Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/33

 to bide with children, and, contrary to myne owne spirit, putt out of that sence which nature had made my parte.’ He was longing to complete his historical poem on the wars of York and Lancaster, and had a notion that men were more influenced by epic narrative than by any other form of literature. While in Yorkshire in 1599 he published a new poem, which ranks with his ‘Delia,’ ‘Musophilus, or a General Defence of Learning,’ with a separate dedication to his friend, Fulke Greville, and ‘A Letter [in verse] from Octavia to Marcus Antonius,’ with another dedication to the Countess of Cumberland. In the same year he brought out the first collected edition of his works, which he entitled ‘The Poeticall Essayes of Sam. Danyel. Newly corrected and augmented,’ with a dedicatory sonnet to Lord Mountjoy. Here he reissued, besides his two latest pieces, his ‘Civill Warres,’ ‘Cleopatra,’ and ‘Rosamond.’ The continued popularity of Daniel's poetry encouraged the publisher Waterson to produce a completer collection of his works in 1601 in folio. The book was merely entitled ‘The Works of Samuel Daniell, newly augmented.’ The chief increase consisted of a sixth book added to the ‘Civill Warres’ and a pastoral to the ‘Delia’ sonnets, but many textual alterations were made, after Daniel's invariable custom. A few large paper copies of this edition are extant, and they seem to have been prepared for presentation to the author's distinguished friends. In 1602 the unsold copies were reissued with a new title-page.

In 1602 Daniel engaged in literary controversy. Thomas Campion had brought out ‘Observations in the Art of English Poesie,’ in which, following Sidney's example, he argued that the English language was not well fitted for rhyme. Daniel took the opposite view, and wrote a reply for his old pupil, now Earl of Pembroke, entitled, ‘The Defence of Ryme.’ Ben Jonson declared that he contemplated confuting both Campion and Daniel, but Daniel's criticism is very reasonable, and adequately exposed Campion's absurd argument.

There is a tradition that in 1599, on Spenser's death, Daniel succeeded him as poet laureate. There is no official evidence for this statement, but there is no doubt that early in James I's reign he was often at court, and well received by his friends there. Resolving to be one of the first to congratulate James on his arrival in England, he sent the king ‘A Panegyricke Congratulatorie’ while he was staying, on his way to London, with Sir John Harington at Burley, Rutland. Already in 1602 (see Workes of S. D.) he had dedicated a sonnet to ‘Her Sacred Majestie’ Queen Anne. When the poem to James was published in 1603, Daniel bound up with many copies of it a number of ‘Poetical Epistles’ to his titled friends (Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Henry Howard, the Countess of Cumberland, the Countess of Bedford, Lady Anne Clifford, and the Earl of Southampton) as well as his ‘Defence of Ryme.’ A few copies were again printed in folio for presentation to his patrons at court, and they differ from the octavo edition in introducing into the body of the book a dedicatory address to Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford. Both the octavo and folio copies of this volume were issued by Edward Blount [q. v.], and not by Daniel's ordinary publisher, Waterson.

Daniel had meanwhile been anxious to make a second attempt in tragedy. As early as 1599 he writes: ‘Meeting with my deare friend, D. Lateware (whose memory I reverence), in his lord's chamber and mine, I told him the purpose I had for “Philotas;” who sayd that himself had written the same argument, and caused it to be presented in St. John's Colledge, in Oxford, where, as I after heard, it was worthily and with great applause performed’ (Apology in, Philotas, 1607). In the summer of 1600 Daniel wrote three acts of a tragedy on the story of Philotas, drawn from Quintus Curtius, Justin, and Plutarch's ‘Life of Alexander.’ He hoped to have it acted ‘by certain gentlemen's sons’ at Bath at the following Christmas, but his printers had soon afterwards urged him to reissue and revise his former works, and the play was laid aside till 1605, when it was completed and published. It was dedicated to Prince Henry, and the poet deplored that the public favour extended to him in Elizabeth's reign had not been continued in James I's. After his usual custom Daniel and his publisher, Waterson, took advantage of the completion of a new work to issue it not only separately, but also as part of a volume of older pieces, and ‘Philotas’ and ‘Vlisses and the Syren,’ another new poem, were bound up with ‘Cleopatra,’ ‘Letter to Octavia,’ ‘Rosamond,’ and other pieces. The book was called ‘Certaine small Poems lately printed’ (1605). The play excited groundless suspicions at court. Philotas suffered for a treasonable conspiracy against Alexander the Great, and Daniel showed some sympathy for him. Court quidnuncs suggested that the late Earl of Essex was represented under the disguise of Philotas, and that the writer apologised for his rebellion. He was apparently summoned before the lords in council to explain his meaning. Daniel reasonably urged that the first three acts had been read by the master of the