OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Poe, Edgar Allan

​POE, Edgar Allan (1809-1849).—Poet and writer of tales, was b. at Boston, where his parents, who were both actors, were temporarily living. He was left an orphan in early childhood in destitute circumstances, but was adopted by a Mr. Allan of Richmond, Virginia. By him and his wife he was treated with great indulgence, and in 1815 accompanied them to England, where they remained for five years, and where he received a good education, which was continued on their return to America, at the Univ. of Virginia. He distinguished himself as a student, but got deeply into debt with gaming, which led to his being removed. In 1829 he pub. a small vol. of poems containing Al Araaf and Tamerlane. About the same time he proposed to enter the army, and was placed at the Military Academy at West Point. Here, however, he grossly neglected his duties, and fell into the habits of intemperance which proved the ruin of his life, and was in 1831 dismissed. He then returned to the house of his benefactor, but his conduct was so objectionable as to lead to a rupture. In the same year P. pub. an enlarged ed. of his poems, and in 1833 was successful in a competition for a prize tale and a prize poem, the tale being the MS. found in a Bottle, and the poem The Coliseum. In the following year Mr. Allan d. without making any provision for P., and the latter, being now thrown on his own resources, took to literature as a profession, and became a contributor to various periodicals. In 1836 he entered into a marriage with his cousin Virginia Clemm, a very young girl, who continued devotedly attached to him notwithstanding his many aberrations, until her death in 1847. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym appeared in 1838, and in 1839 P. became ed. of the Gentleman's Magazine, in which appeared as Tales of the Arabesque and Grotesque many of his best stories. In 1845 his famous poem, The Raven, came out, and in 1848 Eureka, a Prose Poem, a pseudo-scientific lucubration. The death of his wife gave a severe shock to his constitution, and a violent drinking bout on a visit to Baltimore led to his death from brain fever in the hospital there. The literary output of P., though not great in volume, limited in range, and very unequal in merit, bears the stamp of an original genius. In his poetry he sometimes aims at a musical effect to which the sense is sacrificed., but at times he has a charm and a magic melody all his own. His better tales are remarkable for their originality and ingenuity of construction, and in the best of them he rises to a high level of imagination, as in The House of Usher, while The Gold Beetle ​or Golden Bug is one of the first examples of the cryptogram story; and in The Purloined Letters, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue he is the pioneer of the modern detective story.
Life, Woodberry(American Men of Letters). Works ed. by Woodberry and Stedman (10 vols.), etc.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Porson, Richard

​PORSON, Richard (1759-1808).—Scholar, s. of the parish clerk of E. Ruston, Norfolk, was distinguished from childhood by a marvellous tenacity of memory which attracted the attention of the curate of the parish, who ed. him, after which he was sent by a gentleman to Eton. Subsequently a fund was collected for the purpose of maintaining him at Camb., where he had a brilliant career, and became a Fellow of Trinity Coll. This position he lost by refusing to take orders. In 1792 he was appointed Prof. of Greek in the Univ., but resided for the most part in London, where he was much courted by literary men, but unfortunately fell into extremely intemperate habits. P. was one of the very greatest of Greek scholars and critics; but he has left little permanent work of his own. He ed. four plays of Euripides, viz., Hecuba, Orestes, Phœnissæ, and Medea. His most widely read work was his Letters to Archdeacon Travis on the disputed passage, 1 John v. 7, which is considered a masterpiece of acute reasoning. He is buried in the chapel of Trinity Coll.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Porter, Anna Maria; Porter, Jane

​PORTER, Anna Maria (1780-1832), PORTER, Jane (1776-1850). Novelists, were the dau. of an Irish army surgeon, and sisters of Sir Robert Ker P., the painter and traveller. After the death of the f. the family settled in Edin., where they enjoyed the friendship of Scott. Anna at the age of 12 pub. Artless Tales, the precursor of a series of tales and novels numbering about 50, the best being Don Sebastian (1809). Jane, though the elder by four years, did not pub. until 1803, when her first novel, Thaddeus of Warsaw, appeared. The Scottish Chiefs followed in 1810. Both of these works, especially the latter, had remarkable popularity, the Chiefs being translated into German and Russian. She had greater talent than her sister, but like her, while possessed of considerable animation and imagination, failed in grasping character, and imparting local verisimilitude. Both were amiable and excellent women. A romance, Sir Edward Seaward's Diary (1831), purporting to be a record of actual circumstances, and ed. by Jane, is generally believed to have been written by a brother, Dr. William Ogilvie P.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Powell, Frederick York

