Greene, Robert, 1558-1592

Popular English playwright and pamphleteer, graduate of Cambridge and Oxford. Greene's works provided Shakespeare with models of pastorals, romance, and dramatic comedy. As one of the period's "university wits," Greene was known for his criticisms of colleagues, including a derisive reference to Shakespeare in the pamphlet Greene's Groats-worth of Wit.

Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771

The rather reclusive Thomas Gray, one of the most esteemed poets of the eighteenth century, left a comparatively small body of work, highlights of which include An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (1747), An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (1751), and a collection of Odes (1757) that included "The Progress of Poesy" and "The Bard" (1754).

Graves, Richard, 1715-1804

A gifted novelist, Graves published The Festoon, a collection of Epigrams in 1765, The Spiritual Quixote; or, The Summer's Ramble of Mr. Geoffry Wildgoose in 1773 and Columella; or, The Distressed Anchoret in 1779. Senilities; or, Solitary Amusements: in Prose and Verse appeared in 1801. Other publications by the author include Euphrosyne; or, Amusements on the Road of Life (1776); Eugenius; or, Anecdotes of the Golden Vale, an Embellished Narrative of Real Facts (1785); Lucubrations: Consisting of Essays, Reveries etc.