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Edmé Boursault
Edmé Boursault (October 163815 September 1701) was a French dramatist and miscellaneous writer, born at Mussy l'Evéque, now Mussy-sur-Seine (Aube). Biography On Boursault's first arrival in Paris in 1651 his language was limited to Burgundian, but within a year he had produced his first comedy, ''Le Mort vivant'' (Living Death). This and some other pieces of small merit secured for him distinguished patronage in the society ridiculed by Molière in the ''Ecole des femmes''. Boursault was persuaded that the Lysidas of that play was a caricature of himself, and attacked Molière in ''Le Portrait du peintre ou la contre-critique de l'Ecole des femmes'' (1663). Molière retaliated in ''L'Impromptu de Versailles'', and Boileau attacked Boursault in Satires 7 and 9. Boursault replied to Boileau in his ''Satire des satires'' (1669), but was afterwards reconciled to him, when Boileau on his side erased his name from his satires. Boursault obtained a considerable pension as editor o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montluçon
Montluçon (; oc, Montleçon ) is a commune in central France on the river Cher. It is the largest commune in the Allier department, although the department's prefecture is located in the smaller town of Moulins. Its inhabitants are known as ''Montluçonnais''. The town is in the traditional province of Bourbonnais and was part of the mediaeval duchy of Bourbon. Geography Montluçon is located in the northwest of the Allier department near the frontier of the Centre-Val de Loire and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions. Montluçon is linked with surrounding regions and towns via four main road axes, plus the highway A71 from Orléans to Clermont-Ferrand; through a railway linking in the North Vierzon then Paris (3-5h). Formerly the canal de Berry linked Montluçon towards the north. Montluçon is south of Bourges, from Paris, from Clermont-Ferrand, (3h) from Lyon, (2h) from Limoges and from the Atlantic coast. Montluçon is close to the ''Méridienne verte'' (an architectu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menaechmi
''Menaechmi'', a Latin-language play, is often considered Plautus' greatest play. The title is sometimes translated as ''The Brothers Menaechmus'' or ''The Two Menaechmuses''. The ''Menaechmi'' is a comedy about mistaken identity, involving a set of twins, Menaechmus of Epidamnus and Menaechmus of Syracuse. It incorporates various Roman stock characters including the parasite, the comic courtesan, the comic servant, the domineering wife, the doddering father-in-law and the quack doctor. As with most of Plautus' plays, much of the dialogue was sung. The play is set in a street in Epidamnus, a city on the coast of what is now Albania. Facing the audience are two houses, that of Menaechmus I and that of Erotium, the prostitute he is courting. Plot Prologue: Moschus has twin sons, Menaechmus and Sosicles. Moschus decides to take only one of the twins, Menaechmus, with him on a business trip, while the twins are still young. During the trip, Menaechmus is abducted and adopted by a b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valet
A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, valet de chambre was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "valet" by itself most often refers to a normal servant responsible for the clothes and personal belongings of an employer, and making minor arrangements. In the United States, the term most often refers to a parking valet, and the role is often confused with a butler. Word origins In English, ''valet'' as "personal man-servant" is recorded since 1567, though use of the term in the French-speaking English medieval court is older, and the variant form ''varlet'' is cited from 1456 ( OED). Both are French importations of ''valet'' or ''varlet'' (the "t" being silent in modern French), Old French variants of ''vaslet'' "man's servant", originally "squire, young man", assumed to be from Gallo-Romance Vulgar Latin *''vassellittus'' "young nobleman, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicander
Nicander of Colophon ( grc-gre, Νίκανδρος ὁ Κολοφώνιος, Níkandros ho Kolophṓnios; fl. 2nd century BC), Greek poet, physician and grammarian, was born at Claros (Ahmetbeyli in modern Turkey), near Colophon, where his family held the hereditary priesthood of Apollo. He flourished under Attalus III of Pergamum. He wrote a number of works both in prose and verse, of which two survive complete. The longest, '' Theriaca'', is a hexameter poem (958 lines) on the nature of venomous animals and the wounds which they inflict. The other, '' Alexipharmaca'', consists of 630 hexameters treating of poisons and their antidotes. Nicander's main source for medical information was the physician Apollodorus of Egypt. Among his lost works, '' Heteroeumena'' was a mythological epic, used by Ovid in the ''Metamorphoses'' and epitomized by Antoninus Liberalis; '' Georgica'', of which considerable fragments survive, was perhaps imitated by Virgil. The works of Nicander were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twin
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two embryos, or ''dizygotic'' ('non-identical' or 'fraternal'), meaning that each twin develops from a separate egg and each egg is fertilized by its own sperm cell. Since identical twins develop from one zygote, they will share the same sex, while fraternal twins may or may not. In rare cases twins can have the same mother and different fathers ( heteropaternal superfecundation). In contrast, a fetus that develops alone in the womb (the much more common case, in humans) is called a ''singleton'', and the general term for one offspring of a multiple birth is a ''multiple''. Unrelated look-alikes whose resemblance parallels that of twins are referred to as doppelgängers. Statistics The human twin birth rate in the United States rose 76% f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Dingwall
