560 



DIETRICH, JOHANN WILHELM. 



DIQBY, KENELME. 



590 



Dies remained several years in Rome, but in the meanwhile paid _ 

 visit to Naples. He also published a set of landscape etchings in 

 Rome, executed in company with some other German artists. H 

 returned with a Roman wife to Germany in 1796, and establishet 

 himself at Vienna, where he obtained a great reputation, notwith 

 standing a nervous debility which he had brought on by taking whils 

 in Rome some solution of sugar of lead in mistake for a medicine 

 which he was using. His right side was so much affected by thi 

 nervous debility, that he was forced to give up entirely the use o 

 his right hand, and he painted for some years with his left. He wa 

 at length forced to give up painting altogether, and his only remainini 

 resource was poetry, in the composition of which he always indulged 

 He was also a musical composer, and he performed with skill upon 

 several instruments. Besides several minor pieces upon the arts, he 

 was the author of a comic didactic poem entitled 'Der Genius der 

 Kunst.' A few of his musical compositions have been published, anc 

 he wrote a biography of Joseph Haydn. He died at Vienna in 1822 

 after an illness of thirteen years. 



(Arcfiiv fiir Getduchte, <kc., 1825; Nagler, Neitcs Allgemcincs 

 Kunttler- Lexicon. ) 



DIETRICH, JOHANN WILHELM ERNST, one of the most 

 diatingui.-hed German painters of the 18th century, was born at 

 Weimar in 1712. His father, Johann Georg Dietrich, who was his 

 first instructor, waa court-painter at Weimar, and painted portraits 

 battles, and genre pictures with considerable success. In his twelfth 

 year his father sent Mm to Dresden to study under Alexander Thiele, 

 a celebrated landtcape-painter, and he attended at the same time the 

 Academy of Dresden. Dietrich rapidly distinguished himself; and in 

 1730, when only eighteen years of age, he was presented at Dresden 

 to Augustus II., king of Poland, who appointed him his court-painter. 

 He found at the same time a generous and valuable patron in Count 

 Briihl, for whom he painted much in his house at Grochwitz, since 

 destroyed : the count granted him an annual pension of 400 dollars, 

 or 60t sterling. 



In 1741 Dietrich was appointed bis court-painter by Augustus III., 

 king of Poland ; and in 1743 he was sent by the same king to prosecute 

 his studies at Rome, but he remained there only one year. In 1746 

 he received an appointment in the picture gallery, with a salary of 

 400 rix-dollars per annum ; and when the Academy of Arts of Dresden 

 was established in 1763, Dietrich was appointed one of the professors, 

 with a salary of COO rix-dollars, and he was at the same time made 

 director of the pchool of painting in the porcelain manufactory at 

 ileifsen. He died at Dresden in 1774, ged 62, and is supposed to 

 have hastened liu death by bis incessant application to his art ; for, 

 notwithstanding an extremely rapid execution, he was an indefatigable 

 painter, and laboured at his easel with little intermission till within 

 the last few years of Ms life, when his weak state of health rendered 

 it physically impossible. Dietrich had no original power. He painted 

 in various styles, and copied any master with surprising exactness. 

 He was most able however as a landscape-painter ; but his views were 

 generally arbitrary compositions, well coloured, transparent, and 

 effectively lighted. He often painted in imitation of the style of some 

 celebrated master Everdingen, Poelemburg, Berghem, or Claude 

 and on all occasions the imitations were excellent. He copied also 

 with equal facility the style of Raffaelle, Correggio, Mieris, and Ostade. 

 He likewise repeatedly imitated the style of Rembrandt both in 

 paintings and in etching.", especially in religious pieces, but with 

 somewhat less licence as to the costume and the proportions of the 

 human figure. 



Dietrich painted also many rustic pieces, and pieces in the style and 

 manner of Watteau. Two collections of etchings by him have been 

 published, which are very scarce, especially the first ; the second, con- 

 sisting of eighty-seven plates, was published after his death, retouched 

 by and under the direction of Zingg. Some of his etchings are signed 

 ' Dietrich,' and others ' Dietricy ;' the earlier ones are marked with the 

 former name. There are also many prints after his works by other 

 ma* ters. 



There are twenty-seven of Dietrich's pictures in the Royal Gallery 

 at Dresden, nud there is a good collection of his drawings and sketches 

 in the collection of prints there. 



(Meueel, Hiecellaneen Artittichcn Inhalls ; Heineken, NachriMen 

 von Kiinttlcno, ike. ; and Dictionnaire del Artistes, <kc.) 



DIGBY, GKOKOE, EARL OF BRISTOL, was born in 1612 at 

 Madrid, where his father John, earl of Bristol, waa then ambassador. 

 He waa educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, travelled in France, 

 and in 1C40 entered public life as one of the knights of the shire for 

 Dorsetshire. From this time his career was marked by that uninter- 

 rupted series of clever inconsistencies which make Ms life like a novel 

 and his character a riddle. Neither his character nor the incidents of 

 his history can \>v adequately understood, unless from a full collection 

 of particulars. Such a collection will be found in the very long 

 memoir of him given in the ' Biographia Britannica.' After distin- 

 guishing himself in the House of Commons as a member of the 

 opposition, he luddenly joined the court in the middle of Strafford'n 

 trial ; afterwards he advised the seizure of the six members, and was 

 one of the most violent of the king's imprudent advisers. Compelled 

 to leave England, he served in the French wars of the Fronde, where 

 h gained high reputation, but behaved so intriguingly ta to be 



cashiered; and next, seeking service with the king of Spain, he 

 embraced the Roman Catholic religion, against which lie had formerly 

 written a treatise. After the restoration he returned to England, and 

 sat in the House of Lords, where he, a Roman Catholic, spoke and 

 voted in favour of the Test Act. Another of his most prominent 

 public appearances was his impeachment of Lord Clarendon in 1663. 

