Chapter Dervise to Devereux of D by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Desmas or Dismas. The repentant thief is called Desmas in The Story of Joseph of Arimathea; but Dismas in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. Longfellow, in The Golden Legend, calls him Dumachus. The impenitent thief is called Gesmas, but Longfellow calls him Titus.

Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis:
Dismas et Gesmas, media est Divina Potestas;
Alta petit Dismas, infelix infima Gesmas:
Nos et res nostras conservet Summa Potestas.
Of differing merits from three trees incline
Dismas and Gesmas and the Power Divine;
Dismas repents, Gesmas no pardon craves,
The Power Divine by death the sinner saves.

Desmonds of Kilmallock (Limerick). The legend is that the last powerful head of this family, who perished in the reign of queen Elizabeth, still keeps his state under the waters of lough Gur; that every seventh year he reappears fully armed, rides round the lake early in the morning, and will ultimately return in the flesh to claim his own again. (See Barbarossa, p. 88.)—Sir W. Scott: Fortunes of Nigel.

Despair (Giant) lived in Doubting Castle. He took Christian and Hopeful captives for sleeping on his grounds, and locked them in a dark dungeon from Wednesday to Saturday, without “one bit of bread, or drop of drink, or ray of light.” By the advice of his wife, Diffidence, the giant beat them soundly “with a crab-tree cudgel.” On Saturday night Christian remembered he had a key in his bosom, called “Promise,” which would open any lock in Doubting Castle. So he opened the dungeon door, and they both made their escape with speed.—Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress, i. (1678).

Despairing Shepherd (The), a ballad by Rowe, in ridicule of the courtship of Addison with the countess dowager of Warwick. Addison married the lady, but it was a grand mistake.

Deucalidon, the sea which washes the north coast of Scotland.

Till thro’ the sleepy main to Thuly I have gone,
And seen the frozen isles, the cold Deucalidon.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, i. (1612).

Deucalidonian Ocean, the sea which washes the northern side of Ireland.—Richard of Cirencester: Hist., i. 8 (1762).

Deuce is in Him (The), a farce by George Colman, senior. The person referred to is colonel Tamper, under which name the plot of the farce is given (1762).

Deugala, says Ossian, “was covered with the light of beauty, but her heart was the house of pride.”

Deuteronomy, the Greek name of the fifth book of the Old Testament. The word means, “the Law repeated.” And the book is so called because “Moses” therein summarizes the principal laws which he had already given.

The Jews call it The Book of the Words, or These be the Words (see ch. i. 1).

Devereux, a novel by lord Lytton (1820).