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Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
by The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.
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DEVONSHIRE, according to historic fable, is a corruption of "Debon's-share." This Debon was one of the companions of Brute, the descendent of Aene'as. He chased the giant Coulin till he came to a pit eight leagues across. Trying to leap this chasm, the giant fell backwards and lost his life.

... that ample pit, yet far renowned For the great leap which Debon did compel Coulin to make, being eight lugs of ground, Into the which retourning back he fell ... And Debon's share was that is Devonshire.

Spenser, Faery Queen, ii. 10 (1590).

DE'VORGOIL (Lady Jane), a friend of the Hazlewood family.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

DEWLAP (Dick), an anecdote teller, whose success depended more upon his physiognomy than his wit. His chin and his paunch were his most telling points.

I found that the merit of his wit was founded upon the shaking of a fat paunch, and the tossing up of a pair of rosy jowls.—Richard Steele.

DEXTER, (Gregory), the typical Successful Man who is first suitor, then the generous friend of Anne Douglas, in Constance Fennimore Woolson's Anne.

"A little indifference to outside opinion would have made him a contented, as he was a successful man. But there was a surface of personal vanity over his better qualities which led him to desire a tribute of universal liking." (1882).

DHU (Evan) of Lochiel, a Highland chief in the army of Montrose.

Mhich-Connel Dhu. or M'Ilduy, a Highland chief in the army of Montrose.—

Sir W. Scott, Legend of Montrose (time, Charles I.).

DHUL'DUL, the famous horse of Ali, son-in-law of Mahomet.

DHU'L KARNEIN ("the two-horned,") a true believer according to the Mohammedan notion, who built the wall to prevent the incursions of Gog and Magog.—Al Koran, xviii.

Commentators say the wall was built in this manner: The workman dug till they found water; and having laid the foundation of stone and melted brass, they built the superstructure of large pieces of iron, between which they packed wood and coal, till the whole equalled the height of the mountains [of Armenia]. Then setting fire to the combustibles, and by the use of bellows, they made the iron red hot, and poured molten brass over to fill up the interstices.

—Al Beidawi.

DHU'LNUN, the surname of Jonah.; so called because he was swallowed by a fish.

Remember Dhu'lnun, when he departed in wrath, and thought that we could not exercise our power over him.—Al Koran, xxi.

DIAFOIRUS (Thomas), son of Dr. Diafoirus. He is a young medical milksop, to whom Argan has promised his daughter Angelique in marriage. Diafoirus pays his compliments in cut-and-dried speeches, and on one occasion, being interrupted in his remarks, says, "Madame, vous m'avez interrompu dans le milieu de ma periode, et cela m'a trouble la memoire." His father says, "Thomas, reservez cela pour une autre fois." Angelique loves Cleante (2 syl.), and Thomas Diafoirus goes to the wall.

Il n'a jamais eu l'imagination bien vive, ni ce feu d'esprit qu'on remarque dans quelques uns,.... Lorsqui'il etait petit, il n'a jamais ete ce qu'on appelle mievre et eveille; on le voyait toujours doux, paisible, et taciturne, ne disant jamais mot, et ne jouant jamais a tons ces petits jeux que l'on nomme enfantins.—Moliere, Le Malade Imaginaire, ii.6 (1673).

DI'AMOND, one of three brothers, sons of the fairy Agape. Though very strong, he was slain in single fight by Cambalo. His brothers were Pri'amond and Tri'amond.—Spenser, Faery Queen, iv. (1596).

DIAMOND JOUSTS, nine jousts instituted by Arthur, and so called because a diamond was the prize. These nine diamonds were all won by Sir Launcelot, who presented them to the queen, but Guinevere, in a tiff, flung them into the river which ran by the palace.—Tennyson, Idylls of the King ("Elaine").

DIAMOND SWORD, a magic sword given by the god Syren to the king of the Gold Mines.

She gave him a sword made of one entire diamond, that gave as great lustre as the sun.—Comtesse D'Aunoy, Fairy Tales ("The Yellow Dwarf," 1682).

DIANA, the heroine and title, a pastoral of Montemayor, imitated from the Daphnis and Chloe of Longos (fourteenth century).

Dian'a, daughter of the widow of Florence with whom Hel'ena lodged on her way to the shrine of St. Jacques le Grand. Count Bertram wantonly loved Diana, but the modest girl made this attachment the means of bringing about a reconciliation between Bertram and his wife Helena.—Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well (1598).

DIAN'A DE LASCOURS, daughter of Ralph and Louise de Lascours, and sister of Martha, alias Ogari'la. Diana was betrothed to Horace de Brienne, whom she resigns to Martha.—E. Stirling, The Orphan of the Frozen Sea (1856).

DIAN'A THE INEXORABLE. (1) She slew Orion with one of her arrows, for daring to make love to her. (2) She changed Actaeon into a stag and set her own dogs on him to worry him to death, because he chanced to look upon her while bathing. (3) She shot with her arrows the six sons and six daughters of Niobe, because the fond mother said she was happier than Latona, who had only two children.

Dianae non movenda numina.

Horace, Epode, xvii.

DIANA THE SECOND OF SALMANTIN, a pastoral romance by Gil Polo.

"We will preserve that book," said the cure, "as carefully as if Apollo himself had been its author."—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. i. 6 (1605).

DIANA (the Temple of), at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of antiquity, was set on fire by Herostratos to immortalize his name.

DIANA OF THE STAGE, Mrs. Anne Brace-girdle (1663-1748).

DIAN'A'S FORESTERS, "minions of the moon," "Diana's knights," etc., highwaymen.

Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are "squires of the night's body" be called thieves ... let us be "Diana's foresters," "Gentlemen of the shade," "minions of the moon."—Shakespeare, I Henry IV. act i. sc. 2 (1597).

DIANO'RA, wife of Gilberto of Friu'li, but amorously loved by Ansaldo. In order to rid herself of his importunities, she vowed never to yield to his suit till he could "make her garden at midwinter as gay with flowers as it was in summer" (meaning never). Ansaldo, by the aid of a magician, accomplished the appointed task; but when the lady told him that her husband insisted on her keeping her promise, Ansaldo, not to be outdone in generosity, declined to take advantage of his claim, and from that day forth was the firm and honorable friend of Gilberto.—Bocaccio, Decameron, x.5.

The Franklin's Tale of Chaucer is substantially the same story. (See DORIGEN).

DIARMAID, noted for his "beauty spot," which he covered up with his cap; for if any woman chanced to see it, she would instantly fall in love with him.—Campbell, Tales of the West Highlands ("Diarmaid and Grainne").

DIAV'OLO (Fra), Michele Pezza, Insurgent of Calabria (1760-1806).—Auber, Fra Diavolo (libretto by Scribe, 1836).

DIBBLE (Davie), gardener at Monkbarns.—Sir W. Scott, Antiquary (time, George III.).

Dibu'tades (4 syl.), a potter of Sicyon, whose daughter traced on the wall her lover's shadow, cast there by the light of a lamp. This, it is said, is the origin of portrait painting. The father applied the same process to his pottery, and this, it is said, is the origin of sculpture in relief.

Will the arts ever have a lovelier origin than that fair daughter of Dibutades tracing the beloved shadow on the wall!—Ouida, Ariadne, i. 6.

DICAE'A, daughter of Jove, the "accusing angel" of classic mythology.

Forth stepped the just Dicaea, full of rage.

Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island, vi. (1633).

DICCON THE BEDLAMITE, a half-mad mendicant, both knave and thief. A specimen of the metre will be seen by part of Diccon's speech:

Many amyle have I walked, divers and sundry waies, And many a good man's house have I bin at in my dais; Many a gossip's cup in my tyme have I tasted, And many a broche and spyt have I both turned and basted ... When I saw it booted nit, out at doores I hyed mee, And caught a slyp of bacon when I saw none spyd mee Which I intend not far hence, unless my purpose fayle, Shall serve for a shooing home to draw on two pots of ale.

Gammer Gurton's Needle (1575).

DICIL'LA, one of Logistilla's handmaids, noted for her chastity.—Ariosto, Orlanda Furioso (1516).

DICK, ostler at the Seven Stars inn, York.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, Greorge II.).

Dick, called "The Devil's Dick of Hellgarth;" a falconer and follower of the earl of Douglas.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Dick (Mr.), an amiable, half-witted man, devoted to David's "aunt," Miss Betsey Trotwood, who thinks him a prodigious genius. Mr. Dick is especially mad on the subject of Charles I.—C. Dickens, David Copperfield (1849).

DICK AMLET, the son of Mrs. Amlet, a rich, vulgar tradeswoman. Dick assumes the airs of a fine gentleman, and calls himself Colonel Shapely, in which character he gets introduced to Corinna, the daughter of Gripe, a rich scrivener. Just as he is about to elope, his mother makes her appearance, and the deceit is laid bare; but Mrs. Amlet promises to give her son L10,000, and so the wedding is adjusted. Dick is a regular scamp, and wholly without principle; but being a dashing young blade, with a handsome person, he is admired by the ladies.—Sir John Vanbrugh, The Confederacy (1695).

DICK SHAKEBAG, a highwayman in the gang of Captain Colepepper (the Alsatian bully).—Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I).

DICKSON (Thomas) farmer at Douglasdale.

Charles Dickson, son of the above, killed in the church.—Sir W. Scott, Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.).

DICTA'TOR OF LETTERS, Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, called the "Great Pan" (1694-1778).

DICTIONARY (A Living). Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646-1716) was so called by George I.

Longinus was called "The Living Cyclopaedia" (213-273).

Daniel Huet, chief editor of the Delphine Classics, was called a Porcus Literarum for his unlimited knowledge (1630-1721).

DIDDLER (Jeremy), an artful swindler; a clever, seedy vagabond, who borrows money or obtains credit by his songs, witticisms, or other expedients.—Kenny, Raising the Wind.

DIDERICK, the German form of Theodorick, king of the Goths. As Arthur is the centre of British romance, and Charlemagne of French romance, so Diderick is the central figure of the German minnesingers. DIDIER (Henri), the lover of Julie Les-urques (2 syl.); a gentleman in feeling and conduct, who remains loyal to his fiancee through all her troubles.—Ed. Stirling, The Courier of Lyons (1852).

