D A V 
dence of the queen; and, in 164.6, he was fent by her 
to the king, in order to perfuade him to make his peace 
with the parliament, by giving up the intereffs of the 
clutrch of England. He was unfuccefsful in this attempt; 
and by the (lighting manner in which he treated the 
church he had quitted, drew upon himfelf a very fevere 
reprimand from the king. Upon his return to Paris, the 
laureat, to divert his chagrin, laid the plan of his heroic 
poem of Gondibert, and began to compofe it in the 
Louvre, where he lived with lord Jermyn. This occu¬ 
pation, however, was not (Efficient for his adlive difpo- 
fition; and he engaged in a project of carrying a colony 
from France to fettle in Virginia, which province ftill 
retained its loyalty. The friendfliip of the queen ena¬ 
bled him to fucceed fo far as to fit out a (hip, with which 
he failed from the coaft of Normandy; but it was unfor¬ 
tunately captured by one of the parliament’s armed vef- 
fels, and carried into the ifle of Wight, where Davenant 
was committed clofe prifoner to Cowes caftle. In Odto- 
ber, 1650, he was removed to London for trial by a high - 
commiflion court. He efcaped with life; for which he 
was indebted, according to one account, to two aider- 
men of York, whom he had treated with kindnefs when 
ferving under the earl of Newcaftle ; according to ano¬ 
ther, to a brother poet, the immortal Milton. He was, 
however, kept two years a prifoner in the Tower; after 
which he obtained his liberty. To relieve the indigence 
into which he was fallen, he ventured upon a project that 
required both courage and ingenuity, at a time fo unfa¬ 
vourable to any thing like theatrical amufements. With 
the encouragement of Whitelock, Maynard, and fome 
other perfons in power, lie opened a place for the exhi¬ 
bition of entertainments, as they were termed, confiding of 
a mixture of declamation and mufic. Thefe at length took 
the form of diredt dramatic pieces, feveral of which he 
compofed and exhibited during the protectorate, without 
rnoleftation, and to his deferved emolument. His loyalty 
brought him into fome trouble at the time of fir George 
Booth’s infurredtion, and he was again imprifoned; but 
the reltoration, which foon afrer followed, rendered his 
party triumphant. The public reltoration of the (tage 
was one of the earlielt meafures of the new reign ; and 
fir William Davenant was made patentee of the company 
called the duke’s, which opened in Lincoln’s-inn-fields. 
He made a commencement with his own opcratical play, 
infilled The Siege of Rhodes; for which he provided 
decorations and feenery after the model of what he had 
feen in the French theatres. He had alfo the credit of 
bringing out that excellent a£tor, Betterton. He is faid 
to have repaid the former fervice of Milton to himfelf, 
by ufing his interefi: to prefierve him from the dangers to 
which, on the prefent change of power, he was expofed. 
Sir William (pent the latter part of life in comfort and 
reputation. He continued to write plays; and his lad 
literary employment wss an alteration of Shakefpeare’s 
Tempeft, in which he was affifted by Dryden. He died 
in April, 1668, aged fixty-three. 
DA'VENANT (Charles), an eminent political writer, 
elded fon of the above fir William, born in 1656. Fie 
received his grammar-education at Cheam in Surrey, and 
afterwards was entered a fellow-commoner of Baliol-col- 
lege, Oxford. Flis connexion with the theatre, in which 
he had a confiderable property in his father's right, gave 
him an early turn to dramatic compofition ; and, at the 
age of nineteen, he brought a tragedy upon the dage, 
intitled Circe, which was favourably received. He foon, 
however, deferted poetry for more thriving purfuits ; 
and he dudied the civil law, in which he obtained a doc¬ 
tor’s degree from the univeriity of Cambridge. He was 
returned to parliament for the borough of St. Ives, in 
1685, and about the fame time was joined in a commiflion 
with the mader of the revels for the infpedtion of plays. 
