[1] Compare the Chica of South America, the Fandango of Spain, and
the Angrismene or la Fachee of modern Greece. See also _Romaunt de la
rose_, v. 776.
[2] The Greek [Greek: karpaia] represented the surprise by robbers of
a warrior ploughing a field. The gymnopaedic dances imitated the
sterner sports of the palaestra.
[3] The Greek Lenaea and Dionysia had a distinct reference to the
seasons.
[4] The Pantomimus was an outgrowth from the _canticum_ or choral
singing of the older comedies and _fabulae Atellanae_.
[5] "My heart flew to thy breast. Thou didst cut its wings, so that
it remained there. And now it has waxed daring, and will stay with
thee for evermore."
[6] "A star is lost and appears not in the sky; in thy face it has
set itself; on thy brow it shines."
DANCOURT, FLORENT CARTON (1661-1725), French dramatist and actor, was
born at Fontainebleau on the 1st of November 1661. He belonged to a
family of rank, and his parents entrusted his education to Pere de la
Rue, a Jesuit, who made earnest efforts to induce him to join the order.
But he had no religious vocation and proceeded to study law. He
practised at the bar for some time, but his marriage to the daughter of
the comedian Francois Lenoir de la Thorilliere led him to become an
actor, and in 1685, in spite of the strong opposition of his family, he
appeared at the Theatre Francais. His gifts as a comedian gave him
immediate and marked success, both with the public and with his fellow
actors. He was the spokesman of his company on occasions of state, and
in this capacity he frequently appeared before Louis XIV., who treated
him with great favour. One of his most famous impersonations was Alceste
in the _Misanthrope_ of Moliere. His first play, _Le Notaire obligeant_,
produced in 1685, was well received. _La Desolation des joueuses_ (1687)
was still more successful. _Le Chevalier a la mode_ (1687) is generally
regarded as his best work, though his claim to original authorship in
this and some other cases has been disputed. In _Le Chevalier a la mode_
appears the _bourgeoise_ infatuated with the desire to be an aristocrat.
The type is developed in _Les Bourgeoises a la mode_ (1692) and _Les
Bourgeoises de qualite_ (1700). Dancourt was a prolific author, and
produced some sixty plays in all. Some years before his death he
terminated his career both as an actor and as an author by retiring to
his chateau at Courcelles le Roi, in Berry, where he employed himself in
making a poetical translation of the Psalms and in writing a sacred
tragedy. He died on the 7th of December 1725. The plays of Dancourt are
faithful descriptions of the manners of the time, and as such have real
historical value. The characters are drawn with a realistic touch that
led to his being styled by Charles Palissot the Teniers of comedy. He is
very successful in his delineation of low life, and especially of the
peasantry. The dialogue is sparkling, witty and natural. Many of the
incidents of his plots were derived from actual occurrences in the
"fast" and scandalous life of the period, and several of his characters
were drawn from well-known personages of the day. Most of the plays
incline to the type of farce rather than of pure comedy. Voltaire
defined his talent in the words: "Ce que Regnard etait a l'egard de
Moliere dans la haute comedie, le comedien Dancourt l'etait dans la
farce."
His two daughters, Manon and Marie Anne (Mimi), both obtained success on
the stage of the Theatre Francais.
The complete works of Dancourt were published in 1760 (12 vols. 12mo).
An edition of his _Theatre choisi_, with a preface by F. Sarcey,
appeared in 1884.
DANDELION (_Taraxacum officinale_), a perennial herb belonging to the
natural order Compositae. The plant has a wide range, being found in
Europe, Central Asia, North America, and the Arctic regions, and also in
the south temperate zone. The leaves form a spreading rosette on the
very short stem; they are smooth, of a bright shining green, sessile,
and tapering downwards. The name dandelion is derived from the French
_dent-de-lion_, an appellation given on account of the tooth-like lobes
of the leaves. The long tap-root has a simple or many-headed rhizome; it
is black externally, and is very difficult of extirpation. The
flower-stalks are smooth, brittle, leafless, hollow, and very numerous.
