DOBBIN (Captain, afterwards Colonel), son of Sir William Dobbin, a London tradesman.  Uncouth, awkward, and tall, with huge feet; but faithful and loving, with a large heart and most delicate appreciation.  He is a prince of a fellow, is proud and fond of Captain George Osborne from boyhood to death, and adores Amelia, George’s wife.  When she has been a widow for some ten years, he marries her.—­Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848).

DOBBS’S HORSE, Charley Dobbs, setting off to California, gives his best friend Theophilus an order for “a good sound family horse, not young, but the safer for all that,” that had once belonged to his mother.  He is boarding the creature on a farm in Westchester County, and his friend is welcome to the use of him.

Dobbs’s Horse is the skeleton in the household in many a sense of the word.  He refuses to be fattened:  he balks; he has colic and spasms; he lies down in harness; he impales himself upon a broken rail; he keels over upon the grass, whizzing like a capsized engine; he bites himself—­and has driven the family to the verge of insanity when Dobbs returns and upon beholding the “noble old fellow,” shouts that they have the wrong horse!  “This is one I sold long ago for fifteen dollars!”—­Mary Mapes Dodge, Theophilus and Others (1876).

DOBBINS (Humphrey), the confidential servant of Sir Robert Bramble of Blackberry Hall, in the county of Kent.  A blunt old retainer, most devoted to his master.  Under a rough exterior he concealed a heart brimful of kindness, and so tender that a word would melt it.—­George Colman, The Poor Gentleman (1802).

DOBU’NI, called Bodu’ni by Dio; the people of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.  Drayton refers to them in his Polyolbion, xvi. (1613).

DOCTOR (The), a romance by Souther.  The doctor’s name is Dove, and his horse “Nobbs.”

Doctor (The Admirable), Roger Bacon (1214-1292).

The Angelic Doctor, Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), “fifth doctor of the Church.”

The Authentic Doctor, Geogory of Rimini (_-1357).

The Divine Doctor, Jean Ruysbroek (1294-1381).

The Dulcifluous Doctor, Antonio Andreas, (_-1320).

The Ecstatic Doctor, Jean Ruysbroek (1294-1381).

The Eloquent Doctor, Peter Aureolus, archbishop of Aix (fourteenth century).

The Evangelical Doctor, J. Wycliffe (1324-1384).

The Illuminated Doctor, Raymond Lully (1235-1315), or Most Enlightened Doctor.

The Invincible Doctor, William Occam (1276-1347).

The Irrefragable Doctor, Alexander Hales (_-1245.)

The Mellifluous Doctor, St. Bernard (1091-1153).

The Most Christian Doctor, Jean de Gerson (1363-1429).

The Most Methodical Doctor, John Bassol(_-1347).