_ 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, FRANCIS (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, MRS. ANN (WARD) (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 always possess an historical int