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Will D'Avenant the son of the brightest and best poet that ever was, is, or will be? But I crave your pardon, nephew You, I believe, love no stage plays." "Nay, I am not altogether so precise as you would make me, uncle. I have loved them perhaps too well in my time, and now I condemn them not altogether, or in gross, though I approve not their excesses and extravagances.
In the year 1662, according to D'Avenant, the inspector general of the customs, our imports amounted to 4,016,019l., and our exports only to 2,022,812l.; the balance against the nation being nearly two millions.
In the degree that the nations of Europe became literary, was that philosophical curiosity kindled which induced some to devote their fortunes and their days, and to experience some of the purest of human enjoyments in preserving and familiarising themselves with "the monuments of vanished minds," as books are called by D'Avenant with so much sublimity.
"Will D'Avenant the son of Will Shakspeare?" said the knight, who had not yet recovered his surprise at the enormity of the pretension; "why, it reminds me of a verse in the Puppet-show of Phaeton, where the hero complains to his mother 'Besides, by all the village boys I am sham'd, You the Sun's son, you rascal, you be d d! "I never heard such unblushing assurance in my life!
It is the difference between a written oration and one bursting from the unpremeditated exertions of the speaker, which have always something the air of enthusiasm and inspiration. I would not have young authors imitate my carelessness, however; consilium non currum eape. Read a few pages of Will D'Avenant, who was fond of having it supposed that Shakespeare intrigued with his mother.
"Why," replied the young Scot, "by the surer side of the house, and after the old fashion, if D'Avenant speaks truth.
"Why, we are said to have one of his descendants among us Sir William D'Avenant," said Louis Kerneguy; "and many think him as clever a fellow." "What!" exclaimed Sir Henry "Will D'Avenant, whom I knew in the North, an officer under Newcastle, when the Marquis lay before Hull? why, he was an honest cavalier, and wrote good doggrel enough; but how came he a-kin to Will Shakspeare, I trow?"
It seems that his mother was a good-looking, laughing, buxom mistress of an inn between Stratford and London, at which Will Shakspeare often quartered as he went down to his native town; and that out of friendship and gossipred, as we say in Scotland, Will Shakspeare became godfather to Will D'Avenant; and not contented with this spiritual affinity, the younger Will is for establishing some claim to a natural one, alleging that his mother was a great admirer of wit, and there were no bounds to her complaisance for men of genius."
WALLER; we are acknowledging for the noblest use of it, to Sir WILLIAM D'AVENANT; who, at once, brought it upon the Stage, and made it perfect in The Siege of Rhodes. The advantages which Rhyme has over Blank Verse, are so many that it were lost time to name them.
"Rich are the diligent, who can command Time, nature's stock! and could his hour-glass fall, Would, as for seed of stars, stoop for the sand, And, by incessant labour, gather all." D'Avenant. "Allez en avant, et la foi vous viendra!" D'Alembert. The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, and the exercise of ordinary qualities.
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