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Racine, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Racine, Jean zhäN räsēnˈ [key], 1639–99, French dramatist. Racine is the prime exemplar of French classicism. The nobility of his Alexandrine verse, the simplicity of his diction, the psychologi...

Rotrou, Jean de

(Encyclopedia)Rotrou, Jean de zhäN də rôtro͞oˈ [key], 1609–50, French dramatist. One of the Cinq auteurs, five playwrights commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu, Rotrou wrote many plays, including the noble and...

Hardy, Alexandre

(Encyclopedia)Hardy, Alexandre älĕksäNˈdrə ärdēˈ [key], b. between 1569 and 1575, d. 1631 or 1632, French dramatist. His more than 600 plays are unexceptional, but he played a transitional role as innovator...

Louis XIII, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XIII, 1601–43, king of France (1610–43). He succeeded his father, Henry IV, under the regency of his mother, Marie de' Medici. He married Anne of Austria in 1615. Even after being declared o...

L'Enfant, Pierre Charles

(Encyclopedia)L'Enfant, Pierre Charles pyĕr shärl läNfäNˈ [key], 1754–1825, American soldier, engineer, and architect. Born in France, he volunteered as a private in the American Revolution. He won Gen. Wash...

Augereau, Pierre François Charles

(Encyclopedia)Augereau, Pierre François Charles pyĕr fräNswäˈ shärl ōzhərōˈ [key], 1757–1816, marshal of France. He fought in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and was a principal in the coup...

Guérin, Pierre Narcisse, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Guérin, Pierre Narcisse, Baron gārăNˈ [key], 1774–1833, French painter. He won enthusiastic recognition in 1799 for his Marius Sextus (Louvre). A defender of the classicism of J. L. David, he b...

Fontaine, Pierre François Léonard

(Encyclopedia)Fontaine, Pierre François Léonard pyĕr fräNswäˈ lāōnärˈ fôNtĕnˈ [key], 1762–1853, French architect. He was known chiefly for the work which, beginning in 1794, he did jointly with Charl...

Janssen, Pierre Jules César

(Encyclopedia)Janssen, Pierre Jules César pyĕr zhül sāzärˈ zhäNsĕnˈ [key], 1824–1907, French astronomer. In 1857–58, in Peru, he worked on the determination of the magnetic equator; in the Azores (1867...

Du Pont, Pierre Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Du Pont, Pierre Samuel, 1870–1954, American industrialist, b. Wilmington, Del., grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1890. Du Pont worked as a chemist with the family's company, helping to d...