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Johnson, Samuel, English author

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Samuel, 1709–84, English author, b. Lichfield. The leading literary scholar and critic of his time, Johnson helped to shape and define the Augustan Age. He was equally celebrated for his br...

Jenner, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Jenner, Edward, 1749–1823, English physician; pupil of John Hunter. His invaluable experiments beginning in 1796 with the vaccination of eight-year-old James Phipps proved that cowpox provided immun...

King, Henry

(Encyclopedia)King, Henry, 1592–1669, English poet. He became bishop of Chichester in 1642. Elegies constitute nearly half his work, his most notable being “The Exequy,” written on the death of his young wife...

fabliau

(Encyclopedia)fabliau, plural fabliaux both: fäblēōˈ [key], short comic, often bawdy tale in verse that deals realistically and satirically with middle-class or lower-class characters. Fabliaux were often direc...

Persian language

(Encyclopedia)Persian language, member of the Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-Iranian languages). The official language of Iran, it has about 38 millio...

Dukes, Leopold

(Encyclopedia)Dukes, Leopold, 1810–91, Hungarian Hebrew scholar. He made a collection of rabbinical proverbs and wrote on the history of Jewish literature, notably of Hebrew poetry in the Middle Ages. He also tra...

Burton, Sir Richard Francis

(Encyclopedia)Burton, Sir Richard Francis, 1821–90, English explorer, writer, and linguist. He joined (1842) the service of the East India Company and, while stationed in India, acquired a thorough knowledge of t...

children's literature

(Encyclopedia)children's literature, writing whose primary audience is children. See also children's book illustration. The contributions and innovations of the 19th cent. continued into the 20th cent., achieving...

Huizinga, Johan

(Encyclopedia)Huizinga, Johan yōhänˈ hoiˈzĭngə [key], 1872–1945, Dutch historian. He began his academic career in Indian literature, but his reputation rests on his work in the cultural history of the late ...

Ælfric

(Encyclopedia)Ælfric ălˈfrĭk [key], c.955–1020, English writer and Benedictine monk. He was the greatest English scholar during the revival of learning fostered by the Benedictine monasteries in the second ha...
 

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