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Brewer's: Scapin

A “barber of Seville;” a knavish valet who makes his master his tool. (Molière: Les Fourberies de Scapin.) Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer,…

Brewer's: Jupiter Scapin

A nickname of Napoleon Bonaparte, given him by the Abbé de Pradt. Scapin is a valet famous for his knavish tricks, in Molière's comedy of Les Fourberies de Scapin. Source: Dictionary of…

Molière, Jean Baptiste Poquelin

(Encyclopedia) Molière, Jean Baptiste PoquelinMolière, Jean Baptiste PoquelinzhäN bätēstˈ pôklăNˈ môlyĕrˈ, 1622–73, French playwright and actor, b. Paris; son of a merchant who was upholsterer to the…

Brewer's: Galere

(2 syl.). Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère? (What business had he to be on that galley?) This is from Molière's comedy of Les Fourberies de Scapin. Scapin wants to bamboozle…

Brewer's: Les Anguilles de Melun

Crying out before you are hurt. When the Mystery of St. Bartholomew was performed at Melun, one Languille took the character of the saint, but when the executioner came to “flay him alive…

Verhaeren, Émile

(Encyclopedia) Verhaeren, ÉmileVerhaeren, Émileāmēlˈ vārärĕnˈ, vərhäˈrən [key], 1855–1916, Belgian poet and critic, a Fleming who wrote in French. His dominant passion for social reform found…

La Bruyère, Jean de

(Encyclopedia) La Bruyère, Jean deLa Bruyère, Jean dezhäN də lä brüyĕrˈ [key], 1645–96, French writer. He lived (1684–96) as tutor in the house of the prince de Condé. His great work, Les Caractères…

Montherlant, Henri de

(Encyclopedia) Montherlant, Henri deMontherlant, Henri deäNrēˈ də môNtĕrläNˈ [key], 1896–1972, French writer. His novels are decadent and egotistical and glorify force and masculinity. Montherlant…

Digne

(Encyclopedia) Digne Digne dēˈnyə [key] or Digne-les-Bains Digne-les-Bains…

Eyzies-de-Tayac, Les

(Encyclopedia) Eyzies-de-Tayac, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Les lā zāzēˈ-də-tīäkˈ [key], or…