Irish dramatist Thomas Southerne adapted his best-known play Oroonoko (1695) from the 1688 novel, Oroonoko; Or, The Royal Slave, by Aphra Behn (1640-1689). Many of his other plays are adaptations as well, including both Sir Anthony Love, or, The Rambling Lady (1690), adapted from the Aphra Behn novel The Lucky Mistake (1689), and The Fatal Marriage, sometimes referred to as Isabella after the title character, taken from Behn's work The History of the Nun (1689). The Wives' Excuse, or, Cukolds Make Themselves (1691) depicts the plight of a woman trapped in a bad marriage.

The greatest of the Greek tragedians from the golden age of Athens, Sophocles is believed to have authored over 120 plays, only seven of which have survived in their entirety. Those include Antigone, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus, Women of Trachis, Ajax, Oedipus Rex, and Electra.

Greek statesman and poet whose reform-oriented writings are known mostly through quotation by later Greek historians.

Greek philosopher whose teachings caused him to be condemned to death.

A versatile author who produced satire, history, drama, poetry, polemical pamphlets, and journalism, Smollett is best known for his picaresque novels such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748, modeled after Lesage's Gil Blas, which Smollett translated), The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751), The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom (1753), and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771). At the age of eighteen, he authored his first play, The Regicide (1749). His literary journalism was important as well.

The grandfather of Tobias Smollett. He sat on a variety of parliamentary commissions and committees; however, his most important position was the commissioner for union with England, first in August 1702, and more successfully in February 1706. He helped frame the articles of the union, and in 1707 was the elected member for Dunbartonshire to the first parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. His manuscript Memorials of Certain Passages of the Lord's Signal Mercies provide his comments on the affairs of the time.

This James Smollett was grandson of Sir James Smollett, grandfather also to Tobias Smollett, and was therefore Tobias Smollett's cousin. On the death of his grandfather, Sir James, James Smollett inherited the grandfather's Bonhill estate.

The second son of Sir James Smollett and uncle to Tobias Smollett.

Tobias Smollett's wife. Daughter of a Jamaican Plantation owner, Anne lived in Kingston, Jamaica with her mother, then twice widowed. Smollett met and married Anne on a visit to Jamaica in 1743. Smollett described her as 'a delicate creature, who had scarce ever walked a mile in her life.'

English wit, Anglican preacher, and advocate for parliamentary reform. His writings were incredibly influential in changing the public opinion of Roman Catholic emancipation.