​POWELL, Frederick York (1850-1904).—Historian, ed. at Rugby and Oxf., called to the Bar at the Middle Temple 1874, became an ardent student of history, and succeeded Froude as Prof. of Modern History at Oxf. in 1894. Absorbed in study, he wrote less than his wide and deep learning qualified him for. Among his works are A History of England to 1509, and he also wrote on Early England up to the Conquest, and on Alfred and William the Conqueror.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woolcock, William (b)

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​WOOLCOCK. (Lieutenant, 1810. f-p., 12; h-p., 34.)
William Woolcock (b) died, we believe, in 1846. This officer entered the Navy, 16 Sept. 1801, as a Supernumerary, on board the Révolutionnaire 38, Capt. Thos. Twysden, for the purpose of joining the Dryad 36, Capts. Chas. John Moore Mansfield and Robt. Williams, with whom he served on the coast of Ireland from the following Oct. until June, 1802. In Jan. 1804, after having cruized for 10 months in the Channel and Bay of Biscay in the Doris 36, Capts. Rich. Harrison Pearson and Patrick Campbell, he was received on board the Minotaur 74; in which ship he continued employed as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, at first under Capt. Mansfield and next under the flags of Admirals John Child Purvis, Sir Chas. Cotton, and Sir Wm. Sidney Smith, in the Channel, off Cadiz and Lisbon, and in the Baltic, until transferred, in March, 1809, to the Africa 64, Capts. Loftus Otway Bland, John Orkney (Acting), Geo. Fred. Ryves, and John Bastard. In the Minotaur he fought at Trafalgar and accompanied the expedition of 1807 against Copenhagen. He was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Africa 23 June, 1810; was confirmed, 28 Dec. following, into the Amaranthe 18, Capt. Geo. Pringle, on the West India station; and, having invalided thence in 1811, was subsequently, from March until Dec. 1813, and from March, 1814, until Aug. 1815, employed in the Channel and East Indies in the Warspite 74, Capt. Hon. Henry Blackwood, and Grampus 50, Capt. Francis Augustus Collier. He did not again go afloat.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woolcombe, Frederick

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​WOOLCOMBE. (Lieutenant, 1846.)
Frederick Woolcombe passed his examination 8 Feb. 1845; was nominated, 25 June and 23 Dec. 1846, Acting-Lieutenant, on the coast of Africa, of the Actaeon 26 and Kingfisher 12, Capts. Geo. Mansel and Fred. Wilmot Horton; and on the paying-off of the latter vessel in July, 1848, was presented with a commission bearing date 24 June, 1846. Since 4 Sept. 1848 he has been serving in the Southampton 50, as Flag-Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Barrington Reynolds, Commander-in-Chief at the Cape of Good Hope.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woodruffe, Daniel

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​WOODRUFFE. (Lieutenant, 1828.)
Daniel Woodruffe died 18 July, 1845.
This officer entered the Navy 12 Feb. 1811; and obtained his commission 14 Sept. 1828. He was afterwards appointed, for short periods – 17 Feb. 1834, to the President 52, Capt. John M‘Kerlie, in which ship he escorted Sir Colin Campbell, K.C.B., Governor-General of Nova Scotia, to Halifax – 27 Aug. 1834, to the Vernon 50, also commanded by Capt. M‘Kerlie, and at the time fitting for the Mediterranean – 10 March, 1835, to the Coast Guard – and 12 July, 1843, to the command of the Albert steamer, on the coast of Africa. Agent – J. Hinxman.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woolcombe, Belfield

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​WOOLCOMBE. (Lieutenant, 1841.)
Belfield Woolcombe is nephew of Rear-Admiral Sir John Louis, Bart.
This officer entered the Navy 26 Nov. 1829; and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 8 June, 1841, as a reward for his services on the coast of China; where he continued employed in the Columbine 16, Capt. Wm. Henry Anderson Morshead, until his return to England in the early part of 1843. He was appointed, 2 Aug. in that year, to the Talbot 26, Capt. Sir Thos. Raikes Trigge Thompson, on the Pacific station; and since 7 May, 1847 (about which period the Talbot was paid off), has been serving at Plymouth in the Caledonia 120 and Agincourt 72, as Flag-Lieutenant to his uncle Sir John Louis, the Admiral-Superintendent. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woodthorpe, John Bolton

