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Usk, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Usk, Thomas ŭsk [key], d. 1388, English politician and author. He was under-sheriff of London. While in Newgate Prison he wrote Testament of Love, an allegory in prose describing and justifying the p...

Gower, John

(Encyclopedia)Gower, John gouˈər, gôr [key], 1330?–1408, English poet. He was the best-known contemporary and friend of Chaucer, who addressed him as “Moral Gower,” at the end of Troilus and Criseyde. Appa...

Anjou

(Encyclopedia)Anjou äNzho͞oˈ [key], region and former province, W France, coextensive roughly with Maine-et-Loire and parts of Indre-et-Loire, Mayenne, and Sarthe depts. Angers, the historic capital, and Saumur ...

Kittredge, George Lyman

(Encyclopedia)Kittredge, George Lyman kĭˈtrĭj [key], 1860–1941, American scholar, b. Boston. A member of the Harvard faculty (1888–1936), Kittredge was a noted authority on the English language, Shakespeare ...

Griselda

(Encyclopedia)Griselda grĭzĕlˈdə [key], long-suffering heroine of medieval story, whose husband subjects her to numerous trials in order to test her devotion. The story originated in a widespread W European fol...

Gesta Romanorum

(Encyclopedia)Gesta Romanorum jĕsˈtə rōˌmənôrˈəm [key], medieval collection of Latin stories. Although the title means “Deeds of the Romans,” the tales have very little to do with actual Roman history....

Juan Manuel, Infante de Castile

(Encyclopedia)Juan Manuel, Infante de Castile hwän mänwĕlˈ, ēnfänˈtā ᵺā kästēˈlā [key], 1282–1349?, Spanish nobleman, soldier, and writer; nephew of Alfonso X (called the Wise). Juan Manuel was a w...

Chryseis

(Encyclopedia)Chryseis krīsēˈĭs [key], in the Iliad, a woman captured by Agamemnon. When ransom efforts failed, her father, the priest Chryses, appealed to Apollo, who promptly sent a plague to terrorize the Gr...

fabliau

(Encyclopedia)fabliau, plural fabliaux both: fäblēōˈ [key], short comic, often bawdy tale in verse that deals realistically and satirically with middle-class or lower-class characters. Fabliaux were often direc...

Derby, Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Derby, Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th earl of därˈbē [key], 1799–1869, British statesman. Although a Whig, he entered (1827) government as George Canning's undersecretary for the colo...