ANNA LETITIA AIKIN was born in Leicestershire in 1743. Her reputation as a poet dates from 1773. After her marriage to Mr. Barbauld she and her husband kept a school, to which her genius gave something like fame. For the school she wrote her best work, the "Hymns in Prose for Children." She died in 1825 at Stoke Newington. These lines, No. 207, taken from her "Ode to Life," were greatly admired by Wordsworth.

Sir William ALEXANDER was born at Menstrie, Scotland, probably in 1567. He was private tutor to the king's sons, and assisted James in a metrical version of the Psalms. Scholar, courtier, poet, - he was also a trusted statesman. Toward the end of his life he was Secretary of State for Scotland, having been raised to the peerage as Earl of Sterling. He died in London in 1640.

LADY ANNE BARNARD, eldest daughter of James Lindsay, fifth earl of Balcarres, was born December 8, 1750. She was early introduced to the literary life of Edinburgh, and met Dr. Johnson on his visit there in 1773. For a while she lived with a sister in London, and there married, in 1793, Andrew Barnard, son of Thomas, Bishop of Limerick. Her first husband died at the Cape of Good Hope in 1807. She returned to London, and five years later married Sir James Bland Burges. Sheridan and Burke were among her friends. She had written "Auld Robin Gray" anonymously in 1771, and though it became very popular, its authorship was not generally known till Scott revealed it incidentally in "The Pirate," 1823. Lady Anne then wrote Scott an account of its composition, which he edited and published for the Bannatyne Club in 1824. She died the following year, May 6.

RICHARD BARNFIELD was born at Norbury, Shropshire, and was baptized June 13, 1574. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. This poem, No. 45, which in a longer form appeared in "The Passionate Pilgrim," and was attributed to Shakespeare, is in Barnfield's " Poems in Divers Humours," 1598. As it is printed here, it appeared in " England's Helicon," 1600, over the name "Ignoto." Barnfield died at Stone, Staffordshire, March, 1627.

FRANCIS BEAUMONT, associated in English poetry with John Fletcher, was born at Grace-Dieu in Leicestershire, in 1584. Little is known of him except that he was for a time at Oxford and at the Inner Temple, that for a while he lived with Fletcher in London, and that he married in 1613 and died March 6, 1616.

WILLIAM BLAKE, poet and engraver, was born of an eccentric family in London, November 28, 17 57. He was a passionate, strange child, disposed to see visions. He became a remarkable illustrator of imaginative poems; his designs for the Book of Job are his masterpiece. His own

poems he illustrated with singular energy and grandeur. He was influenced by Swedenborg, and much of his writing shows, besides, a tendency to insanity. His memorable work for the general public is chiefly in "The Songs of Innocence," 1789, and "The Songs of Experience," 1794. He died in London, August 12, 1827.

ROBERT BURNS, best loved of modern British poets, was born at Alloway, Ayrshire, January 25, 1759. He was brought up a farmer, in poverty, but his mind was stored with old Scotch songs. His genius for love-making was his reason for writing his first songs; his independence of spirit led him to make his satires on the Church and on conventional authority. Besides ranking as perhaps the most passionate of modern lyrists and one of the best of satirists, he is also distinguished as a realistic painter of Scottish life. His first volume of poems, 1786, brought him immediate fame. Through the weakness of his character his last years were unhappy. He died at Dumfries, July 21, 1796.

GEORGE GORDON BYRON, Lord Byron, was born in London, January 22, 1788. After an unhappy boyhood he was educated at Harrow and at Cambridge. In 1807 he published his first book, "Hours of Idleness," and two years later replied to his critics in "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." His fame began with the first two cantos of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," February, 1812, written after his first visit to the Mediterranean. In the next four years he wrote his oriental tales, such as "The Giaour" and "The Bride of Abydos." In 1816 he left England and lived on the Continent, chiefly in Italy. During these years he completed " Childe Harold," wrote his dramas, and began his unfinished masterpiece, "Don Juan." He engaged in the war of Greek independence, and died of fever at Missolonghi, April 19, 1824. No other modern English poet has achieved so world-wide a fame.

