William Davenant - Shakespeare's son?
Lyra
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William Davenant
Sir William Davenant (February 28, 1606 - April 7, 1668), also spelled
D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas
Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance
theatre whose career spanned both the Caroline and Restoration eras,
and who was active both before and after the English Civil War and the
Interregnum.
Contents
* 1 Biography
* 2 Works
o 2.1 Epic poems and books of poetry
o 2.2 Panegyrics
o 2.3 Original plays, masques and operas
o 2.4 Revisions, adaptations and other productions for the
stage
* 3 Reference
* 4 External links
o 4.1 Biographical
o 4.2 Poems and texts
Biography
Davenant was born in late February, 1606 in Oxford, the son of Jane
Shepherd Davenant and John Davenant, proprietor of the Crown Tavern
(or Crown Inn) and mayor of Oxford. He was the godson of William
Shakespeare, who had stayed frequently at the Crown during his travels
between London and Stratford-upon-Avon. It was even rumored that he
was the Bard's biological son as well. However, it seems that this
rumor stemmed from a comment attributed to Davenant by Samuel Butler:
"It seemed to him [Davenant] that he writ with the very same spirit
that Shakespeare [did], and seemed content enough to be called his
son."
He attended Lincoln College, Oxford, for a while in about 1620, but
left before gaining any degree.
Following the death of Ben Jonson in 1637, Davenant was named Poet
Laureate in 1638. He was a supporter of King Charles I in the English
Civil War. In 1641, he was declared guilty of high treason, only to be
knighted two years later by the king following the battle of
Gloucester. He was then appointed Emissary to France in 1645 and
treasurer of the colony of Virginia in 1649 by Charles II. The
following year, he was made lieutenant governor of Maryland, but was
captured at sea, imprisoned, and sentenced to death. He spent all of
1651 in the Tower of London, where he was imprisoned at the time
Gondibert was written. Having been released in 1652, he was only
pardoned in 1654. In order to avoid the strict laws of censorship in
force in all public places at the time, he turned a room of his home,
Rutland House, into a private theatre where his works, and that of
others considered seditious, could be performed. A performance of his
The Siege of Rhodes at Rutland House in 1656 is considered to be the
first performance of an English opera, and also included England's
first known professional actress, Mrs. Coleman. [1]
Davenant once again found himself in legal trouble in 1659, when he
was imprisoned for his part in Sir George Booth's uprising at
Cheshire. He was released the same year though and fled to France. He
had returned to England sometime before the initial production of his
adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, written with John Dryden, who
would be named the next Laureate in 1670.
After suffering from syphilis for nearly four decades, he died in
London on April 7, 1668, shortly after his final play, The Man's the
Master, was first performed. He is buried in Poets' Corner at
Westminster Abbey where the inscription on his tablet reads "O rare
Sir William Davenant." It has been noted that the original inscription
on Ben Jonson's tablet, which was already removed by the time Davenant
died, was "Rare Ben," which was the name Shakespeare supposedly had
for Jonson.
Nine of his works, though they were previously licensed or produced in
London during his life like all of his plays, were finally published
in print posthumously. Several of these were included in The Works of
Sr William D'avenant Kt., by Henry Herringman in 1673, which was
copied from Davenant's own originals.
Lyra
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Works
Epic poems and books of poetry
* Ieffereidos (1630)
* Madagascar, with other Poems (1638)
* London, King Charles his Augusta, or, City Royal, of the
founders, the names, and oldest honours of that City (1648)
* A Discourse upon Gondibert, an heroick poem (or simply
Gondibert) (1650), which was originally published unfinished, but was
published again in 1651 in its final form and included Davenant's
"Preface to his most honour'd friend Mr. Hobs" and "The Answer of Mr.
Hobbes to Sr Will. D'Avenant's Preface before Gondibert" by Thomas
Hobbes, to whom the book was dedicated; the official second edition in
1653 also contained "Certain Verses, written by severall of the
author's friends"
* Wit and Drollery: Jovial Poems (1656)
* Poems on Several Occasions (1657)
Panegyrics
* "A Panegyric to his Excellency the Lord General Monck" (1660),
to George Monck
* "Poem upon his sacred Majesties most happy return to his
dominions" (1660), on the Restoration of Charles II
* "Poem, to the King's most sacred Majesty" (1663), to Charles II
Original plays, masques and operas
Listed in chronological order.
