One of the great figures of the Romantic age, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 1834) is known both for his poetry and prose, and for producing Lyrical Ballads with William Wordsworth, a work which revolutionized English poetry.

Plagued by debts and laudanum addiction, he left many pieces unfinished, yet his extraordinary influence was felt in literary figures as diverse as Wordsworth, Mary Shelley and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ben Jonson (1572 or 1573–1637) was born in London. A prolific poet, playwright, and contemporary of William Shakespeare, many of Jonson’s plays were performed by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men company. Married to Anne Lewis in 1594, the couple enjoyed some influence in London and Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1616, Jonson collected his entire works for publication in a single volume—something that had never been done before—and was made poet laureate that same year, for which he was given a pension by King James I.