 This able but eccentric and useless man died at Chelsea on the 20th 

 of March 1 677. His literary character is not more thau respectable. 

 His principal worka are several speeches, a good many letters, a trans- 

 lation of the first three books of the French romance of ' Cassandra,' 

 and a lively play called ' Elvira, or the Worst not always True, a 

 Comedy, written by a Person of Quality,' which was licensed and 

 printed in 1667, and is reprinted in Dodsley's ' Old Plays." 



DIGBY, EVERARD, was born in 1581 of an ancient, honourable, 

 and wealthy family. His father, who was a Roman Catholic and a 

 man reputed for learning, died in 1592, leaving the estates at Tilton 

 and Drystoke in Rutlandshire to his son, the charge of whose education 

 he had committed to some priests of his persuasion. In 1596 Everard 

 married the only daughter and heiress of William Mulsho, or Moulsoe, 

 of Goathurst in Buckinghamshire, whose parents dyiug eoon after the 

 marriage, he acquired a large estate in right of his wife. In 1603 lie 

 was knighted by James I. at Belvoir Castle, which the king visited 

 in his journey from Scotland to London to take possession of the 

 throne. 



The share which Sir Everard Diby took in the Gunpowder Plot is 

 the sole cause of his celebrity. This conspiracy was projected when 

 he was twenty-four years old : the oath of secrecy was administered 

 and the design communicated to him by Catesby about Michaelmas 

 1605. When Digby first heard of the plot he was averse to it, but 

 forbore to reveal it on account of his oath ; afterwards, when he found 

 that it was approved by Romau Catholic priests, the religious scruples 

 which he had entertained were removed, and he united cordially in 

 the project, contributing towards its execution a quantity of horses, 

 arms, and ammunition, together with 1500Z. in money. Digby was 

 not concerned in the preparation of the vault ; the share of the plot 

 that was allotted to him was to assemble a number of tho Roman 

 Catholic gentry on the 5th of November, at Dunclmrch in Warwick- 

 shire, under the pretence of hunting on Dunstnoor Heath, from which 

 place, as soon as they had received notice that the blow was struck, 

 a party was to be despatched to seize the Princess Elizabeth at the 

 house of Lord Harrington, near Coventry. The princess was to be 

 immediately proclaimed queen in case of a failure in securing the 

 person of the Prince of Wales or the young Duke of York, and a regent 

 was to be appointed during the minority of the new sovereign. Digby 

 assembled his party, and rode to Lady Catesby 's at Ashby Ledgers to 

 hear the result of the scheme. In the evening live of the party arrived, 

 fatigued and covered with dirt, with news of the discovery of the 

 plot and the apprehension of Fav.-kes. A short consultation was held 

 as to what was bet to be done ; and it was agreed to traverse the 

 counties of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford into Wales, where it 

 was thought that they should find many adherents, exciting as they 

 went along the Roman Catholic gentry to join them in a general 

 nsurrection. They carried off fresh horses in the night by stealth 

 Tom the stable of a breaker of cavalry horses in Warwick ; th^-y 

 seized arms at Lord Windsor's residence at Whewell ; and on the 7th 

 occupied a house at Holbeach belonging to Stephen Littleton. But 

 all hope of accession to their numbers was at au end. " Not one 

 man," says Sir Everard Digby in his examination, " came to take our 

 5art, though we had expected so many." The Roman Catholic gentry 

 drove them from their doors, reproaching them with having brought 

 ruin and disgrace on the Catholic cause by their ill-advised enterprise; 

 while the common people stood and gazed upon their irregular train, 

 and evinced anything but a disposition to join them. Sir Everard 

 5igby forsook his companions at Holbeach, with the intention, as he 

 stated, of basteuing some expected succours : he was overtaken at 

 Dudley, apprehended, and conveyed to London. On Monday, the 

 27th of January 1605-06, he was tried, with his fellow-conspirators. 

 S T o doubt of their guilt was entertained, though written depositions 

 only were given in by the prisoners, and no witness was orally 

 examined : Digby alone pleaded guilty. They were executed on the 

 ollowing Thursday. Sir Everard Digby has been described by 

 Jreenway as profound in judgment and of a great and brilliaut under- 

 tanding, but we distrust this partial writer : he appears throughout 

 his transaction rather as a weak and bigoted young man, never acting 

 upon his own judgment or impulses, but submitting himself entirely 

 a the control and guidance of the Jesuits. (Abridged from the Library 

 /Entertaining Knowledge, 'Criminal Trials,' vol. ii.) 

 DIGBY, KENELME, the son of Sir Everard Digby, was born in 

 603, three years before his father's execution. He was educated in 

 he Protestant faith, and sent to Oxford at the age of fifteen, having 

 >een entered at Gloucester Hall. His ability was early apparent, 

 nd when he had left the university in 1621 with the intention of 

 ravelling, he had acquired considerable reputation. After having 

 pent two years in France, Spain, and Italy, he returned to England 

 u 1623, and was knighted at Lord Montague's house, Hincliinbroke, 

 jear Huntingdon, in October in the same year. Under Charles I. ho 

 was u gentleman of the bed-chamber, a commissioner of the navy, and 

 governor of the Trinity Houne. In 1628 he obtained the king's 



