Chapter Dionysius to Divina Commedia of D by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Distressed Mother (The), a t ragedy by Ambrose Philips (1712). The “distressed mother” is Andromachê, Hector’s wife. (See Andromache, p. 43.)

Ditchley (Gaffer), one of the miners employed by sir Geoffrey Peveril.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Dithyrambic Poetry (Father of), Arion of Lesbos (fl. B.C. 625).

Ditton (Thomas), footman of the Rev. Mr. Staunton, of Willingham Rectory.—Sir W. Scott: Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Divan (The), the supreme council and court of justice of the caliphs. The abbassides always sat in person in this court to aid in the redress of wrongs. It was called a “divan” from the benches covered with cushions on which the members sat.—D’Herbelot: Bibliothèque Orientale, 298.

Dive [deev], a demon in Persian mythology. In the mogul’s palace at Lahore, there used to be several pictures of these dives , with long horns, staring eyes, shaggy hair, great fangs, ugly paws, long tails, and other horrible deformities. I remember seeing them exhibited at King’s College in one of the soirées given there after the Indian Mutiny.

Diver (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.—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Diversions of Purley (The), epeapteroenta (pronounced epe-aptero-enta) by J. Horne Tooke (1786, 1805). Called Purley from William Tooke, who lived at Purley (Reading), a great benefactor of the author. The idea developed in this treatise is that all words were originally objective. Thus to harrow (to torment) is from the farmer’s harrow, which is the Greek word arow and Latin aro. Many are onomato-poetic, i.e. words expressive of natural sounds, as roar, hiss, etc.

Dives , the name popularly given to the “rich man” in our Lord’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus; in Latin, Divês et Lazarus.—Luke xvi.

Divide and Govern, a maxim of Machiavelli of Florence (1469–1527).

Divina Commedia, th e first poem of note ever written in the Italian language. It is an epic by Danté Alighieri, and is divided into three parts: Inferno (1300), Purgatory (1308), and Paradise (1311). Danté 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 hell and purgatory; and then by Beatrice (revelation) and finally by St. Bernard through the several heavens, where he beholds the Triune God.

“Hell” is represented as a funnel-shaped hollow, formed of gradually contracting circles, the lowest and smallest of which is the centre. (See Inferno.)

“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.)

From this “top” the poet ascends through the seven planetary heavens, the fixed stars, and the “primum mobilé,” to the empyrean or seat of God. (See Paradise.)

English translations, in verse, of Dante’s famous epics: Boyd, 1785; Caley (in tertiary rhymes, like the original), 1851–53; Carey (blank verse, good), 1814; Dayman, 1865; Ford, 1871; Longfellow, 1870; George Musgrave, The Inferno (in Spenserian verse, good), 1893; Mrs. Oliphant, 1877; Pollock (blank verse), 1854; Rossetti (The Inferno), 1865; Wright (triple rhyme, good), 1853, etc. Dr. John Carlyle translated into prose the “Inferno,” with excellent notes.