Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/146

 Gabriel Harvey, Jonson, Dekker, and others. The satire was republished in 1625, under the title of ‘A Scourge for Paper-persecutors,’ with a continuation by A[braham] H[olland]. In 1612 Davies published ‘The Muse's Sacrifice, or Divine Meditations,’ 12mo, dedicated to Lucy, countess of Bedford, Mary, countess-dowager of Pembroke, and Elizabeth, lady Carey. The sacred poems are followed by ‘Rights of the Living and the Dead,’ in which occurs the fine poem describing ‘The Picture of an Happy Man.’ Prince Henry, who had been a pupil of Davies, died in 1613, and the poet expressed his sorrow in ‘The Mvses Teares for the losse of their Hope; Heroick and Nere-too-much praised Henry, Prince of Wales,’ &c., 4to. In William Browne's ‘The Shepheards Pipe,’ 1614, 8vo, there is an ‘eclogue’ by Davies, to whom Browne afterwards paid a high compliment in the second song of the second book of ‘Britannia's Pastorals,’ 1616. Davies's next work was ‘A Select Second Hvsband for Sir Thomas Overburie's Wife, now a Matchlesse Widow,’ 1616, 8vo, dedicated to William, earl of Pembroke, to which are appended elegies on Overbury, a poem entitled ‘Speculum Proditori,’ and ‘The Conclusion to Sir Thomas Overbury.’ In 1617 he published his last work, ‘Wit's Bedlam,’ a collection of miscellaneous verses. Malone, Brydges, and others have quoted from this volume, but no copy can at present be traced. Commendatory verses by Davies are prefixed to William Parry's ‘A new and large Discourse of the Trauels of Sir Anthony Sherley, knight,’ 1601; Joshua Sylvester's ‘Du Bartas,’ 1605, 1633; John Melton's ‘A Sixe-folde Politician,’ 1609; Dekker's ‘Lanthorne and Candlelight,’ 1607; Rowland Vaughan's ‘Most approved and long experienced Water-Workes,’ 1610; John Guillim's ‘A Display of Heraldrie,’ 1610; John Speed's ‘The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine,’ 1611; Coryate's ‘Crudities,’ 1611; J[ohn] D[ennys]'s ‘The Secrets of Angling,’ 1613; Ravenscroft's ‘Brief Discourse,’ 1614; Taylor's ‘Urania,’ 1615; Captain John Smith's ‘Description of New England,’ 1616; William Browne's ‘Britannia's Pastorals. The Second Booke,’ 1616; Edward Wright's ‘A Description of the Admirable Table of Logarithmes,’ 1616. There is an inscription by Davies beneath a copperplate portrait of Queen Elizabeth (‘Elizabetha Regina Nich. Hillyard delin. et excud.’). Of his ‘Writing Schoolmaster, or the Anatomy of Fair Writing,’ which contains engraved specimen-copies of various styles of handwriting, together with a set of practical directions for learners, the earliest known edition is dated 1633; later editions appeared in 1663 and 1669. Some choice examples of Davies's penmanship are preserved at Penshurst. Fuller judged him to be the most skilful penman of his age. There is a portrait of Davies before his ‘Writing Schoolmaster.’ His works were collected by Dr. Grosart in 1873, 2 vols. 4to.



DAVIES, JOHN (1569–1626), attorney-general for Ireland and poet, third son of John Davies of Chisgrove in the parish of Tisbury, Wiltshire, by his wife Mary, daughter of John Bennett of Pitt House, Wiltshire, was baptised at Tisbury 16 April 1569. He is described by Wood as the son of a ‘wealthy tanner;’ but in the entry which records his admission to the Middle Temple Society it is stated that his father was of New Inn, gentleman. From ‘Notes of the Life of Sir John Dauys, May 2nd 1674,’ preserved in vol. lxii. of the Carte Papers (Bodleian Library), it appears that ‘his father died when hee was very young, and left him with his 2 brothers to his mother to bee educated. She therefore brought them vpp to learning.’ In the same notes it is stated that he was educated first at Winchester and afterwards at New College, Oxford; but from the ‘University Register’ he is shown to have matriculated at Queen's College 15 Oct. 1585 (Oxf. Univ. Reg. ii. pt. ii. p. 147). On 3 Feb. 1587–8 he was admitted a member of the Middle Temple; and in 1590 he took his degree of bachelor of arts. A tract entitled ‘Sir Martin Marpeople, his Coller of Esses Workmanly wrought by Maister Simon Soothsayer, Goldsmith of London, and offered to sale upon great necessity by John Davies,’ 1590, 4to, preserved among the Martin Mar-Prelate tracts at Lambeth, was probably not written by the poet; and the same remark applies to the unique tract (preserved in the Bodleian Library), ‘O Vtinam,’ 1591, 4to. As early as June 1594 ‘Orchestra, or a Poeme of Dancing,’ was entered in the Stationers' Registers, but the first extant edition (12mo) is dated 1596. From the dedicatory sonnet to Richard Martin we learn that this graceful and brilliant poem was written in the space of fifteen days. When ‘Orchestra’ was republished in the collective edition of Davies's poems, 1622, a dedicatory sonnet to Prince Charles was substituted for the sonnet to Martin. On the title-page of the 1622 ed. are added after the title the words ‘not finished.’ Sir John Harington has an epigram ‘Of Master John Dauies's Booke of Dancing. To Himselfe’ (book ii. epigram 67). Marston alludes