THE LIFE
LIFE OF DAVIES.

SIR JOHN DAVIES was born at Chifgrove, in the parish of Tifbury, Wiltshire, in 1570. He was the third fon of John Davies, who is faid by Wood to have been a wealthy tanner; but in the books which record his admiffion into the fociety of the Middle Temple, it is faid, that his father was "late of New Inn, gentleman."

In 1585, the fifteenth year of his age, he was entered a commoner of Queen's college, Oxford. At the beginning of the year 1588, he removed to the Middle Temple; but he appears to have re turned occafionally to Oxford; for in 1590 he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

At the Temple he applied himself to the study of the law; but he was more diftinguished by his abilities, than by the regularity of his manners. He interrupted, it is faid, the quiet of the Inn, by misdemeanors, for which he was fined, and by disorders, for which he was removed from Commons. In 1595, he was called to the Bar; but in 1598, he was expelled the fociety of the Middle Tem ple, for quarrelling with the facetious Richard Martin, afterwards Recorder of London, and beat ing him, while they were at dinner in the common-hall.

His mifconduct appears to have retarded his progress at the Bar; but he feems never to have been inattentive to literature. Befides the study of the law, he particularly applied himself to po etry, and wrote twenty-fix Acrostics, under the title of Hymns of Aftree, in honour of Queen Elizabeth. In 1599, he published, in 4to, his Nofce Teipfum, a Poem on the Immortality of the Soul, which completely established his poetical reputation.

In 1601, by the favour of Lord Ellefmere, Keeper of the Great Seal, he was restored to his chamber in the Temple, and practised the law as a barrister. The fame year he was chosen a Member of the House of Commons for Corfe-Castle, in Dorsetshire. He appears to have been an active and useful Member of Parliament, and a supporter of the privileges of the House, particularly in the great debate about monopolies.

On the death of Queen Elizabeth, he accompanied Lord Hunsdon into Scotland, to congratulate King James on his acceffion to the Throne of England. Being introduced to his Majesty by Hunsdon, the King immediately inquired if he was Nofce Teipfum; and being informed he was, most. graciously embraced him, and assured him of his favour.

In 1603, he was fent Solicitor General to Ireland; and his appointment to the office of Attorney General took place foon after. During his refidence in Ireland, he was very active in the measures adopted for the colonization of Ulfter, and the civilization of the kingdom. Besides his official fervices, which were highly applauded, he published several valuable tracts on the state of the people and of the country; which, in 1780, were reprinted, in one volume 8vo, under the title of "Hiftorical Tracts."

In 1606, he was promoted to the degree of Serjeant at Law; and the year following, he received the honour of knighthood. In 1612, he was made King's Serjeant; and the same year he was chofen Speaker of the first House of Commons of Ireland, formed by a gencral representation.

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In 1615, he published his Reports, with a preface to Lord Ellesmere, which is juftly eftermed the best that ever was prefixed to a law book. Soon after the publication of this work, he appear to have quitted Ireland, in confequence of a change in its administration.

After his return to England, he was appointed to act as one of the Juftices of Aflize, in feveral circuits. He was alfo elected a Member of the House of Commons for Newcastle under Line, u the Parliament which met at the beginning of the year 1621. He feems not often to have spokes in Parliament at this period; except on the affairs of Ireland.

In 1626, he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England, in the room of Sir Randolph Crew; but before he could be fworn in, he was carried off by an apoplexy, in the night of the 7th of December, at his house in the Strand, in the 57th year of his age.

He married Lady Eleaner Touchet, youngest daughter of George Lord Audley, Earl of Cafehaven, by whom he had one fon, who was an idiot, and died young, and a daughter, named Lury, who was married to Ferdinando Lord Haftings, afterwards Earl of Huntingdon. His lady was very fingular character, and dealt much in prophecies, which brought on her very rigorous treat ment, after his death, from the High Commiflion Court. An account of her prophecies a published in 1649. She died in 1652.

