DASHKOFF

Les Amours de Bussy-Rabutin (1850), La Pomme d'Eve (1853), Le Galanteries de la Cour de Louis XV. (1861), Comment Tombent les Femmes (1867), and Les Aventures d'une Jeune Mariée (1870).

Bashkoff, PRINCESS EKATERINA ROMANOVNA, daughter of Count Voronzoff, was born 28th March 1743, at St Petersburg, and from her earliest youth received a careful training. She married Prince Dashkoff when only fifteen years old, but was left a widow three years after. She was an intimate friend of the Empress Catharine II., and one of the heads of the conspiracy formed against Peter III., the success of which secured the throne to Catharine. Soon afterwards quarrelling with Catharine, she obtained permission to travel, and visited Germany, England, France, and Italy, making the acquaintance of many eminent men (among others, Garrick, Dr Blair, and Dr Robertson). The empress and she were reconciled to each other, and the princess was appointed Director of the Academy of Arts and Sciences; and in 1783, President of the Russian Academy, established at her own suggestion in imitation of the French Académie. On the death of Catharine in 1796, she was deprived of her offices, and ordered by Paul III. to retire to her estates at Novgorod. She died 16th January 1810. Besides writing several comedies and occasional papers, the Princess Dashkoff was mainly instrumental in inducing the Russian Academy to draw up a dictionary of the Russian language, and herself executed part of the work. Her very interesting autobiography was published in English by her friend Mrs Bradford (2 vols. 1840).

Dasyure (Dasyurus), a genus of carnivorous marsupials, including forms which in the Australian and Tasmanian fauna take the place filled in other regions by carnivores. The large sharp canines, the sharp-pointed cusps on the back teeth, and the clawed toes are among the adaptive carnivorous features, and there are others of a more technical

nature. The dasyures are nocturnal and savage animals, and as one would expect, peculiarly untamable. One of the most pronounced is the Tasmanian Devil (D. ursinus), a savage animal, about the size of a badger, with a disproportionately large and broad head, and massive crowded teeth. The body is plump; the fur is coarse and brownish-black, with a white band on the chest, and another at the end of the back; the tail is

Tasmanian Devil (Dasyurus ursinus).

thick, and about half as long as the body. In Tasmania these 'devils' used to commit great havoc among poultry and even sheep, but are being driven into more and more remote haunts. The Spotted Dasyure (D. maculatus), also Tasmanian, is a much smaller animal, about the size of a cat. Another wild cat' of the same country and Victoria is Mauge's Dasyure (D. maugei or viverrinus). Other species occur in Australia and New Guinea. Nearly allied to the dasyures are two genera,

Thylacinus and Phascogale. The former, the Thylacine (q.v.) or Tasmanian wolf, is the largest carnivorous marsupial; the latter is insectivorous. See MARSUPIAL.

Date. See CHRONOLOGY.

Date Palm (Phoenix), a genus of palms, the most important species of which is the Common Date Palm, the Palm Tree of Scripture (P. dactylifera), a native of the northern half of Africa, the southwest of Asia, and some parts of India, and of which the cultivation is no less wide, and still extending.

a

Date Palm:

a, bunch of dates dependent from their spathe; b, portion of leaf.

Some parts of China produce large crops. The stem, which is straight and simple, reaches a height of 30 to 60 feet, and bears a head of 40 to 80 glaucous branching spadices, each of which on the female tree pinnated leaves, of 8 to 10 feet long, and a number of bears 180 to 200 fruits (dates, dactyli). A bunch of dates weighs 20 or 25 lb., so that an average year's and the yield per acre at about twelve times that crop may be reckoned at 300 to 600 lb. per tree,

of corn.

