English politician, member of the House of Commons, and founder of Canons Ashby House, Northamptonshire. Sir Erasmus Dryden was the grandfather of poet John Dryden, as well as a distant relative of Jonathan Swift and Anne Hutchison.

Reputed to be the world’s oldest theater location in continuous use, the site of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane was first transformed from a cockfighting venue to a location for dramatic productions during the reign of James I. Closed down by the Puritans during the early 1640s, it was revived soon after the Restoration under a patent issued to Thomas Killigrew. The new building boasted an audience capacity of 700 and soon featured the period’s best-known performers, including Nell Gwyn, the mistress of Charles II.

First noteworthy Scottish poet to pointedly write in English. Also known as "Drummond of Hawthornden," William Drummond introduced the canzone, a medieval Italian metrical form, into English poetry.

An extremely prolific English poet and playwright who worked in a wide range of poetic genres and who frequently collaborated on plays with Henry Chettle and Thomas Dekker. Among Drayton's many publications, just a few of note include Idea. The Shepheards Garland (1593); Ideas Mirrour (1594); Endimion and Phobe (1595); Englands Heroicall Epistles (1597); Poly-Olbion (1612-1622); The Battaile of Agincourt (1627); and Nimphidia, the Court of Fayrie (1627). He also published several volumes of poems on historical or mythical personages and historical subjects.

English theatre prompter during the Restoration period, best known for his Roscius Anglicanus (1708), a historical review of the stage.

Scottish nobleman and commander in the wars against the English in the early fifteenth century. Douglas was captured by Sir Henry Percy at the Battle of Homildon Hill in 1402 and taken prisoner by the English king in 1403 after fighting in a battle with his captors against the king, not to be released until 1413.

The eponymous hero of the novel by Cervantes muddles the line between reality and fiction as a result of his reading chivalric romances.

Amateur musician and friend of George Frideric Handel, Donnellan was friends as well with several notable bluestockings and literary figures, especially Elizabeth Montagu and Mary Delany.

Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London and leading poet of the Metaphysical school, Donne is best known for his religious verse and love poetry.

Known first as a poet, Dodsley opened a London bookselling business in 1735. His shop became an important gathering place for literary and publishing figures of the mid-eighteenth century.