, HENRY KIRKE (1785-1806).--Poet, _s._ of a butcher at Nottingham.
At first assisting his _f._, next a stocking weaver, he was afterwards
placed in the office of an attorney. Some contributions to a newspaper
introduced him to the notice of Capel Lofft, a patron of promising
youths, by whose help he brought out a vol. of poems, which fell into the
hands of Southey, who wrote to him. Thereafter friends raised a fund to
send him to Camb., where he gave brilliant promise. Overwork, however,
undermined a constitution originally delicate, and he _d._ at 21. Southey
wrote a short memoir of him with some additional poems. His chief poem
was the _Christiad_, a fragment. His best known production is the hymn,
"Much in sorrow, oft in Woe."

WHITE, JOSEPH BLANCO (1775-1841).--Poet, _s._ of a merchant, an Irish
Roman Catholic resident at Seville, where he was _b._, became a priest,
but lost his religious faith and came to England, where he conducted a
Spanish newspaper having for its main object the fanning of the flame of
Spanish patriotism against the French invasion, which was subsidised by
the English Government. He again embraced Christianity, and entered the
Church of England, but latterly became a Unitarian. He wrote, among other
works, _Internal Evidences against Catholicism_ (1825), and _Second
Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion_, in answer to T.
Moore's work, _Travels, etc._ His most permanent contribution to
literature, however, is his single sonnet on "Night", which Coleridge
considered "the finest and most grandly conceived" in our language.

WHITE, RICHARD GRANT (1822-1885).--Shakespearian scholar, _b._ in New
York State, was long Chief of the Revenue Marine Bureau, and was one of
the most acute students and critics of Shakespeare, of whose works he
_pub._ two ed., the first in 1865, and the second (the Riverside) in
1883. He also wrote _Words and their Uses_, _Memoirs of Shakespeare_,
_Studies in Shakespeare_, _The New Gospel of Peace_ (a satire), _The Fate
of Mansfield Humphreys_ (novel), etc.

WHITEHEAD, CHARLES (1804-1862).--Poet, novelist, and dramatist; is
specially remembered for three works, all of which met with popular
favour: _The Solitary_ (1831), a poem, _The Autobiography of Jack Ketch_
(1834), a novel, and _The Cavalier_ (1836), a play in blank verse. He
recommended Dickens for the writing of the letterpress for R. Seymour's
drawings, which ultimately developed into _The Pickwi