to his confinement or his enlargement. Daffouci had several enemies among the reft, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Boileau. The pieces against Soucidas, to be found in the works of Cyrano de Bergerac, are against Daffouci. Boileau has lafhed him in the following lines, after having degraded the burlesque kind of poetry, on which Daffouci valued himself:

Qu' enfin la cour defabusée Meprifa de ces vers l'extravagance aisée.

That is,

"The court, at length undeceived, despised "The eafy extravagance of this poetry.

And,

Et jufqu' a Daffouci tout trouva des lectures.

That is,

And even Daffouci could find readers.

It is curious to obferve, how fenfibly Daffouci was affected with this contemptuous treatment from Boileau. "Ah, dear

reader, fays he, if thou didst but know, how this EVEN "DASSOUCI flicks to my heart, thou would't pity my fate. "I am inconfolable for it, and can hardly preserve my fenfes, "when I reflect that, in prejudice to my titles, I am in this verfe, which to me feems as decifive as a decree of the court of parliament, deprived of all my honours; and that Daf"fouci, of emperor of the burlefque, as he once was, the firft of the name, is now become, if Boileau is to be be"lieved, the vileft reptile of Parnaffus, and the fcullion of "the mufes. What is to be done, reader, in this extre"mity? after the excommunication, which he has pro

nounced on this poor difgraced burlefque, who will ever ❝ vouchsafe to read it, or dare even to look upon it, on pain of his malediction?" He comforts himself however with the thought, that jealousy was the occafion of this thundering cenfure: fee, dear reader, fays he, what I have gotten by "making good burlefque verfes: for if I had made as bad

ones as my poet of Auvergne, he would have fuffered me "to live, as well as the author of Ovid turned buffoon. But it is no new thing to fee jealous people condemn things which are excellent, and decry what they cannot at*tain.'

"

Daffquci

Daffouci was a very indifferent fort of man, as we learn from his own accounts and conceffions: there is no occafion to depend upon the teftimony and authority of his fatyrifts for this.

Regnante,

tom. iii.

DATI (CARLO) profeffor of polite literature at Florence, where he was born, became very famous, as well for his works, as for the elogies which many writers have bestowed on him. He was very civil and officious to all learned travellers who went to Florence; many of whom expreffed their acknowledgment for it in their writings. The encomium, which Chimentelli bestowed upon this writer, is as follows: "Nor is Carlo Dati, an eminent scholar and moft obliging Leti, Italia "friend, who favoured me with the use of the book, to be "mentioned without the highest efteem, as being the unful- p. 373. "lied flower of our city, the foul of Tuscan eloquence, which "he daily improves and adorns with acquifitions from all parts "of learning. Yet, most deserving as he is, he would "esteem his merit small, if he did not contribute with all his "might to make others alfo deferve well of the republic of "letters; fo that he may be faid to have nothing lefs his own, "than that which may any way be employed for the advance"ment and honour of learning."

Carlo Dati was a member of the academy della Crusca, and in that quality took the name of Smarrito. He made a panegyric upon Lewis the XIVth in Italian, and published it at Florence in the year 1669: the French tranflation of it was printed at Rome the year following. He had already publifhed fome Italian poems, in praise of that prince. The book intitled, Lettera di Timauro Antiate a Filaleti, della vera ftoria della cicloide, e della famofiffima efperienza dell' argento vivo, and printed at Florence in the year 1663, was written by him; for it appears from the twenty-fixth page of the letter, that the pretended Timauro Antiate is no other than Carlo Dati. In this work he endeavours to prove two things: the one, that father Merfennus is not the inventor of the Cycloid, as is faid in the hiftory of the Cycloid, but that the glory of that invention belongs to Galileo; the other, that Torricelli was innocent of Plagiarifm, when he pretended to be the first, who explained the fufpenfion of quickfilver in a glafs tube by the preffure of the air, for that he was the real author of this fuppofition. But the chief work, to which our Dati applied himself, was that Della Pittura Antica, of which he published an effay in the year 1667. Mr. Bayle, speaking

Bayle's dict. of this piece, fays, that " it would have saved him a great deal art. Zeuxis.

not. L.

Fuller's Churchhiftory, book xi.

P. 8.

of trouble, as it would have afforded him many materials, "in the article of Zeuxis, if he had met with it sooner. It "is the life of Zeuxis, together with thofe of Parrfafius, "Appelles, and Protogenes. The author, fays mr. Bayle, "hath collected whatever he found relating to those four "painters in the works of the ancients, and hath very exactly "connected the whole. Befides, he hath added to each life "feveral remarks, full of very fine and curious erudition."

Carlo Dati died in the year 1675, much lamented by all who knew him, as well on account of his humanity and amiable manners, as for his parts and learning; which latter are indeed of little worth, unless accompanied by the former; fince then they only ferve to make a man more mischievous than he could have been without them.

