Sir John Davies

In his creative life, the English poet and lawyer John Davies was concerned with a typically Elizabethan contemplation of the connections between nature and human activity, of universal harmony and human disorder.

When writing Orchestra, or A Poem of Dancing (ca 1592, publ. 1596), Sir John Davies (Apr. 16, 1569, Tisbury, Wiltshire — Dec. 8, 1626) was a law student at the Middle Temple and had already graduated from the University of Oxford. Next year Davies began his distinguished legal career. In 1599, he published anonymously a long philosophical poem Nosce Teipsum (Know Yourself) analysing ways to human knowledge and the immortality of the human soul. For two centuries it was one of the most frequently published long poems in the English language. In the same year, he brought out Hymnes of Astraea in Acrosticke Verse, where in several poems the initials of the first lines form the words "Elisabetha Regina". He also wrote ten entertaining sonnets, called Gulling Sonnets, epigrams, dialogues, psalms and translations. In 1622, John Davies published a collected edition of his poetical heritage.

After Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603, King James I (r. 1603-1625) received the poet with great kindness, appointed him Solicitor General in Ireland, and granted him a knighthood. In 1606, Davies was raised to the position of attorney general for Ireland and wrote several tracts on Irish affairs. Later he entered the Irish Parliament and was elected Speaker; on his return to England he participated in the English Parliament of 1621. His work in Ireland helped form the corpus of laws which became the legal basis for the British colonies in North America. Just before his death in 1626, John Davies was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in England.

Davies' Orchestra honours dancing as viewed against the backdrop of Elizabethan philosophy and a theory of cosmic harmony. Seemingly a light and playful poem, it treats seriously some important Elizabethan concepts. The title, originating from Greek and meaning "a dance floor," sheds light on the Elizabethan courtier, who was supposed to master dancing not as a mere social achievement, but as a part of his general education. It was thought to bring harmony to such moral and psychological opposites as sternness and kindness, courage and anxiety, pride and modesty.

In this poem, like in Homer's Odyssey, the faithful Penelope, Ulysses' queen, has been devotedly waiting for the return of her husband. Yet her admirers have tried to persuade her that she is really a widow and could marry again. The principal suitor, Antinous, implores her to dance but she rejects him and the very idea of dancing. In the following debate Antinous argues that the whole universe is organized in a dance motion — the sun, the moon, all the spheres and even the winds, the rivers and oceans move in a kind of musical order.

Orchestra,

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07