People list (Library of Congress Name Authority)
-
Addison, Joseph, 1672-1719 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A poet and dramatist as well, Addison was the most popular of early
eighteenth-century periodical essayist. He collaborated with Richard Steele on the Tatler (12 April 1709 to 2
January 1711), the Guardian (12
March to 1 October 1713), and especially the Spectator (1 March 1711 to 6 December 1712;
second series, 18 June to 20 December 1714). He also conducted the Free-holder (23 December
1715-29 June 1716), the Whig
Examiner (14 September to 12 October), and The Old Whig, which survived for
only two numbers (19 March and 2 April 1719). None of these attained the
success of the Spectator.
Addison's only successful drama was the tragedy Cato (1713). [MW]
-
Aeschylus (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Aeschylus (c. 525 BC-456 BC) Greek playwright, born at Eleusis, near
Athens, generally considered to be the earliest important writer of the
Western theatrical tradition, the first playwright to achieve official
recognition in ancient Greece. [RD]
-
Aikin, Anna Letitia—
- See Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia). [MW]
-
Aikin, John, 1747-1822 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Physician and brother to Anna Letitia
Barbauld, John Aikin was a broad-ranging and prolific literary man
whose connections in the burgeoning late eighteenth-century print
marketplace make him exemplary of emerging literary professionalism. His
writings range through the subjects of science, medicine, reform, history,
biography, geography, nature, conduct, children's and educational
literature, politics, poetry, and literary criticism. In addition, he was an
active and productive editor, including of several of the period's
outstanding periodicals, such as the Monthly
Magazine, the Athenaeum, and the Annual Register. He and his sister
collaborated on Miscellaneous Pieces in
Prose (1773) and Evenings at Home; or, the Juvenile Budget
Opened (1792-1796). [MW]
-
Aikin, Lucy, 1781-1864 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Daughter of John Aikin and niece of Anna Letitia Barbauld, Lucy Aikin was
a versatile and successful author of poetry, fiction, children’s literature,
history, memoirs, biographies, correspondence, translations, adaptations,
and edited collections. Her major works include Epistles on Women, Exemplifying Their Character
and Condition in Various Ages and Nations: With Miscellaneous
Poems (1810); Juvenile
Correspondence, or Letters, Designed as Examples of the Epistolary
Style, for Children of Both Sexes (1811); Lorimer: A Tale (1814); Memoirs of the Court of Queen
Elizabeth (1818); Memoirs
of the Court of King James the First (1822); Memoir of John Aikin, M.D.: With a Selection of
His Miscellaneous Pieces, Biographical, Moral, and
Critical (1823); The Works
of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, edited, with a memoir
(1825); An English Lesson Book, for the
Junior Classes (1828); Memoirs of the Court of King Charles the First (1828);
and The Life of Joseph Addison
(1843), among others. Aikin's biographies stand out for the use of primary
materials such as letters and journals, and her work often met with
considerable success,
-
Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Poet and physician known especially for The Pleasures of Imagination (1744;
subsequently revised and expanded) and for his odes, especially those
collected in Odes on Several
Subjects (1745). [MW]
-
Albemarle, George Keppel, Earl of,
1724-1772 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- A prominent politician and army officer, Albemarle was a close friend and
policical ally of William, duke of
Cumberland. [RD]
-
Alemán, Mateo, 1547-1614? (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Authored Vita del Picaro Guzman
d'Alfarache (1599-1604). [MW]
-
Alembert, Jean Le Rond d', 1717-1783 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- French philosopher and mathematician who assisted Diderot for a time
with the Encyclopédie.
[MW]
-
Alexander, the Great, 356-323 B.C. (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- King of Macedonia from 336, Alexander demonstrated brilliance as a
general in a campaign that originated as an obsession for vengeance against
the Persians and culminated with extending his empire through Egypt and Asia
Minor into India. He is known on various occasions for his ruthlessness,
heroic bravery, courtesy, and concern for the religious and intellectual
heritage of the areas he conquered. [MW]
-
Allen, Ralph, ca. 1693-1764 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A noted Bath philanthropist particularly recognized for postal system
reform, he was a friend of Samuel
Richardson, Henry Fielding,
Alexander Pope, and numerous other
Illustrious personages in eighteenth-century arts and letters. [MW]
-
Amory, Thomas, 1691?-1788? (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Authored The Memoirs of Several Ladies
by John Buncle (1755) and The Life of John Buncle, Esq. (two volumes
published separately in 1756 and 1766). [MW]
-
Goodman Andrews—
- Father to the title character in Samuel
Richardson's Pamela (1740-1). [MW]
-
Andromeda—
- Greek mythological figure chained to a rock to appease the gods, but
rescued by Perseus, who then married her. [MW]
-
Anne, Queen of Great Britain, 1665-1714
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- The last of the Stuart monarchs, Anne became queen of England, Scotland,
and Ireland in 1702 and presided over the Acts of Union in 1707 that created
Great Britain. [MW]
-
Annesley, George, Earl of Mountnorris,
1769-1844(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Succeeded his father Arthur Annesley, first Earl of Mountnorris, in 1816.
[vw]
-
Anstey, Christopher, 1724-1805 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- A noteworthy eighteenth-century poet, his best known works include the
popular epistle, The New Bath
Guide (1766) and The
Farmer's Daughter, a Poetical Tale (1795).
[RD]
-
Anti-Jacobin
—
- The arch-conservative Anti-Jacobin, or,
Weekly Examiner was published from 1797-1798. On its
demise it was followed by the less effective Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine, or, Monthly Political and
Literary Censor (1798-1821). These periodicals
lampooned not only "Jacobins," that is, supporters of the French
revolution, and other radicals, but Dissenters, Catholics, abolitionists,
Whigs, those who would educate the poor, and many other moderate groups as
well. [MW]
-
Apuleius [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name Authority);
c.124-after 170 (Encyclopedia
Britannica)—
- Lucius Apuleius, also known as Madaurensis, after Madaura in Africa,
where he was born, authored The Golden
Ass (or Metamorphosis), a darkly comic tale or
prototypical novel, which contains a version of the story of Cupid and
Psyche. [MW]
-
Arblay, Alexandre Jean Baptiste Piochard, comte
d', 1754-1818 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Émigré French general and adjutant to General Lafayette. In
1793 D'arblay married Fanny Burney
[MW]
-
Arblay, Madame D'—
- See Burney, Fanny. [MW]
-
Arbuthnot, John, 1667-1735 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Founder of the Scriblerus Club, which included Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift among the members.
Arbuthnot authored a series of pamphlets originating the fictional figure
John Bull, the personification of English
national character. [MW]
-
Arcadius, Emperor of the East, 377?-408 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Emperor who ruled the Eastern half of the Roman empire while his younger
brother Honorius ruled the western half. [MW]
-
Ariosto, Lodovico, 1474-1533 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Italian poet best known for his chivalric romance epic, Orlando Furioso (1516). [MW]
-
Aristides, of Miletus [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name
Authority); 2nd century B.C. (Encyclopedia Britannica)—
- His Milesian Tales were a
collection of erotic picaresque stories. [MW]
-
Aristophanes (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Aristophanes was the foremost Greek comic playwright of his time. Many
works with which he has been credited are now lost, but among those that
survive, Wasps (422 B.C.),
Birds (414 B.C.),
Lysistrata (411 B.C.),
Plutus (also known as
Wealth, 408; revised
388), and Frogs (405 B.C.) are
among the best known. [RD], [MW]
-
Arkwright, Richard, Sir, 1732-1792 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Through his inventions of a carding frame and, even more importantly, an
innovative spinning frame, Arkwright became a leader in the mechanization of
cotton manufacturing and the development of the factory system for textile
production. [MW]
-
Armstrong, John, 1709-1779 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Poet, physician, essayist. Most famous for his didactic poem The Art of Preserving Health
(1744). [vw]
-
Arthur—
- A legendary king of England, the subject of a number of verse narratives.
[MW]
-
Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, 1187-1203 —
- Fourth Earl of Richmond and Duke of Brittany, Prince Arthur had been
designated heir to the throne over his uncle, John, King of England,
1167-1216. [MW]
-
Aspasia—
- Mistress of Pericles often attacked in Athenian dramatic works for her
supposed undue political influence. [MW]
-
Astraea—
- Personification of virtue who, when the Golden Age ended and the earth
became dominated by iniquity, ascended to the heavens and became the
constellation Virgo. [MW]
-
Até —
- Goddess of error, delusion, and rash action. [MW]
-
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Austen's major novels include Sense
and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1816), Northanger Abbey (1818), and
Persuasion (1818). A minor
novel, Lady Susan, was first
published in the 1871 edition of James Edward Austen-Leigh's A Memoir of Jane Austen along
with the fragment The Watsons
and a synopsis of the unfinished Sanditon. Austen is also appreciated for her
comic juvenilia, especially Love &
Freindship [sic] (1922). [MW]
-
Mr. B.—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Pamela
(1740-1). [MW]
-
Bacchus—
- Roman name for the Greek god
Dionysus. [KI]
-
Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- After being disgraced as a public figure by accusations of corruption,
Lord Bacon turned to philosophical writing. His major works included his Essays (1597), The Advancement of Learning
(1605), De Sapientia Veterum
Liber (1609, translated as The Wisedome of the Ancients, 1619), Novuum Organum (1620), History of Henry VII (1622),
De Augmentis Scientiarum
(1623), and New Atlantis
(1627), as well as numerous other historical, biographical, political, and
philosophical publications. [MW]
-
Bage, Robert, 1728-1801 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Author and businessman, Bage published six novels in his lifetime:
Mount Henneth (1781)
Barham Downs (1784),
The Fair Syrian (1787),
James Wallace (1788),
Man as he is (1792),
and Hermsprong, or Man as He Is
Not (1796). [RD]
-
Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851 —
- Joanna Baillie stands as the most significant Romantic period British
woman playwright as well as being one of the period"s most notable
women critics. Scottish by birth, Baillie moved about with her family after
her father's death until her brother inherited a London medical
practice from his uncle. Eventually settling in Hampstead, Baillie widened
her circle of literary acquaintances to include numerous prominent figures.
Her own first publication was an anonymous volume, Poems: Wherein It Is Attempted to Describe Certain Views of
Nature and Rustic Manners, Etc. (1790). The first
volume of A Series of Plays: In Which It Is
Attempted to Delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind. Each
Passion Being the Subject of a Tragedy and a Comedy
(1798), with its "Introductory Discourse," was also
published anonymously, sparking much speculation about the author. Baillie
added additional volumes to this work in 1802 and 1812, with this final
volume featuring the preface "To the Reader."
Another collection, Miscellaneous
Plays, appeared in 1804 and included her tragedy Romiero, which she defended in
Fraser's Magazine
(December 1836). Baillie meant her plays for the stage, but though they were
widely read, only De Monfort
was much staged. Nevertheless, Baillie continued her project, adding more
plays and extending some of those already published, until 1836, when her
three volume collection Dramas
appeared. Along with drama and dramatic theory, Baillie published narrative
poetry, including Metrical Legends of
Exalted Characters (1821). Ahalya Baee, another narrative poem, appeared
in 1849. She also published a theological tract, A View of the General Tenour of the New
Testament, examining the nature and dignity of Jesus Christ
(1831). Finally she agreed to the Longmans' request to collect and edit
her entire opus for The Dramatic and
Poetical Works of Joanna Baillie, Complete in One
Volume, published in 1851, the year she died. [MW]
-
Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743-1825 (Library of
Congress Name Authority) —
- Barbauld's career opened under her birth name, Anna Aikin, with
publication by the Warrington Academy's Eyres Press of Corsica: An Ode (1768),
followed by Poems, also first
published at Warrington by Eyres Press (1772) before being reprinted in
London by Joseph Johnson (1773). The same year, she collaborated with her
brother, John Aikin, on a volume of Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose
(1773). After she married dissenting clergyman Rochemont Barbauld and the
two opened a school, Anna Barbauld authored children's literature and
educational materials, including the various installments of Lessons for Children
(1775-1788) and Hymns in Prose for
Children (1781), which were well loved. She began
roughly a decade of political writing with An Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation
and Test Acts (1790), quickly followed by the
abolitionist poem Epistle to Mr. Wilberforce
on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave
Trade (1791). Her known career in criticism began with a
preface to Mark Akenside's The Pleasures of Imagination
(1794), followed by the preface to William
Collins's Poetical
Works (1797), an edition of Selections from Spectator,
Tatler, Guardian, and
Freeholder, also with a prefatory essay
(1804), and a selection of The
Correspondence of Samuel
Richardson (1804). The British Novelists (1810) constitutes her
most ambitious critical project with its lengthy preface "The
Origin and Progress of Novel-Writing" and the critical
biographical prefaces for each author. In addition, she pursued a long
career of periodical reviewing and criticism dating from around 1797 or 1798
up through at least 1815. Her reviews probably included contributions to the
Analytical Review, her
nephew Arthur Aikin's Annual
Review, the Athenæum and the Monthly Magazine while her brother was affiliated with them, the Gentleman's Magazine, and
most prolifically, the Monthly Review, to
which she contributed several hundred articles on fiction, poetry,
educational literature, and several other topics. Her last major publication
was the poem Eighteen Hundred and
Eleven (1812), for which she received some harsh
reviews, but even after this disappointment she continued to publish short
poems and literary criticism as well as to arrange her work for a
contemplated but never executed complete works edition. [MW]
-
Barclay, John, 1582-1621 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- His Argenis (1621) was a
very popular romance narrative poem. [MW]
-
Barrow, Thomas—
- Friend of William Collins and John Home. In The History of the Rebellion in the Year 1745
(1802; 190-192) Home tells of how Barrow, an Englishman but then a student
at Edinburgh, escaped with Home and others from the Castle of Doune after
the Battle of Falkirk (1746). [MW]
-
Bartholomew, Apostle, Saint (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A member of Jesus's Twelve Apostles. He is referred to as Nathanael
in the Fourth Gospel and the New Testament. Stories of his martyrdom
describe two methods; in one, he was flayed alive. This version is featured
in works by several prominent artists, including Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and
Ribera. [VW] [MW]
-
Beaufort, Henry, 1374-1447 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Cardinal, Bishop of Winchester, and grandson to King Edward III, Beaufort was
influential in English politics for many years. [MW]
-
Beaumont, Mme.—
- See Elie de Beaumont, Mme. (Anne-Louise
Morin-Dumesnil). [MW]
-
Beaumont, Mrs.—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's The History of Sir
Charles Grandison (1754). [MW]
-
Beaumont, Francis, 1584-1616 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A very prolific playwright and poet who collaborated with a number of
his contemporary authors, most notably John
Fletcher, with whom he authored over a dozen works. A few of the
most notable among these include Philaster (c. 1609), A King and No King (c. 1611), The Maid's Tragedy (c.
1611), and The Scornful Lady
(c. 1615). The Two Noble
Kinsmen, a Shakespeare-Fletcher
collaboration, reworks much material from Beaumont's The Masque of the Inner Temple and
Gray's Inn (c. 1613). [MW]
-
Beckford, William, 1760-1844 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Best known for his Gothic novel Vathek (Lausanne, Switz, 1787; London, 1815),
William Beckford published a translation of stories by German author Johann Karl August Musäus as Popular Tales of the Germans
(1791). [MW]
-
Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Poet, novelist, playwright, pamphleteer, translator, and even spy, Behn
is one of the most significant and interesting figures in early women's
writing and is considered to be the first woman to live by her pen. Her most
important novel, Oroonoko; Or, The Royal
Slave (1688) was adapted by Thomas Southerne as his play Oroonoko (1695). Behn was a
prolific playwright, with The Rover. Or, The
Banish't Cavaliers (1677) her most successful
play. A number of her play prefaces constitute noteworthy literary
criticism, especially the preface to The
Dutch Lover (1673). Other play productions include The Forced Marriage (1670), The Amorous Prince (1671), Abdelazer; or, The Moor's
Revenge (1676), The
Town Fop; or, Sir Timothy Tawdry (1676), The Debauchee (1677), The Counterfeit Bridegroom; or, The Defeated
Widow (1677), Sir
Patient Fancy (1678), The Feigned Courtesans; or, A Night's
Intrigue (1679), The Young
King; or, The Mistake (1679), The Revenge: or, A Match in Newgate (1680), The False Count; or, A New Way to Play an
Old Game (1681), The
Roundheads; or, The Good Old Cause (1681), Like Father, Like Son (1682),
The City Heiress: or, Sir Timothy
Treat-all (1682), The
Lucky Chance; or, An Alderman's Bargain (1686),
The Emperor of the Moon
(1687), The Widow Ranter; or, The History of
Bacon in Virginia (1689), and The Younger Brother; or, The Amorous Jilt
(1696). [MW]
-
Belford—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9). [MW]
-
Belisarius, ca. 505-565 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Renown Roman general. His noteworthy accomplishments included conquering
the piratical Carthaginian Vandals. The story of him having been blinded and
reduced to beggary by Justinian is probably apocryphal, but it is featured
in the 1765 novel by Marmontel, which Barbauld read. [MW]
-
Belton—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9). [MW]
-
Count de Belvedere—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's The History of Sir
Charles Grandison (1754). [MW]
-
Berington, Simon, 1680-1755 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Berington authored the utopian narrative Gaudentio di Lucca (1737). [MW]
-
Berkeley, George, 1685-1753 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Bishop of Cloyne, Berkeley is best known for his Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human
Knowledge (1710). [MW]
-
Berquin, M. (Arnaud), 1747-1791 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- French children's author whose stories were popular with both the
French and, in translation, British audiences. L'Ami des enfants (1782-3) is the best
known of these works. [MW]
-
Berry, Mary, 1763-1852 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A prominent bluestocking and salonniere, Berry edited The Works of Horatio Walpole, Earl of
Orford (1798) under the name Robert Berry. Her memoirs
and letters were published as Social Life in
England and France from the French Revolution, (1831)
and Journals and Correspondence
(1865).
-
Isaac Bickerstaff—
- Pseudonym. See Richard Steele and Jonathan Swift. [MW]
-
Blacklock, Thomas, 1721-1791 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Known as "the blind bard," the poet Blacklock
lost his sight in early his childhood. [MW]
-
Blackmore, Richard, Sir, d. 1729 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- The legacy of this physician and prolific poet as one admired by Samuel Johnson and yet the butt of scorn
in Alexander Pope's Dunciad epitomizes the
controversies over his merits among his contemporaries. Creation (1712) is his most
respected poem. [MW]
-
Blessington, Marguerite, Countess of,
1789-1849 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Extraordinarily hard-working, particularly after her family's
finances were ruined by the extravagance of her companion, the Comte d'Orsay, Lady Blessington was
known for novels, travel writing, periodical editing and contributions, and
editing and authoring copy for popular literary gift books. [MW]
-
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- The Decameron (1348-1353) is
his collection of 100 tales that inspired fiction by many subsequent
writers. [MW]
-
Boiardo, Matteo Maria, 1440 or 41-1494 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Italian poet Matteo Maria Boiardo was best known for the chivalric
romance epic, L'Orlando
Innamorato (1495). [MW]
-
Boileau Despréaux, Nicolas, 1636-1711 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Best known for his satires, epitres, and L'Art poétique (1674), French poet,
satirist, and critic Nicolas Boileau published Dialogue des Héros de Roman in 1688. His
translation of Longinus's Peri
Hypsous as Le
Traité du Sublime (1674; Treatise on the Sublime) was followed by Réflexions critiques sur
Longin (1694; Critical
Reflections on Longinus), which argued for the
necessity of classical poetic models. [MW]
-
Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount,
1678-1751 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- As a British Tory politician, philosopher, and political journalist,
Viscount Bolingbroke famously opposed the Walpole administration.
Bolingbroke maintained friendships with notable authors including Alexander Pope and Johnathan Swift. A prolific writer,
Bolingbroke was especially known for his histories and political journalism,
including such publications as A
Dissertation upon Parties (1735); A Letter on the Spirit of
Patriotism (1736); Letters
to a Young Nobleman on the Study and Use of History
(1738); Idea of a Patriot King
(1738); Remarks on the History of
England (1743); Familiar Epistle to the Most Impudent Man
Living (1749); and Letters
on the Study and Use of History (1752).[RD], [VW].
[MW]
-
Boreas—
- Greek god of the north wind. [MW]
-
Boswell, James, 1740-1795 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Judge and unsuccessful political aspirant, essayist, poet, and critic,
but most famous for The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D
(1791), Boswell established the modern biographical focus on the intimacies
of private character through this famous biography and his preface defending
his methods. That publication was preceded by The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
(1785), which appeared shortly after Johnson's death and aroused reader
enthusiasm for a portrait that includes personal foibles as well as
venerable accomplishments. Also notable as a unique combination of biography
of Pascal Paoli, history, and travel journal, An Account of Corsica (1768) helped inspire
British popular support for Corsica's struggle against French
domination. [MW]
-
Bowles, William Lisle , 1762-1850 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Author of Fourteen Sonnets
(1789), admired by the major Lake School
authors. [MW]
-
Boydell, John, 1719-1804 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- London engraver, publisher, and printseller; the various series he
sponsored included a gallery of paintings of subjects from Shakespeare, which first opened in
1789 and expanded in subsequent years. [MW]
-
Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Younger brother to Roger Boyle, earl of
Orrery, Robert Boyle was primarily a scientist. His Martyrdom of Theodora and of
Didymus was printed in 1687. [MW]
-
Boyle, Roger—
- See Orrery, Roger Boyle, Earl of. [MW]
-
Bradshaigh, Dorothy, Lady, ca. 1708-1785
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- née Dorothy Bellingham; frequent
correspondent with Samuel Richardson
and others; sister to Lady Echlin. She
married Sir Roger Bradshaigh, 1699-1770 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) in
1731. In her essay on Richardson, Barbauld occasionally spells the name
"Bradshaw." [MW]
-
Bradshaw, Lady—
- Appears as an alternate spelling of Bradshaigh. [MW]
-
Brooke, Frances, 1724?-1789 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Brooke began her literary career with The Old Maid (1755-6), a witty essay periodical that
she operated under the pseudonym "Mary Singleton, Spinster," and
that was reprinted as a single volume in 1764. This periodical staging
interactions between a vivid central voice, the perspectives of other
contributors (probably fictional), and reader correspondence (much of which
may also have been fictional), it is no surprise that her first full-length
literary effort was a drama, Virginia: A
Tragedy (1756), which she was unable to get staged. Her
first two novels similarly capitalized on dramatic dialog skills in their
epistolary form. The first, The History of
Lady Julia Mandeville (1763), was issued anonymously.
It was quite successful, going through multiple editions in its first year.
