[Dryads], nymphs of forest trees, which were conceived of as born with the tree they were attached to and dying along with it; they had their abode in wooded mountains away from men; held their revels among themselves, but broke them off at the approach of a human footstep.
[Dryas], the father of Lycurgus, a Thracian king, and slain by him, who, in a fit of frenzy against the Bacchus worshippers, mistook him for a vine and cut him down. See [Lycurgus].
[Dryasdust], a name of Sir Walter Scott's invention, and employed by him to denote an imaginary character who supplied him with dry preliminary historical details, and since used to denote a writer who treats a historical subject with all due diligence and research, but without any appreciation of the human interest in it, still less the soul of it.
[Dryburgh], an abbey, now a ruin, founded by David I., on the Tweed, in Berwickshire, 3 m. SE. of Melrose; the burial-place of Sir Walter Scott.
[Dryden, John], a celebrated English poet, "glorious John," born in Northamptonshire, of a good family of Puritan principles; educated at Westminster School and Cambridge; his first poetic production of any merit was a set of "heroic stanzas" on the death of Cromwell; at the Restoration he changed sides and wrote a poem which he called "Astræa Redux" in praise of the event, which was ere long followed by his "Annus Mirabilis," in commemoration of the year 1666, which revealed at once the poet and the royalist, and gained him the appointment of poet-laureate, prior to which and afterwards he produced a succession of plays for the stage, which won him great popularity, after which he turned his mind to political affairs and assumed the role of political satirist by production of his "Absalom and Achitophel," intended to expose the schemes of Shaftesbury, represented as Achitophel and Monmouth as Absalom, to oust the Duke of York from the succession to the throne; on the accession of James II. he became a Roman Catholic, and wrote "The Hind and the Panther," characterised by Stopford Brooke as "a model of melodious reasoning in behalf of the milk-white hind of the Church of Rome," and really the most powerful thing of the kind in the language; at the Revolution he was deprived of his posts, but it was after that event he executed his translation of Virgil, and produced his celebrated odes and "Fables" (1631-1700).
[Dualism], or Manichæism, the doctrine that there are two opposite and independently existing principles which go to constitute every concrete thing throughout the universe, such as a principle of good and a principle of evil, light and darkness, life and death, spirit and matter, ideal and real, yea and nay, God and Devil, Christ and Antichrist, Ormuzd and Ahriman.
[Du Barry, Countess], mistress of Louis XV., born at Vaucouleurs, daughter of a dressmaker; came to Paris, professing millinery; had fascinating attractions, and was introduced to the king; governed France to its ruin and the dismissal of all Louis' able and honourable advisers; fled from Paris on the death of Louis, put on mourning for his death; was arrested, brought before the Revolutionary tribunal, condemned for wasting the finances of the State, and guillotined (1746-1793).
[Du Bellay], a French general, born at Montmirail; served under Francis I. (1541-1590).
[Dublin] (360), the capital of Ireland, at the mouth of the Liffey, which divides it in two, and is crossed by 12 bridges; the principal and finest street is Sackville Street, which is about 700 yards long and 40 wide; it has a famous university and two cathedrals, besides a castle, the residence of the Lord-Lieutenant; and a park, the Phoenix, one of the finest in Europe; manufactures porter, whisky, and poplin.
[Dubois, Guillaume], cardinal and prime minister of France; notorious for his ambition and his debauchery; appointed tutor to the Duke of Orleans; encouraged him in vice, and secured his attachment and patronage in promotion, so that in the end he rose to the highest honours, and even influence, in both Church and state; notwithstanding his debauchery he was an able man and an able minister (1656-1723).