Dragon-flyDragon-flyA, Larva of dragon-fly.B, Dragon-fly escaping from chrysalis.C, The perfect insect.
A, Larva of dragon-fly.B, Dragon-fly escaping from chrysalis.C, The perfect insect.
Dragon, orDragon-lizard, a name for several species of lizards inhabiting South-East Asia. The common flying lizard (Draco volans), the best type of the genus, is about 10 or 12 inches in length, the tail being extremely long in proportion to the body. The sides are furnished with peculiar extensions of the skin, resembling wings, which help to support it in the air as it springs from branch to branch. These wing-like processes are borne by prolongations of five or six of the hindermost ribs, and can be folded up. Its food consists almost exclusively of insects.
Drag´onet, the common name of small marine fishes constituting a special family (Callionymidæ). The gemmeous dragonet (Callionymus lyra) is found in the British seas. The female is dull brown and much smaller than the male, which is brilliantly coloured with spots and bars of blue on a yellow ground. His first dorsal fin is large and drawn out into a long filament.
Dragon-fly, the common name of members of a family (Odonata or Libellulidæ) of neuropterous insects. They have a large head, large eyes, and strong horny mandibles. They are beautiful in form and colour, and are of very powerful flight. The great dragon-fly (Æschna grandis) is about 4 inches long, and the largest of the British species. They live on insects, and are remarkable for their voracity. The dragon-fly deposits its eggs in the water, where the wingless nymphs live on aquatic insects. The nymph stage lasts for a year. The family is of very wide distribution. The small blue Agrion is a common European form, but the familiar Libellula is the most extensively distributed. SeeDemoiselle.
Dragonnades, orDragonades, the name given to the persecutions directed against the Protestants, chiefly in the south of France, during the reign of Louis XIV, shortly before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Bands of soldiers, headed by priests, marched through the villages, giving the Protestant inhabitants the alternative of renouncing their faith orbeing given over to the extortions and violence of the soldiery. The dragoons were conspicuous in these expeditions, to which they gave their name. The Dragonnades drove thousands of French Protestants out of France.—Cf. Tylor,The Huguenots in the Seventeenth Century.
Dragon's Blood, orGum Dragon, a resinous juice, usually obtained by incision from various tropical plants, asCalămus Draco,Dracæna Draco,Pterocarpus Draco, &c. It varies in composition, and is often much adulterated. It is opaque, of a reddish-brown colour, brittle, and has a smooth shining conchoidal fracture. It is soluble in alcohol and oil, but scarcely so in water. It is used for colouring varnishes, for staining marble, leather, and wood, and for tooth tinctures.
Dragon TreeDragon Tree (Dracæna Draco)1, Fruiting branchlet. 2, Flowers.
1, Fruiting branchlet. 2, Flowers.
Dragon Tree(Dracæna Draco), a tree-like liliaceous plant, with a stem simple or divided at top, and in old age often much branched. It is a native of the Canaries, and yields the resin known as dragon's blood. It is often grown in greenhouses.
Dragoon´, a kind of mounted soldier, so called originally from his musket (dragon) having on the muzzle of it the head of a dragon. At one time dragoons served both as mounted and foot soldiers, but now only as the former. In the British army there areheavyandlight dragoons. The first dragoon regiment, the Scots Greys, was formed in 1681.
Draguignan(dra˙-gē-nyän),a town of Southern France since 1793, capital of the department of Var, in a beautiful valley, 41 miles north-east of Toulon. It has some interesting buildings, and manufactures of silk, soap, and leather. Pop. 9974.
Drainage.The term comprises the drainage of areas of country by rivers and streams, the reclamation of areas from the sea, and country formerly marshy, and the provision of culverts and pipe-drains to buildings and towns.
The Fens in Lincolnshire are a notable example of a comprehensive system of drainage by means of open ditches (locally called 'drains'), into which the surplus water is lifted by means of wind- and steam-pumps.
Low-lying or flat country often requires a considerable amount of drainage, which is carried out by means of a regular system of earthenware pipes, laid 2 to 3 feet deep, and from 15 to 35 feet apart. These pipes are porous, from 2 to 3 inches in diameter, laid with butt joints, and lead into larger mains, and thence by open ditches to streams.
A method recently introduced consists in drawing a pointed cylindrical tool, 2 inches in diameter,through the ground at the required depth. This tool is dependent from a thin steel plate, which connects it with the carriage above, so that it can be drawn underground in any desired direction. This system is economical in first cost, but its useful life is considerably less than that of a piped drain, and its use is obviously confined to soils of the heavier variety.
In considering the provision of drainage to water-logged or low-lying land, every care should first be taken to improve the existing natural means of drainage, such as deepening and cleaning out streams and ditches, and removing obstructions.
