HOLBERG. 142 HOLD. of Danish comedy.' Left an orphan in child- hood, he jjroved an eager sIiuUmiI in .-pile of poverty and diseouragenients, and sup- ported himself precariously as tutor for some years, in the course of which he visited Holland. Germany, and En}i;land. and studied for two years at O.xford. He lectured in the fniversity at Co- penhagen, where his scholarship was recognized, though not remunerated. Some historical studies in maniscript attracted tlie atti'ntion of King Frederick IV., anil Holherg received a traveling scholarship that took him thmugh a great part of Kuri)|K', largely on fool. He relumed to Den- mark in 1710, and in 1718 published An Inlro- dtiiliun lu yalioal and Popiiliir Law, which brought him a professorship in the I'niversity of Copenhagen and a modest competence. Thus eased, his genius welled up in the serio- comic epic Peder Paars (1710), a brilliant satire on contemj)orarv manners, followed by five others, hardly less successful. In 1721 he was made director of the first Danish theatre in Copenhagen, for which he wrote during 1722 five classic comedies and in 172;t ten others. His best comedy. Ilrnrik and Prinille, belongs to 1724. The theatre failed, and Ilolberg closed his dramatic career hy puldishiiig his col- lected comedies in 1731. Adapting himself to a change in the national spirit, he turned to histori-, philosophy and satire, writing much that is now forgotten, and also the famous satire, <Sh6- icrrancan Journey of iel.i Klini {yicolai Klimii Iter Subltrraneum, 1741), which was thrice translated from Latin into Danish, ten times into Cerman. three times into Swedish, English, and Dutch, twice into French and Kiissian. and once into Hungarian. He published also five vol- umes of Letters (1748-.54). He shares with Vol- taire the preeminence in European literature in his generation. He made Danish a literary lan- guage, and won for it aristocratic recognition. His influence has endured for two centuries. Edi- tions of his works are countless; the best edition of the Comedies is by Lichtenberg (Copenhagen, 18S4 et seq.). The Ilolberg Society, founded at Copenhagen in 1842, oversaw^ {1848-.';4) a critical edition of Holberg's comedies in eight volumes. There are biographies by Prutz (Stuttgart, 1857); Smith (Copenhagen, 1S.">S) ; and Horn (ih., 1884). Consult also: I>egrelle. Ilolherr/ eon- sidfrd comme imitnteur de Molii're (Paris, 1804) ; Brandes, flolherg und seine Zeitgenossen ( Berlin, 18S,tK HOLBORIT, ho'burn. A district and street in I.onilon. I he name is derived from Old or Hole Bourne, the former name for a |)art of the p'lect, which ran through a valley. The depression is now crossed by the famous Holborn Viaduct, an iron structure 27 yards wide and 0.57 long, built in 1869 to facilitate communication by avoiding the ascent of Holborn Hill. Criminals formerly passed through Holborn on their way to execution, and according to an old custom received a nose- gay at Saint Sepulchre's Church, near Xewgate Prison, from which the thoroughfare leads west to New O.xford street. On Holborn are Bar- nard's, Furnivall's. and Staple Inn. and near it are Ely Chapel, fJray's Inn. and Lincoln's Inn. Milton at one time lived on the western portion of the street, called High Holborn. A number of picturesque old houses stand on this street, which Burvived the Great Fire. HOL'BROOK, .loiix Eowards (1794 1871). An Anicrican naturalist, born in Beaufort, S. (!. He graduated at Brown in I81,'i, and in medicine at the Pennsylvania University three years later, studied afterwards in Europe, and began practice in Charleston in 1822. In 1824 he was made |)ro- fe.ssor of anatomy in the South Carolina College. This position he retained for more than thirty years. The outbreak of the Civil War put an end to the publication of his lehlln/oloiij/ of South Carolina, begun in 18.")4. His |)revious Avork upon Ameriean llerjulologxi (.'> vols., 1H42) was highly commended by Agassiz and others. HOLBROOKTA (named in honor of the American natuialist .1. E. Holbrook). A genus of igininid lizards of the Southwestern I'nited States and N'orthern .Mexico, especially character- istic of the Eio Grande Valley. The four species nOLBKOOKIA HACCLATA. a, top of head; b, pruflle. are of moderate size, with short legs, squat de- pressed bodies, covered with minute scales, and long tails. The general color is gra.v, and all are blotched, spotted, and barred (on the tail) with darker tints, but the colors are highly variable; hence thej' arc popularly known as 'spolte<l liz- ards.' They prefer rocky ground, and run swiftly with their tails curved over their backs. They subsist mainly on insects, worms, and the like, but also take vegetable food. They make inter- esting pets. When placed in a flytrap they |)i(k out the very large, black, and bright-colored Hies before eating the house-flies. See Iguana. HOLCROFT, hol'krSft, Thomas (174.5-lSOO). An English dramatist and novelist, born in Lon- don. The son of a shoemaker, he learned his father's trade ; later he was a stable boy, a school- master, an actor, and lastly a playwright. He wrote thirty pl.ays, the best and most successful of which is The liond to Ruin (1792), still occa- sionally acted. During the French Revolution he became a member of the Society for Constitu- tional Information, and was indicle<I for high treason, im|)risfined. and finally dischargi'd with- out trial. He was a man of great industry. He learned French, Cerman. and Italian, and trans- lated many works, including Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea, Lavater's Physiofinomische Frag- mente, and some of the works of Frederick the Great. He was also the author of four novels and numerous poems. His Memoirs, written by himself or compiled from his diary and other papers, bv William Hazlitt, were pulilished after his death" 1^ vols., 1810). HOLCTIS. See Soft Gbas.s. HOLD (older form hote. from Dutch hoi, hole, hold; connected with AS.. OHO. helan, Gcr. heh- len, Lat. celare, Gk. icaXi'irTeii', Imhijilrin, to hide, Olr. eelim, I hide; confused in popular ety- mology with hold, to contain). That portion of the interior of the ship which is below the upper deck. This part of a ship may be divided into
