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Tonson
Jacob Tonson, sometimes referred to as Jacob Tonson the Elder (1655–1736), was an eighteenth-century English bookseller and publisher. Tonson published editions of John Dryden and John Milton, and is best known for having obtained a copyright on the plays of William Shakespeare by buying up the rights of the heirs of the publisher of the Fourth Folio after the Statute of Anne went into effect. He was also the founder of the famous Kit-Cat Club. His nephew, Jacob Tonson the Younger (1682–1735), was his business partner. The business was continued by the younger Tonson's son, Jacob Tonson (1714–1767). History Scholars have not always been sure of Tonson's birthdate, and it has in the past been listed as occurring in 1655 or 1656. But the register of christenings in the parish of St Andrew Holborn demonstrates that Tonson was born on 12 November 1655 and baptized 18 November 1655. The register lists Tonson as the "sonne of Jacob Tonson Shoemaker and of Elizabeth his wife neare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard Steele, with whom he founded ''The Spectator'' magazine. His simple prose style marked the end of the mannerisms and conventional classical images of the 17th century. Life and work Background Addison was born in Milston, Wiltshire, but soon after his birth his father, Lancelot Addison, was appointed Dean of Lichfield and the family moved into the cathedral close. His father was a scholarly English clergyman. Joseph was educated at Charterhouse School, London, where he first met Richard Steele, and at The Queen's College, Oxford. He excelled in classics, being specially noted for his Latin verse, and became a fellow of Magdalen College. In 1693, he addressed a poem to John Dryden, and his first major work, a book of the lives of Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Congreve (playwright)
William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729) was an English playwright and poet of the Restoration period. He is known for his clever, satirical dialogue and influence on the comedy of manners style of that period. He was also a minor political figure in the British Whig Party. Early life William Congreve was born in Bardsey Grange, on an estate near Ledston, West Riding of Yorkshire. Although Samuel Johnson disputed this, it has since been confirmed by a baptism entry for "William, sonne of Mr. William Congreve, of Bardsey grange, baptised 10 February 1669" .e. 1670 by the modern reckoning of the new year His parents were Colonel William Congreve (1637–1708) and Mary Browning (1636?–1715), who moved to London in 1672, then to the Irish port of Youghal. Congreve was educated at Kilkenny College, where he met Jonathan Swift, and at Trinity College Dublin. He moved to London to study law at the Middle Temple, but preferred literature, drama, and the fashionable l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. It addressed the fall of man, including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden. ''Paradise Lost'' is widely considered one of the greatest works of literature ever written, and it elevated Milton's widely-held reputation as one of history's greatest poets. He also served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell. Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, Milton achieved global fame and recognition during his lifetime; his celebrated ''Areopagitica'' (1644), written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship, is among history's most influential and impassioned defences of freedom of spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn (; bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. Rising from obscurity, she came to the notice of Charles II, who employed her as a spy in Antwerp. Upon her return to London and a probable brief stay in debtors' prison, she began writing for the stage. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous libertines such as John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. Behn wrote under the pastoral pseudonym Astrea. During the turbulent political times of the Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her into legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. A staunch supporter of the Stuart line, she declined an invitation from Bishop Burnet to write a welcoming p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kit-Cat Club
The Kit-Cat Club (sometimes Kit Kat Club) was an early 18th-century English club in London with strong political and literary associations. Members of the club were committed Whigs (British political party), Whigs. They met at the Trumpet tavern in London and at Water Oakley in the Berkshire countryside. The first meetings were held at a tavern in Shire Lane (parallel with Bell Yard and now covered by the Royal Courts of Justice) run by an innkeeper called Christopher Catt. He gave his name to the Scotch pie, mutton pies known as "Kit Cats" from which the name of the club is derived. The club later moved to the Fountain Tavern on Strand, London, The Strand (now the site of Simpson's-in-the-Strand), and latterly into a room specially built for the purpose at Barn Elms, the home of the secretary Jacob Tonson. In summer, the club met at the Upper Flask, Hampstead Heath. Origins The origin of the name "Kit-Cat Club" is unclear. In 1705 Thomas Hearne (antiquarian), Thomas Hear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cleomenes, The Spartan Hero
''Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero'' or ''Cleomenes, The Spartan Heroe: A Tragedy'' is a 1692 tragedy by the English writer John Dryden. It was first staged at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane by the United Company. It portrays the reign of Cleomenes, the King of Sparta, inspired by Plutarch's history of the period. Dryden's version is strongly Jacobite in drawing parallels from his overthrow to the recent Glorious Revolution in England. Because of this it was temporarily banned by the authority of Queen Mary. The original Drury Lane cast included Thomas Betterton as Cleomenes, Anthony Leigh as Cleonidas, John Verbruggen as Ptolomy, Samuel Sandford as Sosybius, William Mountfort as Cleanthes, Edward Kynaston as Pantheus, John Hodgson as Coenus, Mary Betterton as Cratisiclea, Anne Bracegirdle as Cleora and Elizabeth Barry as Cassandra.Van Lennep p.407-8 It was published by Jacob Tonson who had by this time secured exclusive rights to Dryden's work past and present. The published vers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nahum Tate
Nahum Tate ( ; 1652 – 30 July 1715) was an Irish poet, hymnist and lyricist, who became Poet Laureate in 1692. Tate is best known for ''The History of King Lear'', his 1681 adaptation of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'', and for his libretto for Henry Purcell's opera, ''Dido and Aeneas''. Life Nahum Tate was born in Dublin and came from a family of Puritan clerics. He was the son of Faithful Teate, an Irish cleric who had been rector of Castleterra, Ballyhaise, until his house was burnt and his family attacked after he had passed on information to the government about plans for the Irish Rebellion of 1641. After living at the provost's lodgings in Trinity College Dublin, Faithful Teate moved to England. He was the incumbent at East Greenwich around 1650, and "preacher of the gospel" at Sudbury from 1654 to 1658. He had returned to Dublin by 1660. He published a poem on the Trinity entitled ''Ter Tria'', as well as some sermons, two of which he dedicated to Oliver and Henry Cro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeremy Collier
Jeremy Collier (; 23 September 1650 – 26 April 1726) was an English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian. Life Born Jeremiah Collier, in Stow cum Quy, Cambridgeshire, Collier was educated at Caius College, University of Cambridge, receiving the BA (1673) and MA (1676). A supporter of James II, he refused, as a nonjuror (see Nonjuring schism) to take the oath of allegiance to William III and Mary II after the Glorious Revolution. Furthering his obvious disapproval of the new monarchs, he publicly absolved two Jacobites who had conspired to assassinate the King and Queen. In 1713 he was consecrated a non-juror bishop by George Hickes and two Scottish bishops, Archibald Campbell and James Gadderar. Works Collier was the primus of the nonjuring line and a strong supporter of the four usages. (see Nonjuring schism) In the years following the Revolution he wrote a series of tracts questioning the legitimacy of the new monarchs and the deprival of the Non-juror bis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bayfordbury
Bayfordbury, Hertfordshire, is a large Grade II* listed country house with surrounding parkland, and the location of a University of Hertfordshire campus, housing its biology/geography field station and observatory. History of Bayfordbury Bayfordbury House was originally built between 1759 and 1762 for well-to-do London merchant Sir William Baker. It was upgraded to its present appearance by his son, also William Baker between 1809 and 1812. After the death of Admiral Sir Lewis Clinton-Baker in 1940, the estate was leased to the Dr Barnardo's charity. The 372-acre Bayfordbury estate was then bought by the John Innes Centre in 1948 and developed into a School of Cytology. A new Cell Biology building was built in 1959, later to become the Science Learning Centre. In 1967 the John Innes Centre moved to its present site in Norwich and the Bayfordbury estate was bought by the Hertfordshire Council in 1967 for the use of Hatfield Polytechnic. Bayfordbury Observatory In 1969 the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are ''The Book of the Duchess'', ''The House of Fame'', ''The Legend of Good Women'', and ''Troilus and Criseyde''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of ou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was sometimes simply known as "the Certaldese" and one of the most important figures in the European literary panorama of the 14th century, fourteenth century. Some scholars (including Vittore Branca) define him as the greatest European prose writer of his time, a versatile writer who amalgamated different literary trends and genres, making them converge in original works, thanks to a creative activity exercised under the banner of experimentalism. His most notable works are ''The Decameron'', a collection of short stories which in the following centuries was a determining element for the Italian literary tradition, especially after Pietro Bembo elevated the Boccaccian style to a model of Italian prose in the 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subscription
The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and is now used by many businesses, websites and even pharmaceutical companies in partnership with the government. Subscriptions Rather than selling products individually, a subscription offers periodic (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, semi-annual, yearly/annual, or seasonal) use or access to a product or service, or, in the case of performance-oriented organizations such as opera companies, tickets to the entire run of some set number of (e.g., five to fifteen) scheduled performances for an entire season. Thus, a one-time sale of a product can become a recurring sale and can build brand loyalty. Industries that use this model include mail order book sales clubs and music sales clubs, private web mail providers, cable television, satel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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