DYING
221
DTMPNA
an allowance to him, and a residence given him in
Blackfriars. He had also a summer residence in the
palace of Eltham, was knighted on 5 July, presented
with a chain and medal of great value, and granted a
pension of £200 a year to be paid quarterly. From
the moment of his arrival commenced his great success
as a portrait-painter in England. The king and
• lueen sat to him frequently, and he was overwhelmed
with commissions. In 16.34-5 he received a pressing
invitation to visit the court at Brussels and accepted
it, but in 1635 he was back at Antwerp and in the
same year returned to England, taking again his posi-
tion as portrait-painter to Charles I and to Henrietta
Maria. Of the king he painted no less than thirty-six
portraits and about twenty-five of Queen Henrietta
Maria, but perhaps the most beautiful works executed for the royal family were those in which he de-
picted the chiklren of the royal pair. To this period
belong the wonderful portraits of members of the
English aristocracy to be found in so many of the
great English houses. He prepared a scheme for
decorating the walls of the banqueting-house at
Whitehall, the sketches for which still exist, but the
royal exchequer could not afford the work. In 1640
he decided to return to Antwerp. Rubens had died
and Van Dyck was acknowledged the head of the
Flemish School and entertained with great magnifi-
cence. He was disposed to settle permanently at
.\ntwerp, but first went to Paris, desiring to obtain the
commission to decorate the gallery of the Louvre.
The work was, however, given to French artists and
Van Dj'ck returned to London for a while, later on in
the year, however, visiting Antwerp and Paris, and
then coming back to London. When he arrived his
health was in a critical condition, and despite the atten-
tions of the royal physician he died at his house in
Blackfriars eight days after his wife had given birth
to a daughter. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral,
and a monument was erected to his memory by order
of the king, but the grave and monument perished
with the catheiiral in the great fire of 1G66.
In portraiture Van Dj'ck is the greatest artist of Europe after Titian, and in works of decorative splen- dour perhaps only rivalled by Rubens. He was a man of luxurious and somewhat indolent habits, ambi- tious, proud, sensitive, and quick to take offence. In his portraits the elegance of the composition, the deli- cate expression of the heads, the truth and purity of his colouring, and the strong lifelike quality of ex- pression give him the very highest position, and he is one of the few painters whom all critics have placed in the front rank. In a consideration of his art the bril- liant and vigorous etchings must not be overlooked.
Cost, Anthony Van Dyck'\i%n&on, 1900^; Idem, The Chats- u-orlh Skelch-Book (London. 1902); Idem, Van Dyck (London, 1903); DuPLEssis, Eaui-fortes de Van Dyck (Paris. 1874); MiCHlELS. Van Dyck et ses eleves (Paris, 1S81): Guiffrey, Anloine Van Dyck (Paris, 1882); Lemcke, Anton Van Dyck (Leipzig, 1S75); Muther, Modern Painting (London, 1903); MtxTZ, Hialoirc de la peinlure (Paris, 1881).
George Charles W^illiamson. Dying, Pu avers for the. See Death.
Djrmoke, Robert, Confessor of the Faith, date of birth uncertain; d. at Lincoln, England, 11 Sept., 15S0. He was the son of Sir Edward Dymoke (d. 1566) of Scrivelsby, Lincolnshire, hereditary King's Champion. In 1579 Dymoke received the martyr- priest. Blessed Richard Kirkman, at Scrivelsby, and maintained him as schoolmaster to his sons. He was himself, at the time, an occasional conformist to the State-religion but was reconciled in 15S0 either by Kirkman or by Blessed Edmund Campion. In July, l.")S{), Dymoke and his wife, the Lady Bridget, eldest diiughter and coheiress of Edwaril Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, were indicted for hearing Ma.ss and for recu- sancy. Though he was quite helpless owing to paraly- sis, Dymoke was ordered by Bishop Cooper of I.,incoln to be carried off to gaol, where he died, faithful to the
end. He was much tormented in his last hours by the
Protestant ministers who endeavoured to pervert him,
and who, even when the dying man was half-uncon-
scious, refused to leave him in peace. He left several
children, his eldest son, Edward, being more than
t wenty-one years of age at the time of his father's death.
GiLLOw, Bib!. Did. Eng. Cath. (London, 1885), II; Camm.
Lires of the English Martyrs (London. 1905), II, 579-583; Lee
in Did. \at. Biog. (London, 1903), XVI.
Bede Camm.
Dympna (Di.mpna), Saint, virgin and martjT. The earliest historical account of the veneration of St. Dympna dates from the middle of the thirteenth cen- tury. Under Bishop Guy I of Canibrai (1238-47), Pierre, a canon of the church of Saint-Aubert at Cam- brai, WTote a " Vita" of the saint, from which we learn that she had been venerated for many years in a church at Gheel (province of Antwerp, Belgium), which was dedicated to her. The author expressly states that he has drawn his Ijiography from oral tradition. According to the narrative Dympna, the daughter of a pagan king of Ireland, became a Christian and was secretly baptized. After the death of her mother, who was of extraordinary beauty, her father desired to marry his own daughter, who was just as beautiful, but she fled with the priest Gerebernus and landed at Antwerp. Thence they went to the village of Gheel, where there was a chapel of St. Martin, beside which they took up their abode. The messengers of her father, however, discovered their whereabouts; the father betook him- self thither and renewed his offer. Seeing that all was in vain, he commanded his servants to slay the priest, while he himself struck off the head of his daughter. The corpses were put in sarcophagi and entombed in a cave, where they were found later. The body of St. Dympna was buried in the church of Gheel, and the bones of St. Gerebernus were transferred to Xanten. This narrative is without any historical foundation, being merely a variation of the story of the king who wanted to marry his own tlaughter, a motif which ap- pears frequently in popular legends. Hence we can conclude nothing from it as to the history of St. Dympna and the time in which she lived. That she is identical with St. Damhnat of Ireland cannot be proved. There are at Gheel fragments of two simple ancient sarcophagi in which tradition says the bodies of Dympna and Gerebernus were found. There is also a quadrangular brick, said to have been found in one of the sarcophagi, bearing two lines of letters read as Dyaipn.\. The discovery of this sarcophagus with the corpse and the brick was perhaps the origin of the veneration. In Christian art St. Dympna is depicted with a sword in her hand and a fettered devil at her feet. Her feast is celebrated 15 May, under which date she is also found in the Roman martyrology.
From time immemorial, the saint was invoked as patroness against insanity. The Bollandists have published numerous accounts of miraculous cures, especially between 1604 and 1668. As a result, there has long been a colony for lunatics at Gheel ; even now there are sometimes as many as fifteen hundred, whose relatives invoke St. Dympna for their cure. The insane are treated in a peculiar manner; it is only in the beginning that they are placed in an institution for observation; later they are given shelter in the homes of the inhabitants, take part in their agricul- tural labours, and are treated very kindly. They are watched without being conscious of it. The treat- ment produces good results. The old church of St. Dympna in Gheel was destroyed by fire in 1489. The new church was consecrated in 1532 and is still standing. Every year on the feast of the saint and on the Tuesday after Pentecost numerous pilgrims visit her shrine. In Gheel there is al.so a fraternity vmder her name. For an interesting account ot Gheel, see Mrs. Byrne, "The City of the Simple" (London, 1869).
