Part 13

HARROWING OF HELL, an English poem in dialogue, dating from the end of the 13th century. It is written in the East Midland dialect, and is generally cited as the earliest dramatic work of any kind preserved in the language, though it was in reality probably intended for recitation rather than performance; It is closely allied to the kind of poem known as a _debat_, and the opening words--"Alle herkneth to me nou A strif wille I tellen ou Of Jesu and of Satan"--seem to indicate that the piece was delivered by a single performer. The subject--the descent of Christ into Hades to succour the souls of the just, as related in the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus--is introduced in a kind of prologue; then follows the dispute between "Dominus" and "Satan" at the gate of Hell; the gatekeeper runs away, and the just are set free, while Adam, Eve, Habraham, David, Johannes and Moyses do homage to the deliverer. The poem ends with a short prayer: "God, for his moder loue Let ous never thider come." Metrically, the poem is characterized by frequent alliteration imposed upon the rhymed octosyllabic couplet:--

Welcome, louerd, god of londe Godes sone and godes sonde (ii. 149-150).

The piece is obviously connected with the Easter cycle of liturgical drama, and the subject is treated in the York and Townley plays.

MSS. are: Brit. Mus., Harl. MS. 2253; Edinburgh, Auchinleck MS., W 41; Oxford, Bodleian, Digby 86. It was privately printed by J. P. Collier and by J. O. Halliwell, but is available in Appendix III. of A. W. Pollard's _English Miracle Plays ..._ (4th ed., 1904) K. Boddeker, _Altengl. Dichtungen des MS. Harl. 2253_ (Berlin, 1878); and E. Mall, _The Harrowing of Hell_ (Breslau, 1871). See also E. K. Chambers, _The Medieval Stage_ (2 vols., 1903).

HARROW-ON-THE-HILL, an urban district in the Harrow parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, 12 m. W.N.W. of St Paul's cathedral, London, served by the London and North Western, Metropolitan and District railways. Pop. (1901), 10,220. It takes its name from its position on an isolated hill rising to a height of 345 ft. On the summit, and forming a conspicuous landmark, is the church of St Mary, said to have been founded by Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of William I., and Norman work appears at the base of the tower. The remainder of the church is of various later dates, and there are several ancient monuments and brasses.

Harrow is celebrated for its public school, founded in 1571 by John Lyon, whose brass is in the church, a yeoman of the neighbouring village of Preston who had yearly during his life set aside 20 marks for the education of poor children of Harrow; though a school existed before his time. Though the charter was granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1571, and the statutes drawn up by the founder in 1590, two years before his death, it was not till 1611 that the first building was opened for scholars. Lyon originally settled about two-thirds of his property on the school, leaving the remainder for the maintenance of the highway between London and Harrow, but in the course of time the values of the respective endowments have changed so far that the benefit accruing to the school is a small proportion of the whole. About 1660 the headmaster, taking advantage of a concession in Lyon's statutes, began to receive "foreigners," i.e. boys from other parishes, who were to pay for their education. From this time the prosperity of the school may be dated. In 1809 the parishioners of Harrow appealed to the court of chancery against the manner in which the school was conducted, but the decision, while it recognized their privileges, confirmed the right of admission to foreigners. The government of the school was originally vested in six persons of standing in the parish who had the power of filling vacancies in their number by election among themselves; but under the Public Schools Act of 1868 the governing body now consists of the surviving members of the old board, besides six new members who are elected respectively by the lord chancellor, the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London, the Royal Society, and the assistant masters of the school. There are several scholarships in connexion with the school to Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Harrow was originally an exclusively classical school, but mathematics became a compulsory study in 1837; modern languages, made compulsory in the upper forms In 1851, were extended to the whole school in 1855; while English history and literature began to be especially studied about 1869. The number of boys is about 600. The principal buildings are modern, including the chapel (1857), the library (1863), named after the eminent headmaster Dr Charles John Vaughan, and the speech-room (1877), the scene of the brilliant ceremony on "Speech Day" each summer term. The fourth form room, however, dates from 1611, and on its panels are cut the names of many eminent _alumni_, such as Byron, Robert Peel, R. B. Sheridan and Temple (Lord Palmerston). Several of the buildings were erected out of the Lyon Tercentenary Fund, subscribed after the tercentenary celebration in 1871.

