frank "Strictures on Mr. Collier's new edition of Shakspeare." Mr. Dyce edited the works of Richard Bentley, as well as various publications for learned societies, of one of which (the Percy) he was founder. In 1856 appeared his very popular "Recollections of the Table Talk of Samuel Rogers;" and he was also the author of a versified translation of Athenæus. He died in May, 1869, bequeathing to the South Kensington Museum his library, abounding in editions of Shakspeare, on condition that a suitable room be provided for it.—F. E.
DYCE, William, R.A., a historical and genre painter, was born in Scotland in 1806. He studied at the university of Aberdeen, where he took the degree of M.A., and received his education in art at the Scottish Academy. He made his first public appearance as a painter of classical subjects at the academy's exhibition in 1827; and a few years afterwards he appeared as a contributor to the Royal Academy, London, but without attracting much notice. Gradually, however, he made his way as a painter, his successive productions exhibiting a manifest aspiration towards the higher walks of the art; and when it was proposed to remodel the new School of Design at Somerset House, Mr. Dyce was selected as the headmaster—an office which he retained about three years. In this short period he had not been able to effect much towards the improvement of the institution; but on returning to the undivided pursuit of his profession, he showed, by the style of his new productions, that the interval had been well employed in his own improvement. This was particularly illustrated in his contribution to the exhibition of 1844—"Joash Shooting the Arrow of Deliverance"—a work which was much admired for its purity of design and vigour of composition, and which immediately secured for Mr. Dyce the honour and title of associate of the Royal Academy. At the fresco exhibition, in the course of the same year, he exhibited some beautiful specimens of fresco painting, which showed that he had been assiduously cultivating that department, and which attracted so much notice as to obtain for him a commission from Prince Albert to paint in fresco one of the compartments of his summer house at Buckingham Palace. He was subsequently engaged to execute some fresco paintings at Osborne and in the new houses of parliament. One of his frescoes in the house of lords, the "Baptism of Ethelbert," was so much admired that he was employed some years in adorning the walls of that structure. On subjects connected with ecclesiastical antiquities he also contributed to periodicals, and in 1843-44 edited an edition of the Book of Common Prayer, accompanied with its ancient canto fermo, and a disquisition on the nature of that music and its suitableness to English words. He died 14th February, 1864.—G. BL.
DYCK. See Van Dyck.
DYER, Sir Edward, a poet and diplomatist of the age of Elizabeth, born, it is supposed, about 1540, was educated at Oxford, where he exhibited at an early age, poetical taste and talent, but was otherwise, it would appear, an undistinguished student. He left the university without taking a degree, and went abroad to improve himself by travel. On his return he was taken into the service of the court; Elizabeth entertaining so high an opinion of his abilities as to intrust him with various embassies. He was sent to Denmark in 1589, and on his return received the honour of knighthood. Sir Edward contributed pastoral odes and madrigals to the English Helicon, and by these obtained great repute among the poets of the time. He was one of the many dupes of the astrologers. Dee and Kelly, and he studied chemistry under Rosicrusian teaching. Some of his poetical compositions are still in MS. He died some years after the accession of James I.—J. S., G.
