Character Sketches of Romance
Chapter 103 : _Eurytion's Dog_ (herdsman of Geryon), "Orthros." It had two heads._Fin

_Eurytion's Dog_ (herdsman of Geryon), "Orthros." It had two heads.

_Fingal's Dog_ was named "Bran."

_Geryon's Dogs_. One was "Gargittos" and the other "Orthros." The latter was brother of Cerberos, but it had only two heads. Hercules killed both of Geryon's dogs.

_Landseer's Dog_, "Brutus," introduced by the great animal painter in his picture called "The Invader of the Larder."

_Llewellyn's Dog_ was named "Gelert;" it was a greyhound. (See GELERT).

_Lord Lurgan's Dog_ was named, "Master M'Grath," from an orphan boy who reared it. This dog won three Waterloo cups, and was presented at court by the express desire of Queen Victoria, the very year it died.

It was a sporting grey-hound (born 1866, died Christmas Day, 1871).

_Maria's Dog_, "Silvio."--Sterne, _Sentimental Journey._

_Dog of Montargis_. This was a dog named "Dragon," belonging to Aubri de Montdidier, a captain in the French army. Aubri was murdered in the forest of Bondy by his friend, Lieutenant Macaire, in the same regiment. After its master's death the dog showed such a strange aversion to Macaire, that suspicion was aroused against him. Some say he was pitted against the dog, and confessed the crime. Others say a sash was found on him, and the sword knot was recognized by Ursula as her own work and gift to Aubri. This Macaire then confessed the crime, and his accomplice, Lieutenant Landry, trying to escape, was seized by the dog and bitten to death. This story has been dramatized both in French and English.

_Orion's Dogs_; one was named "Arctoph'onos" and the other "Pto-ophagos."

_Punch's Dog_, "Toby."

_Sir W. Scott's Dogs_. His deer-hound was "Maida." His jet-black greyhound was "Hamlet." He had also two Dandy Dinmont terriers.

_Dog of the seven Sleepers_, "Katmir." It spoke with a human voice.

In _Sleary's circus_, the performing dog is called "Merryleys."--C.

d.i.c.kens, _Hard Times._

(For Actaeon's fifty dogs, see _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, 234).

_Dog_. The famous _Mount St. Bernard_ dog which saved forty human beings, was named "Barry." The stuffed skin of this n.o.ble creature is preserved in the museum at Berne.

_Dog (The)_, Diogenes the cynic (B.C. 412-323). When Alexander encountered him, the young Macedonian king introduced himself with the words, "I am Alexander, surnamed 'the Great.'" To which the philosopher replied, "And I am Diogenes, surnamed 'the Dog.'" The Athenians raised to his memory a pillar of Parian marble, surmounted with a dog, and bearing the following inscription:--

"Say, dog, what guard you in that tomb?"

A dog. "His name?" Diogenes. "From far?"

Sinope, "He who made a tub his home?"

The same; now dead, among the stars a star.

_Dog (The Thracian)_, Zo'ilus the grammarian; so called for his snarling, captious criticisms on Homer, Plato, and Isocrates. He was contemporary with Philip of Macedon.

_Dogs_. The two sisters of Zobei'de (3 _syl_.) were turned into little black dogs for casting Zobeide and "the prince" into the sea (See ZOBEIDE).

DOGS OF WAR, Famine, Sword, and Fire:

Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, a.s.sume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leashed in like hounds, should Famine, Sword, and Fire Crouch for employment.

Shakespeare, _King Henry V_. I chorus (1599).

DOG-HEADED TRIBES (of India), mentioned in the Italian romance of _Gueri'no Meschi'no._

DOGBERRY AND VERGES, two ignorant conceited constables, who greatly mutilate their words. Dogberry calls "a.s.sembly" _dissembly_; "treason"

he calls _perjury_; "calumny" he calls _burglary_; "condemnation"

_redemption_; "respect," _suspect_. When Conrade says, "Away! you are an a.s.s;" Dogberry tells the town clerk to write him down "an a.s.s."

"Masters," he says to the officials, "remember I am an a.s.s." "Oh, that I had been writ down an a.s.s!" (act. iv. sc. 2).--Shakespeare, _Much Ado About Nothing_ (1600.)

DOGGET, wardour at the castle of Garde Doloureuse.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

DOGGET'S COAT AND BADGE, the great prize in the Thames rowing-match, given on the 1st of August every year. So called from Thomas Dogget, an actor of Drury Lane, who signalized the accession of George I.

to the throne by giving annually a waterman's coat and badge to the winner of the race. The Fishmongers' company add a guinea to the prize.

DOILEY _(Abraham)_, a citizen and retired slop-seller. He was a charity boy, wholly without education, but made 80,000 in trade, and is determined to have "a larned skollard for his son-in-law."

