The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 170

DOUBTING CASTLE, a castle belonging to Giant Despair in the "Pilgrim's Progress," which only one key could open, the key Promise.

DOUCE, FRANCIS, a learned antiquary, born in London; for a time keeper of MSS. in the British Museum; author of "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," and an ill.u.s.trated volume, "The Dance of Death"; left in the Museum a chest of books and MSS. not to be opened till 1900; was a man of independent means, and a devoted archaeologist (1757-1834).

DOUGLAS (19), the largest town and capital as well as chief port of the Isle of Man, 74 m. from Liverpool; much frequented as a bathing-place; contains an old residence of the Dukes of Atholl, ent.i.tled Castle Mona, now a hotel. See MAN, ISLE OF.

DOUGLAS, the name of an old Scotch family, believed to be of Celtic origin, and that played a conspicuous part at one time in the internal and external struggles of the country; they figure in Scottish history in two branches, the elder called the Black and the later the Red Douglases or the Angus branch, now represented by the houses of Hamilton and Home.

The eldest of the Douglases, William, was a kinsman of the house of Murray, and appears to have lived about the end of the 12th century. One of the most ill.u.s.trious of the family was the Good Sir James, distinguished specially as the "Black" Douglas, the pink of knighthood and the a.s.sociate of Bruce, who carried the Bruce's heart in a casket to bury it in Palestine, but died fighting in Spain, 1330.

DOUGLAS, GAWIN or GAVIN, a Scottish poet and bishop of Dunkeld, third son of Archibald, Earl of Angus, surnamed "Bell-the-Cat"; political troubles obliged him to leave the country and take refuge at the Court of Henry VII., where he was held in high regard; died here of the plague, and was buried by his own wish in the Savoy; besides Ovid's "Art of Love," now lost, he translated (1512-1513) the "aeneid" of Virgil into English verse, to each book of which he prefixed a prologue, in certain of which there are descriptions that evince a poet's love of nature combined with his love as a Scotchman for the scenery of his native land; besides this translation, which is his chief work, he indited two allegorical poems, ent.i.tled the "Palace of Honour," addressed to James IV., and "King Hart" (1474-1522).

DOUGLAS, SIR HOWARD, an English general and writer on military subjects, born at Gosport; saw service in the Peninsula; was Governor of New Brunswick and Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands (1776-1861).

DOUGLAS, JOHN, bishop of Salisbury, born at Pittenweem, Fife; wrote "The Criterion of, or a Discourse on, Miracles" against Hume; was a friend of Samuel Johnson's (1721-1807).

DOUGLAS, STEPHEN ARNOLD, an American statesman, born in Brandon, Vermont; a lawyer by profession, and a judge; a member of Congress and the Senate; was a Democrat; stood for the Presidency when Lincoln was elected; was a leader in the Western States; a splendid monument is erected to his memory in Chicago (1813-1861).

DOUGLa.s.s, FREDERICK, American orator, born a slave in Maryland; wrought as a slave in a Baltimore s.h.i.+pbuilder's yard; escaped at the age of 21 to New York; attended an anti-slavery meeting, where he spoke so eloquently that he was appointed by the Anti-Slavery Society to lecture in its behalf, which he did with success and much appreciation in England as well as America; published an Autobiography, which gives a thrilling account of his life (1817-1895).

DOULTON, SIR HENRY, the reviver of art pottery, born in Lambeth; knighted in the Jubilee year for his eminence in that department; _b_.

1820.

DOURO, a river, and the largest, of the Spanish Peninsula, which rises in the Cantabrian Mountains; forms for 40 m. the northern boundary of Portugal, and after a course of 500 m. falls into the Atlantic at Oporto; is navigable only where it traverses Portugal.

DOUSTER-SWIVEL, a German swindling schemer in the "Antiquary."

DOVE, in Christian art the symbol of the Holy Ghost, or of a pure, or a purified soul, and with an olive branch, the symbol of peace and the gospel of peace.

DOVE, HEINRICH WILHELM, a German physicist, born at Liegnitz, Silesia; professor of Natural Philosophy in Berlin; was eminent chiefly in the departments of meteorology and optics; he discovered how by the stereoscope to detect forged bank-notes (1803-1879).

DOVER (33), a seaport on the E. coast of Kent, and the nearest in England to the coast of France, 60 m. SE. of London, and with a mail service to Calais and Ostend; is strongly fortified, and the chief station in the SE. military district of England; was the chief of the Cinque Ports.

DOVER, STRAIT OF, divides France from England and connects the English Channel with the North Sea, and at the narrowest 20 m. across; forms a busy sea highway; is called by the French _Pas de Calais_.

DOVREFELD, a range of mountains in Norway, stretching NE. and extending between 62 and 63 N. lat., average height 3000 ft.

