68-) English Literature

68-) English Literature 

Samuel Daniel 

Daniel and Shakespeare

Samuel Daniel was born a year or two before William Shakespeare and died three years after him. The literary careers of both started in the 1590s and ended in the 1610s. Both writers enjoyed success and came to be regarded as leading authors of the period, though Shakespeare was more associated with the popular stage and Daniel with courtly poetry and noble patrons. Literary scholars generally accept that many of Shakespeare's plays and poems were influenced by Samuel Daniel's works, while the possible influence of Shakespeare's plays on Daniel's works has been more subject to debate.

Samuel Daniel scholar, John Pitcher, states, "One measure of Daniel's quality and importance as a writer is the assiduousness with which Shakespeare followed and drew freely on his every publication. ... But it would be deeply unfair to leave Daniel in Shakespeare's wake".

Daniel's influence on Shakespeare

Evidence of the influence of Daniel's works on Shakespeare includes the following:

Rosamond and The Rape of Lucrece – Literary critics cite Daniel's The Complaint of Rosamond as one of the principal sources of inspiration for Shakespeare's composition of The Rape of Lucrece. One of the similarities between the two that is often cited is Rosamond's description of a seduction scene on an engraved box in Rosamond which has close parallels to Lucrece's narrative of a similar scene in a tapestry or painting in Lucrece.

Delia and Shakespeare's sonnets – Numerous parallels between Shakespeare's sonnets and Delia suggest that Daniel's sequence served as an inspiration and model for Shakespeare as he composed his poems. Daniel employed the sonnet structure that has come to be called "Shakespearean", three quatrains and a final couplet, before Shakespeare did. Daniel's pairing of a sonnet sequence with a complaint in Delia and The Complaint of Rosamond, a structure that has come to be described as "Delian", may have inspired the pairing of A Lover's Complaint with Shakespeare's sonnets in the 1609 edition of Shakespeare's sonnets. If William Herbert is the "W.H." in the dedication to the 1609 edition of Shakespeare's sonnets and is the "fair youth" of the sonnets, then Daniel, who worked in the Herbert household, may be one of the models for the "rival poet".

Rosamond and Romeo and Juliet – Romeo's final speech over the lifeless body of Juliet from Romeo and Juliet ("And lips, O you / The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss"), written between 1593 and 1596, are generally accepted to have been inspired by some of the concluding stanzas of The Complaint of Rosamond ("This sorrowing farewell of a dying kiss"), published in 1592.

The First Four Books of the Civil Wars and Richard II – Shakespeare's Richard II includes many elements that the playwright would not have found in his historical sources that appear similarly in The First Four Books of the Civil Wars, printed in 1595. These include the representation of Richard's queen, Isabel, as a mature woman (rather than the historical child of ten years of age), details of the Bishop of Carlyle's defense of Richard before Parliament, Richard and Isabel's tearful parting, Richard entering London behind Bolingbroke as his prisoner, and the depiction of Richard in prison philosophically musing on his fallen state. The appearance of the first print edition of Daniel's epic poem has been used to establish the earliest possible date for Shakespeare's composition of Richard II as mid- to late 1595. Recent analysis of an extant early manuscript of Daniel's poem, however, suggests that Shakespeare could have used such a manuscript as a source, making an earlier date possible.

The First Four Books of the Civil Wars and Henry IV, Part 1 – In Henry IV, Part 1, Shakespeare depicts Prince Hal and Hotspur as being around the same age and makes a rivalry between the two a central part of the play. Historically, Hotspur was as old as Hal's father and the prince was only sixteen years old at the Battle of Shrewsbury at which he gained military experience but did not play a significant role. The playwright seems to have been inspired by similar ahistorical elements of the depiction of the prince in Daniel's First Four Books of the Civil Wars.

The First Four Books of the Civil Wars and Henry IV, Part 2 – There are close parallels between Henry's deathbed scene in Shakespeare's play and Daniel's description of the king's death in his poem.

The First Four Books of the Civil Wars and Henry V – In The First Four Books of the Civil Wars, the ghost of Henry V requests that some poet write the story of his glorious victories, "Whence new immortal Iliads might proceed" (Book IV, stanza 6). Scholars believe that this served as part of Shakespeare's inspiration for using a Chorus and what Geoffrey Bullough called "the energy of the epic" in Henry V, a play that emphasizes the king's victory at the Battle of Agincourt.

The First Four Books of the Civil Wars and Shakespeare's possible revisions to the Henry VI plays – If the Henry VI plays were revised by Shakespeare in 1595 or later, as is suggested in The New Oxford Shakespeare Authorship Companion, elements of those plays that include parallels to The First Four Books of the Civil Wars may indicate the influence of Daniel's work on Shakespeare's revisions.

Musophilus and Julius Caesar – Shakespeare's Julius Caesar includes echoes of Daniel's poem Musophilus which was published around the time when the playwright was writing the play.

The Tragedy of Cleopatra and Antony and Cleopatra – Supplementing his principal source, Plutarch's Lives, Shakespeare took inspiration from Daniel's Senecan tragedy for his complex characterization of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, especially for the scenes surrounding her suicide in Act 5 of the play. Daniel's poem A Letter from Octavia may have also provided material for Shakespeare's sympathetic portrayal of Antony's wife.