DIDO, daughter of Belus, king of Tyre. She bought "as much land in Africa as a bull's hide could cover," shred the hide into strings, and enclosed a large tract. AEneas was wrecked upon her coast, and a love affair ensued. He deserted her, and she killed herself after watching his ship until it was out of sight.

DIE'GO, the sexton to Lopez the "Spanish curate."—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Spanish Curate (1622).

Die'go (Don), a man of 60, who saw a country maiden named Leonora, whom he liked, and intended to marry if her temper was as amiable as her face was pretty. He obtained leave of her parents to bring her home and place her under a duenna for three months, and then either return her to them spotless, or to make her his wife. At the expiration of the time, he went to settle the marriage contract; and, to make all things sure, locked up the house, giving the keys to Ursula, but to the outer door he attached a huge padlock, and put the key in his pocket. Leander, being in love with Leonora, laughed at locksmiths and duennas, and Diego (2 syl.), found them about to elope. Being a wise man, he not only consented to their union, but gave Leonora a handsome marriage portion.—I. Bickerstaff, The Padlock.

DIES IRAE. The name generally given from the opening words to a mediaeval hymn on the Last Judgment. The author is unknown, but the hymn is now generally ascribed to a monk of the Abruzzi, in Naples, Thomas de Celano, who died about 1255.

Dies irae, dies ilia Sol vet sseclum in favilla Teste David cum Sibylla.

That Day of Wrath, that dreadful day When Heaven and Earth shall pass away, So David and the Sibyl say.

DIET OF PERFORMERS.

BEAHAM sang on bottled porter.

CATLEY (Miss) took linseed tea and madeira.

COOKE (G.F.) drank everything.

HENDEESON, gum arable and sherry.

INCLEDON sang on madeira.

JOEDAN (Mrs.) drank calves'-foot jelly and sherry.

KEAN (C.) took beef-tea for breakfast, and preferred a rump-steak for dinner.

KEAN (Edm.) EMERY and REEVE drank cold brandy-and-water.

KEMBLE (John) took opium.

LEWIS, mulled wine and oysters.

MACEEADY used to eat the lean of mutton-chops when he acted, and subsequently lived almost wholly on a vegetable diet.

OXBERRY drank tea.

RUSSELL (Henry) took a boiled egg.

SMITH (W.) drank coffee.

WOOD (Mrs.) sang on draught porter.

WEENCH and HAELEY took no refreshment during a performance.—W. O. Russell, Representative Actors. 272.

DIE'TRICH (2 syl.). So Theod'oric The Great is called by the German minnesingers. In the terrible broil stirred up by Queen Kriemhild in the banquet hall of Etzel, Dietrich interfered, and succeeded in capturing Hagan and the Burgundian King Ghinther. These he handed over to the queen, praying her to set them free; but she cut off both their heads with her own hands.—The Niebelungen Lied (thirteenth century.)

Dietrich (John), a laborer's son of Pomerania. He spent twelve years under ground, where he met Elizabeth Krabbin, daughter of the minister of his own village, Rambin. One day, walking together, they heard a cock crow, and an irresistible desire came over both of them to visit the upper earth, John so frightened the elves by a toad, that they yielded to his wish, and gave him hoards of wealth, with part of which he bought half the island of Riigen. He married Elizabeth, and became founder of a very powerful family.—Keightley, Fairy Mythology. (See TANHAUSER.)

DIETZ (Bernard). Broad-shouldered giant who wears an air of deep and gentle repose, and comes like a benediction from heaven to the sick room of Count Hugo in Blanche Willis Howard's novel The Open Door. He is a stone-mason who says with a genial laugh,

"I hope if I'm lucky enough to get into the New Jerusalem they talk about, there'll still be a little building going on, for I shouldn't feel at home without a block of stone to clip."

His grand simplicity and strong common sense medicine the morbid soul of the more nobly-born man. His argument against the suicide Hugo contemplates as an open door out of the world, surprises the listener profoundly.

"You see, you can never destroy anything. You can only seem to. The life in us—it doesn't ask us if we want to be born,—it doesn't ask us if we want to die. It is beyond us, and I don't believe it can be destroyed" (1889).

DIEU ET MON DROIT, the parole of Richard I. at the battle of Gisors (1198).

DIGGERY, one of the house-servants at Strawberry Hall. Being stage-struck, he inoculates his fellow-servants (Cymon and Wat) with the same taste. In the same house is an heiress named Kitty Sprightly (a ward of Sir Gilbert Pumpkin), also stage-struck. Diggery's favorite character is "Alexander the Great," the son of "Almon." One day, playing Romeo and Juliet, he turns the oven into the balcony, but, being rung for, the girl acting "Juliet" is nearly roasted alive. (See DIGGORY.)—J. Jackman, All the World's a Stage.

DIGGES (Miss Maria), a friend of Lady Penfeather; a visitor at the Spa.—Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan's Well (time, George III.).

DIGGON [DAVIE], a shepherd in the Shephearde's Calendar, by Spenser. He tells Hobbinol that he drove his sheep into foreign lands, hoping to find better pasture; but he was amazed at the luxury and profligacy of the shepherds whom he saw there, and the wretched condition of the flocks. He refers to the Roman Catholic clergy, and their abandoned mode of life. Diggon also tells Hobbinol a long story about Roffynn (the bishop of Rochester) and his watchful dog Lauder catching a wolf in sheep's clothing in the fold.—Ecl. ix. (September, 1572 or 1578).

DIGGORY, a barn laborer, employed on state occasions for butler and footman by Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle. He is both awkward and familiar, laughs at his master's jokes and talks to his master's guests while serving. (See DIGGERY.)—Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer. (1773).

Diggory (Father), one of the monks of St. Botolph's Priory.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

DIMANCHE, (Mons.), a dun. Mons. Dimanche, a tradesman, applies to Don Juan for money. Don Juan treats him with all imaginable courtesy, but every time he attempts to revert to business interrupts him with some such question as, Comment se porte Madame Dimanche? or Et votre petite fille Claudine comment se porte-t-ell? or Le petit Colin fait-il toujours bien du bruit avec son tambour? or Et votre petit chien Brusquet, gronde-t-il toujours aussi fort ...? and, after a time, he says he is very sorry, but he must say good-bye for the present, and he leaves Mons. without his once stating the object of his call. (See SHUFFLETON.) Moliere, Don Juan (1665).

DIMMESDALE (Arthur). Master Prynne, an English physician living in Amsterdam, having determined to join the Massachusetts Colony, sent his young wife Hester before him to await his coming. He was detained two years, and on reaching Boston, the first sight that met his eyes was his wife standing in the pillory with a young babe in her arms and with the letter A, the mark of her shame, embroidered in scarlet on her breast. A young clergyman, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, regarded by all the people as a saint, too good for earth, was earnestly exhorting her to declare the name of the child's father, but she steadfastly refused, and was sent back to prison. Prynne who had heard in Amsterdam rumors of his wife's infidelity, both to discover her betrayer and to hide his own relation to his wife, had taken the name of Roger Chillingworth, and with eyes sharpened by jealousy and wounded pride, soon discovered that his wife's lover was no other than Dimmesdale himself. As a physician and under the guise of friendship he attached himself to the minister, and pursued his ghastly search for the secret cause that was eating away his life. How it all ended is shown in that wonderful book where, as in a Greek drama, the fates of Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and the love-child, Little Pearl, are traced in lines of fire.—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.

DINANT', a gentleman who once loved and still pretends to love Lamira. the wife of Champernel.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Little French Lawyer (1647).

DINARZA'DE (4 syl.), sister of Scheherazade, Sultana of Persia. Dinarzade was instructed by her sister to wake her every morning an hour before daybreak, and say, "Sister, relate to me one of those delightful stories you know," or "Finish before daybreak the story you began yesterday." The sultan got interested in these tales, and revoked the cruel determination he had made of strangling at daybreak the wife he had married the preceeding night. (See SCHEHERAZADE.)

DINAS EMRYS, or "Fort of Ambrose" (i.e. Merlin), on the Brith, a part of Snowdon. When Vortigern built this fort, whatever was constructed during the day was swallowed up in the earth during the night. Merlin (then called Ambrose or Embres-Guletic) discovered the cause to be "two serpents at the bottom of a pool below the foundation of the works." These serpents were incessantly struggling with each other; one was white, and the other red. The white serpent at first prevaled, but ultimately the red one chased the other out of the pool. The red serpent, he said, meant the Britons, and the white one the Saxons. At first the Saxons (or white serpent) prevailed, but in the end "our people" the red serpent "shall chase the Saxon race beyond the sea."—Nennius, History of the Britons (842).

And from the top of Brith, so high and wondrous steep Where Dinas Emris stood, showed where the serpents fought The white that tore the red, for whence the prophet taught The Britons' sad decay.

Drayton, Polyolbion, x, (1612).

DINE WITH DUKE HUMPHREY (To), to have no dinner to go to. The Duke referred to was the son of Henry IV., murdered at St. Edmundsbury, and buried at St. Alban's. It was generally thought that he was buried in the nave of St. Paul's Cathedral; but the monument supposed to be erected to the duke was in reality that of John Beauchamp. Loungers, who were asked if they were not going home to dinner, and those who tarried in St. Paul's after the general crowd had left, were supposed to be so busy looking for the duke's monument that they disregarded the dinner hour.

DINER-OUT OF THE FIRST WATER, the Rev. Sidney Smith; so called by the Quarterly Review (1769-1845).

DINGLE (Old Dick of the), friend of Hobbie Elliott of the Heugh-foot farm.—Sir W. Scott, The Black Dwarf (time, Anne).

DINGWALL (Davie), the attorney at Wolfe's Hope village.—Sir W. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor (time William III.).

DINIAS AND DERCYLLIS (The Wanderings, Adventures, and Loves of), an old Greek novel, the basis of the romance of Antonius Diog'enes in twenty-four books and entitled Incredible Things beyond Thule [Ta HuperThoulen Apista], a store-house from which subsequent writers have borrowed largely. The work is not extant, but Photius gives an outline of its contents.

