Dendin (Peter), an old man, who had settled more disputes than all the magistrates of Poitiers, though he was no judge. His plan was to wait till the litigants were thoroughly sick of their contention, and longed to end their disputes; then he would interpose, and his judgment could not fail to be acceptable.
Tenot Dendin, son of the above, but, unlike the father, he always tried to crush quarrels in the bud; consequently, he never succeeded in settling a single dispute submitted to his judgment.—Rabelais, Pantagruel, in. 41 (1545).
(Racine has introduced the same name into his comedy called Les Plaideurs (1669), and Lafontaine in his Fables 1668).
Dennet (Father), an old peasant at the Lists of St. George.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).
Dennis the hangman, one of the ringleaders of the "No Popery Riots;" the other two were Hugh, servant of the Maypole inn, and the half-witted Barnaby Rudge. Dennis was cheerful enough when he "turned off" others, but when he himself ascended the gibbet he showed a most grovelling and craven spirit.—C. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1841).
Dennis (John), "the best abused man in English literature." Swift lampooned him; Pope assailed him in the Essay on Criticism; and finally he was "damned to everlasting fame" in the Dunciad. He is called "Zo'ïlus" (1657-1733).
Dennison (Jenny), attendant on Miss Edith Bellenden. She marries Cuddie Headrigg.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).
Dermer (Mr.), a little bachelor lawyer, whose face has "a pinched, wistful look" under the curls of his brown wig. He lives in a dreary house, with a testy housekeeper, and a timid little nephew-ward, and spends many of his lonely hours in trying to decide if he loves Miss Deborah Woodhouse the utilitarian, or aesthetic Miss Ruth. On his death-bed, he gives an old daguerreotype of himself to Miss Ruth.
"Not that I have—have changed my mind,
but it is not improper, I am sure that Miss Deborah's