It should be borne in mind that the object of land drainage is not only to remove the surplus water, but to promote a free and natural circulation of water in the soil, and to allow the mineral constituents of the water to reach the plant roots.
In the drainage of buildings, glazed socketed stoneware pipes are used, varying in diameter from 3 to 9 inches, laid straight in plan and in longitudinal section, and laid to falls, calculated to give a minimum velocity of 3 feet per second when flowing half full. These are laid in trenches, with inspection chambers at all changes in direction, and should be laid on and surrounded with concrete. In bad ground, or under dwelling houses, cast-iron pipes are employed, with special turned and bored joints. In towns these drains lead into the public sewers, which are similar stoneware pipes from 6 to 18 inches in diameter, larger sizes being constructed in brickwork or concrete, and either circular or egg-shaped form. In populous areas these sewers attain very large dimensions, the northern outfall sewers of London consisting of five parallel sewers, each 9 feet in diameter. SeeDraining.—Bibliography: G. S. Mitchell,Handbook of Land Drainage; Moore and Silcock,Sanitary Engineering; Gilbert Thomson,Modern Sanitary Engineering.
Drainage Tubesare fenestrated india-rubber tubes used in surgery to effect the gradual removal of the contents of a suppurating cavity. The inner end of the tube is in the cavity, and the outer end projects above the skin surface, and is usually fixed by a stitch or safety-pin, and covered with suitable dressings.
Covered Drain without PipesCovered Drain without Pipes
Open DrainOpen Drain
Stone-laid DrainsStone-laid Drains
Draining, in agriculture, a method of improving the soil by withdrawing the superfluous water from it by means of channels that are generally covered over. Plants cannot thrive unless there is free circulation of air and water round their roots. The successful practice of draining in a great measure depends on a proper knowledge of the superficial strata, of their situation, relative degrees of porosity, &c. Some strata allow water to pass through them, while others more impervious force it to run or filtrate along their surfaces till it reaches more level ground below. In general, where the grounds are in a great measure flat and the soils of materials which retain the excess of moisture, they require artificial means of drainage to render them capable of yielding good crops whether of grain or grass. The wetness of land, which makes it inferior for agricultural purposes, may appear not only as surface-water but as water which flows through the lower strata, and to draw off these there are the two distinct operations of surface-draining and under-draining. The rudest form of open drains are the deep furrows lying between high-backed ridges, and meant to carry off the surplus water after the soil is completely saturated, but in doing so they generally carry off also much of the best of the soil and of the manure which has been spread upon it. The ordinary ditch is a common form of water-course useful in certain cases, as in hill pastures. But covered drains at a depth of 4 feet or so are the common forms in draining agricultural lands. They are generally eitherstone-drainsortile-drains. Stone-drains are either formed on the plan of open culverts of various forms, or of small stones in sufficient quantity to permit a free and speedy filtration of the water through them. The box-drain, for instance, is formed of flat stones neatly arranged in the bottom of the trench, the whole forming an open tube. In tile-drains, tiles or pipes of burnt clay are used for forming the conduits. They possess all the qualities which are required in the formation of drains, affordinga free ingress to water, while they effectually exclude earth, as well as other injurious substances, and vermin. Drainage tiles and pipes have been made in a great variety of forms, the earliest of which, since the introduction of thorough draining, was the horse-shoe tile, so called from its shape. These should always rest on soles, or flats of burned clay. Pipe tiles, which combine the sole and cover in one piece, have been made of various shapes, but the best form appears to be the cylinder. An important department of draining is the draining off of the waters which are the sources of springs. The judicious application of a few simple drains, made to communicate with the watery layers, will often dry swamps of great extent, where large sums of money, expended in forming open drains in the swamp itself, would leave it but little improved. In the laying out of drains the first point to be determined is the place of outfall, which should always afford a free and clear outlet to the drains, and must necessarily be at the lowest point of the land to be drained. The next point to be determined is the position of the minor drains. In the laying out of these the surface of each field must be regarded as being made up of one or more planes, as the case may be, for each of which the drains should be laid out separately. Level lines are to be set out a little below the upper edge of each of these planes, and the drains must then be made to cross these lines at right angles. By this means the drains will run in the line of the greatest slope, no matter how distorted the surface of the field may be. All the minor drains should be made to discharge obliquely into mains or submains, and not directly into an open ditch or water-course. As a general rule, there should be a main to receive the waters of the minor drains from every 5 acres. The advantages of drainage are obvious. In the first place it brings the soil into a more suitable condition for the growth of plants, aiding in producing the finely divided and porous state which allows the roots and rootlets to spread themselves at will in order to obtain the needed supplies of food, air, and moisture. It also allows the sun's rays to produce their full effect on the soil and plants. In the presence of stagnant water a great part of this effect would be lost. SeeDrainage.
