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dumb show

(Encyclopedia)dumb show, a theatrical pantomime included as part of a drama, especially in Elizabethan works, from the middle of the 16th cent. well into the 17th cent. Whether presented as a spectacle, with music,...

Fertile Crescent

(Encyclopedia)Fertile Crescent, historic region of the Middle East. A well-watered and fertile area, it arcs across the northern part of the Syrian desert. It is flanked on the west by the Mediterranean and on the ...

top

(Encyclopedia)top, toy with a tapering point on which it can be made to spin. Tops were known in antiquity and appeared in Europe during the Middle Ages; they are used today in many different regions of the world b...

Cremona

(Encyclopedia)Cremona krĭmōˈnə, Ital. krāmôˈnä [key], city, capital of Cremona prov., Lomba...

Fès

(Encyclopedia)Fès fĕz [key], Arab. Fas, city, N central Morocco. In a rich agricultural region, it is con...

Donatus

(Encyclopedia)Donatus (Aelius Donatus) ēˈlēəs dōnätˈəs [key], fl. 4th cent. a.d., Roman grammarian; teacher of St. Jerome. His only well-known work, the Ars grammatica [elements of grammar], was throughout ...

Cursor Mundi

(Encyclopedia)Cursor Mundi kûrˈsôr mŭnˈdī [key], a long religious epic in Middle English relating the history of the world as recorded in the Old and New Testaments. This anonymous poem (written c.1300) is a ...

Coco

(Encyclopedia)Coco, river, c.466 mi (750 km) long, rising in S Honduras and flowing E into Nicaragua and then NE to the Caribbean Sea. Part of the Mosquito Coast region, and once the object of dispute between Hondu...

Hamina

(Encyclopedia)Hamina häˈmĭnä [key], Swed. Fredrikshamn, city, South Finland prov., SE Finland, on the G...

harelip

(Encyclopedia)harelip, congenital abnormality in which there is a cleft or split in the upper lip. There may be a single opening in the middle portion of the lip or an opening on each side. The condition frequently...