Holland

tieth year he published Odes, Naval Songs, and
Other Occasional Poems (Charleston, 1813)
dedicated to "James Marshall, Esq., of Savannah,
... by his affectionate brother." Amid the dis-
sonances of these seventeen pieces one may catch,
faintly as if in the wind, the notes of William
Collins and Thomas Moore, for with this volume
romantic poetry began in South Carolina. Its
most sonorous lines are the opening quatrain of
the ode to the memory of Capt. James Lawrence:

Hark! how the Mourning Barge with heavy Sweep
Moves to the solemn Minute-stroke of Death!

The lifeless Billow of the silent Deep

Scarce curls beneath the Morning's orient Breath!

In 1818 Holland's dramatization of Byron's Cor-
sair, with many of the rhyming lines of the orig-
inal ingeniously retained in the blank verse, was
published and was performed at the Charleston
Theatre. With William Crafts and Henry J.
Farmer he is said to have had a hand in Omnium
Botherwm, a burlesque, apparently deserved, of
Thomas Bee's Omnium Gatherum (1821). In
1822 appeared a vigorously rhetorical Refutation
of the Calumnies Circulated against the Southern
and Western States Respecting the Institution
and Existence of Slavery among Them, which
hinted at impending war. Published anonymous-
ly, it was attributed afterward to Benjamin Elli-
ott [#.#.], who had given Holland some assis-
tance (Refutation, pp. 78-79). Two years later
he died during an epidemic of yellow fever. His
younger brother, William Robert Holland, died
at Savannah eight days before him.

[Ludwig Lewisohn, "The Books We Have Made: A
Hist, of Lit in S. C.," News and Courier (Charleston,
S. C), July 12, 1903; A. H. Quinn, Hist, of the Am.
Drama from the Beginning to the Civil War (1923) ;
A. S. Salley, Jr., Marriage Notices in the S. C. Gazette
and its Successors, 1732-1801 (Albany, N. Y., 1902);
death notice in Charleston Courier, Sept. 14, 1824.]

f TT ("*

HOLLAND, GEORGE (Dec. 6, I79i-Dec.
20, 1870), comedian, the English founder of an
American family of actors, was for fifty-three
years an irresistible fun-maker before the foot-
lights. Born in Lambeth parish, London, the
son of Henry Holland, a dancing-master, he was
for seven years successful on the British stage
before coming to New York, where he made his
debut at the Bowery Theatre, Sept. 12, 1827, as
Jerry in A Day After the Fair, scoring an im-
mediate hit. For some sixteen years he traveled
about, achieving immense popularity in most of
the prominent cities of the Union, especially in
the South. Occasionally he played in his skit,
Whims of a Comedian. In 1829 he first appeared
at New Orleans as Dominie Sampson in Guy
Mannering. In 1832 he joined Ludlow at Louis-
ville in a managerial venture, and two years later

Holland

he associated himself similarly with Sol Smith,
in Montgomery, Ala. Between 1834 and 1842
he was treasurer of the St. Charles Theatre in
New Orleans, where he appeared at times on its
boards and served also as secretary to J. H. Cald-
well. He was in the cast of The School for Scan-
dal during Ellen Tree's engagement, and of
Much Ado About Nothing, during Caldwell's
farewell. When the theatre burned, he returned
to New York and for six years delighted the
audiences at Mitchell's Olympic in such light
farces as Lend Me Five Shillings. In 1855 came
his first permanent engagement to play character
parts with Wallack's company. He remained
with Wallack twelve years, and at seventy-five
he was impersonating with youthful spirit Tony
Lumpkin in She Stoops To Conquer. His
strength was waning, though not his popularity,
when Daly made a place for him in his company
in 1869. His last part was that of the reporter
in the farcical comedy, Surf. In May 1870, when
Daly tendered him a parting benefit, the aged
comedian, seated in the midst of the company,
made his last speech, "God bless you!"

Upon Holland's death his old friend Joseph
Jefferson attempted to arrange for his funeral at
Dr. Sabine's church but met the historic refusal
to bury an actor. Such was the general indigna-
tion over the incident that a fund was raised for
the comedian's family of more than fifteen thou-
sand dollars. His widow, Catherine (De Luce)
Holland, the daughter of an orchestra leader at
the old Park Theatre, was his second wife, and
the mother of his three sons, Edmund Milton,
Joseph Jefferson [qq.v.l, and George, and of the
daughter, Kate, who died at the opening of her
career with Daly. In his own eccentric line, Hol-
land was without a rival; he embodied the very
spirit of innocent farce. "His effects were broad-
ly given," says Jefferson, "and his personality
was essentially comic. . . . He was the merriest
man I ever knew" (Autobiography, p. 337). His
droll faces, his songs and antics, and most of all,
his lovable personality, endeared him to genera-
tions of Americans.

[T. H. Morrell, Holland Memorial: Sketch of the
Life of Geo. Holland (1871) ; M. J. Moses, Famous
Actor-Families in America (1906); The Autobiog. of
Jos. Jefferson (1890); W. L. Keese, A Group of Come-
dians (1901) ; Win. Winter, The Wallet of Time (2
vols., 1913), and Brief Chronicles, Dunlap Soc. Pubs.,
3 pts. (1889-90); N. M. Ludlow, Dramatic Life as I
Found It (1880) ; Arthur Hornblow, A Hist, of the
Theatre in America (2 vols., 1919) ; Laurence Hutton,
Curiosities of the Am. Stage (1891); N. Y. Tribunet
July 20, 1870; AT. Y. Times, Dec, 21, 1870.]

M.B.H.

HOLLAND, JOHN PHILIP (Feb. 29,1840-
Aug. 12,1914), inventor, was born in Liscanor,
County Clare, Ireland, the son of John and Mary

144