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Coquelin, Benoît Constant

(Encyclopedia)Coquelin, Benoît Constant bənwäˈ kôNstäNˈ kôklăNˈ [key], 1841–1909, French actor, known as Coquelin aîné [the elder]. He made his debut at the Comédie française in 1860 and achieved fa...

Chouteau

(Encyclopedia)Chouteau sho͞otōˈ [key], family of American fur traders. René Auguste Chouteau, 1749–1829, b. New Orleans, accompanied (1763) his stepfather, Pierre Laclede, on a trading expedition to the Illin...

Camus, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Camus, Albert älbĕrˈ kämüˈ [key], 1913–60, French writer, b. Mondovi (now Dréan). Camus was one of the most important authors and thinkers of the 20th cent. While a philosophy student at the ...

Gemayel

(Encyclopedia)Gemayel zhĕmīˈəl [key], Maronite Christian family active in Lebanese politics; leaders of the Phalange party (1937–82), and later the Phalange militia. Pierre Gemayel, 1905–84, founded the rig...

Giacosa, Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Giacosa, Giuseppe jo͞ozĕpˈpā jäkôˈzä [key], 1847–1906, Italian dramatic poet. After Una partita a scacchi [a game of chess] (1873) won him his first success, he devoted himself to playwritin...

Jarry, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Jarry, Alfred älfrĕdˈ zhärēˈ [key], 1873–1907, French author. He was well known in Paris for his eccentric and dissolute behavior and for his insistence on the superiority of hallucinations ov...

Piaf, Edith

(Encyclopedia)Piaf, Edith pēäfˈ [key], 1915–63, French cabaret singer, born as Edith Giovanna Gassion. She began to sing at 15 in cafés and on the streets of Paris and was soon engaged to sing in a cabaret. F...

Marcel, Gabriel

(Encyclopedia)Marcel, Gabriel märsĕlˈ [key] 1889–1973, French philosopher, dramatist, and critic, b. Paris. A leading Christian existentialist, he became a Roman Catholic in 1929. He called himself a “concr...

farce

(Encyclopedia)farce, light, comic theatrical piece in which the characters and events are greatly exaggerated to produce broad, absurd humor. Early examples of farce can be found in the comedies of Aristophanes, Pl...

Éboli, Ana de Mendoza de la Cerda, princesa de

(Encyclopedia)Éboli, Ana de Mendoza de la Cerda, princesa de äˈnä ᵺā māndōˈthä ᵺā lä thārˈdä prēnthāˈsä ᵺā āˈbōlē [key], 1540–92, Spanish noblewoman. After the death (1573) of her hus...