Drain TilesHorse-shoe and Cylindrical Drain Tiles
Drain-trapsDrain-traps
Drain-trap, a contrivance to prevent the escape of foul air from drains, while allowing the passage of water into them. They are of various forms. In the traps represented below it will be seen that there must always be a certain quantity of water maintained to bar the way against the escape of the gas from the drain or sewer. When additional liquid is conveyed to the trap, there is, of course, an overflow into the drain. In older types of drains the gas was prevented from escaping by a metal plate thrown obliquely over the drain mouth and dipping into the water in the vessel beyond it.
Drake, Sir Francis, an English navigator, born at Tavistock, in Devonshire, in 1539, or according to some authorities in 1545. He served as a sailor in a coasting vessel, and afterwards joined Sir John Hawkins in his last expedition against the Spaniards (1567), losing nearly all he possessed in that unfortunate enterprise. Having gathered a number of adventurers round him, he contrived to fit out a vessel in which he made two successful cruises to the West Indies in 1570 and 1571. Next year, with two small ships, he again sailed for the Spanish Main, captured the cities of Nombre de Dios and Vera Cruz, and took a rich booty which he brought safely home. In 1577 Drake made another expedition to the Spanish Main, having this time command of five ships. On this the most famous of his voyages Drake passed the Straits of Magellan, plundered all along the coasts of Chile and Peru, sacked several ports, and captured a galleon laden with silver, gold, and jewels, to the value of perhaps £200,000. He then ran north as far as 48°N.lat., seeking a passage to the Atlantic, but was compelled to return to Port San Francisco on account of the cold. He then steered for the Moluccas, and holding straight across the Indian Ocean doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at Plymouth 3rd Nov., 1580, being thus the first of the English circumnavigators. As there was no war between England and Spain, the proceedings of Drake had a somewhat dubious character, but the queen maintained that they were lawful reprisals for the action of the Spaniards, and showed her favour to Drake by knighting him on board his own ship. Five years afterwards Drake was again attacking the Spaniards in theCape Verde Islands and in the West Indies, and in 1588 particularly distinguished himself as vice-admiral in the conflict with the Spanish Armada. In 1593 he represented Plymouth in Parliament. His later expeditions, that in 1595 against the Spanish West Indies and that to Panama, were not so successful, and his death, which took place on 28th Jan., 1596, at sea off Porto Bello, was hastened by disappointment.—Bibliography: Sir J. S. Corbett,Sir Francis Drake(English Men of Action Series), andDrake and the Tudor Navy.
Drakenberg Mountains, a range of South Africa forming the western frontier of Natal, and rising to the height of 11,000 feet, a continuation of the Quathlamba range.
Drama(Gr.drama, action, fromdrÄn, to act or do), a form of art which imitates action by introducing real persons to represent the fictitious characters, and to carry on the story by means of action and dialogue.
Man is naturally an imitative animal, and some crude form of drama must have been in existence in very early times. We can see the origins of drama in many of the games played by children, where important events such as war, marriage, and sacrifice are represented in song and dance. In Greece, the cradle of drama as of everything that is good, there must have been in prehistoric times war-dances which formed the basis of tragedy, and rough vintage revel dances which formed the basis of comedy.
Greek Drama.—The Greek drama was religious in its origin. It arose from the dithyrambs or songs composed in honour of Dionysus, the god of all vegetation, though identified most closely with the vine. When vegetation died in winter, this was considered to be the death of Dionysus; when it bloomed anew in the spring, this was thought to be the god's resurrection. The one event was celebrated with gloomy song and dance, and the other with merry revels and crude indecency. The history of Greek drama is the history of the decline and fall of the chorus. At first the chorus was the whole play, and in theSupplicesof Æschylus, the earliest extant tragedy, the chorus played a predominating part. According to tradition, Thespis (about 535B.C.) introduced for the first time a masked actor, who carried on a dialogue with the leader of the chorus. Æschylus introduced a second actor, and Sophocles a third. It is thought that there never were more than three actors, but, of course, duplication of parts was permitted. There were also frequently mute characters (kÅpha prosÅpa) on the stage. Dialogue became more important in the later plays of Æschylus, and chorus became less important; Sophocles developed his dialogue in masterly style, though his choruses are among the most beautiful things in all Greek poetry; in Euripides the choruses, however lovely in themselves, are less an integral part of the drama than they were in the plays of his predecessors. In fact the chorus acted as a clog on the freedom of the dramatist, who wished to develop exciting situations and depict realistic characters. In comedy the same decline of the chorus is to be found; in theAcharnians, the earliest comedy, the chorus is very prominent; in thePlutus, the last comedy extant, it is comparatively unimportant. Sumptuary laws had something to do with this, and there is a vast difference between the magnificently apparelled chorus in theBirds, and the chorus in theLysistrata, which represented elderly Athenian men and women in their everyday costume.
