Venice in 1516, folio. They are in Latin, and consist of ten books "On the Immortality of the Soul," seven of "Orations," three of "Epistles," a number of miscellaneous tracts, and "Fragments of the History of Sienna." This last he composed at the instigation of the senate of the city, and executed the task faithfully; but the work was much injured by his son, who, from political motives, suppressed many things it contained. Moreri. Tiraboschi.--A.

DATI, CHARLES, born at Florence in 1619, was professor of the belles-lettres in his native city, and acquired great reputation among the learned of his time. He was a member of the Academy Della Crusca, and paid great attention to the improvement of the Tuscan language. In 1657 he published a discourse "Dell' Obbligo di ben parlare la propria Lingua"-On the Obligation of speaking well one's native Tongue: a literary duty to which it were to be wished more attention should be paid by scholars than has usually been done. He also, for a similar purpose, made a collection of "Prose Fiorentine," as examples of excellence in writing Itadian. Together with Redi, he employed himself in researches on the origin and etymology of the Tuscan; to which, though they remained unpublished, Menage confessed himself much indebted. He was versed in mathematical and astronomical studies, and wrote a let ter in defence of the discoveries of Galileo and Torricelli. One of his works, by which he is best known, is his "Lives of ancient Painters," a learned performance, but unfinished, as he proceeded no farther than to those of Phidias, Xeuxis, Apelles, and Protogenes. An eulogy on Lewis XIV. which he published in Italian at Florence in 1669, obtained him the honour and emolument of being one of those foreign literati who were selected as objects of the bounty of that monarch, and he received an invitation to settle in his court, as he did also from Christina queen of Sweden; but he declined quitting Florence. Besides his professorship there, he enjoyed the post of librarian to cardinal Gian Carlo de' Medici; and no man of letters has been honoured with more encomiums, both from his countrymen and from foreigners. These marks of respect he deserved by his assiduity in performing kind offices to all the distinguished travellers who took Florence in their route. He wrote a few other pieces in verse and prose; but his learned labours were cut short by death in 1675, at the age of fifty-six. Moreri. Tiraboschi.-A.

DATT, JOHN-PHILIP, an eminent German

jurist, was born at Eslingen in Suabia, in 1654. After having made an extraordinary progress in classical literature at the school of his native place, he was sent to the university of Strasburg, where he studied history, politics, and law. He was for a time governor of young Wurmser of Wendenheim. On his return to Eslingen, he had the charge of the public registry, and afterwards was made syndic of the city, in which capacity he assisted at several diets. The duke of Wirtemberg invited him, in 1694, to take the offices of counsellor of the regency and consistory, and advocate of the ecclesiastical treasury; in which posts he rendered great services to the house of Wirtemberg. He died in 1722. He published "Volumen Rerumn Germanicarum Novum, sive de Pace Imperii publica," Ulm, 1698, folio, which is accounted one of the best works upon the German public law; also a treatise "De Venditione Liberum." Moreri.-A.

DAVANZATI, BERNARD, a Florentine man of letters, was born in 1529, and died in 1606. As a writer he is principally known for his translation of Tacitus, which obtained great reputation. Of this performance Tiraboschi says,

It was his intention to shew, that our tongue is not at all inferior to the Latin in strength. He has certainly succeeded in comprising the translation within a space not exceeding that of the original; but whether his work is such as can be proposed as a model for writing history in Italian, I dare not decide. I am of opinion, however, that if we had a history written in a similar style, it would have very few readers.” In fact, the number of obsolete Tuscan words renders it difficult to be understood by the ItaHans themselves. Davanzati also published an elegant work "On Tuscan Agriculture," and a "History of the English Schism;" which last is said to be an abridged translation of that of the Jesuit Sanders. His "Notitia de' Cambi," or Account of Exchanges, is one of the earliest pieces on that subject. Tiraboschi. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-A.

