en, professors, and peasant-laborers
(bk. iii. I).--Rabelais, _Pantag'ruel_ (1545).

DIP'SODY, the country of the Dipsodes (2 _syl), q.v._

DIRCAE'AN SWAN, Pindar; so called from Dirce, a fountain in the
neighborhood of Thebes, the poet's birthplace (B.C. 518-442.)

DIRLOS or D'YRLOS (_Count_), a paladin, the embodiment of valor,
generosity, and truth. He was sent by Charlemagne to the East, where
he conquered Aliar'de, a Moorish prince. On his return, he found his
young wife betrothed to Celi'nos (another of Charlemagne's peers).
The matter was put right by the king, who gave a grand feast on the
occasion.

DISASTROUS PEACE (_The_), the peace signed at Cateau-Cambresis, by
which Henri II. renounced all claim to Gen'oa, Naples, Mil'an, and
Corsica (1559).

DIS'MAS, the penitent thief; Gesmas the impenitent one.

DISTAFFI'NA, the troth-plight wife of General Bombastes; but
Artaxaminous, king of Utopia, promised her "half a crown" if she
would forsake the general for himself--a temptation too great to be
resisted. When the general found himself jilted, he retired from the
world, hung up his boots on the branch of a tree, and dared any one to
remove them. The king cut the boots down, and the general cut the king
down. Fusbos, coming up at this crisis, laid the general prostrate.
At the close of the burlesque all the dead men jump up and join the
dance, promising "to die again to-morrow," if the audience desire
it.--W. B. Rhodes, _Bombastes Furioso_ (1790.)

Falling on one knee, he put both hands on
his heart and rolled up his eyes, much after the
manner of Bombastes Furioso making love to
Distaffina.--E. Sargent.

DISTRESSED MOTHER (_The_), a tragedy by Ambrose Philips (1712). The
"distressed mother" is Androm'ache, the widow of Hector. At the fall
of Troy she and her son Asty'anax fell to the lot of Pyrrhus, king of
Epirus, Pyrrhus fell in love with her and wished to marry her, but she
refused him. At length an embassy from Greece, headed by Orestes, son
of Agamemnon, was sent to Epirus to demand the death of Astyanax, lest
in manhood he might seek to avenge his father's death. Pyrrhus told
Andromache he would protect her son, and defy all Greece, if she would
consent to marry him; and she yielded. While the marriage rites were
going on, the Greek ambassadors fell on Pyrrhus and murdered him. As
he fell he placed the crown on the head of Andromache, who thus became
queen of Epirus, and the Greeks hasten