Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/878

842  (Author:William Robertson Smith)  DAVID (Welsh, ), undefined, the patron saint of Wales, flourished in the. Various dates have been assigned for his birth and death, the earliest being that of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who fixes his death in, and the latest that of the Annales Cambriæ, which fixes it in. Many writers follow Ussher in stating that he died in , aged eighty-two; but the latest authorities, Jones and Freeman (History of St David s) and Haddan and Stubbs (Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents), accept the date of the Annales Cambriæ. The narrative of St David s life is overlaid with legendary matter to an unusual extent, and it is impossible to determine accurately what is historical and what is fictitious. Such stories as that he possessed the power of working miracles, even before his birth, that he was eighteenth in descent from the Virgin Mary, and that he was attended by an angel in his infancy, may obviously be referred at once to the latter category ; but there are many other details which, even though not obviously improbable, must be regarded as extremely doubtful. According to the account given by Rice Rees (Welsh Saints) as historical, St David was the son of Sandde or Xantus, prince of Ceretica (Cardiganshire), and was born at Hen-Menen or Menevia (now St David s). After spending a number of years at the college of a celebrated teacher Paulinus, he founded a college or monastery in the Vale of Rhos, near his native place, which was distinguished for the severity of its rule. His fame as a theologian led to his being summoned to the synod of Brefi to confute the Pelagian heretics. So well did he acquit himself of this task that the synod elected him archbishop of Caerleon and primate of Wales, Dubricius, the occupant of the see, having resigned to make room for him. Soon after his election St David found it necessary to convene another synod, which is styled in the annals the Synod of Victory, so complete was the triumph obtained over the Pelagians. Somewhat later the primate obtained leave to transfer his seat from Caerleon to Menevia (St David s). He died at an advanced age, and was buried in the church of St David s. His shrine is to be seen in the existing cathedral. Recent criticism, while admitting that St David founded a see at Meuevia, and that he probably took an active part in the undoubtedly historical synod of Brefi, has discredited his archi episcopal jurisdiction. This is almost certainly the invention of those in a later age who wished to maintain the independence of the Welsh church, and supremacy in that church of the see of St David s. It was the view that naturally commended itself to the author of the earliest life of St David, Rythmark, or Ricemarchus, bishop of St David s in the, who wrote at a time when the independence of the Welsh church was seriously threatened. His narrative is followed in the main by Giraldus Cambrensis and later authorities. St David was canonized by Pope Calixtus II., in the. His festival is celebrated on the 1st March.  DAVID, (1810-1876), a French com poser, was born at Cadenet, in the department of Vaucluse, March 8, 1810. As a child he exhibited proofs of un usual precocity, and at the age of four had made considerable progress in his musical studies. Being early left an orphan, and totally unprovided for, he obtained, through the influence of relatives, admission to the choir of Saint-Sauveur at Aix. Subsequently he entered into the employment of an attorney, but quitted his service to become successively chef d orckestre in the theatre at Aix, and chapel master of the church in which he had formerly appeared as a humble chorister. He next proceeded to Paris, where he subsisted for some time on a pittance of 50 francs a month, afforded him by a rich but miserly uncle. After pursuing diligently a course of studies at the Conser vatoire under Fetis, Reber, and others, he cast in his lot with the Saint-Simonians, and on the dispersion of that sect in 1833 accompanied several of the brethren on a fruitless expedition to the East. The immediate result of this tour was the publication, on his return to Paris, of the Melodies Orientales, which met with little encouragement. Nine years after this, however, the musical world was suddenly startled by the production of the Desert, a work abounding in graceful melodies, and affording proof of an extensive acquaintance with orchestral effects. This ode-symphony, as it was called, rapidly gained for the composer a wide spread reputation. It was, after some vexatious delays, first performed at the Conservatoire in 1844, and quickly found a hearing in every European capital. Enthusiasts were not slow to predict for David a brilliant career, but their hopes were scarcely realized. Nothing the com poser afterwards wrote at all equalled the Desert. In the Christophe Colomb (1847) there are noble passages, and the comic opera of Lalla Rookh possesses numbers graced by a captivating delicacy of orchestration, but neither for these nor for his other principal works Mo ise au Mont Sinai (1846), La Perle du Bresil (1851), and Herculaneum (1859) can a place be claimed in the foremost ranks of composition. They were of sufficient merit, however, to gain for him the biennial prize of the emperor, which was awarded by the French Institute in 1868. In the follow ing year he was appointed to the post of librarian at the Conservatoire, vacated by M. Berlioz, whom he afterwards succeeded as a member of the Institute. He died on the 29th of August 1876, aged sixty-six.  DAVID, (1748-1825), historical painter, was born in Paris in 1 748. His father having been killed in a duel, a maternal uncle first placed him in the College des Quatre-Nations and afterwards in an architect s office. An accidental visit to the studio of his great-uncle, Boucher, led him to leave his adopted profession; and Boucher, observing the boy s distaste for his own erotic style, sent him to Vien, who, having succeeded to the directorship of the French Academy, in Rome just at the time his pupil had taken the grand prize (1775), carried the youth with him to that city. At this time Winckelmann was writing, Raphael Mengs painting, and the taste for classic severity was a necessary reaction on what had gone before. This is shown by Carstens and the younger Germans very shortly after following a quite in dependent movement of the same nature. David s classicism was directly derived from the antique, and easily under stood. The spirit of the day made the first picture, &quot; Date Obolum Belisario,&quot; painted according to his new principles, a complete success, and this was followed by others more perfect The Grief of Andromache, The Oath of the Horatii, The Death of Socrates, and The Rape of the Sabine Women, now in the Louvre. In the French drama an unimaginative imitation of ancient models had long pre vailed ; even in art Poussin and Le Sueur were successful by expressing a bias in the same direction ; and in the first years of the revolutionary movement, the fashion of imitat ing the ancients even in dress and manners went to the most extravagant length. At this very time David returned to Paris ; he was now painter to the king, Louis XVI., who had been the purchaser of his principal works. It is not possible to overestimate the popularity of the young painter, who was himself carried away by the flood of 