Paulus Jovius and Pericles – The image of a down-turned torch in Pericles may have been inspired by an emblem described by Daniel in The Worthy Tract of Paulus Jovius. The wording used in the play to describe the device closely mirrors Daniel's in his translation of Paolo Giovo. Elements of the image are also used in Shakespeare's sonnet 73.

Daniel's masques and The Tempest – The masque in Shakespeare's The Tempest may have been influenced by Daniel's Vision of the Twelve Goddesses and Tethys' Festival, which included similar Greek deities, such as Ceres and Juno.

Shakespeare's influence on Daniel

Evidence of Shakespeare's possible influence on Daniel's works includes the following:

Henry VI plays and The First Four Books of the Civil Wars – Laurence Michel, in his 1958 critical edition of Samuel Daniel's The Civil Wars, stated, "The likelihood that Daniel knew Shakespeare or any of his works before at least 1604 is small" and therefore "we may assume that Daniel did not know" the versions of the Henry VI plays that were printed in the 1590s. More recent research, however, has suggested that elements of The First Four Books of the Civil Wars may reflect the influence of the Henry VI plays. Those plays had been performed by Pembroke's Men, the acting company sponsored by Henry Herbert, the husband of Daniel's patron, Mary Sidney, before the 1595 publication of the first edition of Daniel's epic poem. Among the strongest evidence of influence is Daniel's inclusion of a romantic relationship between Queen Margaret and the Duke of Suffolk, including a woeful parting scene between the two. These elements of the poem are unsupported by his chronicle sources but are emphasized in Henry IV, Part 2. If Daniel incorporated elements of the Henry VI plays into The First Four Books of the Civil Wars, it may be the first instance of another author reflecting the influence of Shakespeare's plays in his or her own work.

Richard II and Daniel's revisions to The Civil Wars – In the 1609 edition of The Civil Wars, Daniel describes Henry IV's repudiation of Richard II's murderer, Sir Piers of Exton (III.79). This incident is not mentioned in his chronicle sources but is emphasized in Shakespeare's Richard II.

Henry IV plays and Daniel's revisions to The Civil Wars – In the 1609 edition of The Civil Wars, Daniel expanded the material formerly included in the third book and broke it into two books, now Books III and IV. The bulk of the added material concerned the reign of King Henry IV and seems to have been influenced by Shakespeare's plays on that king's reign.

Henry VI plays and Book VIII of The Civil Wars (1609) – The eighth book of The Civil Wars, added in the 1609 edition, includes two sections that suggest the influence of Henry VI, Part 3: Edward IV's wooing of Lady Grey and Henry on the molehill at the Battle of Towton.

Antony and Cleopatra and Daniel's revisions to The Tragedy of Cleopatra – There is debate surrounding the extent to which Daniel may have been influenced by Shakespeare's play in his 1607 revisions to The Tragedy of Cleopatra. Daniel incorporated elements that made his play more "theatrical", yet the revised version remains closer to neoclassical Senecan tragedy than popular theater. The detail of Antony's servant, Eros, having been freed by Antony seems to confirm influence.

Henry V and Funeral Poem Upon the Death of the Noble Earl of Devonshire – Elements of Daniel's characterization of Charles Blount as a hero-warrior include echoes of Shakespeare's Henry V, especially in the section on Blount rallying the English troops at the Siege of Kinsale.

Personal relationship

An essay by Albert Harthshorne in 1899 in The Archaeological Journal reported that during his retirement, Daniel "received his friends, among them Shakespeare, Chapman, Marlowe of the 'mighty line', Drayton, and Jonson". The facts that Christopher Marlowe had died in 1593, many years before Daniel's retirement, and that Daniel had an acrimonious relationship with Jonson, casts doubt on the comment as a whole. There is no direct evidence that Daniel was friendly with Shakespeare or knew him personally, although they likely shared many common acquaintances, including John Florio, Henry Wriothesley, William Herbert, and Ben Jonson.

Literary reputation and style

During his lifetime, Daniel was regarded as one of the most important English authors of the period. His writings contributed innovations to a wide range of literary genres, including the sonnet cycle (Delia), the complaint (Complaint of Rosamond), neo-classical drama (Tragedy of Cleopatra), the epic (The Civil Wars), the verse colloquy (Musophilus), the literary essay ("Defense of Rhyme"), and epistolary verse (Certain Epistles). He continued to have admirers for centuries after his death and his works had a significant influence on many other authors. John Milton adapted elements of his works in Paradise Lost.] Alexander Pope parodied the opening of The Civil Wars in The Rape of the Lock.] Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a particular admirer of Daniel's work, referring to him as "one of the golden writers of our golden Elizabethan age ... whose diction bears no mark of time". Coleridge's friend and collaborator William Wordsworth reflected Daniel's influence in many of his works and included an extended quotation from Daniel's Epistle to the Countess of Cumberland in his poem The Excursion. Henry David Thoreau referred to Daniel to elucidate his own thoughts in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.

