Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 101

DIVAN _(The)_, the supreme council and court of justice of the caliphs. The abba.s.sides always sat in person in this court to aid in the redress of wrongs. It was called "a divan" from the benches covered with cus.h.i.+ons on which the members sat.--D'Herbelot, _Bibliotheque Orientate_, 298.

DIVE _[deev]_, a demon in Persian mythology. In the mogul's palace at Lah.o.r.e, there used to be several pictures of these dives (1 _syl_), with long horns, staring eyes, s.h.a.ggy hair, great fangs, ugly paws, long tails, and other horrible deformities.

DI'VER (_Colonel_), editor of the _New York Rowdy Journal_, in America. His air was that of a man oppressed by a sense of his own greatness, and his physiognomy was a map of cunning and conceit.--C.

d.i.c.kens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844.)

DI'VES (2 _syl_.), the name popularly given to the "rich man" in our Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus; in Latin, _Dives et Lazarus_.--_Luke_ xvi.

DIVI'NA COMME'DIA, the first poem of note ever written in the Italian language. It is an epic by Dante' Alighie'ri, and is divided into three parts: h.e.l.l, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dante' called it a _comedy_, because the ending is happy; and his countrymen added the word _divine_ from admiration of the poem. The poet depicts a vision, in which he is conducted, first by Virgil (_human reason_,) through h.e.l.l and purgatory; and then by Beatrice (_revelation_), and finally by St. Bernard, through the several heavens, where he beholds the Triune G.o.d.

"h.e.l.l," is represented as a funnel-shaped hollow, formed of gradually contracting circles, the lowest and smallest of which is the earth's centre. (See INFERNO, 1300).

"Purgatory" is a mountain rising solitarily from the ocean on that side of the earth which is opposite to us. It is divided into terraces, and its top is the terrestrial paradise. (See PURGATORY, 1308).

From this "top" the poet ascends through the seven planetary heavens, the fixed stars, and the "primum mobile" to the empyre'an or seat of G.o.d. (See PARADISE, 1311).

DIVINE (_The_), St. John the evangelist, called "John the Divine."

Raphael, the painter, was called _Il Divino_ (1483-1520).

Luis Morales, a Spanish painter, was called _El Divino_ (1509-1586).

Ferdinand de Herre'ra, a Spanish poet (1516-1595).

DIVINE DOCTOR _(The)_, Jean de Ruysbroek, the mystic (1294-1381).

DIVINE SPEAKER _(The)_ Tyr'tamos, usually known as Theophrastos ("divine speaker"), was so called by Aristotle (B.C. 370-287).

DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. The dogma that _Kings can do no wrong_ is based on a dictum of Hincmar Archbishop of Rheims, viz., that kings are subject to no man so long as they rule by G.o.d's law.--_Hincmar's Works_, i. 693.

DIVINING ROD, a forked branch of hazel suspended between the b.a.l.l.s of the thumbs. The inclination of this rod indicates the presence of water-springs and precious metals.

Now to rivulets from the mountains Point the rods of fortune-tellers.

Longfellow, _Drinking Song_.

[Ill.u.s.tration] Jacques Aymar of Crole was the most famous of all diviners. He lived in the latter half of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth. His marvellous faculty attracted the attention of Europe. M. Chauvin, M.D., and M. Garnier, M.D., published carefully written accounts of his wonderful powers, and both were eye-witnesses thereof.--See S. Baring-Gould, _Myths of the Middle Ages_.

DIVINITY. There are four professors of divinity at Cambridge, and three at Oxford. Those at _Cambridge_ are the Hul'sean, the Margaret, the Norrisian, and the Regius. Those at _Oxford_ are the Margaret, the Regius, and one for Ecclesiastical History.

DIVI'NO LODOV'ICO, Ariosto, author of _Orlando Furioso_ (1474-1533).

DIXIE'S LAND, the land of milk and honey to American negroes. Dixie was a slave-holder of Manhattan Island, who removed his slaves to the Southern States, where they had to work harder and fare worse; so that they were always sighing for their old home, which they called "Dixie's Land." Imagination and distance soon advanced this island into a sort of Delectable Country or land of Beulah.