DINMONT (Dandy, i.e. Andrew), an eccentric and humorous store farmer at Charlie's Hope. He is called "The fighting Dinmont of Liddesdale."

Ailie Dinmont, wife of Dandy Dinmont.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time George II.).

This novel has been dramatized by Daniel Terry.

DINNER BELL. Burke was so called from his custom of speaking so long as to interfere with the dinner of the members (1729-1797).

DIOCLE'TIAN, the king and father of Erastus, who was placed under the charge of the "seven wise masters" (Italian version).

In the French version, the father is called "Dolop'athos."—Sandabar's Parables.

DIOG'ENES, Greek cynic, who carried a lantern at noon, to search for an honest man.

DIOG'ENES (4 syl.), the negro slave of the cynic philosopher Michael Agelestes (4 syl.).—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

DI'OMEDE (3 syl.), fed his horses on human flesh, and he was himself eaten by his horse, being thrown to it by Hercules.

DION (Lord), father of Euphra'sia. Euphrasia is in love with Philaster, heir to the crown of Messi'na. Disguised as a page, Euphrasia assumes the name of Bellario and enters the service of Philaster.—Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster or Love Lies a-bleeding (1638).

(There is considerable resemblance between "Euphrasia" and "Viola" in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 1614).

DIONAE'AN CAESAR, Julius Caesar, who claimed descent from Venus, called Dione from her mother. AEneas was son of Venus and Anchises.

Ecce, Dionaei processit Caesaris astrum.

Virgil, Eclogues, ix. 47.

DIO'NE (3 syl.), mother of Aphrodite (Venus), Zeus or Jove being the father. Venus herself is sometimes called Dione.

Oh, bear ... thy treasures to the green recess, Where young Dione strays; with sweetest airs Entice her forth to lend her angel form For Beauty's honored image.

Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination, (1744).

DIONYS'IA, wife of Cleon, governor of Tarsus. Pericles prince of Tyre commits to her charge his infant daughter Mari'na, supposed to be motherless. When her foster-child is fourteen years old, Dionysia, out of jealousy, employs a man to murder her, and the people of Tarsus, hearing thereof, set fire to her house, and both Dionysia and Cleon are burnt to death in the flames,—Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608).

DIONYS'IUS, tyrant of Syracuse, dethroned Evander, and imprisoned him in a dungeon deep in a huge rock, intending to starve him to death. But Euphrasia, having gained access to him, fed him from her own breast. Timoleon invaded Syracuse, and Dionysius, seeking safety in a tomb, saw there Evander the deposed king, and was about to kill him, when Euphrasia rushed forward, struck the tyrant to the heart, and he fell dead at her feet.—A. Murphy, The Grecian Daughter (1772).

In this tragedy there are several gross historical errors. In act i. the author tells us it was Dionysius the Elder who was dethroned, and went in exile to Corinth; but the elder Dionysius died in Syracuse, at the age of 63, and it was the younger Dionysius who was dethroned by Timoleon, and went to Corinth. In act v. he makes Euphrasia kill the tyrant in Syracuse, whereas he was allowed to leave Sicily, and retired to Corinth, where he spent his time in riotous living, etc.

Dionys'ius [THE ELDER] was appointed sole general of the Syracusan army, and then king by the voice of the senate. Damon "the Pythagorean" opposed the appointment, and even tried to stab "the tyrant," but was arrested and condemned to death. The incidents whereby he was saved are to be found under the article DA'MON (q.v.).

Damon and Pythias, a drama by R. Edwards (1571), and another by John Banim, in 1825.

Dionys'ius [THE YOUNGER], being banished from Syracuse, went to Corinth and turned schoolmaster.

Corinth's pedagogue hath now Transferred his byword [tyrant] to thy brow.

Byron, Ode to Napoleon.

DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE was one of the judges of the Areopagite when St. Paul appeared before this tribunal. Certain writings, fabricated by the neo-platonicians in the fifth century, were falsely ascribed to him. The Isido'rian Decretals is a somewhat similar forgery by Mentz, who lived in the ninth century, or three hundred years after Isidore.

The error of those doctrines so vicious Of the old Areopagite Dionysius.

Longfellow, The Golden Legend.

DIOSCU'RI (sons of Zeus), Castor and Pollux. Generally, but incorrectly, accented on the second syllable.

DIOTI'MA, the priestess of Mantineia in Plato's Symposium, the teacher of Soc'rates. Her opinions on life, its nature, origin, end, and aim, form the nucleus of the dialogue. Socrates died of hemlock.

Beneath an emerald plane Sits Diotima, teaching him that died Of Hemlock.

Tennyson, The Princess, iii.

DIPLOMATISTS (Prince of), Charles Maurice Talleyrand de Perigord (1754-1838).

DIPSAS, a serpent, so called because those bitten by it suffered from intolerable thirst. (Greek, dipsa, "thirst.") Milton refers to it in Paradise Lost, x. 526 (1665).

DIPSODES (2 syl.), the people of Dipsody, ruled over by King Anarchus, and subjugated by Prince Pantag'ruel (bk. ii. 28). Pantagruel afterwards colonized their country with nine thousand million men from Utopia (or to speak more exactly, 9,876,543,210 men), besides women, children, workmen, professors, and peasant-laborers (bk. iii. I).—Rabelais, Pantag'ruel (1545).

DIP'SODY, the country of the Dipsodes (2 syl), q.v.

DIRCAE'AN SWAN, Pindar; so called from Dirce, a fountain in the neighborhood of Thebes, the poet's birthplace (B.C. 518-442.)

DIRLOS or D'YRLOS (Count), a paladin, the embodiment of valor, generosity, and truth. He was sent by Charlemagne to the East, where he conquered Aliar'de, a Moorish prince. On his return, he found his young wife betrothed to Celi'nos (another of Charlemagne's peers). The matter was put right by the king, who gave a grand feast on the occasion.

DISASTROUS PEACE (The), the peace signed at Cateau-Cambresis, by which Henri II. renounced all claim to Gen'oa, Naples, Mil'an, and Corsica (1559).

DIS'MAS, the penitent thief; Gesmas the impenitent one.

DISTAFFI'NA, the troth-plight wife of General Bombastes; but Artaxaminous, king of Utopia, promised her "half a crown" if she would forsake the general for himself—a temptation too great to be resisted. When the general found himself jilted, he retired from the world, hung up his boots on the branch of a tree, and dared any one to remove them. The king cut the boots down, and the general cut the king down. Fusbos, coming up at this crisis, laid the general prostrate. At the close of the burlesque all the dead men jump up and join the dance, promising "to die again to-morrow," if the audience desire it.—W. B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso (1790.)

Falling on one knee, he put both hands on his heart and rolled up his eyes, much after the manner of Bombastes Furioso making love to Distaffina.—E. Sargent.

DISTRESSED MOTHER (The), a tragedy by Ambrose Philips (1712). The "distressed mother" is Androm'ache, the widow of Hector. At the fall of Troy she and her son Asty'anax fell to the lot of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, Pyrrhus fell in love with her and wished to marry her, but she refused him. At length an embassy from Greece, headed by Orestes, son of Agamemnon, was sent to Epirus to demand the death of Astyanax, lest in manhood he might seek to avenge his father's death. Pyrrhus told Andromache he would protect her son, and defy all Greece, if she would consent to marry him; and she yielded. While the marriage rites were going on, the Greek ambassadors fell on Pyrrhus and murdered him. As he fell he placed the crown on the head of Andromache, who thus became queen of Epirus, and the Greeks hastened to their ships in flight. This play is an English adaptation of Racine's Andromaque (1667).

Ditchley (Gaffer), one of the miners employed by Sir Geoffrey Peveril.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

DITHYRAMBIC POETRY (Father of), Arion of Lesbos (fl. B.C. 625).

DITTON (Thomas) footman of the Rev. Mr. Staunton, of Willingham Rectory.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

DIVAN (The), the supreme council and court of justice of the caliphs. The abbassides always sat in person in this court to aid in the redress of wrongs. It was called "a divan" from the benches covered with cushions on which the members sat.—D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientate, 298.

DIVE [deev], a demon in Persian mythology. In the mogul's palace at Lahore, there used to be several pictures of these dives (1 syl), with long horns, staring eyes, shaggy hair, great fangs, ugly paws, long tails, and other horrible deformities.

DI'VER (Colonel), editor of the New York Rowdy Journal, in America. His air was that of a man oppressed by a sense of his own greatness, and his physiognomy was a map of cunning and conceit.—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844.)

DI'VES (2 syl.), the name popularly given to the "rich man" in our Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus; in Latin, Dives et Lazarus.—Luke xvi.

DIVI'NA COMME'DIA, the first poem of note ever written in the Italian language. It is an epic by Dante' Alighie'ri, and is divided into three parts: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dante' called it a comedy, because the ending is happy; and his countrymen added the word divine from admiration of the poem. The poet depicts a vision, in which he is conducted, first by Virgil (human reason,) through hell and purgatory; and then by Beatrice (revelation), and finally by St. Bernard, through the several heavens, where he beholds the Triune God.

"Hell," is represented as a funnel-shaped hollow, formed of gradually contracting circles, the lowest and smallest of which is the earth's centre. (See INFERNO, 1300).

"Purgatory" is a mountain rising solitarily from the ocean on that side of the earth which is opposite to us. It is divided into terraces, and its top is the terrestrial paradise. (See PURGATORY, 1308).

From this "top" the poet ascends through the seven planetary heavens, the fixed stars, and the "primum mobile" to the empyre'an or seat of God. (See PARADISE, 1311).

DIVINE (The), St. John the evangelist, called "John the Divine."

Raphael, the painter, was called Il Divino (1483-1520).

Luis Morales, a Spanish painter, was called El Divino (1509-1586).

Ferdinand de Herre'ra, a Spanish poet (1516-1595).

DIVINE DOCTOR (The), Jean de Ruysbroek, the mystic (1294-1381).

DIVINE SPEAKER (The) Tyr'tamos, usually known as Theophrastos ("divine speaker"), was so called by Aristotle (B.C. 370-287).

DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. The dogma that Kings can do no wrong is based on a dictum of Hincmar Archbishop of Rheims, viz., that kings are subject to no man so long as they rule by God's law.—Hincmar's Works, i. 693.

DIVINING ROD, a forked branch of hazel suspended between the balls of the thumbs. The inclination of this rod indicates the presence of water-springs and precious metals.

Now to rivulets from the mountains Point the rods of fortune-tellers.

Longfellow, Drinking Song.

Jacques Aymar of Crole was the most famous of all diviners. He lived in the latter half of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth. His marvellous faculty attracted the attention of Europe. M. Chauvin, M.D., and M. Garnier, M.D., published carefully written accounts of his wonderful powers, and both were eye-witnesses thereof.—See S. Baring-Gould, Myths of the Middle Ages.

DIVINITY. There are four professors of divinity at Cambridge, and three at Oxford. Those at Cambridge are the Hul'sean, the Margaret, the Norrisian, and the Regius. Those at Oxford are the Margaret, the Regius, and one for Ecclesiastical History.

DIVI'NO LODOV'ICO, Ariosto, author of Orlando Furioso (1474-1533).

DIXIE'S LAND, the land of milk and honey to American negroes. Dixie was a slave-holder of Manhattan Island, who removed his slaves to the Southern States, where they had to work harder and fare worse; so that they were always sighing for their old home, which they called "Dixie's Land." Imagination and distance soon advanced this island into a sort of Delectable Country or land of Beulah.

This is but one of many explanations given of the origin of a phrase that, during the Civil War (1861-1865) came to be applied to the Seceding States. The song "Dixie's Land" was supposed to be sung by exiles from the region south of Mason and Dixon's line.

"Away down South in Dixie, I wish I were in Dixie, In Dixie's Land I'd take my stand To live and die in Dixie."

DIXON, servant to Mr. Richard Vere (1 syl.).—Sir W. Scott, The Black Dwarf (time, Anne).

DIZZY, a nickname of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881).

DJA'BAL, son of Youssof, a sheikh, and saved by Maae'ni, in the great massacre of the sheikhs by the Knights Hospitallers in the Spo'rades. He resolves to avenge this massacre, and gives out that he is Hakeem', the incarnate god, their founder, returned to earth to avenge their wrongs and lead them back to Syria. His imposture being discovered, he kills himself, but Loys [Lo'.iss], a young Breton count, leads the exiles back to Lebanon. Djabal is Hakeem, the incarnate Dread, The phantasm khalif, king of Prodigies.

Robert Browning, The Return of the Druses, i.

DOBBIN (Captain, afterwards Colonel), son of Sir William Dobbin, a London tradesman. Uncouth, awkward, and tall, with huge feet; but faithful and loving, with a large heart and most delicate appreciation. He is a prince of a fellow, is proud and fond of Captain George Osborne from boyhood to death, and adores Amelia, George's wife. When she has been a widow for some ten years, he marries her.—Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848).

DOBBS'S HORSE, Charley Dobbs, setting off to California, gives his best friend Theophilus an order for "a good sound family horse, not young, but the safer for all that," that had once belonged to his mother. He is boarding the creature on a farm in Westchester County, and his friend is welcome to the use of him.

Dobbs's Horse is the skeleton in the household in many a sense of the word. He refuses to be fattened: he balks; he has colic and spasms; he lies down in harness; he impales himself upon a broken rail; he keels over upon the grass, whizzing like a capsized engine; he bites himself—and has driven the family to the verge of insanity when Dobbs returns and upon beholding the "noble old fellow," shouts that they have the wrong horse! "This is one I sold long ago for fifteen dollars!"—Mary Mapes Dodge, Theophilus and Others (1876).

DOBBINS (Humphrey), the confidential servant of Sir Robert Bramble of Blackberry Hall, in the county of Kent. A blunt old retainer, most devoted to his master. Under a rough exterior he concealed a heart brimful of kindness, and so tender that a word would melt it.—George Colman, The Poor Gentleman (1802).

DOBU'NI, called Bodu'ni by Dio; the people of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. Drayton refers to them in his Polyolbion, xvi. (1613).

DOCTOR (The), a romance by Souther. The doctor's name is Dove, and his horse "Nobbs."

Doctor (The Admirable), Roger Bacon (1214-1292).

The Angelic Doctor, Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), "fifth doctor of the Church."

_The Authentic Doctor_, Geogory of Rimini (_-1357).

The Divine Doctor, Jean Ruysbroek (1294-1381).

_The Dulcifluous Doctor_, Antonio Andreas, (_-1320).

The Ecstatic Doctor, Jean Ruysbroek (1294-1381).

The Eloquent Doctor, Peter Aureolus, archbishop of Aix (fourteenth century).

The Evangelical Doctor, J. Wycliffe (1324-1384).

The Illuminated Doctor, Raymond Lully (1235-1315), or Most Enlightened Doctor.

The Invincible Doctor, William Occam (1276-1347).

_The Irrefragable Doctor_, Alexander Hales (_-1245.)

The Mellifluous Doctor, St. Bernard (1091-1153).

The Most Christian Doctor, Jean de Gerson (1363-1429).

_The Most Methodical Doctor_, John Bassol(_-1347).

_The Most Profound Doctor_, AEgidius de Columna (_-1316).

The Most Resolute Doctor, Durand de St. Pourcain (1267-1332).

The Perspicuous Doctor, Walter Burley (fourteenth century).

_The Profound Doctor_, Thomas Bradwardine (_-1349).

The Scholastic Doctor, Anselm of Laon (1050-1117).

The Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventura (1211-1274).

The Solemn Doctor, Henry Goethals (1227-1293).

_The Solid Doctor_, Richard Middleton (_-1304).

The Subtle Doctor, Duns Scotus (1265-1308), or Most Subtle Doctor.

The Thorough Doctor, William Varro (thirteenth century).

The Universal Doctor, Alain de Lille (1114-1203); Thomas Aquinas, (1224-1274).

_The Venerable Doctor_, William de Champeaux (_-1126).

_The Well-founded Doctor_, AEgidius Romanus (_-1316).

The Wise Doctor, John Herman Wessel (1409-1489).

The Wonderful Doctor, Roger Bacon (1214-1292).

DOCTOR'S TALE (The), in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, is the Roman story of Virginius given by Livy. This story is told in French in the Roman de la Rose, ii. 74, and by Gower in his Confessio Amantis, vii. It has furnished the subject of a host of tragedies: for example, in French, Mairet (1628); Leclerc (1645); Campestron (1683); Chabenon (1769); Laharpe (1786); Leblanc de Guillet (1786); Guiraud (1827); Latour St. Ybars (1845). In Italian, Alfieri (1784); in German, Lessing (1775); and in English, Knowles, (1829).

DOCTOR'S WIFE (The,) a novel by Miss Braddon, adapted from Madam Bovary, a French novel.

DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH. The Greek Church recognizes four doctors, viz., St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. John Chrysostom. The Latin Church recognizes St. Augustin, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose and St. Gregory the Great.

DODGER (The Artful), the sobriquet of Jack Dawkins, an artful thievish young scamp, in the boy crew of Fagin the Jew villain.—C. Dickens, Oliver Twist, viii. (1837).

DODINGTON, whom Thomson invokes in his Summer, is George Bubb Dodington, lord Melcomb-Regis, a British statesman. Churchill and Pope ridiculed him, while Hogarth introduced him in his picture called the "Orders of Periwigs."

DOD'IPOL, (Dr.), any man of weak intellect, a dotard. Hence the proverb, Wise as Dr. Dodipoll, meaning "not wise at all."

DODON or rather DODOENS (Rembert) a Dutch botanist (1517-1585), physician to the emperors Maximilian II. and Rudolph II. His works are Frumentomm et Leguminum Historia; Florum Historia; Purgantium Radicum Herbarum Historia; Stirpium Historia; all included under the general title of "The History of Plants."

"Of these most helpful herbs yet tell we but few, To those unnumbered sorts, of simples here that grew, Which justly to set down ee'n Dodon short doth fall."

Drayton, Polyolbion, xiii. (1613)

DO'DONA in (Epiros), famous for the most ancient oracle in Greece. The responses were made by an old woman called a pigeon, because the Greek word pelioe means either old "women" or "pigeons." According to fable, Zeus, gave his daughter Thebe two black pigeons endowed with the gift of human speech: one flew into Libya, and gave the responses in the temple of Ammon: the other into Epiros, where it gave the responses in Dodona.

We are told that the priestess of Dodona derived her answers from the cooing of the sacred doves, the rustling of the sacred trees, the bubbling of the sacred fountain and the tinkling of bells or pieces of metal suspended among the branches of the trees.

And Dodona's oak swang lonely, Henceforth to the tempest only.

Mrs. Browning, Dead Pan, 17.

DODS (Meg), landlady of the Clachan or Mowbery Arms inn at St. Ronan's Old Town. The inn was once the manse, and Meg Dods reigned there despotically, but her wines were good and her cuisine excellent. This is one of the best low comic characters in the whole range of fiction.

She had hair of a brindled color, betwixt black and grey, which was apt to escape in elf-locks from under her mutch when she was thrown into violent agitation; long skinny hands terminated by stout talons, grey eyes, thin lips, a robust person, a broad though fat chest, capital wind, and a voice that could match a choir of fishwomen.—Sir W. Scott. St. Ronan's Well, i (time George III.).

(So good a housewife was this eccentric landlady, that a cookery-book has been published bearing her name; the authoress is Mrs. Johnstone, a Scotchwoman.)

DODSON, a young farmer, called upon by Death on his wedding day. Death told him he must quit his Susan and go with him. "With you!" the hapless husband cried; "young as I am and unprepared?" Death then told him he would not disturb him yet, but would call again after giving him three warnings. When he was 80 years of age, Death called again. "So soon returned!" old Dodson cried. "You know you promised me three warnings." Death then told him that as he was "lame and deaf and blind," he had received his three warnings.—Mrs. Thrale, [Piozzi], The Three Warnings.

