om the poet entertained a purely platonic affection. She
meets the poet after he has been dragged through the river Lethe
_(Purgatory_, xxxi), and conducts him through paradise. Beatrice
Portina'ri married Simon de Bardi, and died at the age of 24; Dante
was a few months older.

Some persons say that Dante meant Theology
By Beatrice, and not a mistress; I ...
Deem this a commentator's phantasy.

Byron, _Don Juan_, iii. 11 (1820).

DANTE AND-VIRGIL. Virgil was Dante's poetic master and is described as
conducting him through the realms depicted in the _Divina Commedia_.

[Illustration] The poet married Gemma, of the powerful house of
Donati. (See LOVES).

_Dante's Beard_. All the pictures of

Dante which I have seen represent him without any beard or hair on his
face at all; but in _Purgatory_, xxxi., Beatrice says to him, "Raise
thou thy beard, and lo! what sight shall do," _i.e._ lift up your face
and look about you; and he adds, "No sooner lifted I mine aspect up
... than mine eyes _(encountered)_ Beatrice."

DAN DEVEREUX. A young Nantucket giant married to a dainty waif rescued
in infancy from the sea. He marries her because she is homeless
and seems to be in love with him. When too late, he knows that his
affections are another's, and sees his wife fascinated by a handsome
French adventurer. In an attempt to elope, the wife and her lover are
wrecked, and clinging to a spar, are overtaken by the "terrible South
Breaker--plunging and rearing and swelling, a monstrous billow,
sweeping and swooping and rocking in." Dan in later life, marries
Georgia, his first love.--Harriet Prescott Spofford, _The South
Breaker_ (1863).

DANTON OF THE CEVENNES. Pierre Seguier, prophet and preacher of
Magistavols, in France. He was a leader amongst the Camisards.

DANVERS _(Charles)_, an embyro barrister of the Middle Temple.--C.
Selby, _The Unfinished Gentleman._

DAPH'NE (2 _syl_.)., daughter of Sileno and Mysis, and sister of Nysa.
The favorite of Apollo while sojourning on earth in the character of a
shepherd lad named "Pol."--Kate O'Hara, _Midas_ (a burletta, 1778).

(In classic mythology Daphne fled from the amorous god, and escaped by
being changed into a laurel.)

DAPH'NIS, a beautiful Sicilian shepherd, the inventor of bucolic
poetry. He was a son of Mercury, and friend both of Pan and Apollo.

_Daph'nis_, the modest shepherd.

This is that modest shepherd, he
That only dare salute, but ne'er could