DAUBENTON, M. an eminent naturalist and anatomist, was born in 1716, at Montbard in Burgundy, and was brought up to the practice of physic. When his townsman, the illustrious De Buffon, was made superintendant of the royal garden, he persuaded Daubenton to settle near him, and to become his coadjutor in the study of natural history. This took place in 1740, when he was made keeper of the king's museum, and he thenceforth devoted himself, with unremitting assiduity, to the science in which he was engaged. He was admitted into the

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Academy of Sciences in 1744, and enriched its Memoirs with several valuable gy and comparative anatomy. In the grest work on natural history, published by Bufon first in 1750, he had a large share, all the anatomical part relative to men and animals being contributed by him; and the great additions this work made to the knowledge of comparative anatomy are universally accounted among its principal merits. In what manner he consulted utility in his enquirics is seen by his admirable "Instructions for Shepherds and the Proprietors of Flocks," &c. Paris, 1784, 8vo.; in which he gives a series of practical lessons concerning the treatment of sheep in every particular, with curious discussions on the improvement of wool. Mineralogy was another object of his study; and he published, in 1784, "A Methodical View of Minerals," with their distinctive characters, according to a new arrangement of his own, distinguished by its clearness and precision. Daubenton was a member of the Royal Medical Society. After passing through the storms and vicissitudes of the French revolution, he was elected, in 1799, a member of the Conservative Senate. He did not long survive this honour, dying on December 29 in that year, at the age of eighty-four. He was buried with great solemnity in the national (formerly the royal) garden, and an oration to his honour was pronounced over his remains by the naturalist Lacepede. Account by Fourcroi. Halleri Bibl. Anatom.-A.

DAUBENTON, WILLIAM, a French Jesuit of some celebrity in the seventeenth century, was born at Auxerre, in the year 1665. He was at first destined by the fathers of the order for the office of preacher, which for some time he discharged with much acceptability. The state of his health, however, obliging him to relinquish pulpit exercises, he was appointed to different governments, and among others to the rectory of the college of Strasburg. His services in that situation were considered to be of such importance, that, at the desire of Louis XIV. he was fixed in it a second time, after the expiration of the term of his appointment, that he might completely carry into cffect some useful regulations which he had introduced. By the same prince he was made confessor to his grandson, Philip V. king of Spain, whom he accompanied when he went to take possession of his throne. He appears to have obtained considerable influence over the mind of Philip, which he was not contented with exerting in matters purely spiritual, but employed it in directing measures of state and

delicate politics. By this intriguing spirit he excited the jealousy and resentment of the Spanish grandees, who, through their interference, procured his dismission from the guidance of the king's conscience. On that event he retired into France, in the year 1705, whence he was sent to Rome, where he was chosen assistant to the general of the Jesuits in managing the concerns of the order in France. In the year 1716 he was recalled to Madrid, and reinstated in his office of confessor to Philip V. Some years afterwards, when Philip had formed, but not divulged, his resolution to abdicate his crown, this Jesuit conceived that measure to be so unfavourable to the interests of his native. country, that he opposed it with all his weight,, and even betrayed the king's secret to the duke of Orleans, regent of France. His intrigues on this occasion terminated in his own disgrace for the second time, which was soon followed by his death, in the year 1723. His writings, excepting some funeral orations, were consecrated to the service of superstition, being employed in assigning reasons for the beatification and canonisation of John Francis Regis, a Jesuit. They consist of two volumes folio, and were published at the expence of the Apostolical Chamber. One of those volumes is filled with an account of the miracles of that modern saint. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

DAVENANT, JOHN, a learned English prelate in the seventeenth century, was a native of London, where his father was an eminent and wealthy merchant. No certain information can be obtained respecting the year of his birth, or the school in which he received his classical education. In the year 1587 he was admitted. pensioner of Queen's college, Cambridge, in which seminary he appears to have applied to his studies with very commendable diligence, and to have performed his exercises in a manner that reflected credit on his abilities and proficiency. He proceeded regularly to his degrees in arts, and took that of master in 1594. About that time he had the offer of a fellowship in his college, which his father, much to his honour, would not permit him to accept, on account of the plentiful fortune which he possessed. After his death, however, Mr. Davenant would no longer decline the honour of such a situation, and was elected fellow in the year 1597. When he was thus become settled in a collegelife, he continued to distinguish himself by his learning, and other eminent qualifications, so as to recommend himself to honourable appointments in the university, and in his own society. In the year 1601 he took his degree