From the earliest times fertilisation has been artificially aided by cutting off the male inflorescences just before the stamens ripen, and suspending them among those of the female tree; so avoiding the risks and losses of ordinary windfertilisation. In a palm grove there may be but one male stem to forty or fifty fruit-bearing ones. The Arabs seldom raise palms from seed; to make sure of the sex they take suckers from female trees known to bear good fruit. The tree begins to bear about the eighth year, reaches maturity at about thirty years, and does not decline until about the age of one hundred. This is one of the most important and useful of all the palms. In Egypt, and generally in North Africa, Persia, and Arabia, dates form the principal food, and date palms the principal wealth of the people. The fleshy part of the fruit contains 58 per cent. of sugar, accompanied by pectin, gum, &c. The fruit is eaten either fresh or dried, and in the latter state becomes an article of commerce. Cakes of dates pounded and kneaded together, and so solid as to be cut with a hatchet, are the store of food provided for African caravans on their journey through the Sahara. A sweet juice (date-honey) can be expressed from the fruits, from which a kind of wine is obtained by fermentation; also a sort of vinegar; an ardent spirit is of course also distilled from the fermented juice. Palm-wine is also made from the sap after the terminal bud is removed. The bud is eaten as palm-cabbage, similarly also the undeveloped panicles of flowers. The date

'stones' or seeds are roasted in North Africa as a substitute for coffee, and have also been introduced into Britain for the same purpose. They are also ground and pressed for oil, and the residue used for feeding cattle. From leaf-stalks of the common date palm, all kinds of basket and wicker work are also made, and walking-sticks, fans, &c. The leaves themselves are made into bags, mats, &c.; the fibres of the web-like integuments at the base of their stalks into cordage. The wood is used for building, fences, &c.-The Toddy Palm of the north of India, or Wild Date Palm (P. sylvestris), so nearly resembles this species, that it is doubtful if it is distinct. In some places, the trees present a curiously distorted and zigzag appearance, from the practice of yearly tapping the alternate sides for the sap or toddy. This forms a grateful and wholesome beverage; readily also fermenting into palmwine, and by distillation yielding Arrack (q.v.); whilst if boiled down it yields the syrup called jaggery, from 4 lb. of which 1 lb. of sugar is obtained, a single tree producing about 7 or 8 lb. of sugar annually. The operation of tapping for toddy spoils the fruit of the tree, which is small and much inferior to the African date. It is, however, eaten.-Another species, P. paludosa, the most gregarious of Indian palms, growing only 6 or 8 feet high, covers the landscape of

the Sunderbunds with the liveliest verdure. P.

acaulis and P. farinifera are also dwarf and closely allied common Indian species. P. reclinata is a characteristic palm of the Natal coast, and P. spinosa of Sierra Leone, &c. Some derive the origin of the colonnade pillar in architecture to the regular mode of its planting and the use of its stem in building, while in symbolic interest it stands second to no other plant. The symbol of beauty and of victory alike to Hebrews and Hellenes from the earliest times, it passed readily to the suggestion of victory over death and from the fabled bird, and the habit of representing glorious immortality; hence alike the name Phoenix angels and the blessed with palms in their hands. It was largely used also for decoration of festivals, and for strewing in processions. Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem is still commemorated on Palm Sunday (q.v.).

in

This

Date Plum (Diospyros), a genus of Ebenacea, important for timber (see EBONY, IRONWOOD) and fruit. The Common Date Plum or Pishamin, also called the European Lotus and the Date of Trebizond (D. lotus), is a tree of 18 to 30 feet in height, with oblong shining leaves and small reddish-white flowers, a native of the coasts of the Caspian Sea, Northern Africa, &c., but cultivated and naturalised in the south of Europe. It can also be grown the south of England. Its fruit is of the size of a cherry, and in favourable climates larger, yellow, sweet, and astringent. It is eaten when over-ripe, like the medlar, or is used for conserves. fruit has been supposed by some to be the Lotus (q.v.) of the Lotophagi. The Virginian Date Plum, or Persimmon (D. virginiana), is a tree of 30 to 60 feet high, with ovate oblong leaves and pale-yellow flowers, a native of the southern states of North America, where one tree often yields several bushels of fruit. The fruit is about one inch in diameter, with six to eight oval seeds. It is not palatable till mellowed by frost, and is sweet and astringent. A kind of beer or cider and an ardent spirit are made from it. D. Mabola is cultivated as a fruittree in Mauritius. D. Kaki, sometimes called the Keg-fig, is a native of Japan, which occasionally is kept in greenhouses in France and England. The sweetmeat called Figues-caques is made from this fruit in France. The fruit of some other species is also edible-e.g. D. decandra of CochinChina

