It is still unclear what sort of affliction Elizabeth Barrett Browning
had, although medical and literary scholars have enjoyed speculating. Whatever
it was, the opium which was repeatedly prescribed probably made it worse;
and Browning almost certainly lengthened her life by taking her south and
by his solicitous attention. She died in his arms on June 29, 1861.
Scotland's national poet, born in Alloway, Strathclyde. The son of a poor farmer, his education was thoroughly literary, and he studied the technique of writing, influenced also by the popular tales and songs of Betty Davidson, an old woman who lived with his family. On his father's death (1784) he was left in charge of the farm. At the same time his entanglement with Jean Armour (1767--1834) began, and as the farm went to ruin, his poverty, passion, and despair produced in 1785 an extraordinary output of poetry, including "The Jolly Beggars'. Looking for money to emigrate to Jamaica, he published the famous Kilmarnock edition of his poems (1786), which brought such acclaim that he was persuaded to stay in Scotland. Going to Edinburgh, where he was feted, he began the epistolary flirtations with "Clarinda' (Agnes Maclehose). In 1788 he married Jean Armour and leased a farm near Dumfries, in 1789 being made an excise officer. By 1790, when he wrote "Tam o' Shanter', the farm was failing. He left for Dumfries, briefly adopting Radical views, but turning patriot again in 1795.;
Byron (of Rochdale), George (Gordon) Byron, 6th Baron , known as Lord Byron (1788--1824)
Poet, born in London. His first 10 years were spent in poor surroundings in Aberdeen, but then he inherited the title of his great-uncle, and went on to Dulwich, Harrow, and Cambridge, where he led a dissipated life. An early collection of poems, Hours of Idleness (1807) was badly reviewed, and after replying in satirical vein, he set out on his grand tour, visiting Spain, Malta, Albania, Greece, and the Aegean. He then published the popular Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812), and several other works, becoming the darling of London society, and giving to Europe the concept of the "Byronic hero'. He married Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke (1792--1860) in 1815, but was suspected of a more than brotherly love for his half-sister, Augusta Leigh and was ostracized. He left for Europe, where he met Shelley, and spent two years in Venice. Some of his best works belong to this period, including Don Juan (1819--24). He gave active help to the Italian revolutionaries, and in 1823 joined the Greek insurgents who had risen against the Turks. He died of malaria at Missolonghi.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772--1834)
Poet, born in Ottery St Mary, Devon. He studied at Cambridge, imbibed revolutionary ideas, and left to enlist in the Dragoons. His plans to found a communist society in the USA with Robert Southey came to nothing, and he turned instead to teaching and journalism in Bristol. Marrying Sara Fricker (Southey's sister-in-law), he went with her to Nether Stowey, where they made close friends with William and Dorothy Wordsworth. From this connection a new poetry emerged, in reaction against Neoclassic artificiality. Lyrical Ballads (1798) opens with his magical "Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. After visiting Germany (1798--9), he developed an interest in German philosophy. In 1800 he went to the Lake District, but his career prospects were blighted by his moral collapse, partly due to opium. He rejected Wordsworth's animistic views of nature, and relations between them became strained. He began a weekly paper, The Friend (1809), and settled in London, writing and lecturing. In 1816 he published "Christabel' and the fragment, "Kubla Khan', both written in his earlier period of inspiration. His small output of poetry proves his gift, but he is known also for his critical writing, and for his theological and politico-sociological works.
Cummings, E(dward) E(stlin) (1894--1962)
Writer and painter, born in Cambridge, MA. He studied at Harvard, served in World War 1 in France, then studied art at Paris. His writings attracted more interest than his paintings (though a collection of his work was published in 1931). His several successful collections of poetry, starting with Tulips and Chimneys (1923), are striking for their unorthodox typography and linguistic style. Complete Poems appeared in 1968. He also wrote a travel diary, a morality play, Santa Claus (1946), and a collection of six "non-lectures' delivered at Harvard entitled i (1953). His best-known prose work was The Enormous Room
Dickinson, Emily (Elizabeth) (1830--86)
Poet, born in Amherst, MA. At the age of 23 she withdrew from all social contacts, and lived a secluded life at Amherst, writing in secret over 1000 poems. Hardly any of her work was published until after her death, when her sister Lavinia brought out three volumes (1891--6). Her writing, intensely personal and often spiritual, shows great originality both in thought and in form, and has had considerable influence on modern poetry, especially in the USA.
