born Jan. 30, 1775, Warwick, Warwickshire, Eng.
died Sept. 17, 1864, Florence, Italy
British writer.
He was educated at Rugby School and Oxford but left both over disagreements with the authorities. A classicist, he originally wrote many of his works in Latin. Though he wrote lyrics, plays, and heroic poems, he is best remembered for his multivolume Imaginary Conversations , prose dialogues between historical personages (1824–53). He spent much of his life in France and Italy.