r Twist."

DODGSON, CHARLES LUTWIDGE, English writer and man of genius, with
the _nom de plume_ of Lewis Carroll; distinguished himself at Oxford in
mathematics; author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," with its
sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass," besides other works, mathematical,
poetic, and humorous; mingled humour and science together (1833-1898).

DODINGTON, GEORGE BUBB, an English politician, notorious for his
fickleness, siding now with this party, now with that; worked for and won
a peerage before he died; with all his pretensions, and they were many, a
mere flunkey at bottom (1691-1762).

DODO, an ungainly bird larger than a turkey, with short scaly legs,
a big head and bill, short wings and tail, and a greyish down plumage,
now extinct, though it is known to have existed in the Mauritius some 200
years ago.

DODO`NA, an ancient oracle of Zeus, in Epirus, close by a grove of
oak trees, from the agitation of the branches of which the mind of the
god was construed, the interpreters being at length three old women; it
was more or less a local oracle, and was ere long superseded by the more
widely known oracle of DELPHI (q. v.).

DODS, MEG, an old landlady of consistently inconsistent qualities in
"St. Ronan's Well"; also the pseudonym of the authoress of a book on
cookery.

DODSLEY, ROBERT, an English poet, dramatist, and publisher; wrote a
drama called "The Toyshop," which, through Pope's influence, was acted in
Drury Lane with such success as to enable the author to commence business
as a bookseller in Pall Mall; projected and published the _Miscellany_,
and continued to write plays, the most popular "Cleone"; is best known in
connection with his "Collection of Old Plays"; he was a patron of
Johnson, and much esteemed by him (1703-1764).

DOEG, a herdsman of Saul (1 Sam. xxi. 7); a name applied by Dryden
to Elkanah Settle in "Absalom and Achitophel."

DOGBERRY, a self-satisfied night constable in "Much Ado about
Nothing."

DOG-DAYS, 20 days before and 20 after the rising of the dog-star
Sirius, at present from 3rd July to 11th August.

DOGE, the name of the chief magistrate of Venice and Genoa, elected
at first annually and then for life in Venice, with, in course of time,
powers more and more limited, and at length little more than a
figure-head; the office ceased with the fall of the republic in 1797, as
it did in Genoa in 1804.

DOGGER BANK, a sandbank in the North Se