Although Daniel's work fell into obscurity during the 20th century, he continued to have admirers. Many anthologies of early modern literature include excerpts from his Delia, Musophilus, and A Defense of Rhyme. In his 1944 English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama, C.S. Lewis said of Daniel that he "actually thinks in verse; thinks deeply, arduously; he can doubt and wrestle ... he is the most interesting man of letters whom that century produced in England."

One factor that contributes to the diminished recognition of Daniel's works in the 20th century, relative to some of his contemporaries, is his calmer, less emotional style. As reflected in C.S. Lewis's assessment that Daniel "thinks in verse", his poetry often employs the more precise language of debate, self-doubt, and deep thought rather than passionate imagery. In Musophilus, Daniel described his poetry as "a speaking picture of the mind" (line 170). The conversational, less lyrical nature of his poetry resulted in criticism, even from the time when he wrote. Fellow poet Michael Drayton, a contemporary of Daniel's, called him "too much historian in verse" and stated that "His rimes were smooth, his meters well did close, / But yet his manner better fitted prose". Yet those same qualities of his writing are what helped him appeal to Coleridge and Wordsworth, who in their prelude to Lyrical Ballads (1802) asserted that "a large portion of the language of every good poem can in no respect differ from that of good prose". In Biographia Literaria (1817), Coleridge praised Daniel's poetry for "many and exquisite specimens of that style which, as the neutral ground of prose and verse, is common to both." At the time that Coleridge and Wordsworth were writing, Daniel's "prosaic" style seemed more current than that of many other Elizabethan poets. The 18th century literary critic Robert Anderson expressed this in his 1795 anthology Works of the British Poets. Anderson wrote of Daniel that there is "in both his poetry and prose such a legitimate rational flow of language, as approaches nearer the style of the 18th than the 16th century".

Aspects of Daniel's writing may also be closer to the 20th and 21st century than to his own time. Much of his work expresses a sympathy for the plight of women who maintain their dignity despite being regarded as the subordinates of undeserving men. He exhibited this attitude in his dedicatory verses to Mary Sidney, his poem Letter from Octavia, and especially in his Epistle to Countess of Cumberland. The pensive, self-reflective style of much of his poetry is more similar to some modern poetry than the more ornate style of many of his contemporaries. His belief that every culture and era had value to offer in its thought and writing, reflected in A Defense of Rhyme, and refusal to accept that poetry and art should be artificially held to classical standards, differed from the attitude of many humanist writers and thinkers of his time. In Musophilus, he demonstrated the foresight to see the benefit of writing in English, even though the use of the language was restricted to one small island. He presciently wrote, "who in time knows whither we may vent / The treasure of our tongue ... Or who can tell for what great work in hand / The greatness of our style is now ordained" (lines 947 to 954).

Daniel also had the humility to admit that he, along with all humans, is fallible and is prone to hold strongly to opinions that will come to be regarded as misguided. This humility is demonstrated in the following comment from his Collection of the History of England:

Pardon us antiquity, if we miscensure your actions which are ever (as those of men) according to the vogue, and sway of times, and have only their upholding by the opinion of the present. We deal with you but as posterity will with us (which ever thinks itself the wiser) that will judge likewise of our errors according to the cast of their imaginations.

— Collection of the History of England (1618), p. 101

In many of his works, Daniel expressed a deep regard for the power of written language ("blessed letters") to reach across cultures and generations. As he wrote in Musophilus:

O blessed letters that combine in one

All ages past, and make one live with all,

By you we do confer with who are gone,

And the dead living unto counsel call:

By you th'unborn shall have communion

Of what we feel, and what doth us befall.

— Musophilus (lines 181 to 186)

Modern editions and recent references to Daniel

The last time a thorough edition of the works of Daniel appeared in print was in the late nineteenth century, in the five-volume Complete Works in Verse and Prose (1885–1896), edited by Alexander Balloch Grosart. Two collections of selected works were published during the twentieth century: Poems and a Defence of Ryme (1930), an edition that preserves the original early modern spelling and punctuation, edited by Arthur Colby Sprague, and Selected Poetry and a Defense of Rhyme (1998), a modernized edition, edited by Geoffrey G. Hiller and Peter L. Groves. John Pitcher is currently working on a multi-volume critical edition of Daniel's complete works to be published by Oxford University Press.

Daniel's Tragedy of Cleopatra was staged by the University College London (UCL) Centre for Modern Exchanges in 2013 as part of a project to evaluate if the "closet drama" was performable. A recording of the performance is available on Vimeo and an analysis of it is included in Yasmin Arshad's book Imagining Cleopatra: Performing Gender and Power in Early Modern England.

Daniel is a significant supporting character in the novel Imperfect Alchemist, by Naomi Miller, a fictionalized account of Mary Sidney.

  

67-) English Literature

67-) English Literature

 Samuel Daniel 

Works

Though admired as a lyric poet and historian, Samuel Daniel has found few enthusiastic readers for his dramatic works. Sober minded, restrained, reflective, and frequently prosaic, Daniel stands outside the popular-stage tradition, yet as an innovator he is of considerable importance in the history of Renaissance drama. Cleopatra is one of the earliest and best attempts to transplant French Senecan closet drama to the English stage; The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses inaugurated the vogue for the elaborate Jacobean court masque; and The Queen's Arcadia is the first English imitation of Italian pastoral drama.