* Albovine, King of the Lombards, tragedy (ca. 1626-9; printed
1629)
* The Cruel Brother, tragedy (licensed Jan. 12, 1627; printed
1630)
* The Just Italian, comedy (licensed Oct. 2, 1629; printed 1630)
* The Wits, comedy (licensed Jan. 19, 1634; printed 1636)
* Love and Honour, tragicomedy, also previously performed as The
Courage of Love; and The Nonpareilles, or The Matchless Maids
(licensed Nov. 20, 1634: printed 1649)
* The Temple of Love, masque (licensed Feb. 10, 1635; printed
1635)
* News from Plymouth, comedy (licensed Aug. 1, 1635; printed 1673)
* The Platonick Lovers, comedy (licensed Nov. 16, 1635; printed
1636)
* The Triumphs of the Prince D'Amour, masque (peformed Feb. 23 or
24, 1636; printed 1636)
* Britannia Triumphans, masque, with Inigo Jones (licensed Jan. 8,
1638; printed 1638)
* Luminalia or The Festival of Light, masque, with Inigo Jones
(licensed Feb. 6, 1638; printed 1638)
* The Unfortunate Lovers, tragedy (licensed April 16, 1638;
printed 1643)
* The Fair Favourite, tragicomedy (licensed Nov. 17, 1638; printed
1673)
* The Spanish Lovers, or The Distresses, comedy (licensed March
30, 1639; printed 1673)
* Salmacida Spolia, masque (performed Jan. 21, 1640; printed 1640)
* The Siege of Rhodes, Part I, tragicomedy (performed Sept. 1656;
printed 1656)
* The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, opera (performed and
printed 1658)
* The History of Sir Francis Drake, history (performed 1658-9;
printed1659)
* The Siege of Rhodes, Part II, tragicomedy (ca. 1657-9; printed
1663)
* The Play-House to Be Let, comedy (performed ca. Aug. 1663;
printed 1673); includes Sir Frances Drake and The Cruelty of the
Spaniards in Peru
* The Man's the Master, comedy (performed March 26, 1668; printed
1669)
Revisions, adaptations and other productions for the stage
* Greene's Tu Quoque (performed Sept. 12, 1667; lost), based upon
the 1614 print of John Cooke's Greene's Tu Quoque Or, the Cittie
Gallant, which had been made famous by the actor Thomas Greene's 1611
performance
* The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island (performed Nov. 7, 1667,
published 1670), an adaptation with John Dryden of William
Shakespeare's The Tempest
* The Rivals (ca. 1664; printed 1668), which was a revision of
John Fletcher's The Two Noble Kinsmen
* The First Day's Entertainment at Rutland House, a
"disputation" (performed May 23, 1656; printed 1657)
* The Law Against Lovers, comedy (performed Feb. 10, 1662; printed
1673), an adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and
Measure for Measure
* Macbeth (performed Nov. 5, 1664; printed 1674), an operatic
adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth of ca. 1606
Reference
* Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, eds., The Later Jacobean
and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies
in English Renaissance Drama, Lincoln, Nebraska, University of
Nebraska Press, 1975.
External links
Biographical
* Biography at TheatreDatabase.com
* "Shakespeare and Mrs. Davenant"
* Detailed biography at Oldpoetry.com
Poems and texts
* Four poems at the Poetry Archive
* Five poems from Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the 17th Century
at Bartleby.com
* Three poems from The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250-1900 at
Bartleby.com
* The complete text of Davenant and Dryden's adaptation of The
Tempest
Preceded by
Ben Jonson English Poet Laureate
1638-1668 Succeeded by
John Dryden
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Davenant"
Categories: English poets | English Poets Laureate | English
dramatists and playwrights | People from Oxford | Alumni of Lincoln
College, Oxford | 1606 births | 1668 deaths | Burials at Westminster
Abbey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Davenant
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Robert Stonehouse
<mountai...@RockAthens.com> wrote:
...
>Davenant was born in late February, 1606 in Oxford, the son of Jane
>Shepherd Davenant and John Davenant, proprietor of the Crown Tavern
>(or Crown Inn) and mayor of Oxford. He was the godson of William
>Shakespeare, who had stayed frequently at the Crown during his travels
>between London and Stratford-upon-Avon. It was even rumored that he
>was the Bard's biological son as well. However, it seems that this
>rumor stemmed from a comment attributed to Davenant by Samuel Butler:
>"It seemed to him [Davenant] that he writ with the very same spirit
>that Shakespeare [did], and seemed content enough to be called his
>son."
If you read Aubrey's Brief Life of Davenant, it will be obvious that
Davenant was never the man to spoil a good story by sticking to the
facts. Davenant, Aubrey and others seem to have spent some very
entertaining evenings at the tavern.
lackpurity
MM:
He definitely had the some connections, whether directly, or
indirectly to Shakespeare, to Bacon, to Jonson, to Sir Philip Sidney,
and probably to Countess Mary Sidney Herbert, as well. Whether he was
actually Shakespeare's son, or not, is disputed, as I understand it.
I wouldn't be surprised if he was, or wasn't.
Michael Martin
WaterBoy
WS seems to invite speculation,
and i like to fantasize about him myself
i am going to speculate that William Davenant
was either WS's son....or he wasn't
he was named William, wasn't he...?
waterboy
lackpurity
MM:
Either Godson, or Son. Either way, he was special to Shakespeare. He
wrote some metaphysical poetry.. IOW, he got God's grace,
regardless. His Mom and Dad must have been very worthy souls, also.
Yes, his name was William. Interesting specualtion, as you say?
Maybe whoever named him knew something, or they just had a lot of
respect for the Strat Man? :-)
Michael Martin
Roundtable
William is, strangely enough, quite a common name.
Roundtable, on the other hand, is rather unusual.
Actually, this speculating about WD is like gossip news - movie-
starlet
seen talking to so-and-so, two months later she's pregnant - is
it so-and-so's love-child? Read all about it in the Daily Trash!
RT
lackpurity
MM:
Hi, Roundtable. I think gossiping about Masters confers spiritual
benefits, if we think of his principles and teachings. Mr. William
Davenant was a teacher of metaphysics in his own right, also, although
I suspect his teachings were written cryptically, just as all the
other mystics of that era had to write. I don't know if we do him
justice by a comparison to a "starlet?" The starlet form of gossiping
could be at a lower level than the Shakespeare/Davenant form of
gossiping, I would think. Sometimes, the word "gossip," has negative
connotations. It is not always malicious. It can be positive, as
well, by definition. Some gossip is trash, but other gossip can be
informative, helpful, and uplifting. I think if we're thinking about
Masters, their teachings, and God, then it will be helpful in the long
run. It could help to balance out the sinful thoughts.
Michael Martin