Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/136

124 and nervous. He seems to have been almost insensible to the beauty of Nature.

.—B. 1631, ed. Westminster and Camb., became prolific playwright ''pub. Annus Mirabilis c''. 1666, Poet Laureate 1667, ''pub. Absalom and Achitophel (part 1) 1681, Medal 1682, MacFlecknoe 1682, Religio Laici 1683, joined Church of Rome 1686, pub. Hind and Panther 1687, deprived of offices and pensions at Revolution 1688, pub''. translations including "Virgil" 1697, St. Cecilia's Day and Alexander's Feast c. 1697, and Fables 1700, when he d.

ed. with Life 1808, re-edited in 18 vols. by Prof. Saintsbury (1883-93); Aldine ed. (5 vols., 1892), Lives of the Poets, etc.

 Author:Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff (1829-1906).—Miscellaneous writer, was M.P. for the Elgin Burghs, and Lieut. -Governor of Madras. He pub. Studies of European Politics, books on Sir H. Maine, Lord de Tabley, and Renan, and a series of Notes from a Diary, perhaps his most interesting work.

 Author:Helen Selina Sheridan (1807-1867).—Eldest dau. of Tom S., grand-daughter of (q.v.), and sister of  (q.v.). She and her two sisters were known as "the three Graces," the third being the Duchess of Somerset. She shared in the family talent, and wrote a good deal of verse, her best known piece being perhaps The Lament of the Irish Emigrant, beginning "I'm sittin' on the stile, Mary." She also wrote Lispings from Low Latitudes, or Extracts from the Journal of the Hon. Impulsia Gushington, Finesse, or a Busy Day at Messina, etc.

 Author:Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903).—Poet, b. in Monaghan, early took to journalism, and became one of the founders of the Nature newspaper, and one of the leaders of the Young Ireland movement. Thereafter he went to Australia, where he became a leading politician, and rose to be Premier of Victoria. His later years were spent chiefly on the Continent. He did much to stimulate in Ireland a taste for the national history and literature, started The Library of Ireland, and made a collection, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland, which was a great success. He also pub. an autobiography, My Life in Two Hemispheres.

 Author:William Dugdale (1605-1686).—Herald and antiquary, was b. at Coleshill, Warwickshire, and ed. at Coventry School. From early youth he showed a strong bent towards heraldic and antiquarian studies, which led to his appointment, in 1638, as a Pursuivant-extraordinary, from which he rose to be Garter-King-at-Arms. In 1655, jointly with Roger Dodsworth, he brought out the first vol. of Monasticon Anglicanum (the second following in 1661, and the third in 1673), containing the charters of the ancient monasteries. In 1656 he pub. the Antiquities of Warwickshire, which maintains a high place among county histories, and in 1666 Origines Judiciales. His great work, The Baronage of England, appeared in 1675-6. Other works were a History of Imbanking and Drayning, and a History of St. Paul's Cathedral. All D.'s writings are monuments of learning and patient investigation.

