DURESS 



2734 



DURHAM 





Durbar. Central pavilion and throne dais where George V was proclaimed Emperor of India at the Delhi Durb 

 Dec. 12, 1911. Within the amphitheatre troops were marshalled in geometrical formation 



desired him to take part in the Great Passion and The Little' 

 decoration of their bourse, the Passion. His famous woodcuts 



Fondaco de' Tedeschi. During his 

 sojourn, which lasted till the be- 

 ginning of 1507, he was cordially 

 received by the nobles, philoso- 

 phers, and poets ; less cordially by 

 the painters, of whom one only, 

 Giovanni Bellini, gave him the 

 hand of friendship. He began in 

 Venice The Feast of the Rosary. 

 On his return to Nuremberg in 

 1507, he produced the folio whig 

 paintings at short intervals : single 

 figures of Adam and Eve, 1507 ; 

 The Massacre of Ten Thousand 

 Christians, 1 508 ; The Virgin of the 

 Iris and The Adoration of the 

 Trinity, 1514. Between 1512-19 

 he was in the service of the emperor 

 Maximilian. In 1520-21 Diirer 

 made a journey to the Netherlands, 

 probably to obtain the continu- 

 ance by" Charles V of the pension 

 granted him by Maximilian. On 

 his return to his home, he devoted 

 himself to unceasing labour until 

 his death on April 6, 1528. He was 

 buried in the graveyard of S. John, 

 Nuremberg, and his house there is 

 now a Diirer museum. 



His friend Melanchthon said of 

 the artist that his least merit was 

 his artistic genius ; and the friends 

 he attracted to himself, Luther, 

 Melanchthon, and the rest, suggest 

 the attractiveness of his personality 

 and the extent of his culture. On 

 the whole, Diirer was less a painter 

 than a designer : his colour is more 

 truthful to the model than original 

 or beautiful. But in power of de- 

 sign, in nobleness of imagination, 

 in his application of scientific 

 theory to practice, in the intro- 

 spective quality of his portraits, 

 he has few, if any, equals. As a 

 copper-plate engraver he is su- 

 preme ; one can only cite the Arms 

 of Death, 1503 ; the Adam and 

 Eve, 1504 ; The Great Horse and 

 The Little Horse, 1505 ; the Knight, 

 Death and the Devil, 1513; St. 

 Jerome in his Chamber, 1514 ; and 

 the series of The Passion, not to be 

 confused with the woodcuts of The 



include the series of The Apoca- 

 lypse, 1497 ; the 20 scenes of the 

 Life of the Virgin, 1511 ; and a 

 number illustrating the writings of 

 Maximilian I. Diirer also published 

 Four Books on Human Proportion, 

 1528. SeeiEus. pp. 1261, 1872, 1993. 



Biblioyraphy. Life, W. B. ScoU, 

 1869 ; Albrecht Diirer, his Life and 

 Works, M. Thausing, Eng. trans, ed. 

 F. A. Eaton, 1882; Literary Re- 

 mains of A. D., W. M. Conway, 

 1889 ; Versuch einer Diirer Biblio- 

 graphie, H. W. Singer, 1903 ; Die 

 Kunst Albrecht Diirers, H. Wolfflin, 

 1905 ; Albrecht Diirer, Life and a 

 selection of his works, F. Ntichter. 

 Ens. trans. L. D. Williams, 1911. 



Duress (Lat. duritia, hardness). 

 Term used in English law. It means 

 compulsion by means of threats or 

 imprisonment. The court will not 

 allow anyone to retain the advant- 

 age of any gift or contract obtained 

 by duress. 



D'Urfey, THOMAS (1653-1723). 

 English dramatist and song writer. 

 Born at Exeter of Huguenot an- 

 cestry, he soon began to write. His 

 works include both tragedies and 

 comedies, but the latter, which in- 



clude The Fond Husband, 1676 ; 

 Squire Oldsapp, 1679 ; and Sir Bur- 

 naby Whig, 1681, were the most 

 popular. Like other dramatists of 

 his time he was attacked by Jeremy 

 Collier in his Short View of the Im- 

 moraJity of the English Stage. He 

 was also a prolific writer of songs, 

 of which two series were published, 

 entitled New Collection of Songs 

 and Poems, 1683 ; and Wit and 

 Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy, 

 1719-20. A man of amicable 

 character, he won the favour suc- 

 cessively of Charles I, James II, 

 William and Mary, and Anne, but 

 latterly his vogue as a dramatist 

 declined, and he died in poverty, 

 Feb. 26, 1723. See A Study of the 

 Plays of Thomas D'Urfey, R. S. 

 Forsythe, 1916-17. 



Durham. County palatine and 

 N.E. county of England. With 

 about 33 m. of coast line, its area is 

 1,013 sq. m. Branches of the Pen- 

 nine Chain, the highest summit of 

 which is Burnhope Seat, 2,452 ft., 

 enclose a series of fertile valleys in 

 the W., whence the surface slopes 

 away to the E. Immense coal- 

 measures occupy the centre, the 

 annual production of coal being 



Albert Ddrer. 



Examples of the artist's engraving. Left, the Arms of Death, 

 1503. Right, the Great Horse. 1505 



