DOZY, REINHART PIETER ANNE (1820-1883), Dutch Arabic scholar of French
(Huguenot) origin, was born at Leiden in February 1820. The Dozys, like so
many other contemporary French families, emigrated to the Low Countries
after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, but some of the former appear
to have settled in Holland as early as 1647. Dozy studied at the
university of Leiden, obtained the degree of doctor in 1844, was appointed
an extraordinary professor of history in 1850, and professor in 1857. The
first results of his extensive studies in Oriental literature, Arabic
language and history, manifested themselves in 1847, when he published
Al-Marrakushi's _History of the Almohades_ (Leiden, 2nd ed., 1881), which,
together with his _Scriptorum Arabum loci de Abbaditis_ (Leiden,
1846-1863, 3 vols.), his editions of Ibn-Adhari's _History of Africa and
Spain_ (Leiden, 1848-1852, 3 vols.), of Ibn-Badrun's _Historical
Commentary on the Poem of Ibn-Abdun_ (Leiden, 1848), and his _Dictionnaire
detaille des noms des vetements chez les Arabes_ (Amsterdam, 1845)--a work
crowned by the Dutch Institute--stamped Dozy as one of the most learned
and critical Arabic scholars of his day. But his real fame as a historian
mainly rests on his great work, _Histoire des Mussulmans d'Espagne,
jusqu'a la conquete de l'Andalousie par les Almoravides, 711-1110_
(Leiden, 1861; 2nd ed., ibid., 1881); a graphically written account of
Moorish dominion in Spain, which shed new light on many obscure points,
and has remained the standard work on the subject. Dozy's _Recherches sur
l'histoire et la litterature de l'Espagne pendant le moyen age_ (Leiden, 2
vols., 1849; 2nd and 3rd ed., completely recast, 1860 and 1881) form a
needful and wonderfully trenchant supplement to his _Histoire des
Mussulmans_, in which he mercilessly exposes the many tricks and
falsehoods of the monks in their chronicles, and effectively demolishes a
good part of the Cid legends. As an Arabic scholar Dozy stands well-nigh
unsurpassed in his _Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes_ (Leiden,
1877-1881, 2 vols.), a work full of research and learning, a storehouse of
Arabic lore. To the same class belongs his _Glossaire des mots espagnols
et portugais, derives de l'Arabe_, edited with Dr W. H. Engelmann of
Leipzig (Leiden, 1866; 2nd ed., 1868), and a similar list of Dutch words
derived from the Arabic. Dozy also edited Al Makkari's _Analectes sur
l'histoire et la litterature des Arabes d'Espagne_ (Leiden, 1855-1861, 2
vols.), and, in conjunction with his friend and worthy successor,
Professor De Goeje, at Leiden, Idrisi's _Description de l'Afrique et de
l'Espagne_ (1866), also the _Calendrier de Cordoue de l'annee 961; texte
arabe et ancienne traduction latine_ (Leiden, 1874). _Het Islamisme_
(_Islamism_; Haarlem, 1863, 2nd ed., 1880; French translation) is a
popular exposition of Mahommedanism, of a more controversial character;
and _De Israelieten te Mekka_ ("The Israelites at Mecca," Haarlem, 1864)
became the subject of a rather heated discussion in Jewish circles. Dozy
died at Leiden in May 1883. (H. TI.)
DRACAENA, in botany, a genus of the natural order Liliaceae, containing
about fifty species in the warmer parts of the Old World. They are trees
or shrubs with long, generally narrow leaves, panicles of small whitish
flowers, and berried fruit. The most remarkable species is _Dracaena
Draco_, the dragon-tree of the Canary Isles, which reaches a great size
and age. The famous specimen in Teneriffe, which was blown down by a
hurricane in 1868, when measured by Alexander von Humboldt, was 70 ft.
high, with a circumference of 45 ft. several feet above the ground. A
resin exuding from the trunk is known as dragon's blood (q.v.).
Many of the cultivated so-called Dracaenas belong to the closely-allied
genus _Cordyline_. They are grown for the beauty of form, colour and
variegation of their foliage and are extremely useful as decorative
stove plants or summer greenhouse plants, or for room and table
decoration. They are easy to grow and may be increased by cuttings
planted in sandy soil in a temperature of from 65 deg. to 70 deg. by
night, the spring being the best time for propagation. The old stems
laid flat in a propagating frame will push young shoots, which may be
taken off with a heel when 2 or 3 in. long, and planted in sandy peat in
3-in. pots; the tops can also be taken off and struck. The established
plants do best in fibry peat made porous by sand. In summer they should
have a day temperature of 75 deg., and in winter one of 65 deg.. Shift
as required, using coarser soil as the pots become larger. By the end of
the summer the small cuttings will have made nice plants, and in the
spring following they can be kept growing by the use of manure water
twice a week. Those intended for the conservatory should be gradually
inured to more air by midsummer, but kept out of cold draughts. When the
plants get too large they can be headed down and the tops used for
cuttings.
A large number of the garden species of Dracaena are varieties of
_Cordyline terminalis. D. Goldieana_ is a grandly variegated species
from west tropical Africa, and requires more heat.