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​WOODTHORPE. (Captain, 1842. f-p., 21; h-p., 16.)
John Bolton Woodthorpe was born 28 Aug. 1796, and died 19 May, 1846.
This officer entered the Navy, 30 Sept. 1809, as Midshipman, on board the Druid 32, in which frigate and the Endymion 40, both commanded by his cousin Sir Wm. Bolton, he was for three years employed in the Channel and West Indies. In the Druid he assisted in making prize, 13 Nov. 1809, of the Basque French national brig of 16 guns. On leaving the Endymion he joined the Briton 46, Capt. Sir Thos. Staines; under whom we find him, until paid off in Aug. 1815, employed, part of the time as Master’s Mate, in the manner detailed in our memoir of Commander Thos. Dilnot Stewart. He served subsequently at Portsmouth, in the Mediterranean, on the coast of Ireland, in the West Indies, and at Plymouth, as Midshipman, Mate, and Admiralty-Midshipman (he passed his examination ​6 Oct. 1815), in the Prince 98 and Queen Charlotte 100, flag-ships of Sir Edw. Thornbrough, Tagus 38, Capt. Jas. Whitley Deans Dundas, Harlequin 18, Capt. Sir Chas. Christopher Parker, Superb 78, Capt. Sir T. Staines, and Britannia 120, Capt. Philip Pipon. He was made Lieutenant, 3 June, 1826, into the Sybille 48, Capt. Sir Sam. John Brooke Pechell, in the Mediterranean; he returned, in the following Nov., to England; and he was appointed next, as Senior Lieutenant – 15 July, 1831, and 3 May and 2 Sept. 1834, to the Arachne 18, Capt. Wm. Gapper Agar, Wasp 16, Capt. John Sam. Foreman, and President 50, flag-ship of Sir Geo. Cockburn, all on the North America and West India station – and 13 Jan. 1837, after seven months of half-pay, to the Rodney 92, Capt. Hyde Parker, again in the Mediterranean. He attained the rank of Commander 28 June, 1838; served off Lisbon as Second-Captain in the Blenheim 72, Capt. Humphrey Fleming Senhouse, from 25 April until Dec. 1839; was appointed in a similar capacity 26 Oct. 1841, to the Alfred 50, Capt. John Brett Purvis, fitting for South America; and in honour of the Queen’s visit to the squadron at Spithead was advanced to Post-rank 7 March, 1842.
Capt. Woodthorpe married, 6 Sept. 1838, Emily, second daughter of the Rev. Robt. Howard, of Throxenby Hall, co. York, Rector of Burythorpe, by whom he has left issue.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woodward, Augustine

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​WOODWARD. (Lieutenant, 1812. f-p., 9; h-p., 33.)
Augustine Woodward entered the Navy, 31 May, 1805, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Flora 36, Capt. Loftus Otway Bland, employed in succession in the North Sea and off Lisbon and the Western Islands. From Dec. 1807 until April, 1810, he served in the Mediterranean, as Midshipman (a rating he had already attained) and as Master’s Mate, in the Sultan and Excellent 74’s, both commanded by Capt. Edw. Griffith; he cruized during the next 10 months, off Cherbourg, Flushing, and Lisbon, in the Elizabeth 74, Capts. Hon. Henry Curzon and Thos. Searle; and at the close of 1811, after he had been again for a few months stationed off Flushing in the Christian VII. 80, flag-ship of Admiral Wm. Young, he sailed, in the Barbadoes 24, Capt. Edw. Rushworth, for the West Indies; where he joined, in Feb. 1812, the Dragon 74, flag-ship of Sir Fras. Laforey, and acted, from May until July following, as Lieutenant in the Orpheus 36, Capt. Hugh Pigot. He then returned to England, having been promoted by the Admiralty to the rank of Lieutenant 21 March preceding; and was employed lastly, from Jan. 1813 until Sept. 1814, and from July until Sept. 1815, in the Prospero 10, Capt. John Hardy Godby, and Alert 18, Capts. Joseph Gulston Garland and John Smith, in the North Sea, at Gibraltar, in the Downs, and off Brighton.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woolcock, William (a)

