670 



DICTIONARY DIDEROT. 



eire of general knowledge is daily increasing, works 

 ef very various kinds liave been prejwred on the 

 principle of alphaliei ical nrnuigement, and are termet 

 t/ictionariet. 



Among the Greek dictionaries, the Onomastikon, 

 written B. C. 120, by Julius Pollux, is one of the 

 oldest, but more of a dictionary of tilings, or an en- 

 cyclopedia, Uian a verbal dictionary. Hesychius o: 

 Alexandria, of whom we know little more than that 

 he lived at the beginning of the third century, was 

 the first Christian who wrote a Greek dictionary 

 which he called Glostarium. After the revival of 

 learning, Johannes Crestonus (Crastonus, Johannes 

 Placentintu, because he was a native of Placenza) 

 wrote, in 1 480, the first Greek and Latin dictionary. 

 M. Terentius Varro, born in the year of Rome 638, 

 wrote the first Latin dictionary. A similar one is 

 Uiat called Papius, prepared by Solomon, abbot of St 

 Gall, bishop of Constance, who lived about 1409. 

 Jolui Balbus (de Balbis ; de Janua ; Januensis ; died 

 1298) compiled a Latin dictionary, printed at Mentz 

 in 1460, under the title Catholicon. John Reuchlin 

 was the first German who wrote a Latin dictionary. 

 The first Hebrew dictionary is by Rabbi Menachem 

 Ben Saruck (Ben Jakob), in the ninth century. 

 Rabbi Ben Jechiel (died in 1106) published the first 

 Talmudic dictionary. The first Arabic diction- 

 ary, written by a Christian, was published by 

 Peter de Alcala, in 1505, at Grenada, with defini- 

 tions in the Spanish language ; another, by Fran- 

 ciscus Raphelengius (born 1539, died 1597), was 

 printed at Leyden, in 1613. The first Syriac dic- 

 tionary was written by Andrew Masius, in 1571, at 

 Antwerp; the first ^Ethiopian and Amharic, by Job 

 1 julolf, in the sixteenth century, London ; the first 

 Japanese, by John Ferdinand; the first German, by 

 the archbishop Rabanus Maurus, of Mentz (died 

 859) ; the first German printed dictionary, under the 

 title TAeufonista, was prepared by Gerhard von der 

 Schuren, Cologne, 1477 ; the first Hebrew, Greek, 

 and Latin dictionary, by Sebastian Munster, 1530, at 

 Basle. The dictionary of the Italian language, 

 which has the highest authority, is that of the Crusca. 

 The best French dictionary is that of the academy ; 

 but, since the revolution, the language has been in- 

 creased by the addition of many new words, and has 

 received from several of its first writers a new turn. 

 The Spaniards have also a dictionary of the academy. 

 The Portuguese academy has published one volume 

 only of its dictionary. In German, no work of such 

 authority exists. Adelung is excellent for etymolo- 

 gy, but not of 'much authority as a standard of lan- 

 guage. In this respect, Campe's fforterbuch (Bruns- 

 wick, 1813, 6 vols. 4to) is more complete. For 

 Latin, Forcellini is still the best, and James Bailey's 

 edition (London, 1828, 2 vols. 4to) is very excellent 

 and complete. In English, Johnson's Dictionary was 

 published in 1755, in 2 vols. fol. An Abridgment 

 by the author appeared in 1756, in which many of 

 the words were omitted. Mr Todd has added, in his 

 second edition of Johnson's Dictionary (1827), more 

 than 15,000 words. The other English dictionaries 

 are of little comparative value, in respect to lan- 

 guage. Walker's Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, 

 (which is incorporated with the Boston edition of the 

 Abridgment of Todd's Johnson) is important, as af- 

 fording the most general standard of polite pronun- 

 ciation. The American Dictionary of the English 

 Language, intended to exhibit the origin, affinities, 

 and primary signification of words, the genuine ortho- 

 graphy and pronunciation of words, and accurate and 

 discriminating definitions, by Noah Webster, 2 vols. 

