DUDU, one of the three beauties of the harem, into which Juan, by the sultan’s order, had been admitted in female attire.  Next day, the sultana, out of jealousy, ordered that both Dudu and Juan should be stitched in a sack and cast into the sea; but by the connivance of Baba the chief eunuch, they affected their escape.—­Byron, Don Juan, vi. 42, etc.

A kind of sleeping Venus seemed Dudu ...  But she was pensive more than melancholy ...  The strangest thing was, beauteous, she was holy.  Unconscious, albeit turned of quick seventeen.  Canto vi. 42-44 (1824).

DUENNA (The), a comic opera by R. B. Sheridan (1773).  Margaret, the duenna, is placed in charge of Louisa, the daughter of Don Jerome.  Louisa is in love with Don Antonio, a poor nobleman of Seville; but her father resolves to give her in marriage to Isaac Mendoza, a rich Portuguese Jew.  As Louisa will not consent to her father’s arrangement, he locks her up in her chamber, and turns the duenna out of doors, but in his impetuous rage he in reality turns his daughter out, and locks up the duenna.  Isaac arrives, is introduced to the lady, elopes with her, and is duly married.  Louisa flees to the convent of St. Catharine, and writes to her father for his consent to her marriage to the man of her choice; and Don Jerome supposing she means the Jew, gives it freely, and she marries Antonio.  When they meet at breakfast at the old man’s house, he finds that Isaac has married the duenna, Louisa has married Antonio, and his son has married Clara; but the old man is reconciled and says, “I am an obstinate old fellow, when I’m in the wrong, but you shall all find me steady in the right.”

DUESSA (false faith), is the personification of the papacy.  She meets the Red Cross Knight in the society of Sansfoy (infidelity), and when the knight slays Sansfoy, she turns to flight.  Being overtaken, she says her name is Fidessa (true faith), deceives the knight, and conducts him to the palace of Lucif’era, where he encounters Sansjoy (canto 2).  Duessa dresses the wounds of the Red Cross Knight, but places Sansjoy under the care of Escula’pius in the infernal regions (canto 4).  The Red Cross Knight leaves the palace of Lucifera, and Duessa induces him to drink of the “Enervating Fountain;” Orgoglio then attacks him, and would have slain him if Duessa had not promised to be his bride.  Having cast the Red Cross Knight into a dungeon, Orgoglio dresses his bride in most gorgeous array, puts on her head “a triple crown” (the tiara of the pope), and sets her on a monster beast with “seven heads” (the seven hills of Rome).  Una (truth) sends Arthur (England) to rescue the captive knight, and Arthur slays Orgoglio, wounds the beast, releases the knight, and strips Duessa of her finery (the Reformation); whereupon she flies into the wilderness to conceal her shame (canto 7).—­Spenser, Faery Queen, i. (1590).