The flowers bloom from April till August, and remain open from five or
six in the morning to eight or nine at night. The flower-heads are of a
golden yellow, and reach 1(1/2) to 2 in. in width; the florets are all
strap-shaped. The fruits are olive or dull yellow in colour, and are
each surmounted by a long beak, on which rests a pappus of delicate
white hairs, which occasions the ready dispersal of the fruit by the
wind; each fruit contains one seed. The globes formed by the plumed
fruits are nearly two inches in diameter. The involucre consists of an
outer spreading (or reflexed) and an inner and erect row of bracts. In
all parts of the plant a milky juice is contained, which has a somewhat
complex composition. The chief constituent is taraxacin, a neutral
principle. In addition the juice contains taraxacerin (derived from the
former), asparagin, inulin, resins and salts. An extract (dose 5-15
grains), a liquid extract (dose (1/2)-1 drachm) and a succus (dose 1-2
drachms) of the root are all used medicinally. For the purposes formerly
recognized taraxacum is now never used, but it has been shown to possess
definite cholagogue properties, and may therefore be prescribed along
with ammonium chloride in cases of hepatic constipation, which it very
constantly relieves. The root--which is the medicinal product--is most
bitter from March to July, but the milky juice it contains is less
abundant in the summer than in the autumn. For this reason, the extract
and succus are usually prepared during the months of September and
October. After a frost a change takes place in the root, which loses its
bitterness to a large extent. In the dried state the root will not keep
well, being quickly attacked by insects. Externally it is brown and
wrinkled, internally white, with a yellow centre and concentric paler
rings. It is two inches to a foot long, and about a quarter to half an
inch in diameter. The leaves are bitter, but are sometimes eaten as a
salad; they serve as food for silkworms when mulberry leaves are not to
be had. The root is roasted as a substitute for coffee. Several
varieties of the dandelion are recognized by botanists; they differ in
the degree and mode of cutting of the leaf-margin and the erect or
spreading character of the outer series of bracts. The variety
_palustre_, which affects boggy situations, and flowers in late summer
and autumn, has nearly entire leaves, and the outer bracts of its
involucre are erect.
[Illustration: Dandelion (_Taraxacum officinale_).
1, Unopened head; 2, ripe head from which all the fruits except two have
been removed; 3, one floret, enlarged; 4, one fruit.]
DANDOLO, the name of one of the most illustrious patrician families of
Venice, of which the earliest recorded member was one of the electors of
the first doge (A.D. 697). The Dandolo gave to Venice four doges; of
these the first and most famous was Enrico Dandolo (c. 1120-1205),
elected on the 1st of January 1193 (_more Veneto_, 1192). He had
distinguished himself in various military enterprises and diplomatic
negotiations in the course of an active career, and although over
seventy years old and of very weak sight (the story that he had been
made blind by the emperor Manuel Comnenus while he was at Constantinople
is a legend), he proved a most energetic and capable ruler. His first
care was to re-establish Venetian authority over the Dalmatians who had
rebelled with the king of Hungary's protection, but he failed to capture
Zara, owing to the arrival of the Pisan fleet, and although the latter
was defeated by the Venetians, the undertaking was suspended. In the
meanwhile the situation in the East was becoming critical. The Eastern
emperor Isaac II. Angelus had been deposed, imprisoned, and blinded by
his brother Alexius, who usurped the throne. The new emperor proved
unfriendly to the Venetians and made difficulties about renewing their
privileges. In the West a new crusade to the Holy Land was in
preparation, and the crusaders sent ambassadors, one of whom was
Villehardouin, the historian of the expedition, to ask the Venetians to
give them passage and means of transport (1201). After much deliberation
the republic agreed to transport 4500 horse and 29,000 foot to Palestine
with provisions for one year, for a sum of 85,000 marks; in addition 50
Venetian galleys would be provided free of charge, while Venice was to
receive half the conquests made by the crusaders. But as the time agreed
upon for the departure approached, it appeared that the crusaders had
not the money to pay the stipulated advance. Dandolo then proposed that
if they helped him to reduce Zara payment might be deferred. Some of the
crusaders disapproved of this attack on a Christian city, but the
majority, only too glad of an opportunity for plunder, willingly agreed.
