[1] "Die Vorfahren der Schollen," _Biol. Centralbl._ xxii. (1902), p.
717.
[2] "On the systematic position of the Pleuronectidae," _Ann. and
Mag._ N. H. x. (1902), p. 295.
[3] "On the number and arrangement of the bony plates of the young
John Dory," _Biometrika_, ii. (1902), p. 115.
DOSITHEUS MAGISTER, Greek grammarian, flourished at Rome in the 4th
century A.D. He was the author of a Greek translation of a Latin
grammar, intended to assist the Greek-speaking inhabitants of the empire
in learning Latin. The translation, at first word for word, becomes less
frequent, and finally is discontinued altogether. The Latin grammar used
was based on the same authorities as those of Charisius and Diomedes,
which accounts for the many points of similarity. Dositheus contributed
very little of his own. Some Greek-Latin exercises by an unknown writer
of the 3rd century, to be learnt by heart and translated, were added to
the grammar. They are of considerable value as illustrating the social
life of the period and the history of the Latin language. Of these
[Greek: hermeneumata] (Interpretamenta), the third book, containing a
collection of words and phrases from everyday conversation ([Greek:
kathemerine homilia]) has been preserved. A further appendix consisted
of Anecdotes, Letters and Rescripts of the emperor Hadrian; fables of
Aesop; extracts from Hyginus; a history of the Trojan War, abridged from
the Iliad; and a legal fragment, [Greek: Peri eleutheroseon] (_De
manumissionibus_).
Editions: _Grammatica_ in H. Keil, _Grammatici Latini_, vii. and
separately (1871); _Hermeneumata_ by G. Gotz (1892) (in G. Lowe's
_Corpus glossariorum Latinorum_, iii.) and E. Bocking (1832), which
contains the appendix (including the legal fragment); see also C.
Lachmann, _Versuch uber Dositheus_ (1837); H. Hagen, _De Dosithei
magistri quae feruntur glossis_ (1877).
DOSSAL (dossel, dorsel or dosel; Fr. _dos_, back), an ecclesiastical
ornamented cloth suspended behind the altar.
DOSSERET, or impost block (a Fr. term, from _dos_, back), in
architecture, the cubical block of stone above the capitals in a
Byzantine church, used to carry the arches and vault, the springing of
which had a superficial area greatly in excess of the column which
carried them.
DOST MAHOMMED KHAN (1793-1863), founder of the dynasty of the Barakzai
in Afghanistan, was born in 1793. His elder brother, the chief of the
Barakzai, Fatteh Khan, took an important part in raising Mahmud to the
sovereignty of Afghanistan in 1800 and in restoring him to the throne in
1809. That ruler repaid his services by causing him to be assassinated
in 1818, and thus incurred the enmity of his tribe. After a bloody
conflict Mahmud was deprived of all his possessions but Herat, the rest
of his dominions being divided among Fatteh Khan's brothers. Of these
Dost Mahommed received for his share Ghazni, to which in 1826 he added
Kabul, the richest of the Afghan provinces. From the commencement of his
reign he found himself involved in disputes with Ranjit Singh, the Sikh
ruler of the Punjab, who used the dethroned Saduzai prince,
Shuja-ul-Mulk, as his instrument. In 1834 Shuja made a last attempt to
recover his kingdom. He was defeated by Dost Mahommed under the walls of
Kandahar, but Ranjit Singh seized the opportunity to annex Peshawar. The
recovery of this fortress became the Afghan amir's great concern.