Poet, born in London. Educated at Oxford and Cambridge, he studied law in London, and in 1598 became secretary to Thomas Egerton (1540--1617), keeper of the Great Seal. His career prospects were excellent, but his secret marriage to the Lord Keeper's niece had him dismissed and cast into prison. Originally a Catholic, he then joined the established Church, eventually taking Orders. He was made dean of St Paul's, where his sermons were extremely popular. His creative years fall into three periods. The first (1590--1601) was a time of passion and cynicism, as seen in his Elegies and Songs and Sonnets . The second, from his marriage to his ordination, was a period of anguished meditation and flattery of the great, as seen in his Anniversaries and funeral poems. His third period includes sonnets and hymns, and shows that in transferring his allegiance from the world to God he retained his earlier passion.
Dunbar, Paul (Lawrence) (1872--1906)
Poet, born in Dayton, OH, the son of escaped Negro slaves. He gained a reputation with Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896), many of which were in dialect. He published several other volumes of verse, and four novels. His Complete Poems appeared in 1913.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803--82)
Poet and essayist, born in Boston, MA. He studied at Harvard, and became a teacher, then (1829) pastor of a Unitarian Church in Boston, but his controversial views caused his resignation. In 1833 he travelled to Europe, and visited Thomas Carlyle, thereafter corresponding with him for 38 years. In 1834 he moved to Concorde, MA, where he wrote his prose rhapsody, Nature (1836), and many poems and essays, notably The Conduct of Life (1860). He was a transcendentalist in philosophy, a rationalist in religion, and a bold advocate of spiritual individualism.
Lawrence D(avid) H(erbert Richard) (1885--1930)
Novelist, poet, and essayist, born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. He studied at University College, Nottingham, and became a schoolmaster, but illness, and the moderate success of his first novel, The White Peacock (1911), made him leave teaching and turn to writing. In 1912 he eloped with Frieda Weekley ( née von Richthofen), the wife of Lawrence's professor at Nottingham. They travelled in Germany, Austria, and Italy (1912--13), and married in 1914 after her divorce. Meanwhile Lawrence had secured his success with Sons and Lovers (1913). They returned to England at the outbreak of World War 1. In 1915 he published The Rainbow , and was prosecuted for obscenity. He left England in 1919, and after three years' residence in Italy, where he produced Women in Love (1920), he settled in Mexico, returning to Italy in 1925. Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) was published privately in Florence, and copies were confiscated in England the next year; it was not published in the UK in unexpurgated form until after a sensational obscenity trial in 1960. Some of his most original writing occurs in his poems, notably Birds, Beast and Flowers (1923), and in his Letters (7 vols, 1979--93). His other major novels include Aaron's Rod (1922), Kangaroo (1923), and The Plumed Serpent
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807--82)
Poet, born in Portland, ME. He studied at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, and as a gifted translator was sent to Europe to qualify for a chair of foreign languages. On his return, he was unable to settle, and when offered a professorship at Harvard he accepted it as another opportunity to go abroad. After the early death of his wife in 1835, he returned and became professor of modern languages and literature at Harvard (1836--54). During this period he remarried, and published many works, notably the immensely successful Ballads and Other Poems (1841), including "The Wreck of the Hesperus'. His most popular work, "Hiawatha', with its distinctive "Indian drum' rhythm, was published in 1855, and in 1863 appeared Tales of a Wayside Inn , which included the famous "Paul Revere's Ride'.
Poet, born in Winestead, Humberside. He studied at Cambridge, travelled widely in Europe (1642--6), worked as a tutor, and became Milton's assistant (1657). He is remembered for his pastoral and garden poems, notably "To His Coy Mistress'. After becoming an MP (1659), his writing was devoted to pamphlets and satires attacking intolerance and arbitrary government.
