maintained at Oxford, of being "a slow, dreaming young man," gave way to a scandalous reputation for gambling, by which he beggared himself and seriously embarrassed his father. We learn that, by way of penance, he wrote at this time an Essay against Gaming, whether in prose or verse is not recorded. After his father's death the habit became still more dominant, and he squandered a fortune. It was a surprise to every one, therefore, when in 1642 he suddenly, as Waller said, "broke out like the Irish rebellion, threescore thousand strong, when no one was aware, nor in the least expected it," by publishing in that year two most successful volumes of verse. The first of these was The Sophy, a tragedy in five acts, a thin folio, the theme of which was a Turkish tale of blood and intrigue, drawn from Sir Thomas Herbert's travels. This, Denham's only dramatic performance, is tame and correct, without passion, but free from the faults of some of the minor authors of the time. It was successful, but it enjoyed nothing of the unparalleled popularity of his simultaneous venture, the descriptive poem of Cooper's Hill, the first edition of which in quarto was anonymous. In this famous piece no entirely new style was attempted, for Ben Jonson had led the way in theme and Cowley in manner; but it had a smooth grace and a polished antithesis that were doubtful merits in poetry, but extremely dear to the rising generation. One quatrain, out of the three or four hundred lines of reflection and description, has been universally praised, and forms one of our most familiar quotations. Addressing the Thames, the poet says—
"O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream
My great example, as it is my theme!
Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o erflowing full."
Brought into royal notice by his poems, Denham was appointed high sheriff for Surrey and governor of Farnham Castle; but he showed no military talent, and soon followed the king to Oxford. During the civil war he served the queen mother, and was intrusted with the letters in cipher that Cowley wrote to the king, which he managed to deliver into Charles's hands. Being detected, however, he was obliged to escape into France. In April 1648 he is said to have conveyed the young duke of York from St James's to Paris; it is certain that, later in that year, he was sent in company with Lord Crofts, as ambassador to Poland, to obtain money for the king, and he succeeded in bringing back £10,000. In 1652 he returned, a ruined man, to England, and resided as the guest of the earl of Pembroke at Wilton for a year. He now disappears until the Restoration. When Charles II. returned, Denham was made surveyor-general and Knight of the Bath, and seems to have been well provided for; but his subsequent life was far from happy, for his second wife, a young woman of great beauty, was seduced by the duke of York, and became his mistress. This catastrophe, which is abundantly noticed in the current literature of that day, shattered the old poet's reason; and he recovered from his insanity only to die, at his house near Whitehall, on the 10th of March 1668. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. In the same year, 1668, his works were collected in a single volume, entitled Poems and Translations. This included, besides Cooper's Hill and The Sophy, a fragment of an epic on the destruction of Troy, some beautiful lines on the death of Cowley, written a few months before his own decease, a didactic poem on the progress of learning, and some translations. Notwithstanding the fame of Cooper's Hill, which Pope imitated in his Windsor Forest, Denham's poems have not been edited in modern times. He was one of the very first to note the tendency towards rhetorical and gallicized forms in public taste, and to gratify the new fashion. But to speak of him, as was once customary, as a great reformer of metre and fashioner of language, is to fail to realize the limitations of his talent.
DENINA, Carlo Giovanni Maria (1731–1813), an Italian author, was born at Revello, Piedmont, in 1731, and was educated at Saluzzo and Turin. In 1753 he was appointed to the chair of humanity at Pignerol, but he was soon compelled by the influence of the Jesuits to retire from it. In 1756 he graduated as doctor in theology, and began authorship with a theological treatise. Promoted to the professorship of humanity and rhetoric in the college of Turin, he showed his literary activity in his great work On the Revolutions of Italy, and in other writings. Collegiate honours accompanied the issue of its successive volumes, which, however, at the same time, multiplied his foes and stimulated their hatred. In 1782 he repaired to Berlin, where he remained for many years, in the course of which he published various works. In 1804 he went to Paris as the imperial librarian, to which office he had been appointed by Napoleon, who was attracted to him at Metz. He died there on 5th December 1813. Denina's reputation is mainly founded on his History of the Revolutions of Italy, in which he combines a philosophic spirit and the habit of accurate narration.
DENIS, or Dionysius, St, the patron saint of France, flourished in the middle of the 3d century. What is known of his life rests chiefly on the not altogether trustworthy authority of Gregory of Tours, according to which he was the leader of a band of seven missionaries who came from Rome to Gaul, and founded churches in seven cities. Denis settled in Paris, where he made many converts, and became the first Christian bishop. In 272, during the persecution of Valerian, he was beheaded along with some of his companions. Another account places the date of the martyrdom between 286 and 290. The well-known legend, according to which St Denis after his decapitation walked two miles with his head in his hands, probably originated in a mistaken interpretation of pictures intended to indicate the manner of his death. It was not unusual to represent a martyr by decapitation bearing his head in his hands as an offering, and there are effigies of St Denis with the mitred head in its natural position and the head in the hands as well. The bodies of the three martyrs were thrown into the River Seine, but were afterwards recovered and honourably buried by a Christian lady named Catalla, not far from the place where they suffered. Over the tomb a chapel was built, which in the 5th century was replaced by a church. The famous abbey of St Denis was founded on the same spot by Dagobert in the 7th century. A later legend of the French church, following the tradition of the Greek Church, identified St Denis of Paris with Dionysius the Areopagite, who was converted by St Paul. One of the gravest charges brought against Abelard was the fact that he denied this identity on the authority of a passage in Bede. St Denis was gradually adopted as the patron saint of the French people, St Louis being the patron saint of the royal family. His festival is celebrated on the 9th October.
DENIZEN, an alien who obtains by letters patent (ex donatione regis) certain of the privileges of a British subject. He cannot be a member of the Privy Council or of Parliament, or hold any civil or military office of trust, or take a grant of land from the Crown. The Naturalization Act, 1870, provides that nothing therein contained shall affect the grant of any letters of denization by Her Majesty. See Naturalization.