Datia, a native state of Bundelkhand, with a pop. (1881) of 182,598. The chief town, Datia, 125 miles SE. of Agra, on a rocky eminence, has a pop. (1881) of 28,346. It has several palaces, some now untenanted.

Datiscaceæ, a very small order allied to Begoniaceæ, including only four species, of remote distribution. Datisca cannabina, a plant much resembling hemp, is cultivated in Crete and Asia Minor for its hemp-like fibre, also as a source of yellow dyestuff. It has tonic properties. Dative. See DECLENSION.

Datu'ra. See THORN APPLE.

Daub, KARL, a speculative theologian, was born 20th March 1765, at Cassel, studied philosophy and theology at Marburg, and became in 1795 professor of Theology at Heidelberg, where he died 22d November 1836. An earnest and singularly open-minded seeker after truth, although defective in the true historical sense, and not a robust and independent thinker, Daub laboured incessantly to find a sound basis for a reconciliation between religion and philosophy, and his successive writings reflect the whole development of prevailing philosophy from Kant to Hegel. Thus his Lehrbuch der Katechetik (1801) rests completely on Kant's fundamental principles; again, dominated by the influence of Schelling's philosophy of identity' are his Theologumena (1806) and Einleitung to Christian dogmatics (1810); while Schelling's tranis mirrored in Daub's Judas Ischarioth (1816), sition to theosophy and to positive philosophy despite its eccentricities his best work. Hegel was called to Heidelberg in 1816, and henceforth it was his influence which was dominant over the receptive mind of Daub. In his Dogmatische Theologie (1833) and Prolegomena (1835), he attempts in the darkest language of the Hegelian dialectic a philosophical restoration of the dogmas of the church. Daub's Theol.-philos. Vorlesungen were collected by Marheineke and Dittenberger in seven volumes (1838-43). See Rosenkranz's eulogistic but uncritical Erinnerungen (1837), and D. F. Strauss, Charakteristiken und Kritiken (2d ed. 1844).

Daubenton, LOUIS JEAN MARIE, naturalist, was born at Montbar in Burgundy, 29th May 1716. He studied theology at the Sorbonne, but soon In gave himself up to medicine and anatomy. 1742 his old schoolfellow, Buffon, invited him to assist him in the preparation of his great work on Natural History, and Daubenton contributed richly to the first fifteen volumes of the Histoire Naturelle, until the jealousy of Buffon led to an Daubenton now devoted himself estrangement. almost entirely to his duties in the Jardin du Roi, where he was professor of Mineralogy. He was also for a time professor of Natural History in the College of Medicine. He contributed largely to the first Encyclopédie, and wrote many valuable mémoires. He died 31st December 1799.

