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pastoral

(Encyclopedia)pastoral, literary work in which the shepherd's life is presented in a conventionalized manner. In this convention the purity and simplicity of shepherd life is contrasted with the corruption and arti...

Brown, Jerry

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Jerry (Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr.), 1938–, American political leader, b. San Francisco. The son of Edmund Gerald (Pat) Brown (1905–96), governor of California (1959–67), Brown abandoned ear...

Bates College

(Encyclopedia)Bates College, at Lewiston, Maine; coeducational; founded 1855 as Maine State Seminary, chartered as a college 1864. It was the first Eastern college to admit women students. The Edmund S. Muskie Arch...

allegory

(Encyclopedia)allegory, in literature, symbolic story that serves as a disguised representation for meanings other than those indicated on the surface. The characters in an allegory often have no individual persona...

Dunstan, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Dunstan, Saint dŭnsˈtən [key], c.910–88, English monk, archbishop of Canterbury (960–88), b. near Glastonbury. He lived as a monk until called (940) to court by King Edmund of Wessex. He became...

Percy, Sir Henry

(Encyclopedia)Percy, Sir Henry, 1366–1403, English nobleman, called Hotspur or Henry Hotspur; son of Henry Percy, 1st earl of Northumberland. In 1388 he participated in the famous battle of Otterburn, or Chevy Ch...

Clarke, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Clarke, Walter, c.1638–1714, colonial governor of Rhode Island, b. Newport, R.I. He was deputy governor (1679–86, 1700–1714) and was three times governor (1676–77, 1686, 1696–98) of Rhode Is...

slide rule

(Encyclopedia)slide rule, instrument for making numerical computations and readings, the results of which may be read easily and quickly after performing simple mechanical manipulations. Multiplication and division...

Charter Oak

(Encyclopedia)Charter Oak, white oak tree that until 1856 stood in Hartford, Conn., and was thought to be 1,000 years old. There is a tradition that when Sir Edmund Andros, as governor-general of New England, deman...

Lancaster, house of

(Encyclopedia)Lancaster, house of lăngˈkəstər [key], royal family of England. The line was founded by the second son of Henry III, Edmund Crouchback, 1245–96, who was created earl of Lancaster in 1267. Earlie...