The expedition sailed on the 8th of October 1202, three hundred sail in
all, with the aged Dandolo himself in command. Zara was taken and
pillaged, for which the Venetians were severely reprimanded by the pope.
But new possibilities of conquest were now opened up at the suggestion
of Alexius, the son of the deposed emperor Isaac. He promised the
crusaders that if they went first to Constantinople and re-instated
Isaac, the latter would maintain them for a year, contribute 10,000 men
and 200,000 marks for the expedition to Egypt, and subject the Eastern
to the Western Church. The proposal was accepted, largely owing to the
influence of Dandolo, who saw in it a means for further extending the
dominions and commerce of the Venetians. After wintering at Zara the
fleet set sail on the 7th of April 1203, and on the 23rd of June
anchored in the Bosporus. After long parleys the city was attacked by
land and sea on the 17th of July (the fleet being commanded by Dandolo)
and taken by storm. The emperor Alexius fled, and Isaac reoccupied the
throne, but, although grateful to the crusaders, he was not disposed to
fulfil the promises made by his son. Tumults between crusaders and
Greeks arose, and the people of the city, excited by a certain Alexis
Murzuphlus, murmured at the new taxes which were imposed on them. A
revolt broke out, and an officer named Nicholas Canabus was placed on
the throne; Prince Alexius was strangled by order of Murzuphlus, Isaac
died of the shock, Murzuphlus imprisoned Canabus and made himself
emperor (Alexius V.). The crusaders thereupon attacked Constantinople a
second time (12th of April 1204), and after a desperate struggle
captured the city, which they subjected to hideous carnage. Immense
booty was secured, the Venetians obtaining among other treasures the
four bronze horses which adorn the facade of St Mark's. The Eastern
empire was abolished, and a feudal Latin empire erected in its stead.
The leaders of the crusaders then met to elect an emperor. Dandolo was
one of the candidates, but Count Baldwin of Flanders was elected and
crowned on the 23rd of May. The Venetians were given Crete and several
other islands and ports in the Levant, which formed an uninterrupted
chain from Venice to the Black Sea, a large part of Constantinople
(whence the doge assumed the title of "lord of a quarter and a half of
Romania"), and many valuable privileges. But hardly had the new state
been established when various provinces rose in rebellion and the
Bulgarians invaded Thrace. A Latin army was defeated by them at
Adrianople (April 1205), and the emperor himself was captured and
killed, the fragments of the force being saved only by Dandolo's
prowess. But he was now old and ill, and on the 23rd of June 1205 he
died. He certainly consolidated Venice's dominion in the East and
increased its commercial prosperity to a very high degree. But the
policy he pursued in turning the crusaders against Constantinople, in
order to promote the interests of the republic, while serving to break
up the Greek empire, created in its place a Latin state that was far too
feeble to withstand the onslaught of Greek national feeling and Orthodox
fanaticism; at the same time the Greeks were greatly weakened and their
power of resisting the Turks consequently lessened. This paved the way
for the Turkish invasion of Europe, which proved an unmixed calamity
for all Christendom, Venice included.
Enrico Dandolo's sons distinguished themselves in the public service,
and his grandson Giovanni was doge from 1280 to 1289. The latter's son
Andrea commanded the Venetian fleet in the war against Genoa in 1294,
and, having been defeated and taken prisoner, he was so overwhelmed with
shame that he committed suicide by beating his head against the mast
(according to Andrea Navagero). Francesco Dandolo, also known as Dandolo
Cane, was doge from 1329 to 1339. During his reign the Venetians went to
war with Martino della Scala, lord of Verona, with the result that they
occupied Treviso and otherwise extended their possessions on the _terra
firma_. Andrea Dandolo (1307/10-1354), the last doge of the family,
reigned from 1343 to 1354. He had been the first Venetian noble to take
a degree at the university of Padua, where he had also been professor of
jurisprudence. The terrible plague of 1348, wars with Genoa, against
whom the great naval victory of Lojera was won in 1353, many treaties,
and the subjugation of the seventh revolt of Zara, are the chief events
of his reign. The poet Petrarch, who was the doge's intimate friend, was
sent to Venice on a peace mission by Giovanni Visconti, lord of Milan.
