Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/91

Rh maintained at Oxford, of being "a slow, dreaming young man," gave way to a scandalous reputation for gambling, by which he beggared himself and seriously embarrassed his father. We learn that, by way of penance, he wrote at this time an Essay against Gaming, whether in prose or verse is not recorded. After his father's death the habit became still more dominant, and he squandered a fortune. It was a surprise to every one, therefore, when in 1642 he suddenly, as Waller said, "broke out like the Irish rebellion, threescore thousand strong, when no one was aware, nor in the least expected it," by publishing in that year two most successful volumes of verse. The first of these was The Sophy, a tragedy in five acts, a thin folio, the theme of which was a Turkish tale of blood and intrigue, drawn from Sir Thomas Herbert's travels. This, Denham's only dramatic performance, is tame and correct, without passion, but free from the faults of some of the minor authors of the time. It was successful, but it enjoyed nothing of the unparalleled popularity of his simultaneous venture, the descriptive poem of Cooper's Hill, the first edition of which in quarto was anonymous. In this famous piece no entirely new style was attempted, for Ben Jonson had led the way in theme and Cowley in manner; but it had a smooth grace and a polished antithesis that were doubtful merits in poetry, but extremely dear to the rising generation. One quatrain, out of the three or four hundred lines of reflection and description, has been universally praised, and forms one of our most familiar quotations. Addressing the Thames, the poet says—

Brought into royal notice by his poems, Denham was appointed high sheriff for Surrey and governor of Farnham Castle; but he showed no military talent, and soon followed the king to Oxford. During the civil war he served the queen mother, and was intrusted with the letters in cipher that Cowley wrote to the king, which he managed to deliver into Charles's hands. Being detected, however, he was obliged to escape into France. In April 1648 he is said to have conveyed the young duke of York from St James's to Paris; it is certain that, later in that year, he was sent in company with Lord Crofts, as ambassador to Poland, to obtain money for the king, and he succeeded in bringing back £10,000. In 1652 he returned, a ruined man, to England, and resided as the guest of the earl of Pembroke at Wilton for a year. He now disappears until the Restoration. When Charles II. returned, Denham was made surveyor-general and Knight of the Bath, and seems to have been well provided for; but his subsequent life was far from happy, for his second wife, a young woman of great beauty, was seduced by the duke of York, and became his mistress. This catastrophe, which is abundantly noticed in the current literature of that day, shattered the old poet's reason; and he recovered from his insanity only to die, at his house near Whitehall, on the 10th of March 1668. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. In the same year, 1668, his works were collected in a single volume, entitled Poems and Translations. This included, besides Cooper's Hill and The Sophy, a fragment of an epic on the destruction of Troy, some beautiful lines on the death of Cowley, written a few months before his own decease, a didactic poem on the progress of learning, and some translations. Notwithstanding the fame of Cooper's Hill, which Pope imitated in his Windsor Forest, Denham's poems have not been edited in modern times. He was one of the very first to note the tendency towards rhetorical and gallicized forms in public taste, and to gratify the new fashion. But to speak of him, as was once customary, as a great reformer of metre and fashioner of language, is to fail to realize the limitations of his talent.  DENINA, (1731–1813), an Italian author, was born at Revello, Piedmont, in 1731, and was educated at and. In 1753 he was appointed to the chair of humanity at, but he was soon compelled by the influence of the Jesuits to retire from it. In 1756 he graduated as doctor in, and began authorship with a theological treatise. Promoted to the professorship of humanity and rhetoric in the college of, he showed his literary activity in his great work On the Revolutions of Italy, and in other writings. Collegiate honours accompanied the issue of its successive volumes, which, however, at the same time, multiplied his foes and stimulated their hatred. In 1782 he repaired to, where he remained for many years, in the course of which he published various works. In 1804 he went to Paris as the imperial librarian, to which office he had been appointed by, who was attracted to him at. He died there on 5th December 1813. Denina's reputation is mainly founded on his History of the Revolutions of Italy, in which he combines a philosophic spirit and the habit of accurate narration.  DENIS, or,, the of , flourished in the. What is known of his life rests chiefly on the not altogether trustworthy authority of of, according to which he was the leader of a band of seven  who came from  to , and founded es in seven. Denis settled in, where he made many , and became the first. In, during the of , he was beheaded along with some of his companions. Another account places the date of the between  and. The well-known legend, according to which Denis after his decapitation walked two s with his head in his hands, probably originated in a mistaken interpretation of pictures intended to indicate the manner of his death. It was not unusual to represent a by decapitation bearing his head in his hands as an, and there are  of Denis with the d head in its natural position and the head in the hands as well. The bodies of the three were thrown into the, but were afterwards recovered and honourably  by a  lady named Catalla, not far from the place where they suffered. Over the a  was, which in the  was replaced by a. The famous of Denis was founded on the same spot by  in the 7th century. A later legend of the, following the tradition of the , identified Denis of  with , who was  by. One of the gravest charges brought against was the fact that he denied this identity on the authority of a passage in. StDenis was gradually adopted as the of the,  being the   of the. His is celebrated on the 9th.  DENIZEN, an who obtains by (ex donatione regis) certain of the s of a  subject. He cannot be a member of the or of, or hold any civil or   of trust, or take a grant of  from the. The Naturalization Act, 1870, provides that nothing therein contained shall affect the grant of any of denization by. See.  DENMAN,, (1779–1854), one of the most distinguished of the chief-justices of England, was born at London, the son of a well-known physician, 23d July 1779. He received the rudiments of his 