query: Opera sometimes includes an action.

pos: Opera Opera ( -LSB- ˈɔːpera -RSB- ; English plural : operas ; Italian plural : opere -LSB- ˈɔːpere -RSB- ) is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text ( libretto ) and musical score , usually in a theatrical setting . In traditional opera , singers do two types of singing : recitative , a speech-inflected style and arias , a more melodic style , in which notes are sung in a sustained fashion . Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre , such as acting , scenery , and costumes and sometimes includes dance . The performance is typically given in an opera house , accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble , which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor .   Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition . It started in Italy at the end of the 16th century ( with Jacopo Peri 's mostly lost Dafne , produced in Florence in 1598 ) and soon spread through the rest of Europe : Heinrich Schütz in Germany , Jean-Baptiste Lully in France , and Henry Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century . In the 18th century , Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe ( except France ) , attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel . Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera , until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his `` reform '' operas in the 1760s . In the 2000s , the most renowned figure of late 18th-century opera is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian comic operas , especially The Marriage of Figaro ( Le nozze di Figaro ) , Don Giovanni , and Così fan tutte , as well as The Magic Flute ( Die Zauberflöte ) , a landmark in the German tradition .   The first third of the 19th century saw the high point of the bel canto style , with Gioachino Rossini , Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini all creating works that are still performed . It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer . The mid-to-late 19th century was a `` golden age '' of opera , led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy . The popularity of opera continued through the verismo era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss in the early 20th century . During the 19th century , parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe , particularly in Russia and Bohemia . The 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles , such as atonality and serialism ( Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg ) , Neoclassicism ( Igor Stravinsky ) , and Minimalism ( Philip Glass and John Adams ) . With the rise of recording technology , singers such as Enrico Caruso and Maria Callas became known to much wider audiences that went beyond the circle of opera fans . Since the invention of radio and television , operas were also performed on ( and written for ) these mediums . Beginning in 2006 , a number of major opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world . In 2009 , an opera company offered an online download of a complete performance .

neg: On Site Opera On Site Opera ( OSO ) is a professional opera company based in New York City that specializes in site-specific productions . The company was founded in 2012 by General and Artistic Director Eric Einhorn and Executive Director/Producer Jessica Kiger . On Site Opera , a registered 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonprofit organization , is member of Opera America and the New York Opera Alliance .   In addition to site-specific production , On Site Opera is committed to introduce young audiences to opera . On Site Opera has produced works such as Shostakovich 's The Tale of the Silly Baby Mouse , Op. 56 , at the Bronx Zoo in 2012 in order to expand how children encounter , understand , and engage with opera .   On Site Opera utilizes environmentally-friendly production technology in order to reduce its environmental impact . Through their partnership with CS Lighting , they use energy efficient , wireless LED SFK fixtures . 90 % of all marketing materials are digital and recycled paper and ink are used for the other 10 % .   In 2014 , On Site Opera was the first opera company to explore how Google Glass can be used as a means to transmit subtitles . Figaro Systems created the software in which the translation of Rameau 's Pigmalion was sent to Google Glass , allowing the opera-goer to experience opera and translation in their field of vision at the same time .   On Site Opera provides opportunities for emerging talent through an open audition call .

neg: The Ghosts of Versailles The Ghosts of Versailles is an opera in two acts , with music by John Corigliano to an English libretto by William M. Hoffman . The Metropolitan Opera had commissioned the work from Corigliano in 1980 in celebration of its 100th anniversary , with the premiere scheduled for 1983 . Corigliano and Hoffman took as the starting point for the opera the play La Mère coupable ( The Guilty Mother ) by Pierre Beaumarchais . They took seven years to complete the opera , past the initial deadline . The opera received its premiere on December 19 , 1991 , at the Metropolitan Opera , with the production directed by Colin Graham . The premiere run of seven performances was sold out . The original cast included Teresa Stratas , Håkan Hagegård , Renée Fleming , Graham Clark , Gino Quilico , and Marilyn Horne . The Metropolitan Opera revived the opera in the 1994/1995 season .   Corigliano considers this work a `` grand opera buffa '' because it incorporates both elements of the Grand Opera style ( large chorus numbers , special effects ) and the silliness of the opera buffa style . Commentators have noted how the opera satirises and parodies accepted operatic conventions .

neg: Rehearsal A rehearsal is an activity in the performing arts that occurs as preparation for a performance in music , theatre , dance and related arts , such as opera , musical theatre and film production . It is undertaken as a form of practising , to ensure that all details of the subsequent performance are adequately prepared and coordinated . The term `` rehearsal '' typically refers to ensemble activities undertaken by a group of people . For example , when a musician is preparing a piano concerto alone in their music studio , this is called `` practicing '' , but when they begin to practice the concerto with an orchestra , this activity is called a `` rehearsal '' . The music rehearsal takes place in a music rehearsal space .   A rehearsal may involve as few as two people , as with a small play for two actors , an art song performance by a singer and a pianist or a folk music duo of a singer and a guitar player . On the other end of the spectrum , a rehearsal can be held for a very large orchestra with over 100 performers and a choir . A rehearsal can involve only performers of one type , as in an a cappella choir show , in which a group of singers perform without instrumental accompaniment or a play involving only theatre actors ; it can involve performers of different instruments , as with an orchestra , rock band or jazz `` big band '' ; vocal and instrumental performers , as with opera and choral works accompanied by orchestra ; or a mix of actors , vocalists , instrumentalists and dancers , as with musical theatre .   Rehearsals of small groups of performers , such as small rock bands , jazz quartets or organ trios may be held without a leader ; in these cases , the performers themselves jointly determine how to run the rehearsal , which songs to practice , and so on . Some small groups may have their rehearsals led by a bandleader . Almost all mid - to large group performances have a person who leads the rehearsals ; this person may be a bandleader in a rock , country or jazz setting ; a conductor in classical music ( including in opera ) ; a director in theatre or musical theatre ; or a film director for movie rehearsals .   While the term is most commonly used in the performing arts to refer to preparation for a public presentation or show , the term is also used to refer to the preparation for other anticipated activities , such as wedding guests and couples practicing a wedding ceremony , paramedics practicing responding to a simulated emergency , or army troops practicing for an attack using a mock-up of the building they will be assaulting .

neg: Iolanthe Iolanthe ; or , The Peer and the Peri ( -LSB- aɪ.oʊˈlænθiː -RSB- ) is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert . It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert and Sullivan . In the opera , the fairy Iolanthe has been banished from fairyland because she married a mortal ; this is forbidden by fairy law . Her son , Strephon , is an Arcadian shepherd who wants to marry Phyllis , a Ward of Chancery . All the members of the House of Peers also want to marry Phyllis . When Phyllis sees Strephon hugging a young woman ( not knowing that it is his mother -- immortal fairies all appear young ) , she assumes the worst and sets off a climactic confrontation between the peers and the fairies . The opera satirises many aspects of British government , law and society . The confrontation between the fairies and the peers is a version of one of Gilbert 's favourite themes : a tranquil civilisation of women is disrupted by a male-dominated world through the discovery of mortal love .   Iolanthe opened in London on 25 November 1882 , at the Savoy Theatre to a warm reception , and ran for 398 performances , the fourth consecutive hit by Gilbert and Sullivan . It was the first work to premiere at the Savoy ( although Patience had transferred to the theatre in 1881 ) and was the first new theatre production in the world to be illuminated entirely with electric lights , permitting some special effects that had not been possible in the era of gas lighting . The opera opened simultaneously in New York , and touring companies were sent around the UK and US to play the piece . The first Australasian touring production followed in 1885 , and the opera was revived in London beginning in 1901 . The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company toured the opera nearly continuously in repertory from 1891 until 1982 , and made several recordings of the opera over that period . Numerous other professional and amateur productions have been given of this enduring work , and various other recordings have been issued .

neg: From the House of the Dead From the House of the Dead ( Z mrtvého domu in Czech ) is an opera by Leoš Janáček , in three acts . The libretto was translated and adapted by the composer from the 1862 novel by Dostoyevsky . It was the composer 's last opera , premiered on 12 April 1930 in Brno , two years after his death .   Janáček worked on this opera from February 1927 to 8 June 1928 , knowing that it would be his last , and for it he broke away from the habit he had developed of creating characters modeled on his love interest Kamila Stösslová , although the themes of loneliness and isolation can clearly be seen as a response to her indifference to his feelings . There is only one female character , and the setting , a Siberian prison , presents a large ensemble cast instead of one or several prominent leads . There is no narrative to the work as a whole , but individual characters narrate episodes in their lives , and there is a `` play-within-a-play '' in Act 2 .   From the House of the Dead was virtually finished when Janáček died . Two of his students , believing the orchestration was incomplete , `` filled out '' large portions of the score and adapted the ending to be more optimistic in tone . In addition to the work of Břetislav Bakala and Osvald Chlubna , Ota Zitek made changes to the text and sequence of events in the opera . Decades later , a version closer to the composer 's intentions superseded that version , and it is the one most often heard today . Some productions , however , still use the earlier version 's ending to lessen the bleakness of the story .   The opera requires a vast orchestra , including chains as a percussion instrument to evoke the sound of the prisoners . The words of prisoners ' songs from the Dostoyevsky are used in full or in part by Janáček .   An arrangement in the form of a suite of the opera by conductor František Jílek has been performed by Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra .

neg: Royal Swedish Opera Royal Swedish Opera ( Kungliga Operan ) is Sweden 's national stage for opera and ballet .

neg: List of historical opera characters This is a list of historical figures who have been characters in opera or operetta .   Historical accuracy in such works has often been subject to the imperatives of dramatic presentation . Consequently , in many cases :  historical characters appear alongside fictional characters  historical characters who never met , or whose lives did not even overlap , appear on stage together  historical events depicted are transported to earlier or later times or to different places  historical people are seen participating in entirely fictional events , or vice versa  the actions of historical people are attributed to other persons   For the purposes of this list , Biblical characters are generally taken to be fictional , unless there is clear evidence of their historicity .   Operas appear in bold when the historical figure is also the title role .   Where a character appears in more than opera , the entries are sorted by composer .

neg: Amica (opera) Amica is an opera in two acts by Pietro Mascagni , originally composed to a libretto by Paul Bérel ( the pseudonym of Paul de Choudens ) . The only opera by Mascagni with a French libretto , it was an immediate success with both the audience and the critics on its opening night at the Théâtre du Casino in Monte-Carlo on 16 March 1905 . Mascagni himself conducted the performance . The opera had its Italian premiere ( with an Italian libretto by Mascagni 's close collaborator , Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti ) on 13 May 1905 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome .   However , like many of Mascagni 's operas apart from Cavalleria rusticana , the work then fell into obscurity . One of its few revivals in modern times was on 4 August 2007 at the Festival della Valle d'Itria , using the original French libretto . ( It has been released on CD and DVD . See below . ) . In October 2008 , Opera di Roma used the Italian libretto for a new production of Amica in collaboration with Opéra de Monte-Carlo and the Teatro Carlo Goldoni in Livorno .   Set in the mountains of Savoy around 1900 , Amica is a classic verismo drama . It recounts a domestic tragedy involving two brothers ( Giorgio and Renaldo ) and the woman they both love ( Amica ) .

neg: Bastien und Bastienne Bastien und Bastienne ( Bastien and Bastienne ) , K. 50 ( revised in 1964 to K. 46b ) is a one-act singspiel , a comic opera , by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .   Bastien und Bastienne was one of Mozart 's earliest operas , written in 1768 when he was only twelve years old . It was allegedly commissioned by Viennese physician and ` magnetist ' Dr. Franz Mesmer ( who himself would later be parodied in Così fan tutte ) as a satire of the ` pastoral ' genre then prevalent , and specifically as a parody of the opera Le devin du village by Jean-Jacques Rousseau . The German libretto is by Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern , and Johann Andreas Schachtner , based on Les Amours de Bastien et Bastienne by Justine Favart and Harny de Guerville . After its supposed premiere in Mesmer 's garden theater ( that is only corroborated by an unverified account of Nissen ) , it was not revived again until 1890 . It is not clear whether this piece was performed in Mozart 's lifetime . The first known performance was on 2 October 1890 at Architektenhaus in Berlin .   The opera is written in both French and German manners . Many of the melodies are French in manner , but Bastienne 's first aria is true German lied . This melody is also used in Mozart 's Trio in G for Piano , Violin and Violoncello , K. 564 ( 1788 ) . Another purely German lied is Bastienne 's aria `` I feel certain of his heart '' . Mozart utilizes the orchestra sparingly , with the exception of the reconciliation scene .   Mozart 's overture uses the same opening theme as Beethoven 's Symphony No. 3 , the Eroica . It is doubtful that Beethoven was familiar with this then unpublished piece . A likely explanation is that both composers took the theme from another unknown source .   Although he was very young , Mozart already had excellent vocal writing skills and a knack for parody and whimsy which would reach full flower in his later works . Bastien und Bastienne is possibly the easiest to perform of Mozart 's juvenile works .

neg: Orfeo ed Euridice discography The following discography for Gluck 's opera Orfeo ed Euridice is mainly based on the research of Giuseppe Rossi , which appeared in the programme notes to the performance of the work at the 70th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2007 , under the title `` Discografia -- Christoph Willibald Gluck -- Orfeo ed Euridice ( Orphée et Eurydice ) '' . Rossi 's data has been checked against the sources referenced in the notes .   The discography gives the language of the recording as well as the version performed , although the recordings often mix different editions of the work or are even based on new ones created `` from scratch . '' In the most significant cases , such mixed versions are described in detail . The term `` pasticcio '' ( which has no negative connotation in this context ) has been used for recordings where the different versions are inextricably mixed .

neg: Concertato Concertato is a term in early Baroque music referring to either a genre or a style of music in which groups of instruments or voices share a melody , usually in alternation , and almost always over a basso continuo . The term derives from Italian concerto which means `` playing together '' -- hence concertato means `` in the style of a concerto . '' In contemporary usage , the term is almost always used as an adjective , for example `` three pieces from the set are in concertato style . ''   A somewhat oversimplified , but useful distinction between concertato and concerto can be made : the concertato style involves contrast between opposing groups of voices and groups of instruments : the concerto style , especially as it developed into the concerto grosso later in the Baroque , involves contrast between large and small groups of similar composition ( later called `` ripieno '' and `` concertino '' ) .   The style developed in Venice in the late 16th century , mainly through the work of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli , who were working in the unique acoustical space of St. Mark 's Cathedral . Different choirs or instrumental groupings occupied positions across the cathedral from each other : because of the sound delay from one side to the other in the large and acoustically `` live '' space , a perfect unison was difficult , and composers found that a fantastically effective music could be composed with the choirs singing across to each other , in stereo as it were ; all accompanied by organ or other groups of instruments placed in such a way that they could hear each group equally well . Music written there was quickly performed elsewhere , and compositions in the new `` concertato '' style quickly became popular elsewhere in Europe ( first in northern Italy , then in Germany and the rest of Italy , and then gradually in other parts of the continent ) . Another term sometimes used for this antiphonal use of the choirs in St. Mark 's was cori spezzati . See also Venetian polychoral style and Venetian School .   In the early 17th century , almost all music with voices and basso continuo was called a concerto , though this use of the term is considerably different from the more modern meaning ( a solo instrument or instruments accompanied by an orchestra ) . Often , sacred music in the concertato style in the early 17th century was descended from the motet : the texts that a hundred years earlier would have been set for a cappella voices singing in smooth polyphony , would now be set for voices and instruments in a concertato style . These pieces , no longer always called motets , were given a variety of names including concerto , Psalm ( if a psalm setting ) , sinfonia , or symphoniae ( for example in Heinrich Schütz 's collections of Symphoniae Sacrae ) .   The concertato style made possible the composition of extremely dramatic music , one of the characteristic innovations of the early Baroque .

neg: Ariadne auf Naxos ( Ariadne on Naxos ) , Op. 60 , is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal . Combining slapstick comedy and consummately beautiful music , the opera 's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public 's attention .   Charlotte Erwin has studied in detail Strauss ' pre-sketch planning for the opera . Bryan Gilliam has examined the theme of Verwandlung ( transformation ) in the opera .

neg: Il Medonte Il Medonte is an Italian opera in three acts by Josef Mysliveček set to a libretto by Giovanni de Gamerra . Like all of the composer 's operas , it belongs to the serious genre in Italian referred to as opera seria .

neg: Intermezzo (disambiguation) An intermezzo is a musical composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities , such as acts of a play or opera , or movements of a larger musical work .   Intermezzo may also refer to :

neg: Io (opera) Io is an unfinished opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau in the form of a one-act acte de ballet . The date of its composition is unknown and it was probably unperformed during Rameau 's lifetime . Its unfinished state meant that it was once believed to be Rameau 's last opera , but Io contains a duet which appears in revised form in Les fêtes de Polymnie ( 1745 ) . This has led the musicologist Graham Sadler to conclude that Io must predate 1745 and that the librettist was Louis de Cahusac , who also wrote the words for Les fêtes , because French librettists did not borrow from other writers .

