DE LOLME, JOHN LOUIS (1740?-1807).—­Political writer, b. at Geneva, has a place in English literature for his well-known work, The Constitution of England, written in French, and translated into English in 1775.  He also wrote a comparison of the English Government with that of Sweden, a History of the Flagellants (1777), and The British Empire in Europe (1787).  He came to England in 1769, lived in great poverty, and having inherited a small fortune, returned to his native place in 1775.

DELONEY, THOMAS (1543-1600).—­Novelist and balladist, appears to have worked as a silk-weaver in Norwich, but was in London by 1586, and in the course of the next 10 years is known to have written about 50 ballads, some of which involved him in trouble, and caused him to lie perdue for a time.  It is only recently that his more important work as a novelist, in which he ranks with Greene and Nash, has received attention.  He appears to have turned to this new field of effort when his original one was closed to him for the time.  Less under the influence of Lyly and other preceding writers than Greene, he is more natural, simple, and direct, and writes of middle-class citizens and tradesmen with a light and pleasant humour.  Of his novels, Thomas of Reading is in honour of clothiers, Jack of Newbury celebrates weaving, and The Gentle Craft is dedicated to the praise of shoemakers.  He “dy’d poorely,” but was “honestly buried.”

DE MORGAN, AUGUSTUS (1806-1871).—­Mathematician, b. in India, and ed. at Camb., was one of the most brilliant of English mathematicians.  He is mentioned here in virtue of his Budget of Paradoxes, a series of papers originally pub. in The Athenaeum, in which mathematical fallacies are discussed with sparkling wit, and the keenest logic.

DENHAM, SIR JOHN (1615-1669).—­Poet, s. of the Chief Baron of Exchequer in Ireland, was b. in Dublin, and ed. at Oxf.  He began his literary career with a tragedy, The Sophy (1641), which seldom rises above mediocrity.  His poem, Cooper’s Hill (1642), is the work by which he is remembered.  It is the first example in English of a poem devoted to local description.  D. received extravagant praise from Johnson; but the place now assigned him is a much more humble one.  His verse is smooth, clear, and agreeable, and occasionally a thought is expressed with remarkable terseness and force.  In his earlier years D. suffered for his Royalism; but after the Restoration enjoyed prosperity.  He, however, made an unhappy marriage, and his last years were clouded by insanity.  He was an architect by profession, coming between Inigo Jones and Wren as King’s Surveyor.