French author of a voluminous body of poetry, criticism, history, and drama, Voltaire was probably best known for his comic yet philosophical fiction. Among his most notable works, his first dramatic tragedy, Oedipe (1718), was a tremendous success. His epic poem La Henriade (1723) celebrates the life of Henry IV of France. Zaire (1732) is a tragic love drama. Letters Concerning the English Nation (1733) offers a comparison between England and France that is favorable to England particularly for its religious tolerance.

French court and occasional poet, Voiture was admired for the letters and poems he circulated among a fashionable literary coterie.

Notable lawyer and professor of law at Heidelberg University and Leyden University.

The Visconti family ruled Milan from the late thirteenth to the mid-fifteenth century.

Roman poet whose rich and complex Eclogues (c. 37 B.C.) and Georgics (29 B.C.) provided the model for poetry about rural life to subsequent ages. His Aeneid (written c. 29-19 B.C.), an epic poem on the founding of the city of Rome that centers on the story of the hero Aeneas, was incomplete at the time of his death.

The protagonist of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," (1601-1602?) producing all of the momentum within the play. After being shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria and separated from her twin brother, Sebastian, Viola disguises herself as a eunuch named Cesario so she may serve the Duke Orsino. Viola falls in love with the Duke, although he is in love with the Countess Olivia, who, in turn, falls in love with Cesario. When Sebastian arrives in Illyria, he and Olivia marry, as she believes him to be Cesario.

The 3rd Earl of Jersey and 6th Viscount Grandison, William Villiers was an English peer and politician from the prominent Villiers family.

The 4th Earl of Jersey, George Bussey Villiers was an English peer, politician, and courtier at the court of King George III. George Villiers was the son of William Villiers and tutee of William Whitehead.

English poet and statesman, son of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, brought up in the household of Charles I alongside Charles II and James II. Villiers fought alongside the future Charles II for the royalist effort during the English Civil War, subsequently accompanying Charles into a period of exile prior to the Restoration. Villiers' life ended in poor health and depleted finances, with an embellished image of his end presented by Alexander Pope.

An English statesman, courtier, patron of the arts, and favorite of King James I, George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, was an extremely influential and unpopular political figure whose aggressive and capricious foreign policies contributed to the eruption of the English Civil War.