of bachelor in divinity, and in 1609 that of doctor in the same faculty. In the year last mentioned he was appointed lady Margaret's professor, and was also one of her preachers in the years 1609 and 1612. On a vacancy taking place in the mastership of his college, in the year 1614, he was elected to that honourable station, which he retained until the year 1622. During this period the synod of Dort had been convened in Holland, to crush the arminian party, by forms of proceeding in which the tricks and intolerance of angry divines were substituted in the room of impartiality and calm argumentative discussion. Dr. Davenant was one of the English clergy who were appointed by king James I. to sit and give their votes in that synod. In the debates, or rather authoritative decisions, which took place on the subjects of predestination and grace, Dr. Davenant, and one other of the English deputation, appeared desirous of adopting a middle notion, between the extremes of Calvinism and Arminianism; according to which were maintained the certainty of the salvation of the elect, and the offer of pardon to all who should hear the gospel, accompanied with grace sufficient to convince and persuade the impenitent, so as to lay the blame of their condemnation upon themselves. But finding the synod determined against receding from the strict definitions of the Genevan school, they gave their voice for concurring in the decree against Arminianism, declaring the Belgic confession to be in the main agreeable to the word of God, and the received opinions of the best approved doctors of the English church. Among the modern English divines of the established church, few, we apprehend, would be found disposed to concur in a similar declaration, unless selected from that body who arrogate to themselves the title of the awakened clergy. Dr. Davenant returned to England in the year 1619; and in the year 1621 was nominated to the bishopric of Salisbury. From that time we learn no particulars concerning him worthy of notice, until the year 1630-1, when he fell under the displeasure of king Charles I. for maintaining the doctrine of predestination in a sermon preached before his majesty at Whitehall. That king, by the advice of Dr. Laud, bishop of London, who was a favourer of the arminian tenets, in a declaration prefixed to the thirty-nine articles in 1628, prohibited "all curious search" into points which "might nourish faction in the church or commonwealth ;" and threatened any person who should publicly read or hold disputation on either side with censure in the ecclesiastical

commission. Bishop Davenant's sermon was construed into a contempt of the king's decla ration, and occasioned not only his being reproved on the day when he preached it, but his being summoned to answer for his pretended crime before the privy-council. At first his lordship seemed determined to maintain that the doctrine which he had advanced was nothing more than the acknowledged truth of the seventeenth article, and could not be included among the doctrines "of curious search" against which the declaration was issued. But finding that such a defence would not be admitted, and that the king's will was that all such high questions should be forborne, he did not choose to run the risk of the royal displeasure, and declared his sorrow for not having understood his majesty's intentions, and his willingness to conform himself for the time to come, as readily as any other, to his majesty's commands. By this accommodating conduct the bishop escaped from all farther trouble, and was admitted to kiss the king's hand, in token of his gracious acceptance of the prelate's submission to his will and pleasure; but he was never afterwards in any favour at court. He died in the year 1641, with his mind deeply affected by a foresight of the evils which threatened his country, and the church of which he was a member. Bishop Davenant was a prelate respectable for learning, seriousness, and moderation. He was hospitable, benevolent, and humble in his manners, and an example to his clergy in the diligence and zeal with which he discharged the duties of a minister of the gospel. He was the author of "Expositio Epistolæ D. Pauli ad Colossenses, per reverendum in Christo Patrem J. Sarisb. Epis. &c." folio; " Prælectiones de duobus in Theologia Controversis Capitibus; de Judice Controversiarum primo; de Justitia habituali & actuali altero, &c." 1631, folio; "Determinationes Questionum quarundam Theologicarum, per Rev. Vir. Jo. Dav. &c.” 1634, folio; and "Animadversions upon a Treatise lately published, and entitled, "God's Love to Mankind manifested, by disproving his absolute Decree for their Damnation," 1641, 8vo. Biog. Britan. Neal's Hist. Purit. vol. II.—M.

