Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 2

ETHEL LYNN BEERS, a well-known American poet, was born in Goshen, N. Y., January 13, 1827, and died in Orange, N. J., October 10, 1879. She is the author of "All Quiet Along the Potomac, and Other Poems."

Oh, meet is the reverence unto Bacchus paid!

We will praise him still in the songs of our fatherland, We will pour the sacred wine, the chargers lade, And the victim kid shall unresisting stand, Led by his horns to the altar, where we turn The hazel spits while the dripping entrails burn.

"Georgics," Bk. ii, St. 17, L. 31 (H. W. Preston's Translation).--_Vergil_.

HARRIET WATERS PRESTON, a distinguished American scholar, translator, and writer, was born in Danvers, Ma.s.s., January 14 (?), 1836, and died in 1911. Besides her translations of Mistral's "Mireio," Virgil's "Georgics," etc., she has published: "Aspendale," "Troubadours and Trouveres," "Love in the Nineteenth Century," "A Year in Eden," etc.

Although I am a pious man, I am not the less a man.

"Le Tartuffe," Act. iii, Scene 3,--_Moliere_.

JEAN BAPTISTE POQUELIN (MOLIeRE), the greatest of French dramatists, was born in Paris, January 15 (?), 1622, and died there, February 17, 1673.

Among his famous works are: "The Misanthrope," "The Learned Ladies,"

"The School for Wives," "The Imaginary Invalid," "The Miser," "Don Juan," "The School for Husbands," and "Tartuffe," which is considered by many to be his masterpiece.

Die Thranen sind des Schmerzes heilig Recht![2]

"Sappho, III, 5,"--_Fr. Grillparzer_.

FRANZ GRILLPARZER, a renowned Austrian poet and dramatist, was born in Vienna, January 15, 1791, and died there January 21, 1872. Among his noted works are: "Blanche of Castile," "The Ancestress," "Sappho," "The Jewess of Toledo," "The Poor Minstrel," etc., also two famous poems, "Waves of Ocean; Thrills of Love," and "In Thy Camp is Austria."

The pure, the beautiful, the bright, That stirred our hearts in youth, The impulse to a wordless prayer, The dreams of love and truth, The longings after something lost, The spirit's yearning cry, The strivings after better hopes, These things can never die.

"Things that Never Die,"--_Sarah Doudney_.

SARAH DOUDNEY, a noted English writer of fiction, was born near Portsmouth, England, January 15, 1843. She has written: "Under Grey Walls," "The Pilot's Daughters," "Nothing But Leaves," "Under False Colours," "The Lesson of the Water Mill," "The Missing Rubies," "When We Two Parted," "Through Pain to Peace," "Pilgrims of the Night," "A Cl.u.s.ter of Roses," "Silent Strings," "One of the Few," "Shadow and Shine," etc.

Tant la plume a eu sous le roi d'avantage sur l'epee.[3]

"Memoires," Vol. iii, p. 517 (1702), Ed. 1856.--_Saint-Simon_.

LOUIS DE ROUVROY, DUC DE SAINT-SIMON, the great French annalist, was born January 16, 1675, and died March 2, 1755. His notable works are: His famous "Memoirs," published in twenty volumes.

Early to bed and early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

--_Benjamin Franklin_.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, the renowned American philosopher and statesman, was born in Boston, January 16, 1706, and died in Philadelphia, April 17, 1790. He wrote his own "Autobiography," and other important works.

Dicen, que el primer consejo Ha de ser de la muger.[4]

"El Medico de su. Houra," I, 2.--_Calderon_.

PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA, the great Spanish dramatist, was born at Madrid, January 17, 1600, and died May 25, 1681. Among his dramas may be mentioned: "The Wonder-Working Magician," "The Schism of England," "The Alcalde of Zalamea," "No Magic Like Love," "The Divine Orpheus."

Ove son leggi, Tremar non dee chi leggi non infranse.[5]

"Virginia," II., i.,--_Alfieri_.

COUNT VITTORIO ALFIERI, a celebrated Italian dramatist, was born at Asti in Piedmont, January 17, 1749, and died at Florence, October 8, 1803.

Among his many works may be mentioned: "Cleopatra," "Polinice,"

"Antigone," "Agide," "Bruto," "Saul," "Filippo," etc. He also wrote: "Tyranny," "Essays on Literature and Government," odes on "American Independence," and "Memoirs of His Life."

A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.

--_Montesquieu_.

CHARLES DE SECONDANT, BARON DE MONTESQUIEU, a famous French historian and political philosopher, was born near Bordeaux, January 18, 1689, and died in Paris, February 10, 1755. He wrote: "Persian Letters," "The Temple of Cnidus," "Causes of Roman Greatness and Decline," "Dialogue of Sylla Eucrates and Lysimachus," "Works," etc. Also his renowned work, "Spirit of Laws," his masterpiece.

Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.

"Speech at Plymouth," Dec. 22, 1820. Vol. i, p. 44.--_Daniel Webster_.

DANIEL WEBSTER, the ill.u.s.trious American statesman and orator, was born in Salisbury, N. H., January 18, 1782, and died in Marshfield, Ma.s.s., October 24, 1852.

Truth is like a pearl: he alone possesses it who has plunged into the depths of life and torn his hands on the rocks of Time.

--_Laboulaye_.

EDOUARD RENe LEFeBVRE DE LABOULAYE, a distinguished French jurist, historian, and writer of tales, was born at Paris, January 18, 1811, and died there May 25, 1883. His greatest work is a "Political History of the United States, 1620-1789," (3 vols.) 1856-66. His other works are: "The United States and France," "Paris in America," and a novel "Prince Caniche." His best known works of fiction are the three series of "Blue Stories."

The despot's heel is on thy sh.o.r.e, Maryland!

His torch is at thy temple-door, Maryland!

Avenge the patriotic gore That flecked the streets of Baltimore, And be the battle queen of yore, Maryland, my Maryland!

"My Maryland."--_James Rider Randall_.

JAMES RYDER RANDALL, a celebrated American song-writer, was born in Baltimore, Md., January 18, 1839, and died in 1908. His poems include: "The Sole Entry," "Arlington," "The Cameo Bracelet," "The Battle Cry of the South," and his famous poem, "My Maryland!"

"Why wait," he said, "why wait for May, When love can warm a winter's day?"

"Vignettes in Rhyme, Love in Winter."--_Austin Dobson_.

HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON, a famous English poet and man of letters, was born at Plymouth, January 18, 1840, and died April 1, 1921. He has written: "Proverbs in Porcelain," "Old-World Idyls," "Eighteenth-Century Vignettes," "Vignettes in Rhyme and Vers de Societe," "Four French Women," "The Paladin of Philanthropy," "Side-Walk Studies," "De Libris,"

"Old Kensington Palace," "At Prior Park," "Rosalba's Journal and Other Papers"; also "Lives of Fielding, Steele, Goldsmith," "William Hogarth,"