Jean Ingelow, Persephone.

DAGON, sixth in order of the hierarchy of hell:  (1) Satan, (2) Beelzebub, (3) Moloch, (4) Chemos, (5) Thammuz, (6) Dagon.  Dagon was half man and half fish.  He was worshipped in Ashdod, Gath, Ascalon, Ekron, and Gaza (the five chief cities of the Philistines).  When the “ark” was placed in his temple, Dagon fell, and the palms of his hands were broken off.

  Next came ... 
  Dagon ... sea-monster, upward man
  And downward fish.

  Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 457, etc. (1665).

DAG’ONET (Sir), King Arthur’s fool.  One day Sir Dagonet, with two squires, came to Cornwall, and as they drew near a well Sir Tristram soused them all three in, and dripping wet made them mount their horses and ride off, amid the jeers of the spectators (pt. ii. 60).

King Arthur loved Sir Dagonet passing well, and made him knight; with his own hands; and at every tournament he made King Arthur laugh.—­Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur. ii. 97 (1470).

Justice Shallow brags that he once personated Sir Dagonet, while he was a student at Clement’s Inn.—­Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV. act ii. sc. 2 (1598).

[Illustration] Tennyson deviates in this, as he does in so many other instances, from the old romance.  The History says that King Arthur made Dagonet knight “with his own hands,” because he “loved him passing well;” but Tennyson says that Sir Gawain made him “a mock-knight of the Round Table.”—­The Last Tournament, 1.

DAISY MILLER.  Mrs. Miller, nouvelle riche and in true American subjection to her children, is travelling abroad.  Her only daughter is pretty, unconventional, and so bent upon having “a good time” that she falls under the most degrading suspicions.  The climax of flirtation and escapade is a midnight expedition to the Colosseum, where she contracts Roman fever and dies.—­Henry James, Jr., Daisy Miller (1878).

DAL’DAH, Mahomet’s favorite white mule.

DALES (The), a family in Ashurst, where is laid the scene of John Ward, Preacher:  By Margaret Deland.  The wife is prim and dictatorial, a pattern housewife, with decided views upon all subjects, including religion and matrimony.  The husband wears a cashmere dressing-gown, and spreads a red handkerchief over his white hair to protect his white head from draughts; reads “A Sentimental Journey;” looks at his wife before expressing an opinion, and makes an excellent fourth at whist (1888).

DALGA, a Lombard harlot, who tries to seduce young Goltho, but Goltho is saved by his friend Ulfinore.—­Sir W. Davenant, Gondibert (died 1668).

DALGARNO (Lord Malcolm of), a profligate young nobleman, son of the earl of Huntinglen (an old Scotch noble family).  Nigel strikes Dalgarno with his sword, and is obliged to seek refuge in “Alsatia.”  Lord Dalgarno’s villainy to the Lady Hermione excites the displeasure of King James, and he would have been banished if he had not married her.  After this, Lord Dalgarno carries off the wife of John Christie, the ship-owner, and is shot by Captain Colepepper, the Alsatian bully.—­Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).