Daubeny, CHARLES GILES BRIDLE, chemist and botanist, was born at Stratton in Gloucestershire, 11th February 1795. He devoted himself chiefly to the elucidation of natural phenomena by the aid of chemical science-his great work being A Description of Active and Extinct Volcanoes (1826). He also wrote on thermal springs. He

D'AUBIGNÉ

became professor of Chemistry at Oxford in 1822, of Botany in 1834, and was an F.R.S._ Other works are an Introduction to the Atomic Theory (1831), Lectures on Agriculture (1841), and Lectures on Climate (1862). Daubeny died December 13, 1867. D'Aubigné, JEAN-HENRI MERLE, a popular ecclesiastical historian, was born at Eaux-Vives, near Geneva in Switzerland, 16th August 1794, studied there and at Berlin-under Neander-and in 1818 became pastor of the French Protestant Church in Hamburg. In 1823 he was appointed court-preacher at Brussels; but after the revolution of 1830, he declined the post of tutor to the Prince of Orange, and returning to Geneva, took part in the institution of the new evangelical church, and filled the chair of Church History in its theological seminary until his sudden death, in the night of October 20-1, 1872. With the exception of some visits to England and Scotland, where he had numerous readers and admirers, and where he received the degree of D.C.L. from Oxford and the freedom of the city of Edinburgh, he remained constantly at Geneva. The work which has given him a widespread reputation is his Histoire de la Réformation au Seizième Siècle (1835–53); it has been translated into most European tongues, and has attracted more notice abroad than at home; it is written with a devout, fervid sympathy that is often eloquent, although the narrative is too graphic to be everywhere exact. Its popularity has been immense. Among his other writings are Germany, England, and Scotland (Lond. 1848); a vindication of Cromwell (1848); Trois Siècles de Lutte en Écosse (1849); and Histoire de la Réformation en Europe au Temps de Calvin (1862–78).

D'Aubigné, THÉODORE AGRIPPA, a famous French scholar, was born on 8th February 1550, near Pons in Saintonge. At an early period he exhibited a remarkable talent for the acquisition of languages. Although born of a noble family, he inherited no wealth from his father, and consequently chose the military profession. In 1567 he distinguished himself by his services to the Huguenot cause, and was subsequently rewarded by Henry IV., who made him vice-admiral of Guienne and Brittany. His severe and inflexible character frequently embroiled him with the court; and after Henry's assassination (1610), he betook himself to Geneva, where he spent the remainder of his life in literary studies. He died April 29, 1630, leaving a worthless son, Constant, who was father of Madame de Maintenon. D'Aubigné's best-known work is his Histoire Universelle, 1550-1601 (Amsterdam, 1616-20), which had the honour of being burned in France by the common hangman. D'Aubigné was possessed of a spirit of biting satire, as is proved by his Confession Catholique du Sieur de Sancy, and his Aventures du Baron de Fænesté. See his Histoire Secrète, écrite par lui même (1731); also French studies by Réaume (1883) and Morillot (1884).

Daubigny, CHARLES FRANÇOIS, landscapepainter and etcher, born in Paris in 1817, studied under his father, who was a miniature-painter, Paul Delaroche, and others, and from 1838 exhibited in the Salon, although his full recognition came only after the artist had reached his fiftieth year. He devoted himself to close and sympathetic study from nature, working much on the Seine in a house-boat, and developed a style of landscape art marked by singularly unaffected fidelity and originality. In 1853 he gained a first-class medal with his 'Pool of Gylien.' In 1857 he produced his Springtime; in 1861, 'The Banks of the Oise; in 1872, 'Windmills at Dordrecht;' and in 1877, his large and very impressive Rising Moon.' His Sluices in the Valley of Optevos' (1855) and his 'Vintage'

(1863) are in the Luxembourg Gallery. He is also known as a book-illustrator and as a vigorous etcher, having produced over a hundred plates, some reproductions, others direct from nature, marked by great frankness of method and free He died in Paris, 19th painter-like quality. February 1878.

