Didft thou lefs value to it give, Of how much care (alas) might'ft thou poor man › relieve! XXIII. To me the fun is more delightful far, But few, ah wondrous few there be, Who do not Gold prefer, O goddess, ev'n to thee. XXIV. Thro' the foft ways of Heav'n, and air, and fea, Which open all their pores to thee, Like a clear river thou doft glide, And with thy living stream through the close channels flide. XXV. But where firm bodies thy free courfe oppose, XXVI. But the vast ocean of unbounded day In th'Empyrean heav'n does stay; Thy rivers, lakes, and fprings below, From thence took firft their rife, thither at last muft flow. 1 I FE Sir WILLIAM DAVENANT. EW poets have been fubjected to more vari ous turns of fortune, than the gentleman whose memoirs we are now about to relate. He was a mongst the first who refined our poetry, and did more for the interest of the drama, than any who ever wrote for the stage. He lived in times of general confufion, and was no unactive member of the ftate, when its neceffities demanded his affiftance and when, with the restoration, politenefs and genius began to revive, he applied himself to the promotion of these rational pleasures, which are fit to entertain a cultivated people. This great man was fon of one Mr. John Davenant, a citizen of Oxford, and was born in the month of Febru ary, 1605; all the biographers of our poet have obferved, that his father was a man of a grave difpofition, and a gloomy turn of mind, which his fon did not inherit from him, for he was as remarkably volatile, as his father was faturnine. The fame biographers have celebrated our author's mother as very handfome, whofe charms had the power of attracting the admiration of Shakespear, the highest compliment which ever was paid to beauty. As Mr. Davenant, our poet's father, kept a tavern, Shakefpear, in his journies to: Warwick. fhire, fpent fome time there, influenced, as many believe, by the engaging qualities of the handfome landlady. This circumftance has given rife to a conjecture, that Davenant was really the fon of Shakespear, as well naturally as poetically, by an unlawful unlawful intrigue, between his mother and that great man; that this allegation is founded upon probability, no reader can believe, for we have fuch accounts of the amiable temper, and moral qualities of Shakespear, that we cannot fuppofe him to have been guilty of fuch an act of treachery, as violating the marriage honours; and however he might have been delighted with the converfation, or charmed with the perfon of Mrs. Davenant, yet as adultery was not then the fashionable vice, it would be injurious to his memory, fo much as to fuppofe him guilty. Our author received the hrftrudiments of polite learning from Mr. Edward Sylvefter, who kept a grammar school in the parish of All Saints in Oxford. In the year 1524, the fame in which his father was Mayor of the city, he was entered a member of the university of Oxford, in Lincoln's-Inn College, under the tuition of Mr. Daniel Hough, but the Oxford an tiquary is of opinion, he did not long remain there, as his mind was too much addicted to gaiety, to bear the aufterities of an academical life, and being encouraged by fome gentlemen, who admired the vivacity of his genius, he repaired to court, in hopes of making his fortune in that pleafing, but dangerous element. He became first page to Frances, duchefs of Richmond, lady much celebrated in those days, as well for her beauty, as the influence fhe had at court, and her extraordinary taste for grandeur, which excited her to keep a kind of private court of her own, which, in our more fashionable æra, is known by the name of Drums, Routs, and Hurricanes. Sir William afterwards removed into the family of Sir Fulk Greville, lord Brooke, who being himself a man of taste and erudition, gave the most encouraging marks of cfteem to our rifing bard. This worthy nobleman being brought to an immature fate, by the cruel hands of an affaffin, 1628, Davenant was left left without a patron, though not in very indigent circumftances, his reputation having increased, during the time he was in his lordship's fervice : the year enfuing the death of his patron, he produced his firft play to the world, called Albovino, King of the Lombards, which met with a very general, and warm reception, and to which fome very honourable recommendations were prefixed, when it was printed, in feveral copies of verfes, by men of eminence, amongst whom, were, Sir Henry Blount, Edward Hyde, afterwards earl of Clarendon, and the honourable Henry Howard. Our author spent the next eight years of his life in a conftant attendance upon court, where he was highly careffed by the moft fhining characters of the times, particularly by the earl of Dorfet, Edward Hyde, and Lord Treasurer Weston : during these gay moments, fpent in the court amufements, an unlucky accident happened to our author, which not a little deformed his face, which, from nature, was very handfome. Wood has affirmed, that this accident arofe from libidinous dalliance with a handfome black girl in Axe-yard, Westminster. The plain fact is this, Davenant was of an amorous complexion, and was fo unlucky as to carry the marks of his regular gallantries in the depreffion of his nofe; this expofed him to the pleasant raillery of cotemporary wits, which very little af fected him, and to fhew that he was undisturbed by their merriment, he wrote a burlesque copy of verfes upon himfelf. This accident happened pretty early in his life, fince it gave occafion to the following ftanzas in Sir John Suckling's Seffions of the Poets, which we have tranfcribed from a correct copy of Suckling's works. Will Davenant afhamed of a foolish mischance, That he had got lately travelling in France, Modeftly Modeftly hop'd the handfomnefs of his mufe, Surely the company had been content, Suckling here differs from the Oxford historian, in faying that Sir William's diforder was contracted in France, but as Wood is the highest authority, it is more reasonable to embrace his obfervation, and probably, Suckling only mentioned France, in order that it might rhime with mifchance. Some time after this, Davenant was rallied by another hand, on account of this accident, as if it had been a jeft that could never die; but what is more extraordinary, is, that Sir William himself could not forget the authorefs of this misfortune, but has introduced her in his Gondibert, and, in the opinion of fome critics, very improperly. He brings two friends, Ulfinore the elder, and Goltho the younger, on a journey to the court of Gondibert, but in this paffage to fhew, as he would infinuate the extream frailty of youth, they werearrested by a very unexpected accident, notwithftanding the wife councils which Ulfinore had juft received from his father *. The lines which have an immediate reference to this fair enchantrefs, are too curious to be here omitted. The black-ey'd beauty did her pride display, Gond. b. iii. cant. 3. ftanz. 31. II. This |