to its former amount. The sincerity of this change will ever remain a question. Dr. Johnson, in his own sententious way, more than insinuates his suspicion, while he admits that "as truth and interest are not by any fatal necessity at variance, one may by accident introduce the other." Macaulay more than insinuates his belief in the corrupt influence of mammon. Scott with ingenious charity elaborately argues, that the conversion was the refuge of a sceptic from doubts that were even apparent in the "Religio Laici;" and it must not be forgotten in the consideration of this question, that Dryden brought up his children in this faith, to which his wife also conformed, and that he continued faithful to Romanism even when it would be manifestly for his worldly interest to have renounced it. Be that as it may, the convert was not slow in manifesting his zeal for his new faith, and accordingly in 1687 appeared his singular polemical allegory, "The Hind and the Panther," insisting on the superiority of Romanism, typified by the hind, over all other forms of Christianity—a strange work from the pen of him who a few years before had written the "Religio Laici." It was not to be expected that the poem or its author should remain unassailed, and the severest attack came from two personal friends. Prior and Montague, who wrote the clever parody of the Country and the City Mouse. For some time Dryden had done little in general poetical literature, having only translated portions of some classical authors and written a few critical dissertations; but this year he made amends by giving the world the first "Ode to St. Cecilia," and one to the memory of Mrs. Ann Killigrew, and the following year "The Britannia Rediviva." The Revolution came; Dryden was deposed from the laureateship, which was conferred on his rival Shadwell, and he had once more to work hard for his bread. Again he wrote for the stage, producing, amongst other dramas, "Don Sebastian," perhaps the best he had written; and in 1697, after three years' labour, he produced his translation of Virgil—a work worthy of him, and which Pope declares "is the most noble and spirited which I know in any language." Immediately after came "Alexander's Feast," which, Hallam observes, "every one places among the first of its class, and many allow it no rival." Dryden projected many other works, and wrote modern versions of some of the tales of Chaucer and Boccaccio. His health was for some time failing, though his mind was vigorous and clear, and he died of mortification of the leg on the 1st of May, 1700. He was so poor that he was buried by subscription, yet with that state that was due to so great a poet, and laid in Westminster abbey between Chaucer and Cowley. His wife died fourteen years after. In early life Dryden is said to have been handsome; but he grew corpulent and florid, which caused Rochester to give him the name of Poet Squab. His disposition, if we credit his friends, and indeed his correspondence confirms their statement, was amiable. Scott, on the authority of Congreve, says he was modest. Bashfulness is perhaps the fitter name. He carried his adulation of the great to a length that must be called meanness, and yet he does not seem ever to have asked favours directly, and never courted William or the whig party. Whatever may have been the morality of his private life, his dramas were as immoral as those of any writer in that most immoral age.
As a writer Dryden takes his place in the front rank of English literature. Chaucer, Shakspeare, Milton, and perhaps Spenser alone precede him. If in imaginative genius he is of less account than these and even others, in vigour of intellect, force of reasoning, power of satire, critical acumen, and harmony of versification, he is scarce surpassed by any. "He represents," as Professor David Masson justly observes, "the literary activity of the reigns of Charles and James, and of the greater part of that of King William." His industry was surprising, his subjects were various, and few men have left a greater mass of writing after them. Much of this is now little read; of his dramas but one or two, and it is to be regretted that they are licentious in the extreme. Dramatic excellence he cannot be said to have ever attained. Indeed he wanted many of the qualities that make a great dramatist, and only took to the drama because it was the field whose cultivation promised the best return; but his strength lay "in the metrical utterance of mighty sentences, in the metrical conduct of an argument, in vehement satirical invective, and in such passages of lyrical passion as depended for their effect on rolling grandeur of sound." Yet Dryden is rarely sublime, rarely pathetic, and more rarely still conversant with the imagery of nature. His style is described by Mr. Gilfillan with much truth and felicity as "a masculine, clear, elastic, and varied diction, fitted to express all feelings save the deepest; all fancies save the subtlest; all passions save the loftiest; all moods of mind save the most disinterested and rapt—to represent incidents however strange; characters however contradictory to each other; shades of meaning however evasive: and to do all this as if it were doing nothing in point of ease, as if it were doing everything in point of felt and rejoicing energy. No poetic style since can in such respects be compared to Dryden's. Pope's to his is feeble, and Byron's forced." The best edition of his collected works is that by Sir Walter Scott in 17 vols., 8vo. An excellent selection has been made by Mr. Bell in his annotated edition of the British Poets; and later still, two very elegant volumes, containing the best of his poems, have been published in Mr. Nichol's series of the poets, with a biographical memoir, and a clever critical dissertation by the Rev. George Gilfillan.—J. F. W.
