(1613).

DAMARIS WAINRIGHT. A woman richly endowed by Nature and fortune, whose
mother and brother have died insane. She comes to maidenly maturity
under the impression which strengthens into belief that madness is her
heritage. After long struggles she accepts the hand of one who has
striven steadily to combat what he considers a morbid conviction, and
makes ready for her marriage. When dressed for the ceremony she sits
down to await her bridegroom, and the image of herself in a tarnished
mirror suggests a train of melancholy musing that result in dementia.

"With a mad impulse to flee she sprang to her
feet just as Lincoln knocked.... For an instant
her failing reason struggled to consciousness
as a drowning swimmer writhes a last time
to the surface, and gasps a breath only to give it
up in futile bubbles that mark the spot where he
sank. With a supreme effort her vanquished
will for a moment re-asserted itself. She knew
her lover was at the door, and she knew also
that the feet of doom had been swifter than those
of the bridegroom.... She sprang forward
and threw open the door."

"'I am mad!' she shrieked, in a voice which
pierced to every corner of the old mansion."

Arlo Bates, _The Wheel of Fire_, (1885).

DAM'OCLES (3 _syl_.), a sycophant, in the court of Dionys'ius _the
Elder_, of Syracuse. After extolling the felicity of princes,
Dionysius told him he would give him experimental proof thereof.
Accordingly he had the courtier arrayed in royal robes and seated at
a sumptuous banquet, but overhead was a sword suspended by a single
horsehair, and Damocles was afraid to stir, lest the hair should break
and the sword fall on him. Dionysius thus intimated that the lives of
kings are threatened every hour of the day.--Cicero.

Let us who have not our names in the Red
Book console ourselves by thinking comfortably
how miserable our betters may be, and that
Damocles, who sits on satin cushions, and is
served on gold plate, has an awful sword hanging
over his head, in the shape of a bailiff, or
hereditary disease, or family secret.--Thackeray,
_Vanity Fair_, xlvii. (1848).

DAMOE'TAS, a herdsman. Theocritos and Virgil use the name in their
pastorals.

And old Damoetas loved to hear our song.
Milton, _Lycidas_ (1638).

DA'MON, a goat-herd in Virgil's third _Eclogue_. Walsh introduces the
same name in his _Eclogues_ also. Any rustic, swain, or herdsman.

DA