A considerable extension of Harrow as an outer residential suburb of London has taken place north of the hill, where is the urban district of Wealdstone (pop. 5901), and there are also important printing and photographic works.

HARRY THE MINSTREL, or BLIND HARRY (fl. 1470-1492), author of the Scots historical poem _The Actis and Deidis of the Illustere and Vailzeand Campioun Schir William Wallace, Knicht of Ellerslie_, flourished in the latter half of the 15th century. The details of his personal history are of the scantiest. He appears to have been a blind Lothian man, in humble circumstances, who had some reputation as a story-teller, and who received, on five occasions, in 1490 and 1491, gifts from James IV. The entries of these, in the _Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer_, occur among others to harpers and singers. He is alluded to by Dunbar (q.v.) in the fragmentary _Interlude of the Droichis Part of the Play_, where a "droich," or dwarf, personates

"the nakit blynd Harry That lang has bene in the fary Farleis to find;"

and again in Dunbar's _Lament for the Makaris_. John Major (q.v.) in his Latin _History_ speaks of "one Henry, blind from his birth, who, in the time of my childhood, fashioned a whole book about William Wallace, and therein wrote down in our popular verse--and this was a kind of composition in which he had much skill--all that passed current among the people in his day. I, however, can give but partial credence to these writings. This Henry used to recite his tales before nobles, and thus received food and clothing as his reward" (Bk. iv. ch. xv.).

The poem (preserved in a unique MS., dated 1488, in the Advocates' library, Edinburgh) is divided into eleven books and runs to 11,853 lines. Its poetic merits are few, and its historical accuracy is easily impugned. It has the formal interest of being one of the earliest, certainly one of the most extensive verse-documents in Scots written in five-accent, or heroic, couplets. It is also the earliest outstanding work which discloses that habit of Scotticism which took such strong hold of the popular Northern literature during the coming years of conflict with England. In this respect it is in marked contrast with all the patriotic verse of preceding and contemporary literature. This attitude of the _Wallace_ may perhaps be accepted as corroborative evidence of the humble milieu and popular sentiment of its author. The poem owed its subsequent widespread reputation to its appeal to this sentiment rather than to its literary quality. On the other hand, there are elements in the poem which show that it is not entirely the work of a poor crowder; and these (notably references to historical and literary authorities, and occasional reminiscences of the literary tricks of the Scots Chaucerian school) have inclined some to the view that the text, as we have it, is an edited version of the minstrel's rough song-story. It has been argued, though by no means conclusively, that the "editor" was John Ramsay, the scribe of the Edinburgh MS. and of the companion Edinburgh MS. of the _Brus_ by John Barbour (q.v.).

The poem appears, on the authority of Laing, to have been printed at the press of Chepman & Myllar about 1508, but the fragments which Laing saw are not extant. The first complete edition, now available, was printed by Lekprevik for Henry Charteris in 1570 (Brit. Museum). It was reprinted by Charteris in 1594 and 1601, and by Andro Hart in 1611 and 1620. At least six other editions appeared in the 17th century. There are many later reprints, including some of William Hamilton of Gilbertfield's modern Scots version of 1722. The first critical edition was prepared by Dr. Jamieson and published in 1820. In 1889 the Scottish Text Society completed their edition of the text, with prolegomena and notes by James Moir.

See, in addition to Jamieson's and Moir's volumes (_u.s._), J. T. T. Brown's _The Wallace and the Bruce Restudied_ (Bonner, _Beitrage zur Anglistik_, vi., 1900), a plea for Ramsay's authorship of the known text; also W. A. Craigie's article in _The Scottish Review_ (July 1903), a comparative estimate of the _Brus and Wallace_, in favour of the latter.

