Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 93

Morn broadened on the borders of the dark, Ere I saw her who clasped in her last trance Her murdered father's head.

The head of the young earl of Derwent-water was exposed on Temple Bar in 1716. His wife drove in a cart under the the arch, and a man, hired for the purpose, threw the young earl's head into the cart, that it might be decently buried--Sir Bernard Burke Mdlle. de Sombreuil, daughter of the Comte de Sombreuil, insisted on the sharing her father's prison during the "Reign of Terror," and in accompanying him to the guillotine.

DAUPHIN _(Le Grand_), Louis duc de Bourgoyne, eldest son of Louis XIV., for whom was published the _Delphine Cla.s.sics_ (1661-1711).

_Dauphin (Le Pet.i.t)_, son of the "Grand Dauphin" (1682-1712).

DAURA, daughter of Armin. She was betrothed to Armar, son of Armart, Erath a rival lover having been rejected by her. One day, disguised as an old grey-beard, Erath told Daura that he was sent to conduct her to Armar, who was waiting for her. Without suspicion she followed her guide, who took her to a rock in the midst of the sea, and there left her. Her brother Arindal, returning from the chase, saw Erath on the sh.o.r.e, and bound him to an oak; then pushing off the boat, went to fetch back his sister. At this crisis Armar came up, and discharged his arrow at Erath; but the arrow struck Arindal, and killed him. "The boat broke in twain," and Armar plunged into the sea to rescue his betrothed; but a "sudden blast from the hills struck him, and he sank to rise no more." Daura was rescued by her father, but she haunted the sh.o.r.e all night in a drenching rain. Next day "her voice grew very feeble; it died away; and spent with grief, she expired." Ossian, _Songs of Selma_.

DAVENANT (_Lord_), a bigamist. One wife was Marianne Dormer, whom he forsook in three months. It was given out that he was dead, and Marianne in time married Lord Davenant's son. His other wife was Louisa Travers, who was engaged to Captain Dormer, but was told that the Captain was faithless and had married another. When the villainy of his lordship could be no longer concealed he destroyed himself.

_Lady Davenant_, one of the two wives of Lord Davenant. She was "a faultless wife," with beauty to attract affection, and every womanly grace.

_Charles Davenant_, a son of Lord Davenant, who married Marianne Dormer, his father's wife.--c.u.mberland, _The Mysterious Husband_ (1783).

_Davenant (Will)_, a supposed descendant from Shakespeare, and Wildrake's friend,--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, the Commonwealth).

DAVENPORT (_Colonel_), a Revolutionary veteran who, fighting the battle of Long Island over again in Parson Cushing's family, admits that General Washington poured out "a terrible volley of curses."

"And he swore?" objects Parson Gushing.

"It was not profane swearing. It was not taking G.o.d'S name in vain, for it sent us back as if we had been chased by lightning. It was an awful hour, and he saw it. It was life or death; country or no country."--Harriet Beecher Stowe, _Poganuc People_ (1878).

DAVID, in Dryden's satire of _Absalom and Achitophel_ is meant for Charles II. As David's beloved son Absalom rebelled against him, so the Duke of Monmouth rebelled against his father Charles II. As Achitophel was a traitorous counsellor to David, so was the Earl of Shaftesbury to Charles II. As Husha outwitted Achitophel, so Hyde (duke of Eochester) outwitted the Earl of Shaftesbury, etc., etc.

Auspicious prince.

Thy longing country's darling and desire, Their cloudy pillar, and their guardian fire ...

The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme, The young men's vision and the old men's dream.

Dryden, _Absalom and Achitophel_, i. (1681).

_David_, king of North Wales, eldest son of Owen, by his second wife.

Owen died in 1169. David married Emma Plantagenet, a Saxon princess.

He slew his brother Hoel and his half-brother Yorworth (son of Owen by his first wife), who had been set aside from the succession in consequence of a blemish in the face. He also imprisoned his brother Rodri, and drove others into exile. Madoc, one of his brothers, went to America, and established there a Welsh colony.--Southey, _Madoc_ (1805).

DAVID SOVINE. Witness in a murder case in Edward Eggleston's novel _The Graysons._ He is put upon the stand and tells a plausible story of "the shooting," which he claims to have seen. The prosecutor then hands him over to the prisoner's counsel, Abraham Lincoln, whose cross-examination of the wretched man concludes thus:

"Why does David Sovine go to all this trouble to perjure himself? Why does he wish to swear away the life of that young man who never did him any harm? Because that witness shot and killed George Lockwood himself. I move your honor that David Sovine be arrested at once for murder!" (1888).

DAVID SWAN. A native of New Hampshire, born of respectable parents who has had a "cla.s.sic finish" by a year at Grilmanton Academy. He lies down to sleep at noon of a Summer's day, pillowing his head on a bundle of clothing. While sound asleep in the shade, he is pa.s.sed by many people on the road. Five or six pause to survey the youth and comment upon him. Awakened by the stage-coach, he mounts to the top, and bowls away, unconscious that a phantom of Wealth, of Love and of Death had visited him in the brief hour since he lay down to sleep.--Nathaniel Hawthorn, _Twice-told Tales_, (1851.)

