DAVENANT, dav'e-nnnt, Sir WIfilikAt (1606-1068). An English poet and playwright. He was born at Oxford, where his father kept the Crown Inn. When only ten years old, the precocious boy composed, on the occasion of Shakespeare's death, an ode to the memory of the great dramatist; arid afterwards was accus tomed to claim that he was, in fact, Shake speare's son. In 1682 he began to write for the stage, and ten years after, on the death of Ben donson, he was appointed poet laureate. The next year he became manager of the Cockpit, a theatre in Drury Lane; but, entering into the intrigues of the Civil War, he was apprehended. Le filially escaped, however, to France, and, re turning, distinguished himself so much in the cause of the Royalists that he was knighted by Charles after the battle of Gloucester. Davenant a second time got into difficulties, and was con fined in the Tower for two years, when he was released, as is said, on the intercession of Mil ton. There he continued his epic poem Gondi bert, begun in France. Once more set free, he
set about establishing a theatre. Obtaining at first permission to give dramatic performances at private houses, he reopened the Cockpit in 165S. After the Restoration he was favored by royal patronage, and continued to write and superintend the performance of plays until his death. Davenant was one of the most popular playwrights of his time. Though none of his plays rank high as literature, they seem to have been suitable to the stage. He made some curi ous adaptations of Shakespeare's plays; for example, of Measure for Measure, and, aided by Dryden, of The Tempest. He introduced opera on the English stage, and women to play the female rides. The date of these innovations is 1656. His epic has some interest in that it was written in a stanza afterwards employed by Gray in his famous Elegy. Consult Davenant's plays, with memoir. edited by Laing and Maid ment (5 vols., Edinburgh, 1872-74).