Drama:
The Cruell Brother, pr. 1627
The Tragedy of Albovine, King of the Lombards, pb. 1629
The Just Italian, pr. 1629
The Siege: Or, The Collonell, pr. 1629
Love and Honour, pr. 1634
The Witts, pr. 1634
News from Plimouth, pr. 1635
The Temple of Love, pr., pb. 1635 (masque)
The Platonick Lovers, pr. 1635
The Triumphs of the Prince d’Amour, pr., pb. 1636 (masque)
Britannia Triumphans, pr., pb. 1638 (masque)
The Fair Favorite, pr. 1638
Luminalia: Or, The Festival of Light, pr., pb. 1638
The Unfortunate Lovers, pr. 1638
The Distresses, pr. 1639 (also known as The Spanish Lovers)
Salmacida Spolia, pr., pb. 1640 (masque)
The First Days Entertainment at Rutland House, pr. 1656 (music by Henry Lawes)
The Siege of Rhodes, Part I, pr., pb. 1656, Part II, pr. 1659, pb. 1663
The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, pr., pb. 1658
The History of Sir Francis Drake, pr., pb. 1659
Hamlet, pr. 1661 (adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play)
Twelfth Night, pr. 1661 (adaptation of Shakespeare’s play)
The Law Against Lovers, pr. 1662
Romeo and Juliet, pr. 1662 (adaptation of Shakespeare’s play)
Henry VIII, pr. 1663 (adaptation of Shakespeare’s play)
Macbeth, pr. 1663 (adaptation of Shakespeare’s play)
The Playhouse to Be Lett, pr. 1663
The Rivals, pr. 1664
The Tempest: Or, The Enchanted Island, pr. 1667 (with John Dryden; adaptation of Shakespeare’s play)
The Man’s the Master, pr. 1668
Poetry:
Madagascar, with Other Poems, 1638
Gondibert, 1651 (unfinished)
The Seventh and Last Canto of the Third Book of Gondibert, 1685
The Shorter Poems and Songs from the Plays and Masques, 1972 (A. M. Gibbs, editor)
Nonfiction:
The Preface to Gondibert with an Answer by Mr. Hobbes, 1650 (with Thomas Hobbes)
Miscellaneous:
Works, 1673 (3 volumes), 1968 (reprint)
Dramatic Works, 1872-1874 (5 volumes; James Madiment and W. H. Logan, editors)
The Shorter Poems, and Songs from the Plays and Masques, 1972 (A. M. Gibbs, editor)
William Davenant (DAV-uh-nuhnt), or D’Avenant, born at Oxford in February, 1606, himself encouraged the legend that William Shakespeare was his father. It was said that the elder Davenant’s Crown Inn was a favorite stopover of the great poet, although there exists no evidence to prove any intimacy between Mistress Davenant and Shakespeare. The innkeeper later became mayor of Oxford, where his son was educated in Lincoln College. Before taking a degree, however, William quit school to go into the service of King Charles I.
Sir William Davenant
Davenant was associated in London with the theater of Inigo Jones and Ben Jonson, and when these two quarreled, Davenant wrote The Temple of Love for Jones; the masque was played before Queen Henrietta Maria to much applause. After Jonson’s death, Davenant became poet laureate in 1638. Although an ardent Loyalist, he must have had the protection of Oliver Cromwell during the time the theaters were closed, for there are records to show that Davenant at one time had “entertainments” in four separate theaters. After his political activities had led to several sentences, accusations, imprisonments, and other difficulties in England and France and at sea, he was apparently saved by John Milton’s intercession.
After the Restoration, Davenant was given a license to open a new theater, the Duke, in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where he produced masques, spectacles, adaptations, operas, and bombastic love-and-honor tragedies. His own best plays are The Witts, Love and Honour, and The Platonick Lovers, though he will perhaps always be best remembered as the author of the first “heroic” drama in English, The Siege of Rhodes. He was said to have been influential enough under Charles II to return a favor and save Milton’s life in 1660. Davenant died in London on April 7, 1668, and was buried in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey. On his tomb is an inscription reminiscent of Ben Jonson’s: “O rare Sir William Davenant!”