DAVENANT, WILLIAM, a poet, and manager of the theatre in the reigns of Charles I. and II. was the son of a tavern-keeper at Oxford, in which city he was born in 1665. He had his early education at a school in his native place, and was afterwards entered a member of Lincoln college; but his stay in the university appears to have been short. His disposition

led him to try his fortune at court, and he first appeared in that region as page to the duchess of Richmond. Thence he was removed into the family of Greville lord Brooke, an accomplished nobleman, and a patron of literature. His death, in 1628, deprived Davenant of a valuable protector; but he had already made himself so favourably known, that he was able, with advantage, to usher his first tragedy, named "Albovine," to the stage, in 1629. From that time he was admitted to the familiar acquaintance of the principal wits about court, among whom he maintained a respectable station. He partook of the laxity of manners usually prevalent in such a circle; an unfortunate consequence of which was an injury to his countenance, by the falling in of his nose, that afforded his rivals a perpetual topic of malicious allusion. He however exerted his invention and industry to good purpose, in providing a fund of dramatic pieces for the entertainment of the court; among which were several of the kind called Masques. In the representation of these, not only some of the principal nobility, but even the king and queen, took an occasional part. So well did he sustain the characters of poet and courtier, that, upon the death of Ben Jonson, in 1637, he was made his successor in the laureate. Davenant's principles, and attachment to the king, caused him to participate early in the succeeding troubles. He was accused to the parliament, in 1641, of be ing engaged in a design to bring up the army for the support of the royal authority, and a proclamation was issued for apprehending him; in consequence of which he was taken at Feversham, and placed under the custody of a serjeant at arms. He was, however, admitted to bail; and, after one ineffectual attempt, he succeeded in making his escape to France. When the queen sent over a supply of military stores, he accompanied them; and offered his services to his old friend and patron, the earl of Newcastle. That nobleman, who was himself a poet, paid so much respect to the character, as to entrust Davenant with the important office of lieutenant-general of his ordnance. We are not told by what means he had qualified himself for such a post; and the promotion appeared a very improper one to several of the royal party. The king himself, however, was so well satisfied with Davenant's services, that he conferred upon him the honour of knighthood at the siege of Gloucester, in 1643. His military occupation did not continue very long; for, upon the declension of the royal cause, he withdrew into France, where he em

VOL. II.

braced the Roman-catholic religion. This sacrifice procured him the full confidence of the queen; and, in 1646, he was sent by her to the king, in order to persuade him to make his peace with the parliament, by giving up the interests of the church of England. He was unsuccessful in this attempt; and by the slighting manner in which he treated the church he had quitted, drew upon himself a very severe reprimand from the king. Lord Clarendon, mentioning Davenant on this occasion, calls him an honest man and a witty, but in all respects inferior to such a trust;" and he knew Davenant well, having been one of his early friends and admirers. Upon his return to Paris, the laureat, to divert his chagrin, laid the plan of his heroic poem of "Gondibert," and began to compose it in the Louvre, where he lived with lord Jermyn. This occupation, however, was not sufficient for his active disposition; and he engaged in a project of carrying a colony from France to settle in Virginia, which province still retained its loyalty. The friendship of the queen enabled him to succeed so far as to fit out a ship, with which he sailed from the coast of Normandy; but it was unfortunately captured by one of the parliament's armed vessels, and carried into the isle of Wight, where Davenant was committed close prisoner to Cowes castle. In this melancholy situation his mind bore itself up so far as to enable him to proceed with his Gondibert, part of the third book of which he composed in prison. But he was now brought into considerable danger; for, in October, 1650, he was removed to London for trial by a high-commission court. He escaped with life; for which he was indebted, according to one account, to two aldermen of York, whom he had treated with kindness when serving under the earl of Newcastle; according to another, to a brother-poet, the immortal Milton. He was, however, kept two years a prisoner 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 so unfavourable to any thing like theatrical amusements. With the encou ragement of Whitelock, Maynard, and some other persons in power, of a more liberal spirit than their coadjutors, he opened a place for the exhibition of entertainments, as they were termed, consisting of a mixture of declamation and music.

