D A V 
with poetical imagery. This piece foon came to a fecond 
edition, and has been feveral times reprinted. In 1601, 
Mr. Davies, on a proper fubmidion, was redored to his 
chamber in the Temple. He was chofen in the fame 
year a member for Corfe caftle in the la ft parliament of 
the reign ; and he took a fpirited part in the debate 
about monopolies, the fupprefiiun of which was warmly 
purfued by that affembly. 
Sir John Davies, in 1603, was appointed folicitor-ge- 
neral, and foon after attorney-general, in Ireland, where 
he was appointed in fettling the province of Ulder, after 
it had been reduced to the king’s obedience ; a work 
which was confidered as the mod laudable meafure ol 
the reign of James I. He was member for the county of 
Fermanagh, when it fird fent reprefentatives to parlia¬ 
ment, and was chofen fpeaker, after a clofe divifion and 
violent oppofition from fir John Everard, in 1613. The 
fpeech which he delivered upon his prefentation, is per¬ 
haps, the mod comprehenfive that was ever pronounced ; 
fince, in a diort fpace, he has left us one of the bed ac¬ 
counts of the parliaments which were held in Ireland 
before that period. His difeovery of the true caufes 
why Ireland was never fubdued, is a rich mine of ufeful 
information. As a poet, he was admired by cotemporary 
wits ; and poderity has confirmed their approbation. As 
a lawyer, he has left us a valuable* book of Reports, 
which is faid to be the only regular colledfion of this 
fort upon pradtical jurifprudence in Ireland. When we 
confider the many volumes of this fpecies in England, 
when we refledf that few or no reports exid of caufes in 
the Iridi courts, when even the cafes of controverted 
elections are not reported in Ireland, when it is believed 
that there are only fome detached memorandums of 
legal precedes to be found, principally in the chief ba¬ 
ron Gilbert’s Reports, we mud be a little furprifed at 
the difi'erence of the two countries in this refpebt, and 
impute it to its true reafon, that few men will be found 
to write for fame, but many for pecuniary compenfation. 
Having left Ireland in 1616, fir John was eledted for New- 
cadle-upon-Tyne, where, in the parliament which met 
four years afterwards, he appears in the parliamentary 
debates as a warm advocate for Ireland; contending drong- 
ly againd the oracle of the law fir Edward Coke, that 
England could not make laws to bind Ireland without 
her own confent, and oppofing a law for the prohibition 
s of the importation of Iridi cattle, with great ability. 
And it is not a little to Ins credit that he does not appear 
to have acquired any landed property in Ireland, from 
his great employments. After his return to England, 
he went feveral circuits as a judge of adize : and jud as 
he had been appointed lord chief judice of England, fir 
John Davies was cut off by an apoplexy in December, 
1626, in his fifty-feventh year. By his wife, Eleanor 
Touchet, daughter of lord Audley, he had a fon, an 
ideot ; and a daughter, married to Ferdinando lord Had- 
ings. The poetical works of fir John were reprinted in 
1773, 8vo. His principal trafts in profe, which were 
written in a clear, unaffected, and uncommonly pure, 
dyle, were publiflied in 1 vol. 8vo. 1786, under the ti¬ 
tle of Hidorical Tradls by Sir John Davies. 
DA'VIES (John), a learned philologid, fon of a tradef- 
man in London, where he was born in 1679. He was edu¬ 
cated fird at the Charter-houfe fchool, and afterwards at 
Queen’s college, Cambridge, of which he became fellow 
in 1701. In 1709, he was one of the proCtors of the uni- 
verfity. Being didinguifiied as a man of learning, he was 
collated, in 1711, by Dr. Moore, bifiiop of Ely to the 
reCtory of Fen-Ditton, near Cambridge, and to a prebend 
in the church of Ely. He was chofen mader of his col¬ 
lege in 1717, and created doCtor of divinity. He died in 
1732. The publications of Dr. Davies are editions of 
claflical authors, with notes of his own, and thofe of 
other critics. They are as follow : 1. Maximi Tyrii Dif- 
fertationes , Gr. Lat. 8vo. 1703. 2. C. Julii Cafaris qua ex¬ 
tant omnia , 4to. 1706, 1727. 3. M. Minucii Fclicis Odavius t 
D A V 619 
8vo. 1707, 1712. 4. Ciceronis Tvfculan. Dijput. 8vo. 1709, 
&c. 5. Ciceronis de NaXura Deorum, 1718, &c. 6. Ciceronis 
de Divinatione CB de F.ato, 8vo. 1721, 1730. 7. Ciceronis 
Academica, 8vo. 1723, 1736. 8. Ciceronis de Legibus,'%v o. 
