Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Dobbs, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Dobbs, Arthur, 1689–1765, British colonial governor of North Carolina (1753–65), b. Co. Antrim, Ireland. A member of the Irish House of Commons (1727–30) and surveyor general of Ireland (1730), ...

Hölderlin, Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Hölderlin, Friedrich frēˈdrĭkh hölˈdərlĭn [key], 1770–1843, German lyric poet. Befriended and influenced by Schiller, Hölderlin produced, before the onset of insanity at 36, lofty yet subje...

Howard, Sidney Coe

(Encyclopedia)Howard, Sidney Coe, 1891–1939, American dramatist, b. Oakland, Calif., grad. Univ. of California, 1915, and studied under George Pierce Baker at Harvard. His first successful play was They Knew What...

Bow Bells

(Encyclopedia)Bow Bells bō [key], in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow (Bow Church), Cheapside, London, England. The church is located in mid-London, and tradition says that only one who is born within sound of the Bo...

London Company

(Encyclopedia)London Company, corporation composed of stockholders residing in and about London, which, together with the Plymouth Company (see Virginia Company), was granted (1606) a charter by King James I to fou...

Faust

(Encyclopedia)Faust yōˈhän [key], fl. 16th cent., learned German doctor who traveled widely, performed magical feats, and died under mysterious circumstances. According to legend he had sold his soul to the devi...

Saunders, Dame Cicely

(Encyclopedia)Saunders, Dame Cicely (Cicely Mary Strode Saunders), 1918–2005, British physician, a pioneer in the modern hospice movement. She left Oxford during World War II to become a nurse (1944) and, after w...

baneberry

(Encyclopedia)baneberry, any plant of the small genus Actaea, north temperate perennials of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family) sometimes cultivated for the handsome (though poisonous) berrylike fruits. Nat...

chronicle plays

(Encyclopedia)chronicle plays, dramas based upon 16th-century chronicles in English, particularly those of Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed. These plays became very popular late in the reign of Elizabeth I, when, ...

hospice

(Encyclopedia)hospice, program of humane and supportive care for the terminally ill and their families; the term also applies to a professional facility that provides care to dying patients who can no longer be car...