EDWARDS, JONATHAN (1702?-1758).—­Theologian, s. of a minister, was b. at East Windsor, Connecticut, ed. at Yale Coll., and licensed as a preacher in 1722.  The following year he was appointed as tutor at Yale, a position in which he showed exceptional capacity.  In 1726 he went to Northampton, Conn., as minister of a church there, and remained for 24 years, exercising his ministry with unusual earnestness and diligence.  At the end of that time, however, he was in 1750 dismissed by his congregation, a disagreement having arisen on certain questions of discipline.  Thereafter he acted as a missionary to the Indians of Massachusetts.  While thus engaged he composed his famous treatises, On the Freedom of the Will (1754), and On Original Sin (1758).  Previously, in 1746, he had produced his treatise, On the Religious Affections.  In 1757 he was appointed Pres. of Princeton Coll., New Jersey, but was almost immediately thereafter stricken with small-pox, of which he d. on March 22, 1757.  E. possessed an intellect of extraordinary strength and clearness, and was capable of sustaining very lengthened chains of profound argument.  He is one of the ablest defenders of the Calvinistic system of theology, which he developed to its most extreme positions.  He was a man of fervent piety, and of the loftiest and most disinterested character.

EDWARDS, RICHARD (1523?-1566).—­Poet, was at Oxf., and went to Court, where he was made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and master of the singing boys.  He had a high reputation for his comedies and interludes.  His Palaman and Arcite was acted before Elizabeth at Oxf. in 1566, when the stage fell and three persons were killed and five hurt, the play nevertheless proceeding. Damon and Pythias (1577), a comedy, is his only extant play.

EGAN, PIERCE (1772-1849).—­Humorist, b. in London, he satirised the Prince Regent in The Lives of Florizel and Perdita (1814), but is best remembered by Life in London:  or the Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn and his elegant friend, Corinthian Tom, a collection of sketches which had great success at the time, and which gives a picture of the sports and amusements of London in the days of the Regency.  It was illustrated by George Cruikshank.

EGGLESTON, EDWARD (1837-1902).—­Novelist, b. at Vevay, Indiana, was a Methodist minister.  He wrote a number of tales, some of which, specially the “Hoosier” series, attracted much attention, among which are The Hoosier Schoolmaster, The Hoosier Schoolboy, The End of the World, The Faith Doctor, Queer Stories for Boys and Girls, etc.

“ELIOT, GEORGE,” see EVANS.

ELIZABETH, QUEEN (1533-1603).—­Was one of the scholar-women of her time, being versed in Latin, Greek, French, and Italian.  Her translation of Boethius shows her exceptional art and skill.  In the classics Roger Ascham was her tutor.  She wrote various short poems, some of which were called by her contemporaries “sonnets,” though not in the true sonnet form.  Her original letters and despatches show an idiomatic force of expression beyond that of any other English monarch.