A Brief Handbook of English Authors

Ramsay [răm´zĭ], Allan. 1685–1758. Scotch poet. Author of the pastoral poem The Gentle Shepherd. See edition 1800, with Life; also Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 3.

Ramsay, Edward Bannerman. 1793–1872. Author of the famous Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character, Sermons, Pulpit Table-Talk, etc. See 23d edition of the Reminiscences, 1874, and Memorials and Recollections, by C. Rogers.

Randolph, Thos. 1605–1634. Poet and dramatist. His works are inferior in quality. The Jealous Lover is one of his plays. See Works of, edited by Carew Hazlitt, 1875, and Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 2.

Rankine, Wm. John Macquorn. 1820–1872. Writer on mechanics. Author Applied Mechanics, The Steam Engine, Songs and Fables, etc. See Memoir, by P. G. Tait. Pub. Apl. Mac.

Rawlinson, George Henry. 1815 – . Historian. Author The Five Great Monarchies of the Eastern World, Manual of Ancient Hist., The Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy, etc. Pub. Apl. Do. Est. Har. Mac.

Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke. 1810 – . Archæological writer of note. Bro. to G. H. R.

Ray, John. 1628–1705. Naturalist. Author of the Historia Plantarum, etc. See Life, by Wm. Derham, 1760.

Reach, Angus Bethune. 1821–1856. Novelist and miscellaneous writer. Author of Leonard Lindsay, The Natural Hist. of Bores and Humbugs, The Comic Bradshaw, etc. See Chas. Mackay's Recollections. Pub. Rou.

Reade, Charles. 1814 – . Novelist. A writer of strong genius, whose style is piquant and aggressive. Put Yourself in his Place, Griffith Gaunt, The Cloister and the Hearth, and Christie Johnstone are among his best novels. See Atlantic Monthly, Aug. 1864. Pub. Har.

Redding, Cyrus. 1785–1870. Miscellaneous writer. Author of A Wife and Not a Wife, Remarkable Misers, Past Celebrities, etc.

Reeve, Clara. 1725–1803. Novelist. Author Old English Baron, etc.

Reeve, Lovell. 1814–1865. Conchologist. Author Conchologia Iconica, Elements of Conchology, Conchologia Systematica, etc. Pub. Put.

Reeves, Mrs. Helen Buckingham [Mathers]. 1852 – . Novelist. Author of Cherry Ripe, Comin' thro' the Rye, My Lady Green Sleeves, As He Comes Up the Stair, Land o' the Leal, Sam's Sweetheart, etc. Pub. Apl.

Reid, Mayne. 1818–1883. Author of tales of adventure for young readers. Pub. Rou. Sh.

Reid, Thomas. 1710–1796. Scotch metaphysician. Author Inquiry into the Human Mind, Essays on the Intellectual Powers, etc. See Hamilton's edition of Reid, 1846.

Reynolds, Frederick. 1765–1841. Dramatist. Author of nearly 100 plays, of which The Dramatist and Folly as it Flies are the best.

Reynolds, George W. M. – 1879. Novelist. Author Mysteries of London, Reformed Highwayman, etc. Style sensational, and influence pernicious. Pub. Di. Pet.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua. 1723–1792. Artist. Author Discourse on Painting. See Malone's edition of, 1797. See Lives by Malone, Northcote, Farrington, Cotton, and Leslie, Mrs. Thackeray-Ritchie's Miss Angel, and Reynolds as a Portrait Painter, by J. E. Collins.

Ricardo [re-kar´do], David. 1792–1823. Political economist. Author High Price of Bullion, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, etc. See McCulloch's edition, 1846.

Rice, James. 1843–1882. Novelist. Colleague of Walter Besant, and author with him of Sweet Nelly My Heart's Delight, Golden Butterfly, and other novels. See Besant, Walter. Pub. Har.

Richards, Alfred Bate. 1820–1876. Poet and dramatist. Author of Cromwell, Vandyck, and other dramas, Medea, and other vols. of poems, and the novel So Very Human.

Richardson, Chas. 1775–1865. Lexicographer. Author of an Eng. Dict. and The Study of Language.

