Late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean poet and playwright, baptized in 1580. A prolific and popular writer, Middleton was known for his talent with both tragedies and comedies, sometimes combined in his famous tragicomedies. Middleton collaborated with playwrights such as Thomas Dekker, Philip Massinger, and John Webster. Middleton's most famous plays include The Changeling, A Fair Quarrel, The Old Law, and Revenger's Tragedy.

Italian sculptor, painter, poet, and architect during the High Renaissance, Michelangelo is considered as one of the quintessential figures influencing Western art. His best known works include his sculpture David, his scenes of Genesis painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and his architectural design of St. Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo also participated in the Siege of Florence from 1528-1529, designing the city's fortifications to protect against the rule of the Medici.

Italian poet, dramatist, and librettist. Works include: Poesie (1717), Giustino (1718), Didone abbandonata (1724), Demetrio (1731), Demofoonte (1733), Olimpiade ((1733), La clemenza di Tito (1734), Achille in Sciro (1736), Ciro riconosciuto (1736), Attilio Regalo (1740), L'eroe cinese (1752), Il trionfo di Clelia (1762), Ruggerio (1771), and Estratto della Poetica d'Aristotele (1782).

The Belgian born Merlin was known in eighteenth-century London for the ingenious devices exhibited at Merlin's Mechanical Museum, including complex mechanical toys and household devices, sickroom supplies such as an innovative wheelchair and an adjustable wheeled bed, and musical instruments both whimsical and practical. Merlin's best known patron would probably have been Dr. Burney, who commissioned from him a pianoforte with an extended keyboard for playing duets.

Legendary wizard from the Arthurian legends.

A versatile and prolific author from the French Romantic period. Mérimée's first two publications, Le Théâtre de Clara Gazul (1825) and La Guzla (1827), are spurious productions attributed to fictitious authors or translators. His full length literary writings include the dramas La Jacquerie (1828) and La Famille de Carvajal (1828) as well as the novel La Chronique du règne de Charles IX (1829).

A demon in German folklore, appearing in Faustian legend. He serves as agent for the bargain in which the Faust character sells his soul to the devil in exchange for earthly knowledge and power.

Cynic philosopher of the third century B.C.

Son of the powerful Castillian family of Mendoza and general in the Italian wars, living from 1469-1536 and eventually serving under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba.

In Greek myth, King of the Ethiopians, and slayer of Achilles in the Trojan War. The colossi of Memnon consist of two huge statues on the Nile near Luxor. One of them was reputed to "sing" at dawn, probably in consequence of an earthquake during the first century producing fissures through which air currents moved, sometimes producing a sound.