Sir John Davies

The son of a Wiltshire lawyer, Sir John Davies attended Queen's College Oxford (B.A. 1590), the University of Leiden (1592), and Padua (1597). He studied at the Middle Temple (1588-94) before being called to the bar in 1595. In 1597-98 Davies was disbarred for assaulting a fellow Templar. He was reinstated in 1601 and was later Attorney-General for Ireland (1606-19) and Speaker of the Irish Commons (1613). Davies returned to England in 1619 but died before he could take up his position as Lord Chief Justice. He co-founded the Society of Antiquaries with Sir Robert Cotton.

TEXT RECORDS:

1596Orchestra or a Poeme of Dauncing.
1599Nosce Teipsum.

PUBLICATIONS:

Orchestra: a poeme of dauncing. 1596.
Epigrammes and elegies by J. D. and C. M[arlow]. 1598.
Hymns of Astraea in acrosticke verse. 1599.
Nosce teipsum in two elegies: of humane knowledge, of the soule of man. 1599.
A discovery of the true causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued. 1612.
Le primer report des cases resolves. 1615.
A perfect abridgement of the eleven books of reports [Sir Edward Coke, ed. Sir John Davies]. 1655.
The question concerning impositions, tonnage, poundage, prizage, customs, etc. 1656.
Works. 1773.
Historical tracts, ed. George Chalmers. 1786.
Works, ed. A. B. Grosart. 3 vols, 1869-76.
Poems, ed. Clare Howard. 1941.
Poems of Sir John Davies, ed. Robert Krueger. 1975.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Irish
Anglican

Winchester College
Queen's College Oxford
Bachelor of Arts
Middle Temple
Inns of Court
Member of Parliament
courtier

lawyer
antiquary
poet

Robert Cotton
Rev. John Donne
John Hoskyns
Henry Wotton

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Bodenham, Bel-vedere (1600); Poetical Rhapsody (1602, 1621); Edward Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum (1675); William Winstanley, Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687); Giles Jacob, An Historical Account of ... English Poets (1720); Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721); Giles Jacob, An Historical Account of ... English Poets (1720); John Wesley, Moral and Sacred Poems (1744); Biographia Britannica (1747-66); Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753) 167-70; James Granger, Biographical History (1769; 1824) [portrait]; Thomas Warton, History of English Poetry (1774-81); John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); Henry Headley, Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry (1787); "Sir John Davies" in Town and Country Magazine 20 (August 1788) 347-48 [from Headley]; Life by George Chalmers in Tracts (1786); George Ellis, Specimens of Early English Poetry (1790; 1801); Robert Anderson, British Poets (1795); Samuel Egerton Brydges, Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum (1800); Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 181-83; "Sir John Davies" Monthly Magazine 25 (March 1808) 148; Alexander Chalmers, English Poets (1810); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Bliss, Athenae Oxonienses (1815) 2:400-05; Nathan Drake, in Shakespeare and his Times (1817; 1838); Thomas Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819); Ezekiel Sanford, British Poets (1819); Retrospective Review 5 (1822) 44-56; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Robert Southey, British Poets, Chaucer to Jonson (1831); Robert Aris Willmott, Lives of Sacred Poets (1834); Richard Cattermole, Sacred Poetry of the Seventeenth Century (1836)Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Edward Farr, Select Poetry chiefly devotional of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (1845); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Thomas Corser, Collectanea Anglo-Poetica 5 (1873) 104-10; Alfred Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography (1878); The English Poets, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Lewis, OHEL (1954); Robert Krueger, Poems (1976); Jeanie R. Brink, "The Masque of the Nine Muses: Sir John Davies' unpublished Epithalamion and the Belphoebe-Ruby Episode in The Faerie Queene" RES 23 (1972) 445-47; Jeanie R. Brink, "Sir John Davies's Orchestra: Political Symbolism and Textual Revisions" Durham University Journal 72 (NS 41) (1979-80) 195-210; Mark Eccles, "Brief Lives" Studies in Philology 79 (1982); Saunders, Renaissance Poets (1983); Spenser Encyclopedia, "Davies" (1990) 210; Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Sir John Davies:

