Metastasio (1698‒1782)

Metastasio, an Italian poet, born at Rome, the son of a common soldier named Trapassi; his power of improvising verse attracted the attention of one Gravina, a lawyer, who educated him and left him his fortune; he wrote opera librettoes, which were set to music by the most eminent composers, was court poet at Vienna, and died there 40 years after his active powers were spent (1698‒1782).

Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)