* Decasyllabic quatrain used by John Dryden in Annus Mirabilis, William Davenant in Gondibert, and Thomas Gray

In 1673 James Davenant, a Fellow since 1661, complained to William Fuller, then Bishop of Lincoln, about Provost Say's conduct in the election of Thomas Twitty to a Fellowship.

Soon after his restoration, in 1660, he granted exclusive play-staging rights, so-called Royal patents, to the King's Company and the Duke's Company, led by two middle-aged Caroline playwrights, Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant.

This view commended itself to Charles I and his episcopal advisers ; even if Hall, with John Davenant and Thomas Morton, was considered a likely die-hard by Richard Montagu if it ever came to reunification with the Catholic Church.

Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned both the Caroline and Restoration eras and who was active both before and after the English Civil War and during the Interregnum.

* August 21-King Charles II of England issues a royal grant for two theatre companies: a King's Company under his own patronage, led by Thomas Killigrew, and a Duke's Company under the patronage of his brother, the Duke of York and future King James II, led by Sir William Davenant.

He was intimate with Ben Jonson, Thomas Carew, Richard Lovelace, Thomas Nabbes and especially with John Hales and Sir William Davenant, who later furnished John Aubrey with information about his friend.

When Charles II allowed Thomas Killigrew and Sir William Davenant to form two theatre companies under royal patronage, the King's Company and the Duke's Company, in August 1660, Herbert complained bitterly at what he perceived as the violation of his rights, and started court actions ; he was especially irate with Davenant, who had carried on clandestine theatrical performances in the 1656-60 period, without Herbert benefitting.

During the Restoration era, Sir William Davenant staged a production, starring Thomas Betterton, that was seen by Pepys.

Joe Lee Davis listed eleven playwrights in this group: Richard Brome, Thomas Nabbes, Henry Glapthorne, Thomas Killigrew, Sir William Davenant, William Cartwright, Shackerley Marmion, Jasper Mayne, Peter Hausted, Thomas Randolph, and William Cavendish.

He also states that it was left to Davenant in Taylor's will and that it was bought by Thomas Betterton from Davenant and then sold to the lawyer Robert Keck, a collector of Shakespeare memorabilia.

Davenant wrote Sir Thomas Double at Court and New Dialogues upon the Present Posture of Affairs in order to make amends with the Tory party, which was likely to be returning to power.

Sir Thomas Double at Court reversed Davenant ’ s argument for moderation in his 1703 Essays upon Peace at Home and War Abroad ; and New Dialogues upon the Present Posture of Affairs repeated the attacks on the methods of financing public spending that he had been stating since 1689.

As the manager of the troupe, Mohun came to an agreement with the Master of the Revels to pay fees for the privilege of performing ; but eventually, like Jolly and Rhodes, he was out-manoeuvered by Thomas Killigrew and Sir William Davenant.

Thomas Killigrew received one of the patents, establishing the King's Company and opening the first patent theatre at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane ; Sir William Davenant received the other, establishing the Duke of York's theatre company and opening his patent theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Other friends included John Williams, John Davenant, Thomas James, and Sir Simonds D ' Ewes.

Two middle-aged pre-Commonwealth playwrights notable for their loyalty during Charles ' exile emerged from the struggle with royal Letters Patent for new, or refurbished, patent theatre companies: Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant.

Davenant was far behind, but daringly put all his capital into the outfitting of a new superior playhouse in Lincoln's Inn Fields ( simultaneously, with great foresight, prying loose the rising young star Thomas Betterton from the King's Company ), and perfectly hit public taste.

" Restoration plays by Sir William Davenant, Thomas Otway, Nathaniel Lee, John Crowne, Elkanah Settle, and John Banks, and later works by Nicholas Rowe and Joseph Addison, have been included in tighter or looser definitions of heroic drama.

On the opening of the new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1661, Davenant, the patentee of the Duke's Company, engaged Betterton and all Rhodes's company to play in his Siege of Rhodes.

Later playwrights, Sir William Davenant especially, expanded her role in adaptation and in performance.

