Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 104

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 G.o.d 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. d.i.c.kens, _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 Zatana [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 prost.i.tute 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-c.o.c.k'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 cla.s.sics, 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 s.p.a.ces without touching the boy's hand or any one of his fingers. (See TELL, for many similar marksmen.)--Peacham, _Complete Gentleman_ (1627).

DOMIZIA, a n.o.ble lady of Florence, greatly embittered against the republic for its base ingrat.i.tude 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_.

[Ill.u.s.tration] 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 a.s.sa.s.sinated 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 G.o.d 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 l.u.s.treless, 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 t.i.tle 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. d.i.c.kens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).

DORA'DO (_El_), a land of exhaustless wealth; a golden illusion.

Orella'na, lieutenant of Pizarro, a.s.serted that he had discovered a "gold country" between the Orino'co and the Am'azon, in South America.