ed to their ships in flight.
This play is an English adaptation of Racine's _Andromaque_ (1667).

Ditchley _(Gaffer)_, one of the miners employed by Sir Geoffrey
Peveril.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

DITHYRAMBIC POETRY _(Father of_), Arion of Lesbos (fl. B.C. 625).

DITTON _(Thomas)_ footman of the Rev. Mr. Staunton, of Willingham
Rectory.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

DIVAN _(The)_, the supreme council and court of justice of the
caliphs. The abbassides always sat in person in this court to aid
in the redress of wrongs. It was called "a divan" from the benches
covered with cushions on which the members sat.--D'Herbelot,
_Bibliotheque Orientate_, 298.

DIVE _[deev]_, a demon in Persian mythology. In the mogul's palace at
Lahore, there used to be several pictures of these dives (1 _syl_),
with long horns, staring eyes, shaggy hair, great fangs, ugly paws,
long tails, and other horrible deformities.

DI'VER (_Colonel_), editor of the _New York Rowdy Journal_, in
America. His air was that of a man oppressed by a sense of his own
greatness, and his physiognomy was a map of cunning and conceit.--C.
Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844.)

DI'VES (2 _syl_.), the name popularly given to the "rich man" in
our Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus; in Latin, _Dives et
Lazarus_.--_Luke_ xvi.

DIVI'NA COMME'DIA, the first poem of note ever written in the Italian
language. It is an epic by Dante' Alighie'ri, and is divided into
three parts: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dante' called it a
_comedy_, because the ending is happy; and his countrymen added the
word _divine_ from admiration of the poem. The poet depicts a vision,
in which he is conducted, first by Virgil (_human reason_,) through
hell and purgatory; and then by Beatrice (_revelation_), and finally
by St. Bernard, through the several heavens, where he beholds the
Triune God.

"Hell," is represented as a funnel-shaped hollow, formed of gradually
contracting circles, the lowest and smallest of which is the earth's
centre. (See INFERNO, 1300).

"Purgatory" is a mountain rising solitarily from the ocean on that
side of the earth which is opposite to us. It is divided into
terraces, and its top is the terrestrial paradise. (See PURGATORY,
1308).

From this "top" the poet ascends through the seven planetary heavens,
the fixed stars, and the "primum mobile" to the empyre'an or seat of
God. (See PARADISE,