Background
John Davies was born on April 16, 1569 in Wiltshire, possibly at Chicksgrove Manor at Lower Chicksgrove, to John and Mary Davies.
(This book represents an authentic reproduction of the tex...)
This book represents an authentic reproduction of the text as printed by the original publisher. While we have attempted to accurately maintain the integrity of the original work, there are sometimes problems with the original work or the micro-film from which the books were digitized. This can result in errors in reproduction. Possible imperfections include missing and blurred pages, poor pictures, markings and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ Nosce teipsum this oracle expounded in two elegies, 1. Of humane knowledge, 2. Of the soule of man, and the immortalitie thereof. Davies, John, Sir, 1569-1626. In verse. Dedicatory verse signed: John Dauies. Signatures: A4(-A1,A4) B-L4 M1. Page numbers 65-84 skipped in the numbering. 4, 101 i.e. 81 p. London : Printed by Richard Field, for Iohn Standish, 1599. STC (2nd ed.) / 6355.4 English Reproduction of the original in the Harvard University Library ++++ This book represents an authentic reproduction of the text as printed by the original publisher. While we have attempted to accurately maintain the integrity of the original work, there are sometimes problems with the original work or the micro-film from which the books were digitized. This can result in errors in reproduction. Possible imperfections include missing and blurred pages, poor pictures, markings and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.
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John Davies was born on April 16, 1569 in Wiltshire, possibly at Chicksgrove Manor at Lower Chicksgrove, to John and Mary Davies.
He was educated at Winchester College for four years, a period in which he showed much interest in literature. In 1585 he became a commoner of Queen's College of the University of Oxford.
In 1588 he entered the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in 1595. Much of his early poetry consisted of epigrams published in various collections. "Epigrammes and Elegies by J. D. and C. M. " contained both Davies’ work and posthumous works by Christopher Marlowe and was one of the books the archbishop of Canterbury ordered burned in 1599.
In 1597 he was elected to Parliament for Shaftesbury.
His letters and reports on conditions in Ireland are of great value.
He spent the year after his expulsion at Oxford in the composition of his philosophical poem on the nature of the soul and its immortality "Nosce teipsum" (1599).
The style of the work was entirely novel and the stanza in which it was written - the decasyllabic quatrain with alternate rhymes - had never been so effectively handled.
Its force, eloquence and ingenuity, the orderly and lucid arrangement of its matter, place it among the finest of English didactic poems.
In 1599 he also published a volume of twenty-six graceful acrostics on the words Elisabetha Regina, entitled "Hymns to Astraea".
Ten sonnets to Philomel are signed J. D. , and are assigned to Davies.
In 1601 Davies was restored to his position at the bar, after making his apologies to Martin, and in the same year he sat for Corfe Castle in Parliament.
James I received the author of Nosce teipsum with great favour, and sent him to Ireland as solicitor- general, conferring the honour of knighthood upon him in 1603.
In 1606 he was promoted to be attorney-general for Ireland, and created serjeant-at-arms.
Of the difficulties in the way of the prosecution of his work, and his untiring industry in overcoming them, there is abundant evidence in his letters to Cecil preserved in the State Papers on Ireland. With the same end in view he took an active part in the "plantation" of Ulster.
In 1612 he published his prose Discoverie of the true causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued untill the beginning of his Majestie's happie raigne.
He entered the Irish Parliament and was elected speaker. On his return to England he sat in the English Parliament of 1621. He was appointed lord chief justice in 1626 but died before he took office.
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One of his chief aims was to establish the Protestant religion firmly in Ireland, and he took strict measures to enforce the law for attendance at church.
In March 1609 Davies married Eleanor Touchet, the daughter of the first Earl of Castlehaven.