particularly applied to the depositing of any large quantity of material, to the shooting of rubbish, or tilting a load from a cart. It is thus used of the method of disposal of the masses of gravel, &c., disintegrated by water in the hydraulic method of gold mining. A “dump” or “dumping-ground” is thus the place where such waste material is deposited. The use of the term “dumping” in the economics of international trade has come into prominence in the tariff reform controversy in the United Kingdom. It is sometimes used loosely of the importing of foreign goods at prices below those ruling in the importing country; but strictly the term is applied to the importing, at a price below the cost of production, of the surplus of manufactures of a foreign country over and above what has been disposed of in its home market. The ability to sell such a surplus in a foreign market below the cost of production depends on the prices of the home market being artificially sustained at a sufficiently high level by a monopoly or by a tariff or by bounties. An essential factor in the operation of “dumping” is the lessening of the whole cost of production by manufacture on a large scale.
DUNASH, the name of two Jewish scholars of the 10th century.
1. Dunash Ben Labraṭ, grammarian and poet, belonged to the brilliant circle attracted to Cordova by Ḥasdai, and took a large share in promoting the Jewish “Golden Age” under the Moors in Andalusia. Dunash not only helped in the foundation of a school of scientific philology, but adapted Arabian metres to Hebrew verse, and thereby gave an impulse to the neo-Hebraic poetry, which reached its highest level in Spain.
2. Dunash Ibn Tamim was, like the preceding, a leader in the critical study of language among Arabic-speaking Jews. Professor Bacher says of him: “In the history of Hebrew philology, Ibn Tamim ranks as one of the first representatives of the systematic comparison of Hebrew and Arabic.” The philological researches of the 10th century were closely associated with the Spanish-Moorish culture of the period. (I. A.)
DUNBAR, GEORGE (1774–1851), English classical scholar and lexicographer, was born at Coldingham in Berwickshire. In early life he followed the humble profession of gardening, but, having been permanently injured by an accident, devoted himself to the study of the classics. When about thirty years of age, he settled in Edinburgh, where he obtained a tutorship in the family of Lord Provost Fettes. In 1807 he succeeded Andrew Dalzel as professor of Greek in the university. Dunbar held his appointment till his death on the 6th of December 1851. Although a man of great energy and industry, Dunbar did not produce anything of permanent value. He deserves mention, however, for his Greek-English and English-Greek lexicon (1840), on the compilation of which he spent eight years. Although now superseded, it was the best work of its kind that had appeared in England.
The little that is known of Dunbar’s life will be found in the Caledonian Mercury (8th of December 1851).
DUNBAR, PAUL LAURENCE (1872–1906), American author, of negro descent, was born in Dayton, Ohio, on the 27th of June 1872. He graduated (1891) from the Dayton high school, had a varied experience as elevator boy, mechanic and journalist, and in 1897–1898 held a position on the staff of the Library of Congress, resigning in December 1898 to devote himself to literary work. He died of consumption at his home in Dayton on the 8th of February 1906. His poetry was brought to the attention of American readers by William Dean Howells, who wrote an appreciative introduction to his Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896). Subsequently Dunbar published eleven other volumes of verse, three novels and five collections of short stories. Some of his short stories and sketches, especially those dealing with the American negro, are charming; they are far superior to his novels, which deal with scenes in which the author is not so much at home. His most enduring work, however, is his poetry. Some of this is in literary English, but the best is in the dialect of his people. In it he has preserved much of their very temperament and outlook on life, usually with truth and freshness of feeling, united with a happy choice of language and much lyrical grace and sweetness, and often with rare humour and pathos. These poems of the soil are a distinct contribution to American literature, and entitle the author to be called pre-eminently the poet of his race in America.
See Life and Works of Paul Laurence Dunbar (Naperville, Ill., 1907), with a biography by L. K. Wiggins.
DUNBAR, WILLIAM (c. 1460–c. 1520), Scottish poet, was probably a native of East Lothian. This is assumed from a satirical reference in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie, where, too, it is hinted that he was a member of the noble house of Dunbar. His name appears in 1477 in the Register of the Faculty of Arts at St Andrews, among the Determinants or Bachelors of Arts, and in 1479 among the masters of the university. Thereafter he joined the order of Observantine Franciscans, at St Andrews or Edinburgh, and proceeded to France as a wandering friar. He spent a few years in Picardy, and was still abroad when, in 1491, Bothwell’s mission to secure a bride for the young James IV. reached the French court. There is no direct evidence that he accompanied Blackadder, archbishop of Glasgow, on a similar embassy to Spain in 1495. On the other hand, we know that he proceeded with that prelate to England on his more successful mission in 1501. Dunbar had meanwhile (about 1500) returned to Scotland, and had become a priest at court, and a royal pensioner. His literary life begins with his attachment to James’s household. All that is known of him from this date to his death about 1520 is derived from the poems or from entries in the royal registers of payments of pension and grants of livery. He is spoken of as the Rhymer of Scotland in the accounts of the English privy council dealing with the visit of the mission for the hand of Margaret Tudor, rather because he wrote a poem in praise of London, than because, as has been stated, he held the post of laureate at the Scottish court. In 1511 he accompanied the queen to Aberdeen and commemorated her visit in verse. Other pieces such as the Orisoun (“Quhen the Gouernour past in France”), apropos of the setting out of the regent Albany, are of historical interest, but they tell us little more than that Dunbar was alive. The date of his death is uncertain. He is named in Lyndsay’s Testament and Complaynt of the Papyngo (1530) with poets then dead, and the reference precedes that to Douglas who had died in 1522. He certainly survived his royal patron. We may not be far out in saying that he died about 1520.
Dunbar’s reputation among his immediate successors was considerable. By later criticism, stimulated in some measure by Scott’s eulogy that he is “unrivalled by any which Scotland has produced,” he has held the highest place among the northern makars. The praise, though it has been at times exaggerated, is on the whole just, certainly in respect of variety of work and mastery of form. He belongs, with James I., Henryson and Douglas, to the Scots Chaucerian school. In his allegorical poems reminiscences of the master’s style and literary habit are most frequent. Yet, even there, his discipleship shows certain limitations. His wilder humour and greater heat of blood give him opportunities in which the Chaucerian tradition is not helpful, or even possible. His restlessness leads us at times to a comparison with Skelton, not in respect of any parallelism of idea or literary craftsmanship, but in his experimental zeal in turning the diction and tuning the rhythms of the chaotic English which only Chaucer’s genius had reduced to order. The comparison must not, however, be pushed too far. Skelton’s work carries with it the interest of attempt and failure. Dunbar’s command of the medium was more certain. So that while we admire the variety of his work, we also admire the competence of his effort.
One hundred and one poems have been ascribed to Dunbar. Of these at least ninety are generally accepted as his: of the eleven attributed to him it would be hard to say that they should not be considered authentic. Most doubt has clung to his verse tale The Freiris of Berwik.
Dunbar’s chief allegorical poems are The Goldyn Targe and The Thrissil and the Rois. The motif of the former is the poet’s futile endeavour, in a dream, to ward off the arrows of Dame
