Holland, Hugh

(?1569-?1635)

   A native of Denbigh, Wales, he was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow. He is known to have been in Jerusalem and that he embraced the Roman Catholic faith; it is thought that he was made a knight of the Sepulcher. Disgruntled at not being given some high office, he seems to have turned to poetry. As a poet he was patronized by George Villiers, duke of Buckingham. Holland was one of the poets who met at the Mermaid Tavern, Broad Street, London, and is likely to have been personally acquainted with Shakespeare. Some of his publications: Pancharis, 1603. Seianus: His Fall, 1605. The Elements of Armories, 1610. Coryats Crudities, 1611. The Odcombian Banquet, or Laugh and be Fat, 1611. A Cypres Garland, 1625. Odes of Horace, 1625. Some of his poems: "A parallel betweene Don Vlysses of Ithaca and Don Coryate of Odcombe," "Epitaph on Prince Henry," "Owen Tudor," "This man doth praise thy totterd ragged shirt," "Vpon the Lines and Life of the Famous Scenicke Poet, Master VVilliam Shakespeare."

   Sources: Anglo-Welsh Poetry, 1480-1980. Raymond Garlick and Roland Mathias, ed. Poetry Wales Press, 1984. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry, Second Edition Bibliography (http://collections.chadwyck.co.uk/html/ep2/bibliography/g.htm). English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Preface to Shakespeare's First Folio (http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/Folio1.htm). Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Faber Book of Epigrams and Epitaphs. Geoffrey Grigson, ed. Faber and Faber, 1977. The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English. Gwyn Jones, ed. Oxford University Press, 1977.