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William Davenant
Sign in to saveAlso known as Sir William Davenant, Sir William d'Avenant, William D'Avenant
English poet and playwright
OverviewAI-generated
Sir William Davenant was an English playwright, poet, writer, and theatre manager. Born in Oxford in 1606 and baptized on March 3, 1606, he was educated at Lincoln College. He held the position of Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and was a member of the Catholic Church. Davenant wrote in the English language.
He died in London on April 7, 1668, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His notable works include *The Tempest or the Enchanted Island* and *Trois Masques à la Cour de Charles Ier d'Angleterre*. He was detained at the Tower of London and had a child named Charles Davenant.
Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Europeana Sparql. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 5
Top works
- Trois Masques à la Cour de Charles Ier d'Angleterre
- The Tempest or the Enchanted Island
- The Dramatic Works Of Sir William Davenant V1
- Works of Sir William Davenant
via Open Library + Wikidata
Key facts
- Born
- 1606, Oxford , England
- Died
- 7 April 1668 (aged 62), London, England
- Occupation
- Playwright, poet, soldier
- Period
- Stuart period ; Restoration era
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- William
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United Kingdom
- Place of birth
- Oxford
- Place of death
- London
- Occupation
- writer
- Position held
- Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
- Educated at
- Lincoln College
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Religion
- Catholic Church
- Image
- William Davenant.jpg
Show 10 more facts
- place of burial
- Westminster Abbey
- Commons category
- William Davenant
- date of birth
- 1606-00-00
- date of death
- 1668-04-07
- described by source
- The Catholic Encyclopedia
- place of detention
- Tower of London
- date of baptism
- 1606-03-03
- name in native language
- William Davenant
- writing language
- English language
- honorific prefix
- Sir
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
Works in European collections
2 objects attributed to William Davenant, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March 1606 – 7 April 1668), also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. 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.
Davenant was reportedly a godson of fellow playwright William Shakespeare, and he wrote a memorial ode for his godfather when he was only 12-years-old. Later in life, he was rumored to be Shakespeare's illegitimate son. In 1638, Davenant replaced Ben Jonson as the new Poet Laureate. Davenant was a Royalist in the English Civil War and was sentenced to death by the Parliamentarians in 1650. His life was reportedly spared by the intervention of a fellow writer, John Milton.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “William Davenant” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.