Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 99

DIDDLER (_Jeremy_), an artful swindler; a clever, seedy vagabond, who borrows money or obtains credit by his songs, witticisms, or other expedients.--Kenny, _Raising the Wind_.

DIDERICK, the German form of Theodorick, king of the Goths. As Arthur is the centre of British romance, and Charlemagne of French romance, so Diderick is the central figure of the German minnesingers. DIDIER (_Henri_), the lover of Julie Les-urques (2 _syl_.); a gentleman in feeling and conduct, who remains loyal to his _fiancee_ through all her troubles.--Ed. Stirling, _The Courier of Lyons_ (1852).

DIDO, _daughter of Belus, king of Tyre_. She bought "as much land in Africa as a bull's hide could cover," shred the hide into strings, and enclosed a large tract. aeneas was wrecked upon her coast, and a love affair ensued. He deserted her, and she killed herself after watching his ship until it was out of sight.

DIE'GO, the s.e.xton to Lopez the "Spanish curate."--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Spanish Curate_ (1622).

_Die'go (Don)_, a man of 60, who saw a country maiden named Leonora, whom he liked, and intended to marry if her temper was as amiable as her face was pretty. He obtained leave of her parents to bring her home and place her under a duenna for three months, and then either return her to them spotless, or to make her his wife. At the expiration of the time, he went to settle the marriage contract; and, to make all things sure, locked up the house, giving the keys to Ursula, but to the outer door he attached a huge padlock, and put the key in his pocket. Leander, being in love with Leonora, laughed at locksmiths and duennas, and Diego (2 _syl_.), found them about to elope. Being a wise man, he not only consented to their union, but gave Leonora a handsome marriage portion.--I. Bickerstaff, _The Padlock._

DIES IRAE. The name generally given from the opening words to a mediaeval hymn on the Last Judgment. The author is unknown, but the hymn is now generally ascribed to a monk of the Abruzzi, in Naples, Thomas de Celano, who died about 1255.

Dies irae, dies ilia Sol vet sseclum in favilla Teste David c.u.m Sibylla.

That Day of Wrath, that dreadful day When Heaven and Earth shall pa.s.s away, So David and the Sibyl say.

DIET OF PERFORMERS.

BEAHAM sang on _bottled porter_.

CATLEY _(Miss)_ took _linseed tea and madeira._

COOKE _(G.F.)_ drank everything.

HENDEESON, _gum arable and sherry_.

INCLEDON sang on _madeira_.

JOEDAN _(Mrs.)_ drank _calves'-foot jelly and sherry._

KEAN _(C.)_ took _beef-tea_ for breakfast, and preferred a _rump-steak_ for dinner.

KEAN _(Edm.)_ EMERY and REEVE drank _cold brandy-and-water._

KEMBLE _(John)_ took _opium_.

LEWIS, _mulled wine_ and _oysters_.

MACEEADY used to eat the _lean of mutton-chops_ when he acted, and subsequently lived almost wholly on a vegetable diet.

OXBERRY drank _tea_.

RUSSELL _(Henry)_ took a _boiled egg_.

SMITH (_W_.) drank _coffee_.

WOOD (_Mrs_.) sang on _draught porter_.

WEENCH and HAELEY took _no_ refreshment during a performance.--W. O.

Russell, _Representative Actors_. 272.

DIE'TRICH (2 _syl_.). So Theod'oric _The Great_ is called by the German minnesingers. In the terrible broil stirred up by Queen Kriemhild in the banquet hall of Etzel, Dietrich interfered, and succeeded in capturing Hagan and the Burgundian King Ghinther. These he handed over to the queen, praying her to set them free; but she cut off both their heads with her own hands.--_The Niebelungen Lied_ (thirteenth century.)

_Dietrich (John)_, a laborer's son of Pomerania. He spent twelve years under ground, where he met Elizabeth Krabbin, daughter of the minister of his own village, Rambin. One day, walking together, they heard a c.o.c.k crow, and an irresistible desire came over both of them to visit the upper earth, John so frightened the elves by a toad, that they yielded to his wish, and gave him h.o.a.rds of wealth, with part of which he bought half the island of Riigen. He married Elizabeth, and became founder of a very powerful family.--Keightley, _Fairy Mythology_. (See TANHAUSER.)

DIETZ _(Bernard)._ Broad-shouldered giant who wears an air of deep and gentle repose, and comes like a benediction from heaven to the sick room of Count Hugo in Blanche Willis Howard's novel _The Open Door._ He is a stone-mason who says with a genial laugh,

"I hope if I'm lucky enough to get into the New Jerusalem they talk about, there'll still be a little building going on, for I shouldn't feel at home without a block of stone to clip."

His grand simplicity and strong common sense medicine the morbid soul of the more n.o.bly-born man. His argument against the suicide Hugo contemplates as an open door out of the world, surprises the listener profoundly.

"You see, you can never destroy anything. You can only _seem_ to. The life in us--it doesn't ask us if we want to be born,--it doesn't ask us if we want to die. It is beyond us, and I don't believe it _can_ be destroyed" (1889).

DIEU ET MON DROIT, the parole of Richard I. at the battle of Gisors (1198).

DIGGERY, one of the house-servants at Strawberry Hall. Being stage-struck, he inoculates his fellow-servants (Cymon and Wat) with the same taste. In the same house is an heiress named Kitty Sprightly (a ward of Sir Gilbert Pumpkin), also stage-struck. Diggery's favorite character is "Alexander the Great," the son of "Almon." One day, playing _Romeo and Juliet_, he turns the oven into the balcony, but, being rung for, the girl acting "Juliet" is nearly roasted alive. (See DIGGORY.)--J. Jackman, _All the World's a Stage_.

