an English chess player and author of The Celebrated Analysis of A D Philidor (London, 1832), The Art of Chess-Play: A New Treatise on the Game of Chess (London, 1832), A Selection of Games at Chess played by Philidor (London, 1835), Chess Made Easy (London, 1836), and Chess Studies (London, 1844). In 1839 visited Paris and...

an English chess player and author of The Celebrated Analysis of A D Philidor (London, 1832), The Art of Chess-Play: A New Treatise on the Game of Chess (London, 1832), A Selection of Games at Chess played by Philidor (London, 1835), Chess Made Easy (London, 1836), and Chess Studies (London, 1844). In 1839 visited Paris and the Café de la Régence, where he lost (+1-2) a short match to Boncourt. In 1845, he teamed up with Henry Thomas Buckle, William Davies Evans, George Perigal, and William Josiah Tuckett in London in two telegraph games (one win and one draw) against a team of Howard Staunton and Hugh Alexander Kennedy in Portsmouth. He won a match against Daniel Harrwitz (7-5) at London 1846.

a German composer, musician, singer and music educator. She was born into a privileged family and spent most of her life in the courts of Schwerin and Ludwigslust, capitals of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She studied music with Konzertmeister J. W. Hertel in Schwerin beginning at age ten and entered the court orchestra at sixteen. The court moved from ...

a German composer, musician, singer and music educator. She was born into a privileged family and spent most of her life in the courts of Schwerin and Ludwigslust, capitals of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She studied music with Konzertmeister J. W. Hertel in Schwerin beginning at age ten and entered the court orchestra at sixteen. The court moved from Schwerin to Ludwigslust, and Sophia married the new Konzertmeister Carl Friedrich Westenholz, appointed in 1767, who was also a composer of sacred works.

a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the "triumvirate" of actor-managers that was denounced by Alexander Pope an...

a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the "triumvirate" of actor-managers that was denounced by Alexander Pope and caricatured by William Hogarth as leaders of the decline in theatrical standards and degradation of the stage's literary tradition. The family was based for many generations in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. His great-uncle, Judge Wilks, had served Charles I of England during the English Civil War, for whom he raised a troop at his own expense. After Oliver Cromwell won the civil war, Wilks' father moved to Dublin, where Robert Wilks was born.

an Austrian actress and dancer best known for her relationship with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and her appearance in his poetry. He immortalised her in the Buch Suleika of his late work West-östlicher Diwan; she later revealed that several of its p...

an Austrian actress and dancer best known for her relationship with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and her appearance in his poetry. He immortalised her in the Buch Suleika of his late work West-östlicher Diwan; she later revealed that several of its poems were authored by her.