HOLINSHED (or HOLLINGSHEAD), RAPHAEL (d. c. 158o), English chronicler, belonged probably to a Cheshire fam ily, and may possibly be identified with the Holinshed who ma triculated from Christ's college, Cambridge, in 5544. About 156o he came to London and was employed as a translator by Reginald or Reyner Wolfe, who was engaged in the preparation of a universal history. Holinshed worked for some years on this undertaking; but after Wolfe's death in 1573 the scope of the work was abridged, and it appeared as the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (2 vols., 1578). Holinshed received valu able assistance from William Harrison (q.v.) and others, while the part dealing with the history of Scotland is mainly a transla tion of Hector Boece's Scotorurn historiae. The chief interest of the work lies in the fact that it was largely used by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists; Shakespeare, who probably used the edition of 1587, obtaining from the Chronicles material for most of his historical plays, and also for Macbeth, King Lear and part of Cymbeline. Holinshed died about 1580.
A second edition of the Chronicles, enlarged and improved but without illustrations, which appeared in 1587, contained state ments which were offensive to Queen Elizabeth and her advisers, and immediately after publication some of the pages were excised by order of the privy council. These excisions were published separately in 17 23. An edition of the Chronicles, in accordance with the original text, was published in six volumes in 18o8.
See W. G. Boswell-Stone, Shakspere's Holinshed. The Chronicle and the historical plays compared (1896).