DELIUS, NICOLAUS, a German philologist, born at Bremen; distinguished especially as a student of Shakespeare and for his edition of Shakespeare’s works, which is of transcendent merit (1813-1888).

DELIA CRUSCANS, a set of English sentimental poetasters, the leaders of them hailing from Florence, that appeared in England towards the close of the 18th century, and that for a time imposed on many by their extravagant panegyrics of one another, the founder of the set being one Robert Merry, who signed himself Della Crusca; he first announced himself by a sonnet to Love, in praise of which Anne Matilda wrote an incomparable piece of nonsense; “this epidemic spread for a term from fool to fool,” but was soon exposed and laughed out of existence.

DELLYS (3), a seaport in Algeria, 49 m.  E. of Algiers.

DELOLME, JOHN LOUIS, a writer on State polity, born at Geneva, bred to the legal profession; spent some six years in England as a refugee; wrote a book on the “Constitution of England,” and in praise of it, which was received for a time with high favour in the country, but is now no longer regarded as an authority; wrote a “History of the Flagellants,” and on “The Union of Scotland with England” (1740-1806).

DELORME, a French architect, born at Lyons; studied in Rome; was patronised by Catherine de Medici; built the palace of the Tuileries, and contributed to the art of building (1518-1577).

DELORME, MARION, a Frenchwoman celebrated for her wit and fascination, born at Chalons-sur-Marne; came to Paris in the reign of Louis XIII., where her drawing-room became the rendezvous of all the celebrities of the time, many of whom were bewitched by her charms; she gave harbour to the chiefs of the Fronde, and was about to be arrested when she died; the story that her death was a feint, and that she had subsequent adventures, is distrusted; she is the subject of a drama by Victor Hugo (1612-1650).

DELOS, the smallest and central island of the Cyclades, the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and where the former had a famous oracle; it was, according to the Greek mythology, a floating island, and was first fixed to the spot by Zeus to provide Leda with a place, denied her elsewhere by Hera, in which to bring forth her twin offspring; it was at one time a centre of Apollo worship, but is now uninhabited, and only frequented at times by shepherds with their flocks.

DELPHI, a town of ancient Greece in Phocis, at the foot of Parnassus, where Apollo had a temple, and whence he was wont to issue his oracles by the mouth of his priestess the Pythia, who when receiving the oracle used to sit on a tripod over an opening in the ground through which an intoxicating vapour exhaled, deemed the breath of the god, and that proved the vehicle of her inspiration; the Pythian games were celebrated here.

DELPHIN CLASSICS, an edition of the Greek and Roman classics, edited by Bossuet and Huet, assisted by thirty-nine scholars, for the use of the dauphin of Louis XIV.; of little use now.