Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/34

 revels and Lord Mountjoy before Essex was in trouble. This defence satisfied the minister, Cecil. But Lord Mountjoy, now earl of Devonshire, who was very sensitive about any reference to his complicated relations with Essex, reprimanded Daniel for bringing his name into the business, and Daniel apologised for his imprudence in a long letter (still preserved at the Record Office). In 1607 Daniel republished ‘Philotas,’ with an apology, in which he denied at length the imputations which had been cast upon the book. Daniel apparently made up his quarrel with Lord Devonshire. When the earl died in 1606, Daniel published in a thin quarto (without printer's name, place, or date) ‘A Funerall Poeme’ upon him, which is for the greater part unmeasured eulogy.

Daniel's chief literary work in his later years comprised the thorough revision of his earlier work, a history of England in prose, and some courtly masques. In 1607 there was published ‘Certaine small Workes heretofore divulged by Samuel Daniel, one of the Groomes of the Queenes Maiesties Priuie Chamber, and now againe by him corrected and augmented.’ This contained the finally revised versions of all Daniel's poetic work excepting the ‘Civill Wars’ and ‘Delia.’ In a prefatory poem he confesses unreservedly his disappointment at the small regard paid him by his contemporaries:— But yeeres hath done this wrong, To make me write too much and live too long. He apologises for his practice of constantly altering his poems, and confidently asserts that posterity will do him the justice that his own age denied him:— I know I shall be read among the rest So long as men speak Englishe, and so long As verse and vertue shall be in request, Or grace to honest industry belong. The same collection was reissued in 1611. In 1609 he sent forth a new edition of the ‘Civill Warres,’ extended to eight books, and ending with the marriage of Edward IV to Elizabeth Wydvil. Throughout very interesting textual changes are made. The dedication to the poet's old friend the Countess of Pembroke (now dowager countess) states that Daniel still hoped ‘to continue the same unto the glorious Vnion of Hen. 7,’ and adds that he was contemplating an elaborate history of England, ‘being encouraged thereunto by many noble and worthy spirits.’

The ‘Civill Warres’ was never completed, but the prose history was begun. The first part, bringing the work down to the end of Stephen's reign, was issued by Nicholas Okes in 1612 and republished in 1613. The biography of William the Conqueror was ascribed in the latter part of the century to Sir Walter Raleigh, and published separately under his name (1692), but no valid plea has been advanced to deprive Daniel of the authorship (, Life of Raleigh, i. 512–15). The history, which was dedicated to the queen and undertaken under her patronage, was continued to the end of Edward III's reign in 1617, when Nicholas Okes published the whole under the title of ‘The Collection of the Historie of England.’ Since there seemed some doubt as to the share of the profits due to Daniel (11 March 1617–18), orders were issued at the queen's request vesting in the author the sole copyright for ten years (, Fœdera, xvii. 72). Daniel describes the history as a mere compilation: ‘For the work itself I can challenge nothing therein, but only the sewing and the observation of those necessary circumstances and inferences which the History naturally ministers.’ ‘It was penn'd,’ according to contemporary criticism, ‘in so accurate and copious a style that it took mightily, and was read with so much applause that it quickly had several impressions’ (, Hist. Library, i. 193). Modern criticism fails to detect much that is notable in it. A continuation of the book by J. Trussell was issued in 1636.

Meanwhile Daniel had become reluctantly (according to his own account) a prominent figure in court festivities. On 8 Jan. 1603–4 there was performed at Hampton Court by the queen's most excellent majesty and her ladies ‘The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses presented in a maske … by Samuel Daniel.’ This was published in 1604 by Waterson, with a dedication to Lucy, countess of Bedford, and there is a unique copy at the Bodleian. In the following year (1605) there appeared Daniel's ‘The Queenes Arcadia. A Pastorall Tragi-Comedie presented to her Maiestie and her Ladies by the Vniversitie of Oxford in Christs Church in August last,’ dedicated to the queen. It was adapted from Guarini's ‘Pastor Fido;’ was represented on the last day of a visit paid by the royal family to Oxford, and was ‘indeed very excellent and some parts exactly acted’ (Chamberlain to Winwood, 12 Oct. 1605,, Memorials, ii. 140). In 1610 Daniel prepared another entertainment to celebrate Prince Henry's creation as knight of the Bath, entitled ‘Tethys Festival; or the Queenes Wake, celebrated at Whitehall the fifth day of June 1610.’ This was published not only separately, but also with a long tract detailing ‘The Order and Solemnitie of the Creation’ (London, by John Budge, 1610).