neg: Concert piece A concert piece ( German : Konzertstück , also Concertstuck ; French : pièce de concert , also morceau de concert ) is a musical composition , in most cases in one movement , intended for performance in a concert . Usually it is written for one or more virtuoso instrumental soloists and orchestral or piano accompaniment .   In some cases concert pieces start with a separate opening movement , or are otherwise in more than one movement or section . A piece that presents itself as a miniature concerto is rather called concertino than concert piece , although in German several such concertinos are known as Konzertstücke . For instance Siegfried Wagner 's Flute Concertino was published as . Incomplete concerto movements by Beethoven and Schubert were retroactively designated as concert pieces . Schumann 's 1841 Fantasia for piano and orchestra , in form similar to Weber 's Konzertstück , was later rewritten and expanded with two further movements into his Piano Concerto Op. 54 . When the soloist is a vocalist , the piece rather belongs to the concert aria genre . Some concert pieces are written for instrumental soloists exclusively , while also concert pieces for orchestra without soloist exist . In this sense as well Chopin 's Allegro de concert for solo piano as Tchaikovsky 's Romeo and Juliet for orchestra can be called concert pieces . A concert overture is an overture which is conceived as a stand-alone concert piece .

neg: Cologne Opera The Cologne Opera ( German : Oper der Stadt Köln or Oper Köln ) refers both to the main opera house in Cologne , Germany and to its resident opera company .

neg: The Outpost (opera) The Outpost is an opera or operetta by the composer Hamilton Clarke with a libretto by A. O 'D . Bartholeyns . The story is an adaptation of the Singspiel Der vierjährige Posten by Theodor Körner with music by Franz Schubert .   The piece was one of Clarke 's last compositions following several operettas that he had composed for the German Reeds . It premiered at the Savoy Theatre from 2 July 1900 to 3 November 1900 as a companion piece to the Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Pirates of Penzance , for the second London revival of Pirates , and also played from 10 November 1900 to 7 December 1900 as a companion piece to Patience , a total of 131 performances . After this , the work was performed on tour from late 1901 through 1902 as a companion piece to Pirates , Patience and Iolanthe .   Both the score and the libretto appear to be lost , but there survives a copy of a fantasia for flute and piano , based on airs from the piece , and so the vocal score may have been published .   The fashion in the late Victorian era and Edwardian era was to present long evenings in the theatre , and so producer Richard D'Oyly Carte preceded his Savoy operas with curtain raisers , like The Outpost . W. J. MacQueen-Pope commented , concerning such curtain raisers :  This was a one-act play , seen only by the early comers . It would play to empty boxes , half-empty upper circle , to a gradually filling stalls and dress circle , but to an attentive , grateful and appreciative pit and gallery . Often these plays were little gems . They deserved much better treatment than they got , but those who saw them delighted in them . ... -LSB- They -RSB- served to give young actors and actresses a chance to win their spurs ... the stalls and the boxes lost much by missing the curtain-raiser , but to them dinner was more important .

neg: Scenes from Goethe's Faust Scenes from Goethe 's Faust ( Szenen aus Goethes Faust ) has been described as the height of composer Robert Schumann 's accomplishments in the realm of dramatic music . The work was written between 1844 and 1853 and is scored for SATB chorus , boys ' chorus , orchestra , and a number of solo parts which , even with doubling , require seven solo singers , although eight ( three sopranos , two mezzos , one tenor , one baritone , and one bass ) is the usual number for a performance . Schumann never saw all three parts of the work performed in the same concert , or published together . Eric Sams comments ` There is no coherence in the orchestration , which audibly dates from two different periods ( hand-horns in Part III , valve-horns elsewhere ) ' , leading him to conclude that Schumann did not conceive the work as a whole , although late nineteenth-century ideas of performance mean that in the modern era the piece is predominantly heard with all three parts .   Schumann 's work on what he labeled an oratorio began in 1842 . This was just over a decade after the death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who completed Part Two of the dramatic poem Faust in his final year . Many contemporary readers of Faust found Goethe 's epic poem daunting and difficult to grasp . Goethe himself declared only Mozart fit to write the music for it ( though Mozart died in 1791 , almost 20 years prior to the completion of Part One of Faust ) .   Schumann explained the weight of the task before him in an 1845 letter to Felix Mendelssohn : '' -LSB- A -RSB- ny composer would not only be judged by his treatment of one of the seminal and most-widely acclaimed works in German literature , but would also be setting himself up to be compared to Mozart . '' Yet despite Schumann 's expressed reservations about the work , it has been labeled his `` magnum opus . '' Schumann is '' -LSB- d -RSB- eeply sensitive to the all-inclusiveness of Goethe 's drama -LSB- . -RSB- '' From the work 's dark and tense overture , to its elegant and tranquil conclusion , Schumann opens wide `` a manifold musical world '' that coherently draws together elements of `` lied , horror opera , grand opera , oratorio , and church music . ''   Schumann 's music suggests the struggle between good and evil at the heart of Goethe 's work , as well as Faust 's tumultuous search for enlightenment and peace . After the overture , the music depicts Faust 's wooing of Gretchen . For Gretchen 's story , Schumann employs operatic music , beginning with a love duet , proceeding to Gretchen 's passionate and desperate aria , and concluding with a church scene . The second part of the work opens with stark contrast : on the one hand , the lively , fresh music of Ariel and the spirits calls Faust to savor the beauties of nature ; on the other hand , in the scene following , Schumann 's restless orchestration brings to the fore Faust 's delusions upon hearing of a new world being created and its rapturous promise of an everlasting present . The final scenes , drawing the work to its placid yet unsettled conclusion , hold some of Schumann 's best choral writing .   Scenes from Goethe 's Faust has often been overlooked within Schumann 's impressive oeuvre , but has enjoyed a resurgence since the 1970s . The piece has been deemed among Schumann 's most moving works , and a pinnacle of his quintessential Romantic concern with the extra-musical ( and especially literary ) potential of musical expression .

neg: Aria di sorbetto The Aria di sorbetto , or `` sherbet aria '' , was a convention of Italian opera in the early nineteenth century .


query: Francois de Belleforest translated the works of Cicero into a language.

pos: François de Belleforest François de Belleforest ( 1530 -- 1 January 1583 ) was a prolific French author , poet and translator of the Renaissance .   He was born in Comminges , into a poor family , and his father ( a soldier ) was killed when he was seven . He spent some time in the court of Marguerite of Navarre , traveled to Toulouse and Bordeaux ( where he met George Buchanan ) , and then to Paris where he came into contact with members of the young literary generation , including Pierre de Ronsard , Jean Antoine de Baïf , Jean Dorat , Remy Belleau , Antoine Du Verdier and Odet de Turnèbe . In 1568 he became historiographer to the king . He died in Paris .   Belleforest wrote on cosmography , morals , literature and history , and he translated the works of Matteo Bandello , Boccaccio , Antonio de Guevara , Lodovico Guicciardini , Polydore Vergil , Saint Cyprian , Sebastian Münster , Achilles Tatius , Cicero and Demosthenes into French . He is also the author of the first French pastoral novel , La Pyrénée ( or La Pastorale amoureuse ) ( 1571 ) modeled on the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor . His Grandes Annales are a polemic tract against François Hotman . His total output comprises more than 50 volumes .   His most successful work was most likely his translation and adaptation of the `` histoires tragiques '' by the Italian Matteo Bandello , which built on the work of Pierre Boaistuau and eventually amounted to seven volumes ( 1564-1582 ) . One of these tales might be the source for Shakespeare 's Hamlet .

pos: French language French ( le français -LSB- lə fʁɑ̃sɛ -RSB- or la langue française -LSB- la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz -RSB- ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire , as did all Romance languages . French has evolved from Gallo-Romance , the spoken Latin in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul . Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl -- languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium , which French ( Francien ) has largely supplanted . French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders . Today , owing to France 's past overseas expansion , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as `` Francophone '' in both English and French .   French is an official language in 29 countries , most of which are members of la francophonie , the community of French-speaking countries . It is spoken as a first language ( in descending order of the highest number ) in France , the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick , the region of Wallonia in Belgium , western Switzerland , Monaco , certain other regions of Canada and the United States , and by various communities elsewhere . In 2015 , approximately 40 % of the francophone population ( including L2 and partial speakers ) lived in Europe , 35 % in sub-Saharan Africa , 15 % in North Africa and the Middle East , 8 % in the Americas , and 1 % in Asia and Oceania .   French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively , approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language . As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward , French was introduced to new territories in the Americas , Africa and Asia . Most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa , in particular Gabon , Algeria , Mauritius , Senegal and Ivory Coast . In 2015 , French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers , and 190 million secondary speakers . Approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language . According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la francophonie , total French speakers will number approximately 500 million people in 2025 and 650 million people by 2050 . The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050 , 80 % of whom will be in Africa .   French has a long history as an international language of literature , and scientific some standards and is a second language of many international organisations including the United Nations , the European Union , NATO , the WTO , the International Olympic Committee , and the ICRC . In 2011 , Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business , after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese .

neg: Chivalric romance As a literary genre of high culture , romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe . They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures , often of a knight-errant portrayed as having heroic qualities , who goes on a quest , yet it is `` the emphasis on love and courtly manners distinguishes it from the chanson de geste and other kinds of epic , in which masculine military heroism predominates . '' Popular literature also drew on themes of romance , but with ironic , satiric or burlesque intent . Romances reworked legends , fairy tales , and history to suit the readers ' and hearers ' tastes , but by c. 1600 they were out of fashion , and Miguel de Cervantes famously burlesqued them in his novel Don Quixote . Still , the modern image of `` medieval '' is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre , and the word medieval evokes knights , distressed damsels , dragons , and other romantic tropes .   Originally , romance literature was written in Old French , Anglo-Norman , Occitan , and Provençal , and later in Portuguese , in Castilian , in English , in Italian ( particularly with the Sicilian poetry ) and German . During the early 13th century , romances were increasingly written as prose . In later romances , particularly those of French origin , there is a marked tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love , such as faithfulness in adversity .

neg: Melchior de Gualbes Melchior de Gualbes ( also spelled Melcior ) was a Catalan knight , politician , and author of three short poems . His poetry is preserved in the Cançoner Vega-Aguiló , in a section badly damaged by humidity . Only the use of ultraviolet radiation has made possible full readings of all his pieces .   The Gualbes family of bankers played an active role in the local government of Barcelona during the interregnum between 1410 and 1412 . They supported Ferdinand of Antequera and were richly rewarded on his accession . Bernat de Gualbes sat on the council which decided the Compromise of Caspe and Melchior was the messenger who , in a rapid journey of seven hours , brought the news of the Compromise to the Parliament convened at Tortosa . In 1413 Ferdinand rewarded Melchior for his service with the castellany of Castellví de Rosanes and the procuratorship of Martorell . That same year Alfonso the Magnanimous , Aragonese infante , appointed Melchior commissioner of the regions Girona and Roussillon .   Melchior was of the same generation as the poets Jordi de Sant Jordi , Andreu Febrer , and Gilabert de Próixita . In his poetry , love was de-sensualised and idealised . The phrase cor gentil ( `` gentle heart '' ) , a favourite of the stilnovisti , appears in his poem Molt m ` es plasens , belha , com senyorega . This phrase was ignored by the Occitan troubadours and in this way Melchior appears more influenced by the Italians . Other phrases borrowed from Petrarch and Dante Alighieri have been found in Melchior 's poetry . His metre and diction are nonetheless influenced by the troubadour lyric . His other poems are Acompanyat d'un amoros desir and Pus me suy mes en l'amorosa questa .

neg: Catholicon (trilingual dictionary) Catholicon ( from Greek Καθολικόν , meaning `` universal '' ) is a 15th-century Breton-French-Latin dictionary . It is the first Breton dictionary and also the first French dictionary . It contains six thousand entries and was compiled in 1464 by the Breton priest Jehan Lagadeuc . It was printed in 1499 in Tréguier . A manuscript of the dictionary is preserved in the national library in Paris identified as Latin 7656 .   This Catholicon is referred to by some historians as the Catholicon Armoricum , in reference to Armorica which is a name for Brittany in Latin . It is a different dictionary than the Catholicon Anglicum which is an English-Latin dictionary compiled at very nearly the same time in England . The Catholicon Armoricum is also to be distinguished from the Catholicon of John of Genoa a dictionary dated late 13th century written in Italy .

neg: Law French Law French is an archaic language originally based on Old Norman and Anglo-Norman , but increasingly influenced by Parisian French and , later , English . It was used in the law courts of England , beginning with the Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror . Its use continued for several centuries in the courts of England and Ireland . Although Law French as a narrative legal language is obsolete , many individual Law French terms continue to be used by lawyers and judges in common law jurisdictions ( see the section `` Survivals in modern legal terminology '' , below ) .

neg: Livius Andronicus Not to be confused with Livy , the Augustan-era historian whose Latin name is Livius .   Lucius Livius Andronicus ( c. 284 -- c. 205 BC ) was a Greco-Roman dramatist and epic poet of the Old Latin period . He began as an educator in the service of a noble family at Rome by translating Greek works into Latin , including Homer 's Odyssey . They were meant at first as educational devices in the school he founded . He wrote works for the stage -- both tragedies and comedies -- which are regarded as the first dramatic works written in the Latin language of ancient Rome . His comedies were based on Greek New Comedy and featured characters in Greek costume . Thus , the Romans referred to this new genre by the term comoedia palliata ( fabula palliata ) . The Roman biographer Suetonius later coined the term `` half-Greek '' of Livius and Ennius ( referring to their genre , not their ethnic backgrounds ) . The genre was imitated by the next dramatists to follow in Andronicus ' footsteps and on that account he is regarded as the father of Roman drama and of Latin literature in general ; that is , he was the first man of letters to write in Latin . Varro , Cicero , and Horace , all men of letters during the subsequent Classical Latin period , considered Livius Andronicus to have been the originator of Latin literature . He is the earliest Roman poet whose name is known .

neg: Conseil du Roi The Conseil du Roi ( -LSB- kɔ̃sɛj dy ʁwa -RSB- ; French for `` The King 's Council '' ) , also known as the is a general term for the administrative and governmental apparatus around the king of France during the Ancien Régime designed to prepare his decisions and give him advice . It should not be confused with the role and title of a `` Conseil du Roi '' , a type of public prosecutor in the French legal system at the same period .   One of the established principles of the French monarchy was that the king could not act without the advice of his council . Under Charles V , it was put forward that the king made decisions only after `` good and careful deliberation '' ( bonne et mûre délibération ) , and this principle was maintained by his successors ; the closing formula of royal acts `` le roi en son conseil '' expressed this deliberative aspect . Even during the period of French absolutism , the expression `` car tel est notre bon plaisir '' ( `` because such is our pleasure '' ) applied to royal decisions made with consultation .   The administration of the French state in the early modern period went through a long evolution , as a truly administrative apparatus -- relying on old nobility , newer chancellor nobility ( `` noblesse de robe '' ) and administrative professionals -- substituted the feudal clientel system . The exact divisions and names of these councils varied over time .

neg: Robert of Chester Robert of Chester ( Latin : Robertus Castrensis ) was an English Arabist of the 12th century . He translated several historically important books from Arabic to Latin , by authors such as Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan and Al-Khwarizmi including :   Liber de compositione alchimiae , translated in 1144 , the first book in Europe on alchemy  Liber algebrae et almucabola , Al-Khwārizmī 's book about algebra , translated in 1145   In the 1140s Robert worked in Spain , where the division of the country between Muslim and Christian rulers resulted in opportunities for interchange between the different cultures . However , by the end of the decade he had returned to England . Some sources identify him with Robert of Ketton ( Robertus Ketenensis ) who was also active as an Arabic-Latin translator in the 1140s .  However , Ketton and Chester , while both places in England , are a long way apart . Also , when in Spain , Robert of Ketton was based in the Kingdom of Navarre , whereas Robert of Chester is known to have worked in Segovia .   While translating Al-Khwārizmī 's book about algebra , Robert of Chester made an interesting error that lives on today . Arabic script , like Hebrew script , consists of consonants with vowels punctuated underneath and often omitted . The sine originated in India , and was adopted by the Arabs who spelled the consonants as `` jb '' . When Robert translated the word , not understanding the Hindu origin , he supplied Arabic vowels yielding the word for bay or inlet . In Latin , a bay or inlet is sinus . And thus , the origin of the trigonometric function named sine .

neg: Gerundive Gerundive ( -LSB- dʒəˈrʌndɪv -RSB- ) is a term in Latin grammar for a verb form that functions as an adjective . Traditionally , the term has been applied to verbal adjectives and nouns in other languages .   In Classical Latin , the gerundive is distinct in form and function from the gerund and the present active participle . In Late Latin , the differences were largely lost , resulting in a form derived from the gerund or gerundive but functioning more like a participle . The adjectival gerundive form survives in the formation of progressive aspect forms in Italian , Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese . In French the adjectival gerundive and particle forms merged completely , and the term gérondif is used for adverbial use of - ant forms .   There is no true equivalent to the gerundive in English ; the closest translation is a passive to-infinitive non-finite clause such as books to be read . That reflects the most common use of the Latin gerundive , to combine a transitive verb ( such as read ) and its object ( such as books ) , usually with a sense of obligation .  Another translation is the recent development of the must - prefix as in a must-read book .