DODSON AND FOGG (Messrs.), two unprincipled lawyers, who undertake on their own speculation to bring an action against Mr. Pickwick for "breach of promise" and file accordingly the famous suit of "Bardell v. Pickwick."—C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).

DOE (John) and Richard Roe, the fictitious plaintiff and defendant in an action of ejectment. Men of straw.

DOEG, Saul's herdsman, who told him that the priest Abim'elech. had supplied David with food; whereupon the king sent him to kill Abimelech, and Doeg slew priests to the number of four score and five (1 Samuel xxii. 18). In pt. ii. of the satire called Absalom and Achitophel, Elkaneh Settle is called Doeg, because he "fell upon" Dryden with his pen, but was only a "herdsman or driver of asses."

Doeg, tho' without knowing how or why, Made still a blundering kind of melody. Let him rail on ... But if he jumbles to one line of sense, Indict him of a capital offense.

Tate, Absalom and Achitophel, ii. (1682).

DOG (Agrippa's). Cornelius Agrippa had a dog which was generally suspected of being a spirit incarnate.

Arthur's Dog "Cavall."

Dog of Belgrade, the camp suttler, was named "Clumsey."

Lord Byron's Dog, "Boatswain." It was buried in the garden of Newstead Abbey.

Dog of Catherine de Medicis, "Phoebe," a lap dog.

Cuthullin's Dog was named "Luath," a swift-footed hound.

Dora's Dog, "Jip."—C. Dickens, David Copperfield.

Douglas's Dog, "Luffra." Lady of the Lake.

Erigone's Dog was "Moera." Erigone is the constellation Virgo, and Moera the star called Canis.

Eurytion's Dog (herdsman of Geryon), "Orthros." It had two heads.

Fingal's Dog was named "Bran."

Geryon's Dogs. One was "Gargittos" and the other "Orthros." The latter was brother of Cerberos, but it had only two heads. Hercules killed both of Geryon's dogs.

Landseer's Dog, "Brutus," introduced by the great animal painter in his picture called "The Invader of the Larder."

Llewellyn's Dog was named "Gelert;" it was a greyhound. (See GELERT).

Lord Lurgan's Dog was named, "Master M'Grath," from an orphan boy who reared it. This dog won three Waterloo cups, and was presented at court by the express desire of Queen Victoria, the very year it died. It was a sporting grey-hound (born 1866, died Christmas Day, 1871).

Maria's Dog, "Silvio."—Sterne, Sentimental Journey.

Dog of Montargis. This was a dog named "Dragon," belonging to Aubri de Montdidier, a captain in the French army. Aubri was murdered in the forest of Bondy by his friend, Lieutenant Macaire, in the same regiment. After its master's death the dog showed such a strange aversion to Macaire, that suspicion was aroused against him. Some say he was pitted against the dog, and confessed the crime. Others say a sash was found on him, and the sword knot was recognized by Ursula as her own work and gift to Aubri. This Macaire then confessed the crime, and his accomplice, Lieutenant Landry, trying to escape, was seized by the dog and bitten to death. This story has been dramatized both in French and English.

Orion's Dogs; one was named "Arctoph'onos" and the other "Pto-ophagos."

Punch's Dog, "Toby."

Sir W. Scott's Dogs. His deer-hound was "Maida." His jet-black greyhound was "Hamlet." He had also two Dandy Dinmont terriers.

Dog of the seven Sleepers, "Katmir." It spoke with a human voice.

In Sleary's circus, the performing dog is called "Merryleys."—C. Dickens, Hard Times.

(For Actaeon's fifty dogs, see Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 234).

Dog. The famous Mount St. Bernard dog which saved forty human beings, was named "Barry." The stuffed skin of this noble creature is preserved in the museum at Berne.

Dog (The), Diogenes the cynic (B.C. 412-323). When Alexander encountered him, the young Macedonian king introduced himself with the words, "I am Alexander, surnamed 'the Great.'" To which the philosopher replied, "And I am Diogenes, surnamed 'the Dog.'" The Athenians raised to his memory a pillar of Parian marble, surmounted with a dog, and bearing the following inscription:—

"Say, dog, what guard you in that tomb?" A dog. "His name?" Diogenes. "From far?"

Sinope, "He who made a tub his home?" The same; now dead, among the stars a star.

Dog (The Thracian), Zo'ilus the grammarian; so called for his snarling, captious criticisms on Homer, Plato, and Isocrates. He was contemporary with Philip of Macedon.

Dogs. The two sisters of Zobei'de (3 syl.) were turned into little black dogs for casting Zobeide and "the prince" into the sea (See ZOBEIDE).

DOGS OF WAR, Famine, Sword, and Fire:

Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leashed in like hounds, should Famine, Sword, and Fire Crouch for employment.

Shakespeare, King Henry V. I chorus (1599).

DOG-HEADED TRIBES (of India), mentioned in the Italian romance of Gueri'no Meschi'no.

DOGBERRY AND VERGES, two ignorant conceited constables, who greatly mutilate their words. Dogberry calls "assembly" dissembly; "treason" he calls perjury; "calumny" he calls burglary; "condemnation" redemption; "respect," suspect. When Conrade says, "Away! you are an ass;" Dogberry tells the town clerk to write him down "an ass." "Masters," he says to the officials, "remember I am an ass." "Oh, that I had been writ down an ass!" (act. iv. sc. 2).—Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1600.)

DOGGET, wardour at the castle of Garde Doloureuse.—Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

DOGGET'S COAT AND BADGE, the great prize in the Thames rowing-match, given on the 1st of August every year. So called from Thomas Dogget, an actor of Drury Lane, who signalized the accession of George I. to the throne by giving annually a waterman's coat and badge to the winner of the race. The Fishmongers' company add a guinea to the prize.

DOILEY (Abraham), a citizen and retired slop-seller. He was a charity boy, wholly without education, but made L80,000 in trade, and is determined to have "a larned skollard for his son-in-law." He speaks of jomtry [geometry], joklate, jogrify, Al Mater, pinny-forty, and antikary doctors; talks of Scratchi [Gracchi], Horsi [Horatii], a study of horses, and so on. Being resolved to judge between the rival scholarship of an Oxford pedant and a captain in the army, he gets both to speak Greek before him. Gradus, the scholar, quotes two lines of Greek, in which the panta occurs four times. "Pantry!" cries the old slop-seller; "you can't impose upon me. I know pantry is not Greek." The captain tries English fustian, and when Gradus maintained that the words are English, "Out upon you for a jackanapes," cries the old man; "as if I didn't know my own mother tongue!" and gives his verdict in favor of the captain.

Elizabeth Doiley, daughter of the old slop-seller, in love with Captain Granger. She and her cousin Charlotte induce the Oxford scholar to dress like a beau to please the ladies. By so doing he disgusts the old man, who exclaims, "Oh, that I should ever had been such a dolt as to take thee for a man of larnen'!" So the captain wins the race at a canter.—Mrs. Cowley, Who's the Dupe?

DOLL COMMON, a young woman in league with Subtle the alchemist and Face his alley.—B. Jonson, The Alchemist (1610).

Mrs. Pritchard [1711-1768] could pass from "Lady Macbeth" to "Doll Common."—Leigh Hunt.

DOLL TEARSHEET, a "bona-roba." This virago is cast into prison with Dame Quickly (hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap), for the death of a man that they and Pistol had beaten.—Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV. (1598).

DOLALLOLLA (Queen), wife of King Arthur, very fond of stiff punch, but scorning "vulgar sips of brandy, gin, and rum." She is the enemy of Tom Thumb, and opposes his marriage with her daughter Huncamunca; but when Noodle announces that the red cow has devoured the pigmy giant-queller, she kills the messenger for his ill-tidings, and is herself killed by Frizaletta. Queen Dollalolla is jealous of the giantess Glundalca, at whom his majesty casts "sheep's eyes."—Tom Thumb, by Fielding the novelist (1730), altered by O'Hara, author of Midas (1778).

DOLLA MURREY, a character in Crabbe's Borough, who died playing cards.

"A vole! a vole!" she cried; "'tis fairly won." This said, she gently with a single sigh Died.

Crabbe, Borough (1810).

DOLLY. The most bewitching of the Bohemian household described in Frances Hodgson Burnett's Vagabondia. Piquante, brave, sonsie, and loving, she bears and smiles through the hardships and vicissitudes of her lot until she loses (as she thinks) the love and trust of "Griff," to whom she had been betrothed for years. Only his return and penitence save her from slipping out of a world that has few nobler women.

DOLLY OF THE CHOP-HOUSE (Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row and Newgate Street, London.) Her celebrity arose from the excellency of her provisions, attendance, accommodation, and service. The name is that of the old cook of the establishment.

The broth reviving, and the bread was fair, The small beer grateful and as pepper strong, The beaf-steaks tender, and the pot-herbs young.

DOLLY TRULL. Captain Macheath says she was "so taken up with stealing hearts, she left herself no time to steal anything else."—Gay, The Beggar's Opera, ii. I. (1727).

DOLLY VARDEN, daughter of Gabriel Varden, locksmith. She was loved to distraction by Joe Willet, Hugh of the Maypole inn, and Simon Tappertit. Dolly dressed in the Watteau style, and was lively, pretty, and bewitching.—C. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1841).

DOL'ON, "a man of subtle wit and wicked mind," father of Guizor (groom of Pollente the Saracen, lord of "Parlous Bridge"). Sir Ar'tegal, with scant ceremony, knocks the life out of Guizor, for demanding of him "passage-penny" for crossing the bridge. Soon afterwards, Brit'omart and Talus rest in Dolon's castle for the night, and Dolon, mistaking Britomart for Sir Artegal, sets upon her in the middle of the night, but is overmastered. He now runs with his two surviving sons to the bridge, to prevent the passage of Britomart and Talus; but Britomart runs one of them through with her spear, and knocks the other into the river.—Spenser Faery Queen v. 6 (1596).

