Chapter Durandal to Dysmas of D by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Xit, the royal dwarf of Edward VI.

N.B.—Nicephorus Callistus tells us of an Egyptian dwarf “not bigger than a partridge.”

Dwarf (The) of lady Clerimond was named Pacolet. He had a winged horse, which carried off Valentine, Orson, and Clerimond from the dungeon of Ferràgus to the palace of king Pepin; and subsequently carried Valentine to the palace of Alexander, his father, emperor of Constantinople.—Valentine and Orson (fifteenth century).

Dwarf (The Black), a fairy of malignant propensities, and considered the author of all the mischief of the neighbourhood. In sir Walter Scott’s novel so called, this imp is introduced under various aliases, as sir Edward Manley, Elshander the Recluse, Cannie Elshie, and the Wise Wight of Micklestane Moor.

Dwarf Alberich, the guardian of the Nibelungen hoard. He is twice vanquished by Siegfried, who gets possession of his cloak of invisibility, and makes himself master of the hoard.—The Nibelungen Lied (twelfth century).

Dwarf Peter, an allegorical romance by Ludwig Tieck. The dwarf is a castle spectre, who advises and aids the family; but all his advice turns out evil, and all his aid is productive of trouble. The dwarf is meant for “the law in our members, which wars against the law of our minds, and brings us into captivity to the law of sin.”

Dwining (Henbane), a pottingar or apothecary.—Sir W. Scott: Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

“Dying Christian to his Soul (The),” an ode by Pope (1712). In some measure suggested by Hadrian’s famous Latin verses—

Animula, vagula, blandula,
Hospes comesque corporis,
Quæ nunc abibis in loca,
Pallida, rigida, nudula.
Brief- living, blithe-little, fluttering spright,
Comrade and guest in this body of clay,
Whither, ah! whither departing in flight,
Rigid, half-naked, pale minion away?
   —E.C.B.

Dying Sayings (real or traditional). (See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, pp. 395–398.)

Dyot Street (Bloomsbury Square, London), now called George Street, St. Giles. The famous song, “My Lodging is in Heather Lane,” is in Bombastes Furioso, by T. B. Rhodes (1790).

My lodging is in Heather Lane,
In a parlour that’s next to the sky, etc.

Dyscolus, Moroseness personified in The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). “He nothing liked or praised.” Fully described in canto viii. (Greek, duskolos, “fretful.”)

Dysmas, Dismas, or Demas, the penitent thief crucified with our Lord. The impenitent thief is called Gesmas or Gestas.

Alta petit Dismas, infellx infima Gesmas.
Part of a Charm.
To paradise thief Dismas went,
But Gesmas died impenitent.
   —E.C.B.