and outside the ordinary architrave mouldings (which here and in all classic examples are derived from those of the architrave of an order) is a band with rosettes, which recall the early decorative features in Crete and Mycenae; the band being carried across the top of the lintel and surmounted by a cornice supported on each side by corbels (ancones).
In the Roman doorways, excepting those at Cora and Tivoli, there is, as a rule, no diminishing of the width, which is generally speaking half of the height. The dimensions of some of the Roman doorways are enormous; in the temple of the Sun at Palmyra the doorway is 15 ft. 6 in. wide and 33 ft. high; and in the temple of Jupiter at Baalbec, 20 ft. wide and 45 ft. high, the lintel is composed of three stones forming voussoirs the keystone measuring 7 ft. at the bottom, 8 ft. at the top, 10 ft. high and 7 ft. 6 in. deep.
All the doorways mentioned above have cornices, and in those at Palmyra and Baalbec richly carved friezes with side corbels. In the Pantheon there is a plain convex frieze, but the outer mouldings of the architrave and the bed-mould of the cornice are richly carved. In the Byzantine doorways at Sta Sophia, Constantinople, a bold convex moulding and a hollow take the place of the fasciae of the classic architrave.
So far we have only referred to square-headed doorways, but the side openings of the triumphal arches of Titus and Constantine are virtually doorways, and they have semicircular heads, the mouldings of which are the same as those of the square-headed examples. In Saxon doorways, which had semicircular heads, the outer mouldings projected more boldly than in classic examples, and were sometimes cut in a separate ring of stone like the hood mould of later date.
During the Romanesque period in all countries, the doorway becomes the chief characteristic feature, and consists of two or more orders, the term “order” in this case being applied to the concentric rings of voussoirs forming the door-head. In classic work the faces of these concentric rings were nearly always flush one with the other; in Romanesque work the upper one projected over the ring immediately below, and the employment of a different design in the carving of each ring produced a magnificent and imposing effect: in the Italian churches the decoration of the arch mould is frequently carried down the door jambs, and the same is found, but less often, in the English and French doorways; but as a rule each ring or order is carried by a nook shaft, those in England and France being plain, but in Italy and Sicily elaborately carved with spirals or other ornaments and sometimes inlaid with mosaic.
The deeply recessed Norman doorways in English work required a great thickness of wall, and this was sometimes obtained by an addition outside, as at Iffley, Adel, Kirkstall and other churches.
In France, during the Gothic period, the several orders were carved with figure sculpture, as also the door jambs; and the great recessing of these doorways brought them more into the categories of porches. In England much less importance was given to the Gothic doorways, and although they consisted of many orders, these were emphasized only by deep hollows and converse mouldings and always carried on angle or nook shafts. In the perpendicular period the pointed-arch doorway was often enclosed within a square head-moulding, the spandrel being enriched with foliage or quatrefoil tracery.
In the Mahommedan style the doorway itself is comparatively simple, except that the voussoirs of its lintel are joggled with a series of curves, and being of different coloured stones have a decorative effect. These doorways are placed in a rectangular recess roofed with the stalactite vault.
With the Renaissance architect, the doorway continued as the principal characteristic of the style; the actual door-frame was simply moulded, by enclosing it with pilasters or columns, isolated or semi-detached, raised on pedestals and carrying an entablature with pediment and other kind of super-doorway; and great importance was given to the feature. In the Italian cinquecento period, the panels of the side pilasters were enriched with the most elaborate carving, and this would seem to have been an ancient Roman method, to judge by portions of carved panels now in the museums of Rome. The doorways of Venice are remarkable in this respect. At Como the two side doorways of the cathedral, one of which is said to be by Bramante, are of great beauty, and the same rich decoration is found throughout Spain and France. In Germany and England the pattern book too often suggested designs of an extremely rococo character, and it was under the influence of Palladio, through Inigo Jones, that in England the architect returned to the simpler and purer Italian style. (R. P. S.)
DOPPLERITE, a naturally occurring organic substance found in amorphous, elastic or jelly-like masses, of brownish-black colour, in peat beds in Styria and in Switzerland. It is tasteless, insoluble in alcohol and ether, and is described by Dana as an acid substance, or mixture of different acids, related to humic acid.
DORAN, JOHN (1807–1878), English author, was born in London of Irish parentage on the 11th of March 1807. He became tutor in several distinguished families, and while travelling on the continent contributed journalistic sketches to The Literary Chronicle, a paper which was afterwards incorporated with The Athenaeum. His play, Justice or the Venetian Jew, was produced at the Surrey theatre in 1824, and in 1830 he began to write translations from French, German, Latin and Italian authors for The Bath Journal. After some years of travel on the continent he became in 1841 literary editor of The Church and State Gazette, and in 1852 under the title of Filia dolorosa produced a memoir of Maria Thérèse Charlotte, duchesse d’Angoulême. Two years later he became a regular contributor to The Athenaeum, succeeding Hepworth Dixon as editor for a short time in 1869, until he became editor of Notes and Queries in 1870. His most elaborate work, Their Majesties’ Servants, a history of the English stage from Betterton to Kean, was published in 1860, and was supplemented by In and About Drury Lane, which was written for Temple Bar and was not published in book form till 1885, after Doran’s death. Among his other works may be mentioned Table Traits and Habits of Men (1854), The Queens of the House of Hanover (1855), Knights and their Days (1856), Monarchs retired from Business (1856), The History of Court Fools (1858), an edition of the Bentley Ballads (1858), The Last Journals of Horace Walpole (2 vols., 1859), The Princess of Wales (1860), and the Memoirs of Queen Adelaide (1861). These were followed by A Lady of the Last Century (1873), an account of Mrs Elizabeth Montagu and the blue-stockings; London in Jacobite Times (1877); and Memories of our Great Towns (1878). Doran died in London, on the 25th of January 1878.
DORAT, CLAUDE JOSEPH (1734–1780), French man of letters, was born in Paris on the 31st of December 1734. He belonged to a family whose members had for generations been lawyers, and he entered the corps of the king’s musketeers. He obtained a great vogue by his Réponse d’Abailard à Héloïse, and followed up this first success with a number of heroic epistles, Les Victimes de l’amour, ou lettres de quelques amants célèbres (1776). Dorat was possessed by an ambition quite out of proportion to his very mediocre ability. Besides light verse he wrote comedies, fables and, among other novels, Les Sacrifices de l’amour, ou lettres de la vicomtesse de Senanges et du chevalier de Versenay (1771). He tried to cover his failures as a dramatist by buying up a great number of seats, and his books were lavishly illustrated by good artists and expensively produced, to secure their success. He was maladroit enough to draw down on himself the hatred both of the philosophe party and of their arch-enemy Charles Palissot, and thus cut himself off from the possibility of academic honours. Le Tartufe littéraire (1777) attacked La Harpe and Palissot, and at the same time D’Alembert and Mlle de Lespinasse. Dorat died on the 29th of April 1780 in Paris.
See G. Desnoireterres, Le Chevalier Dorat et les poètes légers au XVIIIᵉ siècle (1887). For the bibliographical value of his works, see Henry Cohen, Guide de l’amateur de livres à figures et à vignettes du XVIIIᵉ siècle (editions of Ch. Mehl, 1876, and R. Portalis, 1887).
DORCHESTER, DUDLEY CARLETON, Viscount (1573–1632), English diplomatist, son of Antony Carleton of Baldwin
