Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/335

Rh by hymns. Though rough, and sometimes, through the endeavour to maintain literalness, grotesque, it is strong and simple, and not seldom rises to a certain severe beauty; and association has endeared it to many generations of Scottish Christians.

 (1568-1646). —Scottish ecclesiastical historian, "b". at Perth, s. of John R., one of the Scottish Reformers, was minister of Carnock in Fife, and a leading opponent of Episcopacy. His "Historie of the Kirk of Scotland", 1558-1637, left by him in manuscript, was printed in 1842 for the Wodrow Society. It is an original authority for the period.

 (1674-1718). —Dramatist and poet, b. of a good family at Little Barford, Bedfordshire, was bred to the law, but inheriting an income of £300 a year, he devoted himself to literature, and produced several dramas, including "The Ambitious Stepmother", "The Fair Penitent", and "Jane Shore". The last, which is his best, contains some scenes of true pathos, and holds its place. He also wrote some poems, and translated Lucan. R., who was a man of very engaging manners, was the friend of Pope, Swift, and Addison, and received many lucrative appointments, including that of Under-Sec. of State. He has the distinction of being the first ed. and biographer of Shakespeare (1709). He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1715, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, with an epitaph by Pope.

 (1585?-1642?). —Dramatist, was an actor in the Queen's Company 1610. He collaborated with Middleton in "A Fair Quarrel and "The Changeling", and in others with Dekker, Webster, etc., and wrote unassisted A New Wonder, "A Match at Midnight", "A Shoemaker", "a Gentleman", and several others; also a picture of life in London called "A Search for Money". R. was vigorous and humorous, but his verse lacked sweetness and smoothness.

 (1674-1757). —Grammarian, b. in Banffshire, and "ed". at King's Coll., Aberdeen, obtained a position in the Advocates' Library in Edin., of which in 1730 he became Librarian. In 1714 he pub. his "Rudiments of the Latin Tongue", which was for long the recognised Latin grammar in the schools of Scotland. He was made printer to the Univ. in 1728. R., who was one of the greatest of Scottish Latinists, produced an ed. of the works of George Buchanan, and an ed. of "Livy" said to be "immaculate." He also reprinted, with notes, Gavin Douglas's version of the "Æneid".

 (1819-1900).—Writer on art, economics, and sociology, was b. in London, the s. of a wealthy wine merchant, a Scotsman. Brought up under intellectually and morally bracing Puritan influences, his education was mainly private until he went to Oxf. in 1836; he remained until 1840, when a serious illness interrupted his studies, and led to a six months' visit to Italy. On his return in 1842 he took his degree. In 1840 he had made the acquaintance of Turner, and this, together with a visit to Venice, constituted a turning point in his life. In 1843 appeared the first vol. of "Modern Painters", the object of which was to insist upon the superiority in landscape of the moderns, and especially of Turner, to