A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. John W. Cousin
He pub. a few novels, including Aspen Court and The Gordian Knot.
BROOKS, MARIA (GOWAN) (1795?-1845).—American poetess, was early m. to a merchant, who lost his money, and left her a young widow, after which she wrote highly romantic and impassioned poetry. Her chief work, Zophiël or The Bride of Swen, was finished under the auspices of Southey, who called her "Maria del Occidente," and regarded her as "the most impassioned and imaginative of all poetesses," but time has not sustained this verdict.
BROOME, WILLIAM (1689–1745).—Poet and translator, b. at Haslington, Cheshire, and ed. at Eton and Camb., entered the Church, and held various incumbencies. He translated the Iliad in prose along with others, and was employed by Pope, whom he excelled as a Greek scholar, in translating the Odyssey, of which he Englished the 8th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 18th, and 23rd books, catching the style of his master so exactly as almost to defy identification, and thus annoying him so as to earn a niche in The Dunciad. He pub. verses of his own of very moderate poetical merit.
BROUGHAM AND VAUX, HENRY, 1ST LORD (1778–1868).—S. of Henry B. of Brougham Hall, Westmoreland, b. in Edin., and ed. at the High School and Univ. there, where he distinguished himself chiefly in mathematics. He chose a legal career, and was called to the Scottish Bar in 1800, and to the English Bar in 1808. His chief forensic display was his defence of Queen Caroline in 1822. In 1810 he entered Parliament, where his versatility and eloquence soon raised him to a foremost place. The questions on which he chiefly exerted himself were the slave trade, commercial, legal, and parliamentary reform, and education, and in all of these he rendered signal service. When, in 1830, the Whigs, with whom he had always acted, attained power, B. was made Lord Chancellor; but his arrogance, selfishness, and indiscretion rendered him a dangerous and unreliable colleague, and he was never again admitted to office. He turned fiercely against his former political associates, but continued his efforts on behalf of reform in various directions. He was one of the founders of London Univ. and of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. In literature he has a place as one of the original projectors of and most voluminous contributors to The Edinburgh Review, and as the author of a prodigious number of treatises on science, philosophy, and history, including Dialogues on Instinct, Lives of Statesmen, Philosophers, and Men of Science of the Time of George III., Natural Theology, etc., his last work being an autobiography written in his 84th year, and pub. 1871. His writings were far too numerous and far too diverse in subject to be of permanent value. His fame now rests chiefly on his services to political and specially to legal reform, and to the diffusion of useful literature, which are his lasting monuments.
BROUGHTON, JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE, 1ST LORD (1786–1869).—Eldest s. of Sir Benjamin H., b. at Redland near Bristol, ed. at Westminster School and at Camb., where he became intimate with Byron, and accompanied him in his journeys in the Peninsula, Greece, and Turkey, and acted as his "best man." In 1816 he was with him after his separation from his wife, and contributed notes to the fourth canto of Childe Harold, which was dedicated to him. On his return he threw himself into politics with great energy as an advanced Radical, and wrote various pamphlets, for one of which he was in 1819 imprisoned in Newgate. In the following year he entered Parliament, sitting for Westminster. After the attainment of power by the Whigs he held various offices, including those of Sec. at War, Chief Sec. for Ireland, and Pres. of the Board of Control. He pub. Journey through Albania (1813), Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold (1818), and Recollections of a Long Life (1865), for private circulation, and he left in MS. Diaries, Correspondence, and Memoranda, etc., not to be opened till 1900, extracts from which were pub. by his dau., Lady Dorchester, also under the title of Recollections from a Long Life (1909).
BROWN, CHARLES BROCKDEN (1771–1810).—Novelist, b. in Philadelphia, belonged to a Quaker family, became a lawyer, but exchanged law for literature, and has the distinction of being the first American to adopt a purely literary career. He wrote several novels, including Wieland (1798), Ormond (1799), Arthur Mervyn (1800–1), and his last, Jane Talbot (1801). With a good deal of crudeness and sentimentality he has occasional power, but dwells too much on the horrible and repulsive, the result, perhaps, of the morbidity produced by the ill-health from which he all his life suffered.
BROWN, GEORGE DOUGLAS (1869–1902).—Novelist, wrote The House with the Green Shutters, which gives a strongly outlined picture of the harder and less genial aspects of Scottish life and character. It may be regarded as a useful supplement and corrective to the more roseate presentations of the kail-yard school of J.M. Barrie and "Ian Maclaren." It made a considerable impression. The author d. almost immediately after its publication. There is an ed. with a memoir by Mr. Andrew Lang.
BROWN, DR. JOHN (1810–1882).—Physician and essayist, s. of John B., D.D., a distinguished dissenting minister in Edin. B. at Biggar, he was ed. at the High School and Univ. of Edin., where practically the whole of his uneventful life was spent as a physician, and where he was revered and beloved in no common degree, and he was the cherished friend of many of his most distinguished contemporaries, including Thackeray. He wrote comparatively little; but all he did write is good, some of it perfect, of its kind. His essays, among which are Rab and his Friends, Pet Marjorie, Our Dogs, Minchmoor, and The Enterkine, were collected along with papers on art, and medical history and biography, in Horæ Subsecivæ (Leisure Hours), 3 vols. In the mingling of tenderness and delicate humour he has much in common with Lamb; in his insight into dog-nature he is unique. His later years were clouded with occasional fits of depression.
BROWN, THOMAS (1778–1820).—Metaphysician, s. of the Rev. Samuel B., minister of Kirkinabreck, practised for some time as a physician in Edin., but his tastes and talents lying in the direction of literature and philosophy, he devoted himself to the cultivation of these, and succeeded Dugald Stewart as Professor of Moral Philosophy in the Univ. of Edin., in which position he had remarkable popularity as a lecturer. His main contribution to literature is his Lectures, pub. after his death. B. was a man of attractive character and considerable talents, but as a philosopher he is now largely superseded. He also wrote poetry, which, though graceful, lacked force, and is now forgotten.
BROWN, THOMAS EDWARD (1830–1897).—Poet, b. at Douglas, Isle of Man, s. of a clergyman, and ed. there and at Oxf., entered the Church and held various scholastic appointments, including a mastership at Clifton. His later years were spent in his native island. He had a true lyrical gift, and much of his poetry was written in Manx dialect. His poems include Fo'c'sle Yarns (1881), The Doctor (1887), The Manx Witch (1889), and Old John (1893). He was also an admirable letter-writer, and 2 vols. of his letters have been pub.
BROWN, TOM (1663–1704).—Satirist, was ed. at Oxf., and there composed the famous epigram on Dr. Fell. He was for a few years schoolmaster at Kingston-on-Thames, but owing to his irregularities lost the appointment, and went to London, where he wrote satires, epigrams, and miscellaneous pieces, generally coarse and scurrilous.
BROWNE, CHARLES FARRAR (1834–1867).—Humorist (Artemus Ward), b. in Maine, U.S., worked as a compositor and reporter, and became a highly popular humorous writer, his books being Artemus Ward his Book, A.W. His Panorama, A.W. among the Mormons, and A.W. in England.
BROWNE, ISAAC HAWKINS (1705–1760).—Is remembered as the author of some clever imitations of contemporary poets on the theme of A Pipe of Tobacco, somewhat analogous to the Rejected Addresses of a later day. He also wrote a Latin poem on the immortality of the soul. B., who was a country gentleman and barrister, had great conversational powers. He was a friend of Dr. Johnson.
BROWNE, SIR THOMAS (1605–1682).—Physician and miscellaneous and metaphysical writer, s. of a London merchant, was ed. at Winchester