OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rolland, John

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​ROLLAND, JOHN (fl. 1560), Scottish poet, appears to have been a priest of the diocese of Glasgow, and to have been known in Dalkeith in 1555. He is the author of two poems, the Court of Venus and a translation of the Seven Sages. The former, which was printed by John Ros in 1575, may have been written before 1560. The latter was translated from a Scots prose version at the suggestion of an aunt (“ane proper wenche”), who had found his treatment of the courtly allegory involved and uninteresting.
The Court of Venus was edited by Walter Gregor for the S.T.S. in 1884. See W. A. Craigie’s long list of corrections of that edition in the Modern Language Quarterly (March 1898). The Seven Sages was printed in 1578, and frequently during the earlier decades of the 17th century. It was reprinted by David Laing for the Bannatyne Club (1837). Sibbald, in his Chronicle of Scottish Poetry (iii. 287), hinted that Rolland may be the author of the Thrie Priestis of Peblis. There is not a scrap of evidence in support of this; and there are many strong reasons against the ascription.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Roll

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​ROLL (O. Fr. rolle, roll, mod. rôle, Lat. rotulus, dim. of rota, wheel), something rolled or wound up in a cylindrical form on an axis, or something which “rolls,” that is, moves or is moved along a service by a turning motion. Primarily the word is used of a piece of writing material, such as parchment or paper, rolled up for the purpose of convenient storage, handling, &c. This is the meaning of the Med. Lat. rotulus, defined by Du Cange as “Scheda, charta in speciem rotulae seu rotae convoluta.” It was thus the convenient name for any document kept in this form as an official record, and hence for any register, record, catalogue or official list. “The Rolls” was the name of the building where the records of the Chancery Court were kept, the keeper of which was the Master (q.v.) of the Rolls, now the title of the third member of the English Supreme Court of Judicature. Other familiar examples of the use of the word in this sense are the list of those admitted as qualified solicitors, whence the phrase “to strike off the rolls,” of removal by the court of a solicitor for offences or delinquencies. There are numerous applications of the word to other objects packed in a cylindrical form, such as tobacco, cloth, &c., and particularly to a small loaf of bread rolled over before baking, the crust being thin and crisp and the crumb spongy.
In architecture a “roll” or “scroll” moulding is a moulding resembling a section of a roll or scroll of parchment with the end overlapping; a “roll and fillet” moulding is a section of a cylindrical moulding with a square fillet running along the centre of the face (see Label). For the sense of an object that rolls, the word “roller” is more general, but “roll” is frequent in technical usage for revolving cylinders, especially when working in fixed bearings. For the rolling of steel see Rolling Mill.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Roller-skating

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​ROLLER-SKATING, a pastime which, by the use of small wheels instead of a blade on the skate, has provided some of the pleasures of skating on ice without having ice as the surface (see Skating). Wheeled skates were used on the roads of Holland as far back as the 18th century, but it was the invention of the four-wheeled skate, working on rubber springs, by J. L. Plimpton of New York, in 1863, that made the amusement popular. Still greater advance was made by the Raymond skate with ball and cone bearings. The wheels or rollers were first of turned boxwood, but the wearing of the edges was a fault which has been surmounted by making them of a hard composition or of steel. The floor of the rink on which the skating takes place is either of asphalt or of wood. The latter is that always used in newly made rinks. The best floors are of long narrow strips of maple. Figure-skating on roller-skates is in some respects easier to learn than on ice-skates, the four points of contact given by the wheels rendering easier the holding of an edge; but some figures, such as loops, are more difficult.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rolandseck

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​ROLANDSECK, a village of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, delightfully situated on the left bank of the Rhine, 8 m. above Bonn, with a station on the railway Cologne-Coblenz. The place consists almost entirely of villas and is a favourite summer resort. Crowning the vine-clad hills behind it lie the ruins of the castle, a picturesque ivy-covered arch, whence a fine view is obtained of the Siebengebirge and the Rhine valley as far as Bonn. Immediately below Rolandseck in mid-river is the island of Nonnenwerth, on which is a nursing school under the conduct of Franciscan nuns, established in 1850. The convent which formerly stood here was founded in 1122 and secularized in 1802. Tradition assigns the foundation of the castle of Rolandseck to Charlemagne's paladin, Roland. It was certainly built at a very early date, as it was restored by Frederick, archbishop of Cologne, in 1120, and it was a fortress until the end of the 15th century.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Roll, Alfred Philippe

