OLLINS, JOHN CHURTON (1848-1908).--Writer on literature and critic, _b._
in Gloucestershire, and _ed._ at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and
Oxf., became in 1894 Prof. of English Literature at Birmingham. He wrote
books on _Sir J. Reynolds_ (1874), _Voltaire in England_ (1886),
_Illustrations of Tennyson_ (1891), and also on Swift and Shakespeare,
various collections of essays, _Essays and Studies_ (1895), and _Studies
in Poetry and Criticism_ (1905), etc., and he issued ed. of the works of
C. Tourneur, Greene, Dryden, Herbert of Cherbury, etc.

COLLINS, MORTIMER (1827-1876).--Novelist, _s._ of a solicitor at
Plymouth, was for a time a teacher of mathematics in Guernsey. Settling
in Berkshire he adopted a literary life, and was a prolific author,
writing largely for periodicals. He also wrote a good deal of occasional
and humorous verse, and several novels, including _Sweet Anne Page_
(1868), _Two Plunges for a Pearl_ (1872), _Mr. Carrington_ (1873), under
the name of "R.T. Cotton," and _A Fight with Fortune_ (1876).

COLLINS, WILLIAM (1721-1759).--Poet, _s._ of a respectable hatter at
Chichester, where he was _b._ He was _ed._ at Chichester, Winchester, and
Oxf. His is a melancholy career. Disappointed with the reception of his
poems, especially his Odes, he sank into despondency, fell into habits of
intemperance, and after fits of melancholy, deepening into insanity, _d._
a physical and mental wreck. Posterity has signally reversed the judgment
of his contemporaries, and has placed him at the head of the lyrists of
his age. He did not write much, but all that he wrote is precious. His
first publication was a small vol. of poems, including the _Persian_
(afterwards called _Oriental_) _Eclogues_ (1742); but his principal work
was his _Odes_ (1747), including those to _Evening_ and _The Passions_,
which will live as long as the language. When Thomson died in 1748 C.,
who had been his friend, commemorated him in a beautiful ode.
Another--left unfinished--that on the _Superstitions of the Scottish
Highlands_, was for many years lost sight of, but was discovered by Dr.
Alex. Carlyle (_q.v._). C.'s poetry is distinguished by its high
imaginative quality, and by exquisitely felicitous descriptive phrases.

_Memoirs_ prefixed to Dyce's ed. of Poems (1827), Aldine ed., Moy Thomas,
1892.

COLLINS, WILLIAM WILKIE (1824-1889).--Novelist, _s._ of William C., R.A.,
entered Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the Bar 1851, bu