Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 100

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 ent.i.tled _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.).

[Ill.u.s.tration] 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 a.s.sumes 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).

[Ill.u.s.tration] 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 emba.s.sy 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 amba.s.sadors 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 s.h.i.+ps 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.).