sorts of Guls." It was first printed in 1609, and exhibits a very curious, minute, and interesting picture of the manners and habits of the English people at that time. Sir Walter Scott draws largely upon it in his description of London life in the Fortunes of Nigel.—R. M., A.
DECRÈS, Denis, Duke de, a French admiral, was born in 1761. he entered the navy in 1779, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1786, and during three successive years was sent on various confidential missions, which he discharged with great fidelity. While cruising off Malabar in the Cybele in February, 1792, he cut out a French merchant ship which had been captured by the Mahrattas, and anchored beneath the guns of Fort Goulabo—an exploit which added not a little to his reputation for intrepidity and professional skill. He was promoted to be chief of division in 1796, and vice-admiral in 1798. He was appointed to the command of the Diana frigate, in the fleet under Admiral Brueys, and covered the landing of the troops in the attack on Malta. He was present at the battle of Aboukir, and after the destruction of the Orient, made his escape to Malta in the Diana, in company with the William Tell. He took a prominent part in the defence of Malta, and when it became evident that the island must surrender, he received orders to start for France with the William Tell, to convey intelligence to the government of the state of matters. That vessel, however, was captured on its voyage by the British, after a long and bloody contest, in which Decrès himself was severely wounded. On his return to France, Napoleon presented to him a sword of honour, and nominated him successively maritime prefect of the Lorient, and commander of the Rochefort squadron; and in 1801 appointed him minister of marine—an office which he continued to hold until the overthrow of the empire. The duke de Decrès retired into private life on the restoration of the Bourbons, and was killed in 1820 by the explosion of some packets of gunpowder which his valet placed between the mattresses of his bed.—J. T.
DEDEKIND, Friedrich, a German poet of the sixteenth century, was a distinguished Lutheran preacher, and died at Luneburg, 27th February, 1598. His German dramas, "Der Christliche Hitter" and "Der Bekehrte Papist," were intended to illustrate and propagate the reformed doctrine. His principal work, however, is his Latin poem, "Grobianus," Frankfort, 1549, a satirical description of a perfect bully.—K. E.
DEE, John, the famous English astrologer of the sixteenth century, was the son of Rowland Dee, a vintner, and was born in London in 1527. At an early age he showed a strong bent for scientific pursuits; and after passing through the undergraduate course at St. John's college, Cambridge, he visited the Low Countries in his twentieth year, and brought back with him to Cambridge a quantity of mathematical and astronomical instruments, which he had obtained while associating with the Flemish savants. He was now chosen fellow of Trinity, the new college just founded by Henry VIII., and appointed under-reader in Greek. But his restless Welsh temperament, and uncontrolled ambition, induced him soon to seek an ampler sphere for the display of his powers. He went to Paris in 1550, and lectured in the university with great applause on Euclid's Elements. In the following year he returned; was warmly welcomed by Sir John Cheke, the man who, as Milton says,
" Taught Cambridge and King Edward Greek;"
and introduced by him to the young king, who in 1553 presented him to the rectory of Upton-on-Severn. But the reputation of magical arts already attached to his name (though as yet, it would appear, unjustly) seems to have interfered with his entering into the actual enjoyment of this and several other pieces of preferment subsequently conferred on him. Soon after the accession of Queen Mary, Dee was arrested on the absurd charge of practising against her life by enchantments. He was acquitted on this head, but was then turned over to Bishop Bonner, to be examined touching his religious opinions. Dee, however, had no vocation for martyrdom, and at once gave every satisfaction that was required of him. From Elizabeth Dee received many and signal marks of favour. That strong-minded woman—so cool and sage in all the transactions of ordinary life—had a corner of her brain given up to the wildest and most visionary superstitions—to a belief in necromancy, astrology, the philosophers' stone, and the elixir vitæ. Dee won her favour upon her first mounting the throne, by drawing up an astrological paper determining the most auspicious day for her coronation. Thenceforward she frequently sent for him; called at his house; consulted him upon matters of the most delicate and secret nature; gave him considerable sums of money; and promised that, whatever reports the vulgar might circulate to his prejudice, she would never withdraw from him her support. What wonder if this weak, too clever man—goaded by vanity, feeling that something more was expected from him by his great patroness than the sober certainties of real science, emulous too, perhaps, of the notoriety which Paracelsus had acquired on the continent—forsook the legitimate search after knowledge, and essayed to hold an illicit or impossible commerce with the spiritual world? As in the natural twilight objects loom misty and large, and shadows are of portentous size, so in the twilight of science, before a Bacon has arisen to define its boundaries and chalk out its method, any of the more recondite physical truths which may chance to be known are invested with characters of awe and mystery. The few explorers to whom they are known, half frightened at the vastness of the forces which nature discloses to her questioners, and elated by the consciousness of possessing a knowledge hidden from the majority of mankind, are apt, if their credulity and self-love exceed their sanity and honesty, to degenerate from astronomers into astrologers, from experimenters into conjurers. Such was the downward course of Dee. In 1581 he commenced the invocation of spirits, and engaged one Edward Kelley to be his seer or "skryer." Their connection lasted for nearly eight years. In 1583 a mob broke into his house, being firmly persuaded that he had dealings with the devil, and destroyed or scattered abroad his valuable library, amounting to four thousand volumes, seven hundred of which were manuscripts. This disaster seems to have driven the associates abroad, where they made many dupes, among others a personage described as Albert à Lasco, prince of Sirad. The arrangement was that Kelley should see the spirits raised by the incantations, and dictate what they said to Dee, who wrote down and interpreted their utterances. In 1589 Dee found out that Kelley was playing him false, and leaving him in Bohemia returned to England. After the rupture, Kelley is said to have declared that his own share in the invocation of the spirits was that of a mere impostor. Dee's seems rather to have been that of a credulous enthusiast. Elizabeth received him on his return with undiminished favour, and in 1595 appointed him warden of Manchester college. He went there with his family in 1596, but the ill odour which now everywhere surrounded his name, caused him at the end of seven years to quit Manchester, and return to live at Mortlake, though he seems to have enjoyed the revenues till his death. His life was now a miserable one. King James showed him no favour, and all his old patrons were dead. In his discouragement he fell again into his old practices as a spiritualist, and continued them till 1607. Of these, as well as his earlier proceedings of the same sort, Dr. Méric Casaubon published a relation in 1659. Dee died at Mortlake some time in the year 1608.—T. A.
DEERING, Charles, a physician who lived in the first part of the eighteenth century. He was a native of Saxony, and after graduating at Leyden, came over to London. He practised a few years in the metropolis, and afterwards removed to Nottingham. There he adventured on a new method of treating the small-pox, which was very life and fatal at that time. But his cooling regimen not always proving efficacious, Deering incurred the censure of the faculty. This circumstance diminished his practice, and, it is said, also hastened his death. He died in 1749. Deering published "A Letter on the Small-pox," and a "Catalogue of Plants Growing about Nottingham."—R. M., A.
DEERING, Richard, a musician of considerable talent, was born about 1577, and educated in Italy. He was related to the ancient Kentish family of the Deerings, through whose influence and patronage he attained to considerable honours in his profession. On the 26th of April, 1610, he was admitted to the degree of bachelor in music at the university of Oxford; and a few years afterward he accepted the post of organist to the English nuns in the convent of St. Mary at Brussels. Upon the marriage of Charles I. with Henrietta Maria, he returned to England and was made organist to the royal consort, with whom he continued till the great rebellion. He died in the communion of the church of Rome in 1657. His published works are "Cantiones Sacræ quinque, Vocum, cum basso continue ad organum:" Antwerp, 1594; "Cantica Sacra ad
