Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/525

Rh been run over by a carriage when on his way from Paris to his country house at Verriere. Duchesne s works were very numerous and varied, and some idea of his industry may be gathered from the fact that, in addition to what he published, lie left behind him more than 100 folio volumes of manuscript extracts. Several of his larger works were continued by his only sou Francois Duchesne (–), who succeeded him in the office of historiographer to the king. The principal works of Andre Duchesne are Les Antiquite s et Recherches de la Grandeur et Majeste des Rois de Frame (Paris, ), Les Antiquite s et Recherches des Villes, Chateaux, &amp;lt;kc., de toute la France (Paris, ), Histoire d 1 Angleterre, d Ecosse, et d Irelande (Paris, ), Histoire des Papes jusqn a Paul V. (Paris, ), Histoire des Rois, Dues, et Comtes de Bourgogne (, 2 vols. fol), Histories Normanorum Scriptores Antiqui (, fol.), and Histories Francorum /Scriptores (5 vols. fol., –). Besides these Duchesne published a great number of genealogical histories of illustrious French families, of which the best is said to be that of the house of Montmorency. His Lives of the French Cardinals and of the Saints of France have been published by the Bollandists, Mabillon, and others. He published a translation of the Satires of Juvenal, and ^ditions of the works of Abelard, Alain Chartier, and Etienne Pasquier.  DUCIS, (August 22, –March 31, ), a French dramatic poet, famous more especially for his adaptations of Shakespeare to the Parisian stage of the . He was born and brought up at Versailles, where his father, originally from Savoy, held the position of a respectable linen-draper ; and all through life he retained the simple tastes and straightforward independence fostered by his bourgeois education. The friendship of Marshal Belleisle procured him an appointment as clerk, and even after he ceased to discharge the duties of his post secured the continuance of his salary. In the passion for the theatre which had been growing within him during the previous years found vent in the tragedy of Amelise ; and the failure of this first attempt was fully compensated by the success of his Hamlet in, and of Romeo and Juliette in. (Edipe chez Admete, imitated partly from Euripides and partly from Sophocles, appeared in, and secured him in the following year the chair in the Academy left vacant by the death of Voltaire. Equally successful was Le Roi Lear in , at the representation of which the author received what was then the rare honour of being called before the curtain. Macbeth in did not take so well, and Jean sans Peur in  was almost a failure; but Othello in , supported by the acting of Talma, obtained immense applause. The next appearance of the author was no longer as an adapter or imitator of foreign models, but as a dramatist with a plot and characters of his own contrivance and invention ; and though his contrivance produced nothing more original than the old story of unlawful love between brother and sister ultimately obtain ing sanction by their supposed kinship being disproved, the poetic charm of the verse and its vivid picturing of desert life secured for Abufar, ou la famille arabe, a flattering reception. On the failure of a similar piece, Phedor et Waldemar, ou la famille de Sibe rie, Ducis ceased to write for the stage ; and the rest of his life was spent in quiet re tirement at Versailles. He had been named a member of the Council of the Ancients in, but he never discharged the functions of the office ; and, when at a later date Napoleon wished him to accept some post of honour under the empire, he escaped from his solicitations by a happy brusque rie, &quot; General, do you like wild duck shooting 1 I am something of a wild duck myself.&quot; Amiable, religious, and bucolic, he had little sympathy with the fierce, sceptical, and tragic times in which his lot was cast. &quot; Alas ! &quot; he said in the midst of the Revolution, &quot; tragedy is abroad in the streets ; if I step outside of my door, 1 have blood to ray very ankles. I have too often seen Atreus in clogs, to venture to bring an Atreus on the stage.&quot; Though actuated by what seems to have been an honest and ardent admira tion of the great English dramatist, Ducis is not in any deep sense of the word Shakespearian. His ignorance of the English language left him at the mercy of such translators as Letourneur and La Place ; and even this modified Shake speare had still to undergo a process of purification and correction before he could be presented to the fastidious criticism of French taste. That such was the case was not, however, the fault of Ducis ; and his works, defective as they were, did good service in modifying the judgment of his fellow countrymen. He did not pretend to reproduce, but to excerpt and refashion ; and consequently the French play sometimes differs from its English namesake in every thing almost but the name. The plot is different, the characters are different, the motif different, and the scenic arrangement different. The result is really a new play, and a new play, be it said, with undoubted merits of its own. Le banquet de I amitie, a poem in four cantos,, Au Roi de Sardaigne, , Discours de reception a I academie francaise, ,_Epitre a I amitie,, and a Recueil de Poesies, , complete the list of Ducis s publications. An edition of his works in three volumes appeared in ; (Euvres posthu7nes were edited &amp;gt;y Campenon in ; and Hamlet, (Edipe chez Admete, Macbeth, and Abufar are reprinted in vol. ii. of Didot s Chefs d ceuvre tragiques.

1em  {{ti|1em|{{larger|DUCK}}, a word cognate with the Dutch Duycker (Genn. Tauch-ente and in Bavaria DucJc-antt}, the general English name for a large number of birds forming the greater part of the Family Anatidce of modern ornithologists. Technically the term Duck is restricted to the female, the male being called Drake, and in one species Mallard (Fr. Malart).}} The Anatidce may be at once divided into six more or less well marked Subfamilies (1) the Cygnince or Swans, (2) the Anserince or Geese which are each very distinct, (3) the Anatinai or Freshwater-Ducks, (4) those commonly called Fuligulince or Sea-Ducks, (5) the Erismaturincc or Spiny-tailed Ducks, and (6) the Mergince or Mergansers. Of the Anatince, which may be considered the typical group, we propose to treat here only, and especially of the Anas boschas of Linnaeus, the common Wild Duck, which from every point of view is by far the most important species, as it is the most plentiful, the most widely distributed, and the best known being indeed the origin of all our domestic breeds. It inhabits the greater part of the northern hemi sphere, reaching in winter so far as the Isthmus of Panama in the New World, and in the Old being abundant at the same season in Egypt and India, while in summer it ranges throughout the Fur-Countries, Greenland, Iceland, Lapland, and Siberia. Most of those which fill our markets are no doubt bred in more northern climes, but a considerable proportion of them are yet produced in the British Islands, though not in anything like the numbers that used to be supplied before the draining of the great Fen-country and other marshy places. The Wild Duck pairs very early in the year the period being somewhat delayed by hard weather, and the ceremonies of courtship, which require some little time. Soon after these are performed, the respective couples separate in search of suitable nesting-places, which are generally found, by those that remain with us, about the middle of March. The spot chosen is sometimes near 