D'Aubusson, PIERRE, Grand-master of the order of St John of Jerusalem, surnamed 'the Shield of the Church,' was born of a noble French family in 1423. At an early age he entered the service of the Emperor Sigismund, and served under the Archduke Albrecht of Austria against the Turks. Returning to France, he served with the Armagnacs against the Swiss, and covered himself with glory at their defeat near St Jacob (1444). He next joined the order of the Knights of Rhodes, and rose rapidly into power, becoming grand-master in 1476. He laboured to bring about a confederation of all the Christian powers to counteract the triumph of the Turks that followed the fall of Constantinople. Mohammed II.'s career of conquest, which threatened to spread over Western Europe, was stayed alone by the obstinate bravery of D'Aubusson and his little colony of Christian soldiers in the island of Rhodes. In May 1480 an army of 100,000 Turks invested the town, but were forced to raise the siege after a month's desperate fighting, leaving behind them as many as 9000 dead.

Mohammed was filled with fury, and a second attack was only averted by his death in 1481. D'Aubusson died in 1503.

Daudet, ALPHONSE, was born at Nîmes on May 13, 1840. His family had been in trade, but were not in good circumstances. He was, however, well educated at the Lyons Lycée, and was able when quite a boy to take the place of usher in a school at Alais, an employment of which, in Le Petit Chose and others of his works, he has given no cheerful reminiscences. He was only seventeen when, giving up his ushership, he set out for Paris with his elder brother, Ernest, who himself became (as also did Ernest) obtained an appointment as a journalist and novelist of some mark. Alphonse clerk or private secretary in the office of the Duke de Morny, of whom he has drawn a famous portrait in Le Nabab. Indeed, one of the main characteristics of M. Daudet's method, and one of the main reasons of his popularity with some, and his unpopularity with other readers, is the manner in which he seems to have utilised almost every cir cumstance and almost every acquaintanceship of his life in his books. M. Daudet's literary efforts, however, began with poetry; and his first book, in 1858, was entitled Les Amoureuses. He also devoted some not too successful years of experiment to theatrical work, writing by himself, or with a collaborator, La Dernière Idole (1862), L'Eillet Blanc (1865), Le Frère Aîné (1868), Le Sacrifice (1869), Lise Tavernier, and L'Arlésienne (1872), pieces of which the earlier were more successful than the later. Besides this, he contributed to many journals, especially the Figaro. In this form appeared some of his best work, the Lettres de Mon Moulin (collected 1869), Robert Helmont (1871), the Contes du Lundi, and others; and it was in these years that he conceived the charming extravaganza of Tartarin de Tarascon, most amusing satire on the characteristics of the natives of the south of France, which he has followed up more recently with a second part, Tartarin sur les Alpes.

а

It was not, however, till many years after his literary beginnings that M. Daudet hit on the style which has made him popular and famous. He had sketched something of the kind early in Le Petit Chose, a book full of pathos and of reminis

cences of his own early struggles. This pathetic quality is still further developed in Jack (1873), the story of an illegitimate child, part of the interest of which turns on the half-malicious sketches of certain literary Bohemians; and in Fromont Jeune et Risler Ainé (1874), where the devotion of a man of business to his firm, his wife, and his brother, meets in all three cases with an equally evil return. These have been followed by Le Nabab (1877), a transparent caricature of Morny and other well-known personages under the empire; Les Rois en Exil (1879), the chief parts in which are supposed to have been played also by actual persons; Numa Roumestan (1882), the hero of which was supposed to have some resemblance to Gambetta, and which at anyrate is as remarkable in the serious way as Tartarin in the comic amongst satires on the meridional' type; L'Evangéliste (1883), in which the then new craze of the Salvation Army was introduced; Sapho (1884), a book somewhat out of M. Daudet's usual line, in which the mutual infatuation of a young man and a courtesan and artist's model is drawn with remarkable if not very wholesome power; and L'Immortel (1888), in which all the author's powers of ridicule, and all his practised skill in attacking individuals under a thin disguise, are employed to throw discredit on the French Academy. The vigour, and within certain limits, the versatility, of this series of novels is not denied by any one; but in addition to the personality already noticed, there has been charged against the earlier ones at least a following of Dickens, which can hardly be accidental, though it has been asserted to be so.