"Just, incorruptible, full of zeal and of love for his country, and at
the same time learned, of rare eloquence, wise, affable, and humane," is
the poet's verdict on Andrea Dandolo (_Varior. epist._ xix.). Dandolo
died on the 7th of September 1354. He is chiefly famous as a historian,
and his _Annals_ to the year 1280 are one of the chief sources of
Venetian history for that period; they have been published by Muratori
(_Rer. Ital. Script._ tom. xxi.). He also had a new code of laws
compiled (issued in 1346) in addition to the statute of Jacopo Tiepolo.
Another well-known member of this family was Silvestro Dandolo
(1796-1866), son of Girolamo Dandolo, who was the last admiral of the
Venetian republic and died an Austrian admiral in 1847. Silvestro was an
Italian patriot and took part in the revolution of 1848.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--S. Romanin, _Storia documentata di Venezia_ (Venice,
1853); among more recent books H. Kretschmayr's excellent _Geschichte
von Venedig_ (Gotha, 1905) should be consulted: it contains a
bibliography of the authorities and all the latest researches and
discoveries; C. Cipolla and G. Monticolo have published many essays
and editions of chronicles in the _Archivio Veneto_, and the "Fonti
per la Storia d'Italia," in the _Istituto storico italiano_; H.
Simonsfeld has written a life of _Andrea Dandolo_ in German (Munich,
1876). (L. V.*)
DANDOLO, VINCENZO, COUNT (1758-1819), Italian chemist and agriculturist,
was born at Venice, of good family, though not of the same house as the
famous doges, and began his career as a physician. He was a prominent
opponent of the oligarchical party in the revolution which took place on
the approach of Napoleon; and he was one of the envoys sent to seek the
protection of the French. When the request was refused, and Venice was
placed under Austria, he removed to Milan, where he was made member of
the great council. In 1799, on the invasion of the Russians and the
overthrow of the Cisalpine republic, Dandolo retired to Paris, where, in
the same year, he published his treatise _Les Hommes nouveaux, ou moyen
d'operer une regeneration nouvelle_. But he soon after returned to the
neighbourhood of Milan, to devote himself to scientific agriculture. In
1805 Napoleon made him governor of Dalmatia, with the title of
_provediteur general_, in which position Dandolo distinguished himself
by his efforts to remove the wretchedness and idleness of the people,
and to improve the country by draining the pestilential marshes and
introducing better methods of agriculture. When, in 1809, Dalmatia was
re-annexed to the Illyrian provinces, Dandolo returned to Venice, having
received as his reward from the French emperor the title of count and
several other distinctions. He died in his native city on the 13th of
December 1819.
Dandolo published in Italian several treatises on agriculture,
vine-cultivation, and the rearing of cattle and sheep; a work on
silk-worms, which was translated into French by Fontanelle; a work on
the discoveries in chemistry which were made in the last quarter of
the 18th century (published 1796); and translations of several of the
best French works on chemistry.
DANDY, a word of uncertain origin which about 1813-1816 became a London
colloquialism for the exquisite or fop of the period. It seems to have
been in use on the Scottish border at the end of the 18th century, its
full form, it is suggested, being "Jack-a-Dandy," which from 1659 had a
sense much like its later one. It is probably ultimately derived from
the French _dandin_, "a ninny or booby," but a more direct derivation
was suggested at the time of the uprise of the Regency dandies. In _The
Northampton Mercury_, under date of the 17th of April 1819, occurs the
following: "Origin of the word 'dandy.' This term, which has been
recently applied to a species of reptile very common in the metropolis,
appears to have arisen from a small silver coin struck by King Henry
VII., of little value, called a _dandiprat_; and hence Bishop Fleetwood
observes the term is applied to worthless and contemptible persons."