_David (St.)_, son of Xantus, prince of Cereticu _(Cardiganshire)_ and the nun Malearia. He was the uncle of King Arthur. St. David first embraced the ascetic life in the Isle of Wight, but subsequently removed to Menevia, in Pembrokeshire, where he founded twelve convents. In 577 the archbishop of Caerleon resigned his see to him, and St. David removed the seat of it to Menevia, which was subsequently called St. David's and became the metropolis of Wales. He died at the age of 146, in the year 642. The waters of Bath "owe their warmth and salutary qualities to the benediction of this saint."

Drayton says he lived in the valley of Ewias (2 _syl_.), between the hills of Hatterill, in Monmouthshire.

Here in an aged cell with moss and ivy grown, In which not to this day the sun hath ever shown.

That reverend British saint in zealous ages past, To contemplation lived.

_Polyolbion_, iv. (1612.)

DAVID AND JONATHAN, inseparable friends. The allusion is to David the Psalmist and Jonathan the son of Saul. David's lamentation at the death of Jonathan was never surpa.s.sed in pathos and beauty.--2 _Samuel_, i. 19-27.

DAVIE DEBET, debt.

So ofte thy neighbors banquet in thy hall, Till Davie Debet in thy parler stand, And bids thee welcome to thine own decay.

G. Gascoigne, _Magnum Vectigal, etc_. (died 1775).

DAVIE OF STENHONSE, a friend of Hobbie Elliott.--Sir W. Scott, _The Black Dwarf_ (time, Anne).

DAVIES (_John_), an old fisherman employed by Joshua Geddes the quaker.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III).

DA'VUS, a plain, uncouth servitor; a common name for a slave in Greek and Roman plays, as in the _Andria_ of Terence.

His face made of bra.s.s, like a vice in a game.

His gesture like Davus, whom Terence doth name.

T. Tusser, _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, liv. (1557).

_Davus sum, non Oedipus._ I am a homely man, and do not understand hints, innuendoes, and riddles, like Oedipus. Oedipus was the Theban who expounded the riddle of the Sphinx, that puzzled all his countrymen. Davus was the stock name of a servant or slave in Latin comedies. The proverb is used by Terence, _Andria_, 1, 2, 23.

DAVY, the varlet of Justice Shallow, who so identifies himself with his master that he considers himself half host half varlet. Thus when he seats Bardolph and Page at table, he tells them they must take "his" good will for their a.s.surance of welcome.--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV_. (1598).

DAW (_Sir David_), a rich, dunder-headed baronet of Monmouthshire, without wit, words, or worth, but believing himself somebody, and fancying himself a sharp fellow, because his servants laugh at his good sayings, and his mother calls him a wag. Sir David pays his suit to Miss [Emily] Tempest; but as the affections of the young lady are fixed on Henry Woodville, the baron goes to the wall.--c.u.mberland, _The Wheel of Fortune_ (1779).

_Daw (Marjorie)_ Edward Delaney, writing to another young fellow, John Flemming, confined in town in August by a broken leg, interests him in a charming girl, Marjorie Daw by name, whom he has met in his (Delaney's) summering-place. His description of her ways, sayings and looks so works upon the imagination of the invalid that he falls madly in love with her--_without_ sight. As soon as he can travel he rushes madly down to "The Pines" where his friend is staying, and finds instead of Delaney a letter:

... "I tried to make a little romance to interest you, something soothing and idyllic, and by Jove! I've done it only too well ... I fly from the wrath to come--when you arrive! For, O, dear Jack, there isn't any colonial mansion on the other side of the road, there isn't any piazza, there isn't any hammock,--there isn't any Marjorie Daw!"

Thomas Bailey Aldrich, _Marjorie Daw_ (1873).

DAWFYD, "the one-eyed" freebooter chief.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

DAWKINS (_Jack_), known by the sobriquet of the "Artful Dodger." He is one of f.a.gin's tools. Jack Dawkins is a young scamp of unmitigated villainy, and full of artifices, but of a cheery, buoyant temper.--C.

d.i.c.kens, _Oliver Twist_, viii. (1837).

DAWSON (_Bully_), a London sharper, bully, and debauchee of the seventeenth century.--See _Spectator_, No. 2.

Bully Dawson kicked by half the town, and half the town kicked by Bully Dawson.--Charles Lamb.

_Dawson (Jemmy)._ Captain James Dawson was one of the eight officers belonging to the Manchester volunteers in the service of Charles Edward, the young pretender. He was a very amiable young man, engaged to a young lady of family and fortune, who went in her carriage to witness his execution for treason. When the body was drawn, _i.e._ embowelled, and the heart thrown into the fire, she exclaimed, "James Dawson!" and expired. Shenstone has made this the subject of a tragic ballad.

Young Dawson was a gallant youth, A brighter never trod the plain; And well he loved one charming maid, And dearly was he loved again.

Shenstone, _Jemmy Dawson_.

_Dawson (Phoebe)_, "the pride of Lammas Fair," courted by all the smartest young men of the village, but caught "by the sparkling eyes" and ardent words of a tailor. Phoebe had by him a child before marriage, and after marriage he turned a "captious tyrant and a noisy sot." Poor Phoebe drooped, "pinched were her looks, as one who pined for bread," and in want and sickness she sank into an early tomb. This sketch is one of the best in Crabbe's _Parish Register_ (1807).

DAY (_Justice_), a pitiable hen-pecked husband, who always addresses his wife as "duck" or "duckie."