HARSDORFFER, GEORG PHILIPP (1607-1658), German poet, was born at Nuremberg on the 1st of November 1607. He studied law at Altdorf and Strassburg, and subsequently travelled through Holland, England, France and Italy. His knowledge of languages gained for him the appellation "the learned," though he was as little a learned man as he was a poet. As a member of the _Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft_ he was called _der Spielende_ (the player). Jointly with Johann Klaj (q.v.) he founded in 1644 at Nuremberg the order of the Pegnitzschafer, a literary society, and among the members thereof he was known by the name of Strephon. He died at Nuremberg on the 22nd of September 1658. His writings in German and Latin fill fifty volumes, and a selection of his poems, interesting mostly for their form, is to be found in Muller's _Bibliothek deutscher Dichter des 17ten Jahrhunderts_, vol. ix. (Leipzig, 1826).

His life was written by Widmann (Altdorf, 1707). See also Tittmann, _Die Nurnberger Dichterschule_ (Gottingen, 1847); Hodermann, _Eine vornehme Gesellschaft, nach Harsdorffers "Gesprachspielen"_ (Paderborn, 1890); T. Bischoff, "Georg Philipp Harsdorffer" in the _Festschrift zur 250 jahrigen Jubelfeier des Pegnesischen Blumenordens_ (Nuremberg, 1894); and Krapp, _Die asthetischen Tendenzen Harsdorffers_ (Berlin, 1904).

HARSHA, or HARSHAVARDHANA (fl. A.D. 606-648), an Indian king who ruled northern India as paramount monarch for over forty years. The events of his reign are related by Hsuan Tsang, the Chinese pilgrim, and by Bana, a Brahman author. He was the son of a raja of Thanesar, who gained prominence by successful wars against the Huns, and came to the throne in A.D. 606, though he was only crowned in 612. He devoted himself to a scheme of conquering the whole of India, and carried on wars for thirty years with success, until (A.D. 620) he came in contact with Pulakesin II., the greatest of the Chalukya dynasty, who made himself lord of the south, as Harsha was lord of the north. The Nerbudda river formed the boundary between the two empires. In the latter years of his reign Harsha's sway over the whole basin of the Ganges from the Himalayas to the Nerbudda was undisputed. After thirty-seven years of war he set himself to emulate Asoka and became a patron of art and literature. He was the last native monarch who held paramount power in the north prior to the Mahommedan conquest; and was succeeded by an era of petty states.

See Bana, _Sri-harsha-charita_, trans. Cowell and Thomas (1897); Ettinghausen, _Harsha Vardhana_ (Louvain, 1906).

HARSNETT, SAMUEL (1561-1631), English divine, archbishop of York, was born at Colchester in June 1561, and was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he was successively scholar, fellow and master (1605-1616). He was also vice-chancellor of the university in 1606 and 1614. His ecclesiastical career began somewhat unpromisingly, for he was censured by Archbishop Whitgift for Romanist tendencies in a sermon which he preached against predestination in 1584. After holding the living of Chigwell (1597-1605) he became chaplain to Bancroft (then bishop of London), and afterwards archdeacon of Essex (1603-1609), rector of Stisted and bishop of Chichester (1609-1619) and archbishop of York (1629). He died on the 25th of May 1631. Harsnett was no favourite with the Puritan community, and Charles I. ordered his _Considerations for the better Settling of Church Government_ (1629) to be circulated among the bishops. His _Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_ (1603) furnished Shakespeare with the names of the spirits mentioned by Edgar in _King Lear_.

HART, ALBERT BUSHNELL (1854- ), American historian, was born at Clarksville, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of July 1854. He graduated at Harvard College in 1880, studied at Paris, Berlin and Freiburg, and received the degree of Ph.D. at Freiburg in 1883. He was instructor in history at Harvard in 1883-1887, assistant professor in 1887-1897, and became professor in 1897. Among his writings are: _Introduction to the Study of Federal Government_ (1890), _Formation of the Union_ (1892, in the Epochs of American History series), _Practical Essays on American Government_ (1893), _Studies in American Education_ (1895), _Guide to the Study of American History_ (with Edward Channing, 1897), _Salmon Portland Chase_ (1899, in the American Statesman series), _Foundations of American Foreign Policy_ (1901), _Actual Government_ (1903), _Slavery and Abolition_ (1906, the volume in the American Nation series dealing with the period 1831-1841), _National Ideals Historically Traced_ (1907), the 26th volume of the American Nation series, and many historical pamphlets and articles. In addition he edited _American History told by Contemporaries_ (4 vols., 1898-1901), and _Source Readers in American History_ (4 vols., 1901-1903), and two co-operative histories of the United States, the Epochs of American History series (3 small text-books), and, on a much larger scale, the American Nation series (27 vols., 1903-1907); he also edited the American Citizen series.

