Chapter Digby to Dobell of D by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Digby to Dobell

Digby, Sir Kenelm (1603-1665).—Miscellaneous writer, born near Newport Pagnell, son of Sir Everard Digby, one of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, was educated at Oxford, travelled much, and was engaged in sea-fighting. Brought up first as a Romanist, then as a Protestant, he in 1636 joined the Church of Rome. During the Civil War he was active on the side of the King, and on the fall of his cause was for a time banished. He was the author of several books on religious and quasi-scientific subjects, including one on the Choice of a Religion, on the Immortality of the Soul, Observations on Spenser’s Faery Queen, and a criticism on Sir T. Browne’s Religio Medici. He also wrote a Discourse on Vegetation, and one On the Cure of Wounds by means of a sympathetic powder which he imagined he had discovered.

Dilke, Charles Wentworth (1789-1864).—Critic and writer on literature, served for many years in the Navy Pay-Office, on retiring from which he devoted himself to literary pursuits. He had in 1814-16 made a continuation of Dodsley’s Collection of English Plays, and in 1829 he became part proprietor and editor of The Athenæum, the influence of which he greatly extended. In 1846 he resigned the editorship, and assumed that of The Daily News, but contributed to The Athenæum his famous papers on Pope, Burke, Junius, etc., and shed much new light on his subjects. His grandson, the present Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, published these writings in 1875 under the title, Papers of a Critic.

Disraeli, B. (see Beaconsfield).

D’Israeli, Isaac (1766-1848).—Miscellaneous writer, was decended from a Jewish family which had been settled first in Spain, and afterwards at Venice. Editor at Amsterdam and Leyden, he devoted himself to literature, producing a number of interesting works of considerable value, including Curiosities of Literature, in 3 series (1791-1823), Dissertation on Anecdotes (1793), Calamities of Authors (1812), Amenities of Literature (1841); also works dealing with the lives of James I. and Charles I. D’Israeli was latterly blind. He was the father of Benjamin D’Israeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (q.v.).

Dixon, Richard Watson (1833-1900).—Historian and poet, son of Dr. James Dixon, a well-known Wesleyan minister and historian of Methodism, educated at King Edward’s School, Birmingham, and Oxford, took Anglican orders, was Second Master at Carlisle School, Vicar of Hayton and Warkworth, and Canon of Carlisle. He published 7 vols. of poetry, but is best known for his History of the Church of England from the Abolition of Roman Jurisdiction (1877-1900).

Dixon, William Hepworth (1821-1879).—Historian and traveller, born near Manchester, went to London in 1846, and became connected with The Daily News, for which he wrote articles on social and prison reform. In 1850 he published John Howard and the Prison World of Europe, which had a wide circulation, and about the same time he wrote a Life of Peace (1851), in answer to Macaulay’s onslaught. Lives of Admiral Blake and Lord Bacon followed, which received somewhat severe criticisms at the hands of competent authorities. Dixon was edition of The Athenœum, 1853-69, and wrote many books of travel, including The Holy Land (1865), New America (1867), and Free Russia (1870). His later historical works include Her Majesty’s Tower, and The History of Two Queens (Catherine of Arragon and Anne Boleyn). Though a diligent student of original authorities, and sometimes successful in throwing fresh light on his subjects, Dixon was not always accurate, and thus laid himself open to criticism; and his book, Spiritual Wives, treating of Mormonism, was so adversely criticised as to lead to an action. He wrote, however, in a fresh and interesting style. He was one of the founders of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and was a member of the first School Board for London (1870). He was called to the Bar in 1854, but never practised.

Dobell, Sydney Thompson (1824-1874).—Poet, born at Cranbrook, Kent, son of a wine-merchant, who removed to Cheltenham, where most of the poet’s life was passed. His youth was precocious (he was engaged at 15 and married at 20). In 1850 his first work, The Roman, appeared, and had great popularity. Balder, Part I: (1854), Sonnets on the War, jointly with Alexander Smith (q.v.) (1855), and England in Time of War (1856) followed. His later years were passed in Scotland and abroad in search of health, which, however, was damaged by a fall while exploring some ruins at Pozzuoli. Dobell’s poems