Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/118

 into practical seclusion. She had also a son who held an Indian appointment. Davenport was eclipsed by his wife, and is an object of some banter in theatrical records. He was, however, a good speaker and a useful member of the Covent Garden Theatre, which, on account of ill-health, he quitted in 1812.



DAVENPORT, RICHARD ALFRED (1777?–1852), miscellaneous writer, was born about 1777. We find him engaged in literary work in London at an early age, and here he seems to have spent the whole of a long and exceptionally laborious literary life (, Autobiography, 1849–50, p. 93. Some scattered notices of Davenport will be found in this work). He wrote: ‘New Elegant Extracts,’ 2nd series, Chiswick, 12 vols. 1823–7; ‘The Commonplace Book of Epigrams,’ a collection of which many pieces are original, Edinburgh, 1825; ‘A Dictionary of Biography,’ 1831. To the ‘Family Library’ he contributed a ‘Memoir of the Life of Peter the Great,’ anon., 1832; ‘The Life of Ali Pasha of Tepeleni, Vizier of Epirus, surnamed Aslan or the Lion,’ 1837; ‘The History of the Bastile and of its principal Captives,’ 1838, several times republished; ‘Narratives of Peril and Suffering,’ 2 vols. 1840, new edition, New York, 1846; ‘Lives of Individuals who raised themselves from Poverty to Eminence and Fortune,’ 1841. He edited, with lives, a number of the British poets, the works of Robertson the historian, with life, 1824; Mitford's ‘History of Greece,’ with continuation to the death of Alexander, 1835; Pilkington's ‘General Dictionary of Painters,’ 1852; and some works like Guthrie's ‘Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar,’ and Enfield's ‘Speaker.’ Davenport also wrote large portions of the history, biography, geography, and criticism in Rivington's ‘Annual Register’ for several years, translated many works, and contributed to current literature ‘innumerable articles on biography, poetry, criticism, and other subjects.’ He also composed verses of some merit.

Davenport resided for the last eleven years of his life at Brunswick Cottage, Park Street, Camberwell, a freehold house of which he was the owner. Here he lived in seclusion, working hard and drinking large quantities of laudanum. No one was ever seen to visit him. The house was never cleaned, and all its windows were broken. On Sunday, 25 Jan. 1852, a passing policeman was attracted by some one moaning. He broke into the house and discovered Davenport insensible with a laudanum bottle in his hand. He died before anything could be done for him. The coroner's jury found the rooms ‘literally crammed with books, manuscripts, pictures, ancient coins, and antiques of various descriptions.’ These with the furniture were thickly covered with dust, and all that was perishable had fallen into decay. The verdict was that ‘deceased had died from inadvertently taking an overdose of opium.’



DAVENPORT, ROBERT (fl. 1623), poet and dramatist, 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 second poem, which has a separate title-page, is prefixed a dedicatory epistle ‘to my noble Friends, Mr. Richard Robinson and Mr. Michael Bowyer,’ two famous actors. From the epistle, which is signed ‘Rob. Davenport,’ we learn that the poems were written at sea. Davenport is also the author of a tragedy, ‘King John and Matilda,’ 1655, 1662, 4to, and of two comedies, (1) ‘A New Trick to cheat the Divell,’ 1639, 4to; (2) ‘The City Night-Cap,’ 1661, 4to. It appears from Sir Henry Herbert's ‘Office-Book’ that ‘The City Night-Cap’ was licensed for the stage as early as 1624. In the same year an unpublished play of 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 Sept. 1653, as the work of Shakespeare and Davenport, under the title of ‘Henry I and Henry II.’ The tragedy, ‘King John and Matilda,’ which has considerable merit, 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.’ To ‘A New Trick to cheat the Divell’ 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. Davenport certainly seems to have been living in 1640;