DUCIS

ducis, jean francois (1733-1816), french dramatist and adapter of shakespeare, was born at versailles on the 22nd of august 1733. his father, originally from savoy, was a linen-draper at versailles; and all through life he retained the simple tastes and straightforward independence fostered by his bourgeois education. in 1768 he produced his first tragedy, _amelise_. the failure of this first attempt was fully compensated by the success of his _hamlet_ (1769), and _romeo et juliette_ (1772). _oedipe chez admete_, imitated partly from euripides and partly from sophocles, appeared in 1778, and secured him in the following year the chair in the academy left vacant by the death of voltaire. equally successful was _le roi lear_ in 1783. _macbeth_ in 1783 did not take so well, and _jean sans peur_ in 1791 was almost a failure; but _othello_ in 1792, supported by the acting of talma, obtained immense applause. its vivid picturing of desert life secured for _abufas, ou la famille arabe_ (1795), an original drama, a flattering reception. on the failure of a similar piece, _phedor et vladimir ou la famille de siberie_ (1801), ducis ceased to write for the stage; and the rest of his life was spent in quiet retirement at versailles. he had been named a member of the council of the ancients in 1798, but he never discharged the functions of the office; and when napoleon offered him a post of honour under the empire, he refused. amiable, religious and bucolic, he had little sympathy with the fierce, sceptical and tragic times in which his lot was cast. "alas!" he said in the midst of the revolution, "tragedy is abroad in the streets; if i step outside of my door, i have blood to my very ankles. i have too often seen atreus in clogs, to venture to bring an atreus on the stage." though actuated by honest admiration of the great english dramatist, ducis is not shakespearian. his ignorance of the english language left him at the mercy of the translations of pierre letourneur (1736-1788) and of pierre de la place (1707-1793); and even this modified shakespeare had still to undergo a process of purification and correction before he could be presented to the fastidious criticism of french taste. that such was the case was not, however, the fault of ducis; and he did good service in modifying the judgment of his fellow countrymen. he did not pretend to reproduce, but to excerpt and refashion; and consequently the french play sometimes differs from its english namesake in everything almost but the name. the plot is different, the characters are different, the _motif_ different, and the scenic arrangement different. to _othello_, for instance, he wrote two endings. in one of them othello was enlightened in time and desdemona escaped her tragic fate. _le banquet de l'amitie_, a poem in four cantos (1771), _au roi de sardaigne_ (1775), _discours de reception a l'academie francaise_ (1779), _epitre a l'amitie_ (1786), and a _recueil de poesies_ (1809), complete the list of ducis's publications. an edition of his works in three volumes appeared in 1813; _oeuvres posthumes_ were edited by campenon in 1826; and _hamlet_, _oedipe chez admete_, _macbeth_ and _abufar_ are reprinted in vol. ii. of didot's _chefs-d'oeuvre tragiques_. see onesime leroy, _etude sur la personne et les ecrits de ducis_ (1832), based on ducis's own memoirs preserved in the library at versailles; sainte-beuve, _causeries du lundi_, t. vi., and _nouveaux lundis_, t. iv.; villemain, _tableau de la litt. au xviii^e siecle_. duck. (1) (from the verb "to duck," to dive, put the head under water, in reference to the bird's action, cf. dutch _duiker_, ger. _taucher_, diving-bird, _duiken_, _tauchen_, to dip, dive, dan. _dukand_, duck, and ger. _ente_, duck; various familiar and slang usages are based on analogy with the bird's action), the general english name for a large number of birds forming the greater part of the family _anatidae_ of modern ornithologists. technically the term duck is restricted to the female, the male being called drake (cognate with the termination of ger. _enterich_), and in one species mallard (fr. _malart_). the _anatidae_ may be at once divided into six more or less well marked subfamilies--(1) the _cygninae_ or swans, (2) the _anserinae_ or geese--which are each very distinct, (3) the _anatinae_ or freshwater-ducks, (4) those commonly called _fuligulinae_ or sea-ducks, (5) the _erismaturinae_ or spiny-tailed ducks, and (6) the _merginae_ or mergansers. the _anatinae_ are the typical group, and it is these only that are considered here. we start with the _anas boschas_ of linnaeus, the common wild duck, which from every point of view is by far the most important species, as it is the most plentiful, the most widely distributed, and the best known--being indeed the origin of all the british domestic breeds. it inhabits the greater part of the northern hemisphere, reaching in winter so far as the isthmus of panama in the new world, and in the old being abundant at the same season in egypt and north-western india, while in summer it ranges throughout the fur-countries, greenland, iceland, lapland and siberia. most of those which fill