DOW or DOUW, GERARD, a distinguished Dutch genre-painter, born at Leyden; a pupil of Rembrandt; his works, which are very numerous, are the fruit of a devoted study of nature, and are remarkable for their delicacy and perfection of finish; examples of his works are found in all the great galleries of Europe (1613-1675).

DOWDEN, EDWARD, literary critic, professor of English Literature in Dublin University, born in Cork; is distinguished specially as a Shakesperian; is author of "Shakespeare: a Study of his Mind and Art,"

"Introduction to Shakespeare," and "Shakesperian Sonnets, with Notes"; has written "Studies in Literature," and a "Life of Sh.e.l.ley"; is well read in German as well as English literature; has written with no less ability on Goethe than on Shakespeare; _b_. 1843.

DOWN (266), a maritime county in the SE. of the province of Ulster, Ireland, with a mostly level and fairly fertile soil, and manufactures of linen.

DOWNS, THE, a safe place of anchorage, 8 m. long by 6 m. broad, for s.h.i.+ps between Goodwin Sands and the coast of Kent.

DOWNS, THE NORTH AND SOUTH, two parallel ranges of low broad hills covered with a light soil and with a valley between, called the Weald, that extend eastward from Hamps.h.i.+re to the sea-coast, the North terminating in Dover cliffs, Kent, and the South in Beachy Head, Suss.e.x; the South famous for the breed of sheep that pastures on them.

DOYLE, DR. CONAN, novelist, nephew of Richard and grandson of John, born in Edinburgh; studied and practised medicine, but gave it up after a time for literature, in which he had already achieved no small success; several of his productions have attracted universal attention, especially his "Adventures" and his "Memoir of Sherlock Holmes"; wrote a short play "A Story of Waterloo," produced with success by Sir Henry Irving; _b_.

1859.

DOYLE, SIR FRANCIS HASTINGS, an English poet, born near Tadcaster; bred to the bar, but devoted to poetry and horse-racing; became professor of Poetry at Oxford; author of "Miscellaneous Verses," "Two Destinies,"

"Retreat of the Guards," "The Thread of Honour," and "The Private of the Buffs" (1810-1858).

DOYLE, JOHN, an eminent caricaturist, of Irish origin, under the initials H. B. (1797-1868).

DOYLE, RICHARD, eminent caricaturist, born in London, son of the preceding; contributed to _Punch_, of which he designed the cover, but left the staff, in 1850 owing to the criticisms in the journal adverse to the Catholic Church; devoted himself after that chiefly to book ill.u.s.tration and water-colour painting (1824-1883).

DOZY, REINHART, an Orientalist and linguist, born at Leyden, where he became professor of History; devoted himself to the study of the history of the Arabs or Moors in North-Western Africa and Spain, his chief work being "The History of the Mussulmans of Spain"; wrote also a "Detailed Dictionary of the Names of the Dress of the Arabs" (1820-1883).

DRACHENFELS (Dragon's Rock), one of the Siebengebirge, 8 m. SE. of Bonn, 1056 ft. above the Rhine, and crowned by a castle with a commanding view; the legendary abode of the dragon killed by Siegfried in the "Lay of the Nibelungen."

DRACO, a celebrated Athenian law-giver, who first gave stability to the State by committing the laws to writing, and establis.h.i.+ng the Ephetae, or court of appeal, 621 B.C.; only he punished every transgressor of his laws with death, so that his code became unbearable, and was superseded ere long by a milder, inst.i.tuted by Solon, who affixed the penalty of death to murder alone; he is said to have justified the severity of his code by maintaining that the smallest crime deserved death, and he knew no severer punishment for greater; it is said he was smothered to death in the theatre by the hats and cloaks showered on him as a popular mark of honour; he was archon of Athens.

DRAGON, a fabulous monster, being a hideous impersonation of some form of deadly evil, which only preternatural heroic strength and courage can subdue, and on the subdual and slaying of which depends the achievement of some conquest of vital moment to the human race or some members of it; is represented in mediaeval art as a large, lizard-like animal, with the claws of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the tail of a serpent, with open jaws ready and eager to devour, which some knight high-mounted thrusts at to pierce to death with a spear; in the Greek mythology it is represented with eyes ever on the watch, in symbol of the evil that waylays us to kill us if we don't kill it, as in guarding the "Apples of the Hesperides" and the "Golden Fleece," because these are prizes that fall only to those who are as watchful of him as he is of them; and it is consecrated to Minerva to signify that true wisdom, as sensible of the ever-wakeful dragon, never goes to sleep, but is equally ever on the watch.

DRAGONNADES, the name given to the persecution at the instance of Louis XIV. to force the Huguenots of France back into the bosom of the Catholic Church by employment of dragoons.

DRAGON'S TEETH, the teeth of the dragon that Cadmus slew, and which when sown by him sprang up as a host of armed men, who killed each other all to the five who became the ancestors of the Thebans, hence the phrase to "sow dragon's teeth," to breed and foster strife.