WHITE, HENRY KIRKE (1785-1806).—­Poet, s. of a butcher at Nottingham.  At first assisting his f., next a stocking weaver, he was afterwards placed in the office of an attorney.  Some contributions to a newspaper introduced him to the notice of Capel Lofft, a patron of promising youths, by whose help he brought out a vol. of poems, which fell into the hands of Southey, who wrote to him.  Thereafter friends raised a fund to send him to Camb., where he gave brilliant promise.  Overwork, however, undermined a constitution originally delicate, and he d. at 21.  Southey wrote a short memoir of him with some additional poems.  His chief poem was the Christiad, a fragment.  His best known production is the hymn, “Much in sorrow, oft in Woe.”

WHITE, JOSEPH BLANCO (1775-1841).—­Poet, s. of a merchant, an Irish Roman Catholic resident at Seville, where he was b., became a priest, but lost his religious faith and came to England, where he conducted a Spanish newspaper having for its main object the fanning of the flame of Spanish patriotism against the French invasion, which was subsidised by the English Government.  He again embraced Christianity, and entered the Church of England, but latterly became a Unitarian.  He wrote, among other works, Internal Evidences against Catholicism (1825), and Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion, in answer to T. Moore’s work, Travels, etc. His most permanent contribution to literature, however, is his single sonnet on “Night”, which Coleridge considered “the finest and most grandly conceived” in our language.

WHITE, RICHARD GRANT (1822-1885).—­Shakespearian scholar, b. in New York State, was long Chief of the Revenue Marine Bureau, and was one of the most acute students and critics of Shakespeare, of whose works he pub. two ed., the first in 1865, and the second (the Riverside) in 1883.  He also wrote Words and their Uses, Memoirs of Shakespeare, Studies in Shakespeare, The New Gospel of Peace (a satire), The Fate of Mansfield Humphreys (novel), etc.

WHITEHEAD, CHARLES (1804-1862).—­Poet, novelist, and dramatist; is specially remembered for three works, all of which met with popular favour:  The Solitary (1831), a poem, The Autobiography of Jack Ketch (1834), a novel, and The Cavalier (1836), a play in blank verse.  He recommended Dickens for the writing of the letterpress for R. Seymour’s drawings, which ultimately developed into The Pickwick Papers.

WHITEHEAD, WILLIAM (1715-1785).—­Poet, s. of a baker at Camb., and ed. at Winchester School and Camb., became tutor in the family of the Earl of Jersey, and retained the favour of the family through life.  In 1757 he succeeded Colley Cibber as Poet Laureate.  He wrote plays of only moderate quality, including The Roman Father and Creusa, tragedies, and The School for Lovers, a comedy; also poems, The Enthusiast and Variety.  His official productions as Laureate were severely attacked, which drew from him in reply A Charge to the Poets.