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Ritson, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Ritson, Joseph, 1752–1803, English antiquarian and scholar, b. Stockton-on-Tees. An industrious student of English literature, he attacked Thomas Warton's scholarship in Observations on Warton's His...

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft

(Encyclopedia)Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797–1851, English author; daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1814 she fell in love with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, accompanied him abroad, and ...

AARP

(Encyclopedia)AARP, a nonprofit, nonpartisan national organization dedicated to “enriching the experience of aging”; membership is open to people age 50 or older. Founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus as Americ...

Douglas, James, 2d earl of Douglas and Mar

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, James, 2d earl of Douglas and Mar, 1358?–1388, Scottish nobleman; son of William Douglas, 1st earl of Douglas and Mar. In 1373 he married Isabel Stuart, daughter of Robert II. With the aid ...

Hogg, Thomas Jefferson

(Encyclopedia)Hogg, Thomas Jefferson, 1792–1862, friend and biographer of Percy Bysshe Shelley. He was dismissed in 1811 from Oxford for defending Shelley's atheism. Authorized by Mary Shelley to write a life of ...

Westmorland, Charles Neville, 6th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Westmorland, Charles Neville, 6th earl of nĕvˈĭl, wĕstˈmərlənd [key], 1543–1601, English nobleman. A Roman Catholic by birth and connected with the powerful Howard family by marriage, he join...

Gunpowder Plot

(Encyclopedia)Gunpowder Plot, conspiracy to blow up the English Parliament and King James I on Nov. 5, 1605, the day set for the king to open Parliament. It was intended to be the beginning of a great uprising of E...

Catena, Vincenzo di Biagio

(Encyclopedia)Catena, Vincenzo di Biagio vēnchĕnˈtsō dē byäˈjō kätāˈnä [key], c.1470–1531, Venetian painter. His early work, reflecting the influence of Giovanni Bellini, includes the two paintings of...

Sowerby, Leo

(Encyclopedia)Sowerby, Leo sōˈərbē [key], 1895–1968, American composer and organist, b. Grand Rapids, Mich. Sowerby studied at the American Conservatory, Chicago, and with Percy Grainger. In 1921 an American ...

Cenci, Beatrice

(Encyclopedia)Cenci, Beatrice bāˌätrēˈchā chānˈchē [key], 1577–99, Italian noblewoman, tragic figure of the late Renaissance. Her father, Francesco Cenci (1549–98), was a Roman noble noted for his vici...