These at length issued in direct dramatic pieces, several of which he composed and exhibited during the protectorate, without molestation, and to his deserved emolument. Fis

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loyalty brought him into some trouble at the time of sir George Booth's infurrection, and he was again imprisoned; but the restoration, which soon after followed, rendered his party triumphant. The public restoration of the stage was one of the earliest measures of the new reign; and sir 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 operatical play, entitled "The Siege of Rhodes;" for which he provided decorations and scenery after the model of what he had seen in the French theatres. He had also the credit of bringing out that excellent actor, Betterton. He is said to have repaid the former service of Milton to himself, by using his interest to preserve him from the dangers to which, on the present change of power, he was exposed. Sir William spent the latter part of life in comfort and reputation. He continued to write plays; and his last literary employment was an alteration of Shakespear's Tempest, in which he was assisted by Dryden. He died in April, 1668, aged sixty

three.

The works of this writer have so completely disappeared from the stage, and from the closets of private readers, that it is superfluous to bestow remarks upon any of them, except one, which once excited considerable notice, and has not escaped the attention of modern criticism. This is his "Gondibert," a poem unfinished, and indeed deserted, by its author, who made no addition to it after he had finished the sixth canto of the third book in 1650. He entitles it an heroic poem, which name, in his preface, he also gives to the celebrated epics of antiquity; but he differs from them all in rejecting that interference of supernatural agents, which is termed the machinery, and making it a mere narration of human events, conducted by human characters. For this innovation he is commended by Cowley, who (as well as Waller) prefixed a copy of laudatory verses to the work. The propriety of this determination was much discussed; and a number of censures were besides passed upon the poem, which seems to have gradually declined in reputation, till it ceased to be reckoned in the number of English classics. In fact, it is found to be extremely tedious, to have little of the sublime or the pathetic, little of vivid description or poetical imagery, and to be chiefly composed of farfetched thoughts and prolix argumentations. It was nearly forgotten, when bishop Hurd, in a volume of Critical Commentaries, &c. thought proper to bring forward this poem as an ex

ample of the bad effects produced by a studious attempt at originality, and by deviation from received models. To place this in a strong light, he ascribed a degree of poetic genius to the writer much beyond the measure of common opinion; calling him " a very eminent person, who possessed all the advantages of nature and art that could be required to adorn the true poet." Another critic (Aikin's Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose), while contending against Dr. Hurd's principle, agreed with him in attributing extraordinary merit to the poem, and endeavoured to revive the public attention to it by a copious display of its beauties. Many passages, indeed, were cited, which contained noble sentiments, forcibly expressed, and sometimes decorated with true poetry; yet its radical deficiencies, proceeding from a want of adequate poetical talents in the author for such an extensive undertaking, seem for ever to have doomed it to oblivion. It may be remarked, that Gondibert still retained so much celebrity in the time of Gay, that he either wrote, or revised, three cantos, meant as its continuation. Biog.

Britan.-A.

DAVENANT,CHARLES, an eminent political writer, was eldest son of sir William, and was born in 1656. He received his grammar-education at Cheam in Surrey, and afterwards was entered a fellow-commoner of Baliol college, Oxford. His connection with the theatre, in which he had a considerable property in his father's right, gave him an early turn to dramatic composition; and, at the age of nineteen, he brought a tragedy upon the stage, entitled "Circe," which was favourably received. He soon, however, deserted poetry for more thriving pursuits; and he studied the civil law, in which he obtained a doctor's degree from the university of Cambridge. He was returned to parliament for the borough of St. Ives in 1685, and about the same time was joined in a commission with the Master of the Revels for the inspection of plays. He had likewise the post of a commissioner of the excise, in which he performed great services to the revenue, by correcting abuses which had prevailed in that department, 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. Their peculiar merit consisted in the knowledge they displayed of the several branches of political arithmetic, and of the trade and revenues of the country. The titles of his principal publications are, "An Essay upon Ways and Means of supply