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Ripon, George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st marquess of

(Encyclopedia)Ripon, George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st marquess of, 1827–1909, British statesman and colonial administrator; son of the first earl of Ripon. As a young man he was interested in the Christian S...

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 ...

Boyle, Richard, 1st earl of Cork

(Encyclopedia)Boyle, Richard, 1st earl of Cork, 1566–1643, English settler in Ireland. He first went to Ireland in 1588 and in 1602 purchased for a small sum Sir Walter Raleigh's large landholdings in Cork, Water...

Sackville, Thomas, 1st earl of Dorset

(Encyclopedia)Sackville, Thomas, 1st earl of Dorset, 1536–1608, English statesman and poet. A barrister of the Inner Temple, Sackville entered Parliament in 1558, gained favor with Elizabeth I, and was created Ba...

epitaph

(Encyclopedia)epitaph, strictly, an inscription on a tomb; by extension, a statement, usually in verse, commemorating the dead. The earliest such inscriptions are those found on Egyptian sarcophagi. In England epit...

Halifax, George Savile, 1st marquess of

(Encyclopedia)Halifax, George Savile, 1st marquess of, 1633–95, English statesman. A protégé of the 2d duke of Buckingham, he was made Viscount Halifax (1668) and sat (1672–76) in the privy council. An oppone...

Ghirlandaio, Domenico

(Encyclopedia)Ghirlandaio or Ghirlandajo, Domenico both: dōmĕˈnēkō gērländäˈyō [key], 1449–94, Florentine painter, whose family name was Bigordi. He may have studied painting and mosaics under Alesso Ba...

Fitzgerald, Ella

(Encyclopedia)Fitzgerald, Ella, 1917–96, American jazz singer, b. Newport News, Va. Probably the most celebrated jazz vocalist of her generation, Fitzgerald was reared in Yonkers, N.Y., moving after her mother's ...

Sarto, Andrea del

(Encyclopedia)Sarto, Andrea del ändrĕˈä dĕl särˈtō [key], 1486–1531, Florentine painter of the High Renaissance. He painted chiefly religious subjects. In 1509 he was commissioned by the Servites to decor...

hornbook

(Encyclopedia)hornbook, primer of a kind in use from the 15th to the 18th cent. On one side of a sheet of parchment or paper the matter to be learned was written or printed; over the sheet, for its protection, a tr...