By 1592 Daniel had come under the patronage of Mary, Countess of Pembroke, to whom he dedicated Delia. Containing Certain Sonnets: With the Complaint of Rosamond (1592)—a volume which firmly established his reputation as a poet—and Cleopatra. It was under the influence of the literary circle at Wilton (his "best Schoole," as he refers to it in Defense of Rhyme ) that Daniel wrote his first two plays.

Reflecting the political interests (in abuses of tyranny and limits of government) and literary ideals (derived from Sidney's Defense of Poetry) of the Countess of Pembroke's circle, Daniel sought in Cleopatra and Philotas "to reduce the stage from idlenes to those grave prsentments of antiquitie vsed by the wisest nations." More specifically, it was in the Wilton group's interest in the French Senecan drama of Robert Garnier and Etienne Jodelle that Daniel found a model for his early plays.

Encouraged by the Countess to compose a companion piece to her translation of Garnier's Marc-Antoine and heeding Spenser's advice to turn his pen to "tragic plaints and passionate mischance," Daniel wrote The Tragedy of Cleopatra. The play was first published in 1594, but Daniel, as he was to do for so many of his works, revised it: once in 1599 and more extensively in 1607.

In its emphasis on the destruction of the state through unrestrained ambition, on the doctrine of cyclical recurrence, and on the providential course of history, Cleopatra treats themes typical of much of Daniel's work. Tormented by her sins and aware of the disorder in Egypt brought about by her ambition, Cleopatra is determined to commit suicide, both to preserve her honor and to attest her love of the dead Antony. However, in an attempt to preserve her son Caesario so that he might restore Egypt's fallen glory, she pretends to submit to Octavius Caesar, who hypocritically promises her mercy. Caesar, however, plans to parade Cleopatra through Rome as his triumphant prize and, by bribing Caesario's tutor, arranges the murder of the prince. Apprised by Dolabella of Caesar's plans, Cleopatra has two asps smuggled to her and "Die[s] like a Queene," requesting to be buried in Antony's tomb. The play concludes with the Chorus emphasizing that Rome will be destroyed as was Egypt.

In the 1594 and 1599 versions, Cleopatra is closet drama: the lengthy monologues, dialogues on questions of political morality, and reported action render the play unsuitable for the popular stage. Yet, it is effective closet drama. As in Rosamond and Letter from Octavia , Daniel delineates the mind of an afflicted woman who bears herself with dignity and nobility. In her struggle over her divided role as Queen and mother, her awareness of the destruction she has caused in Egypt, the intensity of her love for Antony, and her resolution to die honorably, Cleopatra is an effective psychological portrait. Although all of the action is reported, Daniel handles this technique well, even dramatically (especially in Rodon's description of Caesario's betrayal and death, and the Nuntius's account of Cleopatra's suicide). Daniel addresses a variety of political issues, but the result is not the diffuseness we find in Philotas. Here Daniel makes effective use of the Chorus as a unifying device, for at the conclusion of each act the Chorus relates individual issues to the overriding emphases on the causes of civil disorder and its cyclical recurrence.

In 1607 Daniel so completely revised Cleopatra that it became in effect a new work. Apparently attempting to make the play more stage-worthy, he rearranged scenes and parts of scenes to break long monologues into dialogue or to turn reported into direct action, added passages to clarify action or theme, and deleted passages to reduce narration. Although the result is a more symmetrical action, Daniel's revisions—particularly of Cleopatra's opening monologue and Diomedes's report of Cleopatra's death—reduce the meditative, philosophical power of the verse, rendering the characterization of Cleopatra less powerful and the development of theme less full.

Of Daniel's plays, Cleopatra is the best known and most influential. Shakespeare drew upon the 1599 version in Antony and Cleopatra, which in turn probably influenced Daniel's 1607 version; Dryden was influenced in All for Love by Daniel's imagery. Among minor writers, Samuel Brandon, Fulke Greville, William Alexander, and Elizabeth Cary were indebted in various ways to Cleopatra.

As Joan Rees observes, Cleopatra marks an important stage in Daniel's development: "When he began Cleopatra he was 'Sweete hony-dropping Daniel'; by the time he finished it, he was Coleridge's 'sober-minded Daniel.'"

Until 1600, by which time he probably had begun Philotas, Daniel's attention was to his nondramatic poetry. Some time during 1594 he came under the patronage of Lord Mountjoy, to whom The First Four Books of the Civil Wars (1595) and The Poetical Essays (1599) are dedicated. By 1600 he had possibly come under Elizabeth's favor, but the tradition that she appointed him poet laureate after the death of Spenser has no factual basis.

Daniel had written the first three acts of Philotas by 1600, intending the play to be acted by some gentlemen's sons as a Christmas entertainment. Revision of The Civil Wars interrupted work on the play, but, needing money, he completed the final two acts in 1604. The play was probably first performed on 3 January 1605 by the Children of the Queen's Revels. In 1607 Daniel extensively revised the work, principally to improve grammar, meter, or rhyme.

