quaries he found access to every English library, and he passed his time in transcribing such Anglo-Norman documents as might illustrate early French history. From London he passed to Holland, and occupied himself in the same way. The studies of the French antiquarians—particularly Raynouard—had led to the disinterring much of the old poetry of the troubadours—the poets of the south of France. Delarue's studies were confined to the trouvères, or poets of the north of France. He published several works on the antiquities of Normandy.—J. A., D.
DELAVIGNE, Jean François Casimir, a distinguished French poet and dramatist, was born at Havre, 4th April, 1793. His father was a respectable merchant, whose desire to afford his son the advantages of a liberal education, seemed at first to be thwarted by the unpromising dulness, which, as in the case of some other persons of eminent genius, clouded the dawn of an intellect whose noon was to be of no common splendour. It was on the occasion of the birth of Napoleon's son, that Casimir Delavigne revealed to France the presence of a new poet, in an ode which took all hearts by storm, because it expressed with freshness and fire the prevalent feeling of the moment. The nation was intoxicated with the unparalleled victories of its chief, then at the summit of his marvellous career; and the emperor's joy at the birth of the king of Rome was truly shared by the people. A small post in the revenue was conferred on the poet, with a kindly intimation that it was to be considered a sinecure, so far as the duties of office were concerned, in order that he might devote himself to the cultivation of letters. The year following the birth of the king of Rome began the downward descent of Napoleon, until it was consummated by Waterloo. The grief and indignation with which Casimir Delavigne witnessed the occupation of France by the allies in 1815, broke out in those poems which he published under the title of "Messeniennes," and whose genuine pathos moved the hearts of his countrymen, in a way to which they had been little accustomed by the frigid rhetoric that had characterized the literature of the empire. The keeper of the seals, for the sake of acquiring popularity, conferred on the poet a public librarianship. In 1819 Delavigne appeared as a dramatic poet with the "Vêpres Siciliennes," which, at first refused by the principal theatre, was received at the Odeon, whose fortune it crowned. To avenge the slight thrown on his first dramatic work, the poet produced his satirical play, the "Comediens;" but in this case wounded vanity proved itself to be a weak source of inspiration. Turning once more to the popular feelings of the moment, Delavigne embodied the rising, or rather returning passion for social equality, in his drama of the "Paria," which won him more public favour, but cost him his place. The duke of Orleans, cultivating popularity, snatched at the brilliant victim, and installed him in the library of the Palais royal. In 1823 the academy somewhat grudgingly admitted to its fastidious company a poet whose tendencies were inclining to the rising school of romantiques, to which, indeed, he subsequently claimed adherence, by his tragedy of "Marino Faliero," produced in 1829. The revolution of 1830, like all great national events, found a voice in this impassioned patriotic poet, whose song, "La Parisienne," became at once the companion-piece of the Marseillaise. For the Poles he wrote "La Varsovienne," and so happily hit their sentiments, that they went into battle with a lyric on their lips, which defeat unhappily turned into a sorrowful elegy. The poet married Mdlle. de Courtin in 1830, and it was while she was reading for him a story from Sir Walter Scott, at Lyons, where he was reposing on his way to Italy in search of health, that his head drooped, and he expired, 11th December, 1843. His body was brought to Paris, and honoured with a public funeral. The list of Delavigne's plays is a brilliant one. Although not uniformly successful, yet he never met with complete failure. His genius was marked by two eminent qualities—intense feeling and pure taste. While he was influenced, in common with the rising school of romantiques, by Goethe and Schiller, by Byron and Scott, and, above all, by Shakspeare, yet did he never allow himself to fall into extravagance, by straining after a fantastical originality. His memory must have been wonderful, for he composed all his plays in his head, before he wrote out a single line, so that the writing was in fact mere transcript. He not only composed, but acted every scene with so much passion and earnestness, that the perspiration would teem from his forehead. It was in this way he became, as we have seen, the voice of all great popular movements. It is not by way of invidious drawback that we add as proof of his power in this way, the effect produced by some lines in his opera of "Charles VI.," presented in 1843. At that time feeling ran high against England, and when the words, "L'Anglais en France ne regnera pas," were heard, the audience took them up with so much vehemence, that the air was not allowed to be repeated. Yet we may excuse from vindictive prejudice the poet who sought solace from pain in his favourite Sir Walter Scott.—J. F. C.
