DAUPHIN^ 



DAVID 



6*0 



XI., tin- dauphin exercised almost sovereign rights; 

 Inn ai'ter his time these were gradually fcbriogad, 

 until I)iui|iliiii6 was placed under the same laws 

 a- the rent of the kingdom, mid the title became 

 merely honorary. After the revolution of 1K.30, it 

 was abolished altogether. See DELPHIN CLASSICS. 



l>aii|liin<'. formerly a frontier province in the 

 south-west i)f France, now forming the departments 

 Drome. I sere, and Haute* Alpes. Its capital was 

 Grenoble,, and it boasted its ' seven wonders ' 

 remarkable caves, mountain peaks, &c. Once the 

 territory of the Allobrogi, after the fall of the 

 Roman empire Dauphine formed the southern- 

 mo-,! part of the kingdom of Burgundy. It then 

 passed under the dominion of the Franks, and after 

 the dismemberment of the Carlovingian monarchy, 

 it became a portion of the new Bnrgundian king- 

 dom of Aries. It then passed by legacy into the 

 po^M-x-ioii of the German emperor in 1032, and 

 remained united with Germany till 1343, when it 

 was presented to France (see DAUPHIN). There 

 is a history by Chorier (2 vols. 1883). 



Daiirat, JEAN, a gifted French scholar, who 

 played an important part in determining the course 

 which his country's literature took at the time of 

 the Renaissance. He was born about 1510, and 

 liecame president of the College Coqueret, where 

 he superintended the studies of Ronsard, Du 

 Bellay, Baif, and Belleau. These poets, with 

 whom he was united in the famous coterie of the 

 Pleiade (q.v. ), he carefully trained for the task of 

 reforming the vernacular, and ennobling French 

 literature by the imitation of Greek and Latin 

 models. He wrote nothing of importance in 

 French, but devoted himself to guiding and stimu- 

 lating the other members of the Pleiade, in whose 

 works his learning and enthusiasm bore rich and 

 enduring fruit. He died in 1588. 



Dauria, a mountainous region of south-eastern 

 Siberia, lietween Lake Baikal and the river Argun, 

 on the Chinese frontier. 



Dauw. See HORSE, QITAGGA, ZEBRA. 



MM truant. SIR WILLIAM, English poet and 

 playwright, was born in 1606 at Oxford, where 

 his father kept the Crown Tavern, a house at 

 which Shakespeare was in the habit of stopping 

 when on his journeys between London and Strat- 

 ford. A story arose later that D'Avenant's birth 

 was due to an intrigue between his mother and 

 the great dramatist, but for this there seems to 

 be no foundation, though apparently D'Avenant 

 himself was willing enough to barter his mother's 

 reputation for the credit of such a parentage. 

 Aubrey tells us that D'Avenant would often say, 

 when pleasant over a cup of wine, that it seemed 

 to him that he wrote with the very spirit that 

 Shakespeare did. and 'seemed contented enough 

 to lie thought bis son.' In his twelfth year the 

 precocious boy penned an Ode in Rememlinnn;- ,,f 

 Master Sha&etptare, not printed, however, until 1638. 

 After a short period of study at Lincoln College, 

 b.3 became page to Frances, Duchess of Richmond ; 

 next passed into the household of the aged poet, 

 Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, and in 1628 took to 

 writing for the stage. During the next ten years 

 he produced many plays, the least poor of which 

 were The Cruel Brother (1630) ami The M'/Av 

 (1636). In 1638, at the request of the queen, he 

 was appointed poet-laureate in succession to Hen 

 lonson. About the same time he lost his nose 

 through an illness a calamity which laid him 

 open to the merriment of such wits as Suckling, 

 Denham, and Sir John Mennis. He afterwards 

 became manager of Drury Lane Theatre, but l>e- 

 caine embroiled in the intrigues of the Civil War, 

 and was apprehended and nung into the Tower. 

