Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/119

 for commendatory verses by him are prefixed to two 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,’ one of which (Lib. ii. Epigr. 19) is addressed ‘To Mr. Davenport on his play called the Pirate.’ 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.’ In the Cambridge University Library (D. d. x. 30) is a manuscript poem by Davenport entitled ‘Survey of the Sciences.’ 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Davenport entitled ‘Policy without Piety too Subtle to be Sound: Piety without Policy too Simple to be Safe,’ &c. Two unpublished plays, ‘The Fatal Brothers’ and ‘The Politic Queen, or Murther will out,’ were entered in the ‘Stationers' Registers,’ 29 June 1660, as the work of Davenport. Another unpublished play, ‘The Woman's Mistake,’ is ascribed in the ‘Stationers' Registers,’ 9 Sept. 1653, to Davenport and Drue. ‘The Bloody Banquet,’ a tragedy, 1620 (2nd ed. 1639), by ‘T. D.,’ has been assigned without evidence to Davenport. ‘The City Night-Cap’ is included in the various editions of Dodsley's ‘Old Plays.’

[Hunter's Chorus Vatum; Hazlitt's Dodsley, vol. xiii.; Variorum Shakespeare, 1821, iii. 229; Chalmers's Supplem. Apol. p. 219; Retrospective Review, iv. 87–100; Hazlitt's Bibliographical Collections.]  DAVENPORT, SAMUEL (1783–1867), line engraver, was born at Bedford, 10 Dec. 1783. While he was still an infant, his father, who was an architect and surveyor, removed to London. Here he was in due course articled to Charles Warren, one of the ablest line engravers of the period, under whose tuition he made good progress. His earlier works were book illustrations after the designs of Shenton, Corbould, and others; but subsequently he engraved in outline a large number of portraits for biographical works, and is said by Redgrave to have executed no less than seven hundred for one publication alone. The best examples of his work are the plates which he engraved for the ‘Forget-me-not’ between 1828 and 1842, and which include: ‘The Sister's Dream,’ ‘Fathime and Euphrosyne,’ and ‘The Disappointment,’ after Henry Corbould; ‘The Orphan Family,’ after A. Chisholm; ‘The Frosty Reception’ and ‘Uncle Anthony's Blunder,’ after R. W. Buss; ‘Chains of the Heart,’ after J. Cawse; ‘Cupid caught tripping,’ after J. P. Davis; ‘The Dance of the Peasants,’ in the ‘Winter's Tale,’ after R. T. Bone; ‘Louis XI at Plessis-les-Tours,’ after Baron Wappers; and ‘Count Egmont's Jewels,’ after a drawing by James Holmes, from a sketch by C. R. Leslie. All these were engraved on steel, the use of which he was one of the earliest to adopt, and are very carefully finished. He also engraved a small plate of ‘The Infant St. John the Baptist,’ after Murillo. He died 15 July 1867.

 DAVERS. [See .]

DAVID. Princes of North Wales. [See .]

DAVID or DEWI, (d. 601?), the patron saint of Wales, is first mentioned in the tenth-century manuscript of the ‘Annales Cambriæ,’ which merely says that he was bishop of Moni Judeorum (Menevia, afterwards called St. David's) and died in 601. Although this date comes from a document written four centuries after David's time, there seems to be no good reason for setting it aside. The arguments which various writers have urged in favour of an earlier period are chiefly founded on the chronological data contained in the current lives of the saint, the earliest of which was written by Rhygyfarch (Ricemarchus), bishop of St. David's about 1090. But the work of Rhygyfarch, on which all the later biographies are founded, is so thoroughly legendary that no confidence can be placed either in its mention of historical persons as David's contemporaries, or in the number of generations which it interposes between him and his alleged ancestor Cunedda. Nor can much weight be allowed to the authority of William of Malmesbury, who says that the saint died in 546. Professor Rice Rees attempted to settle the date of David's death by means of the statement of Geoffrey of Monmouth that David was buried at Menevia by order of Maelgwn, king of Gwynedd. Maelgwn died, according to the ‘Annales Cambriæ,’ in 547, though Rees prefers the inferior authority of a document printed by Wharton which places his death in 566. However, it is now scarcely necessary to say that the testimony of Geoffrey on such a matter is absolutely worthless. Some of the modern writers who have argued for an early date have relied on the evidence of the thirteenth-century manuscript of the ‘Annales Cambriæ,’ which assigns David's birth to 458. But this must be taken in 