M. Daudet married early a lady of talent, who is understood to have rendered him much assistance in his literary work, and he formed for some time part of a group or coterie of remarkable literary characters, which included besides himself the Russian novelist Turgénieff, Gustave Flaubert, the brothers Goncourt, and M. Zola. He has pub. lished at various times autobiographic papers, which have been collected as Trente Ans de Paris (1887), and Souvenirs d'un Homme de Lettres (1889).

Daudnagar, a town in the Gaya district of Bengal, on the Soane, 90 miles SW. of Patna. It is a wretched-looking place, with narrow, crooked lanes winding among miserable hovels. It possesses, however, a considerable river trade, and manufactures coarse fabrics both of wool and of cotton. Pop. 9870.

Daulatabad ('fortunate city'), a town and fort in the Deccan, within the Nizam's dominions, 28 miles NW. of Hyderabad. The fortress consists of a conical rock, 600 feet high, with a wide ditch and an outer wall nearly 3 miles in circumference. The place surrendered to the Mohammedans in 1294, and Shah Muhammad Tughlak (1324-51) thrice attempted to remove the seat of government hither from Delhi. The fortress has not been garrisoned now for many years, and the town has greatly decayed. Pop. 1243.

D'Aulnoy, MARIE CATHERINE JUMELLE DE BERNEVILLE, COUNTESS, was born about 1650, and died in 1705. She wrote many tedious and longwinded romances long consigned to safe oblivion. Of these may here only be mentioned Hippolyte, Comte de Douglas (1690). Equally worthless are her historical memoirs. But her fame rests securely on her Contes des Fées, which are written in a simple, bright, and charming style, not altogether unworthy of the inimitable master, Perrault. The White Cat, the Yellow Dwarf, Finette Cendron, and Le Mouton have for two centuries been naturalised in the nurseries of Europe, and are still familiar figures in pantomime. D'Aumale. See AUMALE, DUC D'.

DAUPHIN

Daumer, GEORG FRIEDRICH, an able but eccentric German writer, was born in 1800 at Nuremberg, where for a time he was a professor in the gymnasium, and where Kaspar Hauser (q.v.) was committed to his care. Abandoning the pietism of his student days, he passed through Schelling's philosophy to a position of bitter antagonism to Christianity, which he wished swept from the face of the earth; but in 1859 he joined the Ultramontane party, and became one of its foremost champions. His many philosophical writings reflect his varying positions; so late as 1847 he endeavoured to prove that among the ancient Jews and the Christians of the first century human sacrifice obtained; from 1859 he expounded and defended the faith. His poetical works, especially Mahomet (1848) and the Liederblüten des Hafis, two graceful immitations of Persian poetry, have gained a high reputation. Daumer died at Würzburg, 14th December 1875.

Daumier, HENRI, a celebrated French caricaturist, was born at. Marseilles in 1808. Fashion, tittle-tattle, scandal, politics, blemishes of figure, and oddities of character in turn inspired his inexhaustible genius for mockery. Few among his illustrious contemporaries escaped his pencil, and his caricatures had always some strikingly truthful feature about them. He made his debut in the Charivari, in a series of sketches from Robert Macaire; and the revolution of 1848 suggested two of his most remarkable series-Idylles Parlementaires and Les Représentants représentés. In his old age Daumier became blind, and was befriended by Corot the landscape-painter. He died at Valmondois, 10th February 1879.