1.	1598  Thomas Bastard, "Ad Johannem Davis" (1598); John Payne Collier, Poetical Decameron (1820) 1:199-200.
2.	1598  John Marston, in Satire 10; Scourge of Villanie (1598); Corser, Collectanea Anglo-Poetica 9 (1879) 18.
3.	1606  Anonymous, in Second Part of Returne from Pernassus (1606) Sig. B2.
4.	1610 ca.  Anonymous, MSS. Sloan. 1489. 1889. 1947, ca. 1610; in Warton, History of English Poetry, ed. Park (1840) 3:466n.
5.	1611  John Davies of Hereford, "To the right worthily beloved Sir John Davies, Knight, Attorney General of Ireland" in Scourge of Folly (1611); Restituta or ... English Literature Revived 2 (1815) 21.
6.	1611 ca.  John Davies of Hereford, "To Sir John Davies Knight" in Scourge of Folly (1611 ca.); Davies, Works, ed. Grosart (1878) 2:53.
7.	1625  Sir John Harington, "Of Master John Davies's Book of Dancing. To himself" Witty Epigrams (1625); Restituta or ... English Literature Revived 2 (1815) 27.
8.	1697  Nahum Tate, in Davies, Nosce Teipsum (1697); Poetical Works of Sir John Davies (1773) iii-v.
9.	1751  Thomas Birch, "Life of Spenser" in Faerie Queene (1751) 1:xxv.
10.	1773  Anonymous, in Review of Davies's Poetical Works, ed. William Thompson, The Critical Review 35 (1773) 314.
11.	1773  John Langhorne, Review of Davies's Poetical Works, ed. William Thompson; The Monthly Review 48 (June 1773) 510.
12.	1799  William Seward, in Biographiana (1799) 2:470-71.
13.	1800  Nathan Drake, in Literary Hours (1800) 2:165-66.
14.	1801  George Ellis, in Specimens of Early English Poets (1801; 1845) 2:329-30.
15.	1804  Isaac D'Israeli, "Sir John Davies" The Monthly Magazine 18 (August 1804) 43.
16.	1819  William Hazlitt, in English Comic Writers (1819; 1909) 68-69.
17.	1819  Thomas Campbell, in "Essay on English Poetry" Specimens of the British Poets (1819; 1841) lxx.
18.	1826  Richard Ryan, "Sir John Davies, and his Wife" Poetry and Poets: being a Collection of the choicest Anecdotes relative to the Poets of every Age and Nation (1826) 2:14-18.
19.	1834  Robert Aris Willmott, in English Sacred Poets (1834; 1839) 1:48.
20.	1836  Richard Cattermole, in Sacred Poetry of the Seventeenth Century (1836) 1:25.
21.	1837  Henry Hallam, in Introduction to the Literature of Europe of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries (1837-39; 1882) 2:224-25.
22.	1845  Edward Farr, in Select Poetry chiefly devotional of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (1845) xvii.
23.	1860  George Gilfillan, in Specimens with Memoirs of the less-known British Poets (1860) 1:177-78.
24.	1866  John Payne Collier, "Orchestra, or a Poeme of Dauncing" in Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books (1866) 1:234-37.
25.	1880  Mary A. Ward, in The English Poets: Selections with Critical Introductions, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880) 1:548-50.
26.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 46.
27.	1895  Oliver Elton, in Introduction to Michael Dratyon (1895) 13n.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Sir John Davies:

1.	1675  Edward Phillips, in Theatrum Poetarum (1675) 2:105-06.
2.	1687  William Winstanley, Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687) 163.
3.	1690  Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721) 1:505-08.
4.	1720  Giles Jacob, in Historical Account of the Lives and Writings of our most considerable English Poets (1720) 41.
5.	1738  Elizabeth Cooper, in The Muses Library (1738) 331-33.
6.	1747  Anonymous, in Biographia Britannica (1747-66) 3:1616-17.
7.	1753  Anonymous, in Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) 1:167-69.
8.	1787  Henry Headley, in Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry (1787) 1:xli-ii.
9.	1802  Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 181-83 & n.
10.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 11:312-17.
11.	1815  Philip Bliss, in Athenae Oxonienses (1815) 2:404-05.
12.	1817  Nathan Drake, in Shakespeare and his Times (1817; 1838) 297-98.
13.	1819  Thomas Campbell, in Specimens of the British Poets (1819; 1845) 100
14.	1831  Robert Southey, in British Poets, Chaucer to Johnson (1831) 686.
15.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:108.
16.	1878  Alfred Webb, in Compendium of Irish Biography (1878) 122-23.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1595  George Chapman:   Sir John Davies, "To the Author" Chapman, Ovids Banquet of Sence (1595) sig. A3v.