Richardson, Samuel. 1689–1761. Novelist. Author Pamela, Clarissa Harlowe, and Sir Charles Grandison. The slow movement of these stories does not appeal readily to modern taste, but they display a wonderful knowledge of the workings of the human heart. Clarissa, the best, is a fine piece of realism. See Taine's Eng. Lit., Masson's Novelists and their Styles, and Leslie Stephen's Hours in a Library. Pub. Ho. Rou.

Richmond, Leigh. 1772–1827. Moralist. Author The Dairyman's Daughter, etc. Pub. Ca. Phi. Rou.

Riddell, Mrs. Charlotte Eliza Lawson. 18 – . Novelist. Author George Geith, A Life's Assize, The Senior Partner, etc. Pub. Clx. Est. Har. Pet.

Riddell, Henry Scott. 1798–1870. Scotch poet. See Grant Wilson's Poets of Scotland.

Riddell, Mrs. J. H. See Riddell, Mrs. Charlotte.

Ritchie, Mrs. Anne Isabella. See Thackeray-Ritchie.

Ritchie, Leitch. 1801–1865. Miscellaneous writer. Author of Headpieces and Tailpieces, Wearyfoot Common, Romance of French History, etc.

Ritson, Joseph. 1752–1803. Antiquary and critic.

Roberts, Margaret. 1833 – . Novelist. Author Mademoiselle Mori, Denise, The Atelier du Lys, In the Olden Time, On the Edge of the Storm, Osé, Tempest tossed, Madame Fontenoy, Summerleigh Manor, etc. Pub. Ho.

Robertson, Frederick Wm. 1816–1853. Religious writer. Author 4 vols. of sermons, which rank among the finest religious utterances of the age. See Life, by Stopford Brooke, and Blackwood's Mag., Aug. 1862. Pub. Dut. Har.

Robertson, James Burton. 1800 – . Historical writer. Author Lect. on Various Subjects of Ancient and Modern Hist., etc.

Robertson, James Craigie. 1813–1882. Ecclesiastical historian. Author Hist. of the Christian Church, Biography of Thomas a Becket, etc.

Robertson, Thos. Wm. 1829–1871. Dramatist. Author David Garrick, Ours, Caste, M. P., and other lively and popular plays.

Robertson, Wm. 1721–1793. Scotch historian. Author Hist. Scotland, Hist. Reign of Charles V., Hist. Discovery of America, etc. His style is picturesque, but his statements are sometimes inaccurate. See Prescott's Robertson's Charles V. Pub. Har.

Robinson, A. Mary F. 185–. Poet and littérateur. Author of A Handful of Honeysuckle, The Crowned Hippolytus, Rural England, and Emily Brontë, in Famous Women Series, etc. Pub. Rob.

Robinson, Frederick Wm. 1830 – . Novelist. Author of A Bridge of Glass, As Long as she Lived, Poor Zeph, Her Face was her Fortune, Little Kate Kirby, Second-Cousin Sarah, Stern Necessity, True to Herself, etc. Pub. Har.

Robinson, Henry Crabb. 1775–1867. He left an entertaining Diary, published in 1869. Pub. Hou. Mac.

Robinson, Mrs. Mary. 1758–1800. Poet and actress. Known to her contemporaries as "Perdita, the Fair."

Rochester, Earl of. See Wilmot, John.

Rogers, Charles. 1825 – . Scotch antiquarian writer. Author of A Century of Scottish Life, Boswelliana, Scotland: Social and Domestic, etc.

Rogers, Henry. 1810–1877. Critic. Author Eclipse of Faith, Reason and Faith, etc. Pub. Rou. Scr.

Rogers, Samuel. 1763–1855. Poet. Author Pleasures of Memory, a fine though labored production, Italy, etc. See Hazlitt's Eng. Poets. Pub. Lip.

Romilly, Sir Samuel. 1757–1818. Jurist. Author of Speeches, etc. See Autobiography, 1840.

Roscoe, Henry. 1800–1836. Son to W. R. Author Lives of Eminent Lawyers, etc. Pub. Jo.