Greek tragedies were usually presented in the form of trilogies, that is, in sets of three plays all dealing with the same subject. To these was added, as a rule, a fourth play, known as a satyr-play. TheCyclopsof Euripides is the only example extant of this kind of play. It is not very amusing, though it contains a certain amount of horse-play and high spirits. The satyr-play was intended to lighten the gloom of the three preceding tragedies. We have one complete trilogy preserved—the magnificentOresteiaof Æschylus, consisting of theAgamemnon,Choephorœ, andEumenides—plays which are bracketed withLearandOthelloas the highest and most majestic of all tragedies. In later times the three plays of the trilogy dealt with different subjects. The tragedies to be performed were carefully selected by some of the Athenian magistrates, and at the festival prizes were given for the best tragedy, on the recommendation of a carefully chosen jury. Comedies were presented one at a time; prizes were offered for the best of them also. Greek tragic actors wore long flowing robes, and added to their height by means of thecothurnusor thick-soled boot; it is believed that they wore masks with some sort of speaking-trumpet in the mouth, so that their words would be audible to the vast audience which assembled in the theatre, a huge circular open-air amphitheatre.
Each of the three Greek tragic writers whose work has been preserved is supreme in his own way. Æschylus's lyric dramas are among the greatest writings of all time; the plays of Sophocles are masterpieces of deft construction, of well-woven plot, and ironic dialogue; and his choruses are lyrics of the greatest beauty. Æschylus is more titanic; Sophocles is more humane. Euripides, the latest of the three, is a great poet and a champion of the weak, such as women and slaves; moreover, he sees deeply into men's hearts. He is really the founder of romantic drama, through the Roman Seneca, who imitated him. Of Greek comic poets weonly possess one, but he is a host in himself. Aristophanes is a Gargantuan mirth-maker; he bestrides the narrow world like a Colossus. He plays with a master's hand upon every note in the whole comic gamut. His works, owing to the conditions of the old comedy, were very frequently political and highly personal in their tone. The later plays are less so. TheBirds,Clouds, andFrogsare among the very greatest comic creations; only a little less great is theLysistrata, where a serious purpose is veiled by intense indecency. The old comedy, however, was essentially the product of its own age; it did not invite, or even permit, imitation. The new comedy, of which Philemon, Menander, and Diphilus were the principal writers, gradually supplanted it. Their plays were more or less romantic comedies with carefully constructed plots. They are all lost, but we may gain some idea of them from Plautus and Terence, and from the fragments which have been found, some of them fairly recently.
Roman maskA type of mask worn by the characters in a Roman play after Terence's time. The audience knew from the mask the particular character the actor represented.
Roman Drama.—Roman drama is not intrinsically good; it is in many respects a weak imitation of Greek drama, but it has been very much more important in its influence. Early English, French, and Italian dramatists all turned to Seneca as a model for tragedy, and to Plautus and Terence as models for comedy. This was partly due to the fact that though most of them had small Latin, they had less Greek; but it was partly because the Latin writers were easier to imitate. Italy had native farces, known as Atellan Fables, which were not without their influence on the development of comedy. These plays were broadly farcical, and dealt almost entirely with country life. The two great Roman comedy writers, Plautus and Terence, based their work, however, upon the new comedy of Greece, especially upon the plays of Menander and Diphilus. Plautus is decidedly coarse at times, and sometimes his fun is too much like that of a fourth-form boy at a public school, but his work is wholesome and vigorous, and he is a more creative and virile writer than Terence. Terence's plays are somewhat weak dramatically, but are written in a style of great beauty. He was a careful literary craftsman. Seneca, the only Roman tragic writer, had an immense influence on later dramatists. It is hard to account for this. He based his work upon Euripides, but he suppressed everything that makes Euripides tender and human. Senecan tragedy abounded in bloodshed and horrors; the speeches are full of pompous rant, and their metre is most monotonous. Some of the choruses are good rhetorical writing, though scarcely great poetry. Seneca's influence pervades all our early tragedy; it is clearly seen inGorboducand in Jonson'sSejanusandCatiline; even Shakespeare is not without traces of it. As the Roman Empire declined so did the Roman stage; finally nothing was performed save pantomime, in the proper sense of the word, where everything was done in dumb-show. This appeared to content the populace of the Roman Empire, even as the cinema seems to satisfy the citizens of a later and perhaps greater empire.