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​ROLL, ALFRED PHILIPPE (1846– ), French painter, was born in Paris on the 1st of March 1846. Pupil of Gérôme and Bonnat at the École des Beaux Arts, he made his début at the Salon in 1870 with “ Environs of Baccarat ” and " Evening," and attracted the widest attention in 1875 by his colossal painting of “ The Flood at Toulouse ” (now at the Havre Museum). All his early work is imbued with the spirit of romanticism under the influence of Géricault, whilst his colour tended to Bolognese heaviness with a strong leaning towards dark shadows in the flesh painting, in which he closely followed Courbet. In 1877 he showed at the Salon the “ Fête of Silenus ” (now at the Ghent Museum), a painting of such vivid colour and exuberant life that it recalls the work of Jordaens. About this time he began to devote himself to the realistic rendering of modern life, especially among the working classes, and together with romantic subjects he abandoned his earlier heavy colouring, and devoted himself to the study of free light. His “ Miners' Strike ” of 1880 (now at the Valenciennes Museum) placed him in the front rank of modern French painters, and from that date his career was one of continuous and brilliant success. He became “official painter ” to the ​French government, and was entrusted with numerous commissions for the decoration of public buildings and for commemorative pictures, like the “President Carnot at Versailles at the Centenary of the États Généraux” (now at Versailles Palace), and “The Tzar and President Faure laying the Foundation Stone of the Alexandre III. Bridge.” For the Hôtel de Ville he executed “The Pleasures of Life” and “The Rosetime of Youth.” Besides the pictures already mentioned, a vast number of his works are to be found in the public galleries of France. The museum of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris owns his “National Fête at Paris in 1880”; the Cognac Museum, Labour, Works at Suresnes”; the Luxembourg, his “War” and “Manda Lametrie, farm-hand.” At Avignon Museum is the “Don Juan and Haidee”; at Laval Museum, “Halt!”; at Fontainebleau Palace, “In Normandy”; at Pau Museum, “Roubey, cementer”; and at the Museum of Geneva, “Marianne Offrey, crieuse de vert.” In portraiture he is known by his “Yves Guyot,” “Coquelin cadet,” “Jules Simon,” &c., but his greatest success was the group of “Fritz Thaulow and his Wife.” In 1905 he replaced Carolus-Duran as president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, of which he was one of the founders.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maid Marian

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​MAID MARIAN, a personage incorporated in the English legend of Robin Hood. There is no evidence that she had originally any connexion with the Robin Hood cycle. She seems to have been an essential feature of the morris dance, and in the may-game was paired sometimes with Robin-Hood, but oftener with Friar Tuck. The well-known pastoral play of Adam de la Hale, Jeu de Robin et Marion, and the many French songs on the subject, account for the association of the names. In the ballads on Robin Hood her name is twice casually mentioned, but there is a late ballad, by a certain S. G. (F. J. Child, English and Scottish Ballads, i. 219), which tells how Maid Marian sought Robin in the forest disguised as a page, and fought with him for an hour before she recognized him by his voice. S. G. was perhaps acquainted with the two plays, written in 1598, of The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, by Anthony Munday and Harry Chettle. In The Downfall Matilda Fitz Walter escapes from the persecution of King John by following her lover to Sherwood Forest, where they took the names of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and lived apart until they could be legally united. Perhaps this tale has some connexion with the romance of the outlaw Fulk Fitz Warin. Matilda or Mahaud, widow of Theobald Walter, escaped from John’s solicitations by marrying the outlawed Fulk and following him to the forest. There were in semi-historical legends three Matildas pursued by King John, of whom particulars are given by H. L. D. Ward in his Catalogue of Romances (i. 502). Their several histories were fused by the Elizabethan dramatists, and associated with the Maid Marian of the morris dance, who up to that time had probably only a vague connexion with Robin Hood.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maidenhair

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​MAIDENHAIR, in botany, the common name for a fern, Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, characterized by the spreading hair-like branches of the frond, the ultimate pinnules of which are 1/2 to 1 in. long with a rounded crenate outer edge and repeatedly forked veins; the sori (or masses of spore-capsules) are in the crenatures of the pinnules, and are protected by a kidney-shaped involucre. The plant is widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions, and is occasionally found in the western counties of England, the Isle of Man, and west Ireland, growing on damp rocks or walls especially near the sea. The genus Adiantum is a large one containing many handsome species both tropical and temperate, well known in greenhouse and hothouse cultivation.
Maidenhair-tree is a popular name for Ginkgo biloba, a remarkable and handsome gymnospermous tree, the fan-shaped leaves of which with their forked veins recall those of the maidenhair (see Gymnosperms).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maihar

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​MAIHAR, a native state of Central India, in the Baghelkhand agency. Area, 407 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 63,702; estimated revenue, £4700. The state, which is watered by the Tons river, consists mainly of alluvial soil covering sandstone, and is fertile except in the hilly district of the south. A large area is under forest, the produce of which provides a small export trade. The chief, whose title is raja, claims descent from the Kachwaha Rajput clan. The state suffered severely from famine in 1896–1897. The town of Maihar (pop. 6802) is on the East Indian railway, 97 m. N. of Jubbulpore. Extensive ruins of shrines and other buildings in its neighbourhood indicate a former much greater extent of the place.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maidenhead

