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

Dick Tracy
128
En gland. Settings depicted in his many works
ranged from the squalid slums and factories of
major cities to scenes of pastoral charm. Characters
varied from jolly squires and cheerful servants
to starving orphans and villainous clerks and
thieves. In modern usage, the term “Dickensian”
tends to be employed broadly to imply a panoramic,
detailed and colorful, even grotesque,
satirical depiction of the real world, especially one
that harks back to the 19th century. “<strong>The</strong>re is a
Dickensian quality about Cairo: the dense narrow
lanes, the rubbish and stench of the streets, the
jostling crowds, the animals, the dramatic disparity
between rich and poor, the spectacle of young
children hard at work, the host of people scraping
a living from the most menial of tasks: porters,
scavengers, match- sellers, bootblacks, watercarriers”
(Stanley Stewart, Old Serpent Nile: A Journey
to the Source, 1991).
Dick Tracy (traysee) Archetype of a tough police
detective. Dick Tracy made his debut in a U.S.
comic strip in 1931, drawn by Chester Gould. He
was a tireless, square- jawed opponent of injustice
and wrongdoing, driven by the urge to avenge
himself upon the criminals for the kidnapping of
his girlfriend and the murder of her father. He
worked long into the night, doggedly poring over the
details of the case like Dick Tracy.
Dido and Aeneas (dido, bneeas) An archetype of
tragic love. <strong>The</strong> love affair between the Trojan
adventurer Aeneas and Dido, queen of Carthage,
was told in Virgil’s Aeneid (29–19 b.c.). Dido fell
in love with Aeneas after the latter was shipwrecked
off Carthage but was ultimately unable to
dissuade him from sailing on to Italy on the command
of Jupiter. After he left she committed suicide
by throwing herself onto a pyre. One had the
feeling that their love was doomed from the start, like
Dido and Aeneas. See also aeneas.
die is cast, the An irrevocable step has been
taken; there is no going back now. This common
expression, in its Latin form alea jacta est, originated
in a saying by Julius Caesar as he ordered his
army across the Rubicon River toward Rome in
49 b.c., a step tantamount to an act of war. <strong>The</strong>
reference is to gambling with dice (from the obvious
truth that once a die is thrown, the cast cannot
be taken back). “ ‘But I have no purpose of debating
these points with you, my lord,’ waving his
hand, as if to avoid farther discussion; ‘the die is
cast with you; allow me only to express my sorrow
for the disastrous fate to which Angus
M’Aulay’s natural rashness, and your lordship’s
infl uence, are dragging my gallant friend Allan
here, with his father’s clan, and many a brave man
besides’ ” (Sir Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose,
1819). See also cross the rubicon.
die like Roland See roland.
Dien Bien Phu (dyen byen foo) A disastrous military
defeat, especially one that is self- infl icted.
Dien Bien Phu, in northern Indochina, was the
site of a French fortifi cation that fell to communist
Vietminh guerrillas in May 1954 after a siege of
55 days. <strong>The</strong> defeat was blamed on overconfi dence
among the French commanders, who had failed to
realize the threat posed by the guerrilla army and
had allowed their enemies to occupy the strongest
positions. Spokesmen for the army are denying that this
reverse represents a Dien Bien Phu for U.S. forces.
dies irae (deeayz eeray) A day of reckoning.
Latin for “day of wrath,” the phrase appears at
Zephaniah 1:15, in which Zephaniah foresees a