A prolific Italian playwright known for his innovations in the dramatic form commedia dell'arte who also 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).

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.

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.

Playwright, poet, and writer on various aspects of the West Indies question, Glover published "Admiral Hosier's Ghost" in 1740.

English cookbook writer whose The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy was a bestselling recipe book for over a century after its initial publication.

Italian novelist, dramatist, and poet, one of the first tragicomedy authors, writing under the nickname "Cinthio." Cinthio's most famous work, his collection of short stories entitled Hecatommithi (1565), provided the source material for Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and Othello.

English writer who was largely paid to write low-quality and rushed works. As a "hack writer," Gildon was a biographer, essayist, translator, playwright, poet, short story writer, and critic. Alexander Pope denounced Gildon's opportunist writing in his Dunciad. Gildon was likewise engaged in a long-term quarrel with Jonathan Swift.

English critic, editor, and poet. Gifford authored the anti-Della Cruscan satires The Baviad (1791) and The Maviad (1795). He edited the Anti-Jacobin from 1797-1798 and was the first editor of the Quarterly Review, a position he held until 1824.

English historian, scholar, and Member of Parliament. The reputation of this eminent historian rests mostly on his masterwork, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788), noted for the irony in its representation of the rise of Christianity.

Character in William Shakespeare's drama Hamlet, she is Hamlet's mother. She takes Hamlet's uncle Claudius as spouse after Claudius kills the king, Hamlet's father, and ascends to the throne.