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Webster, John

(Encyclopedia)Webster, John, 1580?–1634, English dramatist, b. London. Although little is known of his life, there is evidence that he worked for Philip Henslowe, collaborating with such playwrights as Dekker and...

Zizka, John

(Encyclopedia)Zizka, John yän zhēshˈkä [key], d. 1424, Bohemian military leader and head of the Hussite forces during the anti-Hussite crusades of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Before the Hussite Wars, which ga...

Berryman, John

(Encyclopedia)Berryman, John bĕrˈēmən [key], 1914–72, American poet and critic, b. McAlester, Okla., as John Allyn Smith, Jr., grad. Columbia, 1936, also studied at Cambridge. His father committed suicide whe...

Wesley, John

(Encyclopedia)Wesley, John, 1703–91, English evangelical preacher, founder of Methodism, b. Epworth, Lincolnshire. After his conversion, Wesley became involved in evangelistic work, in the course of which he is...

Latrobe

(Encyclopedia)Latrobe, industrial borough (1990 pop. 9,265), Westmoreland co., SW Pa., in the foothills of the Alleghenies; inc. 1854. Among its varied manufactures are foam rubber, asphalt, building materials, ste...

Shamokin

(Encyclopedia)Shamokin shəmōˈkĭn [key], city (1990 pop. 9,184), Northumberland co., E Pa.; settled c.1835, inc. 1864. A mining center for anthracite coal, Shamokin lies in an area of declining industry and mine...

pasture

(Encyclopedia)pasture, land used for grazing livestock. Land unsuited for cultivation, e.g., hilly or stony land, may be used as pasture. Tilled land and meadow may be pastured after the crops are removed. Pastures...

straw

(Encyclopedia)straw, dried stalks of threshed grains, especially wheat, barley, oats, and rye. It has been used from antiquity for bedding, covering floors, and thatching roofs, as fodder and litter for animals, an...

Ariosto, Ludovico

(Encyclopedia)Ariosto, Ludovico lo͞odōvēˈkō äryôsˈtō [key], 1474–1533, Italian epic and lyric poet. As a youth he was a favorite at the court of Ferrara; later he was in the service of Ippolito I, Cardin...

Comus

(Encyclopedia)Comus kōˈməs [key], in late Roman legend, god of mirth and revelry. A follower of Dionysus, he was represented as a drunken youth bearing a torch. In Milton's poetic masque, Comus, he is the mischi...