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Cratinus

(Encyclopedia)Cratinus krətīˈnəs [key], d. c.419 b.c., Athenian comic dramatist. He won the prize at the Athenian drama contest when Aristophanes competed with The Clouds and was regarded with Aristophanes and ...

Arion

(Encyclopedia)Arion ərĭˈən [key], Greek poet, inventor of the dithyramb. He is said to have lived at Periander's court in Corinth in the late 7th cent. b.c. A legend repeated by Herodotus tells how, having been...

Sumarokov, Aleksandr Petrovich

(Encyclopedia)Sumarokov, Aleksandr Petrovich əlyĭksänˈdər pētrôˈvĭch so͞omərôˈkəf [key], 1718–77, Russian dramatist and poet. Sumarokov wrote fables, satires, lyrics, and comic odes in the classical...

Taylor, Bert Leston

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Bert Leston, 1866–1921, American newspaper columnist, b. Goshen, Mass. He worked for a number of newspapers before establishing his column, “A Line o' Type or Two,” signed B. L. T., ...

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...

Carey, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Carey, Henry, 1687–1743, English author. After the first collection of his poems appeared in 1713, he turned to writing for the stage. Primarily a writer of farce comedy, his greatest success was Ch...

Martin, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Martin, Mary, 1913–90, American musical comedy star, b. Weatherford, Tex. From Martin's first stage appearance in Leave It to Me (1938), she starred in several enormously successful musicals, includ...

Jodelle, Estienne

(Encyclopedia)Jodelle, Estienne ātyĕnˈ zhôdĕlˈ [key], 1532–73, French poet of the Pléiade (see under Pleiad). He was the author of Cléopatre captive (1553), the first French tragedy that departed from med...

Francesca da Rimini

(Encyclopedia)Francesca da Rimini fränchĕsˈkä dä rēˈmēnē [key], fl. 13th cent., Italian beauty, daughter of Guido da Polenta of Ravenna. She was married by proxy to the hunchbacked lord of Rimini, Gianciot...

May, Elaine

(Encyclopedia) May, Elaine, 1932-, American actress, film director, and writer, b. Philadelphia, Pa., as Elaine Iva Berlin. May’s parents were both actors; her fat...