An English playwright, poet, and literary critic, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularized the comedy of humours, a genre of comedy based on characters who each show one or two overriding traits based on the dominance of corresponding bodily humours. Known for satirical plays and for his lyric poetry, he is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I.

English literary editor best remembered for his 1812 revision of David Erskine Baker's Biographia Dramatica.

Henry Jones was an Irish poet. Though he made promising connections in the nobility and with actor, playwright, and theatre manager Colley Cibber, his drunkenness and irascible temper often got in the way of his success. He wrote The Earl of Essex, staged in 1753.

A conjurer or magician specializing in card tricks who was active during the mid to late eighteenth century in London. He was challenged briefly by a second Mr. Jonas in 1769, and for a time advertised himself as "the famous Jonas (who is the real and only Mr. Jonas)." A third Mr. Jonas performed under royal patronage at Bath as late as 1814.

Irish novelist whose best-known work is Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a Guinea (1760-65).

Literary biographer, critic, fiction writer, moralist, and poet, Samuel Johnson was one of the two or three most important figures in eighteenth-century British literary history. His most notable poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), makes its content clear in its title. His fable Rasselas, first published under the title The Prince of Abissinia (1759), narrates the story of the residents of a fictional Happy Valley, who enjoy gratification of all wants, but nevertheless find themselves discontented because they have nothing to long or hope for and so no outlet to exercise imagination.

Frequently described as radical or at least progressive, eighteenth-century bookseller and publisher Joseph Johnson made important contributions to the careers of several women critics, including Anna Letitia Barbauld, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Mary Hays, all of whom contributed to his literary review, the Analytical Review, which ran from 1788 to 1799. Johnson also published creative work by all three of these writers among many others.

The youngest surviving son of Henry II and a controversial ruler, King John became a popular figure for fictionalization after his death, his most popular portrayals being the eponymous character in Shakespeare's King John and the villain of the Robin Hood legends. During his reign, King John lost the Angevin Empire with his French lands being seized by King Philip II of France. Landowner dissatisfaction with this loss as well as with John's despotic rule led to the sealing of the Magna Carta.

A fictional personification of English character originating in a series of pamphlets by John Arbuthnot that later figures in satires, caricatures, and cartoons.

Believed to have authored the biblical book of Revelation while in exile on the island of Patmos, Saint John is by some also regarded as the same apostle of Jesus credited with the gospel of John.