Chapter Dekker to De Quincey of D by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Dekker to De Quincey

Dekker, Thomas (1570?-1641?).—Dramatist and miscellaneous writer, was born in London. Few details of Dekker’s life have come down to us, though he was a well-known writer in his day, and is believed to have written or contributed to over 20 dramas. He collaborated at various times with several of his fellow-dramatists, including Ben Jonson. Ultimately Jonson quarrelled with Marston and Dekker, satirising them in The Poetaster (1601), to which Dekker replied in Satiromastix (1602). Dekker’s best play is Old Fortunatus (1606), others are The Shoemaker’s Holiday (1600), Honest Whore (1604), Roaring Girl (1611), The Virgin Martyr (1622) (with Massinger), and The Witch of Edmonton (1658) (with Ford and Rowley), History of Sir Thomas Wyat, Westward Ho, and Northward Ho, all with Webster. His prose writings include The Gull’s Hornbook (1609), The Seven Deadly Sins of London, and The Belman of London (1608), satirical works which give interesting glimpses of the life of his time. His life appears to have been a somewhat chequered one, alternating between revelry and want. He is one of the most poetical of the older dramatists. Lamb said he “had poetry enough for anything.”

De Lolme, John Louis (1740?-1807).—Political writer, born at Geneva, has a place in English literature for his well-known work, The Constitution of England, written in French, and translated into English in 1775. He also wrote a comparison of the English Government with that of Sweden, a History of the Flagellants (1777), and The British Empire in Europe (1787). He came to England in 1769, lived in great poverty, and having inherited a small fortune, returned to his native place in 1775.

Deloney, Thomas (1543-1600).—Novelist and balladist, appears to have worked as a silk-weaver in Norwich, but was in London by 1586, and in the course of the next 10 years is known to have written about 50 ballads, some of which involved him in trouble, and caused him to lie perdue for a time. It is only recently that his more important work as a novelist, in which he ranks with Greene and Nash, has received attention. He appears to have turned to this new field of effort when his original one was closed to him for the time. Less under the influence of Lyly and other preceding writers than Greene, he is more natural, simple, and direct, and writes of middle-class citizens and tradesmen with a light and pleasant humour. Of his novels, Thomas of Reading is in honour of clothiers, Jack of Newbury celebrates weaving, and The Gentle Craft is dedicated to the praise of shoemakers. He “dy’d poorely,” but was “honestly buried.”

De Morgan, Augustus (1806-1871).—Mathematician, born in India, and educated at Cambridge, was one of the most brilliant of English mathematicians. He is mentioned here in virtue of his Budget of Paradoxes, a series of papers originally published in The Athenœum, in which mathematical fallacies are discussed with sparkling wit, and the keenest logic.

Denham. Sir John (1615-1669).—Poet, son of the Chief Baron of Exchequer in Ireland, was born in Dublin, and educated at Oxford He began his literary career with a tragedy, The Sophy (1641), which seldom rises above mediocrity. His poem, Cooper’s Hill (1642), is the work by which he is remembered. It is the first example in English of a poem devoted to local description. Denham received extravagant praise from Johnson; but the place now assigned him is a much more humble one. His verse is smooth, clear, and agreeable, and occasionally a thought is expressed with remarkable terseness and force. In his earlier years Denham suffered for his Royalism; but after the Restoration enjoyed prosperity. He, however, made an unhappy marriage, and his last years were clouded by insanity. He was an architect by profession, coming between Inigo Jones and Wren as King’s Surveyor.

Dennis, John (1657-1734).—Critic, etc., son of a saddler, was born in London, and educated at Harrow and Caius Coll., Cambridge, from the latter of which he was expelled for stabbing a fellow-student, and transferred himself to Trinity Hall. He attached himself to the Whigs, in whose interest he wrote several bitter and vituperative pamphlets. His attempts at play-writing were failures; and he then devoted himself chiefly to criticising the works of his contemporaries. In this line, while showing some acuteness, he aroused much enmity by his ill-temper and jealousy. Unfortunately for him, some of those whom he attacked, such as Pope and Swift, had the power of conferring upon him an unenviable immortality. Embalmed in The Dunciad, his name has attained a fame which no work of his own could have given it. Of Milton, however, he showed a true appreciation. Among his works are Rinaldo and Armida (1699), Appius and