Daun, LEOPOLD JOSEPH, GRAF VON, commander-in-chief of the imperial troops during the Seven Years' War, was the son of Count Wierich Philipp von Daun, a distinguished officer in the Austrian service, and was born at Vienna, 24th September 1705. Entering his father's regiment, he acquired a reputation during the Turkish campaigns (1737-39). The war of the Austrian Succession also afforded him many opportunities of displaying that combination of valour and prudence for which he was famous. After the peace with Prussia in 1745, Daun fought against the French in the Netherlands (1746-48), and in 1754 received the dignity of field-marshal. Before this, he had, in spite of many obstacles, introduced into the imperial army a new military system, and reorganised the Military Academy at Vienna. At the commencement of the Seven Years' War he commanded the army of Moravia in 1757, and neutralised the defeat of the Austrians under General Browne near Prague, by driving Frederick the Great, who had beleaguered that city, as far as Kolin, and forcing him, after a hard-fought battle, to evacuate Bohemia. On the 14th of October 1758 he gained another victory over Frederick at Hochkirch, and came near to annihilating the Prussian army. In 1759, at Maxen, he compelled Fink, the Prussian general, with 11,000 men, to surrender. this, however, he gained no important successes; Frederick began to understand the tactics of the Austrian Fabius Cunctator,' and to conduct is campaigns accordingly. Daun died 5th February 1766.

Dauphin (Lat. Delphinus), formerly the title of the eldest son of the French king, was originally that of the sovereign lords of the province of Dauphiné, who bore a dolphin as their crest. The last of these, the childless Humbert III., in 1343 bequeathed his possessions to Charles of Valois, grandson of Philippe VI. of France, on condition that the eldest son of the king of France should bear the title of Dauphin of Vienne, and govern the province. As late as the time of Louis

DAUPHINÉ

XI., the dauphin exercised almost sovereign rights; but after his time these were gradually abridged, until Dauphiné was placed under the same laws as the rest of the kingdom, and the title became merely honorary. After the revolution of 1830, it was abolished altogether. See DELPHIN CLASSICS. Dauphiné, formerly a frontier province in the south-west of France, now forming the departments Drôme, Isère, and Hautes Alpes. Its capital was Grenoble, and it boasted its seven wonders' remarkable caves, mountain-peaks, &c. Once the territory of the Allobrogi, after the fall of the Roman empire Dauphiné formed the southernmost part of the kingdom of Burgundy. It then passed under the dominion of the Franks, and after the dismemberment of the Carlovingian monarchy, it became a portion of the new Burgundian kingdom of Arles. It then passed by legacy into the possession of the German emperor in 1032, and remained united with Germany till 1343, when it was presented to France (see DAUPHIN). There is a history by Chorier (2 vols. 1883).

Daurat, JEAN, a gifted French scholar, who played an important part in determining the course which his country's literature took at the time of the Renaissance. He was born about 1510, and became president of the Collège Coqueret, where he superintended the studies of Ronsard, Du Bellay, Baif, and Belleau. These poets, with Pléiade (q.v.), he carefully trained for the task of reforming the vernacular, and ennobling French literature by the imitation of Greek and Latin models. He wrote nothing of importance in French, but devoted himself to guiding and stimulating the other members of the Pléiade, in whose works his learning and enthusiasm bore rich and enduring fruit. He died in 1588.

whom he was united in the famous coterie of the

Dauria, a mountainous region of south-eastern Siberia, between Lake Baikal and the river Argun, on the Chinese frontier.

Dauw. See HORSE, QUAgga, Zebra.

D'Avenant, SIR WILLIAM, English poet and playwright, was born in 1606 at Oxford, where his father kept the Crown Tavern, a house at which Shakespeare was in the habit of stopping when on his journeys between London and Stratford. A story arose later that D'Avenant's birth was due to an intrigue between his mother and the great dramatist, but for this there seems to be no foundation, though apparently D'Avenant himself was willing enough to barter his mother's reputation for the credit of such a parentage. Aubrey tells us that D'Avenant would often say, when pleasant over a cup of wine, that it seemed to him that he wrote with the very spirit that Shakespeare did, and seemed contented enough to be thought his son.' In his twelfth year the precocious boy penned an Ode in Remembrance of Master Shakespeare, not printed, however, until 1638. After a short period of study at Lincoln College, he became page to Frances, Duchess of Richmond; next passed into the household of the aged poet, Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, and in 1628 took to writing for the stage. During the next ten years he produced many plays, the least poor of which were The Cruel Brother (1630) and The Wits (1636). In 1638, at the request of the queen, he was appointed poet-laureate in succession to Ben Jonson. About the same time he lost his nose through an illness-a calamity which laid him open to the merriment of such wits as Suckling, Denham, and Sir John Mennis. He afterwards became manager of Drury Lane Theatre, but became embroiled in the intrigues of the Civil War, and was apprehended and flung into the Tower. He soon escaped to France, and returning, distin