From a low extraction, Davies made his way to eminence by his abilities. Camden, Bacon, Harrington, Selden, Jonfon, Hofkins, Donne, and Corbet, are unquestionable authorities in his fa vour; but he seems not hitherto to have obtained a reputation adequate to his merit.

His "Hiftorical Tracts," which are written with great accuracy and perfpicuity, have, indeed, been reprinted; but his poetical pieces, which have confiderable excellence, are now, for the firi time, received into an arrangement of claffical English poetry.

The second edition of his Poem on the Immortality of the Soul was printed in 4to, 1602, with the following title, "Nofce Teipfum: This oracle expounded in two elegies; I. Of Human Knowledge; II. Of the Soul of Man, and the Immortality thereof." A third edition was printed, folio, 1688; and a fourth, in 8vo, 1697, by Tate, with an admirable preface, furnished by a cl gyman, whofe name he was not permitted to give the public.

An edition of his "Poetical Works," confifling of the "Poem on the Immortality of the Sel; Hymns to Aftrea; and Orchestra, a Poem on Dancing,” was printed, in 8vo, 1773, by T. Done, a bookfeller, who has laudably employed himself in reviving the noblest monuments of the dead. The Preface to Tate's edition has been reprinted by Mr. Davies; and as it exhibits a jufl and a vantageous character of the Nofce Teipfum, it is also preserved in the prefent edition.

The Nofce Teipfum is the earliest philosophical poem this country has produced, and the beût am of the age of Elizabeth, except the Faery Queen': The language is pure, demonftrative, and and the verfification exquifitely polished, and harmonious.

The Hymns to Aftrea contain much poetry and much flattery, and are greatly fuperior to the acroftic verfes of other writers, who are justly ridiculed and condemned by Dryden, in his Ma Fleckno, and by Addifon, in his Effay on Wit.

The Orchefira contains a very ingenious explanation of the antiquity and excellency of Dancing, in a dialogue between Penelope and one of her wooers. It is much to be regretted, that it fal be left unfinished; or what is more likely, that the imperfect part should be loft; for in all proba bility he completed it, being written in his youth, as appears from the conclufion. Harrington be an epigram in commendation of it, at the end of his tranflation of Ariofto.

He is faid to have written fome epigrams, printed at Middleburg, about 1598, and a metaphras of feveral of King David's Palms, which was never published.

The infcription, on a monument erected near his grave in the church of St. Martin in the Fields, gives him the following character:

"He was a man of fine abilities and uncommon eloquence, and a most excellent writer both. profe and verfe. He tempered the feverity of the lawyer with the politeness and learning of the gentleman he was a faithful advocate, an impartial judge, and equally remarkable for a love of fincere piety, and a contempt of anxious superstition."

diftinctly, or that we in this clear age fhotid g fo ftumblingly after him; fo may we marve and bewail the low condition of poetry now, whe in our plays fcarce any one rule of decorum is ferved, but in the space of two hours and an h we pass through all the fits of Bedlam; in ac fcene we are all in mirth, in the next we are fini into sadness; whilst even the most laboured pun are commonly ftarved for want of thought confufed heap of words, and empty found d rhyme.

and romances wander from it, in following the, at, either that he in his dark time should fee is delufions of a wild fancy, chimeras and fic tions that do not only exceed the works, but also the poflibility of nature. Whereas the refemblance of truth is the utmost limits of poetical liberty, which our author has very religiously obferved; for he has not only placed and connected together the moft amiable images of all thofe powers that are in our fouls, but he has furnished and fquared his matter like a true philofopher; that is, he has made the body and foul, colour and fhadow of his Poem, out of the store-house of his own mind, which gives the whole work a real and natural beauty; when that which is borrowed out of books, (the boxes of counterfeit complexion) | fhews well or ill as it has more or lefs likeness to the natural. But our author is beholding to none but himself; and by knowing himself thoroughly, he has arrived to know much; which appears in his admirable variety of well chofen metaphors and fimilitudes, that cannot be found within the compafs of a narrow knowledge. For this reafon, the Poem, on account of its intrinsic worth, would be as lasting as the Iliad or the Æneid, if the language it is wrote in were as immutable as that of the Greeks and Romans.