Around the time of its publication, Brooke left England, the country where
she was born and lived her early life, to join her husband, who was serving
in Canada as part of the British army. The
History of Emily Montague by"the Author of Lady
Julia Mandeville"(1769) capitalizes on her Canadian experiences. Though
not as succesful as her previous novel, this one was also well received and
is lauded by some as the first Canadian novel. A second anonymous Canadian
novel, All's Right at Last
(1774), has tentatively been attributed to Brooke largely on the basis of
its subject matter. The
Excursion (1777), with its lampoon of actor and stage
manager David Garrick, followed next. At
this point Brooke began to achieve some dramatic success with stagings of
her tragedy Siege of Sinope in
1781, and two comic operas, Rosina in 1782 and Marian in 1788. Her final novel, The History of Charles Mandeville,
was posthumously published in 1790. In addition to her own creative works,
Brooke translated several from the French, including Letters from Juliet Lady
Catesby (1760), an epistolary novel by Marie Riccoboni. [MW]
-
Brooke, Henry, 1703?-1783 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Brooke authored The Fool of
Quality (1765-70), a novel of sensibility, and Gustavus Vasa, the Deliverer of His
Country, a drama written in 1739 whose performance was
forbidden because of its applicability to English politics in its time. [MW]
-
Brown, Charles Brockden, 1771-1810 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- As the first professional American author, Brown was known for his
Gothic novels, especiallyWieland (1798), Arthur Mervyn (1799), Ormond (1799), and Edgar Huntly (1799), Memoirs of Carwin, the Biloquist (1803–1805).
Brown edited or operated a number of periodicals during his life, including
the Monthly Magazine, and American
Review (1799-1800), renamed the American Review, and Literary
Journal (1801-1802), the Literary Magazine, and American Register
(1803-1807), and the American Register, or
General Repository of History, Politics, and Science
(1807-1809). [MW]
-
Bruce, James, 1730-1794(Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A Scottish explorer who discovered the source of the Blue Nile in 1770.
His five volume Travels to Discover the
Sources of the Nile, in the Years 1768–73 was published
in 1790. [vw]
-
Brumoy, Pierre, 1688-1742 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- French Jesuit historian, classicist, and man of letters. His analyses of
Greek dramas in Le Théâtre des Grecs (1730) were especially
esteemed. [MW]
-
Brutus, Marcus Junius, 85?-42 B.C. (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- A notable orator and high-ranking Roman politician, Brutus became a
leader in the successful assasination plot against Julius Caesar after Caesar declared his divinity and named
himself permanent dictator. [MW]
-
Buchanan, George, 1506-1582 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A satirical poet and eventually preceptor to James I of England (James VI of
Scotland), Buchanan spent seven months of his life imprisoned in a
Portuguese monastery for his advocacy of Lutheranism. An incident from
Buchanan's Rerum Scoticarvm
Historia, published posthumously in 1582, was the
inspiration for Tobias Smollett's
unsuccessful play The Regicide
(1749). [vw], [MW]
-
Budgell, Eustace, 1686-1737 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A cousin of Joseph Addison and a
contributor to the Spectator,
the Guardian, and probably the
Tatler, Budgell also
authored his own periodical, the Bee. He was one of the figures satirized in Alexander Pope's Dunciad (1728). [MW]
-
Buffon, Georges Louis Lecler, comte de, 1707-1788
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- A French naturalist and author, he dedicated the majority of his life to
the forty-four volume Histoire
Naturelle (1749-1804). [vw]
-
Bull, John—
- See John Bull. [MW]
-
Bunyan, John, 1628-1688 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Allegorical author and sometime preacher, Bunyan produced among his more
important works Grace Abounding to the Chief
of Sinners (1666), The
Pilgrim's Progress (1678), and The Life and Death of Mr Badman
(1680). [MW]
-
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Statesman, philosopher, historian, and sometime poet, Irish-born Edmund
Burke is by far the most articulate representative of the conservative
perspective on the French Revolution. His Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
responds critically to a pro-revolution sermon by Rev. Richard Price by castigating the French for
their failure to respect historically sanctioned traditional government and
private property. Burke also made a landmark contribution to
eighteenth-century aesthetic discourse with A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the
Sublime and Beautiful (1757). [MW]
-
Burney, Charles, 1726-1814 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Musician, composer, and highly respected musicologist; father of
novelist Fanny Burney. A contributor to The Cyclopedia; or, Universal Dictionary of
Arts, Sciences, and Literature (1802-1819), Burney
authored and translated a number of other works on music, musicians, and
music history, the most important of which include The Present State of Music in France and Italy
(1771), The Present State of Music in
Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Provinces (1773),
and A General History of Music, From the
Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1776-1789). [MW]
-
Burney, Fanny, 1752-1840 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A well loved novelist, Fanny (or Frances) Burney authored Evelina; or, A Young Lady's Entrance
into the World (1778), Cecilia; or, Memoirs of an Heiress (1782), Camilla; or, A Picture of Youth
(1796), and The Wanderer; or, Female
Difficulties (1814). She also wrote Memoirs of Dr. Burney (1832)
about her father, Charles Burney, a
musician, composer, and highly respected musicologist. After serving some
years in the British court as an attendant on Queen Charlotte, Fanny Burney
became Madame D'Arblay through her marriage to the émigré
French officer Alexandre D'Arblay. [MW]
-
Burns, Robert, 1759-1796 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Scottish poet and collector of rural and traditional songs, Burns was
sometimes known as the Ploughman Poet for his vocation as a farmer and his
depictions of rural life. Much of his work is written in his native Scots.
Though admired by many of his contemporaries, Burns was continually dogged
by financial strains. His Poems, Chiefly in
the Scottish Dialect (1786) was repeatedly reissued in
enlarged editions. He is also credited with collecting and editing the song
collection The Merry Muses of Caledonia: A
Collection of Favorite Scots Songs (c. 1800). [MW]
-
Burton, Robert, 1577-1640 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Along with aspiring to summarize everything that had ever been written
about melancholy, Burton's widely admired Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) contains a rich
trove of legendary love stories. [MW]
-
Bute, John Stuart, Earl of, 1713-1792 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- British politician and tutor to King George III.
[vw]
-
Butler, Samuel, 1612-1680 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Poet and satirist, Butler is best remembered for Hudibras (1663-4), a political
satire of Puritan fanaticism and hypocrisy. [MW]
-
Byrom, John, 1692-1763 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Poet, shorthand innovator and instructor, and contributor to Joseph Addison's Spectator. [MW]
-
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- A phenomenally popular author also known for his flamboyant and
scandalous personal life, Lord Byron produced so much noteworthy work that a
complete list is impossible in a short note. Highlights include English Bards, and Scotch
Reviewers (1809), Childe
Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-19), The Giaour (1813), The Bride of Abydos (1813), The Corsair (1814), Lara (1814), Hebrew Melodies (1815), The Prisoner of Chillon, and Other
Poems (1816), Manfred (1817), Beppo (1818), and Don Juan (1819-24). While assisting in the
Greek struggle for independence from Turkish domination, Byron died of fever
in Missolonghi. Proclaimed a national hero, to this day he symbolizes for
many Greeks the embodiment of resistance to oppression. [MW]
-
Harriet Byron—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's History of Sir
Charles Grandison (1754). [MW]
-
Caesar, Julius [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name
Authority); 100 B.C.-44 B.C. (Encyclopedia
Britannica)—
- Roman general, statesman, member of the First Triumverate, and
eventually sole dictator, assassinated on the Ides of March. [MW]
-
Cagliostro, Alessandro, conte di, 1743-1795
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Medium, magician, and psychic healer Count Cagliostro enjoyed a number
of years as a sensation in the fashionable circles of eighteenth-century
Europe until his wife denounced him to the Inquisition. [MW]
-
La Calprenède, Gaultier de Coste, seigneur de,
d. 1663 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Calprenède was known along with d'Urfé and Scudéry
for promoting literary and cultural aesthetics of delicate refinement
exalting chivalric virtues partly through long works of romance fiction that
constitute the most significant examples of the Roman de longue haleine, literally the "long-winded
novel." His most popular works in that genre include Cassandre (1642-45), which
stretched to ten volumes and was translated into English as Cassandra, the Fam'd
Romance (1652), and Cléopâtre (1646-57), a twelve volume
work, translated as Hymen's Praeludia,
or Love's Masterpiece (1665). [MW]
-
Calvin, Jean, 1509-1564 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- French theologian and Protestant reformer responsible for the doctrine
known as Calvinism. After publishing his Institution de la religion in 1536, he moved to
Geneva, where he published sermons, commentaries, and letters developing and
refining the doctrine of predestination, sin, and grace. [MW]
-
Cambridge, Richard Owen, 1717-1802 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- The best known work of this poet is The
Scribleriad (1751). He contributed to the World between 1753 and 1756.
[MW]
-
Argyll, Elizabeth Campbell, Duchess of,
1659-1735 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Born Elizabeth Gunning, Elizabeth married James Hamilton, sixth duke of
Hamilton, in 1752. After his death in 1758 she married a professional
soldier, John Campbell, who succeeded to his father’s title of Duke of
Argyll. Elizabeth served for over two decades as lady in waiting to Queen
Charlotte, wife of George III, for which services she was honored in 1776
with the title 1st Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon suo jure. [RD] [MW]
-
Canning, Elizabeth, 1734-1773 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Disappearing on Jan 1, 1753, Canning reemerged after 28 days with
allegations that she had been abducted and held prisoner in a failed attempt
to coerce her to become a prostitute. As Justice of the Peace for Middlesex
and Westminster, Henry Fielding heard
Canning's accusations, and convinced of her veracity, Fielding issued a
warrant for her abusers’ arrest. Subsequent recanting by some witnesses left
Canning accused of perjury and unleashed a flood of accounts, accusations,
and counteraccusations in the popular press, including John Hill’s
The Story of Elizabeth Canning
Considered (1753). In 1754, despite fairly evenly
divided opinion among both the public and the court, Canning was convicted
of perjury and transported to Wethersfield, Connecticut, where she met and
married John Treat, had a family, and lived the remainder of her life. The
case has continued to draw adherents on both sides of the question of
Canning's guilt into the 20th century. [RD] [MW]
-
Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da, 1573-1610 —
- Italian painter whose intensely chiaroscuro effects inspired the
development of tenebrism, where such dramatic lighting dominates the style.
[MW]
-
Carlyle, Alexander, 1722-1805 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Scottish churchman, memoirist, and political commentator. [MW]
-
Carlyle, Thomas, 1795-1881 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Carlyle's humorous, idiosyncratic Sartor Resartus (1836) presents spiritual and
philosophical reflections in the form of a biography of the fictional
professor Diogenes Teufelsdröckh. The French
Revolution (1837) offered a dramatic reassessment of
recent historical events that presented the revolution as an inevitable
consequence of bad government. On Heroes,
Hero-Worship & the Heroic in History (1841) argues
that idolization of charismatic heroes is the foundation of all loyalties.
Both Chartism (1839) and Past and Present (1843) discuss
the chartist movement, the latter by contrasting the current situation with
that in the middle ages. [MW]
-
Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A well regarded poet and member of Elizabeth Montagu's Bluestocking Circle, Carter was also
regarded as one of eighteenth-century Britain's leading female
intellectuals for her translation, All the
Works of Epictetus, Which Are Now Extant (1758), a
milestone in the learned achievements of women. The first publication of her
collected verse appeared as Poems upon
Particular Occasions (1738). The subsequent Poems on Several Occasions came
out in 1762 and was subsequently reprinted in an enlarged edition. She also
edited the works of her friend and correspondent Catherine Talbot in The Works of the Late Mrs. Catherine
Talbot (1780). [MW]
-
Cassandra—
- In Greek mythology, the visionary daughter of King Priam of Troy was
condemned by the god Apollo to prophesy but never be believed. [MW]
-
Cassandra—
- The eponymous heroine of a sentimental novel by Calprenède. [MW]
-
Cato the Younger, 95 BCE-46 BCE (Encyclopedia Britannica) —
- Roman statesman, orator, and follower of the Stoic philosophy.
-
Catullus, Gaius Valerius [n.d.] (Library of Congress
Name Authority); c. 84 B.C.-c. 54 B.C. (Encyclopedia Britannica)—
- Roman poet and contemporary of Julius
Caesar, whose love poetry was particularly influential on
subsequent poets. [MW]
-
Cavendish, Margaret—
- See Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish,
Duchess of. [MW]
-
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His most famous work, Don Quixote (1605-15), a
picaresque tale of chivalric literary influences gone wrong, is one of the
great landmarks in the history of fiction. [MW]
-
Channing, Johannis, [n.d.] (Library of Congress
Name Authority); a.k.a. John Channing, c.1703-1775 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)—
- Apothecary and translator of Arabic medical treatises. [MW]
-
Chapone, Mrs. (Hester), 1727-1801 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Born Hester Mulso, Chapone became a significant figure in Elizabeth Montague's
eighteenth-century bluestocking circle. Her Letters on the Improvement of the Mind (1773)
proposed a rigorous course of self education for women. [MW]
-
Charlemagne, Emperor, 742-814 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- King of the Franks from 768 and legendary figure of La Chanson de
Roland (The Song of
Roland) (c. 1100), which narrates the Battle of
Roncesvalles (Roncevaux) in 778. [MW]
-
Charles II, King of England, 1630-1685
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Exiled to France during the English Civil Wars and Interregnum, Charles
II returned to England in 1660 to be crowned king, bringing French court
culture as well as artistic and cultural sophistication with him to
inaugurate a reign of relative political stability and flourishing arts but
characterized by detractors as profligate and immoral. [MW]
-
Charles Edward, Prince, grandson of James II, King of England,
1720-1788 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie" by his supporters and
"The Young Pretender" by detractors, Charles Edward Stuart was
raised in exile after his grandfather, James II, was deposed from the British throne for his ambitions
to return England to the Catholic faith. Prince Charles Edward mounted the
Jacobite Uprising from Scotland in an effort to reclaim the throne for the
Stuart royal line. [MW]
-
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de,
1768-1848 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Chateaubriand's Atala
(1801) is a novel of ill-fated love between two American Indians of opposing
tribes. His literary criticism was highly regarded, especially his Sketches of English Literature; with
Considerations on the Spirit of the Times, Men, and
Revolutions (London: Henry Colburn, 1836), translated
from Essai sur la littérature anglaise
et Considérations sur le génie des hommes, des temps et
des révolutions (1836). Other works of note
include Le Génie du
Christianisme (1802) and René (1805), the story of an idealistic
and alienated European who comes to America to find solace. Originally part
of Le Génie du
Christianisme, both Atala and René were detached for separate
publication. [MW]
-
Chatterton, Thomas, 1752-1770 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Inspired by a growing English interest in antiquated and primitive
poetry, Chatterton fabricated a number of works supposedly by
fifteenth-century Bristol sheriff Thomas Rowley, whom Chatterton
fictitiously recast as a poet, providing spurious documentation for the
poems' authenticity as well. Made desperate by poverty, he committed
suicide while still in his teens, inspiring his reception among Romantic
readers as a quintessential example of tragically neglected genius. [MW]
-
Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A translatory, diplomat, and customs official as well as a poet, Chaucer
is most famous for The Canterbury
Tales, written in the late fourteenth century and
composed partly of narratives that Chaucer adapted or even appropriated from
Boccaccio's Decameron. Chaucer's many other works
include The Legend of Good
Women (c. 1386), which collects tales primarily from Ovid and Boccaccio;
Troilus and Criseyde (c.
1386), an extended narrative poem adapted from Boccaccio's Il
Filostrato relating a dark story of ill-fated love
during the Trojan War; and three dream vision poems, The Book of the Duchess
(written c. 1370), The House of
Fame (c. 1380), and The
Parliament of Fowls (c. 1380). Chaucer also authored a
number of shorter works, some comic, others lyrical, and a prose Treatise on the Astrolabe. His
most important translations include The
Romance of the Rose and Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy. [MW]
-
Chetwood, Knightley, 1679-1752—
- One of the Chetwoods of Queens County, Ireland and nephew of Knightley
Chetwood, Dean of Gloucester, 1650-1720 (Library of Congress Name
Authority), this Knightley Chetwood is most known for his friendship with
Jonathan Swift. [MW]
-
Chimene—
- Character in Corneille's Le Cid. [MW]
-
Churchill, Charles, 1731-1764 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- A premiere English satirist
and poet. His best known work, The
Rosciad (1761), made him a household name. [vw]
-
Cibber, Colley, 1671-1757 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Actor, playwright, and poet laureate after 1730, Cibber was especially
known for his theatrical comedies, the most notable of which include She Would and She Would Not
(1702) and The Careless Husband
(1704). He was also the hero of Alexander
Pope's Dunciad.
[MW]
-
Clairaut, Alexis-Claude, 1713-1765 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- A prominent French mathematician, astronomer, and translator. [MW]
-
Clarissa Harlowe—
- Heroine of Samuel Richardson's
novel Clarissa (1747-9). [MW]
-
Clelia—
- The eponymous heroine of a novel by Mme.
de Scudéry. [MW]
-
Clementina della Porretta —
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's The History of Sir
Charles Grandison (1754). [MW]
-
Colburn, Henry, d. 1855 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Particularly known as a fiction publisher, Colburn was widely accused of
"puffing" these works in the various literary periodicals he also
published, among them the New Monthly
Magazine, the Literary
Gazette, the Athenaeum (very briefly), the Court Journal, and the United Service Journal. [MW]
-
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- One of the most important British Romantic period writers and a
mesmerizing conversationalist and lecturer, Coleridge authored poetry,
plays, criticism, journalism, and philosophical works. His most important
poetic works include Poems on Various
Subjects (1796), Fears
in Solitude (1798), Lyrical Ballads (with William Wordsworth, 1798), Christabel; Kubla Khan, a Vision; The Pains
of Sleep (1816), and Sibylline Leaves (1817). His plays include The Fall of Robespierre (with
Robert Southey 1794) and Remorse (1813). He authored the
periodicals The Watchman
(1796), The Friend (1809-1810),
and The Statesman's Manual
(1816). His Biographia
Literaria (1817) is a part aesthetic, part philosophical
study in the format of a literary autobiography. Specimens of the Table Talk of the late Samuel Taylor
Coleridge (1835) provides a posthumous record of his
conversation. A series of his lectures was published posthumously as Seven Lectures upon Shakespeare and Milton (1856). [MW]
-
Collier, Jane, 1715?-1755 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Author of the humorous An Essay on the
Art of Ingeniously Tormenting (1753) and collaborator
with Sarah Fielding on The Cry: A New Dramatic Fable
(1754); with her sister Margaret (Collier, Margaret, 1719-1794 [Library of
Congress Name Authority]), one of the Miss Colliers Barbauld refers to in her biography of Samuel Richardson. [MW]
-
Collins, William, 1721-1759 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Producing only a relatively small body of work and plagued by mental
illness during his later life, Collins was nevertheless one of the most
influential poets of the pre-Romantic later eighteenth century. As portrayed
in his odes, his conception of poetry as visionary, even prophetic, inspired
many of his immediate successors. Major publications of his works included
Persian Eclogues (1742),
revised as Oriental Eclogues
(1757), Verses Humbly Address'd to Sir
Thomas Hanmer: On His Edition of Shakespear's
Works (1743), revised as An
Epistle: Addrest to Sir Thomas Hanmer, on His Edition of
Shakespear's Works (1744), Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric
Subjects (1747), Ode
Occasion'd by the Death of Mr. Thomson (1749), The Passions: An Ode (1750),
and An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of
the Highlands of Scotland (1788). [MW]
-
Colman, George, 1732-1794 (Library of Congress
Name Authority) [George Colman, the Elder]—
- This playwright, theater manager, and close friend to actor David Garrick was also known as a generous
mentor in the eighteenth century theatrical world. Among the most popular of
his many works figure The Clandestine
Marriage (1766), Polly
Honeycombe (1760), and The Jealous Wife (1761). [MW]
-
Colman, George, 1762-1836 (Library of
Congress Name Authority) [George Colman, the Younger]—
- Following in his father's footsteps as an actor, manager, and comic
playwright, Colman the Younger also authored a enormous body of work that
includes as some of its most substantial pieces Inkle and Yarico (1787), The Iron Chest 1796), The Heir-at-Law (1797), and John Bull (1803). [MW]
-
Congreve, William, 1670-1729 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- English playwright and poet whose works include The Old Bachelor (1693), The Double Dealer (1693), and
Love for Love (1695).
[RD]
-
Corneille, Pierre, 1606-1684 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Corneille's drama Le
Cid (1637) was inspired by a twelfth century Spanish
narrative. [MW]
-
Cottin, Madame (Sophie), 1770-1807 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Her Mathilde (1805) and Elisabeth, ou les exilés de
Sibérie (1806) were both popular throughout
Europe. [MW]
-
Coventry, Francis, 1725?-1759 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
-
The History
of Pompey the Little; or, The Life and Adventures of a
Lap-Dog (1751) enjoyed much success.
Coventry also authored Penshurst: A
Poem (1750). [MW]
-
Sir Roger de Coverley—
- A character often featured in Joseph
Addison's Spectator papers. His name is taken from that of a
popular dance. [MW]
-
Cowley, Abraham, 1618-1667 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Playwright, poet, and satirist, Abraham Cowley employed his pen on the
royalist side during the English Civil War. [MW]
-
Cowley, Mrs. (Hannah), 1743-1809 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- A popular comic playwright, Hannah Cowley is best remembered for A Bold Stroke for a Husband
(1783) and The Belle's
Stratagem (1780). [MW]
-
Cowper, William, 1731-1800 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Poet who is sometimes viewed as a precursor to the Romantic poets partly
for his sensitive and accurate descriptions of nature. His best known works
include The Task (1785) and
"The Castaway" (1803). He was subject to severe
bouts of depression with a strong religious overtone for much of his life.
[MW]
-
Crabbe, George, 1754-1832 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- An author known for his verse tales which bring sympathy and humor to an
acute observation of human failings, Crabbe is best remembered for The Village: A Poem (1783); The Borough: A Poem (1810); and
Tales (1812). Other works
include Inebriety, A Poem
(1775); The Candidate; A Poetical Epistle To
The Authors Of The Monthly Review
(1780); The Library. A Poem
(1781); The News-paper: A Poem
(1785); A Discourse, Read in the Chapel at
Belvoir Castle, After the Funeral of His Grace the Duke of Rutland,
Late Lord Lieutenant of the Kingdom of Ireland (1788);
A Variation of Public Opinion and
Feelings Considered, as it Respects Religion. A Sermon
(1817); Tales of the Hall
(1819) and his collected The Works of the
Rev. George Crabbe (1823).
-
Cradock, Charlotte, d. 1744 (Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography)—
- The first wife of Henry Fielding, with
whom he had five children. In the preface of Miscellanies, published one year prior to her death,
he wrote, "one from whom I draw all the solid Comfort of my Life."