DYER, George, poet and litterateur, was born of humble parentage at London, March 15th, 1755, and died March 2, 1841. He had the good fortune to be placed on the foundation of Christ's hospital at seven years old, and it is said that at a younger age than any former pupil he reached the head of the school. The celebrated Dr. Askew, physician to Christ's, was his first friend and patron. He took the young scholar to his house, where he was introduced to many distinguished men of his day. Dyer removed to Emanuel college, Cambridge, in 1774. There an acquaintance with men of a philosophical cast of mind tended to confirm his discontent with the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England; but he seems to have deferred to authority, having taken his degree of B.A. in 1778. For some time after this he was engaged in public and private tuition. Returning to Cambridge he entered the family of his friend Mr. Robinson, the dissenting minister of St. Andrew's, "not merely as tutor, but with the view of profiting by his doctrine and learned conversation." His next change of residence was to Oxford, where he officiated as a dissenting minister; but he subsequently, after a brief sojourn at Cambridge, took up his abode at the village of Swansea in Cambridgeshire, and pursued his various studies with great ardour and success. He settled finally in London in 1792. There he enjoyed the friendship of Priestley, Wakefield, and other famous men. His means of support were private tuition and literary labour. Dyer was an indefatigable student, and possessed a most extensive knowledge of books. At one period of his life he visited a great number of private libraries both in England and Scotland to collect materials for a great bibliographical work. He was a good classical scholar, and had the chief share in the production of Valpy's edition of the classics in 141 vols. He lost his sight soon after the completion of this great undertaking in 1830, having been engaged on it eleven years. But though he had married late in life, his latter years appear to have been remarkably happy. Dyer was a most excellent man, simpleminded, and benevolent in no ordinary degree. He was particularly beloved by Charles Lamb, who said that to George "a poem was a poem, his own as good as anybody's, and, God bless him! anybody's as good as his own." He published—"An Inquiry into the nature of subscription to the Thirty-Nine Articles," 1792; "Poems," 1792; "Poems," 2 vols., 1803; "Four Letters on the English Constitution," 1813; "History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge," &c., 1814; "The Privileges of the University of Cambridge," &c., 1824"—R. M., A.
DYER, Sir James, was born in Somersetshire in 1511, and died in 1581. He was the second son of Sir William Dyer of Wymaulton. The name is variously spelled Deyer and Dier. Dyer was educated at Oxford, and passed from his college, Broadgate Hall, to the middle temple—was called to the bar, and was appointed summer reader of his inn in the sixth year of Edward VI.; in 1552 serjeant-at-law and speaker of the house of commons. He obtained the honour of knighthood, and was recorder of Cambridge; and in 1556 one of the judges of the common pleas. He remained during Mary's reign a puisne judge, but soon after Elizabeth's accession was made chief-justice of the common pleas. In state trials, when acting for the crown as one of its law officers, he showed some courtesy and consideration for the persons on trial. After his death, a volume of law reports by him was published, which is praised by Sir Edward Coke, who tells us quaintly of "the summary and fruitful observations of that famous and most reverend judge and sage of his time. Sir James Dyer, knight," &c. Camden, among his other distinctions as a judge, speaks of the serenity of his temper. Dyer left no children. Lands, which he purchased in Huntingdonshire, were left by him to a nephew, whose son or grandson was made a baronet. The title is extinct. His reports form a necessary part of the furniture of a lawyer's library.—J. A., D.
DYER, John, a minor poet of the last century, was the son of a Welsh solicitor, and was born at a small village in Carmarthenshire in the year 1700. He was placed by his father, who designed him to follow his own profession, at Westminster school; but after having remained there for some years, he was enabled by his father's death to follow the bent of his own inclination, which made him ambitious to cultivate the fine arts. He studied painting under Richardson, the well-known author of Clarissa Harlowe. He soon commenced itinerant painter, and roamed about the country on his own account. What the artistic result of his rambles may have been we are not informed, but they led to the production of the descriptive poem called "Grongar Hill," the metre of which is evidently taken from Milton's l'Allegro, and parts of which contain pleasing sketches of the scenery of the Wye and the vale of Towy. To improve himself as a painter. Dyer next travelled to Italy, and after his return in 1740 published a didactic poem in blank verse entitled "The Ruins of Rome." "The title," as Dr. Johnson remarks, "raises greater expectation than the performance gratifies," particularly as it suggests comparison with the noble stanzas of Spenser which bear the same name. Tired, it would seem, of a roving, aimless life. Dyer about this time settled down in England upon his little patrimony, married a Miss Ensor, and, that he might have some fixed employment, took orders in the church of England. His preferment was slow, but comprised in the end two or three small benefices in Leicestershire and Lincoln-