DOL'ON AND ULYSSES. Dolon undertook to enter the Greek camp and bring word back to Hector an exact account of everything. Accordingly he put on a wolf's skin and prowled about the camp on all fours. Ulysses saw through the disguise, and said to Diomed, "Yonder man is from the host ... we'll let him pass a few paces, and then pounce on him unexpectedly." They soon caught the fellow, and having "pumped" out of him all about the Trojan plans, and the arrival of Rhesus, Diomed smote him with his falchion on the mid-neck and slew him. This is the subject of bk. x. of the Iliad and therefore this book is called "Dolonia" ("the deeds of Dolon" or "Dolophon'ia", "Dolon's murder").

Full of cunning, like Ulysses' whistle When he allured poor Dolon.

Byron, Don Juan, xiii. 105 (1824).

DOLOPA'TOS, the Sicilian king, who placed his son Lucien under the charge of "seven wise masters." When grown to man's estate, Lucien's step-mother made improper advances to him, which he repulsed, and she accused him to the king of insulting her. By astrology the prince discovered that if he could tide over seven days his life would be saved; so the wise masters amused the king with seven tales, and the king relented. The prince himself then told a tale which embodied his own history; the eyes of the king were opened, and the queen was condemned to death.—Sandabar's Parables (French version).

DOMBEY (Mr.), a purse-proud, self-contained London merchant, living on Portland place, Bryanstone Square, with offices in the City. His god was wealth; and his one ambition was to have a son, that the firm might be known as "Dombey and Son." When Paul was born, his ambition was attained, his whole heart was in the boy, and the loss of the mother was but a small matter. The boy's death turned his heart to stone, and he treated his daughter Florence not only with utter indifference, but as an actual interloper. Mr. Dombey married a second time, but his wife eloped with his manager, James Carker, and the proud spirit of the merchant was brought low.

Paul Dombey, son of Mr. Dombey; a delicate, sensitive little boy, quite unequal to the great things expected of him. He was sent to Dr. Blimber's school, but soon gave way under the strain of school discipline. In his short life he won the love of all who knew him, and his sister Florence was especially attached to him. His death is beautifully told. During his last days he was haunted by the sea, and was always wondering what the wild waves were saying.

Florence Dombey, Mr. Dombey's daughter; a pretty, amiable, motherless child, who incurred her father's hatred because she lived and throve while her younger brother Paul dwindled and died. Florence hungered to be loved, but her father had no love to bestow on her. She married Walter Gay, and when Mr. Dombey was broken in spirit by the elopement of his second wife, his grandchildren were the solace of his old age.—O. Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).

DOM-DANIEL originally meant a public school for magic, established at Tunis; but what is generally understood by the word is that immense establishment, near Tunis, under the "roots of the ocean," established by Hal-il-Mau'graby, and completed by his son. There were four entrances to it, each of which had a staircase of 4000 steps; and magicians, gnomes, and sorcerers of every sort were expected to do homage there at least once a year to Zatanai [Satan]. Dom-Daniel was utterly destroyed by Prince Habed-il-Rouman, son of the Caliph of Syria.—Continuation of the Arabian Nights "History of Maugraby."

Southey has made the destruction of Dom-Daniel the subject of his Thalaba—in fact, Thalaba takes the office of Habed-il-Rouman; but the general incidents of the two tales have no other resemblance to each other.

DOMESTIC POULTRY, in Dryden's Hind and Panther, mean the Roman Catholic clergy; so called from an establishment of priests in the private chapel of Whitehall. The nuns are termed "sister partlet with the hooded head" (1687).

DOMINICK, the "Spanish fryar," a kind of ecclesiastical Falstaff. A most immoral, licentious Dominican, who for money would prostitute even the Church and Holy Scriptures. Dominick helped Lorenzo in his amour with Elvi'ra the wife of Gomez.

He is a huge, fat, religious gentleman ... big enough to be a pope. His gills are as rosy as a turkey-cock's. His big belly walks in state before him, like a harbinger; and his gouty legs come limping after it. Never was such a tun of devotion seen.—Dryden, The Spanish Fryar, ii. 3 (1680).

DOMINIE SAMPSON. His Christian name is Abel. He is the tutor at Ellangowan House, very poor, very modest, and crammed with Latin quotations. His contsant exclamation is "Prodigious!"

Dominie Sampson is a poor, modest, humble scholar, who had won his way through the classics, but fallen to the leeward in the voyage of life.—Sir. W. Scott; Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

DOM'INIQUE (3 syl), the gossiping old footman of the Franvals, who fancies himself quite fit to keep a secret. He is, however, a really faithful retainer of the family.—Th. Holcroft, The Deaf and Dumb (1785).

DOMITIAN A MARKSMAN. The emperor Domitian was so cunning a marksman, that if a boy at a good distance off held up his hand and stretched his fingers abroad, he could shoot through the spaces without touching the boy's hand or any one of his fingers. (See TELL, for many similar marksmen.)—Peacham, Complete Gentleman (1627).

DOMIZIA, a noble lady of Florence, greatly embittered against the republic for its base ingratitude to her two brothers, Porzio and Berto, whose death she hoped to revenge.

I am a daughter of the Traversari, Sister of Porzio and Berto both ... I knew that Florence, that could doubt their faith, Must needs mistrust a stranger's; holding back Reward from them, must hold back his reward.

Robt. Browning, Luria, iii.

DON ALPHONSO, son of a rich banker. In love with Victoria, the daughter of Don Scipio; but Victoria marries Don Fernando. Lorenza, who went by the name of Victoria for a time, and is the person Don Alphonso meant to marry, espouses Don Caesar.—O'Keefe, Castle of Andalusia.

For other dons, see under the surname.

DONACHA DHU NA DUNAIGH, the Highland robber near Roseneath.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

DONALD, the Scotch steward of Mr. Mordent. Honest, plain-spoken, faithful, and unflinching in his duty.—Holcroft, The Deserted Daughter (altered into The Steward).

Donald, an old domestic of MacAulay, the Highland chief.—Sir W. Scott, Legend of Montrose (time Charles I.).

DONALD OF THE HAMMER, son of the laird of Invernahyle of the West Highlands of Scotland. When Green Colin assassinated the laird and his household, the infant Donald was saved by his foster-nurse, and afterwards brought up by her husband, a blacksmith. He became so strong that he could work for hours with two fore-hammers, one in each hand, and was therefore called Domuil nan Ord. When he was 21 he marched with a few adherents against Green Colin, and slew him, by which means he recovered his paternal inheritance.

Donald of the smithy, the "son of the hammer" Filled the banks of Lochawe with mourning and clamor.

Quoted by Sir Walter Scott in Tales of a Grandfather, i. 39.

DONAR, same as THOR, the god of thunder among the ancient Teutons.

DONATELLO, a young Italian whose marvellous resemblance to the Marble Faun of Praxiteles is the subject of jesting remark to three American friends.

"So full of animal life as he was, so joyous in his deportment, so physically well-developed; he made no impression of incompleteness, of maimed or stinted, nature." Yet his friends "habitually allowed for him, exacting no strict obedience to conventional rules, and hardly noticing his eccentricities enough to pardon them."

He loves Miriam, an American student, and resents the persecution of her by a mysterious man—a nominal "model" who thrusts his presence upon her at all inconvenient times. One night as he comes between Donatello and Miriam as they lean on the parapet crowning the Tarpeian Rock, the Italian throws him over the precipice and kills him. From that moment, although he is not accused of the deed, the joyous faun becomes the haunted man.

"Nothing will ever comfort me!" he says moodily to Miriam, when she would extenuate his crime. "I have a great weight here!" lifting her hand to his breast. Wild creatures, once his loved companions, shun him as he, in turn, shuns the face of man. He disappears from the story, hand-in-hand with Miriam, bound, it would seem, upon a penitential pilgrimage, or to begin a new life in another hemisphere.—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun (1860).

DONATION OF PEPIN. When Pepin conquered Ataulf (Adolphus), the exarchate of Ravenna fell into his hands. Pepin gave the pope both the ex-archate and the republic of Rome; and this munificent gift is the world-famous "Donation of Pepin," on which rested the whole fabric of the temporal power of the popes (A.D. 755). Victor Emmanuel, king of Italy, dispossessed the pope of his temporal sovereignty, and added the papal states to the united kingdom of Italy, over which he reigned (1870).

DONDASCH', an Oriental giant, contemporary with Seth, to whose service he was attached. He needed no weapons, because he could destroy anything by his muscular force.

DON'EGILD (3 syl.), the wicked mother of Alia, king of Northumberland. Hating Custance because she was a Christian, Donegild set her adrift with her infant son. When Alia returned from Scotland, and discovered this act of cruelty, he put his mother to death; then going to Rome on a pilgrimage, met his wife and child, who had been brought there a little time previously.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales ("The Man of Law's Tale," 1388).

DON'ET, the first grammar put into the hands of scholars. It was that of Dona'tus the grammarian, who taught in Rome in the fourth century, and was the preceptor of St. Jerome. When "Graunde Amour" was sent to study under Lady Gramer, she taught him, as he says:

First my donet, and then my accedence.

S. Hawes, The Pastime of Plesure, v. (time Henry VII.).

DONI'CA, only child of the lord of Ar'kinlow (an elderly man). Young Eb'erhard loved her, and the Finnish maiden was betrothed to him. Walking one evening by the lake, Donica heard the sound of the death-spectre, and fell lifeless in the arms of her lover. Presently the dead maiden received a supernatural vitality, but her cheeks were wan, her lips livid, her eyes lustreless, and her lap-dog howled when it saw her. Eberhard still resolved to marry her, and to church they went; but when he took Donica's hand into his own it was cold and clammy, the demon fled from her, and the body dropped a corpse at the feet of the bridegroom.—R. Southey, Donica (a Finnish ballad).

DONNERHU'GEL (Rudolph), one of the Swiss deputies to Charles "the Bold," duke of Burgundy. He is cousin of the sons of Arnold Biederman the landamman of Unterwalden (alias Count Arnold of Geierstein).

Theodore Donnerhugel, uncle of Rudolph. He was page to the former Baron of Arnheim [Arnhime].—Sir W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

DO'NY, Florimel's dwarf.—Spenser, Faery Queen, iii. 5 and iv. 2 (1590, 1596).