Roscoe, Thos. 1791–1871. Son to W. R. Translator of important Italian works.

Roscoe, Wm. 1753–1831. Historian. Author Lives of Lorenzo de Medici and Leo X., etc. A careful, painstaking writer, whose works, written in an easy, flowing style, are standard of their kind. See Life of, by Henry Roscoe.

Roscommon, Earl of. See Dillon, Wentworth.

Rose, George. "Arthur Sketchley." 1830–1882. Littérateur. Best known by his humorous Mrs. Brown sketches. Pub. Rou.

Rose, Henry John. 1801–1873.} Authors of a General} Biographical Rose, Hugh James. 1795–1838.} Dict., etc. Bro. to preceding.}

Rose, Wm. 1762–1790. Scotch pastoral poet. His Praise of the Highland Maid is one of his best poems. See Grant Wilson's Poetry of Scotland.

Rose, Wm. Stewart. 1775–1843. Poet. Translator of Ariosto.

Ross, Alexander. 1699–1784. Scotch poet. Best known by his ballad Woo'd and Married and a'. See Irving's Scottish Writers.

Ross-Church, Mrs. Florence [Marryatt]. 1837 – . Novelist. Author Her Lord and Master, The Prey of the Gods, No Intentions, etc. Pub. Har.

Rossetti [rŏs-sĕt´tee], Christina Georgina. 1830 – . Poet. Author of The Pageant, Sonnet of Sonnets, Goblin Market, etc. Style serious and earnest. See Stedman's Victorian Poets. Pub. Mac. Rob.

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. 1828–1882. Poet and artist. Bro. to C. G. R. A writer of the so-called Pre-Raphaelite school, whose verse is passionate and musical. Sister Helen, The Blessed Damozel, and Rose Mary are his most striking poems. See Stedman's Victorian Poets, Swinburne's Essays and Studies, Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 4, 2d edition, Essays Modern, by F. W. H. Myers, Wm. Sharp's Record and Study of Rossetti, Cornhill Mag. Feb. 1883, Contemporary Rev. Feb. 1883, Harper's Mag. Nov. 1882, and English Illus. Mag. Oct. 1883. Pub. Rob.

Rossetti, Maria Francesca. 1827–1875. Commentator on Dante. Sister to two preceding. Author The Shadow of Dante, etc. Pub. Rob.

Rossetti, Wm. Michael. 1829 – . Biographer and critic. Author Fine Art, etc. Bro. to three preceding. Pub. Mac.

Rowe [rō], Nicholas. 1673–1718. Dramatist and Shakespearean editor. Author Jane Shore, Fair Penitent, etc. His dramas are melancholy, but never licentious, like those of his contemporaries.

Rowley, Wm. fl. c. 1625. Dramatist. Colleague of Dekker and Ford in the Witch of Edmonton, and of Massinger and Middleton in the Old Law.

Roy, William. fl. c. 1525. Poet. Author of a singular satire upon Wolsey and the clergy, entitled Read me and be not Wroth, for I say Nothing but Troth.

Roydon, Matthew. fl. c. 1585. Poet. Author of the beautiful Lament for Astrophel, an elegy upon Sir Philip Sidney.

Ruskin, John. 1819 – . Art critic. Author Modern Painters, Stones of Venice, Seven Lamps of Architecture, Sesame and Lilies, Fors Clavigera, etc. Style original, masterly, and of rare beauty. Its chief defect is a vein of petulance and intolerance, which is strongest in his latest books. Pub. Wil.

Russell, John, Earl. 1792–1878. Statesman. Author Causes of the French Revolution, Life and Times of Chas. James Fox, Establishment of the Turks in Europe, etc. Pub. Rob.

Russell, John Scott. 1808 – . Engineer. Author Modern System of Naval Architecture, a work of great practical value. Pub. Apl.

Russell, Michael. 1781–1848. Bp. Glasgow. Scotch historian.

Russell, Lady Rachel. 1636–1723. Her Letters are of much literary and historical value. See Earl Russell's edition, 1854.

