According to J. E. Neale a "reprobate",[1] who gained notoriety by his excesses, he was several times in serious trouble with Parliament itself, and among the accusations in a privilege case was his attitude to Magna Carta.
What were his incidental attacks on the antiquity of the institution were taken seriously, a generation later, by Sir Edward Coke, as undermining Parliament by "derogation".
As the servant of a member of parliament, he claimed immunity from arrest, and the House of Commons ordered his discharge, at the same time directing the serjeant-at-arms to rearrest him, on the ground that he was fraudulently seeking to avoid the payment of a just debt A bill was introduced, but was soon dropped, providing that Hall should pay up, and be disabled for ever from sitting in parliament.
On 16 January 1581 Thomas Norton, M.P., at the opening of the new session of parliament, brought the offensive work to the notice of the house.
By a unanimous vote he was committed to the Tower for six months, or until he should make a satisfactory retraction; was ordered to pay a fine to the queen of five hundred marks, and was expelled from the house for the present parliament.
On 2 December 1586 Hall's claim was referred to a committee of the House of Commons, and he agreed to forego the demand on 21 March 1587.
Early in 1591 he mentions, in further letters to Burghley, his quarrel with the widow Frances Radclyffe, Countess of Sussex, the injuries he sustained by his long confinement in the Tower, and the anxieties caused him by the enmity of one Richard More, who claimed his lands.
On 28 November 1604 he pointed out, in a letter to James I, the corruptions prevalent in the elections to the newly summoned parliament, and advised an immediate dissolution.
[4][5] Hall's chief literary work was Ten Books of Homer's Iliades, translated out of French, dedicated to Sir Thomas Cecil, London, 1581.
Hall closely follows the French verse translation of the first ten books by Hugues Salel (Paris, 1555), but occasionally used some Latin version.
His verse is rhymed fourteeners; the work if clumsy held its own till superseded by George Chapman's translation.