"Ad Graecas, bone rex, fiant mandata kalendas."
In 1589 Drake commanded the fleet sent to restore Dom Antonio, king of
Portugal, the land forces being under the orders of Sir John Norreys;
but they had hardly put to sea when the commanders differed, and thus
the attempt proved abortive. But as the war with Spain continued, a more
formidable expedition was fitted out, under Sir John Hawkins and Sir
Francis Drake, against their settlements in the West Indies, than had
hitherto been undertaken during the whole course of it. Here, however,
the commanders again disagreed about the plan; and the result in like
manner disappointed public expectation. These disasters were keenly felt
by Drake, and were the principal cause of his death, which took place on
board his own ship, near the town of Nombre de Dios, in the West Indies,
on the 28th of January 1595.
The older Lives by Samuel Clarke (1671) and John Barrow, junr. (1843),
have been superseded by Julian Corbett's two admirable volumes on
_Drake and the Tudor Navy_ (1898), the best source of information on
the subject, which were preceded by the same author's _Sir Francis
Drake_ in the "English Men of Action" series (1890). See also E. J.
Payne's edition of _Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen to America:
Thirteen original narratives from the collection of Hakluyt_ (new ed.,
1893).
DRAKE, NATHAN (1766-1836), English essayist and physician, son of Nathan
Drake, an artist, was born at York in 1766. He was apprenticed to a
doctor in York in 1779, and in 1786 proceeded to Edinburgh University,
where he took his degree as M.D. in 1789. In 1790 he set up as a general
practitioner at Sudbury, Suffolk, where he found an intimate friend in
Dr Mason Good (d. 1827). In 1792 he removed to Hadleigh, Suffolk, where
he died in 1836. His works include several volumes of literary essays,
and some papers contributed to medical periodicals; but his most
important production was _Shakespeare and his Times, including the
Biography of the Poet, Criticisms on his Genius and Writings; a new
Chronology of his Plays; a Disquisition on the Object of his Sonnets;
and a History of the Manners, Customs and Amusements, Superstitions,
Poetry and Elegant Literature of his Age_ (2 vols., 1817). The title
sufficiently indicates the scope of this ample work, which has the
merit, says G. G. Gervinus (_Shakespeare Commentaries_, Eng. trans.,
1877) "of having brought together for the first time into a whole the
tedious and scattered material of the editions and of the many other
valuable labours of Tyrwhitt, Heath, Ritson, &c."
DRAKENBORCH, ARNOLD (1684-1748), Dutch classical scholar, was born at
Utrecht on the 1st of January 1684. Having studied philology under
Graevius and Burmann the elder, and law under Cornelius Van Eck, in 1716
he succeeded Burmann in his professorship (conjointly with C. A. Duker),
which he continued to hold till his death on the 16th of January 1748.
Although he obtained the degree of doctor of laws, and was intended for
the legal profession, he determined to devote himself to philological
studies. His edition of Livy (1738-1746, and subsequent editions) is the
work on which his fame chiefly rests. The preface gives a particular
account of all the literary men who have at different periods commented
on the works of Livy. The edition itself is based on that of Gronovius;
but Drakenborch made many important alterations on the authority of
manuscripts which it is probable Gronovius had never seen. He also
published _Dissertatio de praefectis urbi_ (1704; reprinted at Frankfort
in 1752 with a life of Drakenborch); _Dissertatio de officio
praefectorum praetorio_ (1707); and an edition of Silius Italicus
(1717).
DRAKENSBERG (_Quathlamba_ or _Kahlamba_, i.e. "heaped up and jagged," of
the natives), a mountain chain of S.E. Africa, running parallel to the
coast from Basutoland to the Limpopo river--a distance of some 600 m.
The Drakensberg are the eastern part of the rampart which forms the edge
of the inner tableland of South Africa. The sides of the mountains
facing the sea are in general precipitous; on their inner face they
slope more or less gently to the plateau. The culminating points of the
range, and the highest lands in South Africa, are found in a sharp bend
from S.E. to N.W. in about 29 deg. S. 29 deg. E., where "the Berg" (as
the range is called locally) forms the frontier between Natal and
Basutoland. Within 60 m. of one another are three mountains, Giant's
Castle, Champagne Castle or Cathkin Peak, and Mont aux Sources, 10,000
to 11,000 or more ft. above the sea. From Mont aux Sources the normal
N.E. direction of the range is resumed. Conspicuous among the heights
along the Orange Free State, Transvaal and Natal frontiers are Tintwa,
Malani, Inkwelo and Amajuba or Majuba (q.v.), all between 7000 and 8000
ft. The Draken's Berg--the particular hill from which the range is
named--is 5682 ft. high and lies between Malani and Inkwelo heights. It
was so named by the _voortrekkers_ about 1840. North of Majuba the range
enters the Transvaal. Here the elevation is generally lower than in the
south, but the Mauch Berg is about 8500 ft. high. At its northernmost
point the range joins the Zoutpansberg. In their southern part the
Drakensberg form the parting between the rivers draining west to the
Atlantic and those flowing south and east to the Indian Ocean. At Mont
aux Sources rise the chief headwaters of the Orange, Tugela and other
rivers. In the north, however, several streams rising in the interior
plateau, e.g. the Komati, the Crocodile and the Olifants, pierce the
Drakensberg and reach the Indian Ocean. The range has numerous passes,
many available for wheeled traffic. Van Reenen's Pass, between Tintwa
and Malani, is crossed by a railway which connects the Orange Free State
and Natal: Laing's Nek, the main pass leading from Natal to the
Transvaal, which lies under the shadow of Majuba, is pierced by a
railway tunnel. The railway from Delagoa Bay to Pretoria crosses the
Drakensberg by a very steep gradient. Several subsidiary ranges branch
off from the main chain of the Berg. This is especially the case in
Natal, where one range is known as the Little Drakensberg. (See further
BASUTOLAND; NATAL And TRANSVAAL.)
DRAMA (literally "action," from Gr. [Greek: dran], act or do), the term
applied to those productions of Art which imitate or, to use a more
modern term, "represent" action by introducing the personages taking
part in them as real, and as employed in the action itself. There are
numerous varieties of the drama, differing more or less widely from one
another, both as to the objects imitated and as to the means used in the
process. But they all agree in the _method_ or _manner_ which is
essential to the drama and to dramatic art, namely, _imitation in the
way of action_. The function of all Art being to give pleasure by
representation (see FINE ARTS), it is clear that what is distinctive of
any one branch or form must be the manner in which this function is
performed by it. In the epos, for instance, the method or manner is
narrative, and even when Odysseus tells of his action, he is not acting.