Introductory note on Dante Alighieri (Volume 20, Harvard Classics)

The best part of the Divine Comedy for a few minutes' reading is the "Inferno." There the reader finds the most vivid descriptions, the most startling and unforgettable pictures. (Volume 20, Harvard Classics)

Dante born May 15, 1265.

Introductory note on Robert Burns (Volume 38, Harvard Classics)

Edward Jenner found that disease in the heel of a horse, transmitted through a cow to the dairy attendants, was an agent in making human beings immune from smallpox. His amazing experiments inaugurated a new epoch. (Volume 38, Harvard Classics)

Edward Jenner makes his first vaccination May 14, 1796.

Introductory note on Robert Burns (Volume 6, Harvard Classics)

Two dogs fell a-gossiping about their masters and about a dog's life among the humble Scotch folk. Each "rejoic'd they werena men but dogs; an' each took aff his several way." (Volume 6, Harvard Classics)

Introductory note on Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Wikipedia)

The manuscripts of many of the best poems of Rossetti were buried with his wife. Friends prevailed upon him to allow them to be exhumed --- and these poems, once buried with the dead, are now a treasure of the living. (Volume 42, Harvard Classics)

Rossetti born May 12, 1828.

Introductory note on John Webster (Volume 47, Harvard Classics)

Latest news abroad in Malfi: The Duchess has run off with her butler. But this happened before the days of newspapers or radio, so Webster made from it an exciting play. (Volume 47, Harvard Classics)