Sir william davenant biography of christopher columbus

Sir william davenant biography of christopher columbus: In the late s, the

English poet and dramatist, was baptized on March 3rd, ; he was born at the Crown Inn, Oxford, of which his father, a wealthy vintner, was proprietor. It was stated that Shakespeare always stopped at this house in passing through the city of Oxford, and out of his known or rumoured admiration of the hostess, a very fine woman, there sprang a scandalous story which attributed Davenant's paternity to Shakespeare, a legend which there is reason to believe Davenant himself encouraged, but which later criticism has cast aside as spurious.

In the vintner was made mayor of Oxford, and in the same year his son left the grammar school of All Saints, where his master had been Edward Sylvester, and was entered an undergraduate of Lincoln College, Oxford. He did not stay at the university, however, long enough to take a degree, but was hurried away to appear at court as a page, in the retinue of the gorgeous duchess of Richmond.

From her service he passed into that of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, in whose house he remained until the murder of that eminent man in This blow threw him upon the world, not altogether without private means, but greatly in need of a profitable employment. He turned to the stage for subsistence, and in produced his first play, the tragedy of Albovine.

It was not a very brilliant performance, but it pleased the town, and decided the poet to pursue a dramatic career. Inigo Jones, the court architect, for whom Ben Jonson had long supplied the words of masques and complimentary pieces, quarrelled with his great colleague in the year , and applied to William Davenant for verses. The result was The Temple of Love, performed by the queen and her ladies at Whitehall on Shrove Tuesday, , and printed in that year.

The poet returned to the legitimate drama by the publication of the tragi-comedy of The Platonic Lovers, and the famous comedy of The Wits, in , the latter of which, however, had been licensed in