Rejecting overtures from Russia, he endeavoured to form an alliance with
England, and welcomed Alexander Burnes to Kabul in 1837. Burnes,
however, was unable to prevail on the governor-general, Lord Auckland,
to respond to the amir's advances. Dost Mahommed was enjoined to abandon
the attempt to recover Peshawar, and to place his foreign policy under
British guidance. In return he was only promised protection from Ranjit
Singh, of whom he had no fear. He replied by renewing his relations
with Russia, and in 1838 Lord Auckland set the British troops in motion
against him. In March 1839 the British force under Sir Willoughby Cotton
advanced through the Bolan Pass, and on the 26th of April it reached
Kandahar. Shah Shuja was proclaimed amir, and entered Kabul on the 7th
of August, while Dost Mahommed sought refuge in the wilds of the Hindu
Kush. Closely followed by the British, Dost was driven to extremities,
and on the 4th of November 1840 surrendered as a prisoner. He remained
in captivity during the British occupation, during the disastrous
retreat of the army of occupation in January 1842, and until the
recapture of Kabul in the autumn of 1842. He was then set at liberty, in
consequence of the resolve of the British government to abandon the
attempt to intervene in the internal politics of Afghanistan. On his
return from Hindustan Dost Mahommed was received in triumph at Kabul,
and set himself to re-establish his authority on a firm basis. From 1846
he renewed his policy of hostility to the British and allied himself
with the Sikhs; but after the defeat of his allies at Gujrat on the 21st
of February 1849 he abandoned his designs and led his troops back into
Afghanistan. In 1850 he conquered Balkh, and in 1854 he acquired control
over the southern Afghan tribes by the capture of Kandahar. On the 30th
of March 1855 Dost Mahommed reversed his former policy by concluding an
offensive and defensive alliance with the British government. In 1857 he
declared war on Persia in conjunction with the British, and in July a
treaty was concluded by which the province of Herat was placed under a
Barakzai prince. During the Indian Mutiny Dost Mahommed punctiliously
refrained from assisting the insurgents. His later years were disturbed
by troubles at Herat and in Bokhara. These he composed for a time, but
in 1862 a Persian army, acting in concert with Ahmad Khan, advanced
against Kandahar. The old amir called the British to his aid, and,
putting himself at the head of his warriors, drove the enemy from his
frontiers. On the 26th of May 1863 he captured Herat, but on the 9th of
June he died suddenly in the midst of victory, after playing a great
role in the history of Central Asia for forty years. He named as his
successor his son, Shere Ali Khan. (E. I. C.)
DOSTOIEVSKY, FEODOR MIKHAILOVICH (1821-1881), Russian author, born at
Moscow, on the 30th of October 1821, was the second son of a retired
military surgeon of a decayed noble family. He was educated at Moscow
and at the military engineering academy at St Petersburg, which he left
in 1843 with the grade of sub-lieutenant. Next year his father died, and
he resigned his commission in order to devote himself to
literature--thus commencing a long struggle with ill-health and penury.
In addition to the old Russian masters Gogol and Pushkin, Balzac and
George Sand supplied him with literary ideals. He knew little of
Dickens, but his first story is thoroughly Dickensian in character. The
hero is a Russian "Tom Pinch," who entertains a pathetic, humble
adoration for a fair young girl, a solitary waif like himself.
Characteristically the Russian story ends in "tender gloom." The girl
marries a middle-aged man of property; the hero dies of a broken heart,
and his funeral is described in lamentable detail. The germ of all
Dostoievsky's imaginative work may be discovered here. The story was
submitted in manuscript to the Russian critic, Bielinski, and excited
his astonishment by its power over the emotions. It appeared in the
course of 1846 in the _Recueil de Saint-Petersbourg_, under the title of
"Poor People." An English version, _Poor Folk_, with an introduction by
Mr George Moore, appeared in 1894. The successful author became a
regular contributor of short tales to the _Annals of the Country_, a
monthly periodical conducted by Kraevsky; but he was wretchedly paid,
and his work, though revealing extraordinary power and intensity,
commonly lacks both finish and proportion. Poverty and physical
suffering robbed him of the joy of life and filled him with bitter
thoughts and morbid imaginings. During 1847 he became an enthusiastic
member of the revolutionary reunions of the political agitator,
Petrachevski. Many of the students and younger members did little more
than discuss the theories of Fourier and other economists at these
gatherings. Exaggerated reports were eventually carried to the police,
and on the 23rd of April 1849 Dostoievsky and his brother, with thirty
other suspected personages, were arrested. After a short examination by
the secret police they were lodged in the fortress of St Peter and St
Paul at St Petersburg, in which confinement Feodor wrote his story _A
Little Hero_. On the 22nd of December 1849 the accused were all
condemned to death and conveyed in vans to a large scaffold in the
Simonovsky Place. As the soldiers were preparing to carry out the
sentence, the prisoners were informed that their penalty was commuted to
exile in Siberia. The novelist's sentence was, four years in Siberia and
enforced military service in the ranks for life. On Christmas eve 1849
he commenced the long journey to Omsk, and remained in Siberia, "like a
man buried alive, nailed down in his coffin," for four terrible years.
