DAY, JOHN (b. 1574). —Dramatist, s. of a Norfolk yeoman, was at Camb., 1592-3. It is only since 1881 that his works have been identified. He collaborated with Dekker and others in plays, and was the author of The Isle of Gulls (1606), Law Trickes (1608), and Humour out of Breath (1608), also of an allegorical masque, The Parliament of Bees.
DAY, THOMAS (1748-1789). —Miscellaneous writer, was b. in London, ed. at the Charterhouse and at Oxf., and called to the Bar 1775, but having inherited in infancy an independence, he did not practise. He became a disciple of Rousseau in his social views, and endeavoured to put them in practice in combination with better morality. He was a benevolent eccentric, and used his income, which was increased by his marriage with an heiress, in schemes of social reform as he understood it. He is chiefly remembered as the author of the once universally-read History of Sandford and Merton.
DEFOE, DANIEL (1661?-1731). —Journalist and novelist, s. of a butcher in St. Giles, where he was b. His f. being a Dissenter, he was ed. at a Dissenting coll. at Newington with the view of becoming a Presbyterian minister. He joined the army of Monmouth, and on its defeat was fortunate enough to escape punishment. In 1688 he joined William III. Before settling down to his career as a political writer, D. had been engaged in various enterprises as a hosier, a merchant-adventurer to Spain and Portugal, and a brickmaker, all of which proved so unsuccessful that he had to fly from his creditors. Having become known to the government as an effective writer, and employed by them, he was appointed Accountant in the Glass-Duty Office, 1659-1699. Among his more important political writings are an Essay on Projects (1698), and The True-born Englishman (1701), which had a remarkable success. In 1702 appeared The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, written in a strain of grave irony which was, unfortunately for the author, misunderstood, and led to his being fined, imprisoned, and put in the pillory, which suggested his Hymns to the Pillory (1704). Notwithstanding the disfavour with the government which these disasters implied, D.'s knowledge of commercial affairs and practical ability were recognised by his being sent in 1706 to Scotland to aid in the Union negotiations. In the same year Jure Divino, a satire, followed by a History of the Union (1709), and The Wars of Charles XII. (1715). Further misunderstandings and disappointments in connection with political matters led to his giving up this line of activity, and, fortunately for posterity, taking to fiction. The first and greatest of his novels, Robinson Crusoe, appeared in 1719, and its sequel (of greatly inferior interest) in 1720. These were followed by Captain Singleton (1720), Moll Flanders, Colonel Jacque, and Journal of the Plague Year (1722), Memoirs of a Cavalier (1724), A New Voyage Round the World (1725), and Captain Carlton (1728). Among his miscellaneous works are Political History of the Devil (1726), System of Magic (1727), The Complete English Tradesman (1727), and The Review, a paper which he ed. In all he pub., including pamphlets, etc., about 250 works. All D.'s writings are distinguished by a clear, nervous style, and his works of fiction by a minute verisimilitude and naturalness of incident which has never been equalled except perhaps by Swift, whose genius his, in some other respects, resembled. The only description of his personal appearance is given in an advertisement intended to lead to his apprehension, and runs, "A middle-sized, spare man about forty years old, of a brown complexion, and dark brown-coloured hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth." His mind was a peculiar amalgam of imagination and matter-of-fact, seeing strongly and clearly what he did see, but little conscious, apparently, of what lay outside his purview.
Lives by Chalmers (1786), H. Morley (1889), T. Wright (1894), and others; shorter works by Lamb, Hazlitt, L. Stephens, and Prof. Minto, Bohn's British Classics, etc.
DEKKER, THOMAS (1570?-1641?). —Dramatist and miscellaneous writer, was b. in London. Few details of D.'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 D., satirising them in The Poetaster (1601), to which D. replied in Satiromastix (1602). D.'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."