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At Dulcarnon
''Dulcarnon'' or ''dulcarnoun'' is a term used in the Middle English poem ''Troilus and Criseyde'' by Geoffrey Chaucer, in a line given to Criseyde: "at dulcarnoun, right at my wittes ende". It became proverbial. The etymology is from an Arabic phrase ''dhū-al-qarnayn'' meaning "two-horned", and the term was in use in medieval Latin. Dulcarnon was used to refer to the exposition of the Pythagorean theorem in the '' Elements of Euclid'', considered baffling. In Chaucer's poem, Pandarus conflates it with the Pons asinorum, an earlier result in Euclid on the isosceles triangle. Alexander Neckam had used it for the Pythagorean theorem, though in a way that allowed for the confusion; Richard of Wallingford applied it to the Pythagorean theorem. By the 17th century to be "at Dulcarnon" was to be at the end of one's wits, or in a dilemma in the sense of a predicament. John Selden made the connection to ''dū'lkarnayn'', a Persian term via Arabic, writing in his 1612 preface to Michael ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' specifies the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages. Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography. Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation. The more standardized Old English language became fragmented, localized, and was, for the most part, being improvised. By the end of the period (about 1470) and aided by the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 14 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Selden
John Selden (16 December 1584 – 30 November 1654) was an English jurist, a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath; John Milton hailed Selden in 1644 as "the chief of learned men reputed in this land." Early life He was born at Salvington, in the parish of West Tarring, West Sussex (now part of the town of Worthing), and was baptised at St Andrew's, the parish church. The cottage in which he was born survived until 1959 when it was destroyed by a fire caused by an electrical fault. His father, also named John Selden, had a small farm. It is said that his skill as a violin-player was what attracted his wife, Margaret, who was from a better family, being the only child of Thomas Baker of Rustington and descended from a knightly family of Kent. Selden was educated at the free grammar school at Chichester, The Prebendal School, and in 1600 he went on to Hart Hall, Oxford. In 1603, he was admitted to Cliffor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Milner Rideout
Henry Milner Rideout (1877–1927) was a native of Calais, Maine. Author of sixteen novels, twenty-three short stories and novellas, and a biographical memoir, he also was editor of one college textbook, as well as co-editor of three others. Many of his stories appeared in ''The Saturday Evening Post''. Rideout's Life Rideout's father, a miller and road contractor, died when Rideout was twelve. Rideout's elder brother, who managed a bank in California, became the support of the family. At school, Rideout's ability caught the attention of his English teacher, Laura Burns, who was a cousin of the distinguished Harvard professor of English, Charles Townsend Copeland. She and Copeland motivated a group of Calais townspeople to lend Rideout the wherewithal to enter Harvard in 1895, where he was the first in his family to attend college. At Harvard, his literary talent came to the fore. Eventually he became Editor-in-Chief of ''The Harvard Monthly''. His friends at Harvard include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dhul-Qarnayn
, ( ar, ذُو ٱلْقَرْنَيْن, Ḏū l-Qarnayn, ; "He of the Two Horns") appears in the Quran, Surah Al-Kahf (18), Ayahs 83–101 as one who travels to east and west and sets up a barrier between a certain people and Gog and Magog (called Ya'juj and Ma'juj). Elsewhere the Quran tells how the end of the world will be signaled by the release of Gog and Magog from behind the barrier. Other apocalyptic writings predict that their destruction by God in a single night will usher in the Day of Resurrection (''Yawm al-Qiyāmah)''. Early Muslim commentators and historians variously identified , most notably as Alexander the Great and as the South-Arabian Himyarite king al-Ṣaʿb bin Dhī Marāthid. Some modern scholars have argued that the origin of the Quranic story may be found in the '' Syriac Alexander Legend,'' but others disagree. Although some favor identification of with Cyrus the Great, the majority of modern scholars and commentators still prefer Alexander the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter William Skeat
Walter William Skeat, (21 November 18356 October 1912) was a British philologist and Anglican deacon. The pre-eminent British philologist of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in the United Kingdom. Life Skeat was born in London to architectInterpreters of Early Medieval Britain, ed. Michael Lapidge, Oxford University Press (on behalf of the British Academy), 2002, p. 37 William Skeat, of Perry Hill, Sydenham, later of Mount Street, Park Lane, City of Westminster, and his wife Sarah, daughter of Timothy Bluck. The Skeat family were a branch of an ancient Surrey family, and were resident in the parish of St George Hanover Square since the 1700s. He was educated at King's College School (Wimbledon), Highgate School, and Christ's College, Cambridge. He became a fellow at Christ's College in July 1860. In 1860, Skeat was ordained an Anglican deacon and married Bertha Clara. In December 1860, he became a curate at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Speght
Thomas Speght (died 1621) was an English schoolmaster and editor of Geoffrey Chaucer. Life He was from a Yorkshire family, and matriculated as a sizar of Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1566, graduating B.A. in 1570, and M.A. in 1573. At Cambridge he was supported by a scholarship from Lady Mildred Cecil. He went to London, and became a schoolmaster. According to the epitaph on the tomb of his son Lawrence, Speght as schoolmaster was a "paragon". Works In 1598 Speght edited the works of Chaucer. He had the assistance of John Stow the chronicler, and built on Stow's Chaucer edition of 1561. He included a glossary, and an influential biography of Chaucer, as well as annotations. He included works now not associated with Chaucer. First Chaucer edition (1598) The full title of his edition ran: ''The Workes of our Antient and learned English Poet, Geffrey Chaucer, newly Printed. In this Impression you shall find these Additions: (1) His Portraiture and Progenie Shewed. (2) His Life collected ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Skinner (lexicographer)
