biography
| name: |
Davenant or d'Avenant, Sir William
|
pronunciation:
[davenant]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1606–68)
|
| biography:
| Poet and playwright, born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, SC England, UK. His father kept the Crown at Oxford, at which Shakespeare used to stop between London and Stratford - hence the rumour that he was Shakespeare's illegitimate son. In 1628 he took to writing for the stage, his most successful work being The Wits (1636), a comedy. In 1638, he became poet laureate, and was later manager of the Drury Lane Theatre. He was knighted in 1643 for services to the Crown during the Civil War. In 1656, he helped to revive drama, banned under Cromwell, and brought to the stage The Siege of Rhodes (1656), ‘the story sung in recitative music’, composed by Charles Coleman (d.1664) and George Hudson. It was generally regarded as the first attempt at public opera in England. |
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