HAUGHTON

haughton, william (fl. 1598), english playwright. he collaborated in many plays with henry chettle, thomas dekker, john day and richard hathway. the only certain biographical information about him is derived from philip henslowe, who on the 10th of march 1600 lent him ten shillings "to release him out of the clink." mr fleay credits him with a considerable share in _the patient grissill_ (1599), and a merry comedy entitled _english-men for my money, or a woman will have her will_ (1598) is ascribed to his sole authorship. _the devil and his dame_, mentioned as a forthcoming play by henslowe in march 1600, is identified by mr fleay as _grim, the collier of croydon_, which was printed in 1662. in this play an emissary is sent from the infernal regions to report on the conditions of married life on earth. _grim_ is reprinted in vol. viii., and _english-men for my money_ in vol. x., of w. c. hazlitt's edition of dodsley's _old plays_. haugwitz, christian august heinrich kurt, count von, freiherr von krappitz (1752-1831), prussian statesman, was born on the 11th of june 1752, at peucke near ols. he belonged to the silesian (protestant) branch of the ancient family of haugwitz, of which the catholic branch is established in moravia. he studied law, spent some time in italy, returned to settle on his estates in silesia, and in 1791 was elected by the silesian estates general director of the province. at the urgent instance of king frederick william ii. he entered the prussian service, became ambassador at vienna in 1792 and at the end of the same year a member of the cabinet at berlin. haugwitz, who had attended the young emperor francis ii. at his coronation and been present at the conferences held at mainz to consider the attitude of the german powers towards the revolution, was opposed to the exaggerated attitude of the french _emigres_ and to any interference in the internal affairs of france. after the war broke out, however, the defiant temper of the committee of public safety made an honourable peace impossible, while the strained relations between austria and prussia on the question of territorial "compensations" crippled the power of the allies to carry the war to a successful conclusion. it was in these circumstances that haugwitz entered on the negotiations that resulted in the subsidy treaty between great britain and prussia, and great britain and holland, signed at the hague on the 19th of april 1794. haugwitz, however, was not the man to direct a strong and aggressive policy; the failure of prussia to make any effective use of the money supplied broke the patience of pitt, and in october the denunciation by great britain of the hague treaty broke the last tie that bound prussia to the coalition. the separate treaty with france, signed at basel on the 5th of april 1795, was mainly due to the influence of haugwitz. his object was now to save the provinces on the left bank of the rhine from being lost to the empire. no guarantee of their maintenance had been inserted in the basel treaty; but haugwitz and the king hoped to preserve them by establishing the armed neutrality of north germany and securing its recognition by the french republic. this policy was rendered futile by the victories of napoleon bonaparte and the virtual conquest of south germany by the french. haugwitz, who had continued to enjoy the confidence of the new king, frederick william iii., recognized this fact, and urged his master to join the new coalition in 1798. but the king clung blindly to the illusion of neutrality, and haugwitz allowed himself to be made the instrument of a policy of which he increasingly disapproved. it was not till 1803, when the king refused his urgent advice to demand the evacuation of hanover by the french, that he tendered his resignation. in august 1804 he was definitely replaced by hardenberg, and retired to his estates. in his retirement haugwitz was still consulted, and he used all his influence against hardenberg's policy of a _rapprochement_ with france. his representations had little weight, however, until napoleon's high-handed action in violating prussian territory by marching troops through ansbach, roused the anger of the king. haugwitz was now once more appointed foreign minister, as hardenberg's colleague, and it was he who was charged to carry to napoleon the prussian ultimatum which was the outcome of the visit of the tsar alexander i. to berlin in november. but in this crisis his courage failed him; his nature was one that ever let "i dare not wait upon i will"; he delayed his journey pending some turn in events and to give time for the mobilization of the duke of brunswick's army; he was frightened by reports of separate negotiations between austria and napoleon, not realizing that a bold declaration by prussia would nip them in the bud. napoleon, when at last they met, read him like a book and humoured his diplomatic weakness until the whole issue was decided at austerlitz. on the 15th of december, instead of delivering an ultimatum, haugwitz signed at schonbrunn the treaty which gave hanover to prussia in return for ansbach, cleves and neuchatel. the humiliation of prussia and her minister was, however, not yet complete. in february 1806 haugwitz went to paris to ratify the treaty of schonbrunn and to attempt to secure some modifications in favour of prussia. he was received