neg: Castilians Castilians ( Spanish : castellanos ) are certain inhabitants in regions of central Spain including at least the eastern part of Castile and León , the northern and eastern parts of Castile-La Mancha , and the Madrid community , who are the source of the Spanish language ( Castilian ) among other aspects of cultural identity . However , not all people in the regions of the medieval Kingdom of Castile think of themselves as Castilian . For this reason , the exact limits of what Castile is today are disputed . As an ethnicity , they are most commonly associated with the sparsely populated inner plateau of the Iberian peninsula , which is split in two by the Sistema Central mountain range and Northern or `` Old Castile '' from southern or `` New Castile '' , the latter being somewhat closer in terms of culture and dialect to southern regions of Spain such as Andalusia , Extremadura and Murcia .   Through the Reconquista and other conquests in the Middle Ages , the Kingdom of Castile ( later Crown of Castile ) spread over a large part of the Iberian Peninsula , especially towards the southern Spanish regions . After this , since the 15th century , through the Spanish colonization of the Americas , the Castilians also spread over the New World , bringing with them not only their language , but also elements of their culture and traditions .

neg: Romanian language Romanian ( obsolete spellings Rumanian , Roumanian ; autonym : limba română , or лимба ромынэ in Moldovan Cyrillic , -LSB- ˈlimba roˈmɨnə -RSB- , `` the Romanian language '' , or românește , lit . `` in Romanian '' ) is a Romance language spoken by around 24 million people as a native language , primarily in Romania and Moldova , and by another 4 million people as a second language . It has official status in Romania and the Republic of Moldova . It is one of the official languages of the European Union and the Latin Union .   Romanian is a part of the Balkan-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin separated from the Western Romance during the 5th -- 8th centuries . To distinguish it within that group in comparative linguistics it is called Daco-Romanian as opposed to its closest relatives , Aromanian , Megleno-Romanian , and Istro-Romanian .   During Soviet times -- and to some extent even today -- Romanian was called Moldovan in the Republic of Moldova , although the Constitutional Court ruled in 2013 that `` the official language of the republic is Romanian '' .   Romanian speakers are scattered across many other countries , notably Australia , Italy , Spain , Ukraine , Bulgaria , the United States , Canada , Brazil , Mexico , Argentina , Greece , Turkey , Russia , Portugal , the United Kingdom , Cyprus , France and Germany .

neg: Jean-François de Bastide Jean-François de Bastide ( 15 July 1724 , Marseille -- 4 July 1798 , Milan aged 73 ) was an 18th-century French writer and playwright .   The son of a magistrate from Provence , Bastide was a polygraph : he wrote novels ( Histoire d'une religieuse par elle-même , `` Bibliothèque universelle des romans '' , May 1786 , 24 p. in-16 ) , theatre plays , critics , and was also a journalist and a compilator . As a journalist , he published Le Nouveau spectateur ( 1758 -- 60 ) , Le Monde tel qu'il est ( 1760 -- 61 ) , Journal de Bruxelles ou le Penseur ( 1766 -- 67 ) , etc. . He also directed the `` Bibliothèque universelle des romans '' from 1779 to 1789 .   As a playwright , he composed :  1749 : Le Désenchantement inespéré  1762 : L'Épreuve de la probité  1763 : Les Caractères de la musique  1763 : Les Deux talents , opéra comique presented at Comédie Italienne 11 August ( music by chevalier d'Herbain )  1764 : Le Jeune homme , comedy presented in Bordeaux  1766 : Les Amants opposés , comedy presented in The Hague 11 March  La Majorité , comedy presented the same day in the same theatre  1766 : Le Soldat par amour , opéra comique presented in Brussel , at Théâtre de la Monnaie , 4 November ( music by Pierre Van Maldere and Ignaz Vitzthumb )  Gésoncourt et Clémentine , tragedy presented the same day in the same theatre .  La Petite-Maison , published in Contes de M. de Bastide , Paris , L. Cellot , 1763 , II , 1 , p. 47-88

neg: Cartularies of Valpuesta The Cartularies of Valpuesta are two medieval Spanish cartularies which belonged to a monastery in the locality of Valpuesta in what is now the province of Burgos , Castile and León , Spain . The cartularies are called the Gótico and the Galicano from the type of script used in each . They are housed in the National Archives of Spain .   The Cartularies of Valpuesta are a series of 12th-century Visigothic documents which , in turn , are copies of earlier documents , some of which date back to the 9th century . These cartularies contain an abundance of words of a developing Romance dialect and a copious list of place names in the Valley of Gaubea and the surrounding area . Probably no other codex of that period offers so many tokens of an incipient Romance language with similarities with modern Spanish . The scribes did not write in pure , erudite Latin , but rather in a more evolved , Romance-like Latin , to be better understood by the common people . The transcription took place during the formative period of the Kingdom of Castile , and it might reflect the early evolution of the Castilian dialect , although a written standard had yet to be established .   Although the authenticity of some of the texts is disputed , the cartularies are regarded as significant in the history of the Spanish language , and their status as manuscripts containing the earliest words written in Spanish has been promoted by the Spanish Royal Academy and other institutions , even though the documents are meant to be written in Latin . They are written in a very late form of Latin mixed with other elements of a Hispanic Romance dialect that corresponds in some traits with modern Spanish .   The preamble of the Statue of Autonomy of Castile and León mentions the cartularies , along with the Nodicia de Kesos , as documents that contain the earliest traces of Spanish ( las huellas más primitivas del castellano ) . However , there have been other documents with a claim to being the earliest in Spanish , notably , the Glosas Emilianenses ( marginalia of circa 1000 ce from La Rioja ) . In November of 2010 , the Spanish Royal Academy endorsed the cartularies -- written in `` a Latin language assaulted by a living language '' ( `` una lengua latina asaltada por una lengua viva '' ) -- as the record of the earliest words written in Castilian , predating those of the Glosas Emilianenses .

neg: History of the Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world . It is the standard script of the English language and is often referred to simply as `` the alphabet '' in English . It is a true alphabet which originated in the 7th century BC in Italy and has changed continually over the last 2500 years . It has roots in the Semitic alphabet and its offshoot alphabets , the Phoenician , Greek , and Etruscan . The phonetic values of some letters changed , some letters were lost and gained , and several writing styles ( `` hands '' ) developed . Two such styles , the minuscule and majuscule hands , were combined into one script with alternate forms for the lower and upper case letters . Due to classicism , modern uppercase letters differ only slightly from their classical counterparts . There are few regional variants .

neg: Christine de Pizan Christine de Pizan ( also seen as de Pisan ; -LSB- kʁistin də pizɑ̃ -RSB- ; 1364 -- c. 1430 ) was an Italian French late medieval author . She served as a court writer for several dukes ( Louis of Orleans , Philip the Bold of Burgundy , and John the Fearless of Burgundy ) and the French royal court during the reign of Charles VI . She wrote both poetry and prose works such as biographies and books containing practical advice for women . She completed forty-one works during her 30-year career from 1399 to 1429 . She married in 1380 at the age of 15 , and was widowed 10 years later . Much of the impetus for her writing came from her need to earn a living to support her mother , a niece and her two surviving children . She spent most of her childhood and all of her adult life in Paris and then the abbey at Poissy , and wrote entirely in her adopted language , Middle French .   Her early courtly poetry is marked by her knowledge of aristocratic custom and fashion of the day , particularly involving women and the practice of chivalry . Her early and later allegorical and didactic treatises reflect both autobiographical information about her life and views and also her own individualized and humanist approach to the scholastic learned tradition of mythology , legend , and history she inherited from clerical scholars and to the genres and courtly or scholastic subjects of contemporary French and Italian poets she admired . Supported and encouraged by important royal French and English patrons , she influenced 15th-century English poetry . Her success stems from a wide range of innovative writing and rhetorical techniques that critically challenged renowned writers such as Jean de Meun , author of the Romance of the Rose , which she criticized as immoral .   In recent decades , Christine de Pizan 's work has been returned to prominence by the efforts of scholars such as Charity Cannon Willard , Earl Jeffrey Richards and Simone de Beauvoir . Certain scholars have argued that she should be seen as an early feminist who efficiently used language to convey that women could play an important role within society . This characterization has been challenged by other critics , who say that it is either an anachronistic use of the word or a misinterpretation of her writing and intentions .