This is but one of many explanations given of the origin of a phrase that, during the Civil War (1861-1865) came to be applied to the Seceding States. The song "Dixie's Land" was supposed to be sung by exiles from the region south of Mason and Dixon's line.

"Away down South in Dixie, I wish I were in Dixie, In Dixie's Land I'd take my stand To live and die in Dixie."

DIXON, servant to Mr. Richard Vere (1 _syl._).--Sir W. Scott, _The Black Dwarf_ (time, Anne).

DIZZY, a nickname of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881).

DJA'BAL, son of Youssof, a sheikh, and saved by Maa'ni, in the great ma.s.sacre of the sheikhs by the Knights Hospitallers in the Spo'rades.

He resolves to avenge this ma.s.sacre, and gives out that he is Hakeem', the incarnate G.o.d, their founder, returned to earth to avenge their wrongs and lead them back to Syria. His imposture being discovered, he kills himself, but Loys _[Lo'.iss]_, a young Breton count, leads the exiles back to Lebanon. Djabal is Hakeem, the incarnate Dread, The phantasm khalif, king of Prodigies.

Robert Browning, _The Return of the Druses_, i.

DOBBIN _(Captain_, afterwards _Colonel_), son of Sir William Dobbin, a London tradesman. Uncouth, awkward, and tall, with huge feet; but faithful and loving, with a large heart and most delicate appreciation. He is a prince of a fellow, is proud and fond of Captain George Osborne from boyhood to death, and adores Amelia, George's wife. When she has been a widow for some ten years, he marries her.--Thackeray, _Vanity Fair_ (1848).

DOBBS'S HORSE, Charley Dobbs, setting off to California, gives his best friend Theophilus an order for "a good sound family horse, not young, but the safer for all that," that had once belonged to his mother. He is boarding the creature on a farm in Westchester County, and his friend is welcome to the use of him.

Dobbs's Horse is the skeleton in the household in many a sense of the word. He refuses to be fattened: he balks; he has colic and spasms; he lies down in harness; he impales himself upon a broken rail; he keels over upon the gra.s.s, whizzing like a capsized engine; he bites himself--and has driven the family to the verge of insanity when Dobbs returns and upon beholding the "n.o.ble old fellow," shouts that they have the wrong horse! "This is one I sold long ago for fifteen dollars!"--Mary Mapes Dodge, _Theophilus and Others_ (1876).

DOBBINS _(Humphrey)_, the confidential servant of Sir Robert Bramble of Blackberry Hall, in the county of Kent. A blunt old retainer, most devoted to his master. Under a rough exterior he concealed a heart brimful of kindness, and so tender that a word would melt it.--George Colman, _The Poor Gentleman_ (1802).

DOBU'NI, called _Bodu'ni_ by Dio; the people of Gloucesters.h.i.+re and Oxfords.h.i.+re. Drayton refers to them in his _Polyolbion_, xvi. (1613).

DOCTOR (_The_), a romance by Souther. The doctor's name is Dove, and his horse "n.o.bbs."

_Doctor_ (_The Admirable_), Roger Bacon (1214-1292).

_The Angelic Doctor_, Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), "fifth doctor of the Church."

_The Authentic Doctor_, Geogory of Rimini (_-1357).

_The Divine Doctor_, Jean Ruysbroek (1294-1381).

_The Dulcifluous Doctor_, Antonio Andreas, (_-1320).

_The Ecstatic Doctor_, Jean Ruysbroek (1294-1381).

_The Eloquent Doctor_, Peter Aureolus, archbishop of Aix (fourteenth century).

_The Evangelical Doctor_, J. Wycliffe (1324-1384).

_The Illuminated Doctor_, Raymond Lully (1235-1315), or _Most Enlightened Doctor_.

_The Invincible Doctor_, William Occam (1276-1347).

_The Irrefragable Doctor_, Alexander Hales (_-1245.)

_The Mellifluous Doctor_, St. Bernard (1091-1153).

_The Most Christian Doctor_, Jean de Gerson (1363-1429).

_The Most Methodical Doctor_, John Ba.s.sol(_-1347).

_The Most Profound Doctor_, aegidius de Columna (_-1316).