Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Southerne, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Southerne, Thomas sŭᵺˈərn [key], 1660–1746, English dramatist, b. Ireland. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he moved to London where he pursued a career as a writer. He was a friend of Dryd...

Wiltshire

(Encyclopedia)Wiltshire wĭltˈshĭr, –shər [key] or Wilts, county (1991 pop. 553,300), 1,345 sq mi (3,484 sq km), S central England; administratively, Wiltshire is a unitary authority (since 2009). The administ...

fable

(Encyclopedia)fable, brief allegorical narrative, in verse or prose, illustrating a moral thesis or satirizing human beings. The characters of a fable are usually animals who talk and act like people while retainin...

Pindar

(Encyclopedia)Pindar pĭnˈdər [key], 518?–c.438 b.c., Greek poet, generally regarded as the greatest Greek lyric poet. A Boeotian of noble birth, he lived principally at Thebes. He traveled widely, staying for ...

Sprat, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Sprat, Thomas, 1635–1713, English author, bishop of Rochester and dean of Westminster. His poem on the death of Oliver Cromwell was published in Dryden's Miscellany (1659). Sprat is best remembered ...

Halifax, Charles Montagu, earl of

(Encyclopedia)Halifax, Charles Montagu, earl of hălˈəfăks [key], 1661–1715, English statesman. He and Matthew Prior were coauthors of a parody of John Dryden's The Hind and the Panther, entitled The Town and ...

Newcastle, William Cavendish, duke of

(Encyclopedia)Newcastle, William Cavendish, duke of, 1593?–1676, English soldier and politician. Of great wealth, Cavendish became (1638) governor of the prince of Wales and a privy councilor. During the civil wa...

Betterton, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Betterton, Thomas bĕtˈərtən [key], 1635?–1710, English actor and manager. He joined Sir William D'Avenant's company at Lincoln's Inn Fields theater in 1661 and became the leading actor of the Re...

Cecilia, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Cecilia, Saint səsĭlˈyə, –sēl– [key], 2d or 3d cent., Roman virgin martyr. An ancient and famous account of her life is factually valueless. As patron of music, she is represented at the orga...

poet laureate

(Encyclopedia)poet laureate lôˈrēĭt [key], title conferred in Britain by the monarch on a poet whose duty it is to write commemorative odes and verse. It is an outgrowth of the medieval English custom of having...