Cookbook author and sister to Mary Delany.

Character in Edward Bulwer Lytton’s Devereux (1829). An impeccably dressed, philosophical French valet.

Wife of Othello in William Shakespeare's tragedy, Othello, the Moor of Venice. In the play, she is murdered by her jealous, manipulated husband.

English critic and dramatist. Dennis was engaged in a long quarrel with Alexander Pope as a result of the former's assertion of the importance of passion in poetry.

Anglo-Irish poet, Member of Parliament, and Royalist during the English Civil War. During the transitional literary period in which he wrote, Denham established the genre of the local meditative poem, in which a single, familiar landscape is leisurely explored. He is best remembered for his poem Cooper's Hill.

Ancient Greek statesman and orator in opposition to Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great, Demosthenes lived from 384-322 BCE. His speeches provide valuable insight into fourth-century Athenian society and politics.

French author, primarily of poetry, whose first fame rested on his translations of Virgil.

An Italian bishop with a talent for satirical and lyric poetry and translations, Della Casa is best known as the author of Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners (1558).

Letter writer and prominent bluestocking, friend to some of the eighteenth century's most noted literary producers and patrons.

Elizabethan pamphleteer and dramatist. Dekker's plays were characterized by his Protestant themes and vivid depictions of London life through colloquial speech. Dekker collaborated with many famous dramatists of the period, including John Ford, Philip Massinger, Thomas Middleton, and John Webster.