Chapter Davenant to Dawson of D by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Davenant to Dawson

Davenant (Lord), a bigamist. One wife was Marianne Dormer, whom he forsook in three months. It was given out that he was dead, and Marianne in time married lord Davenant’s son. His other wife was Louisa Travers, who was engaged to captain Dormer, but was told that the captain was faithless and had married another. When the villainy of his lordship could be no longer concealed, he destroyed himself.

Lady Davenant, one of the two wives of lord Davenant. She was a “faultless wife,” with beauty to attract affection, and every womanly grace.

Charles Davenant, a son of lord Davenant, who married Marianne Dormer, his father’s wife.—Cumberland: The Mysterious Husband (1783).

Davenant (Will), a supposed descendant from Shakespeare, and Wildrake’s friend.—Sir W. Scott: Woodstock (time, the Commonwealth).

DAVID, in Dryden’s satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for Charles II. As David’s beloved son Absalom rebelled against him, so the duke of Monmouth rebelled against his father Charles II. As Achitophel was a traitorous counsellor to David, so was the earl of Shaftesbury to Charles II. As Hushaï outwitted Achitophel, so Hyde (duke of Rochester) outwitted the earl of Shaftesbury, etc.

Auspicious prince,
Thy longing country’s darling and desire,
Their cloudy pillar, and their guardian fire …
The people’s prayer, the glad diviner’s theme,
The young men’s vision, and the old men’s dream.
   —Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, i. 231–240 (1681).

David, king of North Wales, eldest son of Owen, by his second wife. Owen died in 1169. David married Emma Plantagenet, a Saxon princess. He slew his brother Hoel and his half-brother Yorwerth (son of Owen by his first wife), who had been set aside from the succession in consequence of a blemish in the face. He also imprisoned his brother Rodri, and drove others into exile. Madoc, one of his brothers, went to America, and established there a Welsh colony.—Southey: Madoc (1805).

David (St.), son of Xantus prince of Cereticu (Cardiganshire) and the nun Malearia. He was the uncle of king Arthur. St. David first embraced the ascetic life in the Isle of Wight, but subsequently removed to Menevia, in Pembrokeshire, where he founded twelve convents. In 577 the archbishop of Caerleon resigned his see to him, and St. David removed the seat of it to Menevia, which was subsequently called St. David’s, and became the metropolis of Wales. He died at the age of 146, in the year 642. The waters of Bath “owe their warmth and salutary qualities to the benediction of this saint.” Drayton says he lived in the valley of Ewias , between the hills of Hatterill, in Monmouthshire.

Here, in an aged cell with moss and ivy grown,
In which not to this day the sun hath ever shone,
That reverend British saint in zealous ages past,
To contemplation lived.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, iv. (1612).

St. David’s Day, March 1. The leek worn by Welshmen on this day is in memory of a complete victory obtained by them over the Saxons (March 1, 640). This victory is ascribed “to the prayers of St. David,” and his judicious adoption of a leek in the cap, that the Britons might readily recognize each other. The Saxons, having no badge, not unfrequently turned their swords against their own supporters.

David and Goliath (I Sam. xvii.). Goliath, who defied the Hebrews and was slain by the stripling David, was descended from Arapha. Drayton published, in 1630, a poem so called.

A parallel tale is told in Russian history. In the reign of Vladimir the Great, during one of his wars with the Petcheneguans, was a man of colossal stature, athletic and muscular. Proud of his great height and strength, he paced along the bank of the river Troubeje (which separated the opposing forces), loading the Russians with insult, provoking them with threats, and ridiculing their timidity. This imposing air was successful. The soldiers of Vladimir, awed by the gigantic figure of their adversary, submitted to his bravados; and, when the day of combat arrived, they were constrained to supplicate for a postponement. At length an old man approached Vladimir, and said, “My prince, I have five sons, four of whom are in