HART, CHARLES (d. 1683), English actor, grandson of Shakespeare's sister Joan, is first heard of as playing women's parts at the Blackfriars' theatre as an apprentice of Richard Robinson. In the Civil War he was a lieutenant of horse in Prince Rupert's regiment, and after the king's defeat he played surreptitiously at the Cockpit and at Holland House and other noblemen's residences. After the Restoration he is known to have been in 1660 the original Dorante in _The Mistaken Beauty_, adapted from Corneille's _Le Menteur_. In 1663 he went to the Theatre Royal in Killigrew's company, with which he remained until 1682, taking leading parts in Dryden's, Jonson's and Beaumont and Fletcher's plays. He is highly spoken of by contemporaries in such Shakespearian parts as Othello and Brutus. He is often mentioned by Pepys. Betterton praised him, and would not himself play the part of Hotspur until after Hart's retirement. He died in 1683 and was buried on the 20th of August. Hart is said to have been the first lover of Nell Gwyn, and to have trained her for the stage.

HART, ERNEST ABRAHAM (1835-1898), English medical journalist, was born in London on the 26th of June 1835, the son of a Jewish dentist. He was educated at the City of London school, and became a student at St George's hospital. In 1856 he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, making a specialty of diseases of the eye. He was appointed ophthalmic surgeon at St Mary's hospital at the age of 28, and occupied various other posts, introducing into ophthalmic practice some modifications since widely adopted. His name, too, is associated with a method of treating popliteal aneurism, which he was the first to use in Great Britain. His real life-work, however, was as a medical journalist, beginning with the _Lancet_ in 1857. He was appointed editor of the _British Medical Journal_ in 1866. He took a leading part in the exposures which led to the inquiry into the state of London workhouse infirmaries, and to the reform of the treatment of sick poor throughout England, and the Infant Life Protection Act of 1872, aimed at the evils of baby-farming, was largely due to his efforts. The record of his public work covers nearly the whole field of sanitary legislation during the last thirty years of his life. He had a hand in the amendments of the Public Health and of the Medical Acts; in the measures relating to notification of infectious disease, to vaccination, to the registration of plumbers; in the improvement of factory legislation; in the remedy of legitimate grievances of Army and Navy medical officers; in the removal of abuses and deficiencies in crowded barrack schools; in denouncing the sanitary shortcomings of the Indian government, particularly in regard to the prevention of cholera. His work on behalf of the British Medical Association is shown by the increase from 2000 to 19,000 in the number of members, and the growth of the _British Medical Journal_ from 20 to 64 pages, during his editorship. From 1872 to 1897 he was chairman of the Association's Parliamentary Bill Committee. He died on the 7th of January 1898. For his second wife he married Alice Marion Rowland, who had herself studied medicine in London and Paris, and was no less interested than her husband in philanthropic reform. She was most active in her encouragement of Irish cottage industries, and was the founder of the Donegal Industrial Fund.