Poet and story writer, born in Boston, MA. Orphaned by the age of three, he was adopted by John Allan (1815--20) and brought up partly in England. He began to write poetry, publishing Tamerlane and other Poems in 1827. He became a journalist in Richmond, VA, then settled in Philadelphia, PA, where he worked for literary magazines. He published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque in 1840, and several short stories, notably "The Murders in the Rue Morgue' (1841), the first detective story. His weird and fantastic stories, dwelling by choice on the horrible, were both original and influential. In 1844 he moved to New York City, where his poem "The Raven' (1845) won him immediate fame. His wife died in 1847, after which he wrote little. He became mentally disturbed, and attempted suicide in 1848.
Roethke, Theodore (Huebner) (1908--63)
Poet, born in Saginaw, MI. He studied at Michigan and Harvard universities, then taught at Pennsylvania State, Bennington, and Washington. It was not until the publication of his fourth volume, The Waking (1953, Pulitzer Prize) that he became widely known. Words for the Wind (1958) is a selection from his first four books; his Collected Poems appeared posthumously in 1968.
Shakespeare, William (1564--1616)
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564, the eldest son of John Shakespeare, glover and wool dealer, and his wife Mary Arden. Shakespeare's works display a direct knowledge of classical Latin literature, including texts closely studied by pupils in Elizabethan grammar schools, and he is assumed to have been educated at Stratford Grammar School - his father's civic status entitled him to send William there free of charge. He may have spent the years 1580--2 as a teacher for the Roman Catholic Houghton family in Lancashire. In 1582, when he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway in Stratford. She was eight years older than him, and she bore him a daughter, Susannah, within six months. Twins were born in 1585; a son Hamnet and a daughter Judith. Hamnet died in 1596, aged 11.
Little is known about Shakespeare's life immediately after 1582, but it seems probable that he joined a company of players as an actor and playwright, and had probably been a member of several such companies, in London and on tour in the provinces, before joining Strange's Men by 1592. In 1593 the London theatres were closed because of the plague. Shakespeare produced two narrative poems, "Venus and Adonis' and "The Rape of Lucrece', which indicates an ambition to secure noble patronage, possibly prompted by the uncertain outlook in the professional theatre.
The next year the theatres reopened, and Shakespeare emerges as a significant member of the Chamberlain's Men, who had their own playhouse in Shoreditch, named The Theatre. The Chamberlain's Men became the leading company, frequently performing at Queen Elizabeth's court, and presenting almost all of the most significant plays of the time. The dates of Shakespeare's earlier plays are uncertain. External evidence is lacking, and their variety in form and style makes assumptions about development difficult. One scholarly view holds Titus Andronicus to be the first, written in 1586, with Romeo and Juliet as his 10th play in 1591, whereas others suppose King Henry VI to be first between 1591--2. However, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Taming of the Shrew have also been proposed as his first play. At any rate, it is agreed that by 1597 Shakespeare had written The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595--6), Titus Andronicus, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (1595--6), King Henry VI (Parts 1--3), King John (1594--6), and Richard II (1595).
Shakespeare's sonnets, some in existence by 1598, and all published in 1609, fall into two groups; all those clearly addressed to a man are among the first 126; all those clearly addressed to a woman (the "dark lady') follow. Many books have been written attempting to identify the supposed real persons behind this great poetic sequence, but until the statement by the publisher is explained - that Mr W.H. is "the only begetter' of the poems - we are unlikely to be able to pin down any names of real persons inhabiting the world of the sonnets, or even be sure there is any autobiographical basis for them.
Living not far from The Theatre, Shakespeare kept up a steady rate of composition, averaging two plays a year. In 1597 appeared The Merchant of Venice, King Henry IV, Part I, and The Merry Wives of Windsor; during 1598--9 King Henry IV, Part 2 and Much Ado About Nothing. Then in 1599 the Chamberlain's Men dismantled their theatre building and reassembled it on the S bank of the Thames in Southwark, renaming it the Globe. It seems probable that King Henry V was the first Shakespeare play performed there, closely followed by As You Like It.
Shakespeare's success as a shareholder in the company is marked by his buying a substantial house in Stratford, called New Place, for £60, in 1597. His father had applied for a grant of arms in 1596, and was said to be "of good wealth", being worth £500. The grant of arms entitled him to the style of a gentlemen, an honour that would descend in due course to his eldest son. Ironically, Shakespeare's only son died within two months.
