HOCCLEVE, or OCCLEVE, THOMAS (1368?-1450?).--Poet, probably _b._ in London, where he appears to have spent most of his life, living in Chester's Inn in the Strand. Originally intended for the Church, he received an appointment in the Privy Seal Office, which he retained until 1424, when quarters were assigned him in the Priory of Southwick, Hants. In 1399 a pension of £10, subsequently increased to £13, 6s. 8d., had been conferred upon him, which, however, was paid only intermittently, thus furnishing him with a perpetual grievance. His early life appears to have been irregular, and to the end he was a weak, vain, discontented man. His chief work is _De Regimine Principum_ or _Governail of Princes_, written 1411-12. The best part of this is an autobiographical prelude _Mal Regle de T. Hoccleve_, in which he holds up his youthful follies as a warning. It is also interesting as containing, in the MS. in the British Museum, a drawing of Chaucer, from which all subsequent portraits have been taken. HOFFMAN, CHARLES FENNO (1806-1884).--Poet, etc., _b._ in New York, _s._ of a lawyer, was bred to the same profession, but early deserted it for literature. He wrote a successful novel, _Greyslaer_, and much verse, some of which displayed more lyrical power than any which had preceded it in America. HOGG, JAMES (THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD) (1770-1835).--Poet, and writer of tales, belonged to a race of shepherds, and began life by herding cows until he was old enough to be trusted with a flock of sheep. His imagination was fed by his mother, who was possessed of an inexhaustible stock of ballads and folk-lore. He had little schooling, and had great difficulty in writing out his earlier poems, but was earnest in giving himself such culture as he could. Entering the service of Mr. Laidlaw, the friend of Scott, he was by him introduced to the poet, and assisted him in collecting material for his _Border Minstrelsy_. In 1796 he had begun to write his songs, and when on a visit to Edin. in 1801 he _coll._ his poems under the title of _Scottish Pastorals, etc._, and in 1807 there followed _The Mountain Bard_. A treatise on the diseases of sheep brought him £300, on the strength of which he embarked upon a sheep-farming enterprise in Dumfriesshire which, like a previous smaller venture in Harris, proved a failure, and he returned to Ettrick bankrupt. Thenceforward he relied almost entirely on literature for support. With this view he, in 1810, settled in Edin., _pub._ _The Forest Minstrel_, and started the _Spy_, a critical journal, which ran for a year. In 1813 _The Queen's Wake_ showed his full powers, and finally settled his right to an assured place among the poets of his country. He joined the staff of _Blackwood_, and became the friend of Wilson, Wordsworth, and Byron. Other poems followed, _The Pilgrims of the Sun_ (1815), _Madoc of the Moor_, _The Poetic Mirror_, and _Queen Hynde_ (1826); and in prose