THOMAS CAMPBELL, who excelled as the writer of battle poems, was born at Glasgow, July 27, 1777. His reputation was established by "The Pleasures of Hope," 1799. A visit to the Continent the next year inspired such martial poems as Hohenlinden." Other publications were "Gertrude of Wyoming," 1809; "Theodoric," 1824; and "The Pilgrim of Glencoe," 1842. He died at Boulogne, June 15, 1844.

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The date and place of THOMAS CAMPION'S birth are unknown. He studied at Cambridge, and at one time was a member of Gray's Inn, but later became a physician. He was the friend of Thomas Nash and John Dowland, the lutanist. All the words and most of the music of Dowland's "First Book of Airs," 1601, were written by Campion. From that time the latter was the chief writer of "airs" or short songs in Jacobean England. He also wrote masques, and in 1602 published his important "Observations in the Art of English Poesy." He died, probably of the plague, March 1, 1619. .

THOMAS CAREW was born probably at Wickham, Kent, in 1598. He was educated at Westminster School and at Corpus Christi, Oxford. He was a favorite of Charles I, a friend of Ben Jonson, and the most artistic of the courtly poets of the time. Little else is known of him, but he seems to have died not later than April 17, 1638, probably at the end of March.

HENRY CAREY is supposed to have been the son of George Savile, Marquis of Halifax. Nothing more definite is known of his birth. He began his career as a teacher of music, but soon acquired some fame as a writer of songs and burlesques. The song here given, No. 167, first published about 1715, was a favorite of Addison's and is the only work of Carey's now generally remembered. He died October 4, 1743.

COLLEY CIBBER was born in London, November 6, 1671. After some soldiering he became an actor and playwright of considerable fame. He was poet laureate, wrote a famous autobiography, and was made the later hero of Pope's " Dunciad." He died in London, December 12, 1757.

HARTLEY COLERIDGE, son of the more famous Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was born near Bristol, September 19, 1796. He was educated at Oxford, but early showed the tendency to drink which ruined his career. He spent his life in miscellaneous literary work. A small volume of his poems appeared in 1833, a posthumous complete edition in 1851. He died at Grasmere, January 6, 1849.

SAMUEL TAYLor Coleridge was born at Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, October 21, 1772. He was educated at Christ's Hospital and at Jesus College, Cambridge. He became the brother-in-law of Southey and the friend of Wordsworth. To the "Lyrical Ballads,” 1798, he contributed "The Ancient Mariner." "Christabel," written at this time, was not published till 1816. In 1817 a collection of his poems called Sibylline Leaves " appeared. Complete editions of his poems appeared in 1828 and 1834. His slavery to opium ruined his splendid genius. He died at Highgate, July 25, 1834. As poet, critic, student of philosophy and theology, lecturer, and conversationalist Coleridge is one of the most variously gifted and seminal of modern men of letters.

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JOHN COLLINS was born at Bath in the first half of the eighteenth century. He was probably a tailor's son. He became an actor and appeared in Dublin and London with moderate success. Later he invented a composite form of entertainment, — lecture, song, and story, which brought him some wealth. He invested his earnings in The Birmingham Chronicle, where his poems appeared. He died May 2, 1808. Christmas Day, 1721. He published his first

WILLIAM COLLINS was born at Chichester, He was educated at Winchester and at Oxford.

poems before he left school. Later he lived in London, in Richmond, and in Chichester, where he died June 12, 1759. His mind had long been clouded, and during his early life he had suffered the effects of poverty. Dr. Johnson was his friend, and wrote a sympathetic notice of him in the "Lives of the Poets." His name is now associated with that of Gray to represent the best poetry of the mid-eighteenth century.

ABRAHAM COWLEY was born in London toward the end of 1618. He was educated at Westminster and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was secretary to Queen Henrietta Maria after her flight to the Continent, but returned to England during Cromwell's lifetime. After the Restoration he lived in retirement, generally regarded as the greatest poet of his day. His poetry is now seldom read, but his charming "Essays" help to preserve his fame. He died at Chertsey, July 28, 1667.