In Philotas, as he had in Cleopatra, Daniel treats themes common to much of his work: how unchecked ambition leads to civil disorder, how tyranny, through the unscrupulous use of the law, results in oppression, and how "To admire high hills, but liue within the plain" is the best course of life. Philotas, a proud and ambitious soldier whom Alexander has raised above his rank, has entered into a conspiracy with his father to overthrow Alexander, whom they perceive as a vain and tyrannical ruler. Cloaking his ambition under protestations of honor, concern for the state, and a refusal to conform to the times by flattering the king, Philotas is esteemed by the people (represented by a Chorus). Partly motivated by self-interest and jealousy, Craterus (one of Alexander's "faithfull'st Counsellers") discerns Philotas's ambition and sets about to entrap him. Using Philotas's revelation of his ambition to his mistress Antigona and his failure to report a different plot by several nobles to murder Alexander—as well as masterful character assassination—Craterus, through rather Machiavellian maneuvering which subverts justice but providentially preserves the state, convinces the king of Philotas's guilt. At his trial Philotas is allowed to speak only after Alexander, presiding as judge, has pronounced him guilty and left. In protesting his innocence Philotas effectively underlines the trial's mockery of justice. Craterus, realizing the need for a confession to quell rumor and discontent, convinces Alexander to have Philotas tortured. At first Philotas, attempting to preserve his honor, resists, but eventually he reveals the conspiracy, even implicating an innocent bystander. As a result, Philotas loses all his supporters' respect, and the play concludes with the affirmation that the state has been spared from civil insurrection.

Philotas is justifiably acclaimed for elegance of diction and regularity of meter, qualities generally typical of Daniel's verse. However, his tendency to perceive an issue from more than one perspective—a trait which lends depth to many of his poems—works to disadvantage here. The examination of political morality and abuses of government at times is contradictory and structurally deficient. Although it is clear from the dedication to Prince Henry and the concluding apology that Daniel meant Philotas generally to condemn unchecked ambition which leads to civil disorder and to affirm the providential course of history, the equivocal nature of many of the issues and characters results in diffuseness and ambiguity rather than the complexity which Daniel sought.

Because of its political emphasis, many of Daniel's contemporaries read Philotas as a comment on the trial and execution of the Earl of Essex. Although Daniel was sympathetic to Essex and although the play, particularly in the trial scene, bears several parallels to the Earl's trial, Daniel steadfastly denied before the Privy Council any connection between his play and the celebrated case. Whatever the relation to the Essex affair, Daniel turned away from history for subject matter in his later plays.

Although A Panegyric Congratulatory to the King's Majesty (1603) failed to gain the favor of the new king, James I, in 1604 Daniel came under the patronage of Queen Anne, for whom he wrote his last four dramatic works. The first of these was The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, a masque performed by the Queen and her ladies at Hampton Court on 8 January 1604 and published later the same year. This was the first of several lavish and expensive masques which were so popular at the Jacobean court and included many of the finest specimens of this form of dramatic art.

As in his earlier plays, Daniel emphasizes order in the state: his intent is "to present the figure of those blessings, with the wish of their encrease and continuance, which this mightie Kingdome now enioyes by the benefite of his most gracious Maiestie; by whom we haue this glory of peace, with the accession of so great state and power." To realize his theme, Daniel relies principally on an emblematic procession of the twelve goddesses, who represent "those blessings and beauties that preserue and adorne" the peaceful state. (For example, Pallas stands for "Wisedome and Defence"; Proserpina, riches; and Tethys, "power by Sea.") The goddesses, richly and symbolically dressed, descend from a hill at one end of the hall and march to the Temple of Peace, where they offer their respective gifts. For example, Pallas, played by the Queen, "was attyred in a blew mantle, with a siluer imbrodery of all weapons and engines of war, with a helmet-dressing on her head, and present[ed] a Launce and Target."

Although Daniel regarded The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses as entertainment and not one of his "grauer actions," he does unify text and spectacle, including dancing, singing, elaborate scenery, and emblematic costumes, to underscore his emphasis on the ordered state. From the opening speech of Night, who wields his white wand to "effect ... significant dreames," to the closing speech of Iris, who justifies the representation of the goddesses in the forms of the Queen and her ladies, Daniel effectively manipulates levels of reality. Ultimately, however, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses is not an accomplished example of the masque, a form with which Daniel was clearly uncomfortable.

In 1604 Daniel became Licenser to the Children of the Queen's Revels, a post he held until 28 April 1605. The appointment was not a fortunate one, for it involved Daniel in a lawsuit and monetary difficulties (which may have led him to complete Philotas for presentation by the company). And Daniel was not circumspect in his licensing of plays, for the Queen withdrew her patronage from the Children after Philotas, John Marston's The Dutch Courtesan, and George Chapman, Ben Jonson, and Marston's Eastward Ho! offended James I. Daniel did not, however, lose the favor of the Queen, and in 1607 he was appointed one of the Grooms of her Privy Chamber.

Daniel's next dramatic work, The Queen's Arcadia, is of considerable importance in the history of the drama, for it is the first attempt in English to imitate the Italian pastoral drama. Performed before the Queen at Christ Church, Oxford, on 30 August 1605, the play reflects Daniel's interest in Italian literature and attempt to appeal to the court's taste for extravagant dramatic entertainment. Although heavily indebted to Guarini and Tasso, The Queen's Arcadia is distinctly English in its concerns. Like Daniel's earlier plays, it emphasizes order in the state, and like much of his poetry, it glorifies the simple life.

