An English poet, playwright, satirist, and critic. His major works include He also did various adaptations of Shakespeare and Milton, and many translations from classical poets, including all of Virgil. Like Milton before him he rejected rhyme and extolled the virtue of blank verse.

He was born at Aldwinkle All Saints in Northamptonshire in 1631, and came to London in 1657. He married a daughter of the Earl of Berkshire in 1663. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1670, the first to hold that title officially, as well as historiographer royal. On the accession of James VII and II he converted to Roman Catholicism, but did not renounce it on the removal of James, so he was deprived of his laureateship in 1689. Religio Laici is his defence of Anglicanism, and The Hind and the Panther that of Roman Catholicism. He died in 1700.