Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 · Chapter 35Copyright, 1892, by SELMAR HESS (35)
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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 Maä'ni, in the great massacre of the sheikhs by the Knights Hospitallers in the Spo'radês. 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, Ægidius de Columna (_-1316).
The Most Resolute Doctor, Durand de St. Pourçain (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, Ægidius 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, Mairét (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 Thebê 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, "Phoebê," 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.
Erigonê's Dog was "Moera." Erigonê 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. Herculês 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 Actæon'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 Diogenês, 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?"
Sinopê, "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 £80,000 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 Pollentê 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 Faëry 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 Zatanaï [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).