The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 171

DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS, a great English seaman of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, born near Tavistock, in Devon; served in the Royal Navy under his relative, Sir John Hawkins, and distinguished himself with signal success by his valour and daring against the pride of Spain, towards which, as the great Catholic persecuting power, he had been taught to cherish an invincible hatred; came swoop down like a hawk on its ports across seas, and bore himself out of them laden with spoil; in 1577 sailed for America with five s.h.i.+ps, pa.s.sed through the Strait of Magellan, the first Englishman to do it; plundered the W. coast as far as Peru; lost all his s.h.i.+ps save one; crossed the Pacific, and came home by way of the Cape--the first to sail round the world--with spoil to the value of 300,000, his successes contributing much to embolden his countrymen against the arrogance of the Catholic king; and he was vice-admiral in the fleet that drove back the Armada from our sh.o.r.es (1540-1596).

DRAKE, FRIEDRICH, a German sculptor, born at Pyrmont; studied under Rauch; executed numerous statues and busts, among others busts of Oken and Ranke, Bismarck and Moltke; his chief works are the "Eight Provinces of Prussia," represented by large allegorical figures, and the "Warrior crowned by Victory" (1805-1882).

DRAKE, NATHAN, a physician, born at York; author of "Shakespeare and his Times" (1766-1836).

DRAKENBERG MOUNTAINS, a range of mountains in S. Africa, 6500 ft.

high, between Natal and the Orange Free State.

DRAMATIC UNITIES, three rules of dramatic construction prescribed by Aristotle, observed by the French dramatists, but ignored by Shakespeare, that (1) a play should represent what takes place within eight hours, (2) there must be no change of locality, and (3) there must be no minor plot.

DRAMMEN (20), a Norwegian seaport on a river which falls into Christiania Bay, 30 m. SW. of Christiania; trade chiefly in timber.

DRAPER, JOHN WILLIAM, a chemist, scientist, and man of letters, born at Liverpool; settled in the United States; wrote on chemistry, physiology, and physics generally, as well as works of a historical character, such as the "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe" and the "History of the Conflict between Science and Religion,"

an able book (1811-1882).

DRAPIER, a pseudonym adopted by Swift in his letters to the people of Ireland anent Wood's pence, and which led to the cancelling of the patent.

DRAVE, a river from the Eastern Alps which flows eastward, and after a course of 380 miles falls into the Danube 10 m. below Essek.

DRAVIDIANS, races of people who occupied India before the arrival of Aryans, and being driven S. by them came to settle chiefly in the S. of the Dekkan; they are divided into numerous tribes, each with a language of its own, but of a common type or group, some of them literary and some of them not, the chief the Tamil; the tribes together number over 20 millions.

DRAWCANSIR, a bl.u.s.tering, bullying boaster in Buckingham's play the "Rehearsal"; he kills every one of the combatants, "sparing neither friend nor foe."

DRAYTON, MICHAEL, an English poet, born In Warwicks.h.i.+re, like Shakespeare; was one of the three chief patriotic poets, Warner and Daniel being the other two, which arose in England after her humiliation of the pride of Spain, although he was no less distinguished as a love poet; his great work is his "Polyolbion," in glorification of England, consisting of 30 books and 100,000 lines; it gives in Alexandrines "the tracts, mountains, forests, and other parts of this renowned isle of Britain, with intermixture of the most remarkable stories, antiquities, wonders, pleasures, and commodities of the same digested in a poem"; this was preceded by other works, and succeeded by a poem ent.i.tled "The Ballad of Agincourt," p.r.o.nounced one of the most spirited martial lyrics in the language (1563-1631).

DRELINCOURT, a French Protestant divine, born at Sedan; author of "Consolations against the Fear of Death" (1595-1669).

DRENTHE (137), a province of Holland lying between Hanover and the Zuyder Zee; the soil is poor, and the population spa.r.s.e.

DRESDEN (250), the capital of Saxony, on the Elbe, 116 m. SE. of Berlin; a fine city, with a museum rich in all kinds of works of art, and called in consequence the "Florence of Germany"; here the Allies were defeated by Napoleon in 1813, when he entered the city, leaving behind him 30,000 men, who were besieged by the Russians and compelled to surrender as prisoners of war the same year.

DREYFUS, L'AFFAIRE. On 23rd December 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, an Alsatian Jew, captain of French Artillery; was by court-martial found guilty of revealing to a foreign power secrets of national defence, and sentenced to degradation and perpetual imprisonment; he constantly maintained his innocence, and, in time, the belief that he had been unjustly condemned became prevalent, and a revision of the trial being at length ordered, princ.i.p.ally through the exertions of Colonel Picquart and Zola, the well-known author, Dreyfus was brought back from Cayenne, where he had been kept a close prisoner and cruelly treated, and a fresh trial at Rennes began on 6th August 1899, and lasted till 9th September; the proceedings, marked by scandalous "scenes," and by an attempt to a.s.sa.s.sinate one of prisoner's counsel--disclosed an alarmingly corrupt condition of affairs in some lines of French public life under the Republic of the time, and terminated in a majority verdict of "guilty"; M. Dreyfus was set at liberty on 20th September, the sentence of ten years' imprisonment being remitted; _b_. 1860.