DUAREN or DOUAREN (in Latin Duarenus), François, a French jurisconsult, born in 1509 at Montcontour, and died at Bourges in 1559. He studied law under Alciat, and soon after went to Paris, where he expounded the Pandects. In 1538 he obtained a chair of law at Bourges, which he quitted ten years afterwards, for the purpose of practising at the Parisian bar. Disgusted with the chicanery of the profession, he returned, on the invitation of Marguerite de France, duchesse de Berry, to his chair at Bourges. It is said that he was envious of the fame of Baudouin, and of the celebrated Cujas, who were both younger than himself. Duaren was a voluminous writer, chiefly on subjects connected with his profession. His works were published at Lyons, 1559. A more complete edition appeared in 1579.—R. M., A.
* DUBEUX, Louis, an eminent oriental scholar, born at Lisbon of French parents in 1795. At the age of twenty-one he was appointed to a subordinate post in the bibliothéque royale of Paris, and afterwards (1835) was appointed joint-librarian. In 1848 he became professor of Turkish at the school of Oriental languages. Among his works may be enumerated two, which form part of the collection entitled l'Univers Pittoresque: one on "Persia," 1841; the other on "Tartary, Belouchistan, and Nepaul," 1848. He has also published a first portion of the Chronicle of Abou Djafar Mohammed Tabari, which appeared in 1836, but has not been completed. M. Dubeux is also the author of a Turkish grammar.—F. M. W.
DUBHTHACH, an Irish poet and druid who lived in the fifth century. He was a man of great learning, and was one of the famous committee of nine appointed to revise the ancient records of the nation, and the compiler of the body of records afterwards called the "Seanchas mor." He was converted to christianity by Saint Patrick, after which he composed a very elegant hymn, which is yet extant. Some other poems ascribed to him are still preserved.—J. F. W.
* DÜBNER, Friedrich, a German philologist, was born at Hörselgaw, Saxe Gotha, December 21, 1802. After completing his studies at Göttingen, he was appointed professor in the gymnasium of Gotha, but resigned this office in 1831, when he accepted an offer from Firmin Didot to co-operate in the publication of Stephen's Thesaurus. He therefore settled at Paris, where he has since published a great number of valuable editions, especially for the use of colleges—Justinus; Plutarchi Moralia; and Augustinus de civitate Dei.—K. E.
DUBOIS, Antoine, Baron, a celebrated French surgeon, was born of a poor family at Gramat in 1756, and died in 1837 at Paris. Poor and unbefriended, he came up to Paris at twenty years of age, and supported himself while pursuing his studies by teaching reading and writing, and by copying law-deeds. He studied medicine under Desault, whose friendship proved the beginning of his good fortune. He was soon made professor royal in the school of surgery, and esteemed one of the first physicians of Europe. As professor of clinical surgery and midwifery, Dubois, during a period of thirty years, rendered the most valuable services to medical science. The maison d'accouchement in which he succeeded the famous Baudelocque, and in which he was himself succeeded by his own son, sent forth into every part of France skilful accoucheures, imbued with his principles, and trained under his eyes. He was a great favourite with Napoleon I., and had the honour to deliver the empress of that child on whom were founded the hopes of