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​WOOLCOCK. (Lieutenant, 1809. f-p., 17; h-p., 30.)
William Woolcock (a) entered the Navy, in May, 1800, as A.B., on board the Vésuve, Lieut.-Commanders Wm. Eliot, Wm. Chapman, and Benj. Crispin, stationed in the North Sea. He served next, from April, 1801, until July, 1802, part of the time as Midshipman, in the Powerful 74, Capt. Sir Francis Laforey, in the Baltic, off the port of Cadiz, and in the West Indies; and from March, 1803, until June, 1807, under Sir Wm. Sidney Smith, in the Antelope 50 and Pompée 74. In the Antelope he was often in action with the enemy’s flotilla between Flushing and Ostend; and in the Pompée he passed the Dardanells and assisted at the destruction of a Turkish squadron anchored under the guns of a redoubt on Point Pesquies. On 8 July, 1807, he was nominated Sub-Lieutenant of the Pincher gun-brig, Lieut.-Commanders Jas. Aberdour and Sam. Burgess, in the North Sea; he was promoted to the full rank of Lieutenant 25 March, 1809; and he was afterwards, from June following until April, 1812, and from the latter date until June, 1814, employed in the Persian 18, Capts. Sam. Martin Colquitt and Chas. Bertram, and Iris 36, Capt. Hood Hanway Christian, on the West India, Home, and Brazilian stations. We believe that he assisted, in the Persian, at the capture of the privateers Embuscade of 14 guns and 63 men, and Petit Jean, of 16 guns, only 8 mounted, and 65 men. His last appointment was to the Poictiers 72, Capts. Wm. Henry Shirreff and Sir Thos. Bourchier, Depôt-ship of Ordinary at Chatham, where he served as First-Lieutenant from 4 April, 1844, until the summer of 1847.
# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woodruff, Henry

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​WOODRUFF. (Lieutenant, 1830.)
Henry Woodruff entered the Navy 16 April, 1810; passed his examination in 1816; attained the rank of Lieutenant 24 Feb. 1830; and from 18 March following until the spring of 1836 had charge of a station in the Coast Guard. He has not been since employed.
He was left a widower 1 Jan. 1840. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Somerville, Mrs. Mary

Somerville, Mrs. Mary (FAIRFAX) (1780-1872). -- Mathematician and writer on science, dau. of Admiral Sir William G. Fairfax, b. at Jedburgh, was twice m., first to Mr. Greig, an officer in the Russian Navy, and second to her cousin Dr. William S. Although she had early manifested a taste for study, and specially for science, she had, until after the death of her first husband, little opportunity of following out her favourite subjects. With Dr. S., who was in full sympathy with her scientific tastes, she went to reside in London, and there her talents made her known in scientific circles. In 1823 she was requested by Lord Brougham to popularise the Mechanique Celeste of La Place. This she did with great success, publishing her work as The Celestial Mechanism of the Heavens (1830). She also pub. The Connection of the Physical Sciences (1834), and other works. She received a pension from Government, and d. aged 92 at Naples, where she had resided for the last ten or twelve years of her life.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Somerville, William

Somerville, William (1675-1742). -- Poet, a Warwickshire squire of literary tastes, wrote among others a poem, The Chase, in 4 books, which has some passages of considerable descriptive power.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Sotheby, William

Sotheby, William (1757-1833). -- Poet and translator, belonged to a good family, and was ed. at Harrow. In early life he was in the army. He pub. a few dramas and books of poems, which had no great popularity, and are now forgotten; his reputation page 350rests upon his admirable translations of the Oberon of Wieland, the Georgics of Virgil, and the Iliad and Odyssey. The last two were begun when he was upwards of 70, but he lived to complete them. His Georgics is considered one of the best translations from the classics in the language.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Speed, John

Speed, John (1552?-1629). -- Historian, b. at Farington, Cheshire, and brought up to the trade of a tailor, had a strong taste for history and antiquities, and wrote a History of Great Britain (1611), which was long the best in existence, in collecting material for which he had assistance from Cotton, Spelman, and other investigators. He also pub. useful maps of Great Britain and Ireland, and of various counties, etc. In 1616 appeared his Cloud of Witnesses confirming ... the truth of God's most holie Word. His maps were coll. and with descriptions pub. in 1611 as Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/South, Robert

South, Robert (1634-1716). -- Divine, s. of a London merchant, was b. at Hackney, and ed. at Westminster School and Oxf., where in 1660 he was appointed Univ. Orator. He became domestic chaplain to the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and in 1663 the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him. After accompanying an embassy to Poland he became Rector of Islip, and a chaplain to Charles II. Thereafter he steadily declined higher preferment, including the bishopric of Rochester. He was opposed to the Romanising measures of James II., but owing to his views as to the duty of passive obedience he declined to associate himself in any way with the Revolution, to which nevertheless he submitted. He was an expert controversialist, but it is chiefly by his sermons, which are among the classics of English divinity, that he is remembered. He has the reputation of being the wittiest of English preachers, and this characteristic is sometimes present to a degree not quite suitable to the subjects treated.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Southey, Mrs. Caroline Anne

