Sir John Davies
born April 1569, Tisbury, Wiltshire, Eng.
died Dec. 8, 1626
English poet and lawyer whose Orchestra, or a
Poem of Dancing reveals a typically Elizabethan
pleasure in the contemplation of the
correspondence between the natural order and
human activity.
Educated at the University of Oxford, Davies
entered the Middle Temple, London, in 1588 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. (1590?) contained both Davies’
work and posthumous works by Christopher Marlowe
and was one of the books the archbishop of
Canterbury ordered burned in 1599. Davies’
Orchestra (1596) is a poem in praise of dancing
set against the background of Elizabethan
cosmology and its theory of the harmony of the
spheres. In Nosce teipsum (1599; “Know
Thyself”), he gave a lucid account of his
philosophy on the nature and immortality of the
soul. In the same year, he published Hymnes of
Astraea in Acrosticke Verse, a series of poems
in which the initials of the first lines form
the words “Elisabetha Regina.” His last poetic
works were two dialogues contributed to Francis
Davison’s Poetical Rhapsody (1602). He published
a collected edition of his poetry in 1622.
On the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603,
Davies was one of the messengers who carried the
news to James VI of Scotland, who succeeded
Elizabeth as James I. James received him with
great favour, sent him to Ireland as solicitor
general, and conferred a knighthood on him. In
1606 Davies was made attorney general for
Ireland and created sergeant-at-law. He took an
active part in the Protestant settlement of
Ulster and wrote several tracts on Irish
affairs. 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. He was one of the
founders of the Society of Antiquaries.