It was Beau Brummel, the high-priest of fashion, who gave dandyism its
great vogue. But before his day foppery in dress had become something
more than the personal eccentricity which it had been in the Stuart days
and earlier. About the middle of the 18th century was founded the
Macaroni Club. This was a band of young men of rank who had visited
Italy and sought to introduce the southern elegances of manner and dress
into England. The Macaronis gained their name from their introduction of
the Italian dish to English tables, and were at their zenith about 1772,
when their costume is described as "white silk breeches, very tight coat
and vest with enormous white neckcloths, white silk stockings and
diamond-buckled red-heeled shoes." For some time the moving spirit of
the club was Charles James Fox. It was with the advent of Brummel,
however, that the cult of dandyism became a social force. Beau Brummel
was supreme dictator in matters of dress, and the prince regent is said
to have wept when he disapproved of the cut of the royal coat. Around
the Beau collected a band of young men whose insolent and affected
manners made them universally unpopular. Their chief glory was their
clothes. They wore coats of blue or brown cloth with brass buttons, the
coat-tails almost touching the heels. Their trousers were buckskin, so
tight that it is said they "could only be taken off as an eel would be
divested of his skin." A pair of highly-polished Hessian boots, a
waistcoat buttoned incredibly tight so as to produce a small waist, and
opening at the breast to exhibit the frilled shirt and cravat, completed
the costume of the true dandy. Upon the Beau's disgrace and ruin, Lord
Alvanley was regarded as leader of the dandies and "first gentleman in
England." Though in many ways a worthier man than Brummel, his vanity
exposed him to much derision, and he fought a duel on Wimbledon Common
with Morgan O'Connell, who, in the House of Commons, had called him a
"bloated buffoon." After 1825 "dandy" lost its invidious meaning, and
came to be applied generally to those who were neat in dress rather than
to those guilty of effeminacy.
See Barbey D'Aurevilly, _Du dandysme et de G. Brummel_ (Paris, 1887).
DANEGELD, an English national tax originally levied by Aethelred II.
(the Unready) as a means of raising the tribute which was the price of
the temporary cessation of the Danish ravages. This expedient of buying
off the invader was first adopted in 991 ou the advice of certain great
men of the kingdom. It was repeated in 994, 1002, 1007 and 1012. With
the accession of the Danish king Canute, the original _raison d'etre_ of
the tax ceased to exist, but it continued to be levied, though for a
different purpose, assuming now the character of an occasional war-tax.
It was exceedingly burdensome, and its abolition by Edward the Confessor
in 1051 was welcomed as a great relief. William the Conqueror revived it
immediately after his accession, as a convenient method of national
taxation, and it was with the object of facilitating its collection that
he ordered the compilation of Domesday Book. It continued to be levied
until 1163, in which year the name Danegeld appears for the last time in
the Rolls. Its place was taken by other imposts of similar character
but different name.
DANELAGH, the name given to those districts in the north and north-east
of England which were settled by Danes and other Scandinavian invaders
during the period of the Viking invasions. The real settlement of
England by Danes began in the year 866 with the appearance of a large
army in East Anglia, which turned north in the following year. The Danes
captured York and overthrew the Northumbrian kingdom, setting up a
puppet king of their own. They encamped in Nottingham in 868, and
Northern Mercia was soon in their hands; in 870 Edmund, king of the East
Anglians, fell before them. During the next few years they maintained
their hold on Mercia, and we have at this time coins minted in London
with the inscription "Alfdene rex," the name of the Danish leader. In
the winter of 874-875 they advanced as far north as the Tyne, and at the
same time Cambridge was occupied. In the meantime the great struggle
with Alfred the Great was being carried on. This was terminated by the
peace of Wedmore in 878, when the Danes withdrew from Wessex and settled
finally in East Anglia under their king Guthrum. This peace was finally
and definitely ratified in the document known as the peace of Alfred and
Guthrum, which is probably to be referred to the year 880. The peace
determined the boundary of Guthrum's East Anglian kingdom. According to
the terms of the agreement the boundary was to run along the Thames
estuary to the mouth of the Lea (a few miles east of London), then up
the Lea to its source near Leighton Buzzard, then due north to Bedford,
then eastwards up the Ouse to Watling Street somewhere near Fenny or
Stony Stratford. From this point the boundary is left undefined, perhaps
because the kingdoms of Alfred and Guthrum ceased to be conterminous
here, though if Northamptonshire was included in the kingdom of Guthrum,
as seems likely, the boundary must be carried a few miles along Watling
Street. Thus Northern Mercia, East Anglia, the greater part of Essex and
Northumbria were handed over to the Danes and henceforth constitute the
district known as the Danelagh.
