John Hookham Frere was the eldest son of a landed noble, and his family history is a long and distinguished one, traceable all the way back to the time of William the Conqueror. J. H. Frere was born on May 21, 1769 to John and Jane Frere. J. H. Frere's (henceforth "Frere") education was of the highest quality, and he found himself at Eton at the age of sixteen. At Eton, he made several acquaintances who would become lifelong friends, including George Canning, one of the most brilliant politicians of the period. Canning and Frere joined forces with several other students to create "The Microcosm," a short lived periodical that was intended to explore the small world of Eton, though it actually managed to transcend that world by involving many issues from the wider world. After Eton, Frere moved on to Caius College at Cambridge, where he completed both his B.A. and his M.A. by 1795.
Soon after finishing his final degree at Caius College, Frere entered service in the Foreign Office, and by 1796, he had gained a seat as a member of Parliament, for the borough of West Looe in Cornwall. Frere's political activity was not limited to the actions of a member of Parliament (a position he held until 1802). He became more involved in politics by joining with his old chum Canning and several other ideological siblings in the production and publication of the Anti-Jacobin. The Anti-Jacobin was a fairly influential work, despite its short run, and it serves as one of the chief highlights of Frere's political career. In 1799, Frere succeeded Canning as Under Secretary of State and by 1800 he had relinquished that title for Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Portugal. From that point on, Frere's posts are mainly concerned with ambassadorial efforts. Whether one dates the Napoleonic Wars from 1799 or 1802, Frere was right in the thick of the wars in his post as an ambassador. In September of 1802, Frere was transferred to Spain as Minister, and by the time war renewed in 1803, he was well established. Frere's office in Spain kept him in the middle of the action for some time, writing letters of complaint about French naval armaments and trying to stay in the good graces of Spain's "Prince of Peace" Godoy, who was aiming at peace with France. Though deeply concerned for the British interests as he saw France mobilizing and posturing, Frere had to use the diplomatic channels that were his forte to maintain Britain's interests. Despite his best efforts, Frere was recalled by the British government in 1804 due to his differences with the Spanish Court. After four years, Frere was again returned to Spain as ambassador, because of his previous experience and his familiarity with its people and leaders. Within a year Frere was again recalled, this time due to the failure of a British military expedition led by Sir John Moore. Frere's biographers assign this final recall to politics, asserting that Frere was a sacrificial lamb who only received the blame for the failure of a militarily impossible position because Sir Moore had died in the military action and was thus not available for such persecution. Whether the biographers are correct or not, Frere's recall in 1809 would be his last; from that point on, he avoided the political stage.
During this final portion of his life, Frere employed his time as a gentleman and noble, indulging his pallet for literature. From his return until 1816, he seems to have been a man of society, traveling through the high society of England, especially of London, where he was valued for his conversationalism and wit. It was during this period that the existing pieces of The Monks and the Giants were composed, and he proposed them for publication in the same year that he proposed to Lady Erroll. In 1816, Frere's marriage to the Dowager Countess of Erroll gave him reason to remain at home, and her failing health in 1821 pulled him finally to Malta, where he would spend the rest of his life. During this period, especially in the wake of the mixed reviews and the imperceptive nature of Whistlecraft's reception, Frere seems to have focused on translation. His translations include a host of brief translations from works, and five complete translations from Aristophanes: The Acharnians, The Knights, The Birds, The Frogs, and The Peace. For this work, many of those who read his translations considered him a masterful translator. During these final twenty five years of life, Frere also acted as a mentor and sage for some of the upper crust poets of the period, who would correspond with him through letters, visit him whenever opportunity presented, and even send valued friends with a word of recommendation just to meet Frere. This life of leisure in Malta, perhaps contributed to by the fact that most of Frere's acquaintances in English society were already dead or removed from England themselves, persisted until his death in January 1846.
The information in this biography has been drawn from the Introduction of The Works of John Hookham Frere in Verse and Prose by Sir Bartle and W. E. Frere, and further informed by "The Works of John Hookham Frere," an anonymous review article that appeared in The Edinburg Review in April 1872.
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