[RD]
-
Crassus, Marcus Licinius [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name
Authority); c. 115 -53 B.C. (Encyclopedia
Britannica)—
- Roman politician and a member of the First Triumvirate. [MW]
-
Crébillon, Claude-Prosper Jolyot de, 1707-1777
(Library of Congress Name Authority) [Crébillon fils]—
- Son of Crébillon père,
Crébillon fils authored
several licentious and satirical novels which earned him both popularity and
a few periods of exile in the provinces. The best known of them include L'écumoire (1735),
Les Égarements du coeur et de
l'esprit (1736), and Le Sopha, conte moral (1742). [MW]
-
Crébillon, M. de (Prosper Jolyot), 1674-1762
(Library of Congress Name Authority) [Crébillon père]—
- Noted for his dramas on classical subjects rather than the lascivious
novels that constitute the son's
claim to fame. [MW]
-
Cumberland, Richard, 1732-1811 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Though far more known as a playwright, Cumberland did author an
occasional novel, including Arundel (1789) and Henry (1795). Two of his early plays are among
his best: The Brothers, which
debuted in 1769, and The West
Indian, first staged in 1771. Cumberland's Memoirs were published in 1806 and
1807. [MW and RD]
-
Cumberland, William Augustus, Duke of,
1721-1765 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Son of George II, called
"Butcher" Cumberland for his brutal suppression of Highland
Jacobites after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. [MW]
-
Cyrus, King of Persia, d. 529 B.C. (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Founder of the Persian empire. [MW]
-
Danbys—
- A family of characters in Samuel
Richardson's The History of
Sir Charles Grandison (1754). [MW]
-
D'Arblay, Madame—
- See Burney, Fanny. [MW]
-
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Credited with articulating the theory of evolution, Darwin first
attracting wide attention with the Journal
of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various
Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle (1839). He published
widely on topics of natural history, especially geology and botany, both
before and after the two works on which his greatest fame rests, On the Origin of Species by means of Natural
Selection (1859, subsequently revised), and the even
more controversial The Descent of
Man (1871). [MW]
-
Darwin, Erasmus, 1731-1802 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Physician, botanist, poet, and grandfather of Charles Darwin. Containing a nascent
theory of evolution, The Loves of
Plants (1789) was later incorporated into The Botanic Garden (1791). In
depicting plant reproduction and generation, Darwin's imagery sometimes
becomes so erotic that some conservative authorities on education
recommended denying young ladies access to his work. In addition to his two
other major pieces, Zoonomia
(1794) and The Temple of Nature
(1803), he published additional works on botany as well as commemorative
poetry and treatises on scientific topics and female education. [MW]
-
Lady Davers—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Pamela
(1740-1). [MW]
-
Day, Thomas, 1748-1789 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Day's sentimental History of
Sanford and Merton (1783-9), a milestone in the history
of children's literature, took its inspiration from Henry Brooke's Fool of Quality, Daniel Defoe's Robinson
Crusoe, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile. [MW]
-
Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Defoe already had a long and prolific career as a noted political
journalist when he published his first novel, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe, in 1719. It was followed by The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous
Moll Flanders (1721), A
Journal of the Plague Year (1722), and The Fortunate Mistress: Or, A History Of The
Life and Vast Variety of Fortunes of… the Person known by the Name
of the Lady Roxana (1724). His many social and
political pieces include The True-Born
Englishman (1701), The
Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702), Reformation of Manners (1704), a
periodical publication entitled The
Review (1704-1713), and Family Instructor (1715), and Religious Courtship (1729). Defoe
was also well known for essays on timely social issues, stories of the
supernatural, and accounts of notorious criminals such as True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs.
Veal. (1705) and The
History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard (1724).
[MW] [RD]
-
Delany, Mrs. (Mary), 1700-1788 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Letter writer and prominent bluestocking, friend to some of the
eighteenth century's most noted literary producers and patrons. [MW]
-
Della Casa, Giovanni, 1503-1556 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- An Italian bishop with a talent for satirical and lyric poetry and
translations, Della Casa is best known as the author of Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and
Delicacy of Manners (1558). [RD]
-
D'Ewes, Anne, 1707-1761 (Library of Congress Name
Authority) [Mrs. Dews]—
- Cookbook author and sister to Mary Delany.
[MW]
-
Diderot, Denis, 1713-1784 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Philosopher, novelist, playwright, translator, and critic, Diderot was
for his rationalism, religious skepticism, and scientific empiricism a key
figure in the Enlightenment. His Encyclopédie stands as a landmark in the
systemization and popular dissemination of technical and scientific
knowledge. [MW]
-
Dionysus—
- The Greek god of the grape harvest, wine, fertility, and theatre.
[KI]
-
Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Known first as a poet, Dodsley opened a London bookselling business in
1735. His shop became an important gathering place for literary and
publishing figures of the mid-eighteenth century.
-
Donnellan, Anne (1700-1762)—
- Amateur musician and friend of George
Frideric Handel, Donnellan was friends as well with several
notable bluestockings and literary figures, especially Elizabeth Montagu and Mary Delany. [MW]
-
Don Quixote—
- The eponymous hero of the novel by Cervantes muddles the line between reality and fiction as a
result of his reading chivalric romances. [MW]
-
Dryden, John, 1631-1700 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Poet laureate of England from 1668 until his death. Particularly
productive as a playwright, Dryden also ventured into a wide range of other
genres, including satires, lyric poetry, essays, and literary criticism. His
best-known dramatic works include an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest (1667, pub. 1670)
and two other plays, Marriage A la
Mode (1671; pub. 1673) and All for Love (1677, pub. 1678). Other
highlights in his work include Of Dramatick
Poesie: An Essay (1668), one of the classics in the
canon of literary criticism; Absalom and
Achitophel (1681), a political poem in support of Charles II; and Mac Flecknoe (1682), a
devastating satire of several rival poets. Additional play productions
include The Wild Gallant
(1663), The Indian Queen Sir
Robert Howard, 1664), The Rival
Ladies (1664), The
Indian Emperor (1665), Secret Love (1667), Sir Martin Mar-All (with William Cavendish,
duke of Newcastle,1667), An Evening's
Love; or, The Mock Astrologer (1668), Tyrannic Love (1669), The Conquest of Granada (1671),
The Assignation; or, Love in a
Nunnery (1672), Amboyna (1673), Aureng-Zebe (1675), The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham (1678), Oedipus (with Nathaniel Lee,
1678), Troilus and Cressida
(from Shakespeare's play, 1679), The
Spanish Friar (1680), The Duke of Guise with Nathaniel Lee, 1682),
Albion and Albanius (text
by Dryden, music by Louis Grabu, 1685), Don
Sebastian (1689), Amphitryou (1690), King Arthur (text by Dryden, music by Henry
Purcell, 1691), Cleomenes (with
Thomas Southerne, 1692), and Love Triumphant (1694). [MW]
-
Duncombe, John, 1729-1786 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Author of The Feminead; or Female
Genius (1757) and, with his father William Duncombe, The Works of Horace in English
Verse (1757-9), John Duncombe married Susanna Highmore, daughter of Joseph and Susanna Highmore. [MW]
-
Duncombe, Susanna 1725-1812 (Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography)—
- née Highmore; an artist in her own right,
she was daughter to painter Joseph
Highmore and his wife, also Susanna. [MW]
-
Duncombe, William, 1690-1769 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Poet and playwright. Between 1757 and 1759, he and his son, clergyman
and writer John Duncombe, published The Works of Horace in English
Verse. [MW]
-
Dyer, George, 1755-1841 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Biographer, historian, theologian, poet, and critic, Dyer was known for
his congeniality despite his personal eccentricities. His poetry appeared in
Poems (1792), The Poet's Fate (1797),
Poems (1801), and Poems and Critical Essays
(1802). Poetics, or a Series of Poems and
Disquisitions on Poetry (1812) defends his poetic
method, which some of his contemporaries had criticized as misguided. [MW]
-
Dyson, Jeremiah, 1722-1776 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Dyson was not only Mark
Akenside's friend and literary patron, but he supported
Akenside's medical practice as well. As Akenside's literary
executor, Dyson edited a collection of Akenside's poetry published as
The Poems of Mark Akenside,
M.D. (1772). [MW]
-
Echlin, Elizabeth, Lady, 1704?-1782? (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- née Elizabeth Bellingham; literary
patroness and an occasional author herself, Lady Echlin was sister to Lady Bradshaigh and wife to Sir Robert
Echlin, 1699-1757 (Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography). [MW]
-
Edgeworth, Maria, 1767-1849 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A popular Irish author of fiction and children's literature,
Edgeworth sometimes collaborated with her father, politician Richard Lovell
Edgeworth. Her first publication, with publisher Joseph Johnson, was Letters for Literary Ladies (1795). Johnson was both an important publisher and a family
friend, and Edgworth's publishing relationship with him continued for
the duration of Johnson's life. Her better known novels include Castle Rackrent (1800), Belinda (1801), The Modern Griselda: A Tale
(1805), Leonora (1806), and Harrington (1817). Other
noteworthy works include Practical
Education (1798), Popular Tales (1804), and Tales of Fashionable Life
(1809-12), which includes, among others, the tales
"Ennui" (1809) and "The
Absentee" (1812). [MW]
-
Edward III, King of England, 1312-1377
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- King of England from 1327 to 1377, he led the country into the Hundred
Years War with France. [MW]
-
Edward, Prince of Wales, 1330-1376 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- Known as The Black Prince allegedly because of the black armor he wore
as a commander in the Hundred Years War, Edward was heir apparent to Edward III. [MW]
-
Edwards, Thomas, 1699-1757 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Author of Canons of
Criticism (1748) as well as a number of sonnets respected
by his contemporaries. [MW]
-
Elie de Beaumont, Mme. (Anne-Louise
Morin-Dumesnil), 1729-1783 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Known for her Lettres du marquis de
Roselle (1764). [MW]
-
Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- The last of the Tudor monarchs, Elizabeth became queen in 1558.
Sometimes known as "the Virgin Queen" for the fact that never
married, she presided over what many regarded as a golden age of British
arts and expansionism. [MW]
-
Emily Jervois—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's The History of Sir
Charles Grandison (1754). [MW]
-
Epictetus (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- A stoic philosopher who lived from ca. AD 50-125. He was born a slave in
Phrygian, Hierapolis in the household of the freedman Epaphroditus in Rome;
he later manumitted and started a school of philosophy in Nicopolis. [RD]
-
Euphrosyne—
- In Greek mythology, one of the Three Charites or Graces. [MW]
-
Euripides [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name Authority);
c. 484 B.C.-406 B.C. (Encyclopedia
Britannica)—
- One of the three most important early Athenian tragic dramatists. Among
the nineteen of his plays that have survived, the best known include The Bacchae (405), Iphigenia at Aulis (405), Orestes (408), Iphigenia at Tauris (414?), The Trojan Women (415), Electra (417), Andromache (426?), and Medea (431). [MW]
-
Eurydice—
- In Greek myth, wife of Orpheus, who was
killed by a snake. To rescue her, Orpheus
descended into the underworld, but his efforts were foiled when he violated
the conditions imposed on his success by looking back to reassure himself
that his wife was still with him. [MW]
-
Fairfax, Edward, d. 1635 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Translated Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata as Godfrey of Bulloigne; or, the Recoverie of
Jerusalem (1600). [MW]
-
Faulkner, George, 1699?-1775 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Important Dublin bookseller. [MW]
-
Fénelon, François de Salignac de La
Mothe- 1651-1715 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- As preceptor for Louis, duc de Bourgogne, grandson of Louis XIV, Fénelon wrote Les Avantures de Télémaque, fils
d'Ulysse (1699), to impart his liberal political
views to his pupil. On the surface, the didactic romance narrates the voyage
of Telemachus in the Odyssey as
he searches for his father accompanied by the goddess Minerva, who teaches
him the virtues of an enlightened monarch, while incorporating at the same
time a critique on Louis
XIV's ideology of monarchy by divine right. [MW]
-
Fielding, Edmund, 1680-1741 (Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography)—
- Veteran of Marlborough's wars and father of the novelists Henry Fielding and Sarah Fielding. [RD]
-
Fielding, Henry, 1707-1754 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Though a productive playwright and author of political and social
improvement tracts, Fielding is best remembered for his novels, including
The History of the Adventures of Joseph
Andrews (1742), The
Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (1743), The History of Tom Jones, a
Foundling (1749), which constitutes one of the most
important early landmarks in the development of the British novel, Amelia (1751), and An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela
Andrews (1741), a parody of Samuel Richardson's Pamela. His Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
(1755) recounts his travels on an unsuccessful journey to improve his
health. A select list of plays by the author includes The Temple Beau (1730), Tom Thumb (1730), Miser (1732), and The Wedding Day (1743). Periodical
publications by the author include The
Champion (1737-1740), The Covent-Garden Journal (1752), The True Patriot (1745), and
The Jacobite Journal
(1747), among many others. Political publications by the author include
A Charge Delivered to the Grand
Jury, at the Sessions of the Peace Held for the City and Liberty of
Westminster, & c. On Thursday the 29th of June 1749
(1749), An Enquiry into the Causes of the
Late Increase of Robbers etc. with Some Proposals for Remedying this
Growing Evil (1751), and A Proposal for Making an Effectual Provision
for the Poor, for Amending Their Morals and for Rendering Them
Useful Members of the Society (1753), A Clear State of the Case of Elizabeth Canning,
Who Hath Sworn That She Was Robbed and Almost Starved to Death by a
Gang of Gipsies and Other Villains in January Last, for Which One
Mary Squires Now Lies under Sentence of Death
(1753).
-
Fielding, John, Sir, 1721-1780 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Half-brother to the novelists Henry
Fielding and Sarah Fielding.
[RD]
-
Fielding, Sarah, 1710-1768 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Sister to Henry Fielding, Sarah
Fielding (1710-1768) was also respected as a novelist. Her best known works
include The Adventures of David
Simple (1744 with a final volume added in 1753), which
has elements in common with Samuel
Johnson's later work, Rasselas (1759); The Governess; or, The Little Female Academy
(1749) ), written especially for a young female audience to show that the
path to virtue can be found through control of emotional excess, cultivation
of benevolence, and submission to parental wisdom; The Cry: A New Dramatic Fable (1754), which she
wrote in collaboration with Jane Collier;
The Lives of Cleopatra and
Octavia (1757); The
History of the Countess of Dellwyn (1759); and The History of Ophelia (1760).
In addition, her pamphlet, Remarks
on Clarissa (1749), place her as one of the more
noteworthy among mid-eighteenth century women literary critics. Her
translation of Xenophon was published in 1762. [MW]
-
Fitzherbert, William, 1712-1772 (Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography)—
- Member of Parliment, of Tissington Hall. Father of William Fitzherbert,
the first Baronet of Tissington. [RD]
-
Fletcher, Andrew, 1655-1716 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- As Laird of Saltoun and a member of the Scottish Parliament, Fletcher
became known for his political and historical writing. [MW]
-
Fletcher, John, 1579-1625 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Playwright collaborator with Francis
Beaumont and others, Fletcher also worked with Shakespeare on Two Noble Kinsmen (1634) and
Henry VIII (1613?). [MW]
-
Fletcher, Lady—
- See Lintot, Catherine. [MW]
-
Florian, 1755-1794 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian authored Galatée (1783) and Gonsalve de Cordoue (1791).
[MW]
-
Fuseli, Henry, 1741-1825 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Primarily a visual artist, Swiss-born Henry Fuseli produced some
literary achievements as well, including Aphorisms on Man (1788), a translation of
Lavater's Vermischte unphysiognomische
Regeln zur Selbst- und Menschenkenntniß (1787). Among
his visual works, The Nightmare
(1781) is probably the most famous. His Milton Gallery from the 1790s was also widely known. [MW]
-
Lady G.—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's The History of Sir
Charles Grandison (1754), sister to the title
character. [MW]
-
Gainsborough, Earl of—
- Anna Letitia Barbauld suggests as a
possible model for Samuel
Richardson's Pamela
(1740-1) the story of Noel Baptist, Fourth Earl of Gainsborough (1708-1751,
Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic
History of the Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage), who
married Elizabeth Chapman, the daughter of his gameskeeper, Christopher
Chapman. [MW]
-
Garrick, David, 1717-1779 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- An exceptionally productive playwright and adapter, Garrick was also an
effective theater manager and one of the most powerful and popular actors in
the history of British theater. Most of Garrick's dramatic compositions
consisted of adaptations of existing plays, especially those of Shakespeare. In addition to those
from Shakespeare's works, Garrick's
plays include Lethe; or Esop in the
Shades (1740); The
Lying Valet (1741); The
Provok'd Wife (1744); Miss in Her Teens: or, The Medley of Lovers (1747);
Every Man in His Humour
(1751); The Chances (1754);
Lilliput (1756);
The Male Coquette
(1757); Isabella; or, The Fatal
Marriage (1757); The
Gamesters (1757); The
Guardian (1759); Harlequin's Invasion (1759); The Enchanter; or, Love and Magic
(a libretto; 1760); The Farmer's Return from
London (1762); The
Clandestine Marriage (1766); The Country Girl (1766);
Neck or Nothing (1766);
Cymon (1767);
Linco's Travels (1767);
A Peep Behind the Curtain; or, The
New Rehearsal (1767); The Jubilee (1769); The Institution of the Garter; or, Arthur's Roundtable
Restored (1771); The
Irish Widow (1772); A
Christmas Tale (1773); The Meeting of the Company (1774); Bon Ton; or, High Life above
Stairs (1775); The
Theatrical Candidates (1775); and May Day; or, The Little Gipsy
(also a libretto; 1775).[MW]
-
Gay, John, 1685-1732 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Best known for The Beggar's
Opera, which debuted in London in 1728, Gay authored
numerous other noteworthy works, a few of which include the play The Distress'd Wife
(1734), a body of poetry, some collections of fables, and the libretto for
Handel's Acis and Galatea (1731). [MW]
-
Gayot de Pitaval, François, 1673-1743
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- A French advocate whose Causes
célèbres et interesantes avec les jugemens qui les out
decidees, a collection of notorious critimal cases that
had come to his attention in his official capacities, was published in
periodic installments and various expanded editions beginning in 1734 and
continuing throughout the eighteenth century. [MW]
-
Gellert, Christian Fürchtegott, 1715-1769
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- In addition to plays, a novel, verse, fables, and aesthetic treatises,
this distinguished author of the German Enlightenment translated Samuel Richardson's The History of Sir Charles
Grandison (1753-4). [MW]
-
Genlis, Stéphanie Félicité,
comtesse de, 1746-1830 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Among French women writers, Mme. de Genlis was one of the more popular
with Romantic-era British women writers. Her didactic fiction and
educational works included Adèle et
Théodore (1782), which features the characters
Cecile, the Duchesse de C***, and M. and Mad. Lagaraye. Les Veillées du Chateau
(1784) was translated into English as Tales
of the Castle; or, Stories of Instruction and Delight
(1785). Les Mères rivales, ou la
calomnie (1800) was translated as Rival Mothers; or, The Calumny
(1800). [MW]
-
Geoffrey, of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph,
1100?-1154 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- As the author of Prophetiae
Merlini (The Prophesies
of Merlin) and Historia
regum Britanniae (The
History of the Kings of Britain) as well as the
manuscript Vita Merlini,
Geoffrey of Monmouth is an important source for the Arthurian legends. [MW]
-
George I, King of Great Britain,
1660-1727 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- The first British monarch of the House of Hanover, George ascended to
rule over Great Britain in 1714 on the death of his second cousin Anne. [MW]
-
George II, King of Great Britain,
1683-1760 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- King of Great Britain from 1727-1760. [MW]
-
George III, King of Great Britain,
1738-1820 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- King of Great Britain from 1760-1820. The latter part of his reign was
punctuated by periods of intermittent madness so that in 1811 Parliament
named as Regent his son, then Prince of Wales, but later to become George
IV. [MW]
-
George IV, King of Great Britain,
1762-1830 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Prince Regent for George III from 1811, he became king with his
father's death in 1820. [MW]
-
Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- The reputation of this eminent English historian rests mostly on his
masterwork, The History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788). [MW]
-
Glover, Richard, 1712-1785 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Playwright, poet, and writer on various aspects of the West Indies
question, Glover published "Admiral Hosier's
Ghost" in 1740. [MW]
-
Godwin, William, 1756-1836 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Novelist, historian, biographer, political theorist, and spouse to Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin
published An Enquiry concerning Political
Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and
Happiness in 1793. His most important novels, including
Things As
They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb
Williams (1795) and
St. Leon (1799),
dramatize the theories that Political
Justice advances. Fleetwood; or, The New Man of Feeling (1805)
critiques the character type made famous by Henry Mackenzie's novel The
Man of Feeling. Mandeville. A Tale of the Seventeenth Century in
England (1817) is a historical novel in the style of
Scott. Cloudesley: A Tale (1830) returns to the theme
of aristocratic tyranny that was the subject of Caleb Williams. [MW]
-
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Goethe anonymously published Die Leiden
des jungen Werthers in 1774 (translated as The Sorrows of Young Werther,
1779). The eponymous hero eventually commits suicide over a hopeless passion
for a woman engaged to another. Wilhelm
Meisters Lehrjahre (1795-1796) was translated as Wilhelm Meister's
Apprenticeship by Thomas
Carlyle in 1824. Goethe was eminent as a poet and dramatist as
well, with the two part verse drama Faust (1808 and 1832) as the foremost of his
works. [MW]
-
Goldoni, Carlo, 1707-1793 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A prolific Italian playwright who introduced elements of realism into
dramatic characterizations to help reform the Italian stage. Among his
extensive list of dramatic works, his stage adaptations of Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740-1) include Pamela Nubile (1750) and Pamela Maritata (1759). [MW]
-
Goldsmith, Oliver, 1730?-1774 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Goldsmith is often regarded as the epitome of a grub street writer,
living much of his life in poverty and debt despite authoring a massive body
of histories, biographies, plays, poems, novels, and literary criticism.
Goldsmith's authorial importance was acknowledged by the literary
community with his poems The
Traveller (1764) and The
Hermit (1765), but later texts would give him fame.
Satirical and paradoxical, The Vicar of
Wakefield (1766) was his most popular novel. The Deserted Village (1770),
his best known poem, depicts a traveler's reflections on the demise of
Auburn, the village of his youth, after the native inhabitants are forced
out by an avaricious local landowner. As a prolific literary journalist,
Goldsmith contributed to the Critical
Review as well as other periodicals. In 1759, Goldsmith
published a weekly paper named The
Bee. A collection of his works from the Monthly
Review were published under the name
The Citizen of the
World in 1762. A further selection of Goldsmith's
nonfiction includes History of England in a
Series of Letters from a Nobleman to His Son (1764),
Life of Henry St. John, Lord Viscount
Bolingbroke (1770), Life of Thomas
Parnell (1770), The Roman History: from the foundation of the
city of Rome, to the destruction of the western Empire
(1769), and Retaliation, The History of
Greece (1774). She
Stoops to Conquer; or, The Mistakes of a Night (1773),
Goldsmith's most famous dramatic comedy, features the heroine Kate
Hardcastle, who descends to playing a servant in her own house after a
potential suitor mistakes it for an inn. Less popular than She Stoops to Conquer was
Goldsmith's dramatic comedy The
Goodnatured Man (1768). An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature
was published in 1795.
