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Rymer, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Rymer, Thomas rīˈmər [key], 1643?–1713, English critic and historiographer. Educated at Cambridge and Gray's Inn, he was called to the bar in 1673 but turned his efforts instead to literature, es...

Plautus

(Encyclopedia)Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) plôˈtəs [key], c.254–184 b.c., Roman writer of comedies, b. Umbria. His plays, adapted from those of Greek New Comedy, are popular and vigorous representations of ...

Darley, George

(Encyclopedia)Darley, George, 1795–1846, English author and mathematician, b. Ireland. Included among his works are the pastoral drama Sylvia (1827), the poem Nepenthe (1835), a precursor of 20th-century symbolis...

miracle play

(Encyclopedia)miracle play or mystery play, form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10th to the 16th cent., reaching its height in the ...

Scribe, Augustin Eugène

(Encyclopedia)Scribe, Augustin Eugène ōgüstăNˈ özhĕnˈ skrēb [key], 1791–1861, French dramatist and librettist. He began his prolific and highly successful writing career with vaudeville sketches. One of ...

acting

(Encyclopedia)acting, the representation of a usually fictional character on stage or in films. At its highest levels of accomplishment acting involves the employment of technique and/or an imaginative ...

Hugo, Victor Marie, Vicomte

(Encyclopedia)Hugo, Victor Marie, Vicomte hyo͞oˈgō, Fr. vēktôrˈ märēˈ vēkôNtˈ ügōˈ [key], 1802–85, French poet, dramatist, and novelist, b. Besançon. His father was a general under Napoleon. As a ...

Salzburg Festival

(Encyclopedia)Salzburg Festival, annual festival of music and drama held in Salzburg, Austria, for five weeks starting in late July. The festival may be considered a descendant of the Salzburg Music Festival Weeks ...

Oldfield, Anne

(Encyclopedia)Oldfield, Anne, 1683–1730, English actress. The successor of Mrs. Bracegirdle, she first won acclaim in 1704 for her brilliant portrayal of Lady Modish in Colley Cibber's Careless Husband. She had a...

Racan, Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de

(Encyclopedia)Racan, Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de ōnōräˈ də böˈyə sānyörˈ də räkäNˈ [key], 1589–1670, French poet. A disciple of Malherbe, he wrote some lyric poetry and a charming pastoral drama,...