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Lecouvreur, Adrienne

(Encyclopedia)Lecouvreur, Adrienne ädrēĕnˈ ləko͞ovrörˈ [key], 1692–1730, French actress. With Michel Baron she helped change the traditional acting techniques of the French stage to a simpler, more natura...

Beaumont, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Beaumont, Francis bōˈmŏnt [key], 1584?–1616, English dramatist. Born of a distinguished family, he studied at Oxford and the Inner Temple. His literary reputation is linked with that of John Flet...

Saint-Évremond, Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis de

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Évremond, Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis de shärl də märgətĕlˈ də săN-dənēˈ də săNtāvrəmôNˈ [key], 1616?–1703, French critic, writer, and soldier. He served under Condé...

Ostrovsky, Aleksandr Nikolayevich

(Encyclopedia)Ostrovsky, Aleksandr Nikolayevich əlyĭksänˈdər nyĭkəlīˈyəvĭch əstrôfˈskē [key], 1823–86, Russian dramatist. Ostrovsky's first play, The Bankrupt (1847; reworked as It's a Family Affai...

Eikon Basilike

(Encyclopedia)Eikon Basilike īˈkŏn bəsĭlˈĭkē [key] [Gr.,=royal image], subtitled “the Portraiture of His Sacred Majesty in His Solitudes and Sufferings,” a work published soon after the execution of Cha...

Keaton, Buster

(Encyclopedia)Keaton, Buster (Joseph Francis Keaton), 1895–1966, American movie actor, b. Piqua, Kans. Considered one of the greatest comic actors in film history, Keaton used his considerable acrobatic skills, w...

Brooke, Rupert

(Encyclopedia)Brooke, Rupert, 1887–1915, English poet. At the outbreak of World War I he joined the Royal Naval Division, served at Antwerp, and was in the Dardanelles expedition when he died of blood poisoning a...

Sadducees

(Encyclopedia)Sadducees săjˈo͝osēz, sădˈyo͝o– [key], sect of Jews formed around the time of the Hasmonean revolt (c.200 b.c.). Little is known concerning their beliefs, but according to Josephus Flavius, t...

McNamara, Robert Strange

(Encyclopedia)McNamara, Robert Strange măkˈnəmârˌə [key], 1916–2009, U.S. secretary of defense (1961–68), b. San Francisco, grad Univ. of California, Berkeley (B.A., 1937), Harvard (M.B.A., 1939). He taug...

Dessoir, Max

(Encyclopedia)Dessoir, Max mäx dĕswär,ˈ [key], 1867–1947, German philosopher. He earned doctorates from the universities of Berlin (philosophy, 1889) and Würtzburg (medicine, 1892). He was a professor at Ber...