Russell, Wm. 1741–1793. Scotch historian. Author Hist. Modern Europe, etc. Pub. Har.

Russell, Wm. Clark. 1844 – . Marine novelist. Author Wreck of the Grosvenor, A Sailor's Sweetheart, An Ocean Free Lance, Jack's Courtship, Little Loo, etc. Style original and spirited. Pub. Har.

Russell, Wm. Howard. 1821 – . Journalist. Author Hist. of the Crimean War, Diary North and South, Diary in India, Hesperothen, etc. Pub. Har. Rou.

Ryle, John Charles. 1816 – . Bp. Liverpool. A popular religious writer. Author Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, etc. Pub. Ca. Phi. Ran.

Rymer, Thos. 1638–1714. Antiquary and critic. Author of Edgar, a play, The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered, etc., and compiler of Rymer's Fœdera, a collection of treatises, etc.

Sackville, Chas., Earl of Dorset. 1637–1705. Poet Author of the bright, lively song To all you Ladies now on Land. See Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 2.

Sackville, Thos., Earl of Dorset and Lord Buckhurst. 1536–1608. Poet. Author of the Induction and one tale of the Mirror for Magistrates, and, with Thos. Norton, of the tragedy of Gorboduc. See edition 1820.

Sadler, Michael Thos. 1780–1830. Author of The Law of Population, etc.

Sainsbury, Wm. Noel. 1825 – . Editor of Colonial Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1574–1668, etc.

St. John, Bayle. 1822–1859. Miscellaneous writer. Son to J. A. St. John. Author Village Life in Egypt, Memoirs of St. Simon, The Turks in Europe, etc.

St. John, Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke. 1678–1751. Political essayist. His Letter to Sir Wm. Windham [a vol. of 300 pages] is his chief work.

St. John, Horace Roscoe. 1832 – . Son to J. A. St. John. Author The Indian Archipelago, Hist. British Conquests in India, etc.

St. John, James Augustus. 1801–1875. Miscellaneous writer. Author of The Anatomy of Society, The Nemesis of Power, Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece.

St. John, Percy Bolingbroke. 1821 – . Writer of tales of adventure. Son to J. A. St. John. Author The Arctic Crusoe, The Creole Bride, The Red Queen, etc.

St. John, Spenser. 1826 – . Son to J. A. St. John. Author Life in the Forests of the Far West, etc.

Saintsbury, Geo. Warner. 1845 – . Littérateur. Author Dryden, in Eng. Men of Letters, Primer of French Lit., etc. Pub. Har. Mac.

Sala, George Augustus. 1828 – . Novelist, essayist, and journalist. Author Quite Alone, Twice Round the Clock, Paris Herself Again, etc. Pub. Fu. Har. Rou.

Sale, George. 1680–1736. Orientalist. Translator of the Koran. Pub. Lip.

Sanderson, Robert. 1587–1663. Bp. Salisbury. Theological writer of great learning. Pub. Mac.

Sandys, George. 1577–1644. Poet and traveler. Translator of Ovid. See Tyler's Am. Lit. vol. 1.

Sartoris, Mrs. Adelaide [Kemble]. 1816–1879. Author of A Week in a French Country House, a work of great freshness and beauty, and of Medusa and Other Tales.

Savage, Marmion. – 1872. Irish novelist. Author of The Bachelor of the Albany, The Woman of Business, Reuben Medlicott, etc. Pub. Apl.

Savage, Richard. 1698–1743. Poet. A writer of languid verse, and held in remembrance mainly by Johnson's Biography of him.

Saville, George, Marquess of Halifax. 1630–1695. Political writer. The literary merit of his treatises is considerable.

Saville, Sir Henry. 1549–1622. Antiquarian. Editor of a noted edition of Chrysostom, 1613.

Sawyer, Wm. 1828 – . Poet. Author of A Year of Song, The Legend of Phillis, etc.

Sayce, Archibald Henry. 1846 – . Philologist. Author of An Assyrian Grammar, Principles of Comparative Philology, Introduction to the Science of Language, etc.