DONZEL DEL FE'BO (El), the knight of the sun, a Spanish romance in The Mirror of Knighthood. He was "most excellently fair," and a "great wanderer;" hence he is alluded to as "that wandering knight so fair."

DOO'LIN OF MAYENCE (2 syl.), the hero and title of an old French romance of chivalry. He was ancestor of Ogier the Dane. His sword was called Merveilleuse ("wonderful").

DOOMSDAY SEDGWICK, William Sedgwick, a fanatical "prophet" during the Commonwealth. He pretended that the time of doomsday had been revealed to him in a vision; and, going into the garden of Sir Francis Bussell, he denounced a party of gentlemen playing at bowls, and bade them prepare for the day of doom, which was at hand.

DOORM, an earl who tried to make Enid his handmaid, and "smote her on the cheek" because she would not welcome him. Whereupon her husband, Count Geraint, started up and slew the "russet-bearded earl."—Tennyson, Idylls of the King ("Enid.").

DOOR-OPENER (The), Crates, the Theban; so called because he used to go round Athens early of a morning and rebuke the people for their late rising.

DORA [SPENLOW], a pretty, warmhearted little doll of a woman, with no practical views of the duties of life or the value of money. She was the "child-wife" of David Copperfield, and loved to sit by him and hold his pens while he wrote. She died, and David then married Agnes Wickfield. Dora's great pet was a dog called "Jip," which died at the same time as its mistress.—C. Dickens, David Copperfield (1849).

DORA'DO (El), a land of exhaustless wealth; a golden illusion. Orella'na, lieutenant of Pizarro, asserted that he had discovered a "gold country" between the Orino'co and the Am'azon, in South America. Sir Walter Raleigh twice visited Gruia'na as the spot indicated, and published highly colored accounts of its enormous wealth.

DORALI'CE (4 syl.) a lady beloved by Rodomont, but who married Mandricardo.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

DOR'ALIS, the lady-love of Rodomont, king of Sarza or Algiers. She eloped with Mandricardo, king of Tartary.—Bojardo, Orlando Innamorato (1495), and Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

DORANTE (2 syl.), a name introduced into three of Moliere's comedies. In Les Facheux he is a courtier devoted to the chase (1661). In La Critique de l'ecole des Femmes he is a chevalier (1602). In Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme he is a count in love with the marchioness Doremene (1670).

DARAS'TUS AND FAUNIA, the hero and heroine of a popular romance by Robert Greene, published in 1588, under the title of Pandosto and the Triumph of Time. On this "history" Shakespeare founded his Winter's Tale.

DORAX, the assumed name of Don Alonzo of Alcazar, when he deserted Sebastian, king of Portugal, turned renegade, and joined the emperor of Barbary. The cause of his desertion was that Sebastian gave to Henri'quez the lady betrothed to Alonzo. Her name was Violante (4 syl.) The quarrel between Sebastian and Dorax is a masterly copy of the quarrel and reconciliation between Brutus and Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Sebastian says to Dorax, "Confess, proud spirit, that better he [Henriquez] deserved my love than thou." To this Dorax replies:

I must grant, Yes, I must grant, but with a swelling soul, Henriquez had your love with more desert; For you he fought and died; I fought against you.

Drayton, Don Sebastian (1690).

DORCAS, servant to Squire Ingoldsby.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Dorcas, an old domestic at Cumnor Place.—Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

DORIA D'ISTRIA, a pseudonym of the Princess Koltzoff-Massalsky, a Wallachian authoress (1829-).

Arthur Donnithorn: Young Squire who seduces Hetty Sorrel in George Eliot's novel of Adam Bede.

DORICOURT, the fiance of Letitia Hardy. A man of the world and the rage of the London season, he is, however, both a gentleman and a man of honor. He had made the "grand tour," and considered English beauties insipid.—Mrs. Cowley, The Belle's Stratagem, (1780).

Montague Talbot [1778-1831]. He reigns o'er comedy supreme.. None show for light and airy sport, So exquisite a Doricourt.

Crofton Croaker.

DO'RIDON, a beautiful swain, nature's "chiefest work," more beautiful than Narcissus, Ganymede, or Adonis.—Wm. Browne, Britannia's Pastorals (1613).

DO'RIGEN, a lady of high family, who married Arvir'agus out of pity for his love and meekness. Aurelius sought to entice her away, but she said she would never listen to his suit till on the British coast "there n'is no stone y-seen." Aurelius by magic caused all the stones to disappear, and when Dorigen went and said that her husband insisted on her keeping her word, Aurelius, seeing her dejection, replied, he would sooner die than injure so true a wife and noble a gentleman.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales ("The Franklin's Tale," 1388).

(This is substantially the same as Boccaccio's tale of Dianora and Gilberto, x. 6. See Dianora.)

DOR'IMANT, a genteel, witty libertine. The original of this character was the Earl of Rochester—G. Etherege, The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter (1676).

The Dorimants and the Lady Touchwoods, in their own sphere, do not offend my moral sense; in fact, they do not appeal to it at all.—C. Lamb.

(The "Lady Touchwood" in Congreve's Double Dealer, not the "Lady Francis Touchwood" in Mrs. Cowley's Belle's Strategem, which is quite another character.)

DOR'IMENE (3 syl.), daughter of Alcantor, beloved by Sganarelle (3 syl.) and Lycaste (2 syl.). She loved "le jeu, les visites, les assembles, les cadeaux, et les promenades, en un mot toutes les choses de plasir," and wished to marry to get free from the trammels of her home. She says to Sganarelle (a man of 63), whom she promises to marry, "Nous n'aurons jamais aucun demele ensemble; et je ne vous contraindrai point dans vos actions, comme j'espere que vous ne me contraindrez point dans les miennes."—Moliere, Le Mariage Force (1664).

(She had been introduced previously as the wife of Sganarelle, in the Comedy of Le Cocu Iniaginaire, 1660).

Dorimene, the marchioness, in the Bourgeois Gentilhomme, by Moliere (1670).

DORIN'DA, the charming daughter of Lady Bountiful; in love with Aimwell. She was sprightly and light-hearted, but good and virtuous also.—George Farquhar, The Beaux' Stratagem (1707).

Dorinda. The rustic maiden, slow and sweet in ungrammatical speech, who helps plant corn by day, and makes picturesque the interior of the cabin in the glare of "lightwood" torches by night; turns men's heads and wins children's hearts in Charles Egbert Craddock's tale, The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains, (1885).

DORINE' (2 syl.), attendant of Mariane (daughter of Orgon). She ridicules the folly of the family, but serves it faithfully. Moliere, Le Tartuffe (1664).

DORLA (St. John). A New York girl of great beauty and tender conscience, who is beguiled into marrying a country lawyer because she thinks he is dying for love of her. Having left out of sight the possibility that a loveless union leaves room for the entrance of a real passion, she is appalled at finding that she has slipped into an attachment to A Perfect Adonis, who has principle enough to leave her when he discovers the state of his own affections. Finding her a widow on his return to America, he presses his suit, and finds a rival in her only child, a spoiled baby of five or six years. Overcoming this obstacle, he weds the mother.—Miriam Coles Harris, A Perfect Adonis (1875).

D'ORME'O, prime minister of Victor, Amade'us (4 syl), and also of his son and successor Charles Emmanuel, king of Sardinia. He took his color from the king he served; hence under the tortuous, deceitful Victor, his policy was marked with crude rascality and duplicity; but under the truthful, single-minded Charles Emmanuel, he became straightforward and honest.—R. Browning, King Victor and King Charles, etc.

DORMER (Captain), benevolent, truthful, and courageous, candid and warmhearted. He was engaged to Louisa Travers; but the lady was told that he was false and had married another, so she gave her hand to Lord Davenant.

Marianne Dormer, sister of the captain. She married Lord Davenant, who called himself Mr. Brooke; but he forsook her in three months, giving out that he was dead. Marianne, supposing herself to be a widow, married his lordship's son.—Cumberland, The Mysterious Husband (1783).

Dormer (Caroline), the orphan daughter of a London merchant, who was once very wealthy, but became bankrupt and died, leaving his daughter L200 a year. This annuity, however, she loses through the knavery of her man of business. When reduced to penury, her old lover, Henry Morland (supposed to have perished at sea), makes his appearance and marries her, by which she becomes the Lady Duberly.—G. Coleman, The Heir-at-Law (1797).

DORNTON (Mr.), a great banker, who adores his son Harry. He tries to be stern with him when he sees him going the road to ruin, but is melted by a kind word.

Joseph Mnnden [1758-1832] was the original representative of "Old Dornton" and a host of other characters.—Memoir (1832.)

Harry Dornton, son of the above. A noble-hearted fellow, spoilt by over-indulgence. He becomes a regular rake, loses money at Newmarket, and goes post-speed the road to ruin, led on by Jack Milford. So great is his extravagance, that his father becomes a bankrupt; but Sulky (his partner in the bank) comes to the rescue. Harry marries Sophia Freelove, and both father and son are saved from ruin.—Holcroft, The Road to Euin (1792).

DOROTHE'A, of Andalusi'a, daughter of Cleonardo (an opulent vassal of the Duke Ricardo). She was married to Don Fernando, the duke's younger son, who deserted her for Lucinda (the daughter of an opulent gentlemen), engaged to Cardenio, her equal in rank and fortune. When the wedding day arrived, Lucinda fell into a swoon, a letter informed the bridegroom that she was already married to Cardenio, and next day she took refuge in a convent. Dorothea also left her home, dressed in boy's clothes, and concealed herself in the Sierra Morena or Brown Mountain. Now, it so happened that Dorothea, Cardenio, and Don Quixote's party happened to be staying at the Crescent inn, and Don Fernando, who had abducted Lucinda from the convent, halted at the same place. Here he found his wife Dorothea, and Lucinda her husband Cardenio. All these misfortunes thus came to an end, and the parties mated with their respective spouses.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iv. (1605).

Dorothe'a, sister of Mons. Thomas.—Beaumont and Fletcher, Mons. Thomas (1619).