-
Gordon, John —
- A surgeon at the University of Glasgow and mentor to Tobias Smollett and Dr. John Moore. H.L. Fulton writes,
"[John Moore] was apprenticed to
William Stirling and John Gordon, surgeons in a large practice and formerly
masters to Moore's distant cousin Tobias Smollett." (Fulton, H.L.
"Moore, John (1729-1802)." Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H.C.G. Matthew
and Brian Harrison. Vol. 38. New York: Oxford UP, 2004. 970.)
[VW][RD]
-
Gosling, Lady—
- neé Elizabeth Midwinter,
she married bookseller and banker Sir Francis Gosling (Gosling, Francis,
Sir, d. 1768 [Library of Congress Name Authority]). [MW]
-
Sir Henry Gould, 1643/4-1710 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)—
- Judge of the king's bench and maternal grandfather to the novelist
Henry Fielding. [RD]
-
Grafigny, Mme de (Françoise d'Issembourg
d'Happoncourt), 1695-1758 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Mme de Grafigny's novel Lettres
d'une Péruviennes (1747) tells the story of
Zilia, an Incan princess captured by the Spanish. [MW]
-
Grainger, James, 1721?-1766 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- The most interesting literary work by West Indian poet and physician
James Grainger is The
Sugar-Cane (1764). His "Solitude, an
Ode" was reprinted, among other places, in Southey's
Specimens of the Later English
Poets (1807). He translatesd several Latin works,
including the elegies of Tibullus. Grainger also authored groundbreaking
medical treatises on the care of slaves. [MW]
-
Sir Charles Grandison—
- Hero of Samuel Richardson's
The History of Sir Charles
Grandison (1754). [MW]
-
Grantham, Thomas Robinson, Baron, 1695-1770
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Diplomat and politician. [MW]
-
Graves, Richard, 1677-1729 (Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography)—
- Antiquary and father of the author Rev. Richard Graves. [RD]
-
Graves, Richard, 1715-1804 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A gifted novelist, Graves published The
Festoon, a collection of Epigrams in 1765, The Spiritual Quixote; or, The Summer's
Ramble of Mr. Geoffry Wildgoose in 1773 and Columella; or, The Distressed
Anchoret in 1779. Senilities; or, Solitary Amusements: in Prose and
Verse appeared in 1801. Other publications by the
author include Euphrosyne; or, Amusements on
the Road of Life (1776); Eugenius; or, Anecdotes of the Golden Vale, an
Embellished Narrative of Real Facts (1785); Lucubrations: Consisting of Essays, Reveries
etc. in Prose and Verse (1786); Recollections of some Particulars in the Life
of Recollections of Some Particulars in the Life of the Late William Shenstone, Esq. in a
Series of Letters from an Intimate Friend of His to----Esq. F. R.
S. (1788); Plexippus,
or the Aspiring Plebeian (1790); The Reveries of Solitude; Consisting of Essays
in Prose, a New Translation of the Muscipula, and Original Pieces in
Verse (1793); The
Coalition; or, The Opera Rehears'd: A Comedy in Three
Acts (1794); The
Farmer's Son: A Moral Tale Inscribed to Mrs. Hannah More by the
Rev. P. P. M. A. (1795); and The Invalid, with the obvious Means of enjoying
Long Life, by a Nonagenarian (1804). Also proficient in
Latin, Greek, and several modern languages, Graves translated Galateo; or, A Treatise on Politeness and
Delicacy of Manners, from the Italian of Monsig. Giovanni De La
Casa (1774), Goethe's Sorrows of
Werther(1779), probably from a French version, Fénelon's Fleurettes, Containing an Ode on
Solitude (1784), Herodian, The Heir Apparent; or, The Life of Commodus,
Translated from the Greek (1789), The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus: A New Translation, with a Life, Notes
Etc. (1792), and Hiero on
the Condition of Royalty: A Conversation from the Greek of Xenophon (1793).
-
Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- The rather reclusive Thomas Gray, one of the most esteemed poets of the
eighteenth century, left a comparatively small body of work, highlights of
which include An Ode on a Distant Prospect
of Eton College (1747), An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (1751),
and a collection of Odes (1757)
that included "The Progress of Poesy" and
"The Bard" (1754). [MW]
-
Griffiths, Ralph, 1720-1803 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- In addition to publishing books on a wide array of topics, bookseller
Ralph Griffiths was also the proprietor of several literary journals,
including the London Advertiser and Literary
Gazette (1751-1753), the Grand Magazine of Universal Intelligence
(1758-1760), and the Library
(1761-1762). Two of the periodicals Griffiths founded continued long after
his death: the St. James's
Chronicle (1761-1866) and, most famously, the Monthly Review (1749-1845), the
first and for nearly half a century the most important British literary
review.
-
Grove, Henry, 1684-1738 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Clergyman and conduct and theological writer, Grove contributed as well
to Joseph Addison's Spectator. [MW]
-
Guarini, Battista, 1538-1612 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Poet, dramatist, and critic. Guarini's pastoral tragicomedy Il Pastor Fido (1590;
translated as Il pastor fido; or The
Faithful Shepherd, 1602) was one of the most famous
plays of the seventeenth century. [MW]
-
Guido—
- See Reni, Guido. [MW]
-
Haller, Albrecht von, 1708-1777 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Swiss physiologist, poet, and romance writer, whose scientific work did
much to establish the reputation of the recently founded University of
Göttingen. He translated Samuel
Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9) into German. [MW]
-
Hamilton, Anthony, Count, 1646-1720 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Known for his Memoires de la vie du comte
de Grammont (1715). [vw]
-
Hamilton, Douglas Hamilton, Duke of, 1756-1799
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Second son of Elizabeth Campbell,
duchess of Hamilton and Argyll. His older brother James having died at the
age of fourteen, Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 8th Duke of Hamilton and 5th Duke
of Brandon, also inherited the title Baron Hamilton of Hameldon upon the
death of his mother. He lived in Europe between 1772 and 1776 under the
tutelage of Dr. John Moore. He was a patron
of Moore's son, the future Sir John Moore. [RD]
-
Hamilton, Elizabeth, 1758-1816 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Many, including Hays herself, believed that Hamilton composed the
anonymously published Memoirs of Modern
Philosophers (1800) to satirize London's radical
circle in general, and author Mary Hays in
particular. Hamilton's other novels include Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah
(1796) and The Cottagers of
Glenburnie (1808). She also authored several
biographies, including Memoirs of the Life
of Agrippina, Wife of Germanicus (1804). She was
respected as well for her educational and conduct literature, the most
prominent of which are her Letters on the
Principles of Education (1801) and Letters Addressed to the Daughter of a
Nobleman (1806). [MW]
-
Hamilton, James George Hamilton, Duke of,
1755-1769 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- First son of Elizabeth Campbell,
duchess of Hamilton and Argyll. James died from an illness in 1769 at the
age of fourteen. [RD]
-
Handel, George Frideric, 1685-1759 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- German composer who emigrated to London, Handel was a prolific and much
loved author of well over 100 operas, oratorios, concertos, and other
musical pieces, including his most famous work, Messiah (1742). An extremely abbreviated list
of other major works includes Ode for the
Birthday of Queen Anne (1713), Water Music (1717), Acis and Galatea (1718), The Harmonious Blacksmith
(1720), Giulio Cesare (1724),
Tamerlano (1724), Zadok the Priest (1727), Alcina (1735), Alexander's Feast (1736),
Ode for St. Cecilia's
Day (1739), Saul (1739), Israel
in Egypt (1739), Semele (1743), Hercules (1745), and Fireworks Music (1749). [MW]
-
Hanmer, Thomas, Sir, 1677-1746 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Known mostly for his political career, Hanmer also made a few minor
contributions to the field of literature. [MW]
-
Harley, Robert—
- See Oxford, Robert Harley, Earl
of, 1661-1724. [MW]
-
Harmodius—
- Ancient writer whose work is known through later quotations rather than
through surviving texts. [MW]
-
Harrington, James, 1611-1677 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Political philosopher James Harrington authored The Common-wealth of Oceana (1656), in which he
promotes his ideas on the ideal design of a republic. [MW]
-
Hartley, David, 1705-1757 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- In his Observations on Man, his Frame,
his Duty, and his Expectations (1749), physician David
Hartley expounded a physiological theory of "vibrations" to
explain his conviction that the moral sense was not inborn, but rather a
consequence of the association of ideas. Particularly after his work was
popularized by Joseph Priestley in his
abridgment Hartley's Theory of the
Human Mind on the Principle of the Association of Ideas
(1775), Hartley's ideas exerted broad influence on literature,
philosophy, medicine, psychology, and issues such as education and reform.
[MW]
-
Hawkesworth, John, 1715?-1773 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- A schoolmaster, poet, dramatist, novelist, and periodical editor,
Hawkesworth had almost no formal education. His literary career began first
with poetry, some of which was published in the Gentleman’s Magazine, where he
later worked as editor. His stage productions include: Amphitryon; or, The Two Sosias: A
Comedy, adapted from John Dryden (1756); Oroonoko: A Tragedy, adapted from
Thomas Southerne, (1759); Zimri: An
Oratorio (music by Thomas Stanley) (1760); Edgar and Emmeline: A Fairy Tale
(1761); and The Fall of Egypt: An
Oratorio (music by Thomas Stanley) (1774). Almoran and Hamet: An Oriental
Tale, his only novel, was published anonymously in 1761. He
published a translation of Fénelon'sThe Adventures of Telemachus in
1768. Hawkesworth incorporated a noteworthy biographical sketch of Jonathan Swift to his edition of
The Works of Jonathan Swift ... with
Some Account of the Author's Life and Notes Historical and
Explanatory (1754-1765), and he edited as well a
collection of accounts of recent south sea exploratory voyages, An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the
Order of His Present Majesty for making Discoveries in the Southern
Hemisphere ... by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret,
and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the
Endeavour (1773). His periodical The Adventurer (1753, 1754) was
modeled on Samuel Johnson's
Rambler. It’s
combination of essays, Eastern tales, and anecdotes of English life, about
half of which were authored by Hawkesworth, proved highly popular.
[MW]
-
Haywood, Eliza Fowler, 1693?-1756 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Among the better-known productions of the almost inexhaustible actor and
writer Eliza Haywood are the novels Love in
Excess; or, The Fatal Enquiry (1719-1720), The History of Miss Betsy
Thoughtless (1751), and The Invisible Spy (1755). Her Anti-Pamela; or, Feign'd Innocence
Detected, in a Series of Syrena's Adventures
(1741) satirized Samuel
Richardson's popular novel. Haywood penned a large number of
plays as well, and conducted an essay periodical loosely modeled on Joseph Addison's Spectator which she called Female Spectator (1744-1746).
After that paper ended, she followed it for a few months by another, the Parrot (1746), a name she had
already used for a periodical during 1728. She was among the many writers
attacked by Alexander Pope in The Dunciad. [MW]
-
Hays, Mary, 1759 or 60-1843 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A close friend of Mary
Wollstonecraft and William
Godwin, feminist, philosopher, biographer, historian, literary
critic, novelist, and educational writer Mary
Hays was among the most radical of British women writers during
the 1790s. Her career as an intellectual began with her publication of Cursory Remarks on an Enquiry into the
Expediency and Propriety of Public or Social Worship: Inscribed to
Gilbert Wakefield (1791), which she published under the
pseudonym Eusebia. Next followed a collection for the improvement of young
women, Letters and Essays, Moral and
Miscellaneous (1793), a collaborative work with her
sister Elizabeth. Hays published two major novels, Memoirs of Emma Courtney (1796), drawn
substantially from autobiography, and The
Victim of Prejudice (1799), and three lesser novels,
Harry Clinton (1804), The Brothers; or, Consequences
(1815), and Family Annals; or, The
Sisters (1817). Her anonymously published Appeal to the Men of Great Britain in Behalf
of Women (1798) is her most important feminist
statement, but her views on the condition of women are evident in much of
her work, including her novels and her biographical series such as Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious
and Celebrated Women, of all Ages and Countries (1803)
and Memoirs of Queens (1821).
Hays was brought in to complete History of
England, from the Earliest Records, to the Peace of Amiens: In a
Series of Letters to a Young Lady at School (1806),
which Charlotte Smith had begun but
become too ill to continue. Hays contributed at least some novel reviews to
the Analytical Review while
Wollstonecraft was a regular
contributor, and it is believed she may have edited the novels section of
the periodical for a few months as well. [MW]
-
Hazelrig, Sir Arthur—
- Sir Arthur Hesilrige, 7th Baronet, d. 1763 (Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the
Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage) presided over the
demise Noseley Hall, the family seat. The story of Hesilrige and his wife
Hannah was one of several suggested as the original for Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740-1). [MW]
-
Heliodorus, of Emesa [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Born in Emesa in Syria, author Heliodorus wrote The Æthiopica or Theagenes and Charicleia in the third or fourth
century CE. He became Bishop of Tricca or Trieca in Thessaly. [MW]
-
Henry IV, King of France, 1553-1610 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- King of Navarre from 1572 and of France from 1589, Henry IV was known
almost as much for his numerous love affairs as for his political
effectiveness during a period of extreme hostility and widespread violence
between Catholics and Protestants. [MW]
-
Henry VIII, King of England, 1491-1547
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- A representative of the Tudor line and father to Elizabeth I, Henry became king
in 1509. He led the separation of the Church of England from papal authority
and the Roman Catholic church. A patron of the arts, he was a capable
musician and poet in his own right. [MW]
-
Heracles (Greek) or Hercules (Latin)—
- Hero known for his strength, stamina, and courage, and particularly for
his accomplishment of a series of extraordinary labors. [MW]
-
Herbert, Mary, Countess of Pembroke—
- See Pembroke, Mary Sidney
Herbert [MW]
-
Herodian (Library of Congress Name Authority)‚
- A Greek historian who lived c. 170 to c. 240. He wrote History of the Roman Empire since Marcus
Aurelius, which was published after the year 240. [RD]
-
Hesiod [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name Authority); c. 700
B.C. (Encyclopedia
Britannica)—
- Major works of this early Greek poet include Theogeny, Works
and Days, and, more questionably, Shield of Heracles. [MW]
-
Mr. Hickman—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9). [MW]
-
Highmore, Joseph, 1692-1780 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- British portrait and historical painter and painting theorist. His wife
Susanna (1689/90-1750 [Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography]) was a poet. [MW]
-
Highmore, Miss Susanna—
- See Dunscombe, Susanna. [MW]
-
Hildesley, Mark, 1698-1772 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Bishop of Sodor and Man. With his predecessor Thomas Wilson he translated the Bible into
Manx. [MW]
-
Hill, Aaron, 1685-1750 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A moderately successful playwright, theater manager, and essayist, Hill
was one of Alexander Pope's targets
in the Dunciad. [MW]
-
Hill, John, 1714?-1775 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Also known as Sir John Hill, he was a notable botanist, writer, and
journalist. Many of his publications are collected in The letters and papers of Sir John Hill,
1714-1775 (1982). Between the years of 1752 and 1753,
Hill engaged in a "paper war" with rival authors including Tobias Smollet and Henry Fielding. In particular, The Story of Elizabeth Canning Considered (1753) was
hostile to Canning and Fielding, arguing in favor of the perjury verdict
that resulted in Canning's transportation to Connecticut.[RD] and
[MW]
-
Hoadly, Dr. (Benjamin), 1706-1757 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Physician and researcher into electricity, Hoadly authored one
enormously popular dramatic comedy, The
Suspicious Husband (1747). [MW]
-
Hogarth, William, 1697-1764 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- English painter and engraver, Hogarth produced numerous popular satirical
series, including The March to
Finchley, A Harlot's
Progress, A Rake's
Progress, and Marriage
A-la-Mode. [RD]
-
Holcroft, Thomas, 1745-1809 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Radical journalist, critic, novelist, translator, and playwright;
Holcroft's two most important novels include Anna St. Ives (1792), a novel that reworks plot
and character elements of Samuel
Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9) to shape a response to Edmund
Burke's Reflections on the Revolution
in France (1790), and The Adventures of Hugh Trevor (1794), which
offers a more general satire on the established order. The majority of his
plays were comedies, though later work includes the dark, unsuccessful
drama, The Inquisitor (1798). A
few other highlights include Alwyn; or, The
Gentleman Comedian (1780), Duplicity (1781), Seduction (1787), The School for Arrogance (1791), The Road to Ruin (1792), his
most popular piece, The Deserted
Daughter (1795), and He's Much to Blame (1798). [MW]
-
Holland, Henry Fox, Baron, 1705-1774 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- First Baron Holland of Foxley and notable eighteenth-century British
politician. He attended Eton College in 1775 where he became acquainted with
Henry Fielding. [RD]
-
Home, John, 1722-1808 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Scottish poet, dramatist, historian, and clergyman. Douglas, his best remembered
drama, opened in 1756. His The History of
the Rebellion in the Year 1745 appeared in 1802. [MW]
-
Homer [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Greek poet reputed to be the author of The Iliad and The Odyssey. Considered during the eighteenth
century to be the paradigmatic example of the inspired and primitive bardic
poet, Homer became the single most influential poet of all time. [MW]
-
Honorius, Flavius, Emperor of Rome, 384-423 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Younger brother of Arcadius, Emperor of the
East, Honorius ruled the western half of the Roman empire. [MW]
-
Horace [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name Authority); 65
B.C.-8 B.C (Encyclopedia
Britannica)—
- A poet known for his satires, odes, and verse epistles, Horace also
authored Ars Poetica (c. 19
B.C.), a major landmark in the history of literary criticism and theory.
[MW]
-
Howard, John, 1726-1790 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A highly respected Dissenting hospital and prison reformer. [MW]
-
Miss Anna Howe—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9). [MW]
-
Huet, Pierre-Daniel, 1630-1721 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Scholar, skeptical philosopher, and bishop of Avranches. [MW]
-
Hughes, John, 1677-1720 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Playwright, poet, librettist, translator, editor, and critic;
Hughes's plays include Amalasont, Queen
of the Goths (possibly c. 1697-1700), Calypso and Telemachus (1712),
Apollo and Daphne (1716),
and The Siege of Damascus (1720). [MW]
-
Hume, David, 1711-1776 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Noted as a philosopher and historian, Hume was among those who exerted
the most powerful and lasting influences on eighteenth-century thought. His
best-known publications include A Treatise
of Human Nature (1739), Essays, Moral and Political (1741), Philosophical Essays Concerning Human
Understanding (1748), An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), Essays and Treatises on Several
Subjects, 4 volumes (1753), and The History of Great Britain
(1754-1762). [MW]
-
Huntingdon, Selina Hastings, Countess of,
1707-1791 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Occasional writer on religious subjects. [MW]
-
Hutcheson, Francis, 1694-1746 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Scottish moral philosopher who further developed the ideas of Shaftesbury. [MW]
-
Inchbald, Mrs., 1753-1821 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- One of the most successful among Romantic-era women authors, Elizabeth
Inchbald did only moderately well in her early career as an actress, but
went on to produce numerous theatrical adaptations and original plays, two
novels (A Simple Story, 1791,
and Nature and Art, 1796), and
a substantial body of literary criticism, most of which appeared as prefaces
to the plays included in The British
Theatre (1806-1808). Her most noteworthy theatrical
pieces include her first play, A Mogul
Tale (1784); I'll
Tell You What! (1785); Such Things Are (1787), a piece exposing social
ills and celebrating reformer John Howard;
The Child of Nature (1788);
Every One Has His Fault
(1793); Wives as They Were, and Maids as
They Are (1797); Lovers' Vows (1798), the play that threw
the Bertram family into turmoil in Jane
Austen's Mansfield
Park, which was Inchbald's adaptation of Das Kind der Liebe by August
Friedrich von Kotzebue; and To Marry, or Not
to Marry (1805). She arranged herself for the printing
of her drama of the St. Bartholomew's day massacre of 1572, The Massacre (1792), but
complied with friends' advice to suppress it for its potentially
inflammatory parallels to the French revolution. [MW]
-
James I, King of Scotland, 1394-1437
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- James I of Scotland spent much of his early life as a prisoner of the
English, then part of the household of Henry V. He returned to Scotland and
was crowned in 1424. Thereafter he exercised a strong, even despotic, royal
hand in a country that had long been dominated by semi-autonomous lords,
meanwhile extending his international influence through both marital
alliances and successful warfare. His methods compromised Scottish internal
stability, however, and in a February 1437 coup attempt he was attacked,
cornered, and, after a desperate fight, killed.
-
James I, King of England, 1566-1625 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- Son of Mary, Queen of Scots, King
James VI of Scotland became King of England in 1603 with the death of Elizabeth I. [MW]
-
James II, King of England, 1633-1701—
- [James VII of Scotland]- Brother to Charles II, James succeeded him to
the throne in 1685. A convert to Catholicism, he made sweeping legal
decisions consolidating royal power and extending tolerance to and
empowering Catholics, leading to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which
placed the Dutch Protestant William
of Orange on the British throne. [MW]
-
Mrs. Jervis—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Pamela
(1740-1). [MW]
-
Mrs. Jewkes—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Pamela
(1740-1). [MW]
-
Saint John—
- Believed to have authored the biblical book of Revelation while in exile
on the island of Patmos, Saint John is by some also regarded as the same
apostle of Jesus credited with the gospel of John. [MW]
-
John Bull—
- A fictional personification of English character originating in a series
of pamphlets by John Arbuthnot that later
figures in satires, caricatures, and cartoons. [MW]
-
Johnson, Joseph, 1738-1809 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Frequently described as radical or at least progressive,
eighteenth-century bookseller and publisher Joseph Johnson made important
contributions to the careers of several women critics, including Anna Letitia Barbauld, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Mary Hays, all of whom contributed to his
literary review, the Analytical
Review, which ran from 1788 to 1799. Johnson also published
creative work by all three of these writers among many others. [MW]
-
Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Literary biographer, critic, fiction writer, moralist, and poet, Samuel
Johnson was one of the two or three most important figures in
eighteenth-century British literary history. His most notable poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes
(1749), makes its content clear in its title. His fable Rasselas, first published under
the title The Prince of
Abissinia (1759), narrates the story of the residents of a
fictional Happy Valley, who enjoy gratification of all wants, but
nevertheless find themselves discontented because they have nothing to long
or hope for and so no outlet to exercise imagination. He is also known for
his allegorical moral tale Vision of
Theodore(1748). His two essay periodicals, The Rambler (1750-1752) and The Idler (1758-1760), were
well received, though not as popular as predecessors such as Joseph Addison's Spectator. Johnson's Dictionary of the English
Language (1755), a massive undertaking for a single
researcher, remained the standard for a century after its publication.
Johnson's own commentary in The Plays
of Shakespeare
(1765) was later supplemented with the remarks of George Steevens (1773) to
become one of the landmarks in the history of Shakespeare criticism. But
Johnson's most important contribution to criticism is his Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the
Works of the English Poets (1779-81), better known as
The Lives of the Poets.