DRACHMANN, HOLGER HENRIK HERBOLDT (1846-1908), Danish poet and
dramatist, son of Dr A. G. Drachmann, a physician of Copenhagen, whose
family was of German extraction, was born in Copenhagen on the 9th of
October 1846. Owing to the early death of his mother, who was a Dane,
the child was left much to his own devices. He soon developed a fondness
for semi-poetical performances, and loved to organize among his
companions heroic games, in which he himself took such parts as those of
Tordenskjold and Niels Juul. His studies were belated, and he did not
enter the university until 1865, leaving it in 1866 to become a student
in the Academy of Fine Arts. From 1866 to 1870 he was learning, under
Professor Sorensen, to become a marine painter, and not without success.
But about the latter date he came under the influence of Georg Brandes,
and, without abandoning art, he began to give himself more and more to
literature. At various periods he travelled very extensively in England,
Scotland, France, Spain and Italy, and his literary career began by his
sending letters about his journeys to the Danish newspapers. After
returning home, he settled for some time in the island of Bornholm,
painting seascapes. He now issued his earliest volume of poems, _Digte_
(1872), and joined the group of young Radical writers who gathered under
the banner of Brandes. Drachmann was unsettled, and still doubted
whether his real strength lay in the pencil or in the pen. By this time
he had enjoyed a surprising experience of life, especially among
sailors, fishermen, students and artists, and the issues of the
Franco-German War and the French Commune had persuaded him that a new
and glorious era was at hand. His volume of lyrics, _Daempede Melodier_
("Muffled Melodies," 1875), proved that Drachmann was a poet with a real
vocation, and he began to produce books in prose and verse with great
rapidity. _Ungt Blod_ ("Young Blood," 1876) contained three realistic
stories of contemporary life. But he returned to his true field in his
magnificent _Sange ved Havet; Venezia_ ("Songs of the Sea; Venice,"
1877), and won the passionate admiration of his countrymen by his prose
work, with interludes in verse, called _Derovre fra Graensen_ ("Over the
Frontier there," 1877), a series of impressions made on Drachmann by a
visit to the scenes of the war with Germany. During the succeeding years
he was a great traveller, visiting most of the principal countries of
the world, but particularly familiarizing himself, by protracted
voyages, with the sea and with the life of man in maritime places. In
1879 he published _Ranker og Roser_ ("Tendrils and Roses"), amatory
lyrics of a very high order of melody, in which he showed a great
advance in technical art. To the same period belongs _Paa Somands Tro og
Love_ ("On the Faith and Honour of a Sailor," 1878), a volume of short
stories in prose. It was about this time that Drachmann broke with
Brandes and the Radicals, and set himself at the head of a sort of
"nationalist" or popular-Conservative party in Denmark. He continued to
celebrate the life of the fishermen and sailors in books, whether in
prose or verse, which were the most popular of their day. _Paul og
Virginie_ and _Lars Kruse_ (both 1879); _Osten for Sol og vesten for
Maone_ ("East of the Sun and Moon," 1880); _Puppe og Sommerfugl_
("Chrysalis and Butterfly," 1882); and _Strandby Folk_ (1883) were among
these. In 1882 Drachmann published his fine translation, or paraphrase,
of Byron's _Don Juan_. In 1885 his romantic play called _Der var en
Gang_ ("Once upon a Time") had a great success on the boards of the
Royal theatre, Copenhagen; and his tragedies of _Volund Smed_ ("Wayland
the Smith") and _Brav-Karl_ (1897) made him the most popular playwright
of Denmark. He published in 1894 a volume of exquisitely fantastic
_Melodramas_ in rhymed verse, a collection which contains some of
Drachmann's most perfect work. His novel _Med den brede Pensel_ ("With
a Broad Brush," 1887) was followed in 1890 by _Forskrevet_, the history
of a young painter, Henrik Gerhard, and his revolt against his bourgeois
surroundings. With this novel is closely connected _Den hellige Ild_
("The Sacred Fire," 1899), in which Drachmann speaks in his own person.
There is practically no story in this autobiographical volume, which
abounds in lyrical passages. In 1899 he produced his romantic play
called _Gurre_; in 1900 a brilliant lyrical drama, _Hallfred
Vandraadeskjald_; and in 1903, _Det gronne Haab_. He died in Copenhagen
on the 14th of January 1908.
See an article by K. Gjellerup in Dansk _Biografisk Lexikon_ vol. iv.
(Copenhagen, 1890). (E. G.)
