Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hume, Patrick (fl.1695)
HUME, PATRICK (fl. 1695), commentator on Milton, said to have been a member of the family of Hume of Polwarth, Berwickshire, was a London schoolmaster. In 1695 he edited for Jacob Tonson the sixth edition of Milton's ‘Paradise Lost,’ in folio, with elaborate notes, and is said to have been the first to attempt exhaustive annotations on the works of an English poet. On the title-page he calls himself P. H. φιλοποιητῆς. Dr. Newton, in his preface to the edition of ‘Paradise Lost’ published in 1749, says: ‘Patrick Hume, as he was the first, so is the most copious annotator. He laid the foundation, but he laid it among infinite heaps of rubbish.’ Warton, however, called Hume's work ‘a large and very learned commentary’ (Pref. to Poems upon Several Occasions, by John Milton, edit. 1791). Callandar, who edited the first book of ‘Paradise Lost’ in 1750, plagiarised Hume's notes.
[Chambers's and Thompson's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Blackwood's Mag. iv. 658; Hawkins's edit. of Milton's Poems; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; authorities in text.]