-
Johnstone, Charles, 1719?-1800? (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Author of Chrysal; or, The Adventures of
a Guinea (1760-65). [MW]
-
Jonas, Philip—
- A conjurer or magician specializing in card tricks who was active during
the mid to late eighteenth century in London. He was challenged briefly by a
second Mr. Jonas in 1769, and for a time advertised himself as "the famous
Jonas (who is the real and only Mr. Jonas)." A third Mr. Jonas performed
under royal patronage at Bath as late as 1814. [MW]
-
Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- German philospher who marked the transition from the Enlightenment to the
nineteenth century. His Observations on the
Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime was published in
1764 as Beobachtungen über das
Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen. Among his
major works that followed, the Kritik der
reinen Vernunft (1781; translated as Critique of Pure Reason, 1855)
established his fame when its ideas were condensed and reformulated in
Prolegomena zu einer jeden
künftigen Metaphysik (1783; translated as
Prolegomena to Every Future
Metaphysic, 1819). Kritik der praktischen Vernunft (1788; Critique of Practical Reason) and
Kritik der Urteilskraft
(1790; Critique of Judgement)
then followed. Kant also published a number of essays in the Berliner Monatsschrift. [vw] and
[MW}
-
Kelly, Hugh, 1739-1777 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- An English dramatist, Kelly is best known for his sentimental comedy,
False Delicacy (1768).
Also a periodical essayist, Kelly assisted Charlotte Lennox with her popular Lady's Museum (1760-1). [VW and MW]
-
Klinger, Friedrich Maximilian, 1752-1831
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Klinger's play Sturm und
Drang (1776) gave the title to the eighteenth-century
German literary movement of the same name. [MW]
-
Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb, 1724-1803
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Germany's first major poet of the eighteenth-century, Klopstock was
a significant influence on the Sturm und
Drang poetic movement to follow. A few of his most
important works include The
Messiah (1748-1773); a number of religiously inspired stage
tragedies, especially The Death of
Adam (1757), Solomon (1764), and David (1772); and a large body of shorter
poetry. His essay, "On Divine Poetry," written as
an introduction to The Messiah,
inaugurates a new critical concern with the emotional effects of poetry in
its claim that a work of genius must "move the soul." [MW]
-
Klopstock, Margareta, 1728-1758 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Also known as Meta, the Danish wife of the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was an
esteemed literary intellectual whose letters charmed her contemporaries.
[MW]
-
Knight, Samuel, approximately 1677-1746 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)‚
- Archdeacon of Berkshire from 1735 to 1746. [RD]
-
Knowles, Charles, Sir, 1704?-1777 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- The Rear-Admiral of Great Britain, Sir Charles Knowles famously and
successfully sued Tobias Smollett for
libel in 1761. [vw]
-
Knowles, Mary, 1733-1807 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Born Mary Morris, Knowles married physician Thomas Knowles. A poet,
friend of Samuel Johnson, and a gifted
conversationalist, Knowles published her "Dialogue between Dr.
Johnson and Mrs. Knowles" in the Gentleman's Magazine in June
1971. [RD] and [MW]
-
Kock, Paul de, 1793-1871 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Known for racy novels about sophisticated Parisian life, such as Georgette (1820), Gustave, ou le Mauvais Sujet
(1821), Mon voisin Raymond
(1822), and L'Amant de
lune (1847). [MW]
-
La Fayette, Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de
La Vergne), 1634-1693 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Her La Princesse de
Clèves (1678) was initially believed to have been
written by a man, with Bishop Huet and
Jean Regnauld de Segrais among those
proposed as candidates for author. [MW]
-
Lafontaine, August Heinrich Julius, 1758-1831
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- German author of novels and moral tales, August Lafontaine was one of
the most popular writers of his time. [MW]
-
La Fontaine, Jean de, 1621-1695 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- La Fontaine's poetic Fables were drawn from eastern and classical
sources. He updated the Cupid and Psyche story in Les Amours de Psiché et de Cupidon (1669).
[MW]
-
Lake School—
- The poets who for a time lived and collaborated in the northern English
lake district, including William
Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, and Robert Southey.
[MW]
-
Lambard, Lady—
- Jane, née Fowler (b. 1695), wife of
Sir Multon Lambard (1675-1758), of Seven Oaks in Kent. [MW]
-
L. E. L. (Letitia Elizabeth Landon), 1802-1838
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- A celebrity sensation for her best-selling poetry and the erotic scandal
that is inextricable from her fame, Letitia Landon, better known as L. E.
L., enjoyed a wide and appreciative audience for her poetry and literary
essays. Less known to her readers and still often unsung today was her
periodical editing work and anonymous reviewing, especially for the Literary Gazette, edited by
Landon's literary mentor and eventual lover, William Jerdan. In addition,
Landon made momentous contributions to the popular early-Victorian gift
annuals, authoring and editing entire volumes of some of the more successful
and contributing poetry to many others. Landon first began writing poetry
for her own enjoyment, but when her family found itself in financial crisis,
Landon's mother showed some poems to Jerdan, who lived nearby. First
publishing only in the Literary
Gazette, Landon brought out her debut volume of poetry,
The Fate of Adelaide, A Swiss Romantic
Tale; and Other Poems in 1821. Though only moderately
successful, this volume was soon followed by The Improvisatrice; and Other Poems (1824),
which quickly went into several editions. This success coupled with the
death of her father the same year placed Landon as the main financial
support for both her mother and her brother. She continued regular
contributions to the Literary
Gazette and other periodicals, especially the New Monthly Magazine, meanwhile
bringing out a number of other poetry volumes, including The Troubadour; Catalogue of Pictures, and
Historical Sketches (1825), The Golden Violet, with its Tales of Romance and Chivalry;
and Other Poems (1827), The Venetian Bracelet, The Lost Pleiad, A History of the
Lyre, and Other Poems (1829), and The Vow of the Peacock, and Other
Poems (1835). Landon also authored three novels, Romance and Reality (1831), Francesca Carrara (1834), and
Ethel Churchill; or The Two
Brides (1837). She wrote a play, several translations,
and some children’s literature as well. Landon died rather mysteriously
shortly after her marriage to George Maclean, governor of the Cape Coast
settlement on the African Gold Coast. The inquest officially assigned the
cause of death to accidental prussic acid poisoning, but Landon’s romantic
public image and the stormy course of her relationship with Maclean have
left doubts about the verdict to this day.
-
Latimer, Hugh, 1485?-1555 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Made Bishop of Worcester under Henry VIII, Latimer was martyred for his Protestant views by Mary, Queen of Scots [MW]
-
Lavater, Johann Caspar, 1741-1801 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Founder of the pseudo-sciences of physiognomy and animal magnetism,
Lavater was also known for his Vermischte
unphysiognomische Regeln zur Selbst- und
Menschenkenntniß (1787), translated by Henry Fuseli as Aphorisms on Man (1788). [MW]
-
Lauderdale, James Maitland, Earl of,
1759-1839 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Politician, political economist, and eighth earl of Lauderdale. He was
was Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland and represented Scotland in the
House of Lords. [RD]
-
Leake, James, -1764 (Library of Congress Name
Authority); 1686-1764 (Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography)—
- Brother to Samuel
Richardson's second wife, Elizabeth, and Bath's most important bookseller, James Leake
was Richardson's longtime friend. [MW]
-
Lee, Nathaniel, 1653?-1692 —
- A leading tragic dramatist in his time and an occasional collaborator
with John Dryden, Lee was an early leader in
the dramatic use of blank verse. He is known as well for the violent content
of some of his work. His plays include The Tragedy of Nero, Emperour
of Rome (1674), Sophonisba, or Hannibal's
Overthrow (1675), Gloriana, or the Court of Augustus
Caesar (1676), The Rival Queens, or the Death of
Alexander the Great (1677), Mithridates King of
Pontus (1678), Oedipus (with John Dryden, 1678), Caesar Borgia; Son
of Pope Alexander the Sixth (1679), Theodosius: or, The
Force of Love (1680), Lucius Junius Brutus; Father of his
Country (1680), The Duke of Guise (with John Dryden, 1682), The Princess of
Cleve (1683), Constantine the Great (1683), and
The Massacre of Paris (1689). [MW]
-
Le Fevre, John—
- Often mentioned friend of Samuel
Richardson. [MW]
-
Le Sage, Alain René, 1668-1747 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- French novelist Alain Le Sage was also a prolific playwright. His major
works include the Histoire de Gil Blas de
Santillane (1715), Le
Diable Boiteux (1707), Le Bachelier de Salamanque (1736), and Histoire de Guzman
d'Alfarache (1732), an adaptation of Vita del Picaro Guzman
d‘Alfarache (1599-1604), by Mateo Alemán. [MW]
-
Le Tourneur, P. (Pierre), 1736-1788 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- French translator of English poetry, particularly the works of Shakespeare, Young, Johnson, and Macpherson.
[MW]
-
Lennox, Charlotte, ca. 1729-1804 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Born Charlotte Ramsay, Lennox is known as a versatile woman of letters,
part of the eighteenth-century Bluestocking circle and friend to numerous
other literary luminaries such as Samuel
Richardson, Samuel Johnson,
Oliver Goldsmith, and Fanny Burney. She is best remembered for her
1752 novel The Female Quixote; or, The
Adventures of Arabella, an update and parody of Cervantes's Don Quixote, though in the case of
The Female Quixote the
heroine's delusions are set in motion by her voluminous reading of
recent French fiction. It was preceded by The Life of Harriot Stuart (1751), Lennox's first
novel, and by Poems on Several Occasions,
Written by a Young Lady (1747), her first publication.
Her next novel, Henrietta
(1758), took a story by Marivaux for its
model. It was popular enough that Lennox adapteded it for the stage as
The Sister, but the
play survived only one performance in 1769. Meanwhile, Lennox began a career
of editing and translating, including Shakespear Illustrated (1753-1754), which collects
novels and stories from which Shakespeare drew many of his plots. She also produced an essay
periodical, the Lady's
Museum (1760-1) under the pseudonym "The
Trifler". Though not the only woman writer of this time to run a
periodical, she was something of an innovator, partly because with a title
page blazoning "by the author of The
Female Quixote" anonymity was a mere fiction, and
partly for use of the forum to serialize her next novel, Sophia (1762), which appeared in
the Lady's Museum under
the title "The History of Harriot and Sophia" from 1760-1.
Lennox's play Old City
Manners (1775) was much more successful than her previous
drama. Her final and far less successful novel Euphemia (1790) was her first
attempt at the epistolary form. Lennox completed a number of translations,
including Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of
Sully (1751), Voltaire's The Age of Louis
XIV (1752), The Memoirs
of the Countess of Berci (1756), Memoirs for the History of Madame de Maintenon
and of the Last Age (1757), The Greek Theatre of Father Brumoy (1759),
and Meditations and Penitential
Prayers by the Duchess de la Vallière (1774). [MW]
-
Lintot, Catherine, 1733-1816 (Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography)—
- After inheriting her father's bookselling business, Lintot went
into partnership with Samuel
Richardson and withdrew from active management. She married Henry
Fletcher (Fletcher, Henry, 1727?-1807 [Library of Congress Name Authority]),
who was awarded a baronetcy in 1782. [MW]
-
Lobb, Samuel, d. 1760 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A clergyman and friend to Samuel
Richardson. He authored The
Benevolence Incumbent on Us as Men and Christians
(1746). [MW]
-
Lobo, Jerónimo, 1596-1678 (Library of Congress
Name Authority) —
- A Jesuit priest who began missionary
work in Abyssinia in 1625. Samuel
Johnson's translated account of his travels, A Visit to Abyssinia was published
in 1735. [vw]
-
Locke, John, 1632-1704 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Locke's Essay Concerning Human
Understanding (1690) and Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) both
exerted a profound influence on educational and psychological theory during
the eighteenth century and beyond. He argues against absolute monarchy in
favor of government based on civil contract in Two Treatises of Government (1690). Some Thoughts Concerning
Education (1693) also influenced the views on childrearing
and education of a number of his eighteenth-century successors. He published
a long list of additional works on topics such as government, economics,
human psychology, and religion. [MW]
-
Longinus, 1st cent. (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Unidentified Greek author of On the
Sublime, which was for a time thought to be the work of
rhetoretician and philosopher Cassius Longinus, c. 213-273. After his text
was translated into French by Boileau in 1674,
it become one of the central works in eighteenth-century aesthetic theory.
[MW]
-
Longus [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Daphnis and Chloe by Longus
dates from the mid-third century CE. The English language edition by George
Thornley and J.M. Edmonds (1935) opens its introduction explaining,
"Nothing is known of the author of the Pastoralia. He describes Mytilene as if he knew
it well, and he mentions the peculiarities of the Lesbian vine. He may have
been a Lesbian, but such local colouring need not have been gathered on the
spot, nor if so, by a native. His style and language are Graeco-Roman rather
than Hellenistic; he probably knew Vergil's Bucolics; like Strabo and Lucian he writes in
Greek and yet bears a Roman name. Till the diggers discover a dated
papyrus-fragment, we can say provisionally that he may have written as early
as the beginning of the second century after Christ, probably not much later
than the beginning of the third." [MW]
-
Lothario—
- Character in Nicholas Rowe's The Fair Penitent (1703), whose
name became a byword for a cavalier seducer. [MW]
-
Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Often called "The Sun King," Louis XIV presided over a period
of great military success and artistic and architectural achievement. He was
responsible for the construction of the Palace of Versailles, an
architectural marvel. [MW]
-
Louis XVI, King of France, 1754-1793
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- King of France beginning 1774, Louis XVI was guillotined by the French
Revolutionary National Convention in 1793. His failed efforts to reform the
French aristocracy undermined his popularity, and a debt crisis consequent
on his support for the North American colonists in their war for
independence from Britain as well as an extravagant court left him
vulnerable to the hostility of the French middle and lower classes, and his
palace was stormed by a revolutionary mob in 1789.
-
Louvet de Couvray, Jean-Baptiste, 1760-1797
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Louvet authored the licentious novel Les
Amours du Chevalier de Faublas (1786-91). [MW]
-
Lovelace—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9). A deceptively attractive but
vicious seducer and rapist, Lovelace became a byword for a licentious and
predatory aristocrat. [MW]
-
Widow Lovick—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9). [MW]
-
Lucas, Richard, 1648-1715 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Lucas authored a number of theological works, the most famous being An Enquiry after Happiness, the
first volume of which appeared in 1685, and Practical Christianity (1677). [MW]
-
Lucian—
- See Apuleius, Lucius. [MW]
-
Luther, Martin, 1483-1546 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- The German theologian whose challenges to church practice formed the
foundation of the Protestant Reformation. [MW]
-
Lyttelton, George Lyttelton, Baron, 1709-1773
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- A prominent Whig politician and author, George Lyttelton was satirized
by author Tobias Smollett in his novel
The Adventures of Peregrine
Pickle (1751). He was also a friend of notable writers
of his day including Alexander Pope and
Henry Fielding. His most famous
satirical work, Dialogues of the
Dead was published in 1760.[VW][RD]
-
Mackenzie, Henry, 1745-1831 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Two of Mackenzie's novels, The Man
of Feeling (1771) and Julia de Roubigné (1777) rank in the
forefront of eighteenth-century literature of sensibility. Mackenzie also
published The Man of the World
(1773) and edited two periodicals, The
Mirror and The
Lounger. [MW]
-
Macpherson, James, 1736-1796 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Poet and historian James Macpherson is best known for his “translations”
of the Gaelic epic poems by the fictitious ancient bard Ossian. Though the
authenticity of these poems came under attack almost immediately, they
nevertheless exerted a powerful influence on the British Romantic literature
that soon followed. Born in a small town in the Scottish highlands,
Macpherson began his career collecting, then translating Gaelic verse, and
was encouraged by literary antiquarian Hugh Blair to publish some of these
efforts as Fragments of Ancient Poetry,
Collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and Translated from the
Galic or Erse Language (1760). Supported by funds
contributed in response to this publication, Macpherson set out to search
for ancient Celtic poetry, returning with the alleged third century epics
Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem in Six
Books: Together with Several Other Poems (1761) and Temora, an Ancient Epic Poem, in Eight
Books: Together with Several Other Poems (1763), both
professedly "Composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal" and translated by
Macpherson. The authenticity of Macpherson’s Celtic works was vehemently
debated during his lifetime, but only after his death was it determined that
the poems consisted partly of some Gaelic verse dating as far back as the
fifteenth century and partly of Macpherson’s own material. Macpherson’s
historiography and political writing includes An Introduction to the History of Great Britain and
Ireland (1771); The
History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of
the House of Hannover (1775); The Rights of Great Britain Asserted against the Claims of
America: Being an Answer to the Declaration of the General
Congress (1776); Original Papers relative to Tanjore (1777),
also possibly a Macpherson forgery; A Short
History of the Opposition during the Last Session of
Parliament (1779); and The History and Management of the East-India Company, from
its Origin in 1600 to the Present Times (1779).
-
Manley, Mrs. (Mary de la Rivière), 1663-1724 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- Author of the satirical roman a clef The New Atalantis (1709),
Manley was also well-known as a playwright. Her Secret Memoirs
and Manners of Several Persons of Quality (1709)
resulted in her arrest for libel. [MW]
-
Map, Walter, fl. 1200 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Author of a miscellany known as De nugis
curialium. [MW]
-
Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, 121-180 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- Roman emperor and philosopher; born 26 April 121 in Rome, son of Annius
Verus and Domitia Lucilla; originally named M. Annius Verus; became emperor
3 July 161, with name M. Aurelius Antoninus Augustus; at first joint ruler
with Lucius Verus; upon Verus's death in 169, Marcus Aurelius ruled
alone; he died on a military campaign in Viminacium and Sirmium on 17 March
180. Also known as Antoninus, author of Meditations. [RD]
-
Marguerite, Queen, consort of Henry II, King
of Navarre, 1492-1549 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron was published posthumously in
1558-59 with only seventy-two tales complete. [MW]
-
Marius, Gaius, ca. 157-86 B.C. (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Roman general and consul. [MW]
-
Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de, 1688-1763
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Especially for his unfinished La Vie de
Marianne (1731-41), Marivaux is often regarded as
anticipating the novels of sensibility by Samuel Richardson. Marivaux also authored Le Paysan Parvenu (1734–35).
[MW]
-
Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of,
1650-1722 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Consequential general and statesman whose political career was marked by
dramatic swings between favor and disfavor during the volatile shifts in
political power and perspective of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries. [MW]
-
Marmontel, Jean François, 1723-1799 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Marmontel's Bélisaire (1765) is a philosophical novel that
advocates religious tolerance. Les Incas, ou
la destruction de l'empire du Pérou (1777)
denounces the fanaticism of the conquistadors. [MW]
-
Martin, Henry, d. 1721 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A British customs official, Martin (or Martyn) is described by Richard Steele as a chief contributor to
the Spectator. [MW]
-
Martin, Martin, d. 1719 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Author of A Description of the Western
Islands of Scotland (1703). [MW]
-
Mary, Queen of Scots, 1542-1587 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Forced to flee to England after being deposed from rule over a fractious
Scotland, the great niece of Henry
VIII of England and mother of James I of England was beheaded as a threat to the throne of her
distant cousin, Elizabeth I.