HART, SIR ROBERT, Bart. (1835- ), Anglo-Chinese statesman, was born at Milltown, Co. Armagh, on the 20th of February 1835. He was educated at Taunton, Dublin and Belfast, and graduated at Queen's College, Belfast, in 1853. In the following year he received an appointment as student-interpreter in the China consular service, and after serving for a short time at the Ningpo vice-consulate, he was transferred to Canton, where after acting as secretary to the allied commissioners governing the city, he was appointed the local inspector of customs. There he first gained an insight into custom-house work. One effect of the Taiping rebellion was to close the native custom-house at Shanghai; and as the corrupt alternatives proposed by the Chinese were worse than useless, it was arranged by Sir Rutherford Alcock, the British consul, with his French and American colleagues, that they should undertake to collect the duties on goods owned by foreigners entering and leaving the port. Sir T. Wade was appointed to the post of collector in the first instance, and after a short tenure of office was succeeded by Mr H. N. Lay, who held the post until 1863, when he resigned owing to a disagreement with the Chinese government in connexion with the Lay-Osborn fleet. During his tenancy of office the system adopted at Shanghai was applied to the other treaty ports, so that when on Mr Lay's resignation Mr Hart was appointed inspector-general of foreign customs, he found himself at the head of an organization which collected a revenue of upwards of eight million taels per annum at fourteen treaty ports. From the date when Mr Hart took up his duties at Peking, in 1863, he unceasingly devoted the whole of his energies to the work of the department, with the result that the revenue grew from upwards of eight million taels to nearly twenty-seven million, collected at the thirty-two treaty ports, and the customs staff, which in 1864 numbered 200, reached in 1901 a total of 5704. From the first Mr Hart gained the entire confidence of the members of the Chinese government, who were wise enough to recognize his loyal and able assistance. Of all their numerous sources of revenue, the money furnished by Mr Hart was the only certain asset which could be offered as security for Chinese loans. For many years, moreover, it was customary for the British minister, as well as the ministers of other powers, to consult him in every difficulty; and such complete confidence had Lord Granville in his ability and loyalty, that on the retirement of Sir T. Wade he appointed him minister plenipotentiary at Peking (1885). Sir Robert Hart, however--who was made a K.C.M.G. in 1882--recognized the anomalous position in which he would have been placed had he accepted the proposal, and declined the proffered honour. On all disputed points, whether commercial, religious or political, his advice was invariably sought by the foreign ministers and the Chinese alike. Thrice only did he visit Europe between 1863 and 1902, the result of this long comparative isolation, and of his constant intercourse with the Peking officials, being that he learnt to look at events through Chinese spectacles; and his work, _These from the Land of Sinim_, shows how far this affected his outlook. The faith which he put in the Chinese made him turn a deaf ear to the warnings which he received of the threatening Boxer movement in 1900. To the last he believed that the attacking force would at least have spared his house, which contained official records of priceless value, but he was doomed to see his faith falsified. The building was burnt to the ground with all that it contained, including his private diary for forty years. When the stress came, and he retreated to the British legation, he took an

## active part in the defence, and spared neither risk nor toil in his

exertions. In addition to the administration of the foreign customs service, the establishment of a postal service in the provinces devolved upon him, and after the signing of the protocol of 1901 he was called upon to organize a native customs service at the treaty ports.

The appointment of Sir Robert Hart as inspector-general of the imperial maritime customs secured the interests of European investors in Chinese securities, and helped to place Chinese finance generally on a solid footing. When, therefore, in May 1906 the Chinese government appointed a Chinese administrator and assistant administrator of the entire customs of China, who would control Sir Robert Hart and his staff, great anxiety was aroused. The Chinese government had bound itself in 1896 and 1898 that the imperial maritime customs services should remain as then constituted during the currency of the loan. The British government obtained no satisfactory answer to its remonstrances, and Sir Robert Hart, finding himself placed in a subordinate position after his long service, retired in July 1907. He received formal leave of absence in January 1908, when he received the title of president of the board of customs. Both the Chinese and the British governments from time to time conferred honours upon Sir Robert Hart. By giving him a Red Button, or button of the highest rank, a Peacock's Feather, the order of the Double Dragon, a patent of nobility to his ancestors for three generations, and the title of Junior Guardian of the heir apparent, the Chinese showed their appreciation of his manifold and great services; while under the seal of the British government there were bestowed upon him the orders of C.M.G.(1880), K.C.M.G.(1882), G.C.M.G. (1889), and a baronetcy (1893). He has also been the recipient of many foreign orders. Sir Robert Hart married in 1886 Hester, the daughter of Alexander Bredon, Esq., M.D., of Portadown.

See his life by Julia Bredon (_Sir Robert Hart_, 1909).