neg: Elyesa Bazna Elyesa Bazna ( -LSB- ˈeljesɑ ˈbɑznɑ -RSB- ) , infrequently referred to as Iliaz and Ilyaz Bazna ( -LSB- iliaz bazna -RSB- ) , ( 28 July 1904 -- 21 December 1970 ) , was a secret agent for Nazi Germany during World War II , operating under the code name Cicero .   Born in Pristina , Bazna attended a military academy , and joined a French military unit at age 16 . He was caught stealing cars and weapons , for which he served three years in a penal labor camp in France . Bazna held a number of manual jobs in Turkish and French cities before obtaining work for foreign diplomats and consulates as a doorman , driver , and guard . He spoke several languages fluently , including French , which was the predominant diplomatic language at the time . In 1943 , Bazna was hired as a valet by Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen , the British ambassador in Ankara , Turkey . He photographed British documents in Knatchbull-Hugession 's possession , and sold them to the Germans through their attaché Ludwig Carl Moyzisch in what became known as the Cicero affair .   As Cicero , Bazna passed on important information about many of the Allied leaders ' conferences , including the Moscow , Tehran and Cairo Conferences . The details for the Tehran Conference were important for Operation Long Jump , the unsuccessful plot to kill Franklin D. Roosevelt , Joseph Stalin , and Winston Churchill . He had also conveyed a document that carried the highest security restriction ( BIGOT list ) about Operation Overlord ( the code name for the Invasion of Normandy in June 1944 ) . It included intelligence that the British ambassador was to request the use of Turkish air bases `` to maintain a threat to the Germans from the eastern Mediterranean until Overlord is launched . '' The information about the Normandy Invasion was not known by the Germans until after the war . Had it been provided in time , Operation Overlord ( the preparations for D-Day ) could have been compromised . He also provided intelligence that might have made the Germans believe that there was no danger of attack in the Balkans . The information that he leaked is believed to have been among the potentially more damaging disclosures made by an agent during the Second World War . The German Foreign Office questioned the intelligence provided by Cicero due to the large quantity of transmitted documents , which meant that little , if any , of it was acted upon .   Once the British became aware that there was a spy operating within the Turkish Embassy , they investigated Bazna , installed a new alarm system , and initiated an unsuccessful sting to catch him selling intelligence . He stopped selling information to the Germans by the end of February 1944 and left the embassy within a month or so . After the war , Bazna was questioned for war crimes , but he was never charged with espionage . He attempted to buy and operate a hotel in Ankara with the proceeds of his spying career , but it was discovered that much of the money was counterfeit . He served a brief prison sentence for circulating forged notes . Bazna lived in Ankara with his family for many years and obtained work doing odd jobs . He moved to Munich in 1960 and worked as a night watchman before dying in 1970 of kidney disease . Bazna published a memoir of the Cicero affair in 1962 .

neg: Lucian Lucian of Samosata ( -LSB- ˈluːʃən , _ ˈluːsiən -RSB- Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς , Lucianus Samosatensis about 125 CE -- after 180 CE ) was a satirist and rhetorician who wrote in the Greek language during the Second Sophistic .   Although he claimed to be a native Assyrian , his actual nationality is hotly disputed ; Lucian wrote exclusively in Ancient Greek . Most of his works are written in the Attic dialect , but On the Syrian Goddess , which is attributed to him , is written in a faux-Ionic dialect .   Noted for his witty and scoffing nature , Lucian frequently poked fun at superstition , religious practices , and belief in the paranormal . He admired the philosophers Democritus and Epicurus , both of whom advocated naturalistic worldviews . His works were wildly popular in antiquity and more than eighty works attributed to him have survived to the present day , a considerably higher quantity than for most other classical writers . His reception among modern scholars has been overwhelmingly positive .   His most famous work is A True Story , a tongue-in-cheek satire against authors who tell incredible tales , which is widely regarded as the earliest known work of science fiction . His framing story The Lover of Lies makes fun of people who believe in the supernatural and contains the oldest known version of the `` The Sorcerer 's Apprentice '' , while his letter The Passing of Peregrinus contains one of the earliest known references to Jesus Christ by a pagan author .   Lucian 's Dialogues of the Gods makes fun of ancient Greek religion and portrays the traditional Olympian deities as unworthy to be worshipped . His Dialogues of the Dead focusses on the Cynic philosophers Diogenes and Menippus . His story Timon the Misanthrope was the inspiration for William Shakespeare 's tragedy Timon of Athens .

neg: Comte de Gabalis Comte de Gabalis is a 17th-century French text by Abbé Nicolas-Pierre-Henri de Montfaucon de Villars ( 1635-1673 ) . The titular `` Comte de Gabalis '' ( `` Count of Cabala '' ) is an occultist who explains the mysteries of the world to the author . It first appeared in Paris in 1670 , anonymously , though the identity of the author came to be known . The original title as published by Claude Barbin was Le comte de Gabalis , ou entretiens sur les sciences secrètes , `` The Count of Cabala , Or Dialogs on the Secret Sciences '' .   The book was widely read in France and abroad , and is a source for many of the `` marvelous beings '' that populate later European literature . French readers include Charles Baudelaire and Anatole France -- it was the main source for his At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque ( 1892 ) . In English literature , it influenced Alexander Pope , who borrowed from it to create the sylphs in The Rape of the Lock ( 1714 ) , and in German , it is a likely source for Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué 's Undine . In recent times it has been considered by some to have been intended as a satire of occult philosophy , though in its time it was taken seriously by many readers . Many later authors have also taken it to be a serious source , including Edward Bulwer-Lytton and prominent occult writers such as Eliphas Levi , Helena Blavatsky , and M.P Hall .

neg: Latin poetry The history of Latin poetry can be understood as the adaptation of Greek models . The verse comedies of Plautus are considered the earliest surviving examples of Latin literature and are estimated to have been composed around 205-184 BC .   The start of Latin literature is conventionally dated to the first performance of a play in verse by a Greek slave , Livius Andronicus , at Rome in 240 BC . Livius translated Greek New Comedy for Roman audiences , using meters that were basically those of Greek drama , modified to the needs of Latin . His successors Plautus and Terence further refined the borrowings from the Greek stage and the prosody of their verse is substantially the same as for classical Latin verse .   The traditional meter of Greek epic , the dactylic hexameter , was introduced into Latin literature by Ennius ( 239-169 BC ) , virtually a contemporary of Livius , who substituted it for the jerky Saturnian meter in which Livius had been composing epic verses . Ennius moulded a poetic diction and style suited to the imported hexameter , providing a model for ` classical ' poets such as Virgil and Ovid .   The late republic saw the emergence of Neoteric Poets , notably Catullusrich young men from the Italian provinces , conscious of metropolitan sophistication , and looking to the scholarly Alexandrian poet Callimachus for inspiration . Catullus shared the Alexandrian 's preference for short poems and wrote within a variety of meters borrowed from Greece , including Aeolian forms such as hendecasyllabic verse , the Sapphic stanza and Greater Asclepiad , as well as iambic verses such as the choliamb and the iambic tetrameter catalectic ( a dialogue meter borrowed from Old Comedy ) .   Horace , whose career crossed the divide between republic and empire , followed Catullus ' lead in employing Greek lyrical forms , identifying with Alcaeus of Mytilene , composing Alcaic stanzas , and also with Archilochus , composing poetic invectives in the Iambus tradition ( in which he adopted the metrical form of the Epode or ` Iambic Distich ' ) . Horace was a contemporary of Virgil and , like the epic poet , he wrote verses in dactylic hexameter , but in a conversational and epistolary style . Virgil 's hexameters are generally regarded as `` the supreme metrical system of Latin literature . ''

neg: Essay of Dramatick Poesie Essay of Dramatic Poesy by John Dryden was published in 1668 . It was probably written during the plague year of 1666 . Dryden takes up the subject that Philip Sidney had set forth in his Defence of Poesie ( 1580 ) and attempts to justify drama as a legitimate form of `` poetry '' comparable to the epic , as well as defend English drama against that of the ancients and the French .   The treatise is a dialogue between four speakers : Eugenius , Crites , Lisideius , and Neander . The four speakers represented , respectively Charles Sackville ( Lord Buchhurst and later sixth Earl of Dorset ) , Sir Robert Howard -LSB- playwright and Dryden 's brother-in-law -RSB- , Sir Charles Sedley ( Edward Malone identified him as Lisideius ) and Dryden himself ( neander means `` new man '' and implies that Dryden , as a respected member of the gentry class , is entitled to join in this dialogue on an equal footing with the three older men who are his social superiors ) . On the day that the English fleet encounters the Dutch at sea near the mouth of the Thames , the four friends take a barge downriver towards the noise from the battle . Rightly concluding , as the noise subsides , that the English have triumphed , they order the bargeman to row them back upriver as they begin a dialogue on the advances made by modern civilization . They agree to measure progress by comparing ancient arts with modern , focusing specifically on the art of drama ( or `` dramatic poesy '' ) . The four men debate a series of three topics : ( 1 ) the relative merit of classical drama ( upheld by Crites ) vs. modern drama ( championed by Eugenius ) ; ( 2 ) whether French drama , as Lisideius maintains , is better than English drama ( supported by Neander , who famously calls Shakespeare `` the greatest soul , ancient or modern '' ) ; and ( 3 ) whether plays in rhyme are an improvement upon blank verse drama -- a proposition that Neander , despite having defended the Elizabethans , now advances against the skeptical Crites ( who also switches from his original position and defends the blank verse tradition of Elizabethan drama ) . Invoking the so-called unities from Aristotle 's Poetics ( as interpreted by Italian and refined by French scholars over the last century ) , the four speakers discuss what makes a play `` a just and lively imitation '' of human nature in action . This definition of a play , supplied by Lisideius/Orrery ( whose rhymed plays had dazzled the court and were a model for the new drama ) , gives the debaters a versatile and richly ambiguous touchstone . To Crites ' argument that the plots of classical drama are more `` just , '' Eugenius can retort that modern plots are more `` lively '' thanks to their variety . Lisideius shows that the French plots carefully preserve Aristotle 's unities of action , place , and time ; Neander replies that English dramatists like Ben Jonson also kept the unities when they wanted to , but that they preferred to develop character and motive . Even Neander 's final argument with Crites over whether rhyme is suitable in drama depends on Aristotle 's Poetics : Neander says that Aristotle demands a verbally artful ( `` lively '' ) imitation of nature , while Crites thinks that dramatic imitation ceases to be `` just '' when it departs from ordinary speech -- i.e. prose or blank verse . A year later , the two brothers-in-law quarreled publicly over this third topic . See Dryden 's `` Defense of An Essay of Dramatic Poesy '' ( 1669 ) , where Dryden tries to persuade the rather literal-minded Howard that audiences expect a play to be an imitation of nature , not a surrogate for nature itself .

