--_Crébillon_.
PROSPER JOLYOT DE CRÉBILLON, a celebrated French dramatist, was born at
Dijon, January 13, 1674, and died at Paris, June 14, 1762. His plays
include; "The Death of Brutus's Children," "Idomeneus," "Atreus and
Thyestes," "Electra," "Rhadamistus and Zénobia," "Xerxes," "Semiramis,"
"Pyrrhus," and "Catalina."
How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood,
When fond recollection presents them to view.
"The Old Oaken Bucket,"--_Samuel Woodworth_.
SAMUEL WOODWORTH, a noted American poet and journalist, was born at
Scituate, Mass., January 13, 1785, and died in New York City, December
9, 1842. His poem, "The Old Oaken Bucket," won for him great fame.
All quiet along the Potomac to-night,
No sound save the rush of the river,
While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead--
The picket's off duty forever.
"All quiet along the Potomac,"--_Ethel L. Beers_.
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, Mass., January 14 (?), 1836, and died
in 1911. Besides her translations of Mistral's "Mireio," Virgil's
"Georgics," etc., she has published: "Aspendale," "Troubadours and
Trouvéres," "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,--_Molière_.
JEAN BAPTISTE POQUELIN (MOLIÈRE), 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.