DRACO (7th century B.C.), Athenian statesman, was Archon Eponymus (but
see J. E. Sandys, _Constitution of Athens_, p. 12, note) in 621 B.C. His
name has become proverbial as an inexorable lawgiver. Up to his time the
laws of Athens were unwritten, and were administered arbitrarily by the
Eupatridae. As at Rome by the twelve Tables, so at Athens it was found
necessary to allay the discontent of the people by publishing these
unwritten laws in a codified form, and Draco, himself a Eupatrid,
carried this out. According to Plutarch (_Life of Solon_): "For nearly
all crimes there was the same penalty of death. The man who was
convicted of idleness, or who stole a cabbage or an apple, was liable to
death no less than the robber of temples or the murderer." For the
institution of the 51 Ephetae and their relation to the Areopagus in
criminal jurisdiction see GREEK LAW, The orator Demades (d. c. 318 B.C.)
said that Draco's laws were written in blood. Whether this implies
peculiar severity, or merely reflects the attitude of a more refined age
to the barbarous enactments of a primitive people, among whom the
penalty of death was almost universal for all crimes, cannot be decided.
According to Suidas, however, in his _Lexicon_, the people were so
overjoyed at the change he made, that they accidentally suffocated him
in the theatre at Aegina with the rain of caps and cloaks which they
flung at him in their enthusiasm.
The appearance in 1891 of Aristotle's lost treatise on the constitution
of Athens gave rise to a most important controversy on the subject of
Draco's work. From the statements contained in chapter iv. of this
treatise, and inferences drawn from them, many scholars attributed to
Draco the construction of an entirely new constitution for Athens, the
main features of which were: (1) extension of franchise to all who could
provide themselves with a suit of armour--or, as Gilbert
(_Constitutional Antiquities_, Eng. trans. p. 121) says, to the Zeugite
class, from which mainly the hoplites may be supposed to have come; (2)
the institution of a property qualification for office (archon 10 minae,
strategus 100 minae); (3) a council of 401 members (see BOUL[=E]); (4)
magistrates and councillors to be chosen by lot; further, the four
Solonian classes are said to be already in existence.
For some time, especially in Germany, this constitution was almost
universally accepted; now, the majority of scholars reject it. The
reasons against it, which are almost overwhelming, may be shortly
summarized. (1) It is ignored by every other ancient authority, except
an admittedly spurious passage in Plato[1]; whereas Aristotle says of
his laws "they are laws, but he _added the laws to an existing
constitution_" (Pol. ii. 9. 9). (2) It is inconsistent with other
passages in the _Constitution of Athens_. According to c. vii., Solon
repealed all laws of Draco except those relating to murder; yet some of
the most modern features of Solon's constitution are found in Draco's
constitution. (3) Its ideas are alien to the 7th century. It has been
said that the qualification of the strategus was ten times that of the
archon. This, reasonable in the 5th, is preposterous in the 7th century,
when the archon was unquestionably the supreme executive official.
Again, it is unlikely that Solon, a democratic reformer, would have
reverted from a democratic wealth' qualification such as is attributed
to Draco, to an aristocratic birth qualification. Thirdly, if Draco had
instituted a hoplite census, Solon would not have substituted
citizenship by birth. (4) The terminology of Draco's constitution is
that of the 5th, not the 7th, century, whereas the chief difficulty of
Solon's laws is the obsolete 6th-century phraseology. (5) Lastly, a
comparison between the ideals of the oligarchs under Theramenes (end of
5th century) and this alleged constitution shows a suspicious similarity
(hoplite census, nobody to hold office a second time until all duly
qualified persons had been exhausted, fine of one drachma for
non-attendance in Boul[=e]). It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude
that the constitution of Draco was invented by the school of Theramenes,
who wished to surround their revolutionary views with the halo of
antiquity; hence the allusion to "the constitution of our father"
([Greek: he patrios politeia]).
This hypothesis is further corroborated by a criticism of the text. Not
only is chapter iv. considered to be an interpolation in the text as
originally written, but later chapters have been edited to accord with
it. Thus chapter iv. breaks the connexion of thought between chapters
iii. and v. Moreover, an interpolator has inserted phrases to remove
what would otherwise have been obvious contradictions: thus (a) in
chapter vii., where we are told that Solon divided the citizens into
four classes ([Greek: timemata]), the interpolator had added the words
"according to the division formerly existing" ([Greek: kathaper dieretai
kai proteron]), which were necessary in view of the statement that Draco
gave the franchise to the Zeugites; (b) in chapter xli., where
successive constitutional changes are recorded, the words "the
Draconian" ([Greek: he epi Drakontos]) are inserted, though the
subsequent figures are not accommodated to the change. Solon is also
here spoken of as the founder of democracy, whereas the Draconian
constitution of chap. iv. contains several democratic innovations. Two
further points may be added, namely, that whereas Aristotle's treatise
credits Draco with establishing a money fine, Pollux definitely quotes a
law of Draco in which fines are assessed at so many oxen; secondly, if
chapter iv. did exist in the original text, it is more than curious that
though the treatise was widely read in antiquity there is no other
reference to Draco's constitution except the two quoted above. In any
case, whatever were Draco's laws, we learn from Plutarch's life of Solon
that Solon abolished all of them, except those dealing with homicide.
AUTHORITIES.--Beside the works of J. E. Sandys and G. Gilbert quoted
above, see those quoted in article CONSTITUTION OF ATHENS; Grote,
_Hist. of Greece_ (ed. 1907), pp. 9-11, with references; and histories
of Greece published after 1894. (J. M. M.)