WILLIAM COWPER was born November 15, 1731, at Great Berkhampstead, where his father was rector of the parish. During a somewhat unhappy boyhood, spent chiefly at Westminster School, he developed his love of literature. In 1748 he was entered at the Middle Temple, where he remained until 1759, when he removed to the Inner Temple and became a commissioner of bankrupts. A few years later he grew so nervous over an examination which was to qualify him for a government appointment, that he temporarily lost his reason and made several attempts at suicide. After a brief confinement in an asylum Cowper recovered and removed to Huntingdon, where he formed his famous friendship for the Unwins. After Mr. Unwin's death in 1767 his wife and Cowper lived at Olney, where the poet wrote with Newton the "Olney Hymns." Cowper's friends devoted themselves to keeping him in a sane state of mind, and the remainder of his life is important only for his writings, which include many forms of poetry and some of the most charming letters in the language. The "Poems" appeared in 1782, "John Gilpin " in 1783, "The Task" in 1785. After establishing his fame as the greatest living English poet and undergoing much mental wretchedness, Cowper died at East Dereham, April 25, 1800.

RICHARD CRASHAW was born in London, probably in 1613. His father was a Puritan minister. He was educated at the Charterhouse School, and at Cambridge, where he held a Fellowship until he was ejected by Parliament in 1643. He went to Paris, where he received some assistance from Cowley and from Queen Henrietta Maria. His poems appeared in 1646, under the title "Steps to the Temple," and gave him a high rank among the religious poets of the seventeenth century. He entered the Roman Church and died a canon of Loretto, 1649. ALLAN CUNNINGHAM was born at Keir, Dumfriesshire, December 7, 1784. His father was later the friend and neighbor of Burns, and the

son walked in Burns's funeral procession. Allan was brought up as a stonemason, but his fondness for old Scotch songs led him to perpetrate a sort of hoax on a London publisher by bringing out his original compositions under the title of "Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song," 1810. At this time he came to London and became the secretary of Francis Chantrey, the sculptor. His chief later publications were "Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry," 1822; a four-volume collection, "Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern," 1825, in which this fine song, "A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea," No. 249, was included; and from 1829 to 1833, the "Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects." He died in London, October 30, 1842.

SAMUEL DANIEL was born near Taunton, 1562, of a musical family. He was educated at Magdalen, Oxford, and became famous for the beauty of his diction and his versification. He was much honored during his lifetime, succeeded Spenser as unofficial poet laureate, and died at Beckington in October, 1619.

THOMAS DEKKER was born about 1570, in London. He may have attended the Merchant Tailors' School. He was one of the hack writers employed by the theatrical manager Henslowe, who, when he was imprisoned for debt in 1598, procured his freedom. He was a most prolific writer of plays and pamphlets, but died poor about 1641. The poem here given, No. 75, is from "The Pleasant Comedy of Patient Grissell," 1599.

Robert DeverEUX, second Earl of Essex, was born at Netherwood, Herefordshire, November 19, 1566. He was the brother of that Penelope Devereux whom Sidney loved. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and embarked on the career of courtier, soldier, and queen's favorite, for which he is remembered in history. In 1590 he married the widow of Sir Philip Sidney. In 1596 he captured Cadiz. Then in 1599 he was appointed Governor-General of Ireland, and after a disastrous campaign there he fell into disfavor with Elizabeth, whereupon he tried to start a rebellion, and was executed for treason, February 25, 1601.

JOHN DONNE, grandson of John Heywood and kin to Sir Thomas More, was born in London about 1573. Probably because his family were Roman Catholics, he took no degree at the universities, though he attended both. After some foreign travel he became secretary to Chancellor Sir Thomas Egerton, and eloped with Anne More, Lady Egerton's niece. He took orders in 1615, became a famous preacher, and was made Dean of St. Paul's in November, 1621. He died March 31, 1631. For the most part his poems-noted for their subtle imagination were written in his youth, and became famous through circulation in manuscript.