Chapter Dactyle to Danaid of D by Brewer's Readers Handbook

to attend to see what degree of pain he could support.—Smollett: History of England, vol. v. chap. xii. p. 39 (1811).

Damiotti (Dr. Baptisti), a Paduan quack, who exhibits “the enchanted mirror” to lady Forester and lady Bothwell. They see therein the clandestine marriage and infidelity of sir Philip Forester.—Sir W. Scott: Aunt Margaret’s Mirror (time, William III.).

Damis [Dah-me], son of Orgon and Elmire , impetuous and selfwilled.—Moliere: Tartuffe (1664).

Damnonii, the people of Damnonium, that is, Cornwall, Devon, Dorsetshire, and part of Somersetshire. This region, says Richard of Cirencester (Hist. vi. 18), was much frequented by the Phœnician, Greek, and Gallic merchants, for the metals with which it abounded, and particularly for its tin.

Wherein our Devonshire now and farthest Cornwal are,
The old Danmonii [sic] dwelt.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xii. (1613).

Damocles , a sycophant, in the court of Dionysius the Elder, of Syracuse. After extolling the felicity of princes, Dionysius told him he would give him experimental proof thereof. Accordingly he had the courtier arrayed in royal robes and seated at a sumptuous banquet; but overhead was a sword suspended by a single horsehair, and Damocles was afraid to stir, lest the hair should break and the sword fall on him. Dionysius thus intimated that the lives of kings are threatened every hour of the day.—Cicero.

Let us who have not our names in the Red Book console ourselves by thinking comfortably how miserable our betters may be; and that Damocles, who sits on satin cushions, and is served on gold plate, has an awful sword hanging over his head, in the shape of a bailiff, or hereditary disease, or family secret.—Thackeray: Vanity Fair, xlvii. (1848).

Damœtas, a herdsman. Theocritos and Virgil use the name in their pastorals.

And old Damœtas loved to hear our song.
   —Milton: Lycidas (1638).

Damon, a goat-herd in Virgil’s third Bucolic. Walsh introduces the same name in his Eclogues also. Any rustic, swain, or herdsman.

Damon and Delia. Damon asks Delia why she looks so coldly on him. She replies because of his attentions to Be lvidera. He says he paid these attentions at her own request, “to hide the secret of their mutual love.” Delia confesses that his prudence is commendable, but his acting is too earnest. To this he rejoins that she alone holds his heart; and Delia replies—

Tho well I might your truth mistrust,
My foolish heart believes you just;
Reason this faith may disapprove,
But I believe, because I love.
   —Lord Lyttleton.

Damon and Musidora, two lovers who misunderstood each other. Musidora was coy, and Damon thought her shyness indicated indifference; but one day he saw her bathing, and his delicacy on the occasion so charmed the maiden that she at once accepted his proffered love.—Thomson: The Seasons (“Summer,” 1727).

Damon and Pythias. Damon, a senator of Syracuse, was by nature hotmettled, but was schooled by Pythagorean philosophy into a Stoic coldness and slowness of speech. He was a fast friend of the republic; and when Dionysius was made “king” by a vote of the senate, Damon upbraided the betrayers of his country, and pronounced Dionysius a “tyrant.” For this he was seized, and as he tried to stab Dionysius, he was condemned to instant death. Damon now craved respite for four hours to bid farewell to his wife and child, but the request was denied him. On his way to execution, his friend Pythias encountered him, and obtained permission of Dionysius to become his surety, and to die in his stead, if within four hours Damon did not return. Dionysius not only accepted the bail, but extended the leave to six hours. When