Mediæval Drama.—There is no drama between the death of Seneca and the Renaissance, unless we except the six curious 'comedies' of the nun Hrosvitha of Gandersheim (born aboutA.D.935). These plays are based upon Terence, though they do not follow their model closely. They are, of course, written in Latin. They have some vivid dramatic touches, and frequent felicities of expression. They were probably intended for recitation, not for representation on the stage. They must be regarded as an isolated phenomenon. The Church for long discouraged drama, but ended by adapting it to its own purposes. As in Greece, therefore, drama originated in England from religion. The priests impressed certain events in sacred history upon the minds of their congregation by means of dramatic performances which at first took place actually in the church. Thus the removal of the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre and the discovery of the empty tomb was performed at Easter, and the finding of the Babe in the manger by the three Magi was represented at Epiphany. It is easy to understand how performances of this sort arose from the singing of suitable anthems on festival days. The Oberammergau passion-play is a somewhat sophisticated representative of these liturgical plays; it cannot be called a survival, as it only dates back to 1633. These mystery-plays, so called because they were produced by the trade-guilds (Lat.ministerium, a trade), were eventually brought out into the market-place on wagons, and were moved round to various 'stations' in the town, different plays being performed at each station. A distinction is sometimes madebetween mystery- and miracle-plays, the former being defined as dealing with gospel events only, while the latter deal with incidents derived from the legends of the saints. Several collections of these plays survive—the Wakefield, Chester, and Coventry plays. They are written in a lively fashion, and are often naively humorous, the most sacred Bible characters being introduced along with English yokels and crudely comic persons. The next development of the drama was the morality play or allegory; the well-knownEverymanis the most finished specimen of this kind of play which we possess. Here personifications of Virtues and Vices formed the dramatis personæ; the Devil was usually included in the cast. Moralities were in ways less crude than mysteries, as they consisted of an allegory worked out by means of a more or less continuous plot, while mysteries consisted merely of a series of isolated scenes. The interlude is another early species of drama; it marks a still further advance. Interludes were both farcical and theological in their subjects, and played an important part in the controversies at the time of the Reformation. John Heywood (1497-1580) is the most important writer of interludes, the controversial plays of John Bale (1495-1563) serving to link the interlude to the regular drama, which began gradually to spring up.
Elizabethan DramaElizabethan DramaInterior of the Swan Theatre in 1596. From a sketch made by a Dutchman who visited England at the time.
Interior of the Swan Theatre in 1596. From a sketch made by a Dutchman who visited England at the time.
Elizabethan Drama.—The first English comedy,Ralph Roister Doister, appeared in 1551. It is by Nicolas Udall, and is based upon theMiles Gloriosusof Plautus.Gammer Gurton's Needle, a more native production, thought to have been by John Still, who was master of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Bishop of Bath and Wells, appeared about 1566. Drama now improved rapidly, and was soon to attain perfection in Shakespeare. Marlowe, Kyd, Greene, Lyly, Nash, Lodge, and Peele all helped to prepare the way. The greatest of these is Marlowe, who died at the age of twenty-nine, leaving behind him the great playsTamburlaine(1588),Faustus, andEdward II. In his development of blank verse he contributed greatly to the success of the drama. The earliest tragedy,Gorboduc(1562), is incredibly stiff and wooden in its versification. Marlowe made of blank verse an instrument that would sound any note of pathos or sublimity. In the plays of Shakespeare (1564-1616) drama reached its greatest height. In comedy, tragedy, history, in handling dramatic situations, and in liquid perfection of verse, he is supreme. Like the very greatest masters, he founded no school, and his contemporaries owe little to him. While they are all put in the shade by his myriad-minded genius, they are all partakers with him in the glory of their age, and are all great in themselves. Jonson (1573-1637) is one of the most important, as he to some extent founded a school and exercised considerable influence over later writers. He was a scholarly and laborious playwright, who over-elaborated some of his work, but who was a masterly adept at constructing a play, and a vigorous realist. Chapman (1559-1634), Dekker (1570-1641), and Marston (1575-1634) were all good workmanlike dramatists. Beaumont and Fletcher produced between them a great body of work, some of inferior quality, but all of great power. In some respects their work is less unlike that of Shakespeare than the work of other Elizabethans. Middleton, Webster, Tourneur, Thomas Heywood, and Massinger are all excellent in their way, Massinger in particular being a master of stage-craft. Shirley and Ford conclude the list of the great Jacobean dramatists. The Puritans caused the theatres to be closed in 1642.
