Pasta was an Italian operatic soprano whose vocal and physical expressiveness revolutionized opera and made her the foremost performer of her day.

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.

Fifth century BCE Greek philosopher.

Student contributor.

The Greek equivalent of the Roman deity Lupercus, Pan is the deity of fertility and the wild, including shepherds and their flocks, mountain wilds, and rustic music. Pan was typically represented as a lustful figure sharing the ears, horns, and legs of a goat, often accompanied by nymphs.

Heroine of Samuel Richardson's Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded (1740).

née Echlin, she was the daughter of Lady Echlin.

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.

William Paget, uncle to author Aaron Hill, was English ambassador to Vienna between 1689 and 1692, at which point he was appointed ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, where he served until 1701.

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.