Biography John Hookham Frere

Poet Biography

English diplomatist and author, was born in London on the 21st of May 1769. His father, John Frere,a gentleman of agood Suffolk family, had been educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and would have been senior wrangler in 1763 but for the redoubtable competition of 'Paley'; his mother, daughter of 'John Hookham', a rich London merchant, was a lady of no small culture, accustomed to amuse her leisure with verse-writing. His father’s sister Eleanor, who married Sir John Fenn (1739—1794), the learned editor of the Paston Letters, wrote various educational works for children under the pseudonyms” Mrs Lovechild “and” Mrs Teachwell.” Young Frere was sent to Eton in 1785, and there began an intimacy with Canning which greatly affected his after life. From Eton he went to his father’s college at Cambridge, and graduated BA. in 1792 and MA, in 1795. He entered public service in the foreign office under Lord Grenvilie, and sat from 1796 to 1802 as member of parliament for the close borough of West Looe in Cornwall.

From his boyhood he had been a warm admirer of 'Pitt', and along with Canning he entered heart and soul into the defence of his government, and contributed freely to the pages of the Anti-Ja-obin, edited by 'Gifford'. He contributed, in collaboration with Canning, “The Loves of the Triangles,” a clever parody of 'Darwin’s “ Loves of the Plants,” “The Needy KnifeGrinder” and “The Rovers.” On Canning’s removal to the board of trade in 1709 he succeeded him as under-secretary of state; in October 1800 he was appointed envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Lisbon; and in September 1802 he was transferred to Madrid, where he remained for two years. He was recalled on account of a personal disagreement he had with the duke of Alcudia, but the ministry showed its approval of his action by a pension of £5700 a year. He was made a member of the privy council in 1805; in 1807 he was appointed plenipotentiary at Berlin, but the mission was abandoned, and Frere was again sent to Spain in 1808 as plenipotentiary to the Central Junta. The condition of Spain rendered his position ~ very responsible and difficult one.

When Napoleon began to advance on Madrid it became a matter of supreme importance to decide whether 'Sir John Moore', who was then in the north of Spain, should endeavour to anticipate the occupation of the capital or merely make good his retreat, and if he did retreat whether he should do so by Portgual or by Galicia. Frere was strongly of opinion that the bolder was the better course, and he urged his views on Sir John Moore with an urgent and fearless persistency that on one occasion at least overstepped the limits of his commission. After the disastrous retreat to Corunna, the public accused Frere of having by his advice endangered the British army, and though no direct censure was passed upon his conduct by the government, he was recalled, and the marquess of Wellesley was appointed in his place.

Thus ended Frere’s public life. He afterwards refused to undertake an embassy to St Petersburg, and twice declined the honour of a peerage. In 1816 he married Elizabeth Jemima, dowager countess of Erroll, and in 1820, on account of her failing health, he went with her to the Mediterranean. There he finally settled in Malta, and though he afterwards visited England more than once, the rest of his life was for the most part spent in the island of his choice. In quiet retirement he devoted himself to literature, studied his favourite Greek authors, and taught himself Hebrew and Maltese. His hospitality was well known to many an English guest, and his charities and courtesies endeared him to his Maltese neighbours. He died at the Pietà Valetta on the 7th of January 1846.

Frere’s literary reputation now rests entirely upon his spirited verse translations of Aristophanes, which remain in many ways unrivalled. The principles according to which he conducted his task were elucidated in an article on Mitchell’s Aristophanes, which he contributed to The Quarterly’ Review, vol. xxiii. The translations of The Acharnians, The Knights, The Birds, and The Frogs were privately printed, and were first brought into general notice by Sir 'G. Cornewall Lewis' in the Classical Museum for 1847. They were followed some time after by Theognis Restilutus, or the personal history of the poet Theognis, reduced from an analysis of his existing fragments.

In 1817 he published a mock-heroic Artliurian poem entitled Prospectus and Specimen of an intended National Work, by William and Robert Wistlecraft, of Stowmarket in Suffolk, Harness and Collar Makers, intended to comprise the most interesting particulars relating to King Arthur and his Round Table. William Tennant in Anster Fair had used the ottava rima as a vehicle for semi-burlesque poetry five years earlier, but Frere’s experiment is interesting because 'Byron' borrowed from it the measure that he brought to perfection in Don Juan.