Inflation is the increase in the prices of goods and services across an economy. When prices inflate, you need more money to buy the same things. The opposite of inflation is deflation, when prices are lower across a range of goods and services.
James Howell, a 17th century historian cum writer was the first writer to earn his living from writing alone in the English language; other writers of those times pursued writing as a hobby, not a profession as writing alone never paid enough.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Ulysses, published in 1842, has been called the first true dramatic monologue. After Ulysses, Tennyson's most famous efforts in this vein are Tithonus, The Lotos-Eaters, and St. Simon Stylites, all from the 1842 Poems; later monologues appear in other volumes, notably Idylls of the King.