Hoole, JOHN

Hoole, JOHN, translator and dramatist, was born at Moorfields, London, in 1727, and at the age of seventeen became a clerk in the East India House, where he remained until 1783. He published translations of the Jerusalem Delivered (1763) and Rinaldo (1792) of Tasso, the dramas of Metastasio (1767), and the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto (1773-83). This last Southey speaks of as 'that vile version of Hoole's,' and Scott describes the translator himself as 'a noble transmuted of gold into lead.' His dramas were Cyrus (1768), Timanthes (1770), and Cleonice (1775)—all of them failures, although Johnson, who was Hoole's friend and spoke well of his verses, praises the last in a complimentary letter. Hoole died 2d April 1803. See Ancedotes of the Life of John Hoole (1803).