motives for the deception on D'Eon's part, and for the anxiety of the French government that he should perpetrate it, still remain obscure. The French ministers may have seen, in a second disguise of sex, an easy mode of escape from the troublesome quarrel with Guerchy, whom D'Eon insisted on punishing; and D'Eon himself may have had a pecuniary interest in the decision of Lord Mansfield and the London jury. Those curious on the subject will find it ably discussed in the chapter devoted to D'Eon by M. de Lomonie in his Beaumarchais et son temps, Paris, 1856. D'Eon's writings, chiefly on political, historical, and financial subjects, were collected and published in thirteen volumes in 1775, under the title of "Les Loisirs du Chevalier D'Eon."—F. E.
DEPARCIEUX, Antoine, an eminent French mathematician, born in 1703, and died in 1768. The son of a poor peasant, a friend of his family sent him to the college of Lyons, whence he removed to Paris for the purpose of further prosecuting his studies. He found there a kind friend in Montcarville, but was notwithstanding in such great poverty that he had to support himself by making sundials. This craft, however, soon placed him in comfortable circumstances. Deparcieux became known also for his ingenious inventions, most of which were designed to simplify the industrial operations of daily life. He was remarkable for his great simplicity of character, being destitute of everything like vanity or ambition. Voltaire has introduced him as one of the speakers in his clever tale entitled L'Homme aux quarante ecus. He published a considerable number of works—amongst others, a volume of astronomical tables and a treatise on trigonometry. He was admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences of Paris in 1746.—R. M., A.
DEPPING, Georg Bernhard, a German and French miscellaneous writer, was born at Münster in 1784, but while still a youth emigrated to Paris, which he never left again. Most of his works are written in the French language; for instance, his "Soirées d'hiver," and his "Merveilles et beautés de la nature en France," both of which to this day enjoy a great popularity in France. For his "Histoire des expeditions maritimes des Normands," 1826, as well as for his "Histoire du commerce entre l'Europe et le Levant," 1828, he was awarded a prize by the French Academy. He also edited a number of French classics, and four volumes of documents relative to the reign of Louis XIV. Among his not less numerous German writings, the "Erinnerungen aus dem Leben eines Deutschen in Paris," 1832, is the most interesting. He died at Paris, September 6, 1853.—K. E.
DEPRÈS, Josquin, the most distinguished musician of the fifteenth century, was born at Hainault probably between 1450 and 1460, and died at Brussels probably about 1530, where a monument in the church of St. Gudule marks the place of his interment. The name of his family is variously given as Deprès, Depret, Dupré, de Prez, a Prato, del Prato, a Pratis, Pratensis, &c., and his forename, as Jusquin, Jossien, Jusquino, Iodocus, Iodoculus, &c.; but it is to be believed that these varieties are all modifications or translations of the original given above. Flanders, Italy, Germany, and France, have all claimed to be the birthplace of this famous contrapuntist. The claim of Italy was founded on the Italian version of his name, which was supposed to refer to the town Del Prato in Tuscany, as the place of his nativity. The French claim was founded on the statement of an early writer, that he was born at Cambray, seven miles from Hainault; but were this the fact, it would not prove Deprès to have been a Frenchman, since, at the period when he lived, Cambray was a Flemish, not a French province. He sang as a boy in the choir of the church of St. Martin, in the town of St. Quentin. He studied counterpoint under Ockeghem, a musician little less noted than himself, who successively filled the offices of first chaplain in the chapel of Charles VII., and treasurer in the church of St. Martin of Tours. He was one of the singers in the pope's chapel during the pontificate of Sixtus IV., who filled the holy see from 1471 till 1484; and after the death of this prelate Deprès passed some time at the court of Ercole d'Este, duke of Ferrara, whence he proceeded to France. It has been falsely stated that he was appointed maitre de chapelle to Louis XII., which is disproved by the fact that this office was not created until the reign of Francis I. Glareanus speaks of him as first singer to Louis XII., and Mersenne as musician to the king; but, since his name does not appear in any of the accounts of the chapel payments during the reign of this sovereign, it may be doubted that he held any appointment under him, and supposed that he lived at Paris independently of the court, save for some occasional engagements. Many anecdotes attest his occupation at the court of Louis, whether occasional or permanent, and the high consideration in which he was held there. An Italian nobleman offered him his interest with the king to procure him an office, but continually procrastinated the fulfilment of his promise. Deprès frequently reminded him of the service he had undertaken, and was so repeatedly answered, "Lascia mi fare" (Let me manage it), that this reply became almost a by-word between them. The musician had to write a mass for an occasion when his pretended patron was to be present; and, according to the custom of the time, of constructing a composition upon one constantly prevalent theme, he punningly chose for his canto fermo the notes La, Sol, Fa, Re, Mi, which, recurring almost ceaselessly throughout the mass, reminded his lordship of his assurances, and shamed him into redeeming them. The king, who was no musician, yet desired to sustain a part in concerted music, commissioned Deprès to compose a piece in which he might sing. In discharging this paradoxical task, the master anticipated the artifice Mendelssohn employed to accommodate an unartistic vocalist in his Heimkehr aus der Fremde; he assigned to the king a single note repeated in uniform rhythm throughout the entire composition, while the other voices made variety of harmony and melody, and this part is defined as "vox regis" in the printed copies. The king was charmed with the device, and rewarded the musician accordingly. Deprès was another time subjected to disappointment by the delayed performance of a patron's promise; Louis had undertaken to grant him a benefice, but one ecclesiastical appointment after another became vacant without his being installed in any. He had to compose a motet for the king, for the words of which he chose a passage from the Psalms, that speaks of remembering a plighted word. The monarch was pleased with the music, but insensible to the implication in the text. Deprès wrote another motet to words still more pertinent to his situation, and he was even more happy with his composition; the king was this time moved by the allusion, and conferred on Deprès a benefice that was just then open, and the musician wrote a third motet upon words in which a grateful servant acknowledges the promised benefit of his lord. The office in question was that of canon in the church of St. Martin at St. Quentin; and Deprès' appointment is recorded in the same register of this establishment, which names him as a singing boy in the choir.
Josquin Deprès is mentioned by all writers on music, of and immediately after his own time, in uniform terms of unqualified eulogium; every one speaks of him as the greatest artist of his age, and the title is commonly accorded to him of Prince of harmony. Numerous incidents are related, showing the extraordinary esteem in which he was held among musicians and in courtly circles; and the many elegiac poems that were written upon his death, with the several settings of these to music, prove how much this event was considered, how deeply it was lamented in the artistic world. Benedict, or Benoit, of Appenzell, and Nicolas Gombert, two of the most highly reputed of his pupils, each set to music a Latin monody on their master; and their compositions form an admirable monument of his teaching. Deprès appears not to have originated anything in his art, but wrote in the forms, and according to the principles of his predecessors; he proved, however, the originality of his genius by the excellence of his productions, which surpassed in fluency and freedom of melody everything that had been written before them. The music of his era consisted almost unexceptionally of fugal and canonical elaboration. Artifices now obsolete were then in constant practice, which limited the course of the composer's ideas, restricted his imagination, and all but annulled his power of expression. Writing with such fetters, the merit of Deprès was not only that he excelled others in the strictness of his observance of the rules then in force, but that there is a grace in his phraseology almost peculiar to himself, which has an interest independent of the ingenuity of contrivance with which the several parts of his score are made to answer and imitate one another. Baini truly remarks on the excessive compass of some of his vocal parts, that they appear to have been written for instruments, and to have had words adapted to them; but this was not a singularity of Deprès, and the practice common to him and some of his contemporaries of
