Hubert Ashton Holden

“ LOFFT, CAPELL (1751–1824) , miscellaneous writer, was son of Christopher Lofft, private secretary of Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, and Anne, sister of Edward Capell, the editor of Shakespeare. He was born in Boswell Court, Carey Street, London, on 14 Nov. 1751; placed in September 1759 as a day-boy at Eton, whence he proceeded in 1769 to Peterhouse, Cambridge. His tripos verses in praise of Shakespeare were so warmly praised by Garrick to Edward Capell that the uncle and nephew made up a previous coolness. ”

“ Lofft left the university in 1770 without graduating, became a member of Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1775. Soon afterwards his father's death gave him an independent fortune, and on the death of his uncle, Edward Capell, in 1781, he succeeded to the family estates at Troston and Stanton, near Bury St. Edmunds; he lived many years in the hall at Troston. He studied political law, was a strong whig, and took part in the agitation against the slave-trade and in the opposition to the American war. He was an admirer of Fox and an advocate of parliamentary reform. ”

“ The poem embodies a German tradition of Ernest, a parallel to the Welsh one of Arthur, both of whom are to return and reign and fulfil other patriot prophecies. It represents the growth, struggles, and triumph of chartism. Dean Milman, when noticing the poem in the ‘Quarterly Review,’ December 1839, expresses the highest admiration of the genius of the unknown author, but condemns the work as wildly inconsistent and lawless in its style and object. ”