Sir William Davenant, the Court Masque, and the English Seventeen ...

Davenant wrote in the dedication to the Earl of Dorset when it was published in 1630, of “those many who came with resolution to dispraise” and suggests that “The uncivil ignorance of the People, had depriv’d this humble Work of life; but that your Lordship’s approbation, stept in to succour it”, and maybe there was some resentment at his ready acceptance by the gentlemen of the court and their patronage.¹⁹

Carew and Hopkins, writing commendatory poems for the publication, were outspoken in their derision of the audience. Hopkins tells them to “hence giddy fools; run to the noise they make / At Paris Garden; or yourselves betake to the new Motion, the fine Puppet Plays / and there adore”, while Carew suggests the failure was allied to things outside the theatre.

Hopkins and Carew imply that the play was a serious drama above the common taste, but from the text, it is clear that the play is reminiscent of earlier comedies, such as The Taming of the Shrew or Rule a Wife and Have a Wife which had been seen at Blackfriars in 1624 but lacked the fun of either.

After The Just Italian, Davenant apparently stopped writing for some three years when, it is believed by his biographers, he was very ill with syphilis and was being treated with mercury, which caused his nose to rot away. In the poem to Doctor Cademan, who treated him, he thanks him “For setting now my condemn’d body free, / From that no God, but Devil, Mercurie”.²¹

Once he was recovered, he began writing again, and The Wits, Davenant’s first comedy and most successful play, was dedicated to Endymion Porter, who “hath preserv’d life in the author”,²² and was sent to Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, for licensing, which Herbert refused, seemingly objecting to the expletives in the play.