Colax, "a corrupted traueller," and his accomplice Techne, "a subtle wench [that is, whore] of Corinth," are corrupting the natural harmony of Arcadia by introducing its virtuous lovers to lust, vanity, suspicion, in inconstancy. Three other foreigners also attempt to corrupt the Arcadians: Lincus, a pronotary's boy, passes himself off as a great lawyer and encourages needless litigation; Alcon, formerly a physician's servant, gains a reputation by distributing placebos and encouraging hypochondria; and Pistophoenax, a religious disputer who hides his ugly face behind a mask, works to subvert the natural religion of the country. The attempts of these outsiders to undermine "Rites, ... Custome, Nature, Honesty"—"the maine pillors of ... [the] state"—are frustrated by the revelations of Ergastus and Melibaeus, two elderly Arcadians who conveniently overhear all that takes place during the play.

Although commended by a member of the original audience as "being indeed very excellent, and some parts exactly acted," the play has not been well received by modern readers. Daniel's treatment of the outsiders offers some effective comic satire on the hypocrisy and greediness of lawyers, on the quackery of physicians, and, generally, on a preference for foreign ideas and things. Most effective is a lengthy diatribe against tobacco, inserted perhaps because of King James's aversion to it. Yet, the satire is frequently blunted by Daniel's moralizing tendency and does not mesh with the conventional romantic treatment of pastoral love. The denouement is mechanical, and overall the play is rather dull.

During 1605-1610 Daniel published revisions of many of his earlier works (including Cleopatra and Philotas), completed the final version of The Civil Wars, and began his prose history, The Collection of the History of England (1618), which was to occupy him the remainder of his life.

Tethys' Festival, Daniel's second masque, was presented 5 June 1610 at Whitehall as part of the celebration of the creation of Prince Henry as Prince of Wales. This production, as befitted the occasion and Daniel's conception of masques as "Complements of State," was an elaborate, costly one (the charge for the costumes alone was nearly £1,000). In creating the entertainment, Daniel collaborated with Inigo Jones, the foremost stage architect of the period. As in The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses , the Queen (as Tethys) and her ladies (as the nymphs representing the rivers) assumed major roles.

Tethys' Festival consists of three scenes. The first represents "a Port or Hauen, with Bulworkes at the entrance, and the figure of a Castle commanding a fortified towne: within this Port were many Ships, small and great, seeming to be at Anchor, some neerer, and some further off, according to prospectiue: beyond all appeared the Horison, or termination of the Sea; which seemed to mooue with a gentle gale, and many Sayles, lying some to come into the Port, and others passing out." Zephyrus, accompanied by nyads and tritons, presents Tethys' gifts: a trident to the King and "a rich sword and skarfe," symbolizing respectively justice and "Loue and Amitie," to the Prince. The second scene is an elaborate architectural set compartmented into five niches, the middle one being Tethys' throne, the others representing the caverns of the river nymphs; from these the women issue forth to present "seuerall flowers in golden vrnes" at the Tree of Victory. In the final scene, the Queen and her ladies are revealed "in their owne forme" in an artificial grove.

It is clear from Daniel's description of the sets and costumes and from Jones's extant drawings that the verse occupies a distinctly subordinate role in the entertainment. This is consistent with Daniel's conception of the masque as outlined in the preface to Tethys' Festival: "in these things ... the onely life consists in shew; the arte and inuention of the Architect giues the greatest grace, and is of most importance: ours [the verse], the least part and of least note in the time of the performance thereof." Nevertheless, Tethys' Festival does display Daniel's fine lyric gift, particularly in the song beginning "Are they shadowes that we see?" Overall, as Rees points out, the work is a "feeble effort at a date when the masque form was in its full flower."

There is evidence of rivalry, even hostility, between Jonson and Daniel during the latter years of his life. This rivalry may have begun as early as 1604, when Daniel was chosen to write the first Queen's masque. William Drummond of Hawthornden records Jonson's assertion that "Daniel was at jealousies with him," and many references in the prefatory matter to Daniel's last four dramatic works seem directed at Jonson. Given their widely differing conceptions of the masque and pastoral drama, some kind of feud is not unlikely.

During the last years of his life, Daniel gave his attention to his prose history of England. His last major poetic work was also his final dramatic work, for which he again turned to pastoral drama. Hymen's Triumph was presented in February 1614 as part of the Queen's entertainment for the marriage of the Earl of Roxborough to Jean Drummond. A manuscript copy, with a dedicatory poem to Jean Drummond, is in Edinburgh University Library. The play was first published in 1615.

Appropriate to the occasion for which it was written, the play celebrates constancy in love. The theme is set in the prologue, an allegorical encounter of Hymen, who dons a pastoral disguise to effect a marriage between two of the most constant lovers, with Avarice, Envy, and Jealousy, "the disturbers of quiet marriage."