The three chief divisions of the Danelagh were (1) the kingdom of
Northumbria, (2) the kingdom of East Anglia, (3) the district of the
Five (Danish) Boroughs--lands grouped round Leicester, Nottingham,
Derby, Stamford and Lincoln, and forming a loose confederacy. Of the
history of the two Danish kingdoms we know very little. Guthrum of East
Anglia died in 890, and later we hear of a king Eric or Eohric who died
in 902. Another Guthrum was ruling there in the days of Edward the
Elder. The history of the Northumbrian kingdom is yet more obscure.
After an interregnum consequent on the death of Healfdene the kingdom
passed in 883 to one Guthred, son of Hardicanute, who ruled till 894,
when his realm was taken over by King Alfred, though probably only under
a very loose sovereignty. It may be noted here that Northumbria north of
the Tyne, the old Bernicia, seems never to have passed under Danish
authority and rule, but to have remained in independence until the
general submission to Edward in 924.
More is known of the history of the five boroughs. From 907 onwards
Edward the Elder, working together with Aethelred of Mercia and his
wife, worked for the recovery of the Danelagh. In that year Chester was
fortified. In 911-912 an advance on Essex and Hertfordshire was begun.
In 914 Buckingham was fortified and the Danes of Bedfordshire submitted.
In 917 Derby was the first of the five boroughs to fall, followed by
Leicester a few months later. In the same year after a keen struggle all
the Danes belonging to the "borough" of Northampton, as far north as the
Welland (i.e. the border of modern Northamptonshire), submitted to
Edward and at the same time Colchester was fortified; a large portion of
Essex submitted and the whole of the East Anglian Danes came in.
Stamford was the next to yield, soon followed by Nottingham, and in 920
there was a general submission on the part of the Danes and the
reconquest of the Danelagh was now complete.
Though the independent occupation of the Danelagh by Viking invaders did
not last for more than fifty years at the outside, the Danes left
lasting marks of their presence in these territories.
The divisions of the land are foreign not native. The grouping of shires
round a county town as distinct from the old national shires is probably
of Scandinavian origin, and so certainly is the division of Yorkshire
and Lincolnshire into "ridings." In Derbyshire, Leicestershire,
Lincolnshire, part of Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutlandshire
(of later formation) and Yorkshire we have the counties divided into
"wapentakes" instead of "hundreds," again a mark of Danish influence.
When we turn to the social divisions we find in Domesday and other
documents classes of society in these districts bearing purely Norse
names, _dreng_, _karl_, _karlman_, _bonde_, _thrall_, _lysing_, _hold_;
in the system of taxation we have an assessment by _carucates_ and not
by hides and _virgates_, and the duodecimal rather than the decimal
system of reckoning.
The highly developed Scandinavian legal system has also left abundant
traces in this district. We may mention specially the institution of the
"lawmen," whom we find as a judicial body in several of the towns in or
near the Danelagh. They are found at Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln, York
and Chester. There can be no doubt that these "lawmen," who can be shown
to form a close parallel to and indeed the ultimate source of our jury,
were of Scandinavian origin. Many other legal terms can be definitely
traced to Scandinavian sources, and they are first found in use in the
district of the Danelagh.
The whole of the place nomenclature of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire,
Nottinghamshire and Northern Northamptonshire is Scandinavian rather
than native English, and in the remaining districts of the Danelagh a
goodly proportion of Danish place-names may be found. Their influence is
also evident in the dialects spoken in these districts to the present
day. It is probable that until the end of the 10th century Scandinavian
dialects were almost the sole language spoken in the district of the
Danelagh, and when English triumphed, after an intermediate bilingual
state, large numbers of words were adopted from the earlier Scandinavian
speech.
See _The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, edited by Earle and Plummer (Oxford,
1892-1899); J. C. H. R. Steenstrup, _Normannerne_ (4 vols.,
1876-1882); and A. Bugge, _Vikingerne_ (2 vols.). (A. Mw.)
