minute verisimilitude and naturalness of incident which has never been equalled except perhaps by Swift, whose genius his, in some other respects, resembled. The only description of his personal appearance is given in an advertisement intended to lead to his apprehension, and runs, "A middle-sized, spare man about forty years old, of a brown complexion, and dark brown-coloured hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth." His mind was a peculiar amalgam of imagination and matter-of-fact, seeing strongly and clearly what he did see, but little conscious, apparently, of what lay outside his purview. _Lives_ by Chalmers (1786), H. Morley (1889), T. Wright (1894), and others; shorter works by Lamb, Hazlitt, L. Stephens, and Prof. Minto, Bohn's _British Classics_, etc. DEKKER, THOMAS (1570?-1641?).--Dramatist and miscellaneous writer, was _b._ in London. Few details of D.'s life have come down to us, though he was a well-known writer in his day, and is believed to have written or contributed to over 20 dramas. He collaborated at various times with several of his fellow-dramatists, including Ben Jonson. Ultimately Jonson quarrelled with Marston and D., satirising them in _The Poetaster_ (1601), to which D. replied in _Satiromastix_ (1602). D.'s best play is _Old Fortunatus_ (1606), others are _The Shoemaker's Holiday_ (1600), _Honest Whore_ (1604), _Roaring Girl_ (1611), _The Virgin Martyr_ (1622) (with Massinger), and _The Witch of Edmonton_ (1658) (with Ford and Rowley), _History of Sir Thomas Wyat_, _Westward Ho_, and _Northward Ho_, all with Webster. His prose writings include _The Gull's Hornbook_ (1609), _The Seven Deadly Sins of London_, and _The Belman of London_ (1608), satirical works which give interesting glimpses of the life of his time. His life appears to have been a somewhat chequered one, alternating between revelry and want. He is one of the most poetical of the older dramatists. Lamb said he "had poetry enough for anything." 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.