DREYSE, NICHOLAUS VON, inventor of the needle-gun, born at Sommerda, near Erfurt, the son of a locksmith, and bred to his father's craft; established a large factory at Sommerda for a manufactory of firearms; was enn.o.bled 1864 (1787-1867).

DROGHEDA (11), a seaport in co. Louth, near the mouth of the Boyne, 32 m. N. of Dublin, with manufactures and a considerable export trade; was stormed by Cromwell in 1649 "after a stout resistance," and the garrison put to the sword; surrendered to William III. after the battle of the Boyne in 1690.

DROMORE, a cathedral town in co. Down, Ireland, 17 m. SW. of Belfast, of which Jeremy Taylor was bishop.

DROOGS, steep rocks which dot the surface of Mysore, in India, and resemble hay-ricks, some of these 1500 ft. high, some with springs on the top, and scalable only by steps cut in them.

DROSTE-HuLSHOFF, FRAULEIN VON, a German poetess, born near Munster; was of delicate const.i.tution; wrote tales as well as lyrics in record of deep and tender experiences (1797-1848).

DROUET, JEAN BAPTISTE, notable king-taker, a violent Jacobin and member of the Council of the Five Hundred; had been a dragoon soldier; was postmaster at St. Menehould when Louis XVI., attempting flight, pa.s.sed through the place, and by whisper of surmise had the progress of Louis and his party arrested at Varennes, June 21, 1791, for which service he received honourable mention and due reward in money; was taken captive by the Austrians at last; perched on a rock 100 ft. high, descended one night by means of a paper kite he had constructed, but was found at the foot helpless with leg broken (1763-1824).

DROUET, JEAN BAPTISTE, COMTE D'ERLON, marshal of France, born at Rheims; distinguished in the wars of the Republic and the Empire; on Napoleon's return from Elba seized on the citadel of Lille, and held it for the emperor; commanded the first _corps d'armee_ at Waterloo; left France at the Restoration; returned after the July Revolution; became governor of Algiers, and was created marshal (1765-1844).

DROUOT, a French general, son of a baker at Nancy; Napoleon, whom, as commander of artillery, he accompanied over all his battlefields in Europe and to Elba, used to call him the _Sage of the Grande Armee_ (1774-1847).

DROUYN DE LHUYS, French statesman and diplomatist, born in Paris; was amba.s.sador at the Hague and Madrid; distinguished himself by his opposition to Guizot; served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Louis Napoleon; withdrew into private life after the collapse at Sedan (1805-1881).

DROYSEN, a German historian, born in Pomerania; professor in Berlin; author of the "History of Prussian Policy," "History of Alexander the Great," and "History of h.e.l.lenism" (1808-1884).

DROZ, the name of a Swiss family of mechanicians, one of them, Jean Pierre, an engraver of medals (1746-1833); also of a French moralist and historian, author of "History of Louis XVI." (1773-1850).

DROZ, GUSTAV, a highly popular and brilliant novelist, born in Paris; author of "Monsieur, Madam, et Bebe," "Entre Nous," and "Cahier bleu de Mlle. Cibot" (1832-1895).

DRUIDS, a sacred order of learned men under a chief called the Archdruid, among the ancient Celtic nations, particularly of Gaul and Britain, who, from their knowledge of the arts and sciences of the day, were the ministers of religion and justice, as well as the teachers of youth to the whole community, and exercised an absolute control over the unlearned people whom they governed; they wors.h.i.+pped in oak groves, and the oak tree and the mistletoe were sacred to them; the heavenly bodies appear to have been also objects of their wors.h.i.+p, and they appear to have believed in the immortality and transmigration of the soul; but they committed nothing to writing, and for our knowledge of them we have to depend on the reports of outsiders.

DRUMCLOG MOSS, a flat wilderness of broken bog and quagmire in Lanarks.h.i.+re, where the Covenanters defeated Claverhouse's dragoons in 1679.

DRUMMOND, HENRY, popular scientist and Christian teacher, born in Stirling; was educated at Edinburgh and Tubingen; studied for the Free Church; lectured on natural science; became famous by the publication of "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," a book which took with the Christian public at once, and had an enormous sale, which was succeeded by "Tropical Africa," a charmingly-written book of travel, and by a series of booklets, commencing with "The Greatest Thing in the World,"

intended to expound and commend the first principles of the Christian faith; his last work except one, published posthumously, ent.i.tled the "Ideal Life," was the "Ascent of Man," in which he posits an altruistic element in the process of evolution, and makes the goal of it a higher and higher life (1851-1897).

DRUMMOND, CAPTAIN THOMAS, civil engineer, born in Edinburgh; inventor of the Drummond Light; was employed in the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland; became Under-Secretary for Ireland, and was held in high favour by the Irish (1797-1840).