His Siberian experiences are graphically narrated in a volume to which
he gave the name of _Recollections of a Dead-House_ (1858). It was known
in an English translation as _Buried Alive in Siberia_ (1881; another
version, 1888). His release only subjected him to fresh indignities as a
common soldier at Semipalatinsk; but in 1858, through the intercession
of an old schoolfellow, General Todleben, he was made an under-officer;
and in 1859, upon the accession of Alexander II., he was finally
recalled from exile. In 1858 he had married a widow, Madame Isaiev, but
she died at St Petersburg in 1867 after a somewhat stormy married life.
After herding for years with the worst criminals, Dostoievsky obtained
an exceptional insight into the dark and seamy side of Russian life. He
formed new conceptions of human life, of the balance of good and evil in
man, and of the Russian character. Psychological studies have seldom, if
ever, found a more intense form of expression than that embodied by
Dostoievsky in his novel called _Crime and Punishment_. The hero
Raskolnikov is a poor student, who is led on to commit a murder partly
by self-conceit, partly by the contemplation of the abject misery around
him. Unsurpassed in poignancy in the whole of modern literature is the
sensation of compassion evoked by the scene between the self-tormented
Raskolnikov and the humble street-walker, Sonia, whom he loves, and from
whom, having confessed his crime, he derives the idea of expiation.
Raskolnikov finally gives himself up to the police and is exiled to
Siberia, whither Sonia follows him. The book gave currency to a number
of ideas, not in any sense new, but specially characteristic of
Dostoievsky: the theory, for instance, that in every life, however
fallen and degraded, there are ecstatic moments of self-devotion; the
doctrine of purification by suffering, and by suffering alone; and the
ideal of a Russian people forming a social state at some future period
bound together by no obligation save mutual love and the magic of
kindness. In this visionary prospect, as well as in his objection to the
use of physical force, Dostoievsky anticipated in a remarkable manner
some of the conspicuous tenets of his great successor Tolstoy. The book
electrified the reading public in Russia upon its appearance in 1866,
and its fame was confirmed when it appeared in Paris in 1867. To his
remarkable faculty of awakening reverberations of melancholy and
compassion, as shown in his early work, Dostoievsky had added, by the
admission of all, a rare mastery over the emotions of terror and pity.
But such mastery was not long to remain unimpaired. _Crime and
Punishment_ was written when he was at the zenith of his power. His
remaining works exhibit frequently a marvellous tragic and analytic
power, but they are unequal, and deficient in measure and in balance.
The chief of them are: _The Injured and the Insulted_, _The Demons_
(1867), _The Idiot_ (1869), _The Adult_ (1875), _The Brothers Karamzov_
(1881).
From 1865, when he settled in St Petersburg, Dostoievsky was absorbed in
a succession of journalistic enterprises, in the Slavophil interest, and
suffered severe pecuniary losses. He had to leave Russia, in order to
escape his creditors, and to seek refuge in Germany and Italy. He was
further harassed by troubles with his wife, and his work was interrupted
by epileptic fits and other physical ailments. It was under such
conditions as these that his most enduring works were created. He
managed finally to return to Russia early in the seventies, and was for
some time director of _The Russian World_. From 1876 he published a kind
of review, entitled _Carnet d'un ecrivain_, to the pages of which he
committed many strange autobiographical facts and reflections. The last
eight years of his life were spent in comparative prosperity at St
Petersburg, where he died on the 9th of February 1881.
