DOYLE, SIR FRANCIS HASTINGS (1810-1888).--Poet, belonged to a military family which produced several distinguished officers, including his _f._, who bore the same name. He was _b._ near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, and _ed._ at Eton and Oxf. Studying law he was called to the Bar in 1837, and afterwards held various high fiscal appointments, becoming in 1869 Commissioner of Customs. In 1834 he _pub._ _Miscellaneous Verses_, followed by _Two Destinies_ (1844), _Oedipus, King of Thebes_ (1849), and _Return of the Guards_ (1866). He was elected in 1867 Prof. of Poetry at Oxf. D.'s best work is his ballads, which include _The Red Thread of Honour_, _The Private of the Buffs_, and _The Loss of the Birkenhead_. In his longer poems his genuine poetical feeling was not equalled by his power of expression, and much of his poetry is commonplace. DRAKE, JOSEPH RODMAN (1795-1820).--Poet, _b._ at New York, studied medicine, _d._ of consumption. He collaborated with F. Halleck in the _Croaker Papers_, and wrote "The Culprit Fay" and "The American Flag." DRAPER, JOHN WILLIAM (1811-1882).--Historian, _b._ at St. Helen's, Lancashire, emigrated to Virginia, and was a prof. in the Univ. of New York. He wrote _History of the American Civil War_ (1867-70), _History of the Intellectual Development of Europe_ (1863), and _History of the Conflict between Science and Religion_ (1874), besides treatises on various branches of science. DRAYTON, MICHAEL (1563-1631).--Poet, _b._ in Warwickshire, was in early life page to a gentleman, and was possibly at Camb. or Oxf. His earliest poem, _The Harmonie of the Church_, was destroyed. His next was _The Shepherd's Garland_ (1593), afterwards reprinted as _Eclogues_. Three historical poems, _Gaveston_ (1593), _Matilda_ (1594), and _Robert, Duke of Normandie_ (1596) followed, and he then appears to have collaborated with Dekker, Webster, and others in dramatic work. His _magnum opus_, however, was _Polyolbion_ (1613?), a topographical description of England in twelve-syllabled verse, full of antiquarian and historical details, so accurate as to make the work an authority on such matters. The rushing verse is full of vigour and gusto. Other poems of D. are _The Wars of the Barons_ (1603), _England's Heroical Epistles_ (1598) (being imaginary letters between Royal lovers such as Henry II. and Rosamund), _Poems, Lyric and Heroic_ (1606) (including the fine ballad of "Agincourt"), _Nymphidia_, his most graceful work, _Muses Elizium_, and _Idea's Mirrour_, a collection of sonnets, Idea being the name of the lady to whom they were addressed. Though often heavy, D. had the true poetic gift, had passages of grandeur, and sang the praises of England with the heart of a patriot.