[MW]
-
Massinger, Philip, 1583-1640 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A prolific Jacobean dramatist, frequent collaborator with John Fletcher, Francis Beaumont, and others. Among his
many dramas, some of the more important include The Fatal Dowry (c. 1617-1619), Sir John van Olden Barnavelt
(1619), The Custom of the
Country (c. 1619), The Maid
of Honour (c. 1621-1622), The Duke of Milan (c. 1621-1622), The Bondman (1623), The Renegado (1624), The Parliament of Love
(1624), The Unnatural
Combat (c. 1624-1625), A
New Way to Pay Old Debts (1625), The Roman Actor (1626), Believe As You List (1631), The Emperor of the East (1631),
The City Madam (1632), A Very Woman (1634), and The Bashful Lover (1636). [MW]
-
Memnon—
- In Greek myth, King of the Ethiopians, and slayer of Achilles in the
Trojan War. The colossi of Memnon consist of two huge statues on the Nile
near Luxor. One of them was reputed to "sing" at dawn, probably in
consequence of an earthquake during the first century producing fissures
through which air currents moved, sometimes producing a sound. [MW]
-
Menippus, of Gadara [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Cynic philosopher of the third century B.C. [MW]
-
Merlin—
- Legendary wizard from the Arthurian legends. [MW]
-
Merlin, John Joseph, 1735-1803 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- The Belgian born Merlin was known in eighteenth-century London for the
ingenius devices exhibited at Merlin's Mechanical Museum, including
complex mechanical toys and household devices, sickroom supplies such as an
innovative wheelchair and an adjustable wheeled bed, and musical instruments
both whimsical and practical. Merlin's best known patron would probably
have been Dr. Burney, who commissioned
from him a pianoforte with an extended keyboard for playing duets. [MW]
-
Miller, Philip, 1691-1771 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- The eighteenth century's most noted horticulturist, Miller was the
author of several important works on gardening, the most notable of which
were The Gardeners Kalendar
(1731) and The Gardener's
Dictionary (1732), both of which were updated for
numerous additional editions. [MW]
-
Milner, John, 1718-1779 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Founder of the Peckham Academy and author of A Practical Grammar of the Greek
Tongue (1740). Milner also worked as a doctor of chemistry
at the Peckham Academy where he instructed Oliver Goldsmith. [vw]
-
Milton, John, 1608-1674 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- By the late eighteenth century Milton was regarded as one of
Britain's most important literary figures, second only to Shakespeare. His most influential
poetic works included his masque Comus (1637),
"Lycidas" (1638),
"L'Allegro" (1745) and "Il
Penseroso" (1745), Paradise
Lost (1667), Paradise
Regained (1671), and Samson Agonistes (1671). In addition, his
sonnets offered inspiration to the Romantic period sonnet revival. Among his
prose works, Areopagitica
(1644), originally written as a speech, defends freedom of the press. [MW]
-
Molière, 1622-1673 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Pseudonym of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. An actor and director as well,
Molière is probably the best known playwright in the history of French
drama. Some of his most important works include Les Précieuses ridicules (1660, The Affected Young Ladies), Sganarelle, ou Le Cocu
imaginaire (1660, The
Imaginary Cuckold), L'École des maris (1661, The School for Husbands), Le Misantrope (1666, The Misanthrope), L'École des femmes
(1663, The School for Wives),
La Critique de L'École des
femmes (1663, Critique
of The School for Wives), Le Mariage forcé (1664, The Forced Marriage), Le Tartuffe, ou L'Imposteur (1669, Tartuffe, or The Impostor), L'Avare (1669, The Miser), and George Dandin, ou Le Mari
confondu (1669, Georges
Dandin, or The Defeated Husband). [MW]
-
Monimia—
- The orphan character in Otway's
The Orphan. She dies
tragically, poisoning herself out of guilt over the consequences of romantic
entanglements that constitute the play's plot. [MW]
-
Monmouth, James Scott, Duke of, 1649-1685
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Illegitimate son of Charles
II, he was executed for his role in the Monmouth Rebellion of
1685, which attempted to overthrow James
II. [MW]
-
Montagu, Mrs. (Elizabeth), 1720-1800 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- Wealthy literary hostess, critic, patron of the literary arts, and head
of the Bluestocking Circle of women intellectuals, Montagu presided for many
years over salon-style parties famed for their intellectual vivacity. A
landmark in literary criticism by women, her Essay on the Writing and Genius of Shakespeare
(1769) refuted Voltaire's critique of the
poet. As a literary patron, she was especially generous to Elizabeth Carter, on whom she bestowed
an annuity. [MW]
-
Montagu, Mary Wortley, Lady, 1689-1762
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Though the subject of lampoon in the verse of Alexander Pope, Lady Montagu was respected
by many of her contemporaries for her poetry, which she circulated among a
coterie that included a number of the period's notable literary
figures. She is best remembered today, however, for her letters,
particularly the vivid accounts of her travels in Turkey after her
husband's appointment as ambassador to Constantinople. In addition,
after being introduced to Turkish methods of smallpox inoculation, she
worked to introduce the practice in England. [MW]
-
Montalvo—
- See Rodríguez de Montalvo. [MW]
-
Monthly Review, 1749-1845—
- A London periodical established in 1749. Its focus on review and
criticism began a new periodical tradition. It was founded by Ralph Griffiths and featured works by
Oliver Goldsmith. Publications of
the review stopped in 1845. [vw]
-
Montolieu, Isabelle de, 1751-1832 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Montolieu authored Caroline de
Lichtfeld (1786). [MW]
-
Moody, Elizabeth, 1737-1814 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
-
Moore, Edward, 1712-1757 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Moore's most significant works include the plays The Foundling (1748) and The Gamester (1753) as well as
the periodical The World
(1753-6). [MW]
-
Moore, John, 1729-1802 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Scottish physician and author. Titles by the author include
Zeluco (1789) — his most popular novel
—, A View of Society and Manners in
France, Switzerland, and Germany (1779), Medical Sketches (1786),
A View of Society and Manners in
Italy (1787), A Journal
during a Residence in France, from the Beginning of August to the
Middle of December (1792), An Account of the most remarkable Events that
happened at Paris, from that Time to the Death of the late King of
France, Edward (1796), and Mordaunt (1800). [RD]
-
Moore, Sir John (1761-1809) (Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography)—
- Son of John Moore, the physician and
novelist. Sir John Moore became famous in his own right for his successful
military career. He died from an injury he sustained in the 1809 Battle of
Corruna during the Napoleonic invasion of Spain. [RD]
-
Morais, Francisco de, ca. 1500-1572 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- This Portuguese author produced Palmerin
de Inglaterra (Palmerin
of England), a chivalric romance. [MW]
-
Colonel Morden—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Clarissa (1747-9). [MW]
-
More, Hannah, 1745-1833 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- The highly successful evangelical writer Hannah More was also a noted
poet and playwright. Her poem The Bas
Bleu (1786) commemorated Elizabeth Montagu's
bluestocking circle, most of whom she knew well. Her most important plays
included Percy (1778) and The Fatal Falsehood (1779). The
abolitionist Slavery: A Poem
appeared in 1788. She was best known for a collection of moral tales and
instruction for the poor published as Cheap
Repository Tracts (1795-98). Strictures on the Modern System of Female
Education (1799) contributed to the period's debates
on the woman question. Her only novel, Coelebs in Search of a Wife (1808), was also
one of her most popular works. [MW]
-
More, Thomas, Sir, Saint, 1478-1535 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Rhetorician and religious writer Sir Thomas More published Utopia in 1516. [MW]
-
Mulso, Hester—
- See Hester Chapone. [MW]
-
Mulso, Mrs.—
- See Mary Prescott. [MW]
-
Mulso, Thomas [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Brother of Hester Chapone, née Mulso, Thomas Mulso was author of Callistus; or, The man of fashion. And
Sophronius; or, The country gentleman (1768). [MW]
-
Murphy, Arthur, 1727-1805 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A prolific and popular Irish actor, playwright, and eventually barrister,
Murphy also translated classical history and modern poetry and plays,
contributed to and/or edited a number of journals, and authored biographies
on Henry Fielding, Samuel Johnson, and David Garrick. A few of his more notable
plays include The Englishman from
Paris (1756), The Orphan of
China (1759), and The
Way to Keep Him (1760). Murphy also contributed drama
criticism and political essays to a number of journals, including the
Covent Garden Journal,
the Gentleman's Magazine,
the World, the London Chronicle, his own
Gray's Inn
Journal, which he edited and authored under the pseudonym
Charles Ranger, Esq., and publications. He also published political
journalism throughout his writing career. In 1762 he published The Works of Henry Fielding, Esq; with the Life
of the Author. [RD and MW]
-
Murray, John, 1778-1843 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Son of the founder of the publishing house bearing his name. This John
Murray was probably the most important among early nineteenth century
British publishers, bringing out work by authors that included Jane Austen, Lord
Byron, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Walter Scott, Robert Southey, and many others. He helped
establish and published the Quarterly
Review and participated for a time in Blackwood's Edinburgh
Magazine. [MW]
-
Musäus, Johann Karl August, 1735-1787 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- Musäus's stories were translated and published as Popular Tales of the Germans
(1791) by Gothic novelist William
Beckford. Musäus anonymously published Physiognomische Reisen, voran ein
physiognomisch Tagebuch (1778-1779), a satire of the
work of Johann Kaspar Lavater, founder of
the pseudo-sciences of physiognomy and animal magnetism. Anne Plumptre translated the satire as Musaeus's Physiognomical Travels,
Preceded by a Physiognomical Journal (1800). [MW]
-
Nairne, William, Sir, d. 1811 (Library of Congress
Name Authority); baptized 1731 (Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography)—
- 5th Baronet of Dunsinnan; a Scottish judge who became close enough to
Samuel Johnson to accompany him
during part of his Scottish travels. Nairne was celebrated as highly
principled, reputedly once paying for a poor man to take Nairne's own
judgment to an appellate court after realizing his original judgment had
been mistaken. [MW]
-
Nanteuil, Robert, 1623-1678 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- French portrait engraver Robert Nanteuil is credited with elevating
engraving from the status of a craft to that of an art. As an official
engraver for Louis XIV he produced
hundreds of portraits, including likenesses of many of the notable and high
ranking figures of his day [MW]
-
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
- Born in Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte began his career in the French army,
rising to the rank of General for his success during the wars following the
French Revolution. In 1799 he brought about a coup d'etat, assuming the
title of First Consul of the French Republic. In 1804 he was crowned Emperor
of France, leading the French to military conquest over most of Europe. He
reigned as Emperor until April 1814, when he was forced by the allied
European armies to abdicate. Exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, he
remained only until his escape in February 1815, when he returned to France
to resume his title of Emperor. In June of that year he was defeated at the
Battle of Waterloo and exiled once again, this time to the Atlantic island
of Saint Helena, where he remained until his death. His legacy is mixed; he
was responsible for extensive modernizing reform in France, and the
Napoleonic Code widely influenced the legal systems of many nations. On the
other hand, his ambition for world power seemed inexhaustible and his
campaigns were often marked by extraordinary devastation and cruelty towards
non-combatants, including women and children. Napoleon's battle
strategies are still studied in military schools today. [MW]
-
Necker, Jacques, 1732-1804 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Director General of Finance under Louis XVI, Necker had much of the
responsibility for the late eighteenth-century French financial crisis that
precipitated the events leading to the French revolution. He was father to
Germaine de Staël. [MW]
-
Nemesis—
- In Greek myth, the personification of anger. [MW]
-
Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of,
1624?-1674 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Playwright, philosopher, memoirist, and fiction writer, Margaret
Cavendish is probably best remembered for her CCXI Sociable Letters (1664). She first
published Poems, and Fancies in
1653, subsequently revising and republishing it several times. In addition
to the poems, it is notable for its preface, which overtly intervenes to
negotiate the publishing of her own work, an unconventional step for a woman
of her class and time. [MW]
-
Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Profoundly influential mathematician and natural scientist. His writings
were voluminous, with his most important publications being Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia
Mathematica (1687), which included his formulation of
the law of universal gravitation, Opticks:
or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and
Colours of Light (1704), and Arithmetica Universalis (1707). [MW]
-
Odysseus —
- Hero of Homer's Odyssey, which recounts the
adventures of this Ithacan king during his decade-long return from the ten
year Trojan War. [MW]
-
Lady Olivia —
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's The History of Sir
Charles Grandison (1754). [MW]
-
Olivia—
- Character in Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night. [MW]
-
Onslow, Arthur, 1691-1768 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Speaker of the House of Commons from 1728-1761. [MW]
-
Opie, Amelia Alderson, 1769-1853 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Popular as a poet, novelist, and author of short tales, Amelia Alderson
was the wife of artist John Opie, a
significant figure in the circle of Norwich religious dissenters. Her
better-known novels and tales include The
Father and Daughter, A Tale, in Prose (1801), Adeline Mowbray; or, The Mother and
Daughter (1805), Tales
of Real Life (1813), and Tales of the
Heart (1820). Her volume Poems appeared in 1802. Her contributions to
the abolition debate include The Negro
Boy's Tale (1824) and The Black Man's Lament; or, How to Make
Sugar (1826). [MW]
-
Opie, John, 1761-1807 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- British portrait and history painter. [MW]
-
Orestes—
- Subject of Euripides's Oresteia, Orestes was pursued
by the Furies for killing his mother. [MW]
-
Orithyia—
- Daughter of King Erechtheus, this Athenian princess was abducted by Boreas, the wind god of the north. Her story
appears in Ovid's Metamorphosis [MW]
-
Orpheus—
- In Greek myth, a singer and lyre-player whose music was so beautiful it
could tame wild beasts. When his wife Eurydice
was killed by a snake, Orpheus descended to the Underworld to bring her
back. After charming Hades with his music, Orpheus was permitted to retrieve
his wife on condition that he not look back at her until they had returned
to daylight. Just before reaching safety, Orpheus violated this condition,
and Eurydice was returned to the Underworld
permanently. [MW]
-
Orrery, Roger Boyle, Earl of, 1621-1679 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Orrery published a romance called Partheuissa (1664) as well as a number of
dramatic works. [MW]
-
Orsay, Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, comte d',
1801-1852 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- French artistic and literary dandy who spent much time in England and
became the companion of Lady
Blessington. He was reputed to display notable generosity, and his
extravagance contributed to Blessington's financial ruin. [MW]
-
Osborne [or Osborn], John, Sr.—
- Bookseller often associated in business with Samuel Richardson and Charles
Rivington, among others. [MW]
-
Otway, Thomas, 1652-1685 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Playwright Thomas Otway's dramatic productions include Alcibiades (1675), Don Carlos (1676), Titus and Berenice (1676), The Cheats of Scapin (1676),
Friendship in Fashion
(1678), Caius Marius (1679),
The Orphan (1680), The Souldiers Fortune (1680),
Venice Preserved (1682),
and The Atheist (1683). Plagued
with pecuniary difficulties for much of his short life, he died destitute.
[MW]
-
Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D. (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Roman poet whose Metamorphoses inspired many British writers,
especially during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. [MW]
-
Oxford, Robert Harley, Earl of, 1661-1724
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Important literary patron and effective politician who survived multiple
assassination attempt as he rose to the position of Lord Treasurer under
Queen Anne, only to be
impeached and imprisoned on treason charges under George I. [MW]
-
Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- The most important reform writer of the late eighteenth century. His
revolutionary writings made him a hero of the American revolution. His works
were plentiful, but he is most remembered for Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of
America (1776), encouraging American independence from
England; The Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the
French Revolution (1791 with a second part issued in
1792); and The Age of Reason
(1793), an attack on Christianity that Paine published from France, where he
fled on being alerted of his impending arrest for sedition. In France, Paine
was arrested and nearly guillotined for his opposition to the execution of
Louis XVI. [MW]
-
Palmer, Elizabeth—
- née Echlin, she was the daughter of Lady Echlin. [MW]
-
Pamela Andrews—
- Heroine of Samuel Richardson's
Pamela: or, Virtue
Rewarded. [MW]
-
Parnell, Thomas, 1679-1718 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Poet, translator, and classicist. His best regarded narrative poem,
"The Hermit," appeared in Poems on Several Occasions
(1721). Parnell was one of the contributors to the Spectator and the Guardian. [MW]
-
Pearce, Zachary, 1690-1774 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Author of several papers in the Guardian and the Spectator, Pearce also offered modest
assistance to Samuel Johnson in the
compilation of his dictionary. He was made Bishop of Rochester and Dean of
Westminster in 1756. [MW]
-
Pembroke, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of,
1561-1621 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Sister to Sir Philip Sidney and aunt
to Lady Mary Wroth, this literary patroness
was a poet and translator in her own right, authoring a substantial body of
religious verse. [MW]
-
Percy, Thomas, 1729-1811 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Best remembered today for his Reliques
of Ancient English Poetry (1765), poet, translator, and
antiquarian Thomas Percy published Hau Kiou
Choaan or The Pleasing History (1761), consisting of
partly his own translation from a Portuguese version of the Chinese
narrative, and partly a redaction of a previous English translation by a
representative of the British East India Company in China. The novel's
heroine, Shuy Ping Sin, suffers trials somewhat similar to those of the
eponymous heroines of Samuel
Richardson's Pamela (1740-1) and Clarissa (1747-9).He is also the author of
The Friar of Orders
Grey (1765).
-
Pericles, ca. 495-429 B.C. (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Athenian statesman. [MW]
-
Perseus—
- Greek mythological figure who slew the Gorgon and rescued Andromeda. [MW]
-
Pharamond—
- A legendary early king of the Franks from some time before the fifth
century. [MW]
-
Philips, Ambrose, 1674-1749 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Playwright and poet who probably contributed to the Spectator. He was known
primarily for his pastoral poems and for his play The Distrest Mother (1712). He established and
authored much of the content of the Freethinker from 1718-1721. [MW]
-
Phillips, R. (Richard), Sir, 1767-1840 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- One of the most important publishers of the early nineteenth century. In
addition to his many book and pamphlet publications, he operated several
periodicals over his career, including the Leicester Herald, the Museum, the Antiquaries Magazine, and most importantly, the
Monthly Magazine. He was
convicted and imprisoned for a time for selling Thomas Paine's Rights of
Man. [MW]
-
Pilkington, Laetitia, 1712-1750 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- An Irish-born poet and occasional playwright who was known for her witty
conversation. Her Memoirs
(1748-9) and correspondence offer a lively picture of a number of noteworthy
eighteenth-century literary figures. [MW]
-
Chatham, Hester Grenville Pitt, Countess of, 1720-1803
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Formerly, Lady Hester Grenville; Wife of William Pitt, first earl of Chatham. Through their marriage, Pitt formed new political alliances with the
men of the Grenville family. [RD]
-
Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 1708-1778 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Also known as Pitt the Elder to distinguish him from his son, Pitt the
younger. William Pitt is best known for his long politicial career and
controversial political activism; he held the office of British Prime
Minister from 1766 to 1768. [RD]
-
Plato [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Eminent Greek philosopher who lived from c. 428 B.C.-347 B.C. He was a
friend and admirer of Socrates, whom he
features as a character in many of his dialogues and treatises. Among these,
some of the most important include Apology, Crito, Gorgias, Ion, Republic, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium, Timaeus, Critias, and Laws. [MW]
-
Plumptre, Anne, 1760-1818 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Novelist, translator, and travel writer, Plumptre was part of the late
eighteenth-century Norwich dissenting community. She authored several
novels, with Something New, or, Adventures
at Campbell-house (1801) now the best remembered. A Narrative of a Three Years' Residence
in France (1810) is the publication that did the most
for her fame. She also published Musaeus's Physiognomical Travels, Preceded by a
Physiognomical Journal (1800), her translation of Johann Karl August Musäus's
anonymously published Physiognomische
Reisen, voran ein physiognomisch Tagebuch (1778-1779),
a satire of the work of Johann Kaspar
Lavater. [MW]
-
Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Pope was so significant to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
writers who followed him that an exhaustive catalog of his work is far
beyond the scope of a brief note. Among the most important are An Essay On Criticism (1711);
Windsor-Forest (1713); The Rape of the Lock (1714);
Eloisa to Abelard (1719);
The Dunciad (1728); Of False Taste (1732); An Essay On Man (1733-1734);
An Epistle From Mr. Pope, To Dr. Arbuthnot (1735);
Of The Characters of Women: An Epistle
To A Lady (1735); a series of Horatian satires; and a
sequence of pastoral poems. His edition of The Works of Shakespear (1725) was also a landmark, as
were several of his translations, most notably those of Homer's Iliad
(1715-1720) and Odyssey
(1725-1726). [MW]
-
Pratt, Mr. (Samuel Jackson), 1749-1814
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Pratt's Emma Corbett; or, The
Miseries of Civil War (1780) sets a love story against
the backdrop of the American Revolution. [MW]
-
Prescott, Mary—
- Friend of Hester Chapone, and later wife
to Chapone's brother, Thomas Mulso.
[MW]
-
Prévost, abbé, 1697-1763 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- The Abbé Antoine-Francois Prévost authored Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon
Lescaut (1767). He also translated Samuel Richardson's major novels
into French. [MW]
-
Price, Richard, 1723-1791 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Radical Unitarian minister and close friend of Joseph Priestley, Rev. Price is best
remembered for his sermon A Discourse on the
Love of Our Country (1789), which provoked Edmund Burke to write Reflections on the Revolution in
France. [MW]
-
Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Unitarian minister Joseph Priestley was a well known radical
philosopher, theologian, historian, scientist, and reform writer. An
important member of the Dissenting circle that frequented Joseph
Johnson's publishing establishment, he was also a particularly close
friend of Anna Letitia Barbauld. During the
1791 "church and king" riots in Birmingham, Priestley's home
and laboratory were destroyed by the mob, and in 1794 he emigrated to
America. [MW]
-
Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- An important and influential poet, Prior was most successful with his
publication of Poems on Several
Occasions (1718), which included his longest poem,
"Solomon on the Vanity of the World," a
soliloquy on the failure to find worldly happiness. [MW]
-
Proserpine—
- Roman goddess of the Underworld. [MW]
-
Psalmanazar, George, 1679?-1763 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Though probably born in France, Psalmanazar claimed to be a native of
the island of Formosa kidnapped by European missionaries and brought to
Europe against his will. In that capacity he authored several works,
including the far-fetched yet very successful An historical and geographical description of
Formosa (1704) and a number of contributions to the
seven volume An universal history; from the
earliest account of time to the present (with G. Sale,
A. Bower, G. Shelvocke, J. Campbell, J. Swinton, etc., 1736-44). His Memoirs of ****, commonly known by the name
of George Psalmanazar: a reputed native of Formosa
(1764) was published posthumously. [MW]
-
Rabelais, François, ca. 1490-1553? (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- Rabelais's Gargantua and
Pantagruel (1532-64) is a satirical epic that earned
its author wide acclaim. [MW]
-
Radcliffe, Ann Ward, 1764-1823 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- The foremost author in the development of the Gothic novel, Radcliffe
also also produced a travel narrative, A
Journey Made in the Summer of 1794, through Holland and the Western
Frontier of Germany, with a Return Down the Rhine
(1795), which features the same proficiency in natural description that
delighted readers of her fiction. Her novels include The Castles of Athlin and
Dunbayne (1789), A Sicilian
Romance (1790), The
Romance of the Forest (1791), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), The Italian, or The Confessional of the
Black Penitents (1797), and the posthumously published
Gaston de Blondeville
(1826). Her essay "On the Supernatural in Poetry"
appeared posthumously in the New Monthly
Magazine 16 (February 1826): 145-52. [MW]
-
Ramsay, Allan, 1686-1758 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Though known for his Scottish songs and fables, Ramsay's greatest
success was the pastoral drama The Gentle
Shepherd (1725). [MW]
-
Ramsay, Chevalier (Andrew Michael), 1686-1743
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Scottish writer Andrew Michael Ramsay settled in France in 1710, where
he published Les Voyages de
Cyrus in 1727. [MW]
-
Raphael, 1483-1520 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Italian painter appreciated for the harmonious grace of his painting.
[MW]
-
Rapin de Thoyras, M. (Paul), 1661-1725 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Paul de Rapin authored a notable history of England (1724), translated
from the French and published in English in 1725. [MW]
-
Read, John—
- A clerk assistant to the House of Commons, Read was close enough friend
to Samuel Richardson that Richardson
intended to leave Read a mourning ring, but was prevented by Read's own
death. [MW]
-
Reeve, Clara, 1729-1807 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A landmark figure in the development of the Gothic novel, Reeve was also
a poet, educational writer, and literary critic. Her Original Poems in Several
Occasions appeared in 1769 under the initials C.R.
Reeve's most significant novel was The
Champion of Virtue. A Gothic Story (1777), republished
as The Old English Baron
(1778). Its preface offers important comments on the theory of the Gothic
novel. Her historical novel Memoirs of Sir
Roger de Clarendon, the Natural Son of Edward Prince of Wales,
Commonly Called the Black Prince (1793) is also
noteworthy. Reeve's other novels include The Two Mentors: A Modern Story
(1783), The Exiles; or, Memoirs of the Count
de Cronstadt (1788), The School for Widows: A Novel (1791), Plans of Education; With Remarks on the Systems
of Other Writers. In a Series of Letters Between Mrs. Darnford and
Her Friends (1792), and Destination; or, Memoirs of a Private Family (1799).
The Phoenix; or, The History of
Polyarchus and Argenis, is her translation of
Argenis (1621) by John Barclay. In literary criticism Reeve
was best known for The Progress of
Romance (1785) and an exchange with Anna Seward in a series of letters to the Gentleman's Magazine. [MW]
-
Reich, Erasmus—
- A Leipzig bookseller. [MW]
-
Reni, Guido, 1575-1642 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Italian baroque painter of mythological and religious subjects, very
much admired in England during the Romantic period. A portrait of Beatrice
Cenci ascribed to him inspired Percy Bysshe
Shelley's play The Cenci
(1819). [MW]
-
Ribera, Jusepe de, 1591-1652 —
- Spanish artist also known as José de Ribera and as "Lo Spagnoletto."
His paintings followed those of Caravaggio
in style but emphasized scenes of agony and horror such as The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, depicting
the saint's flaying. [MW]
-
Riccoboni, Marie Jeanne de Heurles Laboras de
Mezières, 1713-1792 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- A French epistolary novelist, Riccoboni's influence in England
depended on early translations of several of her novels, including Histoire de M. le marquis de
Cressy (1758; translated as The History of the Marquis de Cressy in 1759),
Lettres de Milady Juliette
Catesby (1759; translated as Letters from Juliet Lady Catesby by Frances Brooke, 1760), Histoire de Miss Jenny (1764;
translated as The History of Miss Jenny
Salisbury the same year), Lettres d'Adélaïde de Dammartin, comtesse de
Sancerre (1767; translated as Letters from the Countess de Sancerre the same
year), and Lettres d'Elisabeth-Sophie
de Vallière à Louise-Hortence de Canteleu, son
amie (1772; translated as Letters from Elizabeth Sophia de Valiere the
same year). [MW]
-
Rich, John, 1682?-1761 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- An English theatre manager and actor. He is responsible for the
popularization of English pantomime. [vw]
-
Richard I, King of England, 1157-1199
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Known as "the Lionhearted," for his brave fighting in the
Crusades, Richard I's legend was popularized through a number of
sources as part of the Robin Hood legends. [MW]
-
Richardson, Anne (a.k.a. Nancy; baptized in
1737)—
- Samuel Richardson's daughter with
his wife Elizabeth. [MW]
-
Richardson, Elizabeth—
- Samuel Richardson's daughter.