This very confideration fhould advance the esteem of the following poem, wherein are repo fented the various movements of the mind; which we are as much tranfported as with m most excellent fcenes of paflion in Shakspeart, Fletcher: for in this, as in a mirror (that vi not flatter) we fee how the foul arbitrates t understanding upon the various reports of he and all the changes of imagination: how com ant the will is to her dictates, and obeys her a queen does her king. At the fame time ack ledging a fubjection, and yet retaining a mach How the paffions move at her command, lik well difciplined army; from which regular an pofure of the faculties, all operating in their pr per time and place, there arifes a complace upon the whole foul, that infinitely tranicest l other pleasures.

What deep philofophy is this! to difcore de procefs of God's art in fashioning the foal of m after his own image; by remarking how one moves another, and how thofe motions are val by feveral pofitions of each part, from the tri fprings and plummets, to the very hand that party out the vifible and laft effects. What d and force of wit, to convey these profound lations in the easiest language, expreffed in v fo vulgarly received, that they are underta? the meanest capacities.

Now it would be of great benefit to the beaus of our age, to carry this glafs in their pocket, whereby they might learn to think, rather than drefs well. It would be of use alfo to the wits and virtuofos to carry this antidote about them, against the poison they have fucked in from Lucretius or Hobbs. This would acquaint them with fome principles of religion; fer, in old times, the poets were their divines, and exercised a kind of fpiritual authority amongst the people. Verfe in those days was the facred ftyle, the style of oracles and laws. The vows and thanks of the people were recommended to their gods in fongs and hymns. Why may they not retain this privilege? for if profe fhould contend with verfe, it would be upon unequal terms, and (as it were) For the poet takes care in every line to on foot against the wings of Pegasus. With what the understanding of mankind: he follow delight are we touched in hearing the ftories of by step the workings of the mind from the Hercules, Achilles, Cyrus, and neas? Because strokes of sense, then of fancy, afterwards of e in their characters we have wisdom, honour, for- ment, into the principles both of natural a titude, and justice fet before our eyes. It was pernatural motives: hereby the foul is mac Plato's opinion, that if a man could fee virtue, he telligible, which comprehends all things b would be ftrangely enamoured on her perfon. the boundless tracks of fea and land, and the ra Which is the reafon why Horace and Virgil have fpaces of heaven; that vital principle of continued fo long in reputation, because they have which has always been bufied in inquiries ar drawn her in all the charms of poetry. No man is now made known to itfelf; infomuch that is fo fenfelefs of rational impreffions, as not to be may find out what we ourselves are, from wh wonderfully affected with the paftorals of the an- we came, and whither we must go; we may cients, when under the ftories of wolves and fheep,ceive what noble guests those are, which we they defcribe the mifery of people under hard in our bofoms, which are nearer to us that as malters, and their happiness under good. So the other things, and yet nothing farther francú bitter but wholefome lambick was wont to make acquaintance. villainy blush; the Satire incited men to laugh at folly; the Comedian chaftifed the common errors of life; and the Tragedian made kings afraid to be tyrants, and tyrants to be their own tor

mentors.

Wherefore, as Sir Philip Sidney faid of Chaucer, that he knew not which he should moft wonde

But here all the labyrinths and windings human frame are laid open: 'tis feen by pullies and wheels the work is carried on plainly as if a window were opened in breaft; for it is the work of God alone to a mind.-The next to this is to fhew how i operations are performed.

THE

AUTHOR'S DEDICATION

то

QUEEN ELIZABETH.