English poet, lawyer, member of the House of Commons, and Attorney General for Ireland. His poem Orchestra, or a Poem of Dancing is reflective of the Elizabethan contemplation of the relationship between human activity and natural order.

Character in Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740-1).

A prolific English playwright as well as a theatre manager, Royalist soldier, and poet laureate following the death of Ben Jonson. A few of Davenant's more notable works include The Witts (1634), The Temple of Love (1635), and Madagascar (1638). Davenant also claimed to be the illegitimate son of William Shakespeare.

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.

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).

One of the most revered poets in the history of western literature, Dante is also remarkable as an early instance of a major European poet writing in the vernacular. Caught up by the political controversies of his time, he spent is last years exiled from his native Florence. His most famous work, The Divine Comedy, comprised of The Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise, narrates his imaginative journey through these three realms guided first by the poet Virgil, then by his lover Beatrice.

English playwright, historian, man of letters, and poet. Daniel's poetry and prose alike were strongly characterized by his contemplative sense of history.

A Jamaican-born poet and novelist, Dallas's fictional works included Percival, or Nature Vindicated (1801), Aubrey (1804), The Morelands. Tales Illustrative of the Simple and Surprising (1805), The Knights: Tales Illustrative of the Marvellous (1808), and Sir Francis Darrell; Or the Vortex (1820). He also published a volume of poems, two dramas, and some polemical works. He had a connection for some years with Byron, and his Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron from the year 1808 to the end of 1814 (1825) was published posthumously.

See Burney, Fanny.

A family of characters in Samuel Richardson's The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1754).