He speaks of _jomtry_ [geometry], _joklate, jogrify, Al Mater, pinny-forty_, and _antikary doctors_; talks of _Scratchi_ [Gracchi], _Horsi_ [Horatii], a _study of horses_, and so on. Being resolved to judge between the rival scholars.h.i.+p of an Oxford pedant and a captain in the army, he gets both to speak Greek before him. Gradus, the scholar, quotes two lines of Greek, in which the _panta_ occurs four times. "Pantry!" cries the old slop-seller; "you can't impose upon me.

I know _pantry_ is not Greek." The captain tries English fustian, and when Gradus maintained that the words are English, "Out upon you for a jackanapes," cries the old man; "as if I didn't know my own mother tongue!" and gives his verdict in favor of the captain.

_Elizabeth Doiley_, daughter of the old slop-seller, in love with Captain Granger. She and her cousin Charlotte induce the Oxford scholar to dress like a _beau_ to please the ladies. By so doing he disgusts the old man, who exclaims, "Oh, that I should ever had been such a dolt as to take thee for a man of larnen'!" So the captain wins the race at a canter.--Mrs. Cowley, _Who's the Dupe_?

DOLL COMMON, a young woman in league with Subtle the alchemist and Face his alley.--B. Jonson, _The Alchemist_ (1610).

Mrs. Pritchard [1711-1768] could pa.s.s from "Lady Macbeth" to "Doll Common."--Leigh Hunt.

DOLL TEARSHEET, a "bona-roba." This virago is cast into prison with Dame Quickly (hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap), for the death of a man that they and Pistol had beaten.--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV_.

(1598).

DOLALLOLLA _(Queen)_, wife of King Arthur, very fond of stiff punch, but scorning "vulgar sips of brandy, gin, and rum." She is the enemy of Tom Thumb, and opposes his marriage with her daughter Huncamunca; but when Noodle announces that the red cow has devoured the pigmy giant-queller, she kills the messenger for his ill-tidings, and is herself killed by Frizaletta. Queen Dollalolla is jealous of the giantess Glundalca, at whom his majesty casts "sheep's eyes."--_Tom Thumb_, by Fielding the novelist (1730), altered by O'Hara, author of _Midas_ (1778).

DOLLA MURREY, a character in Crabbe's _Borough_, who died playing cards.

"A vole! a vole!" she cried; "'tis fairly won."

This said, she gently with a single sigh Died.

Crabbe, _Borough_ (1810).

DOLLY. The most bewitching of the Bohemian household described in Frances Hodgson Burnett's _Vagabondia_. Piquante, brave, sonsie, and loving, she bears and smiles through the hards.h.i.+ps and vicissitudes of her lot until she loses (as she thinks) the love and trust of "Griff,"

to whom she had been betrothed for years. Only his return and penitence save her from slipping out of a world that has few n.o.bler women.

DOLLY OF THE CHOP-HOUSE (Queen's Head Pa.s.sage, Paternoster Row and Newgate Street, London.) Her celebrity arose from the excellency of her provisions, attendance, accommodation, and service. The name is that of the old cook of the establishment.

The broth reviving, and the bread was fair, The small beer grateful and as pepper strong, The beaf-steaks tender, and the pot-herbs young.

DOLLY TRULL. Captain Macheath says she was "so taken up with stealing hearts, she left herself no time to steal anything else."--Gay, _The Beggar's Opera_, ii. I. (1727).

DOLLY VARDEN, daughter of Gabriel Varden, locksmith. She was loved to distraction by Joe Willet, Hugh of the Maypole inn, and Simon Tappert.i.t. Dolly dressed in the Watteau style, and was lively, pretty, and bewitching.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Barnaby Rudge_ (1841).

DOL'ON, "a man of subtle wit and wicked mind," father of Guizor (groom of Pollente the Saracen, lord of "Parlous Bridge"). Sir Ar'tegal, with scant ceremony, knocks the life out of Guizor, for demanding of him "pa.s.sage-penny" for crossing the bridge. Soon afterwards, Brit'omart and Talus rest in Dolon's castle for the night, and Dolon, mistaking Britomart for Sir Artegal, sets upon her in the middle of the night, but is overmastered. He now runs with his two surviving sons to the bridge, to prevent the pa.s.sage of Britomart and Talus; but Britomart runs one of them through with her spear, and knocks the other into the river.--Spenser _Faery Queen_ v. 6 (1596).

DOL'ON AND ULYSSES. Dolon undertook to enter the Greek camp and bring word back to Hector an exact account of everything. Accordingly he put on a wolf's skin and prowled about the camp on all fours. Ulysses saw through the disguise, and said to Diomed, "Yonder man is from the host ... we'll let him pa.s.s a few paces, and then pounce on him unexpectedly." They soon caught the fellow, and having "pumped" out of him all about the Trojan plans, and the arrival of Rhesus, Diomed smote him with his falchion on the mid-neck and slew him. This is the subject of bk. x. of the _Iliad_ and therefore this book is called "Dolonia" ("the deeds of Dolon" or "Dolophon'ia", "Dolon's murder").

Full of cunning, like Ulysses' whistle When he allured poor Dolon.