Title

Audio by Paper2Audio

Title

Daniel, Samuel.

Authors

Corrigan, Brian Jay

Source

Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Letter D, p237-238. 2p.

Document Type

Biography

Subjects

Daniel, Samuel, 1562 to 1619

Authors

Poets

Dramatists

Historians

Abstract

This article profiles Samuel Daniel, the late historian, poet, dramatist, and deviser of masques under James 1. He earned his reputation after his first work, the sonnet sequence Delia, was published in two parts in 1591 and 1592. His last years were spent trying to finish his Civil Wars and completing his prose work The Collection of the History of England. His reputation is of a quiet poet with a subtle tone and an ear for the music of words.

Full Text Word Count

818

I.S.B.N

9780826414564

Accession Number

18714807

Daniel, Samuel

at Beckington, Somersetshire

Historian, poet, dramatist, and deviser of masques under James 1, D. enjoyed a certain amount of success in his career that was nevertheless punctuated by several contretemps with the Crown. He was brother-in-law to the lexicographer John Florio and a learned Italian scholar, the latter accomplishment recommending him for diplomatic missions to both Italy and France in 1586. He later became tutor to William, the third Earl of Pembroke, and afterward to Anne Clifford. He began his writing career as a poet, moved to playwriting and evolved into an historian and masque writer later. He was additionally a playhouse licenser and briefly filled the position of Master of the Revels for the upstart children's theater at Blackfriars.

After an early career in the foreign service, during which time he sent reports to Walsingham, Elizabeth 1's spymaster, from France, he earned the patronage of the Countess of Pembroke, and began writing. He earned his reputation after his first work, the sonnet sequence "Delia," was published in two parts in 1591 and 1592. The sequence is a well-crafted, clever homage to the then-fashionable style in imitation of Petrarch and Sir Philip Sidney. Delia is a conscious anagram of "ideal." During this time, he turned his hand to a closet drama, The Tragedy of Cleopatra (1594), inspired by his patron's play, Octavia. In it, D. follows the Pembroke school of Senecan construction. Under the patronage of Sir Fulke Greville and Charles Blount, he wrote Musophilus (1599).

By the time he wrote his poem, "The History of the Civil Wars" (1595), D. was well established. Tradition holds that he succeeded Edmund Spenser as poet laureate after Spenser's death in 1599. There was no such post, however, and the most that can be said is that D. had earned an annuity by 1601. His Works of that year presented to Elizabeth include the special inscription "I, who by that most blessed hand sustain'd,/In quietnes, do eate the bread of rest." D. carried on a celebrated debate with Thomas Campion about this time over the proper construction of English verse form. D. wrote A Defence of Ryme (1603) while Campion championed "numbers" or metrical weight. D. was selected as poet for the first Queen's Masque during the Christmas revels of 1603. Ben Jonson was clearly piqued by D.'s preference at court, and he can be seen to complain of D. in his The Forest. By 1619, Jonson allowed that D. was an honest man but no poet.

D. was prevailed upon to exercise his influence in the new court on behalf of the children's playing company at the Blackfriars Theatre. The company gained the patronage of James's queen, Anne, and a new patent was issued. In the two years of the Queen's Revels (1604 to 6), the syndicate and playhouse remained in nearly continuous trouble. Part of the reason for the trouble was that under the new patent of 1604 D. was named to license plays for the children's company.

The syndicate paid D. an annuity of £10 for this service, but modern scholarship has taken this position to be a sinecure. The Blackfriars company was famous for skating close to the line of propriety, and that was no doubt part of its popular appeal. Because the children were technically not professional players, they did not fall under the purview of the Master of the Revels. Excluding their plays from Edmund Tilneys and George Buc's cautious eyes, however, proved too great an incentive for abuse. Far from keeping the Children of the Queen's Revels in check, their new censor D. was the first to offend. In the same year as the new patent was issued, in fact within two weeks, on February 20, 1604, D.'s Philotas (perf. January 3, 1605; pub. 1607) cost the poet his position (though not his annuity).

The play's resemblance to the Essex rebellion brought D. before the Privy Council to answer questions regarding the matter. He apparently acquitted himself, and the next year be is to be found writing a pastoral for Christ Church, Oxford. He returned to court and devised Tethys' Festival (perf. June 5, 1610; pub. 1610) for a Whitehall performance and provided the wedding pastoral Hymen's Triumph (perf. February 2, 1614; pub. 1615) for Jean Drummond, a lady of Queen Anne's household.

His last years were spent trying to finish his "Civil Wars" and completing his prose work The Collection of the History of England (1618). D.'s reputation is of a quiet poet with a subtle tone and an ear for the music of words. He consistently demonstrates a refined aesthetic appreciation and distaste for mere form over substance.