Schreiber, Lady Charlotte Elizabeth. c. 1814-c. 1879. Welsh writer. Translator of The Mabinogion.

Scot, Sir Alexander. fl. c. 1562. Scotch poet. His verse is amatory in tone. See edition by David Laing, 1821. See Grant Wilson's Poets of Scotland.

Scott, John. 1730–1783. Scotch poet. His productions are flavorless and poor.

Scott, Michael. 1789–1835. Novelist. Author Tom Cringle's Log, etc.

Scott, Sir Michael. fl. c. 1250. Scotch philosopher.

Scott, Robert. 1811 – . Classical scholar. One of the editors of Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon.

Scott, Thomas. 1747–1821. Commentator. Author Bible Commentary, etc. Pub. Lip.

Scott, Sir Walter. 1771–1832. Scotch novelist and poet. Author of a long series of romances, beginning with Waverley, in 1814, and ending with Anne of Geierstein, in 1829. S. first made the novel a really great power in life as well as in literature. The flow of his narrative is always animated and infused with a kindly spirit. Guy Mannering, Ivanhoe, Old Mortality, and Quentin Durward are among the best of his novels. The Lady of the Lake, Marmion, and Lay of the Last Minstrel are fine narrative poems, filled with vivid descriptions of Scotch scenery. See Taine's Eng. Lit., Masson's Novelists and Their Styles, and Hutton's Scott, in Eng. Men of Letters. See also The Waverley Dict., by May Rogers.

Scott, Wm. Bell. 1811 – . Poet and art writer. Author The Year of the World, Life of Albert Dürer, etc. See Grant Wilson's Poets of Scotland. Pub. Rou.

Scrivener, Frederick Henry. 1813 – . Biblical scholar. Author of a Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, and editor of a Greek Testament, The Cambridge Paragraph Bible, etc. Pub. Ho.

Sedley, Sir Chas. 1639–1701. Lyric and dramatic poet. S. wrote the comedy of The Mulberry Garden. See Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 2.

Seeley, John Robert. 1834 – . Author Ecce Homo, Lect. and Essays, Roman Imperialism, etc. Style clear and strong. See Myers's Essays, Modern. Pub. Mac. Rob.

Selden, John. 1584–1654. Antiquarian. Author Titles of Honor, Hist. of Titles, etc. A man of wide learning, whose Table-Talk is his best known work. See Lives, by Wilkins, 1726, Aiken, 1773, and Johnson, 1835.

Selwyn, Geo. Augustus. 1809–1878. Bp. Lichfield. Author Tribal Analysis of the Bible, Are Cathedral Institutions Useless? etc. Pub. Mac.

Senior, Nassau Wm. 1790–1864. Political economist. Author Lect. on Population, Essays on Fiction, etc.

Settle, Elkanah. 1648–1724. Dramatist. A writer of trifling merit but the rival of Dryden in his time.

Seward, Anna. 1747–1809. Poet. Although called in her day "the Swan of Lichfield," her verse is weakly sentimental and commonplace.

Sewell, Elizabeth Missing. 1815 – . Poet and novelist. Author Amy Herbert, Margaret Percival, etc. A writer of excellent stories, which have a strong High Church flavor. Pub. Apl. Dut. Har. Ho.

Sewell, Wm. 1805–1874. Religious writer. Bro. to E. M. S. Author of Christian Morals, etc.

Shadwell, Thos. 1640–1692. Dramatist. Author of 17 plays, but chiefly remembered as the butt of Dryden's satire MacFlecknoe.

Shaftesbury, 3d Earl of. See Cooper, Anthony Ashley.

Shairp, John Campbell. 1819 – . Scotch essayist. Author Culture and Religion, Aspects of Poetry, Studies in Poetry and Philosophy, Poetic Interpretation of Nature, Burns, in Eng. Men of Letters, etc. Pub. Har. Hou.