Spanish and French Drama.—Meanwhile a similar outburst of dramatic activity was taking place on the Continent. In Spain, Lope de Vega (1562-1634) wrote a prodigious quantity of plays, and wrote them with much brilliance. Calderon wrote some beautiful plays, several of which have been translated by Edward Fitzgerald. Cervantes, though much better known as a novelist, wrote many good plays. The Spanish school directly inspired Corneille (1606-1684)to write his playLe Cid, and so begin the great age of classical French tragedy. Racine (1639-1700) is the other great name. French classical drama, though somewhat fettered by its observance of laws that were wrongly considered essential, is extremely dignified and beautiful. In Molière (1622-73) France possesses the greatest of all writers of society comedies. He is as supreme in his kingdom as Shakespeare is in his empire. He borrowed from his predecessors with all the licence of genius, but he payed usurious interest on his borrowings.
Restoration Drama.—When the theatres were reopened after the Restoration, many dramatists began to write. Restoration comedy was largely based on Molière, who was brutalized by Wycherley, and adapted but not improved by Congreve. Congreve was, however, a master of sparkling dialogue, and in one play,The Way of the World, he has shown himself not unworthy of comparison with his master. Vanbrugh and Farquhar are the other two important writers of comedies; all their comedies are more or less disfigured by cynicism and immorality, the reaction after the Puritan restraint. Restoration tragedy is much less important than Restoration comedy. Otway, Lee, and Southerne are its chief exponents.
Eighteenth Century Drama.—Some of these dramatists bring us into the eighteenth century, which was not on the whole prolific in good plays. Fielding wrote many amusing farces, but all were more or less hack-work. At a later period Foote, Cumberland, and the two Colmans wrote good acting plays, which have not lived. The two plays of Goldsmith and several of the plays of Sheridan still hold the stage. Sheridan owed much to the Restoration dramatists, especially Vanbrugh, but as he improved his originals in many respects, and made them much more presentable in decent society, he is entitled to most of the reputation he long enjoyed.
In France, Marivaux (1678-1763) wrote sentimental comedies, while Beaumarchais, whose own life was more exciting and varied than most plays, wrote comedies with brilliant plots. In Italy, Maffei, Goldoni, and Alfieri are notable dramatists; the last named wrote propaganda in the disguise of tragedy. In Germany, Lessing by precept and example inaugurated the 'romantic movement'; Schiller and Goethe are the two greatest names associated with the stage.Wallensteinin particular is a good chronicle-play, whileFaustis considered one of the greatest of all German plays.
Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Drama.—Victor Hugo led the Romantic movement in France, and wrote many great plays, such asHernaniandRuy Blas. De Musset wrote his plays, which he calledproverbes, under the same influence, and later followers of this school are Rostand and the Belgian M. Maurice Maeterlinck. The French dramatists Augier, Scribe, and Sardou had an overwhelming influence on the English stage, not altogether for its good. English drama was at a low ebb in the middle of the nineteenth century. Lytton's plays, though sometimes performed still, are extremely theatrical. Boucicault, who made a great success by dramatizing 'the pathos of Paddy', is not a great writer. H. J. Byron was an inveterate punster and writer of burlesques of no value. One of his plays,Our Boys, was acted for many years. Robertson is the most outstanding author of what is known as 'the cup and saucer' school of comedy. His plays are very much acting plays; they are not literature, and are quite removed from real life. Gilbert was a man of great gifts, but though some of his farces and comedies are good, he was not a master of drama as he was oflibrettiwriting. He did little to improve the drama of his day. Sir A. W. Pinero began his career as a dramatist under the ægis of Robertson, but continued it under that of Ibsen. Ibsen (1828-1906) exercised a not altogether wholesome influence upon English drama for a considerable time. His plays are extremely well-constructed, and he refused to tolerate many conventions, such as asides and soliloquies. In many of his plays he adopted the retrospective method, where the plot consists not so much in anything being done as in the gradual discovery of what has been done long before the rise of the curtain. Sophocles had done this most skilfully inŒdipus Tyrannus, but Ibsen carried the method to perfection inThe Wild DuckandRosmersholm. All Ibsen's plays are more or less unpleasant, and he did not make many of his characters sympathetic. Pinero, after writing several farces, wroteThe Second Mrs. Tanqueray(1893), a masterpiece after the style of Ibsen.His House in Orderis a cleverly constructed example of the retrospective method. H. A. Jones (born 1851) has written many excellent and extremely powerful plays, of which the best known areThe LiarsandThe Case of Rebellious Susan. G. Bernard Shaw (born 1856), who combines some of the qualities of a Greek sophist with some of the foibles of a modern Irishman, has written some amusing plays, though others have been spoilt by his tendency to turn them into propaganda. Galsworthy has written plays of great earnestness; in some he has neglected the Aristotelian maxim that every play must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Sir James Barrie has accumulated a large fortune by means of his plays, and in one at least,Peter Pan, he has made a bid for immortality.
