Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) soliloquy, the speech by a character in a literary composition, usually a play, delivered while the speaker is either alone addressing the audience directly or the other actors are silent. It is most ...

(Encyclopedia) Wooster, David wo͝osˈtər [key], 1711–77, American Revolutionary officer, b. Fairfield co., Conn. He served as an officer in the British army during the last of the French and Indian Wars. Wooster...

(Encyclopedia) Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635–99, English prelate and author. A fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, he became (1657) rector of Sutton, Bedfordshire. In 1661 he published Irenicum, a treatise on c...

(Encyclopedia) Bayreuth Festival, also called the Richard Wagner Festival, annual season of performances of Wagner's works, held in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth. Around 1851, Wagner began to visualize a festival th...

(Encyclopedia) Wakefield, city and metropolitan borough (1991 pop. 74,764), N central England, on the Calder River. Wakefield has been a center of the cloth industry from the 14th cent. Other manufactures include wo...

(Encyclopedia) Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 1851–1920, English novelist, whose maiden name was Mary Augusta Arnold; granddaughter of Thomas Arnold. She was born in Tasmania but was brought to England and grew up in Oxford;...

(Encyclopedia) Warwick, town (1991 pop. 21,701) and district, county seat of Warwickshire, central England, on the Avon River. The town has some commerce and manufacturing. Warwick is best known for Warwick Castle, ...

(Encyclopedia) Balchen, Bernt bârnt bälˈkən [key], 1899–1973, Norwegian-American aviator. He headed one of the search expeditions for Amundsen and Ellsworth in 1925 and was a member of their 1926 expedition to...

(Encyclopedia) Rogers, William Pierce, 1913–2001, U.S. government official, b. Norfolk, N.Y. Admitted to the bar in 1937, he served (1947–50) as chief counsel to two Senate investigating committees before becomi...

(Encyclopedia) Sachs, Hans häns zäks [key], 1494–1576, German poet, leading meistersinger of the Nuremberg school. A shoemaker and guild master, he wrote more than 4,000 master songs in addition to some 2,000 fa...