[Dupuytren, Baron], a celebrated French surgeon, born at Pierre-Buffière; he was a man of firm nerve, signally sure and skilful as an operator, and contributed greatly, both by his inventions and discoveries, to the progress of surgery; a museum of pathological anatomy, in which he made important discoveries, bears his name (1777-1835).
[Duquesne, Abraham, Marquis], an illustrious naval officer of France, born at Dieppe; distinguished himself in many a naval engagement, and did much to enhance the naval glory of the country; among other achievements plucked the laurels from the brow of his great rival, De Ruyter, by, in 1676, defeating the combined fleets of Spain and Holland under his command; Louis XIV. offered him a marshal's baton if he would abjure Calvinism, but he declined; he was the only one of the Huguenots excepted from proscription in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, but his last days were saddened by the banishment of his children (1610-1688).
[Dura Den], a glen near Cupar-Fife, famous for the number of ganoid fossil fishes entombed in its sandstone.
[Durance], a tributary of the Rhône, which, after a rapid course of 180 m., falls into that river by its left bank 3 m. below Avignon.
[Durand], an Indian officer; served in the Afghan and Sikh Wars, and became Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab (1828-1871).
[Durandal], the miraculous sword of Orlando, with which he could cleave mountains at a blow.
[Durban] (27), the port of Natal, largest town in the colony, with a land-locked harbour.
[Durbar], a ceremonious State reception in India.
[Dürer, Albert], the great early German painter and engraver, born at Nürnberg, son of a goldsmith, a good man, who brought him up to his own profession, but he preferred painting, for which he early exhibited a special aptitude, and his father bound him apprentice for three years to the chief artist in the place, at the expiry of which he travelled in Germany and other parts; in 1506 he visited Venice, where he met Bellini, and painted several pictures; proceeded thence to Bologna, and was introduced to Raphael; his fame spread widely, and on his return he was appointed court-painter by the Emperor Maximilian, an office he held under Charles V.; he was of the Reformed faith, and a friend of Melanchthon as well as an admirer of Luther, on whose incarceration in Wartburg he uttered a long lament; he was a prince of painters, his drawing and colouring perfect, and the inventor of etching, in which he was matchless; he carved in wood, ivory, stone, and metal; was an author as well as an artist, and wrote, among other works, an epoch-making treatise on proportion in the human figure; "it could not be better done" was his quiet, confident reply as a sure workman to a carper on one occasion (1471-1528).
[D'Urfey, Tom], a facetious poet; author of comedies and songs; a great favourite of Charles II. and his court; of comedies he wrote some 30, which are all now discarded for their licentiousness, and a curious book of sonnets, entitled "Pills to Purge Melancholy"; came to poverty in the end of his days; Addison pled on his behalf, and hoped that "as he had made the world merry, the world would make him easy" (1628-1723).