DORMER (Captain), benevolent, truthful, and courageous, candid and warmhearted.  He was engaged to Louisa Travers; but the lady was told that he was false and had married another, so she gave her hand to Lord Davenant.

Marianne Dormer, sister of the captain.  She married Lord Davenant, who called himself Mr. Brooke; but he forsook her in three months, giving out that he was dead.  Marianne, supposing herself to be a widow, married his lordship’s son.—­Cumberland, The Mysterious Husband (1783).

Dormer (Caroline), the orphan daughter of a London merchant, who was once very wealthy, but became bankrupt and died, leaving his daughter L200 a year.  This annuity, however, she loses through the knavery of her man of business.  When reduced to penury, her old lover, Henry Morland (supposed to have perished at sea), makes his appearance and marries her, by which she becomes the Lady Duberly.—­G.  Coleman, The Heir-at-Law (1797).

DORNTON (Mr.), a great banker, who adores his son Harry.  He tries to be stern with him when he sees him going the road to ruin, but is melted by a kind word.

Joseph Mnnden [1758-1832] was the original representative of “Old Dornton” and a host of other characters.—­Memoir (1832.)

Harry Dornton, son of the above.  A noble-hearted fellow, spoilt by over-indulgence.  He becomes a regular rake, loses money at Newmarket, and goes post-speed the road to ruin, led on by Jack Milford.  So great is his extravagance, that his father becomes a bankrupt; but Sulky (his partner in the bank) comes to the rescue.  Harry marries Sophia Freelove, and both father and son are saved from ruin.—­Holcroft, The Road to Euin (1792).

DOROTHE’A, of Andalusi’a, daughter of Cleonardo (an opulent vassal of the Duke Ricardo).  She was married to Don Fernando, the duke’s younger son, who deserted her for Lucinda (the daughter of an opulent gentlemen), engaged to Cardenio, her equal in rank and fortune.  When the wedding day arrived, Lucinda fell into a swoon, a letter informed the bridegroom that she was already married to Cardenio, and next day she took refuge in a convent.  Dorothea also left her home, dressed in boy’s clothes, and concealed herself in the Sierra Morena or Brown Mountain.  Now, it so happened that Dorothea, Cardenio, and Don Quixote’s party happened to be staying at the Crescent inn, and Don Fernando, who had abducted Lucinda from the convent, halted at the same place.  Here he found his wife Dorothea, and Lucinda her husband Cardenio.  All these misfortunes thus came to an end, and the parties mated with their respective spouses.—­Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iv. (1605).

Dorothe’a, sister of Mons. Thomas.—­Beaumont and Fletcher, Mons. Thomas (1619).

Dorothe’a, the “virgin martyr,” attended by Angelo, an angel in the semblance of a page, first presented to Dorothea as a beggar-boy, to whom she gave alms.—­Philip Massinger, The Virgin Martyr (1622).