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Browsing named entities in Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing). You can also browse the collection for Ben Jonson or search for Ben Jonson in all documents.
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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Davenant , Sir William , 1605 -1668 (search)
Davenant, Sir William, 1605-1668
Dramatist and poet; born in Oxford, England, in 1605; son of an innkeeper, at whose house Shakespeare often stopped while on his journeys between Stratford and London, and who noticed the boy. Young Davenant left college without a degree.
Shoving much literary talent, he was encouraged in writing plays by persons of distinction, and on the death of Ben Jonson in 1637 he was made poet-laureate.
He adhered to the royal cause during the civil war in England, and escaped to France, where he became a Roman Catholic.
After the death of his King he projected (1651) a colony of French people in Virginia, the only American province that adhered to royalty, and, with a vessel filled with French men, women, and children, he sailed for Virginia.
The ship was captured by a parliamentary cruiser, and the passengers were landed in England, where the life of Sir William was spared, it is believed, by the intervention of John Milton, the poet, who was Cromwel