DAVIES, Sir Jolly., a poet and statesman of some reputation, was the son of a legal practitioner in Wiltshire, and was b. in 1570. At the age of 15, he was sent to Queen's college, Oxford, where five years after, he took his degree of B.A., having spent two of these years in tho Middle Temple, where he studied law. He was called to the bar In 1595, but forfeited his privileges, and eventually was expelled from the Temple on account of certain indiscretions. He began his political career in 1601. In 1603, he was sent by James I. as solicitor-general to Ireland, and almost immediately after, lie became attorney-general. He was called to the degree of sergeant-at-law in 1606, and in the spring of the following year received the honor of knighthood. On the assembling of the Irish parliament, called in 1613, D. was chosen speaker of the house of commons. In 1620, lie took his seat in the English parliament as member for Newcastle-under Lyne. He died suddenly of apoplexy, Dec. 7, 1626. i
As a lawyer, the character of D. is that of a man of great learning and talent. His Reports of Cases adjudged in the King's Courts in Ireland, published in 1615, were the first reports of Irish cases ever published, and had a preface from the pen of D., which was esteemed by an old critic as the best that was ever prefixed to a law-book. But it is as a poet that he is chiefly notable. His Orchestra, or a Poem. on Dancing (1596), was followed by his great work, the .Nbsee Teipsum, a Poem on the Soul and the Immortality Thereof (1599). His verse is elegant without being artificial, and flowing without being careless, while its compact structure is remarkable for his times. Among his miscel laneous works may be mentioned his Discovery of the True Cause why Ireland was never Subdued entirely until the Reign of King James I. (Loud. 1612), a work which has always been considered of great value to political inquirers.