Dorothe'a, the "virgin martyr," attended by Angelo, an angel in the semblance of a page, first presented to Dorothea as a beggar-boy, to whom she gave alms.—Philip Massinger, The Virgin Martyr (1622).

Dorothe'a, the heroine of Goethe's poem entitled Hermann and Dorothea (1797).

DOR'OTHEUS (3 syl.), the man who spent all his life in endeavoring to elucidate the meaning of one single word in Homer.

DOR'OTHY (Old), the housekeeper of Simon Glover and his daughter "the fair maid of Perth."—Sir. W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Dor'othy, charwoman of Old Trapbois the miser and his daughter Martha.—Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

DOROTHY PEARSON. The childless wife of a Puritan settler in New England. Her husband brings her home a boy whom he found crouching under the gallows of his Quaker father, and she adopts him at once, despite the opposition of "the congregation." A fortnight after he entered the family, his own mother invades the pulpit of the Orthodox meeting house, and delivers an anathema against her sect. Her boy presses forward to meet her, but, after a conflict of emotions she returns him to Dorothy. He submits, but pines for his mother through the months that pass before her return with the news of religious toleration. Dorothy's loving offices have smoothed the child's pathway to the grave, and she hangs above him with tears of maternal grief as he breathes his last in his mother's arms.—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Gentle Boy (1851.)

Dorothy Q. Oliver Wendell Holmes's "grandmother's mother." Her portrait taken at the age of "thirteen summers, or less," is the subject of his lines, "Dorothy Q. A Family Portrait."

"O, Damsel Dorothy! Dorothy Q! Strange is the gift that I owe to you; Such a gift as never a king Save to daughter or son might bring,— All my tenure of heart and hand All my title to house and land, Mother and sister and child and wife And joy and sorrow, and death and life!"

DORRILLON (Sir William), a rich Indian merchant and a widower. He had one daughter, placed under the care of Mr. and Miss Norberry. When this daughter (Maria) was grown to womanhood, Sir William returned to England, and wishing to learn the character of Maria, presented himself under the assumed name of Mr. Mandred. He found his daughter a fashionable young lady, fond of pleasure, dress, and play, but affectionate and good-hearted. He was enabled to extricate her from some money difficulties, won her heart, revealed himself as her father, and reclaimed her.

Miss [Maria] Dorrillon, daughter of Sir William; gay, fashionable, light-hearted, accomplished, and very beautiful. "Brought up without a mother's care or father's caution," she had some excuse for her waywardness and frivolity. Sir George Evelyn was her admirer, whom for a time she teased to the very top of her bent; then she married, loved and reformed.—Mrs. Inchbald, Wives as they Were and Maids as they Are (1797).

D'OSBORN (Count), governor of the Giant's Mount Fortress. The countess Marie consented to marry him, because he promised to obtain the acquittal of Ernest de Fridberg, ("the State prisoner"); but he never kept his promise.

It was by this man's treachery that Ernest was a prisoner, for he kept back the evidence of General Bavois, declaring him innocent. He next employed persons to strangle him, but his attempt was thwarted. His villainy being brought to light, he was ordered by the king to execution.—E. Stirling, The State Prisoner (1847).

DO'SON, a promise-maker and promise-breaker. Antig'onos, grandson of Demetrios (the besieger) was so called.

DOT. (See PERRYBINGLE.)

DOTHEBOYS HALL, a Yorkshire school, where boys were taken-in and done-for by Mr. Squeers, an arrogant, conceited, puffing, overbearing and ignorant schoolmaster, who fleeced, beat, and starved the boys, but taught them nothing.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1838).

The original of Dotheboys Hall is still in existence at Bowes, some five miles from Barnard Castle. The King's Head inn at Barnard Castle is spoken of in Nicholas Nickleby, by Newman Noggs.—Notes and Queries, April 2, 1875.

DOTO, NYSE, and NERI'NE, the three nereids who guarded the fleet of Vasco da Gama. When the treacherous pilot had run the ship in which Vasco was sailing on a sunken rock, these sea nymphs lifted up the prow and turned it round,—Camoens, Lusiad, ii. (1569).

DOUBAN, the physician, cured a Greek king of leprosy by some drug concealed in a racket handle. The king gave Douban such great rewards that the envy of his nobles was excited, and his vizier suggested that a man like Douban was very dangerous to be near the throne. The fears of the weak king being aroused, he ordered Douban to be put to death. When the physician saw there was no remedy, he gave the king a book, saying, "On the sixth leaf the king will find something affecting his life." The king finding the leaves stick, moistened his finger with his mouth, and by so doing poisoned himself. "Tyrant!" exclaimed Douban, "those who abuse their power merit death."—Arabian Nights ("The Greek King and the Physician").

Douban, physician of the emperor Alexius.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time Rufus).

DOUBLE DEALER, (The) "The double dealer" is Maskwell, who pretends love to lady Touchwood and friendship to Mellefont (2. syl.), in order to betray them both. The other characters of the comedy also deal doubly: Thus Lady Froth pretends to love her husband, but coquets with Mr. Brisk; and Lady Pliant pretends to be chaste as Diana, but has a liaison with Careless. On the other hand Brisk pretends to entertain friendship for Lord Froth but makes love to his wife; and Ned Careless pretends to respect and honor Lord Pliant, but bamboozles him in a similar way.—W. Congreve (1700).

DOUBLEFEE (Old Jacob), a money-lender who accommodates the Duke of Buckingham with loans.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II).

DOUBTING CASTLE, the castle of giant Despair, into which Christian and Hopeful were thrust, but from which they escaped by means of the key called "Promise."—Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, i. (1678).

DOUGAL, turnkey at Glasgow, Tolbooth. He is an adherent of Rob Roy.—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

DOUGLAS, divided into The Black Douglases and The Red Douglases.

I. THE BLACK DOUGLASES (or senior branch). Each of these is called "The Black Douglas."

The Hardy, William de Douglas, defender of Berwick (died 1302).

The Good Sir James, eldest son of "The Hardy." Friend of Bruce. Killed by the Moors in Spain (1330).

England's Scourge and Scotland's Bulwark, William Douglas, knight of Liddesdale. Taken at Neville's Cross, and killed by William, first earl of Douglas, in 1353.

The Flower of Chivalry, William de Douglas, natural son of "The Good Sir James" (died 1384).

James second earl of Douglas overthrew Hotspur. Died at Otterburn, 1388. This is the Douglas of the old ballad of Chevy Chase.

Archibald the Grim, Archibald Douglas, natural son of "The Good Sir James."

The Black Douglas, William, lord of Nithsdale (murdered by the earl of Clifford, 1390).

Tineman (the loser), Archibald, fourth earl, who lost the battles of Homildon, Shrewsbury, and Verneuil, in the last of which he was killed (1424).

William Douglas, eighth earl, stabbed by James II., and then despatched with a battle-axe by Sir Patrick Gray, at Stirling, February 13, 1452. Sir Walter Scott alludes to this in The Lady of the Lake.

James Douglas, ninth and last earl (died 1488). With him the senior branch closes.

II. THE RED DOUGLASES, a collateral branch.

Bell-the-Cat, the great earl of Angus. He is introduced by Scott in Marmion. His two sons fell in the battle of Flodden Field. He died in a monastery, 1514.

Archibald Douglas, sixth earl of Angus, and grandson of "Bell-the-Cat." James Bothwell, one of the family, forms the most interesting part of Scott's Lady of the Lake. He was the grandfather of Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots. He died 1560.

James Douglas, earl of Morton, younger-brother of the seventh earl of Angus. He took part in the murder of Rizzio, and was executed by the instrument called "the maiden" (1530-1581).

The "Black Douglas," introduced by Sir W. Scott in Castle Dangerous, is "The Gud schyr James." This was also the Douglas which was such a terror to the English that the women used to frighten their unruly children by saying they would "make the Black Douglas take them." He first appears in Castle Dangerous as "Knight of the tomb." The following nursery rhyme refers to him:—

Hush ye, hush, ye, little pet ye; Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye; The Black Douglas shall not get thee.

Sir W. Scott, Tales of a Grandfather, i. 6.

Douglas, a tragedy by J. Home (1757). Young Norval, having saved the life of Lord Randolph, is given a commission in the army. Lady Randolph hears of the exploit, and discovers that the youth is her own son by her first husband, Lord Douglas. Glenalvon, who hates the new favorite, persuades Lord Randolph that his wife is too intimate with the young upstart, and the two surprise them in familiar intercourse in a wood. The youth, being attacked, slays Glenalvon, but is in turn slain by Lord Randolph, who then learns that the young man was Lady Randolph's son. Lady Randolph, in distraction, rushes up a precipice and throws herself down headlong, and Lord Randolph goes to the war then raging between Scotland and Denmark.

Douglas (Archibald earl of), father-in-law of Prince Robert, eldest son of Robert III. of Scotland.

Margery of Douglas, the earl's daughter, and wife of Prince Robert duke of Rothsay. The duke was betrothed to Elizabeth, daughter of the earl of March, but the engagement was broken off by intrigue.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Douglas (George), nephew of the regent Murray of Scotland, and grandson of the lady of Lochleven. George Douglas was devoted to Mary Queen of Scots.—Sir W. Scott, The Abbot (time, Elizabeth).

DOUGLAS AND THE BLOODY HEART. The heart of Bruce was entrusted to Douglas to carry to Jerusalem. Landing in Spain, he stopped to aid the Castilians against the Moors, and in the heat of battle cast the "heart," enshrined in a golden coffer, into the very thickest of the foe, saying, "The heart or death!" On he dashed, fearless of danger, to regain the coffer, but perished in the attempt. The family thenceforth adopted the "bloody heart" as their armorial device.

DOUGLAS LARDER (The). When the "Good Sir James" Douglas, in 1306, took his castle by coup de main from the English, he caused all the barrels containing flour, meal, wheat, and malt to be knocked in pieces and their contents to be thrown on the floor; he then staved in all the hogsheads of wine and ale upon this mass. To this he flung the dead bodies slain and some dead horses. The English called this disgusting mass "The Douglas Larder." He then set fire to the castle and took refuge in the hills, for he said "he loved far better to hear the lark sing than the mouse cheep."

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