Henley, JOHN, commonly known as ORATOR HENLEY, the son of the vicar of Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire, where he was born on 3d August 1692, set up in London in 1726 what he called an 'oratory,' whence he professed to teach universal knowledge in week-day lectures and primitive Christianity in Sunday sermons. He dubbed himself the 'restorer of ancient eloquence,' and practised in the pulpit the arts of the theatrical attitudinarian. He sold medals of admission to his lectures and sermons, bearing the device of a rising sun, with the motto Ad summa and the inscription Inveniam viam aut faciam. Yet he was not without genius as an orator, and by this and his eccentricities attracted during several years large crowds to hear him preach and teach. And he doubtless drew many by his queer advertisements, sometimes quaint, sometimes sarcastic, but always designed to catch the curious and the idle. His addresses were a strange mixture of solemnity and buffoonery, of learning and ribaldry, of good sense and personalities, of wit and absurdity. Pope spits him on his literary lance in the Dunciad:
Embrow'd with native bronze, lo! Henley stands,
Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands;
How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue!
How sweet the periods, neither said nor sung!
Oh, great restorer of the good old stage,
Preacher at once, and zany of thy age.
Nevertheless he was not altogether ridiculous; he was a man of considerable knowledge, and had even some learning in oriental matters. Whilst still an undergraduate at Cambridge he sent a witty letter to the Spectator (1712), and in 1714 published a poem, Esther, which contains several passages indicative of imagination, and couched in elegant verse. After he left Cambridge he taught in the school of his native town, and there his bubbling energy introduced several reforms and innovations. At this time he compiled a grammar of ten languages, The Complete Linguist (1719-21). He went to London, where he earned his livelihood by writing; he was also a pensioner of Walpole, and edited a weekly paper. He died 13th October 1756. His Oratory Transactions contain a Life of himself.