=Hobinol= or =Hobbinol= is Gabriel Harvey, physician, LL.D., a friend and college chum of Edmund Spenser, the poet. Spenser, in his ecl. iv., makes Thenot inquire, “What gars thee to weep?” and Hobinol replies it is because his friend Colin, having been flouted by Rosalind (ecl. i.), has broken his pipe and seems heart-broken with grief. Thenot then begs Hobinol to sing to him one of Colin’s own songs, and Hobinol sings the lay of “Elisa, queen of the shepherds” (_Queen Elizabeth_), daughter of Syrinx and Pan (_Anne Boleyn_ and _Henry VIII._). He says Phœbus thrust out his golden head to gaze on her, and was amazed to see a sun on earth brighter and more dazzling than his own. The Graces requested she might make a fourth grace, and she was received amongst them and reigned with them in heaven. The shepherds then strewed flowers to the queen, and Elisa dismissed them, saying that at the proper season she would reward them with ripe damsons (ecl. iv.) Ecl. ix. is a dialogue between Hobinol and Diggon Davie, upon Popish abuses. (See DIGGON DAVIE).—Spenser, _Shephearde’s Calendar_ (1572.) =Hobnel´ia=, a shepherdess, in love with Lubberkin, who disregarded her. She tried by spells to win his love, and after every spell she said: With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn me thrice around, around, around. Gay, _Pastoral_, iv. (1717). =Hob´son= (_Thomas_), a carrier who lived at Cambridge in the seventeenth century. He kept a livery stable, but obliged the university students to take his hacks in rotation. Hence the term _Hobson’s choice_ came to signify “this or none.” Milton (in 1660) wrote two humorous poems on the death of the old carrier. =Hochspring´en= (_The young duke of_), introduced in Donnerhugel’s narrative.—Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.). =Hocus= (_Humphry_), “the attorney” into whose hands John Bull and his friends put the law-suit they carried on against Lewis Baboon (_Louis XIV_.). Of course, Humphry Hocus is John Churchill, duke of Mariborough, who commanded the army employed against the Grand Monarque. Hocus was an old cunning attorney; and though this was the first considerable suit he was ever engaged in, he showed himself superior in address to most of his profession. He always kept good clerks. He loved money, was smooth-tongued, gave good words, and seldom lost his temper.... He provided plentifully for his family; but he loved himself better than them all. The neighbors reported that he was henpecked, which was impossible by such a mild-spirited woman as his wife was [_his wife was a desperate termagant_].—Dr. Arbuthnot, _History of John Bull_, v. (1712). =Hodei´rah= (_3 syl._), husband of Zei´nab (_2 syl._) and father of Thalaba. He died while Thalaba was a mere lad.—Southey, _Thalaba the Destroyer_, i. (1797). =Hodeken= (_i.e. little hat_), a German kobold or domestic fairy, noted for his little felt hat.