Donald Cameron
2020-12-08 14:37:16 UTC
This note on "Shakespeare's bastards" I find interesting, because it
concerns William Davenant, son of tavern proprietor and Mayor of
Oxford, alleged to be one or both Shakespeare's godson and bastard.
See what some, who assume the Stratman side in the "authorship
attribution" bone of contention, would advance as a kind of evidence
for William Davenant, who would become Poet Laureate, as Stratman's
bastard.
(quote)
In Remembrance of Master Shakespeare (c. 1618)
by William Davenant
Beware, delighted poets, when you sing,
To welcome nature in the early spring,
Your numerous feet not tread
The banks of Avon, for each flower
(As it ne'er knew a sun or shower)
Hangs there the pensive head.
Each Tree, whose thick, and spreading growth hath made,
Rather a Night beneath the Boughs, than Shade,
(Unwilling now to grow)
Looks like the Plume a Captive wears,
Whose rifled Falls are steeped i'th tears
Which from his last rage flow.
The piteous River wept itself away
Long since (Alas!) to such a swift decay;
That reach the Map; and look
If you a River there can spy;
And for a River your mock'd Eye,
Will find a shallow Brook.
Sister Projects.sister projects: Wikidata item.
Davenant, who was possibly Shakespeare's godson, knew him as a child,
since the playwright stayed in his parent's house in Oxford when
travelling between London and Stratford. Davenant says he wrote this
ode at the age of 12, in 1618, two years after Shakespeare died.[1] It
was published in 1638 in Madagascar with other poems.
(unquote)
concerns William Davenant, son of tavern proprietor and Mayor of
Oxford, alleged to be one or both Shakespeare's godson and bastard.
See what some, who assume the Stratman side in the "authorship
attribution" bone of contention, would advance as a kind of evidence
for William Davenant, who would become Poet Laureate, as Stratman's
bastard.
(quote)
In Remembrance of Master Shakespeare (c. 1618)
by William Davenant
Beware, delighted poets, when you sing,
To welcome nature in the early spring,
Your numerous feet not tread
The banks of Avon, for each flower
(As it ne'er knew a sun or shower)
Hangs there the pensive head.
Each Tree, whose thick, and spreading growth hath made,
Rather a Night beneath the Boughs, than Shade,
(Unwilling now to grow)
Looks like the Plume a Captive wears,
Whose rifled Falls are steeped i'th tears
Which from his last rage flow.
The piteous River wept itself away
Long since (Alas!) to such a swift decay;
That reach the Map; and look
If you a River there can spy;
And for a River your mock'd Eye,
Will find a shallow Brook.
Sister Projects.sister projects: Wikidata item.
Davenant, who was possibly Shakespeare's godson, knew him as a child,
since the playwright stayed in his parent's house in Oxford when
travelling between London and Stratford. Davenant says he wrote this
ode at the age of 12, in 1618, two years after Shakespeare died.[1] It
was published in 1638 in Madagascar with other poems.
(unquote)