 He soon escaped to France, and returning, distin- 



guished himself HO much in the royali-t cause, 

 that lie WOH knighted by Charles at the sii-yi- of 

 Gloucester (SepU-mlmr 1643). D'Avenant again 

 got into diHiculties, and was confined in the To \\i-r 

 for two years, when he was released, it is said, on 

 the intercession of Milton. Once more he set 

 about establishing theatrical representations, and 

 in 1658 succeeded in opening a theatre. Two years 

 earlier he had given what was practically the first 

 opera in England, with Mrs C'oleman as the first 

 actress that ever appeared on an English stage. 

 After the Restoration, D'Avenant was favoured 

 by royal patronage, and continued to write and 

 superintend the performance of plays until his 

 death, April 7, 1668. His epic, entitled Gondi- 

 fiirf.ii feeble reaction from the romanticism of the 

 Kli/abethan. poets,, consists of fifteen hundred four- 

 line heroic stanzas with alternate rhymes a metre 

 which the genius of Gray's Elegy can scarce save 

 from the damning sin of monotony ; much bepraised 

 by its contemporaries, it now sleeps securely in 

 the same oblivion with the author's Madagascar, 

 and his great opera The Siege of Rhodes. A col- 

 lected edition of liis plays, with memoir, was edited 

 by Logan and Maidment (Edin. 5 vols. 1872-74). 

 CHARLES D'AVENANT, his eldest son, was born in 

 London in 1656, was educated at Balliol College, 

 sat in parliament under James II. and William III.. 

 was commissioner of excise and joint-licenser of 

 plays, under Anne secretary to the Commissioners 

 tor Union with Scotland, next inspector-general 

 of imports and exports. . He died fith November 

 1714. Among his writings are Discmirses on the 

 Publick Revenues and the Trade of England ( 1698), 

 and A Discourse upon Grants ( 1700), 



Davenport, capital of Scott county, Iowa, on 

 the Mississippi, opposite Rock Island (q.v.), 183 

 miles W. by o. of Chicago by rail. It is the seat of 

 Griswold College (1859) and of several Catholic 

 institutions, has extensive manufactures of flour, 

 wooden and iron wares, and woollen goods, and is 

 the shipping depot of a large grain trade. Pop. 

 (1880) 21,831 ; (1890) 26,872 ; (1900) 3.VJ.VI. 



Daveiltry (pronounced Daintry), an ancient 

 municipal borough of Northamptonshire, at the 

 sources of the Avon and Nene, 12 miles W. of 

 Northampton, and 4 NW. of Weedon by a branch 

 line opened in 1888. It is well built on an emi- 

 nence, and has two principal streets. Charles I. 

 spent six days here in 1645 before the .battle, of 

 Naseby. Pop. (1851) 4430; (1881) 3859; (1891) 

 3939. A mile to the east is Danes or Borough Hill, 

 one of the largest Roman camps in the kingdom. 



David, capital of Chiriqui (q.v.) in Panama, 

 lies in a fertile plain on the Rio David, which 

 enters the Pacific 8 miles to the south. Stock- 

 raising and the cultivation of tobacco are exten- 

 sively engaged in, and there is a considerable trade. 

 Pop. 9000. 



David (Heb., 'beloved'), the second king over 

 Israel. He sprang from a family of Judah, and 

 was the youngest son of Jesse, a man of some sub- 

 stance at Bethlehem. He is described as a hand- 

 some youth, ' red-haired, with l*>autiful eyes, and 

 fair of face,' when he first distinguished himself in 

 Israel by slaying the Philistine ^iant Goliath. 

 After this heroic deed. Saul took him to his court, 

 and appointed him to a military command. Accord- 

 ing to another account (1 Sam. xvi. 14-23) it was 

 his skill in playing the harp, ami bis iM'ing wilt for 

 to banish the melancholy of Saul by that means, 

 that first led to his coining into contact with the 

 moody king. He had, soon to flee from Saul's court, 

 as the kings jealousy of his supposed rival led him 

 to seek David's life; but, by tiie craft of his wife 

 Michal. Saul's daughter, and the friendship of 

 Jonathan, Saul's son, he escaped, and fled to the 