Thirsis, a young shepherd, remains constant in his love for Silvia, who, two years before, had been abducted by pirates and is apparently dead. Silvia, however, has escaped and returned to Arcadia, disguising herself as a boy and hiring out as a servant to Cloris. She maintains her disguise until after the marriage of Alexis, to whom her father, out of avarice, had betrothed her. Before she can reveal herself to Thirsis, Silvia is stabbed by the jealous Montanus, who believes his beloved is in love with Silvia. Thirsis, having identified Silvia by a mole, vows to die with her, but they are miraculously saved and reunited.

Although Hymen's Triumph is less derivative than The Queen's Arcadia,, Daniel's use of the conventional plot elements of pastoral drama—the female disguised as a male, the mistakes in love which ensue from the disguise, thwarted love, abduction by pirates, and an oracle—results in "sentimentality and bathos," as Cecil C. Seronsy points out. Although marred by some lengthy, incompletely assimilated passages on avarice and inconstancy, the masque has a "variety of mood and a rich lyricism," and many passages bear a striking resemblance to Shakespeare's romantic comedies, particularly Twelfth Night and As You Like It.

Five years after completing his final dramatic work, Daniel died. He was buried on 14 October 1619 at Beckington, Somersetshire, where in the church the Countess Dowager of Pembroke—who as Lady Anne Clifford had been his pupil—erected a monument to "that excellent poet and historian."

Although important for their innovations, Daniel's plays are little read and largely unappreciated today, especially by readers nurtured on the popular drama of this period. Daniel's seriousness, quietness, restraint, dignity, reflectiveness, sober-mindedness, preference for the abstract and general—qualities admirable in much of his nondramatic poetry—are not traits which serve him effectively in a dramatic medium. His fine lyric gift, which rightly earned him the epithet "well-languaged Daniel," surfaces too rarely in his plays. His pastoral dramas and masques—among the few works he did not revise—are serviceable occasional pieces, but it is the two tragedies on which Daniel would have wanted his reputation as a dramatist to rest.

Edmund Spenser praised Daniel for his first book of poems, Delia, with The Complaint of Rosamond (1592). Daniel published 50 sonnets in this book, and more were added in later editions. The passing of youth and beauty is the theme of the Complaint, a tragic monologue. In The Tragedie of Cleopatra (1594) Daniel wrote a Senecan drama. The Civile Warres (1595–1609), a verse history of the Wars of the Roses, had some influence on Shakespeare in Richard II and Henry IV; it is Daniel’s most ambitious work.

Daniel’s finest poem is probably “Musophilus: Containing a Generall Defence of Learning,” dedicated to Fulke Greville. His Poeticall Essayes (1599) also include “A Letter from Octavia to Marcus Antonius.” His Defence of Ryme, answering Thomas Campion’s Observations in the Art of English Poesie, a critical essay, was published in 1603. Fame and honour are the subjects of “Ulisses and the Syren” (1605) and of A Funerall Poeme uppon the Earle of Devonshire (1606). He had to defend himself against a charge of sympathizing with the Earl of Essex in The Tragedie of Philotas, acted in 1604 (published 1605). His other masques include Tethys’ Festival (1610), staged with scenery by Inigo Jones, and The Queenes Arcadia (published 1606), a pastoral tragicomedy in the Italian fashion. Daniel’s last pastoral was Hymens Triumph (1615). He also wrote The Collection of the Historie of England (1612–18) as far as the reign of Edward III.

Many of Samuel Daniel's poems and plays were reprinted multiple times in collections of his writings during his lifetime, often in substantially revised editions that represented distinct versions of the works. The following list of Daniel's major works demonstrates the breadth of his writing, both in terms of subject and genre. Included in the list is a brief description of the work, the volume and year in which it originally appeared, and the years of significant revisions:

Delia – Sonnet cycle. Portions published in Philip Sidney's Astrophel & Stella (1591). First published in a complete, authorized version in Delia and The Complaint of Rosamond (1592), and in a second revised edition in the same year. Revised, expanded versions published in Delia and Rosamond Augmented. Cleopatra (1594) and The Works of Samuel Daniel Newly Augmented (1601).

The Complaint of Rosamond – Long historical poem (epyllion) about Rosamund Clifford, the mistress of King Henry II. First published in Delia and The Complaint of Rosamond (1592) and in a second revised edition in that same year. Revised, expanded version published in Delia and Rosamond Augmented. Cleopatra (1594).

The Tragedy of Cleopatra – Senecan, closet drama about Cleopatra's suicide following the death of Mark Antony. First published in Delia and Rosamond Augmented. Cleopatra (1594). Substantially revised in Certain Small Works Heretofore Divulged by Samuel Daniel, Now Again Corrected and Augmented (1607).

The Civil Wars Between the Houses of Lancaster and York – Epic poem on the series of conflicts that have come to be called "The Wars of the Roses", modeled on Lucan's Pharsalia. Four books published as The First Four Books of the Civil Wars (1595). Earlier manuscripts of Books 1 to 2 and Book 3 survive that include substantively different versions of those portions of the poem. A fifth book was added between 1595 and 1599 and is included in The Civil Wars in The Poetical Essays of Samuel Daniel (1599). A sixth book was added to the poem in The Works of Samuel Daniel, Newly Augmented (1601). The final version of the poem, expanded to eight books, was published, on its own, in 1609.