Southey, Mrs. Caroline Anne (BOWLES) (1786-1854). -- Poetess, dau. of a captain in the navy, submitted a poem, Ellen Fitzarthur to Southey (q.v.), which led to a friendship, and to a proposed joint poem on Robin Hood, not, however, carried out, and eventually to her becoming the poet's second wife. She wrote various other works, including Chapters on Churchyards and Tales of the Factories.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Southerne, Thomas

Southerne, Thomas (1660-1746). -- Dramatist, b. in Dublin, and ed. at Trinity Coll. there, came to London and studied law at the Middle Temple. Afterwards he entered the army and saw service. He wrote ten plays, of which two were long acted and are still remembered, The Fatal Marriage (1694) and Oroonoko (1696), in the latter of which he appeals passionately against the slave-trade. Unlike most preceding dramatists he was a practical man, succeeded in his theatrical management, and retired on a fortune. Other plays are The Loyal Brother (1682), The Disappointment (1684), The Wives' Excuse (1692), The Spartan Dame (1719), etc.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Southwell, Robert

Southwell, Robert (1561?-1595). -- Poet, b. at Horsham St. Faith's, Norfolk, of good Roman Catholic family, and ed. at Douay, Paris, and Rome, he became a Jesuit, and showed such learning and ability as to be appointed Prefect of the English Coll. In 1586 he came to England with Garnett, the superior of the English province, and became chaplain to the Countess of Arundel. His being in England for more than 40 days then rendered him liable to the punishment of death and disembowelment, and in 1592 he was apprehended and imprisoned in the Tower for three years, during which he was tortured 13 times. He was then put on trial and executed, February 22, 1595. He was the author of St. Peter's Complaint and The Burning Babe, a short poem of great imaginative power, and of several prose religious works, including St. Mary Magdalene's Teares, A Short Rule of Good Life, The Triumphs over Death, etc.
# A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Southey, Robert

Southey, Robert (1774-1843). -- Poet, biographer, etc., s. of an unsuccessful linen-draper in Bristol, where he was b., was sent to Westminster School, and in 1792 went to Oxf. His friendship with Coleridge began in 1794, and with him he joined in the scheme of a "pantisocracy" (see Coleridge). In 1795 he m. his first wife, Edith Fricker, and thus became the brother-in-law of Coleridge. Shortly afterwards he visited Spain, and in 1800 Portugal, and laid the foundations of his thorough knowledge of the history and literature of the Peninsula. Between these two periods of foreign travel he had attempted the study of law, which proved entirely uncongenial; and in 1803 he settled at Greta Hall, Keswick, to which neighbourhood the Coleridges had also come. Here he set himself to a course of indefatigable literary toil which only ended page 351with his life. Thalaba had appeared in 1801, and there followed Madoc (1805), The Curse of Kehama (1810), Roderic, the Last of the Goths (1814), and A Vision of Judgment (1821); and in prose a History of Brazil, Lives of Nelson (1813), Wesley (1820), and Bunyan (1830), The Book of the Church (1824), History of the Peninsular War (1823-32), Naval History, and The Doctor (1834-37). In addition to this vast amount of work he had been from 1808 a constant contributor to the Quarterly Review. In 1839 when he was failing both in body and mind he m., as his second wife, Miss Caroline Ann Bowles, who had for 20 years been his intimate friend, and by whom his few remaining years were soothed. Though the name of S. still bulks somewhat largely in the history of our literature, his works, with a few exceptions, are now little read, and those of them (his longer poems, Thalaba and Kehama) on which he himself based his hopes of lasting fame, least of all. To this result their length, remoteness from living interests, and the impression that their often splendid diction is rather eloquence than true poetry, have contributed. Some of his shorter poems, e.g., "The Holly Tree," and "The Battle of Blenheim" still live, but his fame now rests on his vigorous prose and especially on his classic Life of Nelson. Like Wordsworth and Coleridge, S. began life as a democratic visionary, and was strongly influenced by the French Revolution, but gradually cooled down into a pronounced Tory. He was himself greater and better than any of his works, his life being a noble record of devotion to duty and unselfish benevolence. He held the office of Poet Laureate from 1813, and had a pension from Government. He declined a baronetcy.
Life and Correspondence (6 vols., 1849-50) by his younger son, Rev. C. Southey. Life by Dowden in Men of Letters (1880).