Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/112

100 His pathos, sparingly introduced, goes to the heart; his pictures of crime and despair not seldom rise to the terrific, and he has a marvellous power of painting natural scenery, and of bringing out in detail the beauty and picturesqueness of scenes at first sight uninteresting, or even uninviting. He is absolutely free from affectation or sentimentality, and may be regarded as one of the greatest masters of the realistic in our literature. With these merits he has certain faults, too great minuteness in his pictures, too frequent dwelling upon the sordid and depraved aspects of character, and some degree of harshness both in matter and manner, and not unfrequently a want of taste.

Life prefixed to ed. of works by his son (1834), Ainger (Men of Letters, 1903). Works (Ward, 3 vols., 1906-7).

 Author:Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie (1867-1906). Dau. of John Morgan, R. b. in Boston, Massachusetts. Most of her education was received in London and Paris, and from childhood she was a great reader and observer. At 19 she m. Mr. R. W. Craigie, but the union did not prove happy and was, on her petition, dissolved. In 1902 she became a Roman Catholic. She wrote, under the pseudonym of "John Oliver Hobbes,", a number of novels and dramas, distinguished by originality of subject and treatment, brightness of humour, and finish of style, among which may be mentioned Some Emotions and a Moral, The Gods, Some Mortals and Lord Wickenham (1895), The Herb Moon and The School for Saints (1897), and Robert Orange (1900), The Dream and The Business (1907). Her dramas include The Ambassador and The Bishop's Move.

 Author:George Lillie Craik (1798-1866).—Writer on English literature, etc., b. at Kennoway, Fife, and ed. at St. Andrews, went to London in 1824, where he wrote largely for the "Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge." In 1849 he was appointed Prof. of English Literature and History at Belfast. Among his books are The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties (1831), History of British Commerce (1844), and History of English Literature and the English Language (1861). He was also joint author of The Pictorial History of England, and wrote books on and.

 Author:Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556).—Theologian and Churchman, b. at Aslacton, Notts, ed. at Camb., and became an eminent classical and biblical scholar. He supported Henry VIII. in his divorce proceedings against Queen Catherine, gained the King's favour, and obtained rapid preferment, ending with the Primacy. He was one of the chief promoters of the Reformation in England. On the accession of Mary, he was committed to the Tower, and after a temporary failure of courage and constancy, suffered martyrdom at the stake. It is largely to C. that we owe the stately forms of the Book of Common Prayer. He also wrote over 40 works, and composed several hymns; but the influence of the Prayer-book in fixing the language is his great, though indirect, service to our literature.

Book of Martyrs, Memorials of Cranmer,  Lives of Archbishops of Canterbury, etc.

