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 patricians, knights, freedmen, slaves, philosophers, literary men, and, above all, lawyers. The objects of their attacks were the wealthy, all possible rivals of the emperor, and those whose conduct implied a reproach against the imperial mode of life. Special opportunities were afforded by the law of majestas, which (originally directed against attacks on the ruler by word or deed) came to include all kinds of accusations with which it really had nothing to do; indeed, according to Tacitus, a charge of treason was regularly added to all criminal charges. The chief motive for these accusations was no doubt the desire of amassing wealth, since by the law of majestas one-fourth of the goods of the accused, even if he committed suicide in order to avoid confiscation (which was always carried out in the case of those condemned to capital punishment), was assured to the accuser (who was hence called quadruplator). Pliny and Martial mention instances of enormous fortunes amassed by those who carried on this hateful calling. But it was not without its dangers. If the delator lost his case or refused to carry it through, he was liable to the same penalties as the accused; he was exposed to the risk of vengeance at the hands of the proscribed in the event of their return, or of their relatives; while emperors like Tiberius would have no scruples about banishing or putting out of the way those of his creatures for whom he had no further use, and who might have proved dangerous to himself. Under the better emperors a reaction set in, and the severest penalties were inflicted upon the delators. Titus drove into exile or reduced to slavery those who had served Nero, after they had first been flogged in the amphitheatre. The abuse naturally reappeared under a man like Domitian; the delators, with whom Vespasian had not interfered, although he had abolished trials for majestas, were again banished by Trajan, and threatened with capital punishment in an edict of Constantine; but, as has been said, the evil, which was an almost necessary accompaniment of autocracy, lasted till the end of the 4th century.

 DELAUNAY, ELIE (1828–1891), French painter, was born at Nantes and studied under Flandrin and at the École des Beaux Arts. He worked in the classicist manner of Ingres until, after winning the Prix de Rome, he went to Italy in 1856, and abandoned the ideal of Raphaelesque perfection for the sincerity and severity of the quattrocentists. As a pure and firm draughtsman he stands second only to Ingres. After his return from Rome he was entrusted with many important commissions for decorative paintings, such as the frescoes in the church of St Nicholas at Nantes; the three panels of “Apollo,” “Orpheus” and “Amphion” at the Paris opera-house; and twelve paintings for the great hall of the council of state in the Palais Royal. His “Scenes from the Life of St Geneviève,” which he designed for the Pantheon, remained unfinished at his death. The Luxembourg Museum has his famous “Plague in Rome” and a nude figure of “Diana”; and the Nantes Museum, the “Lesson on the Flute.” In the last decade of his life he achieved great popularity as a portrait painter.

 DELAUNAY, LOUIS ARSÈNE (1826–1903), French actor, was born in Paris, the son of a wine-seller. He studied at the Conservatoire, and made his first formal appearance on the stage in 1845, in Tartuffe at the Odéon. After three years at this house he made his début at the Comédie Française as Dorante in Corneille’s Le Menteur, and began a long and brilliant career in young lover parts. He continued to act as jeune premier until he was sixty, his grace, marvellous diction and passion enchanting his audiences. It was especially in the plays of Alfred de Musset that his gifts found their happiest expression. In the thirty-seven years during which he was a member of the Comédie Française, Delaunay took or created nearly two hundred parts. He retired in 1887, having been made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1883.

 DELAVIGNE, JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR (1793–1843), French poet and dramatist, was born on the 4th of April 1793 at Havre. His father sent him at an early age to Paris, there to be educated at the Lycée Napoléon. Constitutionally of an ardent and sympathetic temperament, he enlarged his outlook by extensive miscellaneous reading. On the 20th of March 1811 the empress Marie Louise gave birth to a son, named in his very cradle king of Rome. This event was celebrated by Delavigne in a Dithyrambe sur la naissance du roi de Rome, which secured for him a sinecure in the revenue office.

About this time he competed twice for an academy prize, but without success. Delavigne, inspired by the catastrophe of 1815, wrote two impassioned poems, the first entitled Waterloo, the second, Dévastation du musée, both written in the heat of patriotic enthusiasm, and teeming with popular political allusions. A third, but of inferior merit, Sur le besoin de s’unir après le départ des étrangers, was afterwards added. These stirring pieces, termed by him Messéniennes, sounded a keynote which found an echo in the hearts of all. Twenty-five thousand copies were sold; Delavigne was famous. He was appointed to an honorary librarianship, with no duties to discharge. In 1819 his play Les vêpres Siciliennes was performed at the Odéon, then just rebuilt; it had previously been refused for the Théâtre Français. On the night of the first representation, which was warmly received, Picard, the manager, threw himself into the arms of his elated friend, exclaiming, “You have saved us! You are the founder of the second French Theatre.” This success was followed up by the production of the Comédiens (1820), a poor play, with little plot, and the Paria (1821), with still less, but containing some well-written choruses. The latter piece obtained a longer lease of life than its intrinsic literary merits warranted, on account of the popularity of the political opinions freely expressed in it—so freely expressed, indeed, that the displeasure of the king was incurred, and Delavigne lost his post. But Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans, willing to gain the people’s good wishes by complimenting their favourite, wrote to him as follows: “The thunder has descended on your house; I offer you an apartment in mine.” Accordingly Delavigne became librarian at the Palais Royal, a position retained during the remainder of his life. It was here that he wrote the École des vieillards (1823), his best comedy, which gained his election to the Academy in 1825. To this period also belong La Princesse Aurélie (1828), and Marino Faliero (1829), a drama in the romantic style.

For his success as a writer Delavigne was in no small measure indebted to the stirring nature of the times in which he lived. The Messéniennes, which first introduced him to universal notice, had their origin in the excitement consequent on the occupation of France by the allies in 1815. Another crisis in his life and in the history of his country, the revolution of 1830, stimulated him to the production of a second masterpiece, La Parisienne. This song, set to music by Auber, was on the lips of every Frenchman, and rivalled in popularity the Marseillaise. A companion piece, La Varsovienne, was written for the Poles, by whom it was sung on the march to battle. Other works of Delavigne followed each other in rapid succession—Louis XI (1832), Les Enfants d’Édouard (1833), Don Juan d’Autriche (1835), Une Famille au temps du Luther (1836), La Popularité (1838), La Fille du Cid (1839), Le Conseiller rapporteur (1840), and Charles VI (1843), an opera partly written by his brother. In 1843 he quitted Paris to seek in Italy the health his labours had cost him. At Lyons his strength altogether gave way, and he died on the 11th of December.

By many of his own time Delavigne was looked upon as unsurpassed and unsurpassable. Every one bought and read his works. But the applause of the moment was gained at the sacrifice of lasting fame. As a writer he had many excellences. He expressed himself in a terse and vigorous style. The poet of reason rather than of imagination, he recognized his own province, and was rarely tempted to flights of fancy beyond his powers. He wrote always as he would have spoken, from sincere conviction. In private life he was in every way estimable,—upright, amiable, devoid of all jealousy, and generous to a fault. 