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​MAIDENHEAD, a market town and municipal borough in the Wokingham parliamentary division of Berkshire, England; 241/2 m. W. of London by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901), 12,980. Area, 2125 acres. It is pleasantly situated on and above the west (right) bank of the Thames, and is much in favour as a residential town and a resort of boating parties. Though of high antiquity it is wholly modern in appearance, and a large number of handsome houses have been built in its vicinity. A beautiful timbered house of the 15th century, however, survives in Ockwells, a short distance south of the town. The stone bridge carrying the London road over the Thames dates from 1772; but the crossing is of ancient importance. Maidenhead has trade in malt and grain. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors.
The history of Maidenhead (Maydenhutt, Maydenhith) is bound up with that of the ancient bridge. It is not mentioned in Domesday. Edward I. (1297) gave a grant of pontage in aid of the bridge, which was almost broken down; similar grants to the “bailiffs and good men of Maydenhithe” were made by succeeding sovereigns. In 1451 Henry VI. incorporated the gild of the Brethren and Sisters of Maydenhith to provide certain necessaries for the celebration of Mass and to keep the bridge in order: the gild, dissolved at the Reformation, was revived by Elizabeth, who, however, later (1581) substituted for it a corporation consisting of a warden, bridgemaster, burgesses and commonalty: the governing charter until the 19th century was that of James I. (1685) incorporating the town under the title of the mayor, bridgemaster and burgesses. In 1400 Thomas Holand, earl of Kent, held the bridge in the interests of the deposed Richard II., but was eventually forced to retire. In 1643 a meeting took place in the town between Charles I. and three of his children. In the 18th century a considerable trade was done in carrying malt, meal and timber in barges to London: at that time three fairs were held which have now practically disappeared. The Wednesday market is held under a charter of Elizabeth (1582).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mail

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​MAIL. (1) (Through Fr. maille, from Lat. macula, a spot or hole, the mesh of a net), properly a metal ring or link which, joined closely with other links, formed the fabric of body and other armour in the middle ages, till it was superseded by plate-armour. The word “mail,” properly applied to this form of chain-armour, is also used of armour generally, whether plate or chain, and is also transferred to the horny defensive coverings of animals, such as the tortoise, crab, &c. (see Arms and Armour). (2) (O. Eng. mál, speech; probably the same as O. Saxon mahal, assembly; in meaning connected with O. Norse mále, stipulation), a Scots law term meaning rent, tax. “Mails and duties” are the rents, whether in kind or money, of an estate. In English the word only survives in “blackmail” (q.v.). (3) (Through O. Fr. male, mod. malle, a Teutonic word surviving in Dutch maal), properly a bag, especially one used in travelling; this word, which appears in Chaucer, is now applied chiefly to the despatch and delivery of postal matter. In this sense “mail” is properly the bag in which such matter is conveyed, and hence is applied to the contents of the mail, postal matter collectively, and to the train, carts, or other means used in the despatch and delivery of the same. In general usage “mail” is confined to the “foreign” as opposed to the “inland” despatch of letters, &c., and to which the word “post” is chiefly applied; in official language, the word refers to the inland despatch. The word appears also in “mail-coach,” a coach used for conveying the mails, and in “mail-cart,” a cart similarly employed. This word is also applied to a light low vehicle propelled or drawn by hand, suitable for young children. The “mail phaeton” is a type of phaeton with high seat for two persons and drawn by a pair of horses.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maidan

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​MAIDAN, an Indian term for any open plain. The Maidan is the name of the park in Calcutta, surrounding Fort William, where society people drive in the afternoon. The name is also applied to one of the valleys in the Afridi country of Tirah, and to the plateau portion of the state of Mysore.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maida

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​MAIDA, a town of Calabria, Italy, in the province of Catanzaro, from which it is 30 m. W.S.W. direct, and 12 m. N.N.E. of Pizzo by rail (the station is 8 m. W. of the town). Pop. (1901), 5190. The town gives its name to the plain of Maida, where in 1806 British troops under Sir John Stuart defeated the French under Regnier. The names Maida Hill and Maida Vale in London are derived from this battle.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Guitry, Lucien Germain

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​GUITRY, LUCIEN GERMAIN (1860–), French actor, was born in Paris. He became prominent on the French stage at the Porte Saint-Martin theatre in 1900, and the Variétés in 1901, and then became a member of the Comédie Française, but he resigned very soon in order to become director of the Renaissance, where he was principally associated with the actress Marthe Brandès, who had also left the Comédie. Here he established his reputation, in a number of plays, as the greatest contemporary French actor in the drama of modern reality.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gujarat

