Dromio.—The Brothers Dromio. Twin brothers exactly alike, who serve two brothers exactly alike, in Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, based on the Menæchmi of Plautus.
Dry-as-dust, The Rev.—An imaginary personage who serves to introduce Scott’s novels to the public.
Dudu.—One of the three beauties of the harem, into which Juan, by the sultana’s order, had been admitted in female attire.
Duessa (dū-es´sa).—A foul witch, in Spenser’s Faërie Queene, who under the assumed name of Fidessa, and the assumed character of a distressed and lovely woman, entices the Red-cross Knight into the House of Pride.
Duff, Jamie.—Guy Mannering, Scott. The idiot boy attending Mrs. Bertram’s funeral.
Dulcinea del Toboso (dul-sin´ē-ä del tō-bō´zō).—A country girl whom Don Quixote courts as his lady love.
Dumain (dū-mān´).—A lord attending on the king of Navarre in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost.
Duncan.—(1) A king of Scotland immortalized in Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth. Shakespeare represents him as murdered by Macbeth, who succeeds to the Scottish throne, but according to history he fell in battle. (2) A highland hero in Scott’s Lady of the Lake.
Dunder, Sir David, of Dunder Hall.—A conceited, whimsical old gentleman, who forever interrupts a speaker with “Yes, yes, I know it,” or “Be quiet, I know it.” Ways and Means, by Colman.
Dundreary (dun-drēr´i), Lord.—A grotesque character in Taylor’s comedy, Our American Cousin, noted for his aristocratic haughtiness of manner. The character is said to have been created by the actor Sothern.