1727. 9. Ciceronis de Finibus, &c. 8vo. 1728, 1741. Thefe 
editions have been generally well received, and are dill 
much in life. 
DA'VII,A (Henry Catharine), a celebrated hidorian, 
born in 1576, at Pieve del Sacco, in the Paduan terri¬ 
tory. His father, Antony, was condable of the kingdom 
of Cyprus at the time of the capture of the i(le by the 
Turks, in confequence of which event he lod all his 
propeVty. Henry, at feven years of age, was taken into 
France, and brought up at Villars, in Normandy, in the 
houfe of marfhal d’Hemery, who had married his aunt. 
He was then placed at court, probably as page to the 
king or the queen-mother. At the age of eighteen he 
entered into the military fervice, in which he gave va¬ 
rious proofs of courage to the imminent danger of his 
life. He returned to Padua in 1599, being called by his 
father, who was foon after killed by throwing himfelf 
from a window. Henry then engaged in the troops of 
the Venetian republic, which employed him in various 
honourable pods. He was entruded with military com- 
miflions and civil governments in Candia, Friuli, Dal¬ 
matia, and other places ; and his fervices were rewarded 
by penfions, as well as by a decree permitting him, when 
called before the fenate, to Hand next the doge, as his 
ancedors, the condables of Cyprus, had done. An un¬ 
fortunate incident at length deprived him of life. Hav¬ 
ing been appointed, in 1631, to the command of the gar- 
rifon of Crema, he fet out thither from Venice, with an 
order from the date to be fupplied with the neceffary 
carriages. On arriving at a place called St. Michael in 
the Veronefe, a difpute arofe with a perfen whole biifi- 
nefs it was to furnifh the carriages. This man, in a fit 
of brutal rage, drew a pidol and fliot Davila dead upon 
the fpot, in prefence of his wife and fons. His chaplain 
was alfo killed, and feveral of his attendants were wound¬ 
ed ; but one of his fons revenged his death on the mur¬ 
derer. Davila had but the year before publifhed his 
Hidory of the civil Wars of France, in Italian. It con- 
fids of fifteen books, comprehending the events from the 
death of Henry II. in 1559, to the peace of Vervins, in 
1598. This work ranks high among modern hidories, 
and is accounted by the French themfelves one of the 
mod accurate and faithful relations of the trefactions 
of thofe unhappy times. The bed editions of this his¬ 
tory are that of the Louvre in 1644, 2 vols. folio; of 
Venice in 1733, 2 vols. folio; and of London in 1755, 
2 vols. 4to. It has been trandated into Latin, French, 
and Englidi. 
DA'VIS (John), an able navigator, born at Sandridge 
near Dartmouth. He early devoted himfelf to a mari¬ 
time life; and, by his diligence and attention, acquired 
fuch a reputation for (kill in his profeffion, as to be en¬ 
truded, in 1585, with the condufd of an expedition for 
exploring a north-wed paifage from America to tire Eud 
Indies. Two fmall barks were fitted out for this pur- 
pofe at the charge of fir Francis Walfingham, and feveral 
merchants of London. Davis proceeded to Greenland, 
and, after palling its mod foutherly point, he came into 
the fea or firait which now bears his name, and is found 
to lead into Baffin’s bay. He failed thirty or forty leagues 
farther, and then returned to England. The next year 
he refumed his defign, and failed with four fiiips, two of 
which he fent northwards between Iceland and Green¬ 
land, and with the other two he re-explored the coads 
and inlets he had before feen. He wms defected by his 
confort, which became fickly, but continued his fearch 
fome time longer in a fmall bark, from lat. 66. 33. to 
lat. 54A. when he was obliged to return. In 1587, he 
engaged in a third voyage. As he had found plenty of 
fine cod-fifh, two fhips were fent with him for the fiihery, 
while he had another under his command for difeovery. 
The 
