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Playfair, Sir Nigel

(Encyclopedia)Playfair, Sir Nigel nīˈjəl plāˈfâr [key], 1874–1934, English actor-manager. He made his acting debut in 1902 and later appeared in major London productions of Shaw and Shakespeare. He took on ...

Sládek, Joseph Václav

(Encyclopedia)Sládek, Joseph Václav yôˈzĕf vätsˈläf släˈdĕk [key], 1845–1912, Czech poet and translator. He lived in the United States from 1868 to 1870. Sládek later taught English in Prague and tran...

Coriolanus

(Encyclopedia)Coriolanus (Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus) kôrˌēəlāˈnəs [key], Roman patrician. He is said to have derived his name from the capture of the Volscian city Corioli. According to legend he was expelle...

Lucrece

(Encyclopedia)Lucrece lo͞okrēˈshə [key], in Roman legend, Roman matron, illustrious for her virtue. She was the victim of rape by Sextus, son of Tarquinius Superbus. Having enjoined her husband, Lucius Tarquini...

Tate, Nahum

(Encyclopedia)Tate, Nahum nāˈhəm [key], 1652–1715, English poet and dramatist, b. Dublin. He wrote several popular adaptations of Shakespeare, the most famous being his King Lear (1681), in which he omitted th...

North, George

(Encyclopedia)North, George, fl. 1561–81, English gentleman, man of letters, and diplomat. A minor figure in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, he served as an ambassador to Sweden in 1564 and translated or adapted ...

Redgrave

(Encyclopedia)Redgrave, family of English actors. Sir Michael Redgrave, 1908–85, b. Bristol, Eng., was an actor, director, and writer. After his first professional performance in Counsellor-at-Law (1934), he appe...

Baker, George Pierce

(Encyclopedia)Baker, George Pierce, 1866–1935, American educator, b. Providence, R.I., grad. Harvard, 1887. He taught (1888–1924) in the English department at Harvard and there conceived and instituted (1906) t...

Olson, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Olson, Charles, 1910–70, American critic and poet, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1932; M.A., 1933). His literary reputation was established with Call Me Ishmael (1947), a study of the in...

Verdi, Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Verdi, Giuseppe vârˈdē, Ital. jo͞ozĕpˈpā vĕrˈdē [key], 1813–1901, foremost Italian composer of opera, b. Le Roncole. Verdi, the son of an innkeeper, showed a precocious talent for the orga...
 

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