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Porgy
Porgy (1927), a play by Dorothy and Dubose Heyward. [Guild Theatre, 217 perf.] The African‐American Porgy ( Frank Wilson) is a crippled beggar who lives and works in the Charleston tenement district called Catfish Row. He loves the beautiful but weak‐willed Bess ( Evelyn Ellis), who is the mistress of the vicious Crown ( Jack Carter), but when Crown flees after murdering a man, she goes to live with Porgy. On Crown's return Porgy fights with him and kills him. He is taken to jail, and while he is there Bess is lured away by the drug peddler Sportin' Life ( Percy Verwayne). Released from jail and finding Bess gone, Porgy leaves Catfish Row to seek her. The Theatre Guild offering was a bold and powerful work, and the script, while overshadowed by the later musical version Porgy and Bess, remains one of the greatest of all American folk dramas. [Edwin] Dubose HEYWARD (1885–1940), the South Carolina novelist and poet, worked as an insurance agent before publishing his first poems and short stories in the early 1920s. He and his wife, the former Dorothy Hartzell Kuhns (1890–1961), dramatized two of his novels of black life: Porgy and Mamba's Daughters (1939). Heyward wrote an unsuccessful original drama, Brass Ankle (1931), and collaborated on the musical Porgy and Bess (1935). Biography: Dubose Heyward, the Man Who Wrote Porgy, Frank Durham, 1954.
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Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Porgy." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Porgy." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-Porgy.html Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Porgy." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-Porgy.html |
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Porgy
Porgy, novel by DuBose Heyward, published in 1925. The dramatization by the author and his wife Dorothy was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1935) is an opera based on the story.
In the black tenement section of the Charleston waterfront, known as Catfish Row, Porgy is a crippled beggar, celebrated for his luck with dice. He gambles regularly with the black men Robbins and Crown, until Crown kills Robbins in a quarrel and escapes to a thicket outside the town. Porgy denies knowledge of the crime, but old Peter, another denizen of the tenement, is imprisoned as a witness. Thus losing the friend who has helped him to move about, Porgy buys a goat cart, and continues to beg. Bess, formerly “Crown's Bess,” becomes his mistress, and for a time they live happily together, until she re‐turns to her addiction to narcotics and discovers Crown's hiding place. Porgy is forced to stab Crown, to protect Bess from his influence. He is not suspected of the murder, but is wanted as a witness, and is jailed when he tries to escape. After his release, he resumes his life in Catfish Row, but Bess, who has lost hope of his return, has left with a group of river workers for the cotton plantations. |
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James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Porgy." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Porgy." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-Porgy1.html James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Porgy." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-Porgy1.html |
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porgy
porgy , common name for members of the Sparidae, a family of small-mouthed fishes with strong teeth adapted for crushing their food of shellfish and crustaceans. Porgies are found in warm and tropical coastal areas and are especially abundant in the Mediterranean and Red seas and in the West Indies. Best known of the North American species is the migratory porgy, Pagrus pagrus, found from the Carolinas to Cape Cod and called scup in New England, porgy in New York, and fair maid in the South. It is an excellent food fish. Common S of Chesapeake Bay is the sheepshead porgy. The jolthead porgy, named for its habit of butting shellfish loose from rocks and pilings, is the largest (up to 10 lb/4.5 kg) of the family. Of commercial importance in the area of the Gulf of Mexico is the pinfish (6-10 in./15-25 cm). In Europe the name porgy generally refers to the red porgy or sea bream, a red fish with blue spots common in Mediterranean and European Atlantic waters. Porgies are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Perciformes, family Sparidae. |
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"porgy." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "porgy." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-porgy.html "porgy." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-porgy.html |
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porgy
por·gy / ˈpôrgē/ • n. (pl. same or -ies) a deep-bodied fish (Calamus and other genera) of the sea bream family, typically silvery but sometimes changing to a blotched pattern. |
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"porgy." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "porgy." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-porgy.html "porgy." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-porgy.html |
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porgy
porgy American term for various food and game fish of the sea bream family, including Pagrus (red porgy) and Senostomus spp. See also scup.
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DAVID A. BENDER. "porgy." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. DAVID A. BENDER. "porgy." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O39-porgy.html DAVID A. BENDER. "porgy." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O39-porgy.html |
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Porgy
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Cite this article
James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Porgy." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Porgy." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-Porgy.html James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Porgy." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-Porgy.html |
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porgy
porgy See SPARIDAE.
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MICHAEL ALLABY. "porgy." A Dictionary of Zoology. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MICHAEL ALLABY. "porgy." A Dictionary of Zoology. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O8-porgy.html MICHAEL ALLABY. "porgy." A Dictionary of Zoology. 1999. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O8-porgy.html |
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porgy
porgy •Aggie, baggy, craggy, draggy, jaggy, Maggie, quaggy, saggy, scraggy, shaggy, slaggy, snaggy
•Hwange
•dreggy, eggy, leggy, Peggy
•dengue • plaguy
•Carnegie, Malpighi
•ciggy, piggy, spriggy
•boggy, cloggy, doggy, foggy, froggy, groggy, moggie, smoggy, soggy
•demagogy
•corgi, porgy
•bogey, bogie, dogie, fogey, hoagie, stogy, yogi
•boogie, boogie-woogie, sastrugi
•buggy, druggy, fuggy, muggy, puggy
•lungi, sarangi
•Lalage • lurgy
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"porgy." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "porgy." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-porgy.html "porgy." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-porgy.html |
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