Dekker

DEKKER (or DECKER), THOMAS (c. 1572-c. 1632), Eng lish dramatist, was born in London, and a Thomas Decker, who may probably be identified with the poet, was buried at St. James's, Clerkenwell, on Aug. 25, 1632. Ben Jonson drew him as Demetrius Fannius, the "dresser of plays," in the Poetaster. His name as a playwright first appears in Henslowe's Diary on Jan. 8, 1598, and he was busily engaged in the preparation of plays in the next few years. In all he is said to have had a hand in 44 plays. His special interest is as a depicter of London life, of the manners and tastes of the citizens and their wives, of the London apprentice, and of the young aristocrats who frequented the play house. About six of the plays attributed to Dekker survive. Old Fortunatus, drawn from a German tale already dramatized by Hans Sachs, was played on Dec. 27, 1599, and printed in 160o. The Shoemaker's Holiday, based on T. Deloney's prose tract, The Gentle Craft, was probably also played in 1599, and was printed in 160o. Patient Grissill (played 1600, pr. 1603) was the joint work of Dekker, Chettle and Haughton. In Satiromastix (played 16or, pr. 1602), which was a counterblast to Jonson's Poetaster, Dekker seems to have had the help of Marston. Dekker also had a hand in Sir Thomas Wyatt (1602), The Honest Whore (1604), Westward Ho (1604) and many others. 1 f it be not Good the Devil is in It (c. 161o) and Match Mee in London (of unknown date) are ascribed wholly to Dekker, and many plays for which his name is given in the theatrical records are lost. The last play in which he had a share appears to be The Noble Soldier (c. 1631), in which Day and S. Rowley were perhaps his associates.

Dekker was also a popular pamphleteer, and one of his pam phlets, The Gull's Hornbook gives an unmatched picture of the London of Dekker's day by describing in detail a day in a young fop's life in the city. In The Wonderful Year (1603) he describes the state of London during the plague of that year with a realism that matches Defoe. Other pamphlets are The Seven Deadly Sins of London (16o6), Newes from Hell; Brought by the Divells Carrier (16o6), etc.

In 1613 Dckker's fortune, never too radiant, underwent eclipse. In 1598 and 1S99 Henslowe had lent him money for his discharge when he had been arrested, but in 1613 he was put in the King's Bench prison for debt, and lay there certainly until 1616 and per haps until 1619. In Dekker his Dreame (1620) he speaks of the "Bed in which seven years I lay dreaming," possibly referring to his prison bed.

Dekker is not one of the greatest dramatists of his time, but his loveable personality, his irrepressible humour and his Lon doner's lightheartedness, whimsicality and happy-go-lucky temper ament have endeared him to all students of Jacobean London. He was, too, a lyric poet of genius, and to him we owe some most charming lyrics. One of them "Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?" is to be found in every anthology of the period.

Dekker's

Dramatic Works were edited by R. H. Shepherd (1873) and four plays were published by E. Rhys in the Mermaid Series (1887) . His Non-Dramatic Works were edited by A. B. Grosart (1884-86) for the Huth Library; and The Gull's Hornbook by R. B. McKerrow (1904) . See E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage (vol. iii. 2923).

DE KOVEN, REGINALD

(1861-1920), composer, was born at Middletown, Conn., April 3, 1861. At the age of 20 he graduated from Oxford with a doctor's degree in music. He also studied music in Stuttgart, Florence, Paris and Vienna. After his return to the United States, he wrote music criticism for many publications, including Harper's Weekly and the New York World. In 1902 he founded the Washington Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted until 1905. He was a fertile composer of comic operas, 30o songs and works for piano and orchestra. The first included Don Quixote, The Algerian, The Fencing Master, Rob Roy, The Knickerbockers, The Mandarin, From Broadway to Tokio, The Golden Butterfly and Robin Hood, the most success ful of all, first given in Chicago in 19oo and since repeated often throughout the English-speaking world. Two grand operas, Trilby and The Canterbury Pilgrim 0917), were also composed by him. He died at Chicago, Jan. 16, 192o.

DE LA BECHE, SIR HENRY THOMAS

English geologist, was born in 1796, the son of an army officer settled in Jamaica. The boy spent his youth ire England with his mother at Lyme Regis and was educated for the army at the college at Great Marlow, but the peace of 1815 changed his career. He joined the Geological Society of London, of which he was president in 1848-49. After a period of travel in Europe he began the detailed investigation of the rocks of Cornwall and Devon. Thrown much into contact with the mining community, he conceived the idea that the nation ought to compile a geological map of the United Kingdom, to aid the scientific development of its mineral industries, and persuaded the government to give him an appointment in connection with the Ordnance Survey. This formed the starting point of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, which was officially recognized in 1835, when De la Beche was appointed director. Eventually Parliament sanctioned the erection of a museum of geology and the organization of a staff of professors. The establishment, in which were combined the offices of the Geological Survey, the Museum of Practical Geology, The Royal School of Mines and the Mining Record Office was opened in Jermyn street, London, in 1851.

De la Beche published numerous memoirs on English geology in the Transactions of the Geological Society of London, as well as in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, notably the Report on the Geology of Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset (1839) . In his Researches in Theoretical Geology (1834) he enunciated a philosophical treatment of geological questions much in advance of his time. His Geological Observer (1851; 2nd ed., 1853), enlarged from an earlier work, displays his talent for artistic delineation of geological phenomena. He was elected F.R.S. in 1819, was knighted in 1848, and near the close of his life was awarded the Wollaston medal. He died on April 13, See Sir A. Geikie's Memoir of Sir A. C. Ramsay (1895), which contains a sketch of the history of the Geological Survey, and of the life of De la Beche (with portraits) ; also Summary of Progress of the Geological Survey for 1897 (1898) .