DANGERFIELD, THOMAS (c. 1650-1685), English conspirator, was born about
1650 at Waltham, Essex, the son of a farmer. He began his career by
robbing his father, and, after a rambling life, took to coining false
money, for which offence and others he was many times imprisoned. False
to everyone, he first tried to involve the duke of Monmouth and others
by concocting information about a Presbyterian plot against the throne,
and this having been proved a lie, he pretended to have discovered a
Catholic plot against Charles II. This was known as the "Meal-tub Plot,"
from the place where the incriminating documents were hidden at his
suggestion, and found by the king's officers by his information. Mrs
Elizabeth Cellier,--in whose house the tub was,--almoner to the countess
of Powis, who had befriended Dangerfield when he posed as a Catholic,
was, with her patroness, actually tried for high treason and acquitted
(1680). Dangerfield, when examined at the bar of the House of Commons,
made other charges against prominent Papists, and attempted to defend
his character by publishing, among other pamphlets, _Dangerfield's
Narrative_. This led to his trial for libel, and on the 29th of June
1685 he received sentence to stand in the pillory on two consecutive
days, be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate, and two days later from
Newgate to Tyburn. On his way back he was struck in the eye with a cane
by a barrister, Robert Francis, and died shortly afterwards from the
blow. The barrister was, tried and executed for the murder.
DANIEL, the name given to the central figure[1] of the biblical Book of
Daniel (see below), which is now generally regarded as a production
dating from the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.). There are
no means of ascertaining anything definite concerning the origin of the
hero Daniel. The account of him in Dan. i. has been generally
misunderstood. According to i. 3, the Babylonian chief eunuch was
commanded to bring "certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's
seed, and of the nobles" to serve in the court. Many commentators have
considered this to mean that some of the children were of the royal
Judaean line of Jewish noble families, an interpretation which is not
justified by the wording of the passage, which contains nothing to
indicate that the author meant to convey the idea that Daniel was either
royal or noble. Josephus,[2] never doubting the historicity of Daniel,
made the prophet a relative of Zedekiah and consequently of Jehoiakim, a
conclusion which he apparently drew from the same passage, i. 3.
Pseudo-Epiphanius,[3] again, probably having the same source in mind,
thought that Daniel was a Jewish noble. The true Epiphanius[4] even
gives the name of his father as Sabaan, and states that the prophet was
born at Upper Beth-Horon, a village near Jerusalem. The after life and
death of the seer are as obscure as his origin. The biblical account
throws no light on the subject. According to the rabbis,[5] Daniel went
back to Jerusalem with the return of the captivity, and is supposed to
have been one of the founders of the mythical Great Synagogue. Other
traditions affirm that he died and was buried in Babylonia in the royal
vault, while the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela (12th cent. A.D.)
was shown his tomb in Susa, which is also mentioned by the Arab,
Abulfaragius (Bar-hebraeus). The author of _Daniel_ did not pretend to
give any sketch of the prophet's career, but was content merely with
making him the central figure, around which to group more or less
disconnected narratives and accounts of visions. In view of these facts,
and also of the generally inaccurate character of all the historical
statements in the work, there is really no evidence to prove even the
existence of the Daniel described in the book bearing his name.