DAVENANT (JOHN) bishop of Salisbury, and a very learned man, was the son of an eminent merchant, and born in Watling-ftreet, London, about the year 1570. He was admitted of Queen's-college in Cambridge in 1587, where he` took his degrees in arts regularly. A fellowship was offered him about the year 1594, but his father would not suffer him to accept it, on account of his plentiful fortune; however, after his father's decease, he accepted of one, and was admitted into it in September 1597. He took his doctor's degree in 1609, having long diftinguished himself by his parts and learning; and the fame year was elected lady Margaret's professor of divinity. In 1614 he was chofen mafter of his college; and became fo confiderable, that he was one of thofe eminent English divines, fent by king James the Ift to the fynod of Dort in the year 1618. He returned to England in May 1619, after having visited the most eminent cities and other remarkable places in the Low-countries. He 1621 he was advanced to the fee of Salisbury, and continued in favour during the remainder of king James's reign; but in 1630-1 he incurred the displeasure of the court, for meddling in a fermon preached before the king at Whitehall, with the predeftinarian controverfy;" all curious search into which" his majesty had strictly enjoined, in his declaration prefixed to the 39 articles in 1628, "to be laid afide." For this pretended contempt of the king's declaration he was not only reproved the fame day, but also fummoned to answer two days after before the privy council; and, though he was difmiffed without further trouble, and even admitted to kifs the king's hand, yet he was never afterwards in favour at court. He died of a confumption upon

the

the 20th of April 1641, to which, it is faid, a fenfe of the forrowful times he faw coming on did not a little contribute; and was buried in Salisbury cathedral. He was a man of emplary manners, and a great divine; but strictly attached to Calvinifm with all its abfurdities.

ex

He wrote, I. A Latin Expofition on St. Paul's epiftle to the Coloffians, the third edition of which was printed at Cambridge in 1639. It is the fubftance of lectures, read by him as Margaret profeffor. II. Prælectiones de duobus in theologia controverfis capitibus: de judice controverfiarum, primo: de justicia habituali & actualis, altero. Cant. 1631. III. In 1634, he published the questions he had difputed upon in the fchools, forty-nine in number, under this title; Determinationes quæftionum quarundam theologicarum. IV. Animadverfions upon a treatise lately published, and intitled, "God's "love to mankind, manifefted by difproving his abfolute de" cree for their damnation." Camb. 1641.

vol. ii. col.

945.

DAVENANT (CHARLES) the eldest fon of Sir William Davenant, was born in the year 1656, and received the first tincture of letters at the grammar-fchool of Cheame, in Wood's Athe county of Surry. Though he had the misfortune to lofe then. Oxon. his father, when scarce twelve years of age, yet care was taken to fend him to Oxford to finish his education, where he became a commoner of Baliol-college in the year 1671. He took no degree, but went to London, where, at the age of nineteen, he distinguished himself by a dramatic performance, the only one he published, entitled, "Circe, a tragedy, "acted at his royal highness the duke of York's theatre," with great applaufe. This play was not printed, till two years after it was first acted; upon which occafion Mr. Dryden wrote a prologue, and the earl of Rochester an epilogue. In the former, there was a very fine apology for the author's youth and inexperience. He had a confiderable share in the theatre in right of his father, which probably induced him to turn his thoughts fo early to the ftage; however, he was not long detained there either by that, or the fuccefs of his play, but applied himself afterwards to the study of the civil law, in which, it is faid, he had the degree of doctor conferred upon him by the univerfity of Cambridge. He was elected to represent the borough of St. Ives in Cornwall, in the first parliament of king James II, which was fummoned to meet upon the 19th of May 1685; and, about the fame time, jointly empowered, with the mafter of the revels, to infpect all

D 3

plays,

plays, and to preferve the decorum of the ftage. He was alfo appointed a commiffioner of the excife, and continued in that employment for near fix years, that is, from 1683 to 1689 : however, he does not feem to have been advanced to this rank, before he had gone through fome leffer employments. In the year 1698, he was elected for the borough of Great Bedwin, as he was again in the year 1700. He was afterwards appointed infpector-general of the exports and imports; and this employment he held to the time of his death, which happened upon the 6th of November 1714, Dr. Davenant's thorough acquaintance with the laws and conftitution of the kingdom, joined to his great skill in figures, and his happiness in applying that skill according to the principles advanced by Sir William Petty in his political arithmetic, enabled him to enter deeply into the management of affairs, and procured him great fuccefs as a writer in politics: and it is remarkable, that though he was advanced and preferred under the reigns of Charles II, and James II, yet in all his pieces he reasons intirely upon revolution principles, and compliments in the highest manner the virtues and abilities of the prince then upon the throne.

His first political work was, I. " An effay upon ways and "means of fupplying the war," Lond. 1695, 8vo. In this treatise he wrote with fo much ftrength and perfpicuity upon the nature of funds, that whatever pieces came abroad from the author of "The effay on ways and means," were sufficiently recommended to the public; and this was the method dr. Davenant ufually took to distinguish the writings he afterwards published. II. «An effay on the Eaft-India trade." Lond, 1697, 8vo. This was nothing more than a pamphlet, written in form of a letter to the most honourable John lord marquis of Normanby, afterwards duke of Buckinghamshire, III. “Dif "courses on the public revenues, and of the trade of Eng❝land; by the author of the Essay on ways and means, Part. I. "To which is added, A difcourfe upon improving the reve"nue of the state of Athens, written originally in Greek by "Xenophon, and now made English from the original, with "fome hiftorical notes. By another hand." Lond. 1698, 8vo. This other hand was the famous Walter Moyle, efq; who addreffed his difcourfe to dr. Davenant. There is a paffage in it which fhews, that there were fome thoughts of fending over our author in quality of director-general to the EaftIndies; and is also a clear teftimony, what that great man's notions were, in regard to the importance of his writings. is this: "The great trade to the Eaft-Indies, with fome few " regu

66

It