John Gray (poet) French, German, Latin, music and art. In 1882 he passed the Civil Service exams and, five years later, the University of London matriculation exams. He joined the Foreign Office where he became a librarian. Gray is best known today as an aesthetic poet of the 1890s and as a friend of Ernest Dowson, Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde. He was also a talented translator, bringing works by the French Symbolists Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, Jules Laforgue and Arthur Rimbaud into English, often for the first time. He is purported to be the inspiration behind the title character in Wilde's "The
Gaius Memmius (poet) Gaius Memmius (poet) Gaius Memmius (died circa 49 BC, incorrectly called Gemellus, "The Twin") was a Roman orator and poet. He was Tribune of the Plebs (66 BC), patron of Lucretius and an acquaintance of Catullus and Helvius Cinna. At first a strong supporter of Pompey, he quarrelled with him, and went over to Caesar, whom he had previously attacked. In 54, as candidate for the consulship, he lost Caesar's support by revealing a scandalous transaction in which he and his fellow candidate had been implicated. Being subsequently condemned for illegal practices at the election, he withdrew to Athens, and