of Norwich and Beowulf [pp. 210-211] Source of the Quotation from Augustine in The Parson's Tale, 985 [pp. 211-212] Reviews Review: untitled [pp. 212-215] Review: untitled [pp. 215-218] Review: untitled [pp. 218-220] Review: untitled [pp. 221-222] Review: untitled [pp. 222-226] Review: untitled [pp. 226-227] Review: untitled [pp. 227-229] Review: untitled [pp. 229-230] Review: untitled [pp. 231-232] Review: untitled [pp. 232-233] Review: untitled [pp. 233-234] Review: untitled [pp. 234-235] Review: untitled [pp. 235-237] Brief Mention [pp. 237-242].