Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/132

120 , and afterwards the victim, of Richard III., and an Induction or introduction, which constitute nearly the whole value of the work. In these poems S. becomes the connecting link between and. They are distinguished by strong invention and imaginative power, and a stately and sombre grandeur of style. S. played a prominent part in the history of his time, and held many high offices, including those of Lord Steward and Lord Treasurer, the latter of which he held from 1599 till his death. It fell to him to announce to Mary Queen of Scots the sentence of death.

 Author:Francis Douce (1757-1834).—Antiquary, b. in London, was for some time in the British Museum. He pub. Illustrations of Shakespeare (1807), and a dissertation on The Dance of Death (1833).

 Author:Gavin Douglas (1474?-1522).—Poet, 3rd s. of the 5th Earl of Angus, was b. about 1474, and ed. at St. Andrews for the Church. Promotion came early, and he was in 1501 made Provost of St. Giles, Edin., and in 1514 Abbot of Aberbrothock, and Archbishop of St. Andrews. But the times were troublous, and he had hardly received these latter preferments when he was deprived of them. He was, however, named Bishop of Dunkeld in 1514 and, after some difficulty, and undergoing imprisonment, was confirmed in the see. In 1520 he was again driven forth, and two years later d. of the plague in London. His principal poems are The Palace of Honour (1501), and King Hart, both allegorical; but his great achievement was his translation of the Æneid in ten-syllabled metre, the first translation into English of a classical work. D.'s language is more archaic than that of some of his predecessors, his rhythm is rough and unequal, but he had fire, and a power of vivid description, and his allegories are ingenious and felicitous.

Coll. ed. of works by John Small, LL.D., 4 vols., 1874.

 Author:Francis Hastings Charles Doyle (1810-1888).—Poet, belonged to a military family which produced several distinguished officers, including his f., who bore the same name. He was b. near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, and ed. at Eton and Oxf. Studying law he was called to the Bar in 1837, and afterwards held various high fiscal appointments, becoming in 1869 Commissioner of Customs. In 1834 he pub. Miscellaneous Verses, followed by Two Destinies (1844), Œdipus, King of Thebes (1849), and Return of the Guards (1866). He was elected in 1867 Prof. of Poetry at Oxf. D.'s best work is his ballads, which include The Red Thread of Honour, The Private of the Buffs, and The Loss of the Birkenhead. In his longer poems his genuine poetical feeling was not equalled by his power of expression, and much of his poetry is commonplace.

 Author:Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820).—Poet, b. at New York, studied medicine, d. of consumption. He collaborated with in the Croaker Papers, and wrote "The Culprit Fay" and "The American Flag."

 Author:John William Draper (1811-1882).—Historian, b. at St. Helen's, Lancashire, emigrated to Virginia, and was a prof. in the Univ. of New York. He wrote History of the American Civil War {1867-70), History of the Intellectual Development of Europe (1863),