DELBRÜCK, Johann Friedrich Gottlieb, was born at Magdeburg, 22nd August, 1768, and after having studied theology at Halle, became headmaster of the gymnasium of his native town in 1797. In 1800 he was appointed by the king of Prussia tutor of his two eldest sons, King Frederick William IV. and the present Prince Regent, which situation he filled until 1809, to the satisfaction of the royal parents. He died as pastor and superintendent at Zeitz on 4th July, 1830.—K. E.
DELBRÜCK, Johann Friedrich Ferdinand, brother of the above, a German philosophical writer, was born at Magdeburg, 12th April, 1772, and died at Bonn, where he had occupied the chair of eloquence, 25th January, 1848. Among his writings deserve to be noticed—"Xenophon, zur Rettung seiner durch Niebuhr gefährdeten Ehre;" "Der verewigte Schleiermacher;" and "Ergebnisse academischer Forschungen."—K. E.
DELESSERT, Benjamin, Le Baron, distinguished alike for his private worth and for his enlightened patronage of science, and especially of botany, was born at Geneva in 1763, and died at Paris on 1st March, 1847. His elder brother, Etienne, was fond of natural history, and in his company Benjamin travelled through Switzerland, France, England, and Scotland, and made extensive collections of plants. At the commencement of the Revolution he served as an artillery officer. Subsequently, however, he devoted himself to commercial pursuits, and became one of the wealthiest bankers in Paris. At one time he was one of the greatest manufacturers of beet-root sugar in France. For nearly thirty years he was a member of the chamber of deputies. He is regarded as the founder of savings banks in Paris, and he did much to ameliorate the condition of prisons. He accumulated one of the largest collections of plants ever made. His herbarium was open to all botanists who wished to avail themselves of it. His botanical library contained four thousand volumes. In 1820 he commenced the publication of his "Icones Selectæ Plantarum," containing figures chiefly from specimens in his herbarium, illustrative of De Candolle's Prodromus. The Flora of Senegambia, edited by Guillemin, Perrottet, and A. Richard, was published at his expense. Delessert made an extensive conchological collection, and he purchased those of Dufresne, Tessier, and Lamarck. He commenced the publication of a magnificent work, containing figures of Lamarckian shells. He also gave to the world sixty numbers of a work entitled "Illustrations Conchyliologiques, ou descriptions et figures de toutes les coquilles connues, vivantes et fossiles." This work was edited by M. Chénu, the conservator of the collection. It contains more than three hundred plates. Delessert was a member of the Academy of Sciences and of the Institute of France; and he received various honorary distinctions from his government. He was a foreign member of the Linnæan Society. In his will he provided for the maintenance of his museum and his library, and for rendering them useful to science by their continued accessibility.—J. H. B.
DELFF, DELFT, or DELPHIUS, the name of a family of distinguished Dutch painters at Delft. The eldest of them, Jacob Willelm Delff, who died in 1601, left a picture representing the "Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau," now at Vienna. He also painted his own family, and a group of musketeers. This last work being damaged by the explosion of a powder-mill in 1654, was restored by his grandson, Jakob Willelmszoon Delff, born in 1619; died in 1661; who, by his numerous and clever productions, considerably increased the fame of the family. This worthy scion of a good stock gained by his talents as an artist a most wide-spread patronage; whilst, at the same time, his personal merits and virtues obtained the esteem of his fellow-citizens, who appointed him to several important civic charges. A public monument has been raised to his memory.—Cornelius, Roch, and Willelm Delff, names of other members of tins family, all devoted to art. The latter was the father of Jacob Willelmszoon.—R. M.
DELFICO, Melchior, a native of Naples, born in 1744;