His life had been irremediably seared by his Siberian experiences. He
looked prematurely old; his face bore an expression of accumulated
sorrow; in disposition he had become distrustful, taciturn,
contemptuous--his favourite theme the superiority of the Russian peasant
over every other class; as an artist, though uncultured, he had ever
been subtle and sympathetic, but latterly he was tortured by tragic
visions and morbidly preoccupied by exceptional and perverted types. M.
de Vogue, in his admirable _Ecrivains russes_, has worked out with some
success a parallel between the later years of Dostoievsky and those of
Jean Jacques Rousseau. Siberia effectually convinced the novelist of the
impotence of Nihilism in such a country as Russia; but though he was
assailed by ardent Liberals for the reactionary trend of his later
writings, Dostoievsky became, towards the end of his life, an extremely
popular figure, and his funeral, on the 12th of February 1881, was the
occasion of one of the most remarkable demonstrations of public feeling
ever witnessed in the Russian capital. The death of the Russian novelist
was not mentioned in the London press; it is only since 1885, when
_Crime and Punishment_ first appeared, in English, that his name has
become at all familiar in England, mainly through French translations.
A complete edition of his novels was issued at St Petersburg in
fourteen volumes (1882-1883). Two critical studies by Tchij and
Zelinsky appeared at Moscow in 1885, and a German life by Hoffmann at
Vienna in 1899. (T. SE.)
DOUAI, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the
department of Nord, 20 m. S. of Lille on the Northern railway between
that city and Cambrai. Pop. (1906) town, 21,679; commune, 33,247. Douai
is situated in a marshy plain on the banks of the Scarpe which
intersects the town from south to north, and supplies water to a canal
skirting it on the west. The old fortifications, of which the Porte de
Valenciennes (15th century) is the chief survival, have been demolished
to make room for boulevards and public gardens. The industrial towns of
Dorignies, Sin-le-Noble and Aniche are practically suburbs of Douai. Of
the churches, that of Notre-Dame (12th and 14th centuries) is remarkable
for the possession of a fine altarpiece of the early 16th century,
composed of wooden panels painted by Jean Bellegambe, a native of Douai.
The principal building of the town is a handsome hotel de ville, partly
of the 15th century, with a lofty belfry. The Palais de Justice (18th
century) was formerly the town house (_refuge_) of the abbey of
Marchiennes. Houses of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries are numerous.
There is a statue of Madame Desbordes Valmore, the poet (d. 1859), a
native of the town. The municipal museum contains a library of over
85,000 volumes as well as 1800 MSS., and a fine collection of sculpture
and paintings. Douai is the seat of a court of appeal, a court of
assizes and a subprefect, and has a tribunal of first instance, a board
of trade-arbitrators, an exchange, a chamber of commerce and a branch of
the Bank of France. Its educational institutions include a lycee,
training colleges, a school of mines, an artillery school, schools of
music, agriculture, drawing, architecture, &c., and a national school
for instruction in brewing and other industries connected with
agriculture. In addition to other iron and engineering works, Douai has
a large cannon foundry and an arsenal; coal-mining and the manufacture
of glass and bottles and chemicals are carried on a large scale in the
environs; among the other industries are flax-spinning, rope-making,
brewing and the manufacture of farm implements, oil, sugar, soap and
leather. Trade, which is largely water-borne, is in grain and
agricultural products, coal and building material.
Douai, the site of which was occupied by a castle (_Castrum Duacense_)
as early as the 7th century, belonged in the middle ages to the counts
of Flanders, passed in 1384 to the dukes of Burgundy, and so in 1477
with the rest of the Netherlands to Spain. In 1667 it was captured by
Louis XIV., and was ultimately ceded to France by the treaty of Utrecht
in 1713. Historically Douai is mainly important as the centre of the
political and religious propaganda of the exiled English Roman
Catholics. In 1562 Philip II. of Spain founded a university here, in
which several English scholars were given chairs; and in connexion with
this William Allen (q.v.) in 1568 founded the celebrated English
college. It was here that the "Douai Bible" was prepared (see Vol. III.
p. 901). There were also an Irish and a Scots college and houses of
English Benedictines and Franciscans. All these survived till 1793, when
the university was suppressed.