neg: Antoine Halley Antoine Halley ( 1593 -- 3 June 1675 ) was a French professor and poet .   Halley was born at Bazenville near Bayeux . A professor of belles-lettres and Principal of the Collège du Bois , at the University of Caen , he succeeded Antoine Gosselin and distinguished himself from the age of twenty-two , by his eloquence and the brilliance of his teaching . He taught Latin poetry at the University of Caen , for nearly forty years . He cultivated Latin and French poetry and won the prize of the Immaculate Conception time and again so that the Académie des Sciences , Arts et Belles-Lettres de Caen pleaded with him to quit competing .   Halley had ties with Charles de la Rue and Huet , the bishop of Avranches . The latter urged him to publish his poems . Huet , in his Origines de Caen , hailed him as mentor : `` I am obliged to give this testimony of gratitude to Mr. Halley . I deem it one of the greatest joys of my life to have been his disciple at his home for five years . He trained my mind , he refined my taste , he gave me an understanding of good authors . He taught me an infinite number of rare and curious things . '' Halley , in the meantime , professed no less esteem for his former student , sending him a poem a propos his book De Interpretatione . He also published a Traité sur la grammaire latine , at Caen in 1652 .   His collection of Poems is dedicated to the Duke of Montausier , the tutor of the dauphin and governor of Normandy . Cadomus , a play in which he paid tribute to all the literary celebrities born in his city , from Nicole Oresme , tutor of Charles V , to Pierre Patrix , the favorite poet of Gaston d'Orleans , is amongst his best .   When the chancellor Pierre Séguier , who had subdued the Harelle revolt of 1640 with undue harshness , made his way to Caen , Halley sent him far too flattering a couplet for the occasion . In 1642 , he thanked him for having increased the privileges of the Académie de Caen , founded by Moisant de Brieux . He addressed the Dauphin a long letter in Latin verse reminding him about the origins of the kings of France and celebrating the Trojan kings Dardanus , Erichthonius , Tros , Ilus , Laomedon and Priam , the supposed ancestors of Louis XIV .   A few letters written at Lisieux by Jean-Pierre Camus , the bishop of Belley have been found in his works . One of them is dated thus : `` At Lisieux , on November 22nd , the day of St. Cecilia , patron saint of music , sister of poetry .   When the Duchesse de Longueville came to Caen in 1648 , Halley was commissioned to compose the verses that decorated the tables placed at city 's expense on the way of the Duchess and her two children . In 1649 , during the famous Jobelins and Uranists Quarrel , Aubert , the princess ' chaplain , sent him the Voiture and Benserade 's sonnets , to get his opinion , as the French Academy had refused to get involved . That grave matter had been evoked before the very king , queen and princes , who were not able to settle it . It was then agreed that it was necessary to submit it to Halley whose decision would be final . The latter found in favor of Voiture against Benserade , i.e. in favor of the Duchesse de Longueville .   Pierre Bayle has proclaimed Halley to be `` one of the greatest poets of his century '' ; even if his French poetry is weak , his Latin rhymes lack neither ease nor elegance . La Rue , Huet , Gilles Ménage , Lesueur de Pétiville , Pierre Cailly , and Michel Gonfrey have composed Latin verses in his honor .


query: The Girl on the Train was directed by Tate Taylor.

pos: The Girl on the Train (2016 film) The Girl on the Train is a 2016 American mystery thriller drama film directed by Tate Taylor and written by Erin Cressida Wilson , based on Paula Hawkins ' 2015 debut novel of the same name . The film stars Emily Blunt , Rebecca Ferguson , Haley Bennett , Justin Theroux , Luke Evans , Allison Janney , Édgar Ramírez , and Lisa Kudrow , and follows an alcoholic divorcée who becomes involved in a missing persons investigation .   Principal photography began on November 4 , 2015 in New York City . Produced by Marc Platt and DreamWorks Pictures , The Girl on the Train was the first DreamWorks Pictures film to be distributed by Universal Pictures , as part of DreamWorks ' new distribution deal via Amblin Partners . It premiered in London on September 20 , 2016 and was theatrically released in the United States on October 7 , 2016 . The film grossed $ 173 million worldwide , and received mixed reviews , although Blunt 's performance received praise and gained a nomination at the 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards , as well as a nomination for BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 70th British Academy Film Awards .

neg: Subway (Homicide: Life on the Street) `` Subway '' ( sometimes referred to as `` The Accident '' ) is the seventh episode of the sixth season of the American police television drama Homicide : Life on the Street , and the 84th episode overall . It first aired on NBC in the United States on December 5 , 1997 . In the episode , John Lange ( Vincent D'Onofrio ) becomes pinned between a Baltimore Metro Subway train and the station platform . The Baltimore homicide department is informed that Lange will be dead within an hour and Pembleton tries to solve the case while comforting Lange in his final minutes .   `` Subway '' featured guest star Bruce MacVittie as a man suspected of pushing Lange into the path of the train . The episode was written by James Yoshimura , who co-produced with David Simon . It was directed by Gary Fleder and was the only episode of Homicide : Life on the Street helmed by the feature film director . Yoshimura based `` Subway '' on an episode of the HBO hidden-camera documentary show Taxicab Confessions , in which a New York City detective described a real-life instance of a man trapped between a subway train and platform .   `` Subway '' was filmed on location in a Baltimore Metropolitan Transit Authority ( MTA ) station . Fleder included cinematic elements that were uncommon in the traditionally naturalistic show . This led to conflicts between Fleder and director of photography Alex Zakrzewski . `` Subway '' received overwhelmingly positive reviews but ranked number three in its time-slot during its original broadcast , capturing 10.3 million viewers but falling behind ABC 's 20/20 and CBS 's Nash Bridges .   The episode won a Peabody Award for excellence in television broadcasting and was nominated for two Emmy Awards , one for Yoshimura 's script and one for D'Onofrio 's guest performance . `` Subway '' was the subject of a two-hour PBS television documentary , Anatomy of a `` Homicide : Life on the Street '' , which originally aired on the network on November 4 , 1998 . Screenwriter Vince Gilligan said `` Subway '' directly influenced an episode of The X-Files that he wrote , which in turn helped inspire the casting of Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad .

neg: Romance on the Orient Express Romance on the Orient Express is a 1985 television film directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark .

neg: Strangers on a Train (play) Strangers on a Train is a play written by Craig Warner and is based on the 1950 the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith . The show made its West End and world premiere at the Gielgud Theatre on 19 November 2013 , following previews from 2 November .

neg: Wesley Taylor Wesley Taylor ( born August 13 , 1986 ) is an American stage actor and writer , probably best known for his work on Broadway , Television , and his original web content .

neg: The "Mind the Paint" Girl The `` Mind the Paint '' Girl is a four-act play by Arthur Pinero , first published in 1912 .   The play has a large cast of twenty eight named characters . The plot centres on a rising starlet who is discovered when a musical director overhears a workman yell , `` Mind the paint , Girl . '' The play was written to incorporate a song written by Jerome Kern . It premiered at the Duke of York 's Theatre , London , in February 1912 .   A film based on the play was made by director Wilfrid North in 1916 and in 1919 , but both have been lost .