The question at once arises as to where the Maccabaean author of
_Daniel_ could have got the name and personality of his Daniel. It is
not probable that he could have invented both name and character. There
is an allusion in the prophet Ezekiel (xiv. 14, 20, xxviii. 3) to a
Daniel whom he places as a great personality between Noah and Job. But
this could not be our Daniel, whom Ezekiel, probably a man of ripe age
at the time of the Babylonian deportation of the Jews, would hardly have
mentioned in the same breath with two such characters, much less have
put him _between_ them, because, had the Daniel of the biblical book
existed at this time, he would have been a mere boy, lacking any such
distinction as to make him worthy of so high a mention. It is evident
that Ezekiel considered his Daniel to be a celebrated ancient prophet,
concerning whose date and origin, however, there is not a single trace
to guide research. Hitzig's[6] conjecture that the Daniel of Ezekiel was
Melchizedek is quite without foundation. The most that can be said in
this connexion is that there may really have been a spiritual leader of
the captive Jews who resided at Babylon and who was either named Daniel,
perhaps after the unknown patriarch mentioned by Ezekiel, or to whom the
same name had been given in the course of tradition by some historical
confusion of persons. Following this hypothesis, it must be assumed that
the fame of this Judaeo-Babylonian leader had been handed down through
the unclear medium of oral tradition until the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes, when some gifted Jewish author, feeling the need of producing
a work which should console his people in their affliction under the
persecutions of that monarch, seized upon the personality of the seer
who lived during a time of persecution bearing many points of
resemblance to that of Antiochus IV., and moulded some of the legends
than extant about the life and activity of this misty prophet into such
a form as should be best suited to a didactic purpose.[7]
DANIEL, BOOK OF.--The Book of Daniel stands between Ezra and Esther in
the third great division of the Hebrew Bible known as the _Hagiographa_,
in which are classed all works which were not regarded as being part of
the Law or the Prophets. The book presents the unusual peculiarity of
being written in two languages, i.-ii. 4 and viii.-xii. being in Hebrew,
while the text of ii. 4-vii. is the Palestinian dialect of Aramaic.[8]
The subject matter, however, falls naturally into two divisions which
are not co-terminous with the linguistic sections; viz. i.-vi. and
vii.-xii. The first of these sense-divisions deals only with narratives
regarding the reign of Nebuchadrezzar and his supposed son Belshazzar,
while the second section consists exclusively of apocalyptic prophecies.
There can be no doubt that a definite plan was followed in the
arrangement of the work. The author's object was clearly to demonstrate
to his readers the necessity of faith in Israel's God, who shall not for
ever allow his chosen ones to be ground under the heel of a ruthless
heathen oppressor. To illustrate this, he makes use on the one hand
(i.-vi.) of carefully chosen narratives, somewhat loosely connected it
is true, but all treating substantially the same subject,--the physical
triumph of God's servant over his unbelieving enemies; and on the other
hand (vii.-xii.), he introduces certain prophetic visions illustrative
of God's favour towards the same servant, Daniel. So carefully is this
record of the visions arranged that the first two chapters of the second
part of the book (vii.-viii.) were no doubt purposely made to appear in
a symbolic form, in order that in the last two revelations (xi.-xii.),
which were couched in such direct language as to be intelligible even to
the modern student of history, the author might obtain the effect of a
climax. The book is probably not therefore a number of parts of
different origin thrown loosely together by a careless editor, who does
not deserve the title of author.[9] The more or less disconnected
sections of the first part of the work were probably so arranged
purposely, in order to facilitate its diffusion at a time when books
were known to the people at large chiefly by being read aloud in public.
Various attempts have been made to explain the sudden change from Hebrew
to Aramaic in ii. 4. It was long thought, for example, that Aramaic was
the vernacular of Babylonia and was consequently employed as the
language of the parts relating to that country. But this was not the
case, because the Babylonian language survived until a later date than
that of the events portrayed in Daniel.[10] Nor is it possible to follow
the theory of Merx, that Aramaic, which was the popular tongue of the
day when the Book of Daniel was written, was therefore used for the
simpler narrative style, while the more learned Hebrew was made the
idiom of the philosophical portions.[11] The first chapter, which is
just as much in the narrative style as are the following Aramaic
sections, is in Hebrew, while the distinctly apocalyptic chapter vii. is
in Aramaic. A third view, that the bilingual character of the work
points to a time when both languages were used indifferently, is equally
unsatisfactory,[12] because it is highly questionable whether two idioms
can ever be used quite indifferently. In fact, a hybrid work in two
languages would be a literary monstrosity. In view of the apparent unity
of the entire work, the only possible explanation seems to be that the
book was written at first all in Hebrew, but for the convenience of the
general reader whose vernacular was Aramaic, a translation, possibly
from the same pen as the original, was made into Aramaic. It must be
supposed then that, certain parts of the original Hebrew manuscript
being lost, the missing places were supplied from the current Aramaic
translation.[13]
It cannot be denied in the light of modern historical research that if
the Book of Daniel be regarded as pretending to full historical
authority, the biblical record is open to all manner of attack. It is
now the general opinion of most modern scholars who study the Old
Testament from a critical point of view that this work cannot possibly
have originated, according to the traditional theory, at any time during
the Babylonian monarchy, when the events recorded are supposed to have
taken place.