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pilgrim

(Encyclopedia)pilgrim, one who travels to a shrine or other sacred place out of religious motives. Pilgrimages are a feature of many religions and cultures. Examples in ancient Greece were the pilgrimages to Eleusi...

Usk, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Usk, Thomas ŭsk [key], d. 1388, English politician and author. He was under-sheriff of London. While in Newgate Prison he wrote Testament of Love, an allegory in prose describing and justifying the p...

Gower, John

(Encyclopedia)Gower, John gouˈər, gôr [key], 1330?–1408, English poet. He was the best-known contemporary and friend of Chaucer, who addressed him as “Moral Gower,” at the end of Troilus and Criseyde. Appa...

Anjou

(Encyclopedia)Anjou äNzho͞oˈ [key], region and former province, W France, coextensive roughly with Maine-et-Loire and parts of Indre-et-Loire, Mayenne, and Sarthe depts. Angers, the historic capital, and Saumur ...

Kittredge, George Lyman

(Encyclopedia)Kittredge, George Lyman kĭˈtrĭj [key], 1860–1941, American scholar, b. Boston. A member of the Harvard faculty (1888–1936), Kittredge was a noted authority on the English language, Shakespeare ...

Chryseis

(Encyclopedia)Chryseis krīsēˈĭs [key], in the Iliad, a woman captured by Agamemnon. When ransom efforts failed, her father, the priest Chryses, appealed to Apollo, who promptly sent a plague to terrorize the Gr...

Gesta Romanorum

(Encyclopedia)Gesta Romanorum jĕsˈtə rōˌmənôrˈəm [key], medieval collection of Latin stories. Although the title means “Deeds of the Romans,” the tales have very little to do with actual Roman history....

fabliau

(Encyclopedia)fabliau, plural fabliaux both: fäblēōˈ [key], short comic, often bawdy tale in verse that deals realistically and satirically with middle-class or lower-class characters. Fabliaux were often direc...

Griselda

(Encyclopedia)Griselda grĭzĕlˈdə [key], long-suffering heroine of medieval story, whose husband subjects her to numerous trials in order to test her devotion. The story originated in a widespread W European fol...

Juan Manuel, Infante de Castile

(Encyclopedia)Juan Manuel, Infante de Castile hwän mänwĕlˈ, ēnfänˈtā ᵺā kästēˈlā [key], 1282–1349?, Spanish nobleman, soldier, and writer; nephew of Alfonso X (called the Wise). Juan Manuel was a w...