Stephen Skinner (1623–1667) was an English Lincoln physician, lexicographer and etymologist. Life He was the son of John Skinner of London. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 6 December 1639; but when the First English Civil War broke out, he left England. In 1646 Skinner was again at Oxford, and in consideration of his foreign service he was allowed to accumulate both his arts degrees in that same year, graduating B.A. on 21 October and M.A. on 10 November. On 22 April 1649 he entered as a medical student at Leiden University, on 6 May 1653 at the University of Heidelberg, and on 4 November 1653 was again at Leyden. At the beginning of 1654 he graduated M.D. at Heidelberg, and on 26 May of that year was incorporated in the same degree at Oxford. Skinner was made honorary fellow of the London College of Physicians in December 1664. He practised in Lincoln where he died of malignant fever on 5 September 1667. Administration of his estate was granted to his sister, Eliz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton (1563 – 23 December 1631) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. He died on 23 December 1631 in London. Early life Drayton was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham, Nottinghamshire. 19th- and 20th-century scholars, on the basis of scattered allusions in his poems and dedications, suggested that Drayton might have studied at the University of Oxford, and been intimate with the Polesworth branch of the Goodere family. More recent work has cast doubt on those speculations. Literary career 1590–1602 In 1590, he produced his first book, ''The Harmony of the Church'', a volume of spiritual poems, dedicated to Lady Devereux. It is notable for a version of the '' Song of Solomon'', executed with considerable richness of expression. However, with the exception of forty copies, seized by the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Of Wallingford
Richard of Wallingford (1292–1336) was an English mathematician, astronomer, horologist, and cleric who made major contributions to astronomy and horology while serving as abbot of St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire. Biography Richard was born, the son of a blacksmith, at Wallingford in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) in England in 1292. When he was orphaned he was taken to William de Kirkeby the Prior of Wallingford Priory and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. (Wallingford was a dependant priory to S Albans Abbey) Richard subsequently spent six years studying at Oxford University before becoming a monk at St Albans. He later studied for nine more years at Oxford. In 1327 he became abbot of St Albans. Richard of Wallingford is best known for the astronomical clock he designed, while he was abbot, which is described in the ''Tractatus Horologii Astronomici'' (1327). The clock was completed about 20 years after Richard's death by William of Walsham but was apparently destroyed during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Troilus And Criseyde
''Troilus and Criseyde'' () is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in '' rime royale'' and probably completed during the mid-1380s. Many Chaucer scholars regard it as the poet's finest work. As a finished long poem it is more self-contained than the better known but ultimately unfinished ''The Canterbury Tales''. This poem is often considered the source of the phrase: "all good things must come to an end" (3.615). Although Troilus is a character from Ancient Greek literature, the expanded story of him as a lover was of Medieval origin. The first known version is from Benoît de Sainte-Maure's poem ''Roman de Troie'', but Chaucer's principal source appears to have been Boccaccio, who re-wrote the tale in his ''Il Filostrato''. Chaucer attributes the story to a "Lollius" (whom he also mentions in ''The House of Fame''), although ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Neckam
Alexander Neckam (8 September 115731 March 1217) was an English magnetician, poet, theologian, and writer. He was an abbot of Cirencester Abbey from 1213 until his death. Early life Born on 8 September 1157 in St Albans, Alexander shared his birthday with King Richard I. For this reason, his mother, Hodierna of St Albans, was hired by the royal household under Henry II to serve as a wet nurse for the future monarch. As a result, Alexander was raised as Richard's foster-brother in their early years. Works ''Speculum speculationum'' The ''Speculum speculationum'' (edited by Rodney M. Thomson, 1988) is Neckam's major surviving contribution to the science of theology. It is unfinished in its current form, but covers a fairly standard range of theological topics derived from Peter Lombard's ''Sentences'' and Augustine. Neckam is not regarded as an especially innovative or profound theologian, although he is notable for his early interest in the ideas of St. Anselm of Canterbury. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isosceles Triangle
In geometry, an isosceles triangle () is a triangle that has two sides of equal length. Sometimes it is specified as having ''exactly'' two sides of equal length, and sometimes as having ''at least'' two sides of equal length, the latter version thus including the equilateral triangle as a special case. Examples of isosceles triangles include the isosceles right triangle, the golden triangle, and the faces of bipyramids and certain Catalan solids. The mathematical study of isosceles triangles dates back to ancient Egyptian mathematics and Babylonian mathematics. Isosceles triangles have been used as decoration from even earlier times, and appear frequently in architecture and design, for instance in the pediments and gables of buildings. The two equal sides are called the legs and the third side is called the base of the triangle. The other dimensions of the triangle, such as its height, area, and perimeter, can be calculated by simple formulas from the lengths of the legs an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