Davenant greatly expanded Lady Macduff ’ s role, having her appear in four new scenes: “ the first with Lady Macbeth, the second with her husband in which they are visited by the witches, the third in which she tries to dissuade him from opposing Macbeth, and the fourth where, hearing of Banquo ’ s murder, she urges Macduff to flee to England .” These revisions greatly increased her role as a foil to Lady Macbeth, with Lady Macbeth dedicated to evil and Lady Macduff dedicated to good.

Having put the question for the king's trial from the chair, he continued to act as speaker after the king's execution, though he used his influence in favour of the royalists, whenever this was possible without imperilling his own interests, and he saved the lives of both the Earl of Norwich ( 8 March 1649 ) and Sir William Davenant ( 3 July 1650 ) by his casting vote.

In 1696, Davenant wrote Essay on the East-India Trade, which continued the argument that imports should not be restricted because England was a net exporter of the goods imported from India.

After Davenant opened more conventional theatres, he continued to use Rutland House to preview new productions, to gauge audience reaction.

William Davenant produced The Tempest in the same year, which was the first musical adaption of a Shakespeare play ( composed by Locke and Johnson ).

Davenant rehabilitated Angelo, who is now only testing Isabella's chastity ; the play ends with a triple marriage.

William Davenant produced The Tempest in the same year, which was the first Shakespeare play to be set to music ( composed by Locke and Johnson ).

Sir William Davenant and Sir George Fletcher reportedly watched a play at the Red Bull in February or March 1655.

The four speakers represented, respectively, Sir William Davenant " ingenious " collaborator on their revision of The Tempest, Sir Robert Howard and Dryden's brother-in-law, the earl of Orrery Boyle, author of the first heroic play in rhymed couplets, and Dryden himself ( neander means " new man " and implies that Dryden, as a respected member of the gentry class, is entitled to join in this dialogue on an equal footing with the three older men who are his social superiors ).

" The Davenant version held the stage until the middle of the next century.

A notorious example is Nahum Tate's happy-ending King Lear ( 1681 ) ( which held the stage until 1838 ), while The Tempest was turned into an opera replete with special effects by William Davenant.

Various strands of Calvinist thought of the 17th century were taken up by different parts of the Puritan movement, and in particular Amyraldism was adopted by some influential figures ( John Davenant, Samuel Ward, and to some extent Richard Baxter ).

His most significant influence in this regard was John Davenant, later an English delegate to the Synod of Dort, who managed to significantly soften that Synod's teaching regarding limited atonement.

Dr John Davenant, bishop of Salisbury, was his uncle and godfather.

" At thirteen he was admitted to Queens ' College, Cambridge, then presided over by John Davenant.

His cousin, Edward Davenant, was a tutor there.

Sir William Davenant ( baptised 3 March 1606 – 7 April 1668 ), also spelled D ' Avenant, was an English poet and playwright.

Following the death of Ben Jonson in 1637, Davenant was named Poet Laureate in 1638.

Davenant once again found himself in legal trouble in 1659, when he was imprisoned for his part in Sir George Booth's uprising in Cheshire.

" It has been noted that the original inscription on Ben Jonson's tablet, which was already removed by the time Davenant died, was " Rare Ben ," which was the name Shakespeare supposedly had for Jonson.

Written by Sir William Davenant, with costumes, sets, and stage effects designed by Inigo Jones and with music by Lewis Richard, it was performed at Whitehall Palace on January 21, 1640.

Cavendish was the patron of, among others, Jonson, Shirley, Davenant, Dryden, Shadwell and Flecknoe, and of Hobbes, Gassendi and Descartes.

John Aubrey in " Brief lives ", gave the following glimpse into the creation of this dictionary: Dr. Edward Davenant told me that this learned man had a shrew to his wife, who was irreconcileably angrie with him for sitting-up late at night so, compileing his Dictionarie, ( Thesaurus linguae Romanae et Britannicae, Londini, 1584 ; dedicated to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, and Chancellor of Oxford ).

The door was located 50 metres to the west of the Davenant Foundation School building on the north side of Whitechapel Road in the 1960s.