Bibliography.—S. H. Butcher,Aristotle'sTheory of Poetry and Fine Art; A. E. Haigh,The Attic Theatre; E. K. Chambers,The Mediæval Stage; A. W. Pollard,English Miracle Plays; F. S. Boas,Shakespeare and his Predecessors; A. C. Bradley,Shakespearean Tragedy; Sir W. Raleigh,Shakespeare(English Men of Letters Series); Sir A. W. Ward,History of English Dramatic Literature; K. Mantzius,History of Theatrical Art; A. S. Rappoport,The English Drama(Temple Primers); T. H. Dickinson,The Contemporary Drama of England; F. Brunetière,Les Époques du théâtre français 1636-1850; A. Filon,The Modern French Drama; A. d'Ancona,Origini del teatro italiano; G. H. Lewes,The Spanish Drama.
Drammen, orDram, a seaport of Norway, in a valley on both sides of the Drammen, at its mouth in the Drammenfiord, 25 milesS.S.W.of Christiania. It has manufactures of leather, soap, ropes, sail-cloth, earthenware, and tobacco; and is the second port in the kingdom for the export of timber.
Draper, John William, American chemist and physiologist, born at Liverpool 1811, died 1882. He went to America in 1833, and was successively professor of physical science in Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, and of natural history, chemistry, and physiology in the University of New York. He made many contributions to scientific literature, and devoted much attention to the chemical action of light, in connection with which he effected some discoveries. Among his chief works is hisHistory of the Intellectual Development of Europe(2 vols., 1863). His son, Henry Draper (born 1837, died 1882), chemist and astronomer, made some valuable researches on the spectra of the heavenly bodies.
Draughts, a game resembling chess played on a board divided into sixty-four checkered squares. Each of the two players is provided with twelve pieces or 'men' placed on every alternate square at each end of the board. The men are moved forward diagonally to the right or left one square at a time, the object of each player being to capture all his opponent's men, or to hem them in so that they cannot move. A piece can be captured only when the square on the diagonal line behind it is unoccupied. When a player succeeds in moving a piece to the farther end of the board (the crown-head), that piece becomes a king, and has the power of moving or capturing diagonally backwards or forwards. When it so happens that neither of the players has sufficient advantage in force or position to enable him to win, the game is drawn.Checkersis the common American name of the game.
The game does not offer the same scope for brilliance and originality as the sister game of chess, but still is much more profound than is generally supposed. It has been cultivated in Britain, and especially in Scotland, certainly for over two hundred years, and has served as a field of exercise for some extremely able intellects, which but for it might hardly have been exercised at all. Among famous players are: Andrew Anderson, of Carluke, who published a celebrated work on the game in 1852; James Wyllie, the 'Herd Laddie', who travelled over the world playing exhibition matches, and was for many years world's champion; Robert Martins, English champion about 1870, who played several matches with Wyllie; R. D. Yates, a young American player, who defeated Wyllie for the championship, but shortly afterwards gave up the game; James Ferrie, of Coatbridge, who in 1894 defeated Wyllie and became champion, to be defeated in turn by Richard Jordan of Edinburgh in 1896; Robert Stewart, of Fifeshire, many times Scottish champion, and probably the strongest player now living.
The Scottish tourney, held annually in Glasgow since 1893, except for a few years on account of the War, has done much to stimulate interest in the game. The English Draughts Association also holds a biennial tourney. Several international matches have taken place between Scotland and England, the first in 1884. This, like nearly all the other matches, was won by Scotland. In 1905 a very strong British team visited America and decisively defeated a side representing the United States.—Bibliography: James Lees,A Guide to the Game of Draughts. Early works by Payne, Sturges, Drummond, Hay, Anderson, and Bowen are now very scarce. There are several periodicals devoted to the game; and some newspapers, notablyThe Glasgow Weekly Herald, give it a column weekly.
Drave, orDrau(drä´ve, drou), a European river which rises in Tyrol, flowsE.S.E.across the north of Illyria and the south of Styria, and between Hungary on the left and Croatia and Slavonia on the right, and, after a course of nearly 400 miles, joins the Danube 14 miles east of Essek. It is navigable for about 200 miles.
Dravid´ian, a term applied to the vernacular tongues of the great majority of the inhabitants of Southern India, and to the people themselves who inhabited India previous to the advent of the Aryans. The affinities of the Dravidian languages are uncertain. The family consists of the Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, Malayâlam, Tulu, Tuda, Gond, Rajmahal, Oraon, &c. Only the first four mentioned have a literature, that of the Tamil being the oldest and the most important. Originally the word Dravidian was a purely philological term, but it is now used in an ethnological sense as well.—Cf. R. Caldwell,Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages.
