Angelo Poliziano, 

 Italian poet 



POLK 



Distinguished by his precocity in an 

 age of precocious youth, he won the 

 patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, 

 and became tutor to his children, 

 and the most brilliant intellectual 

 figure at the court of " the Mag- 

 nificent." The 

 most remark- 

 able classical 

 scholar of the 

 15th century, 

 Poliziano was 

 as great in his 

 Italian as in his 

 Latin poems. 

 His unfinished 

 epic,Giostra,on 

 a tournament 

 in which Julian de' Medici was 

 victor, has much inherent beauty, 

 and is the first successful example 

 in Italian literature of the use of 

 the octave stanza later employed 

 by Ariosto and Tasso. With his 

 lyric play Orfeo (the story of 

 Orpheus and Eurydice'), he origin- 

 ated pastoral drama and opera hi 

 Italy. Poliziano died Sept. 24 

 1494, two years after Lorenzo. 

 See Memoirs of Politianus, W. P. 

 Greswell, 2nd ed. 1805; Renais- 

 sance in Italy, J. A. Symonds, 

 1897-1902. 



Polk, JAMES KNOX (1795-1849). 

 President of the U.S.A. Born in 

 Mecklenburg county, N. Carolina, 

 Nov. 2, 1795, of Scottish-Irish 

 descent, his original name being 

 Pollock, he was called to the bar 

 in 1820. He practised at Columbia, 

 Tennessee, but turned also to 

 politics In 1823 he was elected 

 to the legislature of Tennessee, 

 and in 1825 became a member of 

 Congress. For eight years he was 

 speaker of the House of Represen- 

 tatives, and from 1839-41 governor 

 of Tennessee. In 1844, Polk, as 

 the Democratic candidate, was 

 elected president, his opponent 

 being Henry 

 Clay. During 

 his term the 

 Mexican war 

 took place, 

 and the Ore- 

 gon boundary 

 dispute with 

 Great Britain 

 was settled. A 

 reduced tariff 

 system w 

 introducedjn 1846, and a bill passed 

 for setting up an independent 

 United States treasury. A bill to 

 sanction the expenditure of large 

 sums on internal improvements 

 was vetoed by him. Polk died at 

 Nashville, Tennessee, June 15, 1849. 

 See Life, in Presidents of the United 

 States, ed. J. G. Wilson, 1914. 



Polk, LEONIDAS (1806-64). 

 American soldier. Born at Raleigh, 

 N. Carolina, April 10, 1806, he was 



educated at West Point and entered 

 the army. In 1831, however, he 

 was ordained in the Episcopal 

 Church, and in 1838 became a 

 bishop hi charge of an immense 

 tract of country in the south of 

 the U.S.A. On the outbreak of 

 the Civil War in 1861 he returned 

 to military life 

 and was soon a 

 major-general 

 in the Con- 

 federate army. 

 He held vari- 

 ous commands 

 with success, 

 ^^ including that 

 HL -.__I1^HHI of a corps in 

 Leonidas Polk, the army of 

 American soldier * 



until charged by Bragg with delay 

 in attacking at Chickamauga. 

 Jefferson Davis, however, exoner- 

 ated him, and he was still in the 

 field when he was killed, June 14, 

 1864. See Leonidas Polk, W. M. 

 Polk, new ed. 1915 



Polka. Round dance said to 

 have been invented about 1830 by 

 a Bohemian servant girl. The 

 name is probably derived from 

 pulka (half), referring to the very 

 short steps necessitated by the 

 small dimensions of the room in 

 which the inventor usually danced. 

 In a few years the polka overran 

 Europe, and its extraordinary 

 popularity attained such a height 

 as to become almost a mania, 

 streets and public-houses being 

 named after it. Its lively char- 

 acter and the simplicity of its 

 steps no doubt conduced to this. 

 Though now it has practically dis- 

 appeared from the ballroom, it 

 occasionally finds place at chil- 

 dren's parties and informal gather- 

 ings. The music is in 24 time, 

 the characteristic feature being the 

 rest on the second beat. 



The man begins with the left 

 foot, his partner with the right. 

 Three steps are danced forward, 

 three back again, and then six 

 turning round, after which the 

 same order is resumed. 



Poll (Mid. Eng. pol, back of the 

 head). Taking of votes in order to 

 ascertain the wishes of a majority 

 of (he people qualified to vote. 

 The polling booth is the place 

 where electors go to record their 

 votes, and the polling day the day 

 fixed for the voting. The announce- 

 ment of the result is known as the 

 declaration of the poll. (See Elec- 

 tion ; Hustings ; Vote. ) 



The poll plays a part in English 

 company law. Every company, by 

 its charter or articles of associa- 

 tion, provides a mode whereby 

 shareholders may vote at company 

 meetings. It is a common pro- 

 vision that votes shall be taken by 



POLLARD 



show of hands, but that if any 

 shareholder, or a fixed number of 

 shareholders, should be dissatisfied 

 with the result of such a vote as 

 announced by the chairman, a poll 

 may be demanded. The manner ot 

 taking the poll depends entirely on 

 the company's regulations. See 

 Company Law. 



Pollack (Qadus pollacking) 

 Common British fish, belonging to 

 the cod family and nearlv rotated 



A. Pollaiuolo, 

 Italian painter 



Pollack, a British fish belonging 

 to the cod family 



to the coal fish. It is usually aooui 

 20 ins. long and is of a greenish 

 colour, with a dark spot near the 

 pectoral fin and no barbels. It 

 occurs off the coasts of Cornwall 

 and Devon, Norway, N. America, 

 etc., and is valuable as a food fish 

 and as a source of oil. 



Pollaiuolo, ANTONIO (1429-98) 

 Italian painter and craftsman 

 Born at Florence, he studied under 

 Bartoluccio, the 

 goldsmith, and 

 founded a pros- 

 perous school 

 of painting, en- 

 graving, sculp- 

 ture, and en- 

 amelling. In 

 painting he was 

 the foremost 

 of the Floren- 

 tine realists, 

 insisting on anatomical truth at 

 the expense of poetic sentiment ; 

 he often collaborated with his 

 brother Piero. From 1489-96 he 

 was in Rome, but died at Florence. 

 Pollanarua. Former name 

 of an ancient capital of Ceylon. 

 Topare (q.v.). 



Pollard, ALBERT FREDERICK (b. 

 1869). British historian. Born at 

 Ryde, Dec. 16, 1869, he was edu 

 cated at Felsted and Jesus Col- 

 lege, Oxford. Settling in London, 

 he began to work as an assistant 

 editor of The Dictionary of Na- 

 tional Biography, was recognized 

 as an authority on Tudor times, 

 and hi 1907 was made professor 

 of English history at London Uni- 

 versity, and in 1908 fellow of All 

 Souls College, Oxford. During the 

 Great War his lectures and writ- 

 ings thereon were most careful and 

 dispassionate utterances produced 

 by the crisis, his historical sense 

 being wonderfully acute, and his 

 judgement rarely at fault. Pollard's 

 works include England under the 



