Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/323

Rh and was foremost among the prosecutors of (q.v.}. Among his other literary labours are commentaries on Daniel and the minor Prophets, a treatise on Everlasting Punishment, and a Catalogue of the Arabic MS. in the Bodleian Library.  PUTTENHAM,  (1530?-1590).—Was one of the s. of Robert P., a country gentleman. There has been attributed to him the authorship of The Arte of Poesie, a treatise of some length divided into three parts, (i) of poets and poesy, (2) of proportion, 3) of ornament. It is now thought rather more likely that it was written by his brother (1520?-1601). George was the author of an Apologie for Queen Elizabeth's treatment of Mary Queen of Scots.  PYE,  (1745-1813).—A country gentleman of Berkshire, who pub. Poems on Various Subjects and Alfred, an Epic, translated the Poetics of Aristotle, and was Poet Laureate from 1790. In the last capacity he wrote official poems of ludicrous dulness, and was generally a jest and a byword in literary circles.  QUARLES,  (1592-1644).—Poet, b. at the manor house of Stewards near Romford, was at Camb., and studied law at Lincoln's Inn. Thereafter he went to the Continent, and at Heidelberg acted as cup-bearer to Elizabeth of Bohemia, dau. of James I. He next appears as sec. to Archbishop Ussher in Ireland, and was in 1639 Chronologer to the City of London. On the outbreak of the Civil War he sided with the Royalists, and was plundered by the Parliamentarians of his books and rare manuscripts, which is said to have so grieved him as to bring about his death. His first book of poems was A Feast for Worms (1620); others were Hadassa (Esther) (1621), Sion's Elegies (1625), and Divine Emblems (1635), by far his most popular book. His style was that fashionable in his day, affected, artificial, and full of "conceits," but he had both real poetical fire and genuine wit, mixed with much that was false in taste, and though quaint and crabbed, is seldom feeble or dull. He was twice m., and had by his first wife 18 children.  RADCLIFFE,  (1764-1823).—Novelist, only dau. of parents in a respectable position, in 1787 m. Mr. William Radcliffe, ed. and proprietor of a weekly newspaper, the English Chronicle. In 1789 she pub. her first novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, of which the scene is laid in Scotland. It, however, gave little promise of the future power of the author. In the following year appeared The Sicilian Romance, which attracted attention by its vivid descriptions and startling incidents. Next came The Romance of the Forest (1791), followed by The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), and The Italian (1797), a story of the Inquisition, the last of her works pub. during her life-time. Gaston de Blondeville, ed. by Sergeant Talfourd, was brought out posthumously. Mrs. R. has been called the Salvator Rosa of British novelists. She excels in the description of scenes of mystery and terror whether of natural scenery or incident: in the former displaying a high degree of imaginative power, and in the latter great ingenuity and fertility of invention. She had, however, little power of delineating character, Though her works belong to a type now out of fashion, they will