[Davenant, Sir William], an English playwright, born at Oxford, who succeeded Ben Jonson as poet-laureate, and was for a time manager of Drury Lane; was knighted by Charles I. for his zeal in the Royalist cause; his theatrical enterprise had small success during the Commonwealth, but interest in it revived with the Restoration, at which time "the drama broke loose from the prison of Puritanism to indulge in a shameless license" (1606-1668).
[David, Félicien], a French composer, born at Vaucluse; author, among other compositions, of the "Desert," a production which achieved an instant and complete triumph; was in his youth an ardent disciple of St. Simon (1810-1876).
[David, Gerhard], a Flemish painter; painted religious subjects, several from the life of Christ (1450-1525).
[David, King of Israel], 11th century B.C., born in Bethlehem; tended the flocks of his father; slew Goliath with a stone and a sling; was anointed by Samuel, succeeded Saul as king; conquered the Philistines; set up his throne in Jerusalem, and reigned thirty-three years; suffered much from his sons, and was succeeded by Solomon; the book of Psalms was till recently accepted as wholly his by the Church, but that hypothesis no longer stands the test of criticism.
[David, Louis], a French historical painter, born in Paris; studied in Rome and settled in Paris; was carried away with the Revolution; joined the Jacobin Club, swore eternal friendship with Robespierre; designed "a statue of Nature with two mammelles spouting out water" for the deputes to drink to, and another of the sovereign people, "high as Salisbury steeple"; was sentenced to the guillotine, but escaped out of regard for his merit as an artist; appointed first painter by Napoleon, but on the Restoration was banished and went to Brussels, where he died; among his paintings are "The Oath of the Horatii," "The Rape of the Sabines," "The Death of Socrates," and "The Coronation of Napoleon" (1748-1825).
[David d'Angers], a French sculptor, born at Angers; came to Paris and became a pupil of the preceding, afterwards proceeded to Rome and associated with Canova; executed in Paris a statue of the Great Condé, and thereafter the pediment of the Pantheon, his greatest work, as well as numerous medallions of great men; on a visit to Weimar he modelled a bust of Goethe (1788-1856).
[David I.], king of Scotland, youngest son of Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret; was brought up at the English court; was prince of Cumbria under the reign of his brother Alexander, on whose decease he succeeded to the throne in 1124; on making a raid in England to avenge an insult offered to his son Henry, was defeated at Northallerton in the Battle of the Standard; addressed himself after this to the unification of the country and civilisation of his subjects; founded and endowed bishoprics and abbeys at the expense of the crown, on account of which he was called St. David, and characterised by James VI., a successor of his, as a "sair saunt to the croon"; the death of his son Henry was a great grief to him, and shortened his days (1084-1153).
[David II.], king of Scotland, son of King Robert the Bruce, born at Dunfermline; succeeded his father when a boy of four; spent from 1334 to 1341 in France; was taken prisoner by the English at the battle of Neville's Cross, and was afterwards, till his death, dependent on England (1326-1371).
[David, St.], or Dewi, the patron saint of Wales, lived about the 5th century; archbishop of Caerleon; transferred his see to St. David's; founded churches, opposed Pelagianism, and influenced many by the odour of his good name.
[Davids, Rhys], professor of Pâli and Buddhist literature, born in Colchester; author of "Buddhism: a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Gautama, the Buddha," and of other works in that department of literature; b. 1843.