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​GUJARAT or Guzerat, a region of India, in the Bombay Presidency. In the widest sense of the name it includes the whole of the country where the Gujarati language is spoken, i.e. the northern districts and states of the Presidency from Palanpur to Damaun, with Kathiawar and Cutch. But it is more properly confined to the country north of the Nerbudda and east of the Rann of Cutch and Kathiawar. In this sense it has an area of 29,071 sq. m., with a population in 1901 of 4,798,504. It includes the states distributed among the agencies of Palanpur, Mahi Kantha, Rewa Kantha and Cambay, with most of Baroda and the British districts of Ahmedabad, Kaira, Panch Mahals and Broach. Less than one-fourth is British territory. The region takes its name from the Gujars, a tribe who passed into India from the north-west, established a kingdom in Rajputana, and spread south in A.D. 400–600. The ancient Hindu capital was Anhilvada; the Mahommedan dynasty, which ruled from 1396 to 1572, founded Ahmedabad, which is still the largest city; but Gujarat owed much of its historical importance to the seaports of Broach, Cambay and Surat. Its fertile plain, with a regular rainfall and numerous rivers, has caused it to be styled the “garden of India.” It suffered, however, severely from the famine of 1899–1901. For an account of the history, geography, &c., of Gujarat see the articles on the various states and districts. Gujarat gives its name to the vernacular of northern Bombay, viz. Gujarati, one of the three great languages of that Presidency, spoken by more than 9 millions. It has an ancient literature and a peculiar character. As the language of the Parsis it is prominent in the Bombay press; and it is also the commercial language of Bombay city, which lies outside the territorial area of Gujarat.
See J. Campbell, History of Gujarat (Bombay, 1896); Sir E. C. Bayley, The Muhammedan Kingdom of Gujarat (1886); A. K. Forbes, Ras Mala (1856).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gujranwala

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​GUJRANWALA, a town and district of British India, in the Lahore division of the Punjab. The town is situated 40 m. N. of Lahore by rail. It is of modern growth, and owes its importance to the father and grandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose capital it formed during the early period of the Sikh power. Pop. (1901) 29,224. There are manufactures of brass-ware, jewellery, and silk and cotton scarves.
The District comprises an area of 3198 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 756,797, showing an increase of 29% in the decade. The district is divided between a low alluvial tract along the rivers Chenab and Degh and the upland between them, which forms the central portion of the Rechna Doab, intermediate between the fertile submontane plains of Sialkot and the desert expanses of Jhang. Part of the upland tract has been brought under cultivation by the Chenab canal. The country is very bare of trees, and the scenery throughout is tame and in the central plateau becomes monotonous. It seems likely that the district once contained the capital of the Punjab, at an epoch when Lahore had not begun to exist. We learn from the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, Hsuan Tsang, that about the year 630 he visited a town known as Tse-kia (or Taki), the metropolis of the whole country of the five rivers. A mound near the modern village of Asarur has been identified as the site of the ancient capital. Until the Mahommedan invasions little is known of Gujranwala, except that Taki had fallen into oblivion and Lahore had become the chief city. Under Mahommedan rule the district flourished for a time; but a mysterious depopulation fell upon the tract, and the whole region seems to have been almost entirely abandoned. On the rise of Sikh power, the waste plains of Gujranwala were seized by various military adventurers. Charat Singh took-possession of the village of Gujranwala, and here his grandson the great Maharaja Ranjit Singh was born. The Sikh rule, which was elsewhere so disastrous, appears to have been an unmitigated benefit to this district. Ranjit Singh settled large colonies in the various villages, and encouraged cultivation throughout the depopulated plain. In 1847 the district came under British influence in connexion with the regency at Lahore; and in 1849 it was included in the territory annexed after the second Sikh war. A large export trade is carried on in cotton, wheat and other grains. The district is served by the main line and branches of the North-Western railway.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gulbarga

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​GULBARGA, an ancient city of India, situated in the Nizam’s dominions, 70 m. S.E. of Sholapur. Pop. (1901) 29,228. Originally a Hindu city, it was made the capital of the Bahmani kings when that dynasty established their independence in the Deccan in 1347, and it remained such until 1422. The palaces, mosques and tombs of these kings still stand half-ruined. The most notable building is a mosque modelled after that of Cordova ​in Spain, covering an area of 38,000 sq. ft., which is almost unique in India as being entirely covered in. Since the opening of a station on the Great India Peninsula railway, Gulbarga has become a centre of trade, with cotton-spinning and weaving mills. It is also the headquarters of a district and division of the same name. The district, as recently reconstituted, has an area of 6004 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 1,041,067.