with a storm of abuse by napoleon, who insisted on tearing up the treaty and drawing up a fresh one, which doubled the amount of territory to be ceded by prussia and forced her to a breach with great britain by binding her to close the hanoverian ports to british commerce. the treaty, signed on the 15th of february, left prussia wholly isolated in europe. what followed belongs to the history of europe rather than to the biography of haugwitz. he remained, indeed, at the head of the prussian ministry of foreign affairs, but the course of prussian policy it was beyond his power to control. the prussian ultimatum to napoleon was forced upon him by overwhelming circumstances, and with the battle of jena, on the 14th of october, his political career came to an end. he accompanied the flight of the king into east prussia, there took leave of him and retired to his silesian estates. in 1811 he was appointed _curator_ of the university of breslau; in 1820, owing to failing health, he went to live in italy, where he remained till his death at venice in 1831. haugwitz was a man of great intellectual gifts, of dignified presence and a charming address which endeared him to his sovereigns and his colleagues; but as a statesman he failed, not through want of perspicacity, but through lack of will power and a fatal habit of procrastination. during his retirement in italy he wrote memoirs in justification of his policy, a fragment of which dealing with the episode of the treaty of schonbrunn was published at jena in 1837. see j. von minutoli, _der graf von haugwitz und job von witzleben_ (berlin, 1844); l. von ranke, _hardenberg u. d. gesch. des preuss. staates_ (leipzig, 1879-1881), note on haugwitz's memoirs in vol. ii.; _denkwurdigkeiten des staatskanzlers fursten von hardenberg_, ed. ranke (5 vols., leipzig, 1877); a. sorel, _l'europe et la revol. franc., passim_. hauntings (from "to haunt," fr. _hanter_, of uncertain origin, but possibly from lat. _ambitare_, _ambire_, to go about, frequent), the supposed manifestations of existence by spirits of the dead in houses or places familiar to them in life. the savage practice of tying up the corpse before burying it is clearly intended to prevent the dead from "walking"; and cremation, whether in savage lands or in classical times, may have originally had the same motive. the "spirit" manifests himself, as a rule, either in his bodily form, as when he lived, or in the shape of some animal, or by disturbing noises, as in the case of the poltergeist (q.v.). classical examples occur in plautus (_mostellaria_), lucian (_philopseudes_), pliny, suetonius, st augustine, st gregory, plutarch and elsewhere, while lucretius has his theory of apparitions of the dead. he does not deny the fact; he explains it by "films" diffused from the living body and persisting in the atmosphere. a somewhat similar hypothesis, to account for certain alleged phenomena, was invented by mr edmund gurney. some visionary appearances in haunted houses do not suggest the idea of an ambulatory spirit, but rather of the photograph of a past event, impressed we know not how on we know not what. in this theory there is no room for the agency of spirits of the dead. the belief in hauntings was naturally persistent through the middle ages, and example and theory abound in the _loca infesta_ (cologne, 1598) of petrus thyraeus, s.j.; wierius (c. 1560), in _de praestigiis daemonum_, is in the same tale. according to thyraeus, hauntings appeal to the senses of sight, hearing and touch. the auditory phenomena are mainly thumping noises, sounds of footsteps, laughing and moaning. rackets in general are caused by _lares domestici_ ("brownies") or the poltergeist. in the tactile way ghosts _push_ the living; "i have been thrice pushed by an invisible power," writes the rev. samuel wesley, in 1717, in his narrative of the disturbances at his rectory at epworth. once he was pushed against the corner of his desk in the study; once up against the door of the matted chamber; and thirdly, "against the right-hand side of the frame of my study door, as i was going in." we have thus protestant corroboration of the statement of the learned jesuit. thyraeus raises the question, are the experiences hallucinatory? did mr wesley (to take his case) receive a mere hallucinatory set of pushes? was the hair of a friend of the writer's, who occupied a haunted house, only pulled in a subjective way? thyraeus remarks that, in cases of noisy phenomena, not all persons present hear them; and, rather curiously, mr wesley records the same experience; he sometimes did not hear sounds that seemed violently loud to his wife and family, who were with him at prayers. thyraeus says that, as collective hallucinations of sight are rare--all present not usually seeing the apparition--so audible phenomena are not always experienced by all persons present. in such cases, he thinks that the sights and sounds have no external cause, he regards the sights and sounds as delusions--caused by spirits. this is a difficult question. he mentions that we hear all the furniture being tossed about (as sir walter and lady scott heard it at abbotsford; see lockhart's _life_, v. 311-315). yet, on inspection, we find all the furniture in its proper place. there is abundant evidence to experience of this phenomenon, which remains as inexplicable as it was in the