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

Daphne is a nickname given to him when he was made Poet Laureate in 1638 after Jonson’s death in 1637. Arigo was a nickname Davenant gave Henry Jermyn in the poem To Henry Jarmin in which he said how proud he was of Jermyn’s greatness, in the collection published with Madagascar and Other Poems, 1638.¹⁰ In the same collection, Davenant has a dialogue in verse between Endimion [Porter] and Arigo [Jermyn] lamenting the death of Collonel Goring, believ’d to be slain at the Seige of Breda.¹¹ For in the usual manner of the time, Davenant wrote and sent poems of consolation after a death or for celebration of a special event to many in and around the court, hoping to attract notice and patronage. His writing was particularly directed towards cultivating the tastes and inclination, and eventually the patronage, of Henrietta Maria and Charles I. He sent an ode to the king for New Year’s Day 1630 and wrote his mock-heroic epic Jeffereidos the same year on the adventures of the queen’s dwarf, Jeffrey, who was captured by pirates when sent to accompany the queen’s midwife back to France. The queen was amused and Davenant was soon counted amongst her courtiers.¹² From now on his future was assured, provided he continued to entertain and amuse her majesty, and through her, the king. Davenant certainly saw himself as part of the queen’s entourage, calling himself “servant to her Majestie” on the title pages of The Wits and The Platonic Lovers when they were published in 1636.¹³

Davenant the Dramatist

John Davenant was an admirer of Shakespeare’s plays and had seen many of them in London before moving to Oxford. It is possible that Shakespeare stayed at the tavern on his way to and from Stratford upon Avon. William may even have been Shakespeare’s godson.¹⁴