He had likewife the pod of a commiffioner of the excife, 
jn which he performed great fervices to the revenue, by 
icorrefting abufes which had prevailed in that depart- 
D A V 615 
menf, and introducing improved methods of keeping the 
accounts. In the reign of king William he commenced 
political writer; and many pieces came from his pen 
which excited much attention at the time. The titles 
of his principal publications are, 1. An Elfay upon Ways 
and Means of fupplying the War, 1695. 2. An EBay on 
the Ead-India Trade, 1697. 3. Difcourfes on the Pub¬ 
lic Revenues, and of the Trade of England, in two Parts, 
1698. 4. An EiTuy upon the probable Methods of making 
the People Gainers in the Balance of Trade, 1699. 5. A 
Difcourfe upon Grants and Refumptions, 1700. 6. Effays 
on the Balance of Power, 'Sec. See. 1701. He was out of 
parliament during king William’s reign, till 1698, when 
he was chofen for Great Bedwin, as he again was in 1700- 
In the enfuing reign he was appointed to the pod of in- 
fpedtor-general of the exports and imports, which he 
filled with great reputation, and to the public advantage. 
The works which he publiflied from this time were 
chiefly, Reflections upon the Conditution and Manage¬ 
ment of the Trade to Africa, Sec. 1709; New Dialogues 
upon the prefent Podure of Affairs, the Species of Money, 
national Debts, public Revenues, See. two vols. 1710 ; 
Two Reports concerning the public Accounts of the 
Kingdom, 1712. All thefe pieces are replete with va¬ 
luable-information. Dr. Davenant died in 1714. A col¬ 
lection of his political and commercial works, in five 
volumes odtavo, was publiffied in 1771, by fir Charles 
Whitworth. 
DAVEN'NE (Francis), furnamed the Pacific, born at 
Fleurance in the Lower Armagnae, towards the begin¬ 
ning ot the feventeenth century. He was one of the 
principal difciples of a famous fanatic, called Simon 
Morin, and publiflied a number of pieces of a theologico- 
political nature, pretended divine communications, de¬ 
nunciations of the judgments of heaven, prophecies, Sec. 
for which the French clergy and the civil power fubjedled. 
the author to imprifonment, and criminal profecutions. 
By fuch an injudicious mode of proceeding, they gave 
him and his productions a degree of temporary celebrity, 
to which neither would have arifen if unperfecuted, and 
left to merited contempt. Thofe who have any curiofity 
to learn what were the fubjedts of Davenne’s lucubra¬ 
tions, we mult refer to the twenty-feventh volume of 
father Niceron’s Memoirs, where may be found a parti¬ 
cular detail of the writings and opinions of this vifion- 
ary; or to the abftradt from it in Moreri. 
DA'VENPORT (John), a learned puritanical divine, 
and popular preacher, born at Coventry in 1597, and 
educated in grammar-learning in that city. In 1613 he 
was entered a battler at Merton-college, Oxford, whence 
in about two years, lie removed to Magdalen-hall. In 
that feminary he was fubjedted to very ftr'icl and fevere 
difeipline, under which he received a bias in favour ot 
puritanifm that terminated in his withdrawing from the 
communion of the church of England. From Oxford he 
went to London before he had taken any degree in the 
univeriity ; and in the metropolis became vicar of St. 
Stephen’s church, Coleman-flreet, and one of the mod: 
noted and acceptable preachers of his time. In 1625 he 
returned to Oxford, performed with great applaufe the 
ufual exercifes, and accumulated his degree of bachelor 
of divinity. About the year 1627, Mr. Davenport be¬ 
came an objedt of refentment to his di-ocefan, occafioned 
by his growing inclination towards nonconformity, which 
occafioned his being lummoned before the high-commif- 
fion court. In thefe circumftances he refigned his living, 
and withdrew from the florm into Holland. In that 
country he was for fome time colleague witli Mr. Paget, 
minifter of the Englifh church at Amfterdam, until he 
was involved in a difpute concerning the promifeuous 
admiffion of children to baptilYn, without proper fure- 
ties for their education in the Chriftian religion; which 
drew upon him the cenfures of the Dutch eludes in the 
neighbourhood, and obliged him to relinquifh the public 
exercife of his miniftry. On the decline of the epifcopal 
authority 
