The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

Daniel Boone (boon) Archetype of a pioneer
frontiersman. Daniel Boone (1734–1820) responded
to the lure of the wilderness at an early age
and spent his life helping to open up the unexplored
regions of Kentucky and Missouri. He also
served in the U.S. militia and defended the many
settlements he had helped to found against attack
by Native American tribes. Her father emerged from
the store wearing a Daniel Boone hat and leather jacket.
Daniel come to judgment, a (danybl) A person
who reaches a wise conclusion about something
that has left others bewildered, especially one who
displays wisdom beyond his or her years. <strong>The</strong> allusion
is to the biblical Daniel, as described in Daniel
5 (where he explained the meaning of the writing
on the wall). <strong>The</strong> phrase in its modern form
comes from William Shakespeare’s <strong>The</strong> Merchant of
Venice (c. 1596), in which Shylock hails Portia with
the following words: “A Daniel come to judgment!
yea a Daniel!/O wise young judge, how I do honour
thee!” In a story related in the apocryphal
book of Susanna the youthful Daniel successfully
defends Susanna against the accusation of being
found committing adultery in the shade of a tree
by asking her two accusers what kind of tree it
was. <strong>The</strong> two men give different answers and
Susanna’s innocence is proved. By much the same
token any judge who earns respect for his great
wisdom might be referred to simply as a Daniel.
It was in this moment of crisis that this young prodigy
really proved himself a Daniel come to judgment.
Daniel in the lions’ den (danybl) A person who is
in a position of great danger. <strong>The</strong> phrase alludes to
the biblical story of Daniel in which the Hebrew
prophet is accused of defying the rulers of Babylon
and is thrown into a cage full of hungry lions:
“<strong>The</strong>n the king commanded, and they brought
Dante and Beatrice
Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions” (Daniel
6:16). Daniel’s courage and faith is rewarded when
God saves his life by sealing the lions’ mouths so
they cannot eat him. By the same token, a den of
lions signifi es any situation in which a person fi nds
himself or herself surrounded by others who mean
the person harm. Finding himself suddenly surrounded
by rogues and bandits of all description, the journalist
quickly appreciated that he was like Daniel in the
lions’ den.
danse macabre (dahns mbkahbrb) A series of
events seemingly moving inexorably toward
destruction and death. <strong>The</strong> danse macabre (or
dance of death) was a well- known motif of medieval
art, typically depicting a skeletal fi gure of
Death leading a string of mortals away to the
grave. <strong>The</strong> motif became widespread throughout
Eu rope with the eruption of the Black Death in
the middle of the 14th century. <strong>The</strong> countries of the
Middle East seem to be engaged in a danse macabre that
can only end in bloodshed.
Dante and Beatrice (dantay, dontay; beebtris) An
idealized, unfulfi lled, platonic romance. <strong>The</strong> allusion
is to the Italian writer Dante Alighieri (1265–
1321) and Beatrice Portinari (1266–90), the
beautiful young girl with whom the writer fell
hopelessly in love on fi rst seeing her in 1274, when
both were still children. Dante’s love for Beatrice
remained pure and unblemished, although he had
little chance to express it and she went on to
marry an Italian nobleman and died in her twenties.
She remained for Dante an unattainable ideal
and the subject of some of his greatest poetry. “But
Will wanted to talk with Dorothea alone, and was
impatient of slow circumstance. However slight
the terrestrial intercourse between Dante and
Beatrice or Petrarch and Laura, time changes the
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