[MW]
-
Richardson, Elizabeth, née Leake—
- Samuel Richardson's second wife,
whom he married in 1733. [MW]
-
Richardson, Martha, née Wilde —
- Daughter of Samuel
Richardson's master during his apprenticeship, she became in 1721
his first wife. She died in 1731. [MW]
-
Richardson, Martha (a.k.a. Patty;
baptized in 1736)—
- Samuel Richardson's daughter with
his wife Elizabeth. She married
Edward Brigden. [MW]
-
Richardson, Mary (a.k.a. Polly; baptized
1753—
- Samuel Richardson's daughter with
his wife Elizabeth. She married
Philip Ditcher. [MW]
-
Richardson, Samuel, 1689-1761 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Richardson is known as the inventor of the epistolary novel, which he
developed while working on a collection of model letters, Letters Written to and for Particular
Friends, on the Most Important Occasions, better known
as Familiar Letters (1741). His
three most famous works are all named after the sentimental heroes or
heroines whose stories they relate. Pamela:
or, Virtue Rewarded (1740-1) tells of a virtuous
servant who holds out against her employer's immodest advances until
ultimately he rewards her with marriage. In Clarissa (1747-9), one of the best-loved novels
of the eighteenth century, the heroine is locked up by her parents in an
attempt to force her to marry a wealthy but abhorrent neighboring landowner.
Rescued by Lovelace, a rakish local aristocrat, she is kept prisoner and
subjected to his relentless advances and eventual rape before her prolonged
and dramatic death. The eponymous and infinitely kind and virtuous hero of
Richardson's History of Sir Charles
Grandison (1754) rescues the heroine, Harriet Byron,
after she has been abducted by an iniquitous nobleman. The Italian
Clementina della Porretta is one of Harriet's rivals for the
hero's affection. [MW]
-
Richardson, Sarah (a.k.a. Sally; baptized
1740)—
- Samuel Richardson's daughter with
his wife Elizabeth. She married
Richard Crowther. [MW]
-
Ridley, James, 1736-1765(Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- James Ridley is remembered mainly for his Tales of the Genii, published in 1764 under the pen
name Sir Charles Morell. [vw]
-
Rimius, Henry, d. ca. 1757 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Author ofa number of
tracts on the Moravians, Rimius translated Stinstra's A Pastoral Letter
against Fanaticism into English. [MW]
-
Rivington, Charles, 1688-1742 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- A long-standing business associate and friend to Samuel Richardson, Rivington founded
one of the most important family bookselling concerns of the late eighteenth
century. Among other significant works, his firm published the first volume
of Pamela (1740-1). [MW]
-
Robespierre, Maximilien, 1758-1794 —
- A French lawyer and persuasive public speaker who rose to power during
the French Revolution, Robespierre was the primary force responsible for the
bloody Reign of Terror and the guillotining of tens of thousands.
Robespierre himself lost his life to the guillotine in July 1794.
[MW]
-
Robinson, Thomas—
- See Grantham, Thomas Robinson, Baron. [MW]
-
Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, 1647-1680
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Regarded by many of his time as one of the day's best poets,
Rochester was known for his ribald wit, elegance, cynicism, and incisive
satire, which he exhibited in works that circulated in a coterie associated
with the court of Charles II.
His work presents a particularly impressive example of the collaborative
composition and resulting complexities of attribution associated with
coterie poetry. [MW]
-
Rodríguez de Montalvo, Garci [n.d.]
(Library of Congress Name Authority); c. 1440-c. 1500 (Oxford Companion to Spanish
Literature)—
- Rodríguez de Montalvo's Amadis
de Gaula (1508) is a romance narrative reworked from a
previously existing story dating from at least the late thirteenth century.
Robert Southey's translation
into English appeared in 1803. [MW]
-
Rogers, Woodes, -1732 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Rogers, later Royal Governor of The Bahamas, led the Dampier expedition
against the Spanish which rescued Selkrik on February 1, 1709. His book, A Cruising Voyage Round the World
(1712), sold well due largely to public fascination with Selkrik's rescue. [RD]
-
Roland—
- Originally a historical character who served under Charlemagne, Roland is the legendary hero of
the French chanson de gesteLa Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland) and, as
Orlando, in the L'Orlando
Innamorato of Boiardo and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. [MW]
-
Rosa, Salvatore, 1615-1673 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Especially known for his wild, dramatic landscapes and battle scenes,
Italian painter Salvator Rosa influenced many Romantic writers’ literary
evocations of the sublime. [MW]
-
Rosalind—
- Character in Shakespeare's
As You Like It. [MW]
-
Roscius Gallus, Quintus (d. 62 B.C.; Encyclopedia Britannica)—
- Roman comic actor; the most famous of his time. [MW]
-
Rousseau, Jean-Baptiste, 1670-1741 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- French poet and dramatist whose Odes
sacrées (1702) were well regarded. He was exiled
in 1710 for some defamatory verses attributed to him, and died in poverty.
[MW]
-
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- One of the most influential among eighteenth-century writers, Rousseau
was one of the period's most controversial figures as well. His most
important works translated into English include Discours qui a remporté le prix à l'Académie
de Dijon, en l'année 1750, sur cette question
proposée par la même Académie: "Si le
rétablissement des Sciences et des Arts a contribué à
épurer les moeurs" (1750 as "a citizen
of Geneva"; translated as A Discourse
on the Arts and Science, 1751), Discours sur l'origine et les
fondements de l'inégalité parmi les
hommes (1755; translated as Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of the Inequality
among Mankind, 1762), Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse (1761;
translated 1761), Emile (1762;
translated 1762), Du Contrat social, ou
principes du droit politique (1762; translated as A Treatise on the Social Compact; or, The
Principles of Political Law, 1764), Essai sur l'origine des
langues (1781; translated as Essay on the Origin of Languages, 1966), and
his autobiographical Les Confessions de
J.-J. Rousseau suivies
des Rêveries du promeneur solitaire (1782-89;
translated as The Confessions of J. J.
Rousseau; with The Reveries of the Solitary
Walker, 1783-91). Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse was an
immediate and lasting sensation, exerting a powerful influence on late
eighteenth century European views of sensibility and romantic love. Emile exploits the popularity
of the novel form to champion Rousseau's views on education. [MW]
-
Rowe, Nicholas, 1674-1718 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- English Restoration dramatist. Rowe's play productions include The Ambitious Stepmother
(1700), Tamerlane (1701), The Fair Penitent (1703), The Biter (1704), Ulysses (1705), The Royal Convert (1707), The Tragedy of Jane Shore
(1714), and The Tragedy of the Lady Jane
Gray (1715). Samuel
Johnson's Life of Rowe first appeared as a preface to the
volume of Works of the English
Poets (1779-81) devoted to Rowe and Thomas Tickell. [MW]
-
Sack, Antoinette—
- Daughter of August Friedrich Wilhelm Sack, 1703-1786 (Library of
Congress Name Authority), chaplain to Friedrich Wilhelm I, and sister to
Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack, 1738-1817 (Library of Congress Name
Authority), chaplain successively to Frederick the Great, Frederick Wilhelm
II, and Frederick Wilhelm III. [MW]
-
Saint-Pierre, Bernardin de, 1737-1814
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Saint-Pierre is the author of Paul et
Virginie (1788) and La
Chaumière Indienne (1790). [MW]
-
Saltoun—
- See Fletcher, Andrew. [MW]
-
Savage, Richard, d. 1743 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Savage was best known for satirical poems and occasional verse,
including The Authors of the
Town (1725), The
Bastard (a poem dedicated to his mother on his own
illegitimate birth, 1728), The
Wanderer (1729), and An
Author to Be Lett (1729). He also authored two dramas,
Love in a Veil: a Comedy
(1719) and The Tragedy of Sir Thomas
Overbury (1724). Savage lived a colorful life marked,
among other events, by a conviction and later pardon on murder charges. He
died destitute in prison. [MW]
-
Scarron, Monsieur, 1610-1660 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Dramatist and novelist Paul Scarron is best remembered for his
picaresque Le Roman Comique
(1651-59). [MW]
-
Schiller, Friedrich, 1759-1805 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- As a playwright and lyric poet, Schiller was the most important author
in the German Sturm und Drang
movement. Only after it was published anonymously in 1781 did Die Räuber, with its theme
of taking from the rich to redress the wrongs done to the dispossessed,
attract the attention of a director willing to bring it to the stage. His
Der Geisterseher was
published in 1788. Wallenstein
(1799), the most successful among his many dramas, was translated in part by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge as The Piccolomini (1800) and The Death of Wallenstein
(1800). Wilhelm Tell (1804) was
translated into English as William
Tell in 1829. Schiller authored some admirable
criticism, especially " Über die ästhetische Erziehung
des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen" ("On
the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters,"
1795) and "Über naive und sentimentalische
Dichtung" ("On Naive and Sentimental
Poetry," 1795-1796). He was appreciated for his poetry as
well, with the two volumes of Gedichte being issued in 1800-1803. [MW]
-
Scott, Walter, Sir, 1771-1832 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Poet, novelist, biographer, critic, translator, editor, historian,
antiquarian, and collector of literary curiosities, Scott was especially
well loved for his representations of the culture and scenery of his native
Scotland. His initial fame derived from Romantic poems such as The Lay of the Last Minstrel
(1805), Marmion (1808), and The Lady of the Lake (1810).
But though he continued to publish poetry, it became apparent to Scott by
the time The Lady of the Lake
appeared that public taste was changing, and he responded by turning most of
his attention to novel writing, inaugurating the "Waverly Novels"
series with Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty
Years Since (1814). Among the many novels and tales
that followed, the most important include Guy Mannering (1815), The Antiquary (1816), Rob Roy (1817), The Heart of Midlothian (1818), The Bride of Lammermoor
(1819), Ivanhoe (1819), Kenilworth (1821), and Redgauntlet (1824). Scott also
produced important literary biographies of Dryden and Swift, and an
extensive body of literary criticism, authoring prefaces to reissues of
major works and discussing some of the most memorable literary works of the
early nineteenth century as a reviewer for Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, the Edinburgh Review, the Quarterly Review, and other
periodicals. [MW]
-
Scudéry, M. de (Georges), 1601-1667 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- Brother to Madeleine de
Scudéry, his works include the play L'Amour tyrannique (1640) and the epic
poem Alaric (1655). [MW]
-
Scudéry, Madeleine de, 1607-1701 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- Novelist and salonnière, Mme. de Scudéry was known along with
d'Urfé and Calprènede for promoting literary and
cultural aesthetics of delicate refinement exalting chivalric virtues partly
through long works of romance fiction that constitute the most significant
examples of the Roman de longue haleine,
literally the "long-winded novel." She published most of her work
under the name of her brother, Georges,
but her authorship was recognized. Artamène ou Le Grand Cyrus (1649-1653),
Clélie (1654-1660),
and Mathilde d'Aguilar
(1667) are her best-remembered works. She also published conduct literature
in the form of a series of Conversations excerpted from her novels. [MW]
-
Secker, Thomas, 1693-1768 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Archbishop of Canterbury from 1758. [MW]
-
Sedley, Charles, Sir, 1639?-1701 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Dramatist and poet, he was part of a drinking and literary coterie
attached to the court of Charles
II. His plays include Pompey the
Great (1664), translated from Corneille, The Mulberry-Garden (1668), Antony and Cleopatra (1677),
and Bellamira, Or The Mistress
(1687). [MW]
-
Segrais, Jean Regnauld de, 1624-1701 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- French poet, novelist, translator, and collaborator with Mme. de La Fayette. [MW]
-
Selkirk, Alexander, 1676-1721 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, spent four years shipwrecked on the South
Pacific island. His story was well known at the time and likely served as
Defoe's inspiration for The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures
of Robinson Crusoe. [RD]
-
Sethos—
- A priest of Hephaistos, mentioned briefly in Herodotus, who has at times
been confused with Seti I, father of Ramesses II. [MW]
-
Seward, Anna, 1742-1809 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Known as "The Swan of Lichfield," poet, critic, and literary
biographer Anna Seward often contributed poetry to the Gentleman's Magazine. She
and novelist Clara Reeve carried out a
literary debate there as well through an exchange of letters, with Seward
signing hers "Benvolio." Seward also revised and edited her
personal letters for publication, and though they did not appear until 1811,
they made a noteworthy contribution to the field of literary criticism. [MW]
-
Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley
Cooper, Earl of, 1671-1713 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- British philosopher and historian whose emphasis on feeling in his
writing on history, moral philosophy, and aesthetics helped to establish the
eighteenth-century culture of sensibility. His most important work is Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions,
Times (1711). [MW]
-
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- While Shakespeare work is so widely known and biographies and criticism
so abundant that a brief sketch can only be redundant, it is useful to be
reminded that through the work of the eighteenth-century British literary
history and criticism establishment, Shakespeare had by the later part of
the century attained the status of the most exemplary of British writers, a
national treasure and incontestable proof of Britain's supposed
cultural superiority over the rest of the world. Dramatic productions
include Henry VI, parts 1, 2,
and 3 (c. 1589-1592), Richard
III (c. 1591-1592), The
Comedy of Errors (c. 1592-1594), Titus Andronicus (1594), The Taming of the Shrew (1594),
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
(1594), Love's Labor's
Lost (c. 1594-1595), King John (c. 1594-1596), Richard II (c. 1595), Romeo and Juliet (c.
1595-1596), A Midsummer Night's
Dream (c. 1595-1596), The Merchant of Venice (c. 1596-1597), The Merry Wives of Windsor
(1597), Much Ado About
Nothing (c. 1598-1599), Henry V (1599?), Julius Caesar (1599), As You Like It (c. 1599-1600), Hamlet (c. 1600-1601), Twelfth Night (1601-1602?), Troilus and Cressida (c.
1601-1602?), All's Well That Ends
Well (c. 1602-1603), Measure for Measure (1604), Othello (1604), King Lear (1606), Timon of Athens (c. 1605-1608),
Macbeth (1606), Antony and Cleopatra
(c.1606-1607), Pericles (c.
1606-1608), Coriolanus (c.
1607-1608), Cymbeline (1609),
The Winter's Tale
(1611), The Tempest (1611), Cardenio, probably by
Shakespeare and John Fletcher (c.
1612-1613), Henry VIII, by
Shakespeare and possibly John Fletcher
(1613), and The Two Noble
Kinsmen, by Shakespeare and John Fletcher (1613). Non-dramatic verse includes his sonnets,
which were published in 1609; Venus and
Adonis (1593), The Rape
of Lucrece (1594), and The Phoenix and Turtle (1601). [MW]
-
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Though his life was short, Percy Bysshe Shelley was a prolific poet,
authoring a list of works far too extensive to name in full in a brief note.
Some of the more important of them include the Gothic novel Zastrozzi (1810); The Necessity of Atheism
(1811), a treatise that caused him to be expelled from Oxford; a variety of
political pamphlets; Queen Mab
(1813); Alastor (1816); Adonais (1821); Julian and Maddalo (1824); The Masque of Anarchy (1832);
and many sonnets, odes, and other shorter poems. Among his verse dramas, The Cenci (1819) and Prometheus Unbound (1820) stand
out. His Defense of Poetry
(1821) represents a major landmark in literary criticism. In 1816, after his
first wife's suicide over his 1814 elopement, Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, who was to
become the author of Frankenstein. [MW]
-
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Most famous as the author of Frankenstein (1818) and wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley was
daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. She authored a
significant body of travel narrative, biographical essays, and some literary
criticism as well as numerous novels, novellas, and tales. In addition to
Frankenstein, her novels
include Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837). Among her
shorter works, those that stand out include Mathilda (1959), "The
Transformation" (1831), and "The Mortal
Immortal" (1834), the latter two originally published in
the gift annual The Keepsake.
Her work in editing and introducing her deceased husband's poems did
much to define his reception for many years. [MW]
-
Shenstone, William, 1714-1763 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Writer and longtime friend of Richard
Graves. Shenstone publised his first poetical volume, Poems upon Various Occasions
(1737), anonymously. It contained his most important work, The Schoolmistress, revised
versions of which were published in later years. His later writings included
The Judgement of
Hercules (1741), adressed to George Lyttleton. [RD]
-
Sheridan, Frances Chamberlaine, 1724-1766
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Playwright and novelist Frances Sheridan was wife to actor and theater
manager Thomas Sheridan and mother of
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, one of
the eighteenth century's most important playwrights, who was influenced
by his mother's work. Frances Sheridan published the novel Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph
in two parts in 1761 and 1767. Her play The
Discovery (1763) is worthy of at least as much
attention as any of her fiction. [MW]
-
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Though few in number, some of R. B. Sheridan's plays are still well
remembered. His more important work includes The Rivals (1775), The Duenna (1775), The School for Scandal (1777), The Camp (1778), and The Critic (1779). [MW]
-
Sheridan, Thomas, 1719-1788 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- An Irish actor, theater manager, and educator, Thomas Sheridan was
husband to Frances Sheridan and father
to Richard Brinsley Sheridan. In
addition to his other pursuits, he delivered a series of lectures on
elocution, which he then published in 1762, and a series on reading,
published 1775. [MW]
-
Shirley, Mrs.—
- Probably Henrietta Maria, d.1792 (Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography), née Phillips- wife of Walter Shirley
(Shirley, Walter, 1725-1786 [Library of Congress Name Authority]), a
Methodist clergyman and hymnist actively patronized by Lady Huntingdon. He coauthored A Narrative of the Most Remarkable
Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an
African Prince, as Related by Himself (1770). [MW]
-
Sidney, Philip, Sir, 1554-1586 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Sidney's major works include Arcadia (1590), which he dedicated to his
sister, Mary Herbert, Countess of
Pembroke; the sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella (1591); and a landmark
essay in the history of literary criticism, The Defence of Poesie (1595). [MW]
-
Skelton, Philip, 1707-1787 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- An Irish scholar and friend of Samuel
Richardson. [MW]
-
Skrine, William, of Arlington Street, London,
?1721-83 (The History of Parliament: the
House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke.,
1964)—
- Member of UK Parliment for Callington, 1771-1780. Born of Claverton
Manor; he sold the estate to Ralph Allen in
1758. [RD]
-
Slocock, Benjamin, b. 1691 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Chaplain of St. Saviour's in Southwark. [MW]
-
Smith, Charlotte Turner, 1749-1806 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Poet and novelist Charlotte Turner Smith provides an unusual example of a
Romantic period woman who began as a coterie poet, but out of necessity
became a professional writer. Charlotte Turner was born into a well-to-do
family, but after the early death of her mother, she was consigned first to
the care of an aunt, then to boarding school. Soon after she reached her
teens, her father remarried, and having thus become an inconvenience,
Charlotte was married off at the age of fifteen to the dissipated,
unfaithful, and violent Benjamin Smith, who kept the family perpetually in
debt and with whom she ultimately bore twelve children. The groom's
father clearly understood his son's nature, for at his death he left a
significant fortune specifically for his daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
The will was so complex, however, that the money was tied up in litigation
until after both Charlotte and her husband were dead and the children
matured. In the meantime, Smith's husband was consigned to prison for
debt, where she joined him, there composing poetry for sale in an attempt to
relieve their financial distress. The result was Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Essays (1784), which
was revised and enlarged numerous times until 1797 and eventually included
prefatory essays that delineate principles of sonnet composition. Though she
separated from her husband soon after, Smith continued to support herself,
her children, and to some extent her estranged spouse through her writing.
She first tried translating, and then in 1788 she published her first novel,
Emmeline, the Orphan of the
Castle. The novels that followed include Ethelinde; or, The Recluse of the
Lake (1789), Celestina (1791), Desmond (1792), The Old Manor House (1793), The Wanderings of Warwick
(1794), The Banished Man
(1794), Montalbert (1795), Marchmont (1796), and The Young Philosopher (1798).
The Letters of a Solitary
Wanderer (1800-1) is a collection of short narratives.
Smith's second major poetic publication was The Emigrants: A Poem, in Two Books (1793). Beachy Head: With Other Poems
(1807) was published posthumously. Smith's contributions to youth
literature are also extensive, beginning with Rural Walks: In Dialogues. Intended for the Use of Young
Persons (1795), and continuing through Rambles Farther: A Continuation of Rural
Walks, in Dialogues. Intended for the Use of Young
Persons (1796), Minor
Morals, Interspersed with Sketches of Natural History, Historical
Anecdotes, and Original Stories (1798), Conversations Introducing Poetry: Chiefly on
the Subjects of Natural History. For the Use of Children and Young
Persons (1804), The
History of England, from the Earliest Records to the Peace of
Amiens, in a Series of Letters to a Young Lady at
School (1806), which was begun by Smith but completed by
Mary Hays when Smith became too ill to
finish the project, and The Natural History
of Birds: Intended Chiefly for Young Persons (1807).
Smith also published two translations, the first in 1785 translates
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Antoine-Francois Prévost. The
second translates anecdotes from François
Gayot de Pitaval's Causes
Célèbres et interessantes as The Romance of Real Life, (1787).
[MW]
-
Smith, Lawrence, 1656-1728 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Author of Conversation in Heaven. Being
Devotions; consisting of meditations and prayers on several
considerable subjects in practical divinity (1693).
[MW]
-
Smollett, Anne Lassells, 1721-1791 (Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography)—
- Tobias Smollett's wife. Daughter of a Jamaican Plantation owner.
Anne lived in Jamaica with her mother, then twice widowed, in Kingston.
Smollett met and married Anne on a visit to Jamaica in 1743. Smollett
described her as 'a delicate creature, who had scare ever walked a mile
in her life.' [vw]
-
Smollett, James, d. 1714 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)
—
- The second son of Sir James
Smollett and uncle to Tobias
Smollett. [vw]
-
Smollett, James of Bonhill, d. 1775 (Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography) —
- This James Smollett was grandson of Sir
James Smollett, grandfather also to Tobias Smollett, and was therefore Tobias Smollett's cousin. On the death of his grandfather, Sir James, James Smollett inherited the
grandfather's Bonhill estate.
-
Sir James Smollett, 1648-1731 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- The grandfather of Tobias Smollett.