british markets are no doubt bred in more northern climes, but a considerable proportion of them are yet produced in the british islands, though not in anything like the numbers that used to be supplied before the draining of the great fen-country and other marshy places. the wild duck pairs very early in the year--the period being somewhat delayed by hard weather, and the ceremonies of courtship, which require some little time. soon after these are performed, the respective couples separate in search of suitable nesting-places, which are generally found, by those that remain with us, about the middle of march. the spot chosen is sometimes near a river or pond, but often very far removed from water, and it may be under a furze-bush, on a dry heath, at the bottom of a thick hedge-row, or even in any convenient hole in a tree. a little dry grass is generally collected, and on it the eggs, from 9 to 11 in number, are laid. so soon as incubation commences the mother begins to divest herself of the down which grows thickly beneath her breast-feathers, and adds it to the nest-furniture, so that the eggs are deeply imbedded in this heat-retaining substance--a portion of which she is always careful to pull, as a coverlet, over her treasures when she quits them for food. she is seldom absent from the nest, however, but once, or at most twice, a day, and then she dares not leave it until her mate, after several circling flights of observation, has assured her she may do so unobserved. joining him the pair betake themselves to some quiet spot where she may bathe and otherwise refresh herself. then they return to the nest, and after cautiously reconnoitring the neighbourhood, she loses no time in reseating herself on her eggs, while he, when she is settled, repairs again to the waters, and passes his day listlessly in the company of his brethren, who have the same duties, hopes and cares. short and infrequent as are the absences of the duck when incubation begins, they become shorter and more infrequent towards its close, and for the last day or two of the 28 necessary to develop the young it is probable that she will not stir from the nest at all. when all the fertile eggs are hatched her next care is to get the brood safely to the water. this, when the distance is great, necessarily demands great caution, and so cunningly is it done that but few persons have encountered the mother and offspring as they make the dangerous journey.[1] if disturbed the young instantly hide as they best can, while the mother quacks loudly, feigns lameness, and flutters off to divert the attention of the intruder from her brood, who lie motionless at her warning notes. once arrived at the water they are comparatively free from harm, though other perils present themselves from its inmates in the form of pike and other voracious fishes, which seize the ducklings as they disport in quest of insects on the surface or dive beneath it. throughout the summer the duck continues her care unremittingly, until the young are full grown and feathered; but it is no part of the mallard's duty to look after his offspring, and indeed he speedily becomes incapable of helping them, for towards the end of may he begins to undergo his extraordinary additional moult, loses the power of flight, and does not regain his full plumage till autumn. about harvest-time the young are well able to shift for themselves, and then resort to the corn-fields at evening, where they fatten on the scattered grain. towards the end of september or beginning of october both old and young unite in large flocks and betake themselves to the larger waters. if long-continued frost prevail, most of the ducks resort to the estuaries and tidal rivers, or even leave these islands almost entirely. soon after christmas the return-flight commences, and then begins anew the course of life already described. for the farmyard varieties, descending from _anas boschas_, see poultry. the domestication of the duck is very ancient. several distinct breeds have been established, of which the most esteemed from an economical point of view are those known as the rouen and aylesbury; but perhaps the most remarkable deviation from the normal form is the so-called penguin-duck, in which the bird assumes an upright attitude and its wings are much diminished in size. a remarkable breed also is that often named (though quite fancifully) the "buenos-ayres" duck, wherein the whole plumage is of a deep black, beautifully glossed or bronzed. but this saturation, so to speak, of colour only lasts in the individual for a few years, and as the birds grow older they become mottled with white, though as long as their reproductive power lasts they "breed true." the amount of variation in domestic ducks, however, is not comparable to that found among pigeons, no doubt from the absence of the competition which pigeon-fanciers have so long exercised. one of the most curious effects of domestication in the duck, however, is, that whereas the wild mallard is not only strictly monogamous, but, as waterton believed, a most faithful husband, remaining paired for life, the civilized drake is notoriously polygamous. very