Robert Davenport, Works (1890). Forgotten Books, 2018. Courtesy Amazon.com.
Robert Davenport (1623-1639 fl.) was an English poet and playwright.
Life[]
Nothing is known of Davenport's early life or education; the title pages of 2 of his plays identify him as a "Gentleman," though there is no record of him at either of the 2 universities or the Inns of Court. Scholars have guessed that he was born around 1590.[1]
He published in 1623 A Crowne for a Conquerour; and, Too Late to call backe Yesterday: Two poems, the one divine, the other Morall, 4to. To the 2nd poem, which has a separate title-page, is prefixed a dedicatory epistle "to my noble Friends, Mr. Richard Robinson and Mr. Michael Bowyer," 2 famous actors. From the epistle, which is signed "Rob. Davenport," we learn that the poems were written at sea.[2]
He enters the historical record in 1624, when 2 of his plays were licensed by the Master of the Revels.[1] It appears from Sir Henry Herbert's Office-Book that The City Night-Cap (1661, 4to.) was licensed for the stage as early as 1624. In the same year an unpublished play by Davenport, The History of Henry I, was licensed by Herbert. It was among the plays destroyed by Warburton's cook, and in Warburton's list is attributed to Shakespeare and Davenport. Doubtless it is the play which was entered in the ‘Stationers' Registers,’ 9 September 1653, as the work of Shakespeare and Davenport, under the title of Henry I and Henry II.[2]
His tragedy, King John and Matilda (1655, 1662, 4to) was written in or before 1639; for it is mentioned in a list of plays that belonged at that time to the Cockpit Company. A copy in the Dyce Library of the 1662 edition has on the title-page "written by W. Daven. gent." [2]
To his comedy A New Trick to cheat the Divell, (1639, 4to) is prefixed by the publisher an address "to the courteous reader and gentle peruser,' in which the play is described as "now an Orphant and wanting the Father which first begot it." From this statement it has been inferred that Davenport was dead at the time of publication; but the publisher may have merely intended to say that the author was at a distance.[2]
Davenport certainly seems to have been living in 1640; for commendatory verses by him are prefixed to 2 plays published in that year — Rawlins's Rebellion and Richards's Messalina. Indeed, it is probable that he was alive in 1651, when Samuel Sheppard published a collection of Epigrams, 1 of which (Lib. ii. Epigr. 19) is addressed "To Mr. Davenport on his play called the Pirate."[3]
If, as some scholars think, he wrote the Address "To the knowing Reader" in the 1st quarto of King John and Matilda, he was still alive in 1655.[1]
Writing[]
Plays[]
King John and Matilda (1655) has considerable merit.[2] In its closing scene quoted by Charles Lamb in his Dramatic Specimens, there is much “passion and poetry” which saves the piece from being classed as melodrama.[4]
The City-Night-Cap was licensed in 1624, but not printed until 1661. The underplot of this unsavory play was borrowed from Cervantes and Boccaccio, and Aphra Behn’s Amorous Prince (1671) is an adaptation from it.[4]
A New Tricke to Cheat the Divell (printed 1639) is a farcical comedy, which contains among other things the idea of the popular supper story which reappears in Hans Andersen’s Little Claus and Big Claus. As told by Davenport the story closely resembles the Scottish Freires of Berwick, which was printed in 1603.[4]
Samuel Sheppard had a high opinion of The Pirate, a play which was never published, and declared, "Thou rival'st Shakespeare though thy glory's lesse."[3]
2 unpublished plays, The Fatal Brothers and The Politic Queen; or, Murther will out, were entered in the ‘Stationers' Registers,’ 29 June 1660, as the work of Davenport. Another unpublished play, The Woman's Mistake, is ascribed in the ‘Stationers' Registers,’ 9 September 1653, to Davenport and Drue. The Bloody Banquet, a tragedy, 1620 (2nd ed. 1639), by "T.D.", has been assigned without evidence to Davenport.[3]
Verse[]
3 significant poems by Davenport also survive. They are: A Crown for a Conqueror, a religious poem, and Too Late to Call Back Yesterday, a moral dialogue, both published in 1639; and A Survey of the Sciences, which survived in manuscript (In the Cambridge University Library, D.d.x.30) and was published only in the 1880s.[3]
A volume of manuscript poems addressed by Davenport to William earl of Newcastle was in Thorpe's Catalogue of Manuscripts, 1836 (No. 1450). Hunter (Chorus Vatum) mentions a manuscript poem by Davenport entitled Policy without Piety too Subtle to be Sound: Piety without Policy too Simple to be Safe, &c.[3]
Recognition[]
The City Night-Cap is included in the various editions of Dodsley's Old Plays.[3]
Davenport's plays were reprinted by A.H. Bullen in Old English Plays (new series, 1890).[3]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- A Crown for a Conqueror / Too Late to Call Backe Yesterday: Two poems, the one divine and the other morall London: E.P., for Francis Constable, 1639.
Plays[]
- A pleasant and witty comedy; called, A New Tricke to Cheat the Divell. London: Iohn Okes, for Humphrey Blunden, 1639.
- King John and Matilda: A tragedy. London: London: printed for Andrew Pennycuicke, 1655.
- The City-Night-Cap; or, Crede quod habes & habes: A tragi-comedy. London: Cottrel, for Samuel Speed, 1661.
Collected editions[]
- Works (edited by Arthur H. Bullen). London: 1890; New York: Robert Blom, 1964.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[5]
See also[]
References[]
Bullen, Arthur Henry (1888) "Davenport, Robert" in Stephen, Leslie Dictionary of National Biography 14 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 112-113. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 7, 2018.- Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Davenport, Robert". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 853.. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 7, 2018.
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 G.E. Bentley, The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, vol. 3 (1956), 225-238.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Bullen, 112.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Bullen, 113.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Britannica, 7, 853.
- ↑ Search results = au:Robert Davenport, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 22, 2020.
External links[]
- Books
- The Works of Robert Davenport at Amazon.com
- About
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Davenport, Robert
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.. Original article is at Davenport, Robert
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