The accession of King James I in 1603 brought the acting company new and great benefits. The king immediately conferred his royal patronage on Shakespeare and his fellow sharers in the company, now renamed the King's Men. The next phase of Shakespeare's writing shows great diversity as well as originality. He produced the great sequence of tragedies: Julius Caesar (1599), Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), King Lear (1605-6), Macbeth (1606), Anthony and Cleopatra (1606-7), and Coriolanus (1607--8). After his romantic comedy Twelfth Night (1601) came the darker plays Troilus and Cressida (1601--2), All's Well That Ends Well (1602--3), and Measure for Measure (1604).
Shakespeare expected his plays to be performed outdoors at the Globe Theatre and on provincial stages when on tour, but also indoors for court performance before the monarchy (or, as with The Merry Wives of Windsor , after a court ceremony); so there would have been little adjustment needed to stage his plays in the indoor playhouse, the Blackfriars Theatre, when it was acquired by the King's Men in 1608. The company now used both indoor and outdoor playhouses in London.
Pericles , first performed at court (1606--8), was the first of several romance tragi-comedies that followed. Cymbeline was performed probably at both the Globe and Blackfriars in 1609, then The Winter's Tale and The Tempest in 1611. Shakespeare collaborated with John Fletcher on King Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen in 1613, and there are also signs of a collaborator in Pericles . Scholars still argue about the degree of collaboration in several plays, including Timon of Athens and Macbeth , but the idea that Shakespeare frequently collaborated is now generally discounted.
Shakespeare is supposed to have returned to Stratford for the rest of his life. A number of his plays were published in quarto editions during his lifetime (some of these editions apparently derive from playhouse adaptations), and after his death a folio edition - the famous "First Folio' - was published in 1623 (the year Anne Hathaway died). There are important and difficult questions associated with the provenance of these texts, especially since none of Shakespeare's original dramatic manuscripts has survived. But what has survived is universally recognized as great literature. The plays have been translated into many languages and are regularly performed all over the world; indeed in the 20th-c a number of the more neglected plays have been rediscovered through theatrical performance. The subject of Shakespeare himself, and his works, also continues to stimulate research by scholars, performance by actors, and new plays and novels by authors.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792--1822)
Poet, born at Field Place, near Horsham, West Sussex. He studied at Oxford, but was expelled for his pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism (1811). He eloped to Scotland with Harriet Westbrook, married her and settled in Keswick, where he was influenced by William Godwin, and wrote his revolutionary poem Queen Mab (1813). He formed a liaison with Godwin's daughter, Mary, with whom he eloped (1814), and whom he married in 1816 after learning that Harriet had committed suicide. From 1818 he lived in Italy, touring with his family and friends. There he met Byron, and wrote the bulk of his poetry, including odes, lyrics, and the verse drama Prometheus Unbound (1818--19). During this tour, he was drowned in the Bay of Spezia near Livorno.
Stewart, Douglas (Alexander) (1913--85)
Poet and playwright, born in Eltham, Taranaki, New Zealand. He studied at Victoria University College, Australia. Editor of the "Red Page' in the Bulletin magazine (1940--61), he then became literary editor for Angus & Robertson publishers. His work includes short stories, biographies, and literary criticism, and verse dramas for stage and radio, of which Fire in the Snow (1939), about Scott's Antarctic expedition, is recognized as a classic of radio drama. His major contributions to Australian literature include biographies, two collections of bush ballads (1955--7), edited with Nancy Keesing (1923-- ), and Modern Australian Verse (1964)
Yeats, W(illiam) B(utler) Pronunciation: [yayts] (1865--1939)
Poet and playwright, born near Dublin. Educated at schools in London and Dublin, he became an art student, then turned to writing. In 1888 he published "The Wanderings of Oisin', a long narrative poem that established his reputation. The Celtic Twilight , a book of peasant legends, appeared in 1893. His three most popular plays were The Countess Cathleen (1892), The Land of Heart's Desire (1894), and Cathleen ni Houlihan (1903), and he wrote several others for the Abbey Theatre, which he helped to found in 1904. He adopted a more direct style with Responsibilities (1914), which also marks a switch to contemporary subjects. The symbolic system described in A Vision (1925) informs many of his best-known poems, which appeared in The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair (1929), and A Full Moon in March (1935). He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, and also became a senator of the Irish Free State (1922--8).