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Wenceslaus, Holy Roman emperor

(Encyclopedia)Wenceslaus, 1361–1419, Holy Roman emperor (uncrowned) and German king (1378–1400), king of Bohemia (1378–1419) as Wenceslaus IV, elector of Brandenburg (1373–76), son and successor of Emperor ...

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st earl of, 1621–83, English statesman. In the English civil war he supported the crown until 1644 but then joined the parliamentarians. He was made a member of ...

short story

(Encyclopedia)short story, brief prose fiction. The term covers a wide variety of narratives—from stories in which the main focus is on the course of events to studies of character, from the “short short” sto...

comedy

(Encyclopedia)comedy, literary work that aims primarily to provoke laughter. Unlike tragedy, which seeks to engage profound emotions and sympathies, comedy strives to entertain chiefly through criticism and ridicul...

Enlightenment

(Encyclopedia)Enlightenment, term applied to the mainstream of thought of 18th-century Europe and America. Centered in Paris, the movement gained international character at cosmopolitan salons. Masonic lodges pla...

Independent Treasury System

(Encyclopedia)Independent Treasury System, in U.S. history, system for the retaining of government funds in the Treasury and its subtreasuries independently of the national banking and financial systems. In one for...

Pope, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Pope, Alexander, 1688–1744, English poet. Although his literary reputation declined somewhat during the 19th cent., he is now recognized as the greatest poet of the 18th cent. and the greatest verse...

Blair, Tony

(Encyclopedia)Blair, Tony (Anthony Charles Lynton Blair), 1953–, British politician, b. Edinburgh. An Oxford-educated lawyer, he was first elected to Parliament in 1983 as the Labour party candidate from a distri...

Seward, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Seward, William Henry, 1801–72, American statesman, b. Florida, Orange co., N.Y. In 1861, Seward became Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln, and many expected him to be the real power in th...

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

(Encyclopedia)Shelley, Percy Bysshe bĭsh [key], 1792–1822, English poet, b. Horsham, Sussex. He is ranked as one of the great English poets of the romantic period. Most of Shelley's poetry reveals his philos...