Musophilus, or A Defense of All Learning – Long dialogue in verse between a poet (Musophilus – lover of the muses) and a courtier (Philocosmus – lover of the world). First published in The Poetical Essays of Samuel Daniel (1599). Substantially revised and shortened in Certain Small Works Heretofore Divulged by Samuel Daniel, Now Again Corrected and Augmented (1607).

A Letter from Octavia to Marcus Antonius – Epistolary historical poem. First published in 1599 in The Poetical Essays of Samuel Daniel.

A Panegyrick Congratulatory to the King's Most Excellent Majesty – Poem delivered to King James on his accession to the crown of England, published in A Panegyrick Congratulatory Delivered to the King's Excellent Majesty, Also Certain Epistles, With a Defense of Rhyme (1603).

Epistles – Advisory letters, in verse, addressed to Sir Thomas Egerton (Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England), Lord Henry Howard (One of His Majesty's Privy Council), Lady Margaret Clifford (Countess of Cumberland), Lady Lucy Russell (Countess of Bedford), Lady Anne Clifford, and Henry Wriothesley (Earl of Southampton). First published in A Panegyrick Congratulatory Delivered to the King's Excellent Majesty, Also Certain Epistles, With a Defense of Rhyme (1603).

A Defense of Rhyme – Prose treatise defending the English verse's lack of adherence to classical standards, a response to Thomas Campion's Observations in the Art of English Poesie (1602). First published in A Panegyrick Congratulatory Delivered to the King's Excellent Majesty, Also Certain Epistles, With a Defense of Rhyme (1603).

The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses – One of the first masques to be presented to the Stuart court. A surreptitious edition was published in 1604 as The True Description of a Royal Masque, the year of its presentation at Hampton, and Daniel's authorized version was published that same year.[58]

Ulysses and the Siren – Short poem debating the attributes of an active compared to a contemplative life. First published in Certain Small Poems (1605).

The Tragedy of Philotas – Play in verse combining closet drama with elements of the popular stage. First published in Certain Small Poems (1605).

The Queen's Arcadia – Play in verse, tragicomic romance in the style of Italian pastoral drama. First published, on its own, in 1606.

A Funeral Poem Upon the Death of the Noble Earl of Devonshire – Valedictory poem upon the death of Charles Blount, Baron Mountjoy, who was created the Earl of Devonshire in 1603 and died in 1606. The poem was published, on its own, in the year of Blount's death. A revised version was included in Certain Small Works (1607).

Tethys' Festival – Masque to celebrate the investiture of James's son, Prince Henry, as Prince of Wales, in June 1610. Published in the year of its performance, in The Order and Solemnity of the Creation of the High and Mighty Prince Henry, Eldest Son to Our Sacred Sovereign, Prince of Wales. In the preface accompanying the printed edition, Daniel stated that the "art and invention" of the designer of the performance, Inigo Jones, was of "the greatest grace, and is of most importance: ours, the least part and of least note."

Hymen's Triumph – Pastoral play presented at the marriage of Jean Drummond to Robert Ker of Cressford, Lord Roxborough in 1614. Published in 1615.

Collection of the History of England – Prose history of England from its earliest documented days, pre-Norman conquest, through the reign of Edward III. The first portion was published in 1612 as The First Part of the History of England. The final version was published in 1618 and represented the last of Daniel's works published during his lifetime.

In 1623, the same year as the publication of Shakespeare's First Folio, Samuel Daniel's younger brother, John Danyel, a lute player and composer in King James's court, oversaw the publication of a collection of his brother's poetry in an edition titled The Whole Works of Samuel Daniel Esquire in Poetry. The collection was dedicated to King James's son, Prince Charles. It included copies of the 1609 edition of The Civil Wars, and newly printed editions of Daniel's other verse works, each generally with their own title page dated 1623 but based upon the final versions published during the poet's life.[61]

  

66-) English Literature

66-) English Literature

Samuel Daniel

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) was an English poet, playwright and historian in the late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean eras. He was an innovator in a wide range of literary genres. English contemplative poet, marked in both verse and prose by his philosophic sense of history.His best-known works are the sonnet cycle Delia, the epic poem The Civil Wars Between the Houses of Lancaster and York, the dialogue in verse Musophilus, and the essay on English poetry A Defense of Rhyme. He was considered one of the preeminent authors of his time and his works had a significant influence on contemporary writers, including William Shakespeare. Daniel's writings continued to influence authors for centuries after his death, especially the Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. C. S. Lewis called Daniel "the most interesting man of letters" whom the sixteenth century produced in England.

Life and literary career

Daniel was born in Somersetshire in 1562 or 1563, and little is known of his early life. His father is said to have been John Daniel, a musician. He matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 17 November 1581 and left three years later, apparently without taking a degree. During parts of 1585-1590 he traveled on the Continent, likely developing the knowledge of French and Italian literature which was to influence his dramatic work. His first published work, The Worthy Tract of Paulus Jovius (essentially a translation of Paolo Giovio's Dialogo dell' imprese militari et amorose), appeared in 1585, revealing an interest in emblems which was to surface later in The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses.

Daniel entered Oxford in 1581. After publishing a translation in 1585 for his first patron, Sir Edward Dymoke, he secured a post with the English ambassador at Paris; later he travelled in