Drawback, usually a certain amount of duties or customs dues paid back or remitted to an importer when he exports goods that he has previously imported and paid duty on, as, for instance, tobacco, &c.; or a certain amount of excise paid back or allowed on the exportation of home manufactures.
Drawbridge, a bridge with a lifting floor, such as was formerly used for crossing the ditches of fortresses, or any movable bridge over a navigable channel where the height of the roadway is insufficient to allow vessels to pass underneath. Modern drawbridges across rivers, canals, the entrances of docks, &c., are generally made to open horizontally, and the movable portion is called a bascule, balance, or lifting bridge, a turning, swivel, or swing bridge, or a rolling bridge, in accordance with the mode in which it is made to open. Swing-bridges are usually divided into two parts meeting in the middle, and each moved on pivots on the opposite sides of the channel, or they may move as a whole on a pivot in the middle of the channel. Rolling bridges are suspended from a structure high above the water, and are propelled backwards and forwards by means of rollers.
Drawingis the art of representing upon a flat surface the forms of objects, and their positions in relation to each other. The idea of nearness or distance is given by the aid of perspective, foreshortening, and gradation, and in the same way the three-dimensional quality of objects is expressed. The term drawing is sometimes limited to the representing of the forms of objects in outline, with or without the shading necessary to develop roundness ormodelling. But the term has a wider significance. Any arrangement of colours or tones which serve to express form, and the relation of one form to another, is really drawing; and thus a painting may show fine draughtsmanship without line being used at all. Drawing is not a matter of the medium employed, but of the manner in which it is used. It is, however, convenient to classify drawings according to mediums, each of which produces its effect in a different way. Thus drawing may be divided into (1) pen drawing; (2) chalk, pencil, or charcoal drawing; (3) crayon and pastel drawing; (4) drawing shaded with the brush; (5) architectural or mechanical drawing.Pen drawingsare often confined to pure outlines; an appearance ofreliefor projection being given by thickening or doubling the lines on the shadow side, or they may be shaded by combination of lines.Chalk, pencil, and charcoal drawingsmay be in line or tone. When the chalk is powdered and rubbed in with a stump, large masses and broad effects can be produced with much rapidity. The best draughtsmen, however, rarely use a stump. Incrayon and pastel drawingsthe colours of the objects represented are more or less completely represented in the medium.Drawings shaded with the brushare outlined with the pencil or pen, the shading being laid on orwashed inwith the brush in tints of Indian ink, sepia, or colour. This was the method of the early water-colour painters in England.Architectural and mechanical drawingsare those in which the proportions of a building, machine, &c., are accurately set out for the guidance of the constructor; objects are, in general, delineated by geometric or orthographic projection.
The great schools of painting all show excellent drawing, though differing in character. In Italy the Florentine school combined study of the antique with anatomical research, and produced many vigorous and expressive draughtsmen, notably Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci. The Roman school, under the influence of Raphael, sacrificed vigour and expressiveness to elegance and the representation of ideal form. In the Lombard school a severe style of drawing is seen through harmonious colouring, and in the Venetian school the drawing is often veiled in the richness of the colour. The German and Dutch schools excel in a careful and minute style of naturalistic drawing, combined with good colour. The French school in the time of Poussin was very accurate in its drawing; at a later period its style betrayed a tendency to mannerism. David introduced, again, a purer taste in drawing and a close study of the antique, and these are qualities which distinguish his school (the so-called Classical school), of which Ingres is the leading representative, from the Romantic and Eclectic schools of a later period. The drawing of the British school is naturalistic rather than academic, but the work of Gainsborough and Alfred Stevens is comparable with that of earlier masters.—Bibliography: Ruskin,Elements of Drawing; Spiers,Architectural Drawing; R. S. Bowers,Drawing and Design for Craftsmen; J. H. Brown,Sketching without a Master; Harold Speed,Drawing.
Drawing-room, a room appropriated for the reception of company; a room in which distinguished personages hold levees, or private persons receive parties.Court drawing-roomsare those assemblies held from time to time for the reception or presentation to the sovereign of such ladies as by custom, right, or courtesy are admissible. Receptions at which men are presented are known aslevees. The sovereign sometimes deputes a member of the royal family to receive, in which case presentations are equivalent to those made to the sovereign in person.
Drawings.The term 'drawings' is usually taken to mean drawings of an architectural or engineering nature, such as the plans of a new building prepared by an architect, or the designs for engineering works, or for machinery produced by an engineer.