Barbauld's career opened under her birth name, Anna Aikin, with publication by the Warrington Academy's Eyres Press of Corsica: An Ode (1768), followed by Poems, also first published at Warrington by Eyres Press (1772) before being reprinted in London by Joseph Johnson (1773). The same year, she collaborated with her brother, John Aikin, on a volume of Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose (1773).

Italian writer, soldier, monk, and bishop, best known for his Novelle, a collection of short stories published in four volumes between 1554 and 1573. Bandello's work popularized the genre of the short story, a trend which influenced the literature of England, France, and Spain for the remainder of the sixteenth century. Bandello's stories have been adapted into plays by dramatists such as John Webster, Philip Massinger, and John Fletcher, but the most famous adaptation of his work is Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

English dramatic writer and grandson of Daniel Defoe, most famous for his anthology of dramatic authors, the Biographia Dramatica (1782).

Joanna Baillie stands as the most significant Romantic period British woman playwright as well as being one of the period's most notable women critics. Scottish by birth, Baillie moved about with her family after her father's death until her brother inherited a London medical practice from his uncle. Eventually settling in Hampstead, Baillie widened her circle of literary acquaintances to include numerous prominent figures. Her own first publication was an anonymous volume, Poems: Wherein It Is Attempted to Describe Certain Views of Nature and Rustic Manners, Etc. (1790).

English Bishop, Protestant controversialist, and dramatist. Bale is the author of Kynge Johan, the first known English historical play.

Umbrian lord and condottiero (captain of a mercenary company), remembered primarily for his betrayal of the Florentine army to the Imperial forces during the Siege of Florence.

Author and businessman, Bage published six novels in his lifetime: Mount Henneth (1781) Barham Downs (1784), The Fair Syrian (1787), James Wallace (1788), Man as he is (1792), and Hermsprong, or Man as He Is Not (1796).

After being disgraced as a public figure by accusations of corruption, Lord Bacon turned to philosophical writing. His major works included his Essays (1597), The Advancement of Learning (1605), De Sapientia Veterum Liber (1609, translated as The Wisedome of the Ancients, 1619), Novuum Organum (1620), History of Henry VII (1622), De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623), and New Atlantis (1627), as well as numerous other historical, biographical, political, and philosophical publications.

Roman name for the Greek god Dionysus.

Character in Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740-1).