French translator of English poetry, particularly the works of Shakespeare, Young, Johnson, and Macpherson.

French novelist Alain Le Sage was also a prolific playwright. His major works include the Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (1715), Le Diable Boiteux (1707), Le Bachelier de Salamanque (1736), and Histoire de Guzman d'Alfarache (1732), an adaptation of Vita del Picaro Guzman d‘Alfarache (1599-1604), by Mateo Alemán.

Roman general, statesman, ally of Julius Caesar, and later triumvir. Alongside Mark Antony and Octavian, Aemilius helped to form the Second Triumvirate which ruled the Roman Republic following the death of Caesar. However, Aemilius was the least powerful of the three triumvirs, and in 36 B.C.E., he was removed from power.

Born Charlotte Ramsay, Lennox is known as a versatile woman of letters, part of the eighteenth-century Bluestocking circle and friend to numerous other literary luminaries such as Samuel Richardson, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, and Fanny Burney. She is best remembered for her 1752 novel The Female Quixote; or, The Adventures of Arabella, an update and parody of Cervantes's Don Quixote, though in the case of The Female Quixote the heroine's delusions are set in motion by her voluminous reading of recent French fiction.

Often mentioned friend of Samuel Richardson.

Presbyterian clergyman, rector of Hatfield, chaplain to George Monck, and father of Nathaniel Lee. After the Restoration, Dr. Lee conformed to the Church of England.

A leading tragic dramatist in his time and an occasional collaborator with John Dryden, Lee was an early leader in the dramatic use of blank verse. He is known as well for the violent content of some of his work.

An English peer and son of a baronet, Edward Henry Lee married Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, an illegitimate daughter of King Charles II.

A figure in Greek mythology, the daughter of a king and wife of King Tyndareos of Sparta. After being seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan, Leda bore four children, two sets of twins in two eggs—Helen and Clytemnestra in one egg, Castor and Pollux in the other.

Protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear. King Lear begins the play as a conceited, shallow character, concerned with power and appearances rather than responsibility and genuine devotion. After a period of increasing insanity, King Lear experiences an epiphany that leads to his remorse, humility, and empathy. However, the play ends tragically, with the death of King Lear's daughter and Lear's return to madness.