nearly allied to the common wild duck are a considerable number of species found in various parts of the world in which there is little difference of plumage between the sexes--both being of a dusky hue--such as _anas obscura_, the commonest river-duck of america, _a. superciliosa_ of australia, _a. poecilorhyncha_ of india, _a. melleri_ of madagascar, _a. xanthorhyncha_ of south africa, and some others. among the other genera of _anatinae_, we must content ourselves by saying that both in europe and in north america there are the groups represented by the shoveller, garganey, gadwall, teal, pintail and widgeon--each of which, according to some systematists, is the type of a distinct genus. then there is the group _aix_, with its beautiful representatives the wood-duck (_a. sponsa_) in america and the mandarin-duck (_a. galericulata_) in eastern asia. besides there are the sheldrakes (_tadorna_), confined to the old world and remarkably developed in the australian region; the musk-duck (_cairina_) of south america, which is often domesticated and in that condition will produce hybrids with the common duck; and finally the tree-ducks (_dendrocygna_), which are almost limited to the tropics. (for duck-shooting, see shooting.) (a. n.) 2 (probably derived from the dutch _doeck_, a coarse linen material, cf. ger. _tuch_, cloth), a plain fabric made originally from tow yarns. the cloth is lighter than canvas or sailcloth, and differs from these in that it is almost invariably single in both warp and weft. the term is also used to indicate the colour obtained at a certain stage in the bleaching of flax yarns; it is a colour between half-white and cream, and this fact may have something to do with the name. most of the flax ducks (tow yarns) appear in this colour, although quantities are bleached or dyed. some of the ducks are made from long flax, dyed black, and used for kit-bags, while the dyed tow ducks may be used for inferior purposes. the fabric, in its various qualities and colours, is used for an enormous variety of purposes, including tents, wagon and motor hoods, light sails, clothing, workmen's overalls, bicycle tubes, mail and other bags and pocketings. _russian duck_ is a fine white linen canvas. footnote: [1] when ducks breed in trees, the precise way in which the young get to the ground is still a matter of uncertainty. the mother is supposed to convey them in her bill, and most likely does so, but they are often simply allowed to fall. ducking and cucking stools, chairs used for the punishment of scolds, witches and prostitutes in bygone days. the two have been generally confused, but are quite distinct. the earlier, the cucking-stool[1] or stool of repentance, is of very ancient date, and was used by the saxons, who called it the _scealding_ or _scolding stool_. it is mentioned in domesday book as in use at chester, being called _cathedra stercoris_, a name which seems to confirm the first of the derivations suggested in the footnote below. seated on this stool the woman, her head and feet bare, was publicly exposed at her door or paraded through the streets amidst the jeers of the crowd. the cucking-stool was used for both sexes, and was specially the punishment for dishonest brewers and bakers. its use in the case of scolding women declined on the introduction in the middle of the 16th century of the scold's bridle (see branks), and it disappears on the introduction a little later of the ducking-stool. the earliest record of the use of this latter is towards the beginning of the 17th century. it was a strongly made wooden armchair (the surviving specimens are of oak) in which the culprit was seated, an iron band being placed around her so that she should not fall out during her immersion. usually the chair was fastened to a long wooden beam fixed as a seesaw on the edge of a pond or river. sometimes, however, the ducking-stool was not a fixture but was mounted on a pair of wooden wheels so that it could be wheeled through the streets, and at the river-edge was hung by a chain from the end of a beam. in sentencing a woman the magistrates ordered the number of duckings she should have. yet another type of ducking-stool was called a tumbrel. it was a chair on two wheels with two long shafts fixed to the axles. this was pushed into the pond and then the shafts released, thus tipping the chair up backwards. sometimes the punishment proved fatal, the unfortunate woman dying of shock. ducking-stools were used in england as late as the beginning of the 19th century. the last recorded cases are those of a mrs ganble at plymouth (1808); of jenny pipes, "a notorious scold" (1809), and sarah leeke (1817), both of leominster. in the last case the water in the pond was so low that the victim was merely wheeled round the town in the chair. see w. andrews, _old time punishments_ (hull, 1890); a.m. earle, _curious punishments of bygone days_ (chicago, 1896); w.c. hazlitt, _faiths and folklore_ (london, 1905); llewellynn jewitt in _the reliquary_, vols. i. and ii. (1860-1862); _gentleman's magazine_ for 1732. footnote: [1] probably from "cuck," to void excrement; but variously connected with fr. _coquin_, rascal.