See F. Brassart, _Hist. du chateau et de la chatellenie de Douai_
(Douai, 1877-87); C. Mine, _Hist. pop. de Douai_ (ib. 1861); B. Ward,
_Dawn of the Catholic Revival_ (London, 1909); Handecoeur, _Hist. du
College anglais, Douai_ (Reims, 1898); Daucoisne, _Etablissements
britanniques a Douai_ (Douai, 1881).
DOUARNENEZ, a fishing-port of western France, in the department of
Finistere, on the southern shore of the Bay of Douarnenez 15 m. N.W. of
Quimper by rail. Pop. (1906) 13,472. Its sardine fishery, which is
carried on from the end of June to the beginning of December, gives
occupation to about 800 boats, and between 3000 and 4000 men, and the
preserving of the fish is an important industry. Mackerel fishing,
boat-building and rope and net making also occupy the inhabitants. There
is a lighthouse on the small island of Tristan off Douarnenez.
DOUBLE (from the Mid. Eng. _duble_, the form which gives the present
pronunciation, through the Old Fr. _duble_, from Lat. _duplus_, twice as
much), twice as much, or large, having two parts, having a part
repeated, coupled, &c. The word appears as a substantive with the
special meaning of the appearance to a person of his own apparition,
generally regarded as a warning, or of such an apparition of one living
person to another, the German _Doppelganger_ (see APPARITIONS). Another
word often used with this meaning is "fetch." According to the _New
English Dictionary_, "fetch" is chiefly of Irish usage, and may possibly
be connected with "fetch," to bring or carry away, but it may be a
separate word. The Corpus Glossary of the beginning of the 10th century
seems to identify a word _faecce_ with _maere_, meaning a goblin which
appears in "nightmare." "Double" is also used of a person whose
resemblance to another is peculiarly striking or remarkable, so that
confusion between them may easily arise.
DOUBLE BASS (Fr. _contrebasse_; Ger. _Kontrabass_, _Gross Bass Geige_;
Ital. _contrabasso_, _violone_), the largest member of the modern family
of stringed instruments played with a bow, known as the violin family,
and the lowest in pitch. The double bass differs slightly in
construction from the other members of the family in that it has
slanting shoulders (one of the features of the _viola da gamba_, see
VIOLIN); that is to say that where the belly is joined by the neck and
finger-board, it has a decided point, whereas in the violin, viola and
violoncello, the finger-board is at right-angles to the horizontal part
of a wide curve. It is probable that the shoulders of the double bass
were made drooping for the sake of additional strength of construction
on account of the strain caused by the tension of the strings. The
double bass was formerly made with a flat back--another characteristic
of the viol family--whereas now the back is as often found arched as
flat. The bow is for obvious reasons shorter and stouter than the violin
bow.
The technique of the double bass presents certain difficulties
inherent in an instrument of such large proportions. The stretches for
the fingers are very great, almost double those required for the
violoncello, and owing to the thickness of the strings great force is
required to press them against the finger-board when they are
vibrating. The performer plays standing owing to the great size of the
instrument.
The double bass sometimes has three strings tuned in England and Italy
in fourths; [Illustration: notes][1] in France and Germany to fifths.
[Illustration: notes] Owing to the scoring of modern composers,
however, it was found necessary to adopt an accordance of four strings
in order to obtain the additional lower notes required, although this
entails the sacrifice of beauty of tone, the three-stringed instrument
being more sonorous. Some orchestras make a compromise dividing the
double basses into two equal sections of three and four-stringed
basses. The four strings are tuned in fourths:--[Illustration: notes].