neg: Girl on TV `` Girl On TV '' is a song written and recorded by the American boy band LFO . It was released in November 1999 , from their album LFO . The song was also their second single and peaked at number 10 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on November 30 ( after reaching the Top 40 on November 16 ) and number 6 in the UK , where it was their biggest hit . `` Girl on TV '' was certified Gold by RIAA in 2000 for the shipment of over 500,000 copies in the US .

neg: Train Wreck (film) Train Wreck is a 2008 drama film directed by Andrew Lane starring R. Keith Harris and Maureen Mountcastle .

neg: List of accolades received by Gone Girl (film) Gone Girl is a 2014 psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher , and produced by Leslie Dixon , Bruna Papandrea , Arnon Milchan , Reese Witherspoon , Ceán Chaffin , and Joshua Donen . The screenplay was adapted by Gillian Flynn from her eponymous 2012 novel . Set in Missouri , United States , the film stars Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne , a writer who becomes the prime suspect in the mysterious disappearance of his wife Amy , played by Rosamund Pike . Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry feature in supporting roles . The score was composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross .   Gone Girl premiered at the New York Film Festival on September 26 , 2014 , before 20th Century Fox gave the film a wide release at over 3,000 theaters in the United States and Canada on October 3 . It grossed over $ 368 million on a production budget of $ 61 million . As of June 2016 , Gone Girl is Fincher 's highest-grossing film . Rotten Tomatoes , a review aggregator , surveyed 295 reviews and judged 88 % to be positive .   Gone Girl garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with particular praise for its direction , Pike 's lead acting performance , Flynn 's screenplay , and its score . At the 87th Academy Awards , Pike received a nomination for Best Actress . The film received four nominations at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards : Best Director for Fincher , Best Actress in a Drama for Pike , Best Screenplay for Flynn , and Best Original Score . Pike won the Empire Award for Best Actress , and garnered nominations in the same category at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards and 68th British Academy Film Awards ( BAFTAs ) . She also received the Breakthrough Performance Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival . Flynn was nominated at the BAFTAs , as well as the Writers Guild of America Awards . The National Board of Review included the film in their list of top ten films of the year .

neg: Harriet Thorpe Harriet Amelia Thorpe ( born 8 June 1957 ) is an English actress . She trained at London 's Central School of Speech and Drama . She is known for her roles in the British sitcoms , The Brittas Empire ( 1991 -- 97 ) and Absolutely Fabulous ( 1992 -- 2012 ) . She has also starred in the West End musicals , Cabaret ( 2006 ) , Wicked ( 2008 ) and Mamma Mia ! ( 2010 ) .

neg: This Train Don't Stop There Anymore `` This Train Do n't Stop There Anymore '' is a 2001 song performed by Elton John . The song was written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin . The music video was directed by David LaChapelle , and with Pierre Rouger as cinematographer , and presents a younger John played by Justin Timberlake dressed in outfits typical of John in the 1970s ; the video also features Paul Reubens of Pee-Wee Herman fame as John Reid , John 's manager of 25 years . The song 's lyrics detail John 's coming to terms with getting older , and his admission that he has ` put one over ' on his fans because he was unable to feel the music he was giving to them . It appears on the album Songs from the West Coast . It was released as a single and reached # 24 in the UK Singles chart and was a Top 10 Adult Contemporary chart hit in the US .   An alternative interpretation implies John learning to deal with the stresses and rigors of living in fame without the use of drugs , as opposed to his earlier career . Near the end of the music video , he is seen opening a door which reveals an implied orgy , white snow flying through the air , and a person in a rabbit suit ( all a metaphor for cocaine use ) . John closes the door , and proceeds on to perform a song .   Gary Barlow provided backing vocals for the track . The arrangement was simple , a throwback to John 's early piano-bass-drums combination prior to the arrival of Davey Johnstone . On the track , John plays piano , Paul Bushnell provides bass and backing vocals , and Matt Chamberlain plays drums .

neg: China Girl (1942 film) China Girl is a 1942 drama film which follows the exploits of a newsreel photographer in China and Burma against the backdrop of World War II . The film was directed by Henry Hathaway , and stars Gene Tierney , George Montgomery , Lynn Bari and Victor McLaglen . It is also known as A Yank In China , Burma Road and Over The Burma Road .

neg: Sam Taylor-Johnson Samantha Louise Taylor-Johnson ( née Taylor-Wood , born 4 March 1967 ) is an English filmmaker , photographer and visual artist . Her directorial feature film debut came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy , a film based on the childhood experiences of the Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon . She is one of a group of artists known as the Young British Artists .

neg: Kevin Trainor Kevin Trainor is an Irish actor from Kilkeel , County Down , Northern Ireland . He attended St Colman 's College in Newry before attending Emmanuel College , Cambridge , where he read English . After Cambridge , Trainor trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 2001 to 2004 ( making an early cameo appearance in the 2001 film The Hole ) and appeared in the 2005 Royal Shakespeare Company season .   He is notable for portraying the younger version of Trevor Bruttenholm ( played as an older man by John Hurt ) in the film Hellboy ; as the character John in The Catherine Tate Show ( from the `` Ulster Mum '' series of sketches ) ; as Charles Adams in the HBO miniseries John Adams ; and as `` living statue '' Keiran Barker in Sky 1 television comedy drama The Cafe .   Trainor earned critical accolades for his appearance in the special flash-back episode that launched the 2014 second series of Channel 4 's Utopia . His performance as Mr Omida , an immaculate and punctillious torturer , was described by Metro as `` the most chilling torturer committed to screen in a long time '' and by Geeks Unleashed as `` the very neat , precise and sinister Mr Omida , who wins the creepiest man alive award '' .

neg: A Girl, a Bottle, a Boat A Girl , a Bottle , a Boat ( stylized as a girl a bottle a boat ) is the tenth studio album by American band Train , released on January 27 , 2017 , through Columbia Records . It is the band 's first album without lead guitarist and founding member Jimmy Stafford . Although he is not on the new album , he is currently still partially involved with the band , as he continues to play with them at some live performances and events .

neg: Bullet Train (band) is a Japanese boyband formed on December 25 , 2011 under Stardust Promotion . The group debuted under the name '' '' but later changed the name to '' '' . The group consists of `` main dancers '' and `` back vocalists '' , meaning that the vocalists stand behind the dancers during the band 's performances . Bullet Train has been likened to Momoiro Clover Z , a girl group managed by the same talent agency . The group is also described as . Consisting of 5 main dancers , the center among the dancers changes for each single .

neg: Catherine Tate Catherine Tate ( born Catherine Ford ; 12 May 1968 ) is an English comedian , actress , and writer . She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and seven BAFTA Awards . Following the success of The Catherine Tate Show , Tate played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of Doctor Who and later temporarily reprised her role , becoming the Tenth Doctor 's companion for the fourth series in 2008 . In 2011 , she began a recurring role as Nellie Bertram in the U.S. version of The Office and was a regular until the series ended .

neg: The Girl from Trieste La Ragazza di Trieste , internationally released as The Girl from Trieste , is a 1982 Italian romance-drama film directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile and based on a novel with the same name written by the same Festa Campanile .

neg: Tripwire (film) Tripwire is a 1989 American film directed by James Lemmo .   It is an action/adventure movie about a terrorist and government secret agent personal vendetta that began when a train hijacking goes badly awry and the terrorist 's son is accidentally killed . The original music score was composed by Richard Stone . Originally intended for a theatrical release ( it did get releases only in Europe between 1989 and 1990 ) , the movie was released directly to video and laserdisc on March 21 , 1990 in the U.S. by RCA/Columbia and in Canada on video only by Cineplex Odeon . The movie has not been released on DVD and as of December 26 , 2009 , Sony has not announced any plans to release the movie on DVD .

neg: The Come On The Come On is a 1956 American film noir directed by Russell Birdwell , starring Anne Baxter and Sterling Hayden .

neg: Geoff Tate Geoff Tate ( born Jeffrey Wayne Tate , January 14 , 1959 ; he later changed his first name to Geoffery or Geoffrey ) is a German-born American singer and musician . He rose to fame with the progressive metal band Queensrÿche , who had commercial success with their 1988 album Operation : Mindcrime and 1990 album Empire . Tate is ranked fourteenth on Hit Paraders list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time . He was voted No. 2 on That Metal Show 's top 5 hard rock vocalists of the 1980s . In 2012 , he won the Vegas Rocks ! Magazine Music Award for `` Voice in Progressive Heavy Metal '' . In 2015 , he placed ninth on OC Weekly 's list of the 10 Best High-Pitched Metal Singers . After his farewell tour as Queensrÿche , he renamed his band Operation : Mindcrime , after the Queensrÿche album of the same name .