against a tradesman who, as he alleged, had cheated him out of threepence over one of these annual transactions. The only person who could be said to be at all intimately acquainted with the Dancers was a Lady Tempest, the widow of Sir Henry Tempest, a Yorkshire baronet. To this lady Dancer's sister intended to leave her own private property, amounting to some 2,000l., but she died in 1766 before she could sign her will, and there then arose a lawsuit among her three brothers as to the distribution of her money, the result of which was that Daniel was awarded two-thirds of the sum on the ground of his having kept her for thirty years. To fill his sister's place Dancer engaged a servant named Griffiths, a man whose manner of living was as penurious as his own, and to whom he paid eighteenpence a week as wages. The two lived together in Dancer's tumble-down house till the master's death, which took place 30 Sept. 1794. In his last moments he was tended by Lady Tempest, who had shown uniform kindness to the old man, and who was rewarded by being made the sole recipient of the miser's wealth, which amounted to a sum equal to 3,000l. per annum. This, however, she did not live to enjoy, as she died very shortly afterwards of a cold contracted while she watched over the miser's deathbed. Dancer is distinguished from the majority of misers in that, notwithstanding his miserable love of gold, he possessed many praiseworthy qualities. His business transactions were always characterised by the most rigid integrity; he never neglected to give practical proof of his gratitude for service rendered to him; and he even knew how to be generous on occasions.
[Biographical Curiosities, or various Pictures of Human Nature, containing original and authentic Memoirs of Daniel Dancer, esq., an extraordinary miser, 1797; Strange and Unaccountable Life of D. Dancer, esq., 1801; Wilson's Wonderful Characters, vol. ii. 1821; Gent. Mag. lxiv. 964.]
DANCER, JOHN (fl. 1675), translator and dramatist, lived for some time in Dublin, where two of his dramatic translations were performed with some success at the Theatre Royal. To the Duke of Ormonde and to the duke's children, Thomas, earl of Ossory, and Lady Mary Cavendish, he dedicated his books, and in 1673 he wrote that he owed to the duke ‘all I have and all I am.’ It is probable that he was in Ormonde's service while he was lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Langbaine groundlessly credits him with the alternative name of Dauncy, and identifies him with one John Dauncy, who was a voluminous translator living at the same time. But John Dancer and John Dauncy [q. v.] were clearly two persons. Dancer's two translated plays—the one from Corneille and the other from Quinault—are in rhyming couplets. The original verse at the close of the translation of Tasso's ‘Amintas’ is ‘writ in imitation of Mr. Cowley's “Mistris”’ (Langbaine). Dancer's works are as follows: 1. ‘Aminta, the Famous Pastoral [by Tasso], translated into English verse, with divers Ingenious Poems,’ London, 1660. 2. ‘Nicomede, a tragicomedy translated out of the French of Monsieur Corneille, as it was acted at the Theatre Royal, Dublin,’ London, 1671. This was published by Francis Kirkman ‘in the author's absence,’ and dedicated by Kirkman to Thomas, earl of Ossory. To the play Kirkman added a valuable appendix—‘A true, perfect, and exact Catalogue of all the Comedies, Tragedies, Tragicomedies, Pastorals, Masques, and Interludes that were ever yet printed and published till this present year 1671.’ 3. ‘Judgment on Alexander and Cæsar, and also on Seneca, Plutarch, and Petronius,’ from the French of Renaud Rapin, London 1672. 4. ‘The Comparison of Plato and Aristotle, with the Opinions of the Fathers on their Doctrine, and some Christian Reflections,’ from the French, London 1673; dedicated to James, duke of Ormonde. 5. ‘Mercury Gallant, containing many true and pleasant relations of what hath passed at Paris from January 1st 1672 till the king's departure thence,’ from the French, London 1673; dedicated to George Bowerman. 6. ‘Agrippa, King of Alba, or the False Tiberinus. As it was several times acted with great applause before the Duke of Ormonde, L.L. of Ireland, at the Theatre Royal in Dublin; from the French of Monsieur Quinault,’ London 1675; dedicated to Ormonde's daughter Mary.
[Langbaine's Account, 97, with Oldys's notes in Brit. Mus. copy, C. 45 d. 14; Hunter's Chorus Vatum in Addit. MS. 24489, f. 173; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
DANCER, THOMAS, M.D. (1755?–1810), botanist, was in 1780 physician to the expedition which left Jamaica in February of that year for ‘Fort San Juan’ (? d'Ulloa). On his return to Jamaica he published an account of the capture of the fort, and the subsequent mortality of the troops, consequent upon the utter absence of sanitation. Appointed physician to the Bath waters he brought out in 1784 a small octavo on the virtues of the waters, appending two pages of catalogue of the rarer plants cultivated in the garden there. A full list was issued in