days of thyraeus. when the sounds are heard, has the atmosphere vibrated, or has the impression only been made on "the inner ear"? in reply, mr. procter, who for sixteen years (1831-1847) endured the unexplained disturbances at willington mill, avers that the material objects on which the knocks appeared to be struck did certainly vibrate (see poltergeist). is then the felt vibration part of the hallucination? as for visual phenomena, "ghosts," thyraeus does not regard them as space-filling entities, but as hallucinations imposed by spirits on the human senses; the spirit, in each case, not being necessarily the soul of the dead man or woman whom the phantasm represents. in the matter of alleged hauntings, the symptoms, the phenomena, to-day, are exactly the same as those recorded by thyraeus. the belief in them is so far a living thing that it greatly lowers the letting value of a house when it is reported to be haunted. (an action for libelling a house as haunted was reported in the london newspapers of the 7th of march 1907). it is true that ancient family legends of haunts are gloried in by the inheritors of stately homes in england, or castles in scotland, and to discredit the traditional ghost--in the days of sir walter scott--was to come within measurable distance of a duel. but the time-honoured phantasms of old houses usually survive only in the memory of "the oldest aunt telling the saddest tale." their historical basis can no more endure criticism than does the family portrait of queen mary,--signed by medina about 1750-1770, and described by the family as "given to our ancestor by the queen herself." after many years' experience of a baronial dwelling credited with seven distinct and separate phantasms, not one of which was ever seen by hosts, guests or domestics, scepticism as regards traditional ghosts is excusable. legend reports that they punctually appear on the anniversaries of their misfortunes, but no evidence of such punctuality has been produced. the society for psychical research has investigated hundreds of cases of the alleged haunting of houses, and the reports are in the archives of the society. but, as the mere rumour of a haunt greatly lowers the value of a house, it is seldom possible to publish the names of the witnesses, and hardly ever permitted to publish the name of the house. from the point of view of science this is unfortunate (see _proceedings s.p.r._ vol. viii. pp. 311-332 and _proceedings_ of 1882-1883, 1883-1884). as far as inquiry had any results, they were to the following effect. the spectres were of the most shy and fugitive kind, seen now by one person, now by another, crossing a room, walking along a corridor, and entering chambers in which, on inspection, they were not found. there was almost never any story to account for the appearances, as in magazine ghost-stories, and, if story there were, it lacked evidence. recognitions of known dead persons were infrequent; occasionally there was recognition of a portrait in the house. the apparitions spoke in only one or two recorded cases, and, as a rule, seemed to have no motive for appearing. the "ghost" resembles nothing so much as a somnambulist, or the dream-walk of one living person made visible, telepathically, to another living person. almost the only sign of consciousness given by the appearances is their shyness; on being spoken to or approached they generally vanish. not infrequently they are taken, at first sight, for living human beings. in darkness they are often luminous, otherwise they would be invisible! unexplained noises often, but not always, occur in houses where these phenomena are perceived. evidence is only good, approximately, when a series of persons, in the same house, behold the same appearance, without being aware that it has previously been seen by others. naturally it is almost impossible to prove this ignorance. when inquirers believe that the appearances are due to the agency of spirits of the dead, they usually suppose the method to be a telepathic impact on the mind of the living by some "mere automatic projection from a consciousness which has its centre elsewhere" (myers, _proceedings s.p.r._ vol. xv. p. 64). myers, in _human personality_, fell back on "palaeolithic psychology," and a theory of a phantasmogenetic agency producing a phantasm which had some actual relation to space. but space forbids us to give examples of modern experiences in haunted houses, endured by persons sane, healthy and well educated. the cases, abundantly offered in _proceedings s.p.r._, suggest that certain localities, more than others, are "centres of permanent possibilities of being hallucinated in a manner more or less uniform." the causes of this fact (if causes there be, beyond a casual hallucination or illusion of a, which, when reported, begets by suggestion, or, when not reported, by telepathy, hallucinations in b, c, d and e), remain unknown (_proceedings s.p.r._ vol. viii. p. 133 et seq.). mr podmore proposed this hypothesis of causation, which was not accepted by myers; he thought that the theory laid too heavy a burden on telepathy and suggestion. neither cause, nor any other cause of similar results, ever affects members of the s.p.r. who may be sent to dwell in haunted houses. they have no weird experiences, except when they are visionaries who see phantoms wherever they go. (a. l.)