Shakespeare, Wm. 1564–1616. The world's greatest dramatist. Author of 37 plays, in two of which, Henry VIII. and Two Noble Kinsmen, Fletcher is supposed to have had a hand. The others are King John, Richard II., Richard III., the two parts of Henry IV., Henry V., the three parts of Henry VI., all historical plays; the tragedies, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, Julius Cæsar, Romeo and Juliet, and Troilus and Cressida; and the comedies, or tragi-comedies, Midsummer Night's Dream, Comedy of Errors, Love's Labor's Lost, Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merchant of Venice, All's Well that Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure, Winter's Tale, Tempest, Twelfth Night, Pericles, and Cymbeline. S. was also the author of the poems Lucrece, Venus and Adonis, and 154 Sonnets. No writings, save the Scriptures, have ever moved the world like those of Shakespeare, which appeal to every emotion in the mind of man. He has no equals; there are none with whom he may be compared. Among the best complete Am. editions are White's Riverside, pub. Hou.; Rolfe's, pub. Har.; and Hudson's, pub. Gi. See also Furness's Variorum Macbeth, Lear, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet, pub. Lip.

Sharpe, Samuel. 1800 – . Historian. Author Hist. Egypt, Hist. Hebrew Nation and Lit., Texts from the Bible Explained by Ancient Monuments, etc.

Sheffield, John, Duke of Buckingham. 1649–1720. Author Essay on Poetry, a poem in heroic measure, polished and prosaic.

Sheil [sheel], Richard Lalor. 1791–1851. Irish dramatist. Author Evadne, The Apostate, Sketches of the Irish Bar, etc. See Biographies, by McNevin, 1845, and McCulloch, 1855. Pub. Arm.

Shelley, Mrs. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. 1797–1851. Novelist. Wife to P. B. S. Author Frankenstein, a repulsive but powerful romance, Valperga, Perkin Warbeck, etc.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe [bĭsh]. 1792–1822. Poet. An imaginative genius of the highest order. Author of Queen Mab, Prometheus Unbound, Alastor, The Cenci, etc. Some of his best work is seen in the Adonais, an elegy upon Keats, and the Ode to a Skylark, while all his poems possess an ethereal beauty quite unlike anything else in literature. See Atlantic Monthly, Feb. 1863, Macmillan's Mag. June, 1861, Shelley and his Writings, by C. S. Middleton, Symonds' Shelley, in Eng. Men. of Letters, and Swinburne's Essays and Studies. Pub. Lit. Mac. Por. Rou.

Shenstone, Wm. 1714–1763. Pastoral poet. Author of The Schoolmistress, a poem in Spenserian stanza, and of pastoral ballads. See Gilfillan's edition of, Edinburgh, 1854. See Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 3.

Sheridan, Mrs. Frances. 1724–1766. Novelist and dramatist. Wife to T. S.

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. 1751–1816. Irish dramatist. Son to F. S. and T. S. A sparkling, witty writer. Author of The Duenna, an opera, The Critic, a farce, and The Rivals and School for Scandal, two of the best comedies in the Eng. language. See Works, edited by J. B. Browne, 1873, and F. Stainforth, 1874; also edition of 1883, with Introduction, by R. G. White. See Life of, by Moore, Atlantic Monthly, Oct. 1883, and Sheridan, by Mrs. Oliphant, in Eng. Men. of Letters. Pub. Do. Rou.

Sheridan, Thomas. 1721–1788. Irish lexicographer. Author Dict. Eng. Lang., etc.

Sherlock, Wm. 1678–1761. Bp. London. Theologian of note.

Sherwood, Mrs. Mary Martha. 1775–1851. Writer of an immense number of religious tales, once very popular. Little Henry and his Bearer is one of the best known. See Life, 1874. Pub. Ca. Har. Wh.

Shirley, James. 1594–1666. Dramatist. The latest of the Shakespearean dramatists. Better known than any of his 40 plays is the noble poem Death's Final Conquest. See Dyce's Life of, 1833, and Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 2.

Shorthouse, Joseph Henry. 1834 – . Novelist. Author of John Inglesant and Little Schoolmaster Mark. Pub. Mac.

Sidgewick, Henry. 1838 – . Political economist. Author of The Principles of Political Economy, The Methods of Ethics, Ethics in Encyc. Britan., etc. A precise and impartial thinker. Pub. Mac. Put.