DIGGES (_Miss Maria_), a friend of Lady Penfeather; a visitor at the Spa.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).

DIGGON [DAVIE], a shepherd in the _Shephearde's Calendar_, by Spenser.

He tells Hobbinol that he drove his sheep into foreign lands, hoping to find better pasture; but he was amazed at the luxury and profligacy of the shepherds whom he saw there, and the wretched condition of the flocks. He refers to the Roman Catholic clergy, and their abandoned mode of life. Diggon also tells Hobbinol a long story about Roffynn (_the bishop of Rochester_) and his watchful dog Lauder catching a wolf in sheep's clothing in the fold.--_Ecl_. ix. (September, 1572 or 1578).

DIGGORY, a barn laborer, employed on state occasions for butler and footman by Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle. He is both awkward and familiar, laughs at his master's jokes and talks to his master's guests while serving. (See DIGGERY.)--Goldsmith, _She Stoops to Conquer_. (1773).

_Diggory_ (_Father_), one of the monks of St. Botolph's Priory.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

DIMANCHE, (_Mons_.), a dun. Mons. Dimanche, a tradesman, applies to Don Juan for money. Don Juan treats him with all imaginable courtesy, but every time he attempts to revert to business interrupts him with some such question as, _Comment se porte Madame Dimanche?_ or _Et votre pet.i.te fille Claudine comment se porte-t-ell?_ or _Le pet.i.t Colin fait-il toujours bien du bruit avec son tambour?_ or _et votre pet.i.t chien Brusquet, gronde-t-il toujours aussi fort_ ...? and, after a time, he says he is very sorry, but he must say good-bye for the present, and he leaves Mons. without his once stating the object of his call. (See SHUFFLETON.) Moliere, _Don Juan_ (1665).

DIMMESDALE _(Arthur)._ Master Prynne, an English physician living in Amsterdam, having determined to join the Ma.s.sachusetts Colony, sent his young wife Hester before him to await his coming. He was detained two years, and on reaching Boston, the first sight that met his eyes was his wife standing in the pillory with a young babe in her arms and with the letter A, the mark of her shame, embroidered in scarlet on her breast. A young clergyman, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, regarded by all the people as a saint, too good for earth, was earnestly exhorting her to declare the name of the child's father, but she steadfastly refused, and was sent back to prison. Prynne who had heard in Amsterdam rumors of his wife's infidelity, both to discover her betrayer and to hide his own relation to his wife, had taken the name of Roger Chillingworth, and with eyes sharpened by jealousy and wounded pride, soon discovered that his wife's lover was no other than Dimmesdale himself. As a physician and under the guise of friendship he attached himself to the minister, and pursued his ghastly search for the secret cause that was eating away his life. How it all ended is shown in that wonderful book where, as in a Greek drama, the fates of Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and the love-child, Little Pearl, are traced in lines of fire.--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Scarlet Letter_.

DINANT', a gentleman who once loved and still pretends to love Lamira.

the wife of Champernel.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Little French Lawyer_ (1647).

DINARZA'DE (_4 syl_.), sister of Scheherazade, Sultana of Persia.

Dinarzade was instructed by her sister to wake her every morning an hour before daybreak, and say, "Sister, relate to me one of those delightful stories you know," or "Finish before daybreak the story you began yesterday." The sultan got interested in these tales, and revoked the cruel determination he had made of strangling at daybreak the wife he had married the preceeding night. (See SCHEHERAZADE.)

DINAS EMRYS, or "Fort of Ambrose" (_i.e._ Merlin), on the Brith, a part of Snowdon. When Vortigern built this fort, whatever was constructed during the day was swallowed up in the earth during the night. Merlin (then called Ambrose or Embres-Guletic) discovered the cause to be "two serpents at the bottom of a pool below the foundation of the works." These serpents were incessantly struggling with each other; one was white, and the other red. The white serpent at first prevaled, but ultimately the red one chased the other out of the pool.

The red serpent, he said, meant the Britons, and the white one the Saxons. At first the Saxons (or _white serpent_) prevailed, but in the end "our people" _the red serpent_ "shall chase the Saxon race beyond the sea."--Nennius, _History of the Britons_ (842).

And from the top of Brith, so high and wondrous steep Where Dinas Emris stood, showed where the serpents fought The white that tore the red, for whence the prophet taught The Britons' sad decay.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, x, (1612).

DINE WITH DUKE HUMPHREY (_To_), to have no dinner to go to. The Duke referred to was the son of Henry IV., murdered at St. Edmundsbury, and buried at St. Alban's. It was generally thought that he was buried in the nave of St. Paul's Cathedral; but the monument supposed to be erected to the duke was in reality that of John Beauchamp. Loungers, who were asked if they were not going home to dinner, and those who tarried in St. Paul's after the general crowd had left, were supposed to be so busy looking for the duke's monument that they disregarded the dinner hour.

DINER-OUT OF THE FIRST WATER, the Rev. Sidney Smith; so called by the _Quarterly Review_ (1769-1845).

DINGLE (_Old d.i.c.k of the_), friend of Hobbie Elliott of the Heugh-foot farm.--Sir W. Scott, _The Black Dwarf_ (time, Anne).

DINGWALL (_Davie_), the attorney at Wolfe's Hope village.--Sir W.