He sat on a variety of parliamentary commissions and committees; however,
his most important position was the commissioner for union with England,
first in August 1702, and more successfully in February 1706. He helped
frame the articles of the union, and in 1707 was the elected member for
Dunbartonshire to the first parliament of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain. His manuscript Memorials of Certain
Passages of the Lord's Signal Mercies provide his
comments on the affairs of the time. [vw]
-
Smollett, T. (Tobias), 1721-1771 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- A versatile author who produced satire, history, drama, poetry,
polemical pamphlets, and journalism, Smollett is best known for his
picaresque novels such as The Adventures of
Roderick
Random (1748, modeled after Lesage's Gil Blas, which Smollett
translated), The Adventures of Peregrine
Pickle (1751), The
Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom (1753), and The Expedition of Humphry
Clinker (1771). At the age of eighteen, he authored his
first play, The Regicide
(1749). His literary journalism was important as well. He reviewed at the
Monthly Review before
helping to found and for many years conduct the Critical Review, which became the Monthly Review's most
important rival. Smollett was founder of the British Magazine and the Briton as well. Smollett also
wrote many poems, including The Ode to Leven
Water (1746), The Tears
of Scotland (1746), Verses to a young Lady playing on a Harpsichord and Singing (1746).
His satirical epistles Advice: A
Satire (1746) and Reproof: A Satire (1747)
were the cause of much trouble. Smollett considered his
major work to be A Complete History of
England which was published in four volumes from
1758-1765. Not afraid to share his opinion regarding British politics,
Smollett also wrote The History and
Adventures of an Atom (1769), which satirized the
British handling of the Seven Years' War. A rare, first-hand account of
his travels and domestic life were published in his Travels through France and Italy
(1766).
-
Socrates [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name Authority); c.
470-399 B.C. (Encyclopedia
Britannica)—
- Greek philosopher whose teachings caused him to be condemned to death.
[MW]
-
Solon, ca. 630-ca. 560 B.C. (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Greek statesman and poet whose reform-oriented writings are known mostly
through quotation by later Greek historians. [MW]
-
Southerne, Thomas, 1660-1746 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Irish dramatist Thomas Southerne adapted his best-known play Oroonoko (1695) from the 1688
novel, Oroonoko; Or, The Royal
Slave, by Aphra Behn
(1640-1689). [MW]
-
Southey, Robert, 1774-1843 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- An important translator, biographer, travel writer, and critic as well
as poet laureate from 1813, Southey enjoyed his most enthusiastic audience
for his romantic verse tales such as Thalaba
the Destroyer (1801), Madoc (1805), Metrical Tales, and Other Poems (1805), and The Curse of Kehama (1810). His
early drama, The Fall of
Robespierre (1794), was authored in collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Some of his
other more important works include the epic Joan of Arc (1796), Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814), Wat Tyler (1817), and A Vision of Judgement (1821).
His literary journalism appeared in the Critical Review, the Annual Review, the Quarterly Review, and the Foreign Quarterly Review. [MW]
-
Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- One of the most revered of English poets, Spenser is best known for his
allegorical epic The Faerie
Queene (1590-1596), which features among its subjects the
adventures of the Redcrosse Knight as he attempts to save the virgin Una
from the machinations of the villainous Archimago and Duessa. Another of his
long poems, The Shepheardes Calender
(1579) combines the form of pastoral eclogue with political
satire. Spenser's important shorter poems include a series of love
sonnets that follow a unique rhyme pattern of Spenser's origination.
[MW]
-
Staël, Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine),
1766-1817 (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Staël's Delphine
(1803) was popular among British women, but her Corinne, ou l'Italie (1807) exerted a
crucial influence on Romantic women's conceptions of the female artist.
Her career as a critic, literary philosopher, and analyst of national
character began with Lettres sur les
ouvrages et le caractère de J.-J. Rousseau (1788), translated as Letters on the Works and Character of Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (1789). Some of the most important of
her publications that followed include De
l'influence des passions sur le bonheur des individus et des
nations (1796), translated as A Treatise on the Influence of the Passions upon the
Happiness of Individuals and of Nations (1798); De la littérature considérée
dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales
(1800), translated as A Treatise on Ancient
and Modern Literature (1803); and De l'Allemagne
(1810-1813), translated as Germany (1813). Also a dramatist, Staël
authored some fourteen plays, a number of which were performed in salons,
but were little-known outside those settings. She was the daughter of Jacques Necker, Director General of
Finance under Louis XVI. [MW]
-
Steele, Richard, Sir, 1672-1729 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Poet, dramatist, and satirist, Irish writer Sir Richard Steele is best
remembered for his collaboration with Joseph
Addison and Jonathan Swift in
essay periodicals such as the Spectator, the Tatler, and the Guardian, many of which he penned, as did
Addison and especially Swift, under the pseudonym "Isaac
Bickerstaff." [MW]
-
Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Sterne's two most important novels, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
(1760-67) and The Sentimental
Journey (1768), mark him as a major figure in the
history of both sentimental and experimental fiction. [MW]
-
Stinstra, Johannes, 1708-1790 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Controversial Dutch theologian and translator. [MW]
-
Strada, Famiano, 1572-1649 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Strada's Prolusiones
academicæ (1617) were published in numerous
editions during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Joseph Addison adapted sections into
English prose for the Spectator
and the Guardian. [MW]
-
Stuart, Charles Edward—
- See Charles Edward, Prince, grandson of James II, King of England. [MW]
-
Sulla, Lucius Cornelius [n.d.] (Library of Congress
Name Authority); 138-78 B.C. (Encyclopedia
Britannica)—
- Dictator of Rome. [MW]
-
Sully, Maximilien de Béthune, duc de, 1559-1641
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- French statesman and financial minister to Henry IV of France. [MW]
-
Sutton, Robert, Sir, 1671-1746 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Diplomat Robert Sutton married Judith, née Tichborne, Countess of Sunderland (Sutton, Judith, ca.
1702-1749 [Library of Congress Name Authority]), with whom he had a
daughter, Miss Isabella Sutton. [MW]
-
Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A prolific poet, satirist, and political pamphleteer, Swift began his
career in satirical fiction with A Tale of a
Tub (1704). His most famous work is Travels into Several Remote Nations of the
World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then
a Captain of Several Ships (1726). A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children
of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents, or the
Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick
(1729) is his best remembered non-fiction satire. He collaborated with Joseph Addison and Richard Steele on the Tatler, publishing essays both
there and independently in the character of "Isaac Bickerstaff," a
penname he sometimes shared with his collaborators. Swift's Examiner is one of the three or
four most important early eighteenth-century essay periodicals, a genre best
exemplified by Addison's Spectator. Referring to his Dublin origins, he
is sometimes called "the Irish dean." [MW]
-
Talbot, Catherine, 1721-1770 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Noted eighteenth-century bluestocking, author, and scholar Catherine
Talbot declined to publish any but a very few of her writings during her
lifetime. They were edited by her friend Elizabeth Carter as The Works of
the Late Mrs. Catherine Talbot (1780). On her
father's early death she was adopted by her father's friend, Thomas Secker, later Archbishop of
Canterbury. [MW]
-
Tasso, Torquato, 1544-1595 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- The Italian poet whose La Gierusalemme
Liberata (Jerusalem
Delivered) dates from 1581 also garnered much sympathy
among later readers for his long confinement to a mental asylum. Rinaldo (1562), his first
publication, is an epic poem. Aminta, written in 1573 and published in 1591, and
Torrismondo (1586) are
dramas. His shorter poems include many odes and love sonnets. He authored
criticism as well, especially Dircorsi
dell'arte poetica (1587) and Discorsi del poema erico(1594). [MW]
-
Tate, Nahum, 1652-1715 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Playwright and librettist known more for adaptations than for original
compositions, he became poet laureate in 1692. [MW]
-
Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Author of The Great Exemplar
(1649) and Cases of Conscience
(1671).[vw]
-
Telemachus—
- In Homer's The Odyssey, the son of Odysseus. [MW]
-
Teniers, David, 1610-1690 (Library of Congress Name
Authority);—
- Teniers was the most famous in a family of celebrated Flemish painters
that included his father, David Teniers the Elder (1582–1649), himself,
David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690), his son, David Teniers III
(1638–1685), and a much less well known grandson, David Teniers IV. Teniers
the Younger specialized in depictions, often comic, of Flemish peasantry. He
was related by marriage to the Bruegel family of painters. [RD] and
[MW]
-
Terrasson, Jean, 1670-1750 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- The Abbé Terrasson's Sethos
(1731) fictitiously purports to recount incidents in the
life of an ancient Egyptian as translated from a Greek manuscript. It served
as the source for much of the material on Freemasonry for Mozart's The Magic Flute (1791). [MW]
-
Thalaba—
- Character in Robert Southey's Thalaba the Destroyer (1801).
[MW]
-
Theophrastus (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Also known as Theophrastus of Eresus. He was a peripatetic philosopher
who studied in Athens as a pupil of Alcippus; he may have studied with Plato and probably had contact with Aristotle.
After Aristotle's death, he became the head of the peripatetic school
in Athens. [RD]
-
Thomson, James, 1700-1748 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Thomson's nature and landscape poem The Seasons (1730) was much revered by his
contemporaries and influenced Romantic period poetic depiction of nature.
Other works include several republican political poems including the
unsuccessful Liberty
(1735-1736); The Castle of
Indolence (1748), a Spenserian allegory; and five dramatic tragedies: The Tragedy of Sophonisba
(1730), Agamemnon (1738); Edward and Eleonora (1739), Tancred and Sigismunda (1745),
and Coriolanus (1749). [MW]
-
Tibullus (Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Albius Tibullus is a first century BCE Latin poet and elegist. The
Library of Congress lists his birth date between 60 and 50 BC; death date
between 19 and 17 BC.
-
Tickell, Thomas, 1686-1740 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Poet, translator, friend of Joseph
Addison, and occasional contributor of essays on pastoral poetry
to the Guardian, Tickell was
also connected by marriage to Lady
Echlin's circle. Tickell's elegy on Addison was thought
by many of his contemporaries to be one of the finest in the language. [MW]
-
Turpin, Archbishop of Reims, fl. 748 or 9-753
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Said to be a peer of Charlemagne,
Turpin appears in La Chanson de
Roland. [MW]
-
Tusser, Thomas, 1524?-1580 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A farmer and writer on agricultural methods, Tusser first published A Hundreth Good Pointes of
Husbandrie in 1557, then repeatedly expanded it to
become Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good
Husbandrie by 1580. [MW]
-
Ulysses —
- Latin form of Odysseus. [MW]
-
Urfé, Honoré d', 1567-1625 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- L'Astrée appeared in
installments between 1607 and 1627, and was translated into English as Astrea (1657-1658). Along with
Calprènede and Scudéry, d'Urfé was
known for promoting literary and cultural aesthetics of delicate refinement
exalting chivalric virtues partly through long works of romance fiction that
constitute the most significant examples of the Roman de longue haleine, literally the "long-winded
novel." [MW]
-
Vane, Frances Anne. Viscountess, 1713-1788
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Wife to the eccentric William Holles Vane (1713-1789), 2nd Viscount Vane.
She was known for her many marital infidelities. Her Memoirs of a Lady of Quality were
included in Tobias Smollet's novel
The Adventures of Peregrine
Pickle (1751). [vw]
-
Venus—
- Roman goddess of love. [MW]
-
Viola—
- Character in Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night, or What You
Will (1601-1602?). [MW]
-
Virgil [n.d.] (Library of Congress Name Authority); 70-19
B.C. (Encyclopedia
Britannica)—
- Roman poet whose rich and complex Eclogues (c. 37 B.C.) and Georgics (29 B.C.) provided the
model for poetry about rural life to subsequent ages. His Aeneid (written c. 29-19 B.C.),
an epic poem on the founding of the city of Rome that centers on the story
of the hero Aeneas, was incomplete at the time of his death. [MW]
-
Vitriarius, Johann Jakob, 1679-1745 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Notable lawyer and professor of law at Heidelberg University and Leyden
University. [RD]
-
Voiture, Monsieur de (Vincent), 1597-1648 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- French court and occasional poet, Voiture was admired for the letters
and poems he circulated among a fashionable literary coterie. [MW]
-
Voltaire, 1694-1778 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- French author of a voluminous body of poetry, criticism, history, and
drama, Voltaire was probably best known for his comic yet philosophical
fiction. Among his most notable works, his first dramatic tragedy, Oedipe (1718), was a tremendous
success. His epic poem La
Henriade (1723) celebrates the life of Henry IV of France.
Zaire (1732) is a tragic
love drama. Letters Concerning the English
Nation (1733) offers a comparison between England and
France that is favorable to England particularly for its religious
tolerance. Le Siècle de Louis XIV
(1751) celebrates the humanistic achievements during the era of that
monarch's reign. Le Monde Comme Il Va,
Vision De Babouc (1748) and Candide; ou, L'optimisme (1759) satirize
overly naïve optimism. L'Ingénu (1767) offers social satire
through a depiction of innocent simplicity in the "noble savage"
vein. [MW]
-
Wace, ca. 110 0-ca. 1175 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Author of the Brut
d'Angleterre (Le
Roman de Brut, 1155). [MW]
-
Wächter, Leonhard, 1762-1837 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- The Sorcerer probably
refers to Teufelsbeschwörung, by Viet Weber,
Wächter's pseudonym. [MW]
-
Wallace, William, Sir, 1272(?)-1305 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Leader in the Wars of Scottish Independence, Wallace became
Scotland's greatest national hero and the subject for several literary
works as well as the film biography Braveheart. [vw]
-
Waller, Edmund, 1606-1687 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Poet and notable
legislator, Waller
authored a variety of coterie verse, including "The Story of
Phoebus and Daphne, Applied
"
(1645). [MW]
-
Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- Son of British Prime Minister Robert
Walpole, Horace Walpole was a prolific letter writer, memoirist,
poet, dramatist, novelist, antiquarian, and critic. He is best known for
inaugurating the Gothic novel with The
Castle of Otranto (1764), a tale of aristocratic
decadence, incest, and the supernatural. He privately printed and circulated
among his acquaintances copies of a second gothic work, The Mysterious Mother (1768),
this time a blank verse tragedy on the theme of Catholicism and incest. His
biographical account of Roger Boyle appears
in A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble
Authors of England, With Lists of Their Works (1758).
Walpole's other works include Anecdotes
of Painting, enlarged from Vertue (1762) and An Essay on modern Gardening
(1780). Walpole is also well known for his "little jeu
d'esprit" with Jean-Jacques
Rousseau. One of Walpole's publically circulated letters to
David Hume openly mocked what Walpole
percieved to be Rousseau's
self-important nature. The letter offered a spurious invitation to Potsdam
from the King of Prussia to Rousseau. The letter caused quite a stir among British and French
high society. Walpole succeeded as the fourth Earl of Orford in 1791 on the
death of his nephew George Walpole, the third Earl of Orford.
-
Walpole, Robert, Earl of Orford, 1676-1745 (Library
of Congress Name Authority)—
- Father of Horace Walpole, British
Prime Minister from 1721 to 1742, and the author of Bob—Lynn against Franck—Lynn, or, A
full history of the controversies and dissentions in the family of
the Lynn's (1732). [RD] [VW]
-
Warburton, William, 1698-1779 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Eventually to become Bishop of Gloucester, Warburton entered the clergy
largely to pursue his interest in literature. Controversial as both a
theologian and critic, he held a collaborative view of literary creation,
particularly evident in his friendship with Alexander Pope. Warburton's edition of the works of Shakespeare is an early landmark in
the body of the criticism that brought Shakespeare to the apex of the British literary canon. [MW]
-
Warton, Joseph, 1722-1800 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Poet, critic, literary editor, and brother to Thomas Warton. His major poetic works
include Fashion: An Epistolary Satire to a
Friend (1742), The
Enthusiast; or, the Lover of Nature (1744), Odes on Various Subjects
(1746), Ranelagh House: A
Satire (1747), and An Ode,
Occasioned by Reading Mr. West's Translation of
Pindar (1749). An Essay on
the Writings and Genius of Pope was published in 1756, then revised as An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (1762), with
additional revised editions thereafter. [MW]
-
Warton, Thomas, 1728-1790 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Also a poet and critic, Thomas Warton, brother to Joseph Warton, is best remembered as a
literary historian, particularly for The
History of English Poetry, from the Close of the Eleventh to the
Commencement of the Eighteenth Century (1774-1781). His
poem The Triumph of Isis: A Poem. Occasioned
by Isis: An Elegy appeared in 1750. Warton's
sister Jane appears to have been a critic as well, assisting him with some
of his work. [MW]
-
Watts, Isaac, 1674-1748 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Clergyman, theologian, and poet, Watts was interested in the application
of Lockean theories of sensation to theological questions. His hymns, the
genre for which he is best known, established the form for subsequent
generations. [MW]
-
Weber, Viet—
- Pseudonym of Leonhard Wächter. See Wächter. [MW]
-
West, Mrs. (Jane), 1758-1852 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- The works of novelist, poet, and conduct book author Jane West
(1758-1832), including the novel A
Gossip's Story (1796), tended toward conservative
didacticism. [MW]
-
Westcombe, Sarah (or Wescomb), later Mrs. John
Scudamore—
- Not a formally adopted daughter of Samuel Richardson, but a close correspondent. She married John
Scudamore of Kentchurch, Herefordshire. [MW]
-
Williams, Lady Betty—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's The History of Sir
Charles Grandison (1754). [RD]
-
Wharton, Philip Wharton, Duke of, 1698-1731
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Politically controversial and personally profligate politician who
flaunted his Jacobite sympathies. He published the True Briton from 1723 to 1724 with Samuel Richardson as printer. Some
believe that Wharton served as Richardson's model for the character
Lovelace in Clarissa. [MW]
-
Wharton, Thomas, first marquess of Wharton,
1648-1715 (Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography)—
- Father to Philip, Duke of Wharton. After a rather colorful youth, Thomas
Wharton rose to political influence in the Protestant regime installed
through the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He became lord lieutenant of
Ireland in 1688 and appointed Joseph
Addison as his secretary. [MW]
-
Wieland, Christoph Martin, 1733-1813 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Geschichte des Agathon (1776-7,
expanded in 1773 and 1794) is Wieland's fictionalized autobiography.
Wieland's novel Geheime Geschichte des
Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus (1791) examines
fanaticism over scientific and philosophical developments. [MW]
-
Wilde, John—
- Samuel Richardson's master during
his apprenticeship from 1706-1713, and the father of Richardson's first
wife, Martha. Wilde's son
Allington remained Richardson's lifelong friend. [MW]
-
Wilkes, John, 1725-1797 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A political leader and reformer, Wilkes was elected to parliment in 1757.
He began to publish an anti-Tory weekly, the North Briton, in 1762. [vw]
-
Wilkie, David, Sir, 1785-1841 (Library of Congress
Name Authority)—
- A Scottish painter, Wilkie is best known for his genre paintings.
[VW]
-
William III, King of England, 1650-1702
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- Known as William of Orange, this Protestant Dutch prince deposed his
father-in-law James II and ascended to
the British throne in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. [MW]
-
Williams, Mr.—
- Character in Samuel
Richardson's Pamela
(1740-1). [MW]
-
Wilmot, John—
- See Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl
of. [MW]
-
Wilson, Thomas, 1663-1755 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- Bishop of Sodor and Man before Mark
Hildesley, Wilson began a translation of the bible into the local
dialect that Hildesley later completed. [MW]
-
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Wife of radical author William Godwin
and mother of novelist Mary Shelley, Mary
Wollstonecraft was a versatile professional writer who attained fame for her
radical ideas through her two political treatises, A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790),
which responded to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in
France, and A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), her most
famous publication and one of the greatest landmarks in the history of
writing about women. Wollstonecraft's first publication was an
educational treatise, Thoughts on the
Education of Daughters (1787), which was published by
radical London bookseller Joseph Johnson,
for whose publishing business Wollstonecraft worked as a writer, translator,
and editor for a number of years. Wollstonecraft's fiction includes Mary, A Fiction (1788), Original Stories, from Real Life (1788), and
the incomplete Maria; or, The Wrongs of
Woman (1798), published posthumously. Her conduct book,
The Female Reader; Miscellaneous Pieces
in Prose and Verse; Selected from the Best Writers and Disposed
under Proper Heads; For the Improvement of Young
Women., appeared under the pseudonym Mr. Cresswick, teacher of
Elocution (London, 1789) An Historical and
Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French
Revolution (1794) was the fruit of
Wollstonecraft's residence in France during the Revolution. Letters Written During a Short Residence in
Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796) compiled her
correspondence with her lover, the American Gilbert Imlay, for whom she
traveled to Scandinavia as a business emissary. "On Artificial
Taste," an essay that appeared in the Monthly Magazine (April 1797), was revised,
probably by William Godwin, for
republication as "On Poetry" in Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman (1798). Wollstonecraft also produced at
least one additional fictional sketch, translations of texts from French,
Dutch, and German, a few adaptations, and a large body of reviews for Joseph Johnson's Analytical Review. [MW]
-
Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Wordsworth's most famous publication is Lyrical Ballads (with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1798;
repeatedly revised and expanded, including its famous Preface, added in 1800
and expanded thereafter). Some of his other more important poetic works
include An Evening Walk (1793),
Descriptive Sketches
(1793), Poems, in two Volumes
(1807), The Excursion, which
was to be a portion of the never-completed The Recluse (1888), and which included
"The Ruined Cottage," Poems (1815), The White Doe of Rylstone (1815), Peter Bell (1819), Yarrow Revisited (1835), Poems, Chiefly of Early and Late
Years (1842), which included a tragic drama that was
not staged in Wordsworth's lifetime, and The Prelude, Or Growth of a Poet's Mind
(1850, posthumous), which was substantially complete by 1805, but which
Wordsworth continued to work on until his death. [MW]
-
Wroth, Mary, Lady, ca. 1586-ca. 1640 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Niece of Sir Philip Sidney and Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke,
Wroth authored, among other works, The
Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania (1621) and a sonnet
sequence, Pamphilia to
Amphilanthus, which was printed at the end of Urania. [MW]
-
Wycherley, William, 1640-1716 (Library of
Congress Name Authority)—
- Playwright who wrote four popular plays in his lifetime: the Love in a Wood (1671), the
Gentleman
Dancing-Master (1672), the Country Wife (1675), and the Plain Dealer (1676). [RD]
-
Xenophon [n.d.} (Library of Congress Name Authority);
431-c. 350 B.C. (Encyclopedia
Britannica—
- Greek historian. A devotee of Socrates, he
authored several laudatory works about him. [MW]
-
Young, Edward, 1683-1765 (Library of Congress Name
Authority)—
- A versatile poet, Young is best remembered for his Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, &
Immortality (1742-1746), which attained phenomenal
popularity and went through hundreds of printings over the century following
its publication. His satires were published as The Universal Passion (1725-1728) and revised
as a single volume, Love of Fame, the
Universal Passion (1728). He also authored the
tragedies Busiris (1719), The Revenge (1721), and The Brothers (1752) as well as
the poem Resignation (1762).
[MW]
-
Zinzendorf, Nicolaus Ludwig, Graf von, 1700-1760
(Library of Congress Name Authority)—
- German Moravian religious and social reformer, missionary to the
Americas, and prolific theological writer, Zinzendorf authored hymns,
poetry, philosophical treatises, and sermons. [MW]
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