DAVID II. See Bruce.
DAVID III., surnamed the Strong, king of Georgia, flourished towards the close of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth centuries. His father, George II., who died in 1089, had been stripped of the greater part of his territories by the Seldjoukides, who were at that time masters of Persia and Asia Minor. During his long reign, David was mainly occupied in a struggle to regain his rights; and favoured by the dissensions which raged between the sons of Mélek-Schah, sultan of the Seldjoukides, he reconquered step by step the possessions of his ancestors. At the time of his death, which is supposed to have taken place in 1130, David had made himself master of nearly all the territory between the Black and the Caspian Seas. His memory is held in the greatest veneration by the Georgians.—J. T.
DAVID, Emperor of Abyssinia, was born about 1500. He succeeded his father Nahu in 1507. Abyssinia was at that time hard pressed by the Turks under Selim I., and the ministers of the infant sovereign resolved to ask the assistance of Emmanuel, king of Portugal. Embassies were exchanged between the two courts; but before any aid could be sent to David the Turks had defeated the Abyssinian armies, laid waste the fairest provinces of the empire, and destroyed its most important towns. David died in great straits about 1540.—J. T.
DAVID COMNENUS was the last emperor of Trebizond, and was elevated to the throne in 1462, by the order of Mahomet II., in whom the real sovereignty of that country was vested. The titular monarch was conveyed with his family to Serres, and thence to Adrianople, and put to death in 1466, along with seven of his sons.—J. T.
DAVID AP GWILLUM, a Welsh bard, appears to have been a contemporary of Edward III. An edition of his works, which were chiefly amatory and elegiac, was published in London in 1789.—F. E.
DAVID of Nerken, a celebrated Armenian, contemporary with Proclus, little known to the modern world until 1829, when his writings were brought to light by M. Neumann, but undoubtedly one of the most acute thinkers of whom his nation can boast. He published valuable commentaries on the Categories and on Porphyry; and he translated Aristotle's Hermeneutics, as well as both the Analytics. His most important work is probably the "Foundations of Philosophy." David may be called a Platonist.—J. P. N.
DAVID the King or David el David, a celebrated Jewish impostor who claimed to be the Messiah, lived about the middle of the twelfth century. He was born at Ghamaria in Media, and went to Bagdad, where his mind appears to have become unhinged by his studies, and he declared himself the son of David, commissioned to reconstruct the Hebrew monarchy. About the year 1161 he called his compatriots to arms, for the purpose of making war upon the king of Persia; but at last his father-in-law was bribed to assassinate him in his sleep.—J. T.
DAVID RUBENI, called also David Leimlein, a fanatical Jew, lived about the end of the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century. He announced that the Messiah would arrive about the year 1500, and claimed, as the leader of the army of Israel, the right to conduct the Jews to their own land. Happening to be in Mantua, along with Salomon Malcho, one of his converts, when Charles V. passed through that city, Salomon demanded and obtained an interview with the emperor, for the purpose of converting him to Judaism. He was rewarded for his zeal by being sent to the stake, and David was seized and sent into Spain, where he died in a few days after.—J. T.
* DAVID, Christian George Nathan, Danish conferentsraad, bank-director, and head of the statistical bureau, the son of a Jewish merchant, was born in Copenhagen on the 16th of January, 1793. After having embraced the christian religion, in 1809 he became a student of philosophy and political science in the university of Copenhagen. He afterwards travelled, and in 1823 took the degree of doctor of philosophy, at Göttingen. In the year 1830 he was appointed professor of political science in the university of Copenhagen, which office, however, he resigned in 1836, being involved in a process with government in consequence of the too liberal tone and tendency of certain articles which appeared in a weekly newspaper, the Fædreland, of which he was the founder in 1834. After the accession of Christian VIII. to the throne of Denmark, he became in 1840 a member of the prison commission, and afterwards of the commission for the government of the house of correction in Copenhagen; and subsequently having made a journey through France, Belgium, England, Switzerland, and Germany to ascertain the state of prisons in those countries, he was appointed superintendent of prisons, which post he occupied for nine years, and only resigned on being made bank-director. In 1854 he was placed at the head of the statistical bureau. Besides these offices he has held many others of great importance and honour, and in the Oersted ministry was nominated member of council. David ranks high as an authority in political science, and he has rendered great service to his country by awakening an interest on that important subject, which till his time was but slightly valued there. He has not, however, published any systematic works on this science, but is the author of a great number of articles on political economy and finance, partly in his papers Fædrelandet, Statsoekonomist Archiv, 1826-29; and Ny tasoekonomisk archiv, 1841-43; partly in Maanedskrift for Litteratur, in the editing of which he at that time took part, in the Dansk Ugeskrift, and others; also in separate pamphlets. In his younger years he also was much esteemed as an æsthetic critic, writing in various periodicals under the signature Y Z.—(Nordisk Con. Lex.)—M. H.
* DAVID, Félicien, a musician, was born 8th March, 1810, at Cadenet in the department of Vaucleuse. His father, who was an accomplished musical amateur, taught him the rudiments of the art in which he has since become distinguished. While he was yet a child, the family removed to Aix on the Rhone, and there, when seven and a half years old, Félicien was admitted a singing boy in the choir of St. Sauveur, where his aptitude for music made him the subject of general attention. It was the custom of the chapter to provide for the education of the boys who were brought up in the cathedral choir, and accordingly, in 1825, when David's voice broke, he was placed as a student in the jesuits' college. All the feast-days were celebrated in this institution with musical performances, and such was David's proficiency, that he was able to sustain the post of chief violin on these occasions, and thus continued to develope his talent. He quitted the college in 1828; his father was now dead, and he was dependent on his own exertions for the means of living. In this necessity he went as clerk in a lawyer's office, which occupation he left with delight on obtaining an engagement as second director of the orchestra at the theatre of the city. His artistic aspirations were realized still further by his being appointed, in 1829, maitre de chapelle at St. Sauveur's. Flattering as were the opportunities thus presented to him, however, they proved to him his own inefficiency, and stimulated a most ardent desire to improve himself in his art by study. The remote provincial city in which he dwelt afforded him no means of gratifying his wish, and he thought therefore of Paris, and of the pre-eminent advantage he might derive from a residence there. He had an uncle who possessed a moderate competency, and to him David applied for pecuniary assistance to enable him to visit the metropolis. It was with extreme difficulty that he convinced the good man of the rationality of resigning two engagements, which yielded him at least a livelihood, and of putting himself to school, who was old enough to be a teacher; but the uncle consented at last to make him an allowance of forty-eight francs a month, and with this provision, and with a heart full of hope, the young artist set off for the capital. He arrived in Paris in 1830, and went at once to Cherubini with a "Beatus vir" which he had composed for the cathedral at Aix, upon the merits of which he was admitted a pupil of the conservatoire. Here he studied harmony under Lesueur, fugue under Fétis, and the organ under Benoït; and, impatient of progress, he took also private lessons in compositions of Henri Réber. His rapid advancement was conspicuous, and his happiness was complete, when suddenly his uncle stopped his slender allowance, and he was thrown on his own resources. These were restricted to the low price he received for teaching harmony and the pianoforte, but they sufficed to support him in his student's career. He now became infatuated with the doctrines of the St. Simonians, and, enrolling himself a member of their society, he quitted the conservatoire at the close of 1831. The hymns that were sung in the sanctuary at Ménilmontant were all composed by David, and they were printed at the society's cost; "Le Sommeil de Paris" and "La Danse des Astres," two pieces which some time later obtained great success in public, were among these productions. On the dispersion of the St. Simonians, David accompanied