 4to, New York, 1828, republished in London, 1829, 

 (Abridgment, 8vo, Boston, 1829), is a work of 

 merit, and of great labour. It contains between 



60,000 and 70,000 words. For Geographical Dic- 

 tionaries, see Gazetteer. 



DIDACTIC POETRY. The word didactic is de- 

 rived from 3<Wxti, to teach ; and a didactic poem i 

 one of some length, the object of which is to impart 

 instruction in the form of poetry. It is a matter of 

 question, whether didactic poetry really deserves to 

 be classed with lyric, epic, and dramatic, because 

 either the chief object of the poem is to give instruc 

 tion on a certain subject, in which case the elevation, 

 invention, and freedom of poetry are excluded ; or, it' 

 this is not the prominent object, then every poem is 

 more or less didactic. If there are any poems really 

 deserving the name, that ought to l>e called iliitnrti<; 

 it is those which veil the purpose of instruction under 

 the universally admitted forms of poetic composition, 

 as in the case of Lessing's drama of Nathan the \V ise ; 

 or clothe the lessons ot wisdom in a symbolical or 

 allegorical garb, as in the case of many visions, &c. 

 Many of the early sacred poems of the different na- 

 tions are, in this sense, didactic, and most, perhaps 

 all, of these didactic poems partake of the symboli- 

 cal character. Even Dante's grand poem (see 

 Dante) would, in this point of view, be justly called 

 didactic. Also fables, parables, poetic epistles, mid 

 descriptive poems are numbered, in this sense, among 

 those of the didactic kind. 



There is hardly a subject, however prosaic, which 

 has not at some time, been treated in a didactic 

 poem, so called. The writer recollects having seen 

 a long poem on book-binding. Didactic poetry, tak- 

 ing the phrase in its narrower sense, will always l>e 

 a meagre and poor kind of composition ; but, when 

 it passes into poetic description, it may attain an ani- 

 mated and elevated character. Lively and beauti- 

 ful descriptions, for instance, exist, of hunting, fish- 

 ing, husbandry ; but it is not to be denied, that they 

 lose in didactic, as they gain in poetical character. 

 Even the poem of Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, on 

 the system of Epicurus, and the Georgics of Virgil, 

 on husbandry, though containing poetical episodes 

 and masterly passages, can hardly be regarded, on 

 the whole, as great poems. Didactic poetry is most 

 cultivated in periods when the nobler kinds of poe- 

 try are declining, and the want of poetical genius and 

 noble conceptions is attempted to be supplied by an 

 incongruous mixture of poetry and reflection. Ovid's 

 Art of Love partakes of the comic character. The 

 Ars poetica of Horace is of the didactic kind. Among 

 ;he English didactic poets are Davies, Akenskle, 

 Dryden, Pope, Young, Cowper, Darwin ; among the 

 French, Racine, Boileau, Dorat, Lacombe, Deiille ; 

 among the Germans, Opitz, Haller, Hagedorn, 

 "ronegk, Lichtwer, Tiedge, &c. Our objections to 

 didactic poetry apply to it only if it is intended to 

 make a class separate from epic, lyric, or dramatic, 

 and has for its great object, to impart instruction on 

 a particular subject, and not where the established 

 'orrns of poetic composition are employed as vehicle's 

 of instruction. 



DIDASCALIA, among the Greeks ; sometimes 

 the exhibition of a play itself, and sometimes a writ- 

 en addition, in which information is given of the 

 authors and contents of the plays, of the time, place, 

 and success of the representation ; whether the 

 Dieces were exhibited or not ; whether they were the 

 ivork of the poet to whom they were attributed, &c. 

 Many old authors have written didascalia ; and these 

 contain, not merely theatrical information, but also 

 dramatic criticisms, the analysis of the plan, deve- 

 opment of the beauties and faults, &c. See Drama. 

 DIDEROT, DENIS ; a French writer and philoso- 

 iher, was born in 1713, at Langres, in Champagne, 

 md educated in the school of the Jesuits, who de- 

 signed to make him one of their order. His father 