guished himself so much in the royalist cause, that he was knighted by Charles at the siege of Gloucester (September 1643). D'Avenant again got into difficulties, and was confined in the Tower for two years, when he was released, it is said, on the intercession of Milton. Once more he set about establishing theatrical representations, and in 1658 succeeded in opening a theatre. Two years earlier he had given what was practically the first opera in England, with Mrs Coleman as the first actress that ever appeared on an English stage. After the Restoration, D'Avenant was favoured by royal patronage, and continued to write and superintend the performance of plays until his death, April 7, 1688. His epic, entitled Gondibert, a feeble reaction from the romanticism of the Elizabethan poets, consists of fifteen hundred fourline heroic stanzas with alternate rhymes-a metre which the genius of Gray's Elegy can scarce save from the damning sin of monotony; much bepraised by its contemporaries, it now sleeps securely in the same oblivion with the author's Madagascar, and his great opera The Siege of Rhodes. A collected edition of his plays, with memoir, was edited by Logan and Maidment (Edin. 5 vols. 1872-74).— CHARLES D'AVENANT, his eldest son, was born in London in 1656, was educated at Balliol College, sat in parliament under James II. and William III., was commissioner of excise and joint-licenser of plays, under Anne secretary to the Commissioners for Union with Scotland, next inspector-general of imports and exports. He died 6th November 1714. Among his writings are Discourses on the Publick Revenues and the Trade of England (1698), and A Discourse upon Grants (1700).

Davenport, capital of Scott county, Iowa, on the Mississippi, opposite Rock Island (q.v.), 183 miles W. by S. of Chicago by rail. It is the seat of Griswold College (1859) and of several Catholic institutions, has extensive manufactures of flour, wooden and iron wares, and woollen goods, and is the shipping depôt of a large grain trade. Pop. (1880) 21,831; (1890) 26,872.

Daventry (pronounced Daintry), an ancient municipal borough of Northamptonshire, at the sources of the Avon and Nene, 12 miles W. of Northampton, and 4 NW. of Weedon by a branch line opened in 1888. It is well built on an eminence, and has two principal streets. Charles I. spent six days here in 1645 before the battle of Naseby. Pop. (1851) 4430; (1881) 3859; (1891)

3939.

A mile to the east is Danes or Borough Hill, one of the largest Roman camps in the kingdom. David, capital of Chiriqui (q.v.) in Panamá, lies in a fertile plain on the Rio David, which enters the Pacific 8 miles to the south. Stockraising and the cultivation of tobacco are extensively engaged in, and there is a considerable trade. Pop. 9000.

David (Heb., 'beloved'), the second king over Israel. He sprang from a family of Judah, and was the youngest son of Jesse, a man of some substance at Bethlehem. He is described as a handsome youth, red-haired, with beautiful eyes, and fair of face,' when he first distinguished himself in Israel by slaying the Philistine giant Goliath. After this heroic deed, Saul took him to his court, and appointed him to a military command. Accord ing to another account (1 Sam. xvi. 14-23) it was his skill in playing the harp, and his being sent for to banish the melancholy of Saul by that means, that first led to his coming into contact with the moody king. He had soon to flee from Saul's court, as the king's jealousy of his supposed rival led him to seek David's life; but, by the craft of his wife Michal, Saul's daughter, and the friendship of Jonathan, Saul's son, he escaped, and fled to the