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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Sir William Davenant (1606–1668)
Davenant, William. An English poet and playwright; born at Oxford in Feb. 1605/06; died on April 7, 1668. A story was current in his lifetime that he was an illegitimate son of Shakespeare, and “he seemed contented enough to be thought his son.” He wrote many plays and poems, but none possessing any distinguished merit; he succeeded Ben Jonson as poet laureate of England, however. He attempted epic composition in ‘Gondibert’ (1651), and an opera, ‘The Siege of Rhodes’ (1656).