Mr A. C. White, finding that an additional lower compass was required,
first tuned his double bass with three strings to [Illustration:
notes] afterwards adding a fourth string, the lower D. By this
accordance the third and fourth strings gain additional power and
clearness from the fact that the first and second, being their octaves
higher, vibrate in sympathy, obviating the necessity of making the
'cello play in octaves with the double basses to increase the tone
when the lowest register is used. In order to obtain equal sonority on
his double bass with four strings, Mr White[2] found it necessary to
have a wider bridge measuring about 5 in., so that the distance
between the strings should remain the same as on a double bass with
three strings, thus allowing plenty of room for vibration. The neck
was also widened in proportion. A five-stringed double bass was
sometimes used in Germany tuned either to [Illustration: notes] or to
[Illustration: notes] but such instruments have been almost superseded
by those with four strings. A somewhat larger double bass with five
strings by Karl Otho of Leipzig was introduced between 1880 and 1890
with the following accordance:--
[Illustration: notes]
The practical compass of the double bass extends from [Illustration:
8va bassa.] (real sounds) with all chromatic intervals. In order to
avoid using numerous ledger lines the music is written an octave
higher. The quality of tone is very powerful but somewhat rough, and
varies greatly in its gradations. The notes of the lowest register,
when played _piano_, sound weird and sometimes grotesque, and are
sometimes used instead of the kettledrum; when played _forte_ the tone
is grand and full. The lowest octave is mainly used as a fundamental
octave bass to 'cello, bassoon or trombone. The tone of the
_pizzicato_ is full and rich owing to the slowness of the vibrations,
and it changes character according to the harmonies which lie above
it: with a chord of the diminished seventh above it, for instance, the
_pizzicato_ sounds like a menace, but with the common chord calm and
majestic. Both natural and artificial harmonics are possible on the
double bass, the former being the best; but they are seldom used in
orchestral works. As an instance of their use may be cited the scene
by the Nile at the beginning of the third act of Verdi's _Aida_, where
harmonics are indicated for both 'cellos and double basses.
The technical capabilities of the double bass are necessarily somewhat
more limited than those of the violoncello. Quick passages, though
possible, are seldom written for it; they cannot sound clear owing to
the time required for the strings to vibrate. An excellent effect is
produced by what is known as the _intermittent tremolo_: owing to the
elasticity of the bow, it rebounds several times on the strings when a
single blow is sharply struck, forming a series of short tremolos. The
double bass is the foundation of the whole orchestra and therefore of
great importance; it plays the lowest part, often, as its name
indicates, only doubling the 'cello part an octave lower. It is only
since the beginning of the 19th century that an independent voice has
occasionally been allotted to it, as in the Scherzo of Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony in C minor:--
[Illustration: CONTRABASSI.]
These opening bars are played _soli_ by 'cellos and double basses, a
daring innovation of Beethoven's which caused quite a consternation at
first in musical circles.
The remote origin of the double bass is the same as that of the
violin.[3] It was evolved from the bass viol; whether the transformation
took place simultaneously with that of the violin from the treble viol
or preceded it, has not been definitely proved, but both Gasparo da Salo
and Maggini constructed double basses, which were in great request in
the churches. De Salo made one with three strings for St Mark's, Venice,
which is still preserved there.[4] It was Dragonetti's favourite concert
instrument, presented to him by the monks of St Mark, and, according to
the desire expressed in his will, the instrument was restored after his
death to St Mark's, where it is at present preserved. Dragonetti used a
straight bow similar to the violoncello bow, held overhand with the hair
slanting towards the neck of the instrument; it was introduced into
England from Paris, and is a favourite with orchestral players.
Praetorius gives an illustration of a sub-bass _viol da gamba_ or _gross
contra-bass geige_[5] "recently constructed," which displaced the other
large contra-bass viols; of which he also gives an illustration.[6]
Giovanni Bottesini (1822-1889) was the greatest virtuoso on the double
bass that the world has ever known. It was not only the perfection of
his technique and tone which won him artistic fame, but also the
delicacy of his style and his exquisite taste in phrasing. (K. S.)