DUARS, a tract of country in north-east India consisting of the Western and the Eastern Duars, both of which belonged to Bhutan prior to the Bhutan War of 1864-65; as a result of this they passed into possession of the British, when the Eastern Duars were assigned to Assam and the Western to Bengal. The Eastern Duars, 1,57o sq.m., are in the Goalpara district of Assam, forming a strip of flat country lying beneath the Bhutan moun tains. It is but slightly developed and sparsely populated. The Western Duars, 1,862 sq.m., lie at the foot of the Himalayas in the north-east of the Jalpaiguri district of Bengal. They are tra versed by the Bengal-Duars railway and are an important centre of the tea-planting industry.
DU BARRY, MARIE JEANNE BECU, COMTESSE , French adventuress, mistress of Louis XV., was born at Vaucouleurs on Aug. 19, 1746, the illegitimate daughter of a tax collector. She lived as a courtesan in Paris under the name of Mdlle. Lange, and Jean, comte du Barry, took her into his house to make it more attractive to the dupes whose money he won by gambling. Through Lebel, valet de chambre of Louis XV., and the duc de Richelieu, he succeeded in installing her, in 1769, as official mistress of the king, after a nominal marriage with Guillaume du Barry. The duc de Choiseul, who refused to ac knowledge her, was disgraced in 1771; and the duc d'Aiguillon, who had the reputation of being her lover, took his place, and in concert with her governed the monarch. Louis XV. built for her the mansion of Luciennes. At his death in 1774 an order of his successor banished her for a brief period to the abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, near Meaux. She led a retired life at I,uciennes with the comte de Cosse-Brissac. Having gone to England in 1792 to endeavour to raise money on her jewels, she was on her return accused before the Revolutionary Tribunal of having con spired against the republic. She was condemned to death on Dec. 7, 1793, and guillotined the same evening. Her contempo raries, scorning her low birth rather than her vices, attributed to her a malicious political role of which she was at heart incap able, and have done scant justice to her quick wit, her frank but gracious manners and her seductive beauty. The volume of Lettres et Anecdotes (1779) which bears her name was not written by her.
See E. and J. de Goncourt, La du Barry (Paris, 188o) ; C. Vatel, Histoire de Madame du Barry (1882-83) , based on sources ; R. Douglas, The Life and Times of Madame du Barry (1896) ; Saint Andre, Madame du Barry (1908).
DU BARTAS, GUILLAUME DE SALLUSTE, SEIGN EUR French poet, was born near Auch. He was employed by Henry IV. of France in England, Denmark and Scotland; and he commanded a troop of horse in Gascony, under the marshal de Martingan. He was a convinced Huguenot, and cherished the idea of writing a great religious epic in which biblical characters and Christian sentiment were to supplant the pagan mise en scene then in fashion. His first epic, Judith, appeared in a volume entitled La Muse chretienne (Bordeaux, 1573). This was followed five years later by his principal work, La Sepmaine, a poem on the creation of the world. This work was held by admirers of du Bartas to put him on a level with Ronsard, and 3o editions of it were printed within six years after its appear ance. Its religious tone and fanciful style made it a great favour ite in England, where the author was called the "divine" du Bartas, and placed on an equality with Ariosto. Spenser, Hall and Ben Jonson all speak of it in the highest terms. King James VI. of Scotland tried his "prentice hand" at the translation of du Bartas's poem L'Uranie, and the compliment was returned by the French writer, who translated, as La Lepanthe, James's poem on the battle of Lepanto. Du Bartas began the publication of the Seconde Sepmaine in 1584. He aimed at a great epic, never com pleted, which should stretch from the story of the creation to the coming of the Messiah. Du Bartas died in July 1590 in Paris from wounds received at the battle of Ivry. He maintained a reputa tion abroad long after he had ceased to be read, except by stu dents, in France, where his prolixity proved fatal to his fame.