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Jeffreys of Wem, George Jeffreys, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Jeffreys of Wem, George Jeffreys, 1st Baron, 1645?–1689, English judge under Charles II and James II. A notoriously cruel judge, he presided over many of the trials connected with the Popish Plot (s...

Halifax, Charles Montagu, earl of

(Encyclopedia)Halifax, Charles Montagu, earl of hălˈəfăks [key], 1661–1715, English statesman. He and Matthew Prior were coauthors of a parody of John Dryden's The Hind and the Panther, entitled The Town and ...

Walsingham, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Walsingham, Sir Francis wôlˈsĭng-əm [key], 1532?–1590, English statesman. A zealous Protestant, he went abroad during the reign of Queen Mary I but returned on the accession (1558) of Elizabeth ...

Caesar, Sid

(Encyclopedia)Caesar, Sid (Isaac Sidney Caesar), 1922–2014, American comedian, one of the stars of the “golden age of live television,” b. Yonkers, N.Y. While performing in a World War II military show he met...

sonnet

(Encyclopedia)sonnet, poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme. There are two prominent types: the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, composed of an octave and a sestet (rh...

lyric

(Encyclopedia)lyric, in ancient Greece, a poem accompanied by a musical instrument, usually a lyre. Although the word is still often used to refer to the songlike quality in poetry, it is more generally used to ref...

Perelman, S. J.

(Encyclopedia)Perelman, S. J. (Sidney Joseph Perelman) pĕrˈəlmən [key], 1904–79, American comic writer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. He entered the magazine world as a cartoonist for a New York weekly, soon turning from...

Drew, John

(Encyclopedia)Drew, John, 1827–62, American actor, b. Dublin. After establishing a reputation as a comedian in the 1840s, he devoted his energies to the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, where he maintained a fa...

McCain, John Sidney, 3d

(Encyclopedia)McCain, John Sidney, 3d, 1936–2018, U.S. politician, b. Panama Canal Zone. A much decorated navy veteran, he was born into a career naval family and a...

Shrewsbury, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Shrewsbury bərē [key], city (1991 pop. 57,731), adminstrative center of Shropshire, W England, on the Severn River. Shrewsbury is a road and rail junction with varied manufactures. It was an ancient...
 

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