Eric John Dingwall (1890–1986) was a British anthropologist, psychical researcher and librarian. Biography Born in British Ceylon, Dingwall moved to England where he was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge (M.A., 1912), and the University of London (D.Sc., PhD). He wrote popular books on sexology. He became interested in paranormal phenomena in 1921 and served from 1922 to 1927 as a research officer for the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Dingwall was described as an eccentric by those who knew him. Having developed his skills as a librarian at Cambridge University Library while an undergraduate, in 1946 he joined the Library of the British Museum as a voluntary assistant, but from 1947 was promoted to Hon. Assistant Keeper in the Reference Division, cataloguing private case material of erotica, magic and the paranormal. He co-edited the four-volume set ''Abnormal Hypnotic Phenomena'' (1967–68). The set was described in a review as of considerable historical in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chastity Belt
A chastity belt is a locking item of clothing designed to prevent sexual intercourse or masturbation. Such belts were historically designed for women, ostensibly for the purpose of chastity, to protect women from rape or to dissuade women and their potential sexual partners from sexual temptation. Modern versions of the chastity belt are predominantly, but not exclusively, used in the BDSM community, and chastity belts are now designed for male wearers in addition to female wearers. According to modern myths, the chastity belt was used as an anti-temptation device during the Crusades. When the knight left for the Holy Lands on the Crusades, his Lady would wear a chastity belt to preserve her faithfulness to him. However, there is no credible evidence that chastity belts existed before the 15th century (over a century after the last Middle Eastern Crusade), and their main period of apparent use falls within the Renaissance rather than the Middle Ages. Research into the history ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Donneau De Visé
Jean Donneau de Visé (1638 – 8 July 1710) was a French journalist, royal historian ("historiographe du roi"), playwright and publicist. He was founder of the literary, arts and society gazette "le Mercure galant" (founded in 1672) and was associated with the "Moderns" in the "Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns". Life Donneau de Visé was born in Paris. He was among the detractors of Molière during the quarrel over Molière's play "The School for Wives" (1662, "l’École des femmes"), accusing the author of obscenity and moral licentiousness. But Donneau de Visé eventually became reconciled with the comic playwright and contributed his own plays to Molière's acting troop, starting with ''la Mère coquette'' (1665) and (after Molière's death) several "machine" plays ("pièces à machines", i.e. plays with elaborate special scenic effects) written in collaboration with Thomas Corneille -- ''Circé'' (1675) and ''la Devineresse'' (1679) -- which were very suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madeleine Béjart
Madeleine Béjart (8 January 1618 – 17 February 1672), was a French actress and theatre director, one of the most famous French stage actors of the 17th-century. She was the co-founder of the Illustre Théâtre. Life She belonged to the Béjart family, a famous theatre family in 17th-century France. Madeleine was the second child of Joseph and Marie-Herve Bejart. She debuted with her elder brother Joseph at the Theatre du Marais and in the provinces in the late 1630s. In 1643 she co-founded, with Molière, the Illustre Théâtre, of which she was co-director. She was described as a skillful administrator with the ability to avoid conflicts among the staff. She could freely choose to perform any of the roles in the plays by Molière. She became famous from her performances in his plays. Gradually, she chose smaller parts and left the main parts to Mademoiselle Du Parc and her daughter Armande Béjart Armande-Grésinde-Claire-Élisabeth Béjart (1645 – 30 November 1700) was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Corneille
Thomas Corneille (20 August 1625 – 8 December 1709) was a French lexicographer and dramatist. Biography Born in Rouen some nineteen years after his brother Pierre, the "great Corneille", Thomas's skill as a poet seems to have shown itself early. At the age of fifteen he composed a play in Latin which was performed by his fellow-pupils at the Jesuit school in Rouen, the Collège de Bourbon (now the Lycée Pierre Corneille). His first play in the French language, ''Les Engagements du hasard'', was probably first performed at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1647, although not published until 1656. ''Le Feint Astrologue'', imitated from the Spanish of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and itself imitated in Dryden's ''An Evening's Love'', came the following year. After his brother's death, Thomas succeeded his vacant chair in the Académie française. He then turned his attention to philology, producing a new edition of the ''Remarques'' of CF Vaugelas in 1687. His ''Le Dictionnaire d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Straight Man
The straight man is a stock character in a comedy performance, especially a double act, sketch comedy, or farce. When a comedy partner behaves eccentrically, the straight man is expected to maintain composure. The direct contribution to the comedy a straight man provides usually comes in the form of a deadpan. A straight man with no direct comedic role has historically been known as a stooge. Typically, he is expected to feed the funny man lines that he can respond to for laughs (and is hence sometimes known as a feed), while seeking no acclamation for himself. If a straight man unintentionally breaks composure and laughs, it is known in British English as corpsing. History In vaudeville, effective straight men were much less common than comedians. The straight man's name usually appeared first and he usually received 60% of the take. This helped take the sting out of not being the laugh-getter and helped ensure the straight man's loyalty to the team. Nachman, Gerald (199 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
