T has been thought desirable that the miscellaneous Writings of the late accomplished tranflator of Arifto phanes-hitherto buried in the bulky or voluminous publications to which they were originally contributed-should be collected together in a separate volume, with fuch minimum of introduction and comment as might feem neceffary, and rendered eafily acceffible to the general public, who have hitherto scarcely had an opportunity of pronouncing their verdict on his rare and fingular genius. Of this idea the present venture is the refult. JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE was born on the 21ft of May, 1769. He was the eldest son of John Frere, Efq., of Roydon Hall, Norfolk. His father fat in Parliament as Member for Norwich, and had evidently fome of the literary taftes which the more famous fon inherited, as we find he was Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Society of Antiquaries. His mother was Jane, only daughter of John Hookham, Efq. of Beddington Surrey. In his fixteenth year he was fent to Eton, where he formed a friendship with his fellowcollegian George Canning, which continued unabated during their joint lives. In 1786 the two schoolfellows embarked together in a small literary undertaking. They started, on the fixth of November in that year, a periodical publication entitled "The Microcofm," which appeared every Monday until the thirtieth July of the following year. Eton itself was a μinрónoσμos, or little μικρόκοσμος, world, from which they began to look out with hope and ambition into the larger world beyond ---its interests and affairs. To this work, which extended to forty numbers, Frere contributed five papers, remarkable for their clear pellucid ftyle and juftness of thought and criticism, though scarcely evincing the power and originality which he subsequently difcovered as a tranflator. the latter capacity he first distinguished himself by a tranflation into Anglo-Norman of an AngloSaxon poem on Athelstan's Victory at Brunanburg, printed by his friend George Ellis in his Specimens of English Poetry, which won him In 1 Canning was Frere's junior by just a year, having been born April 11, 1770. Frere, however, survived his friend, as we shall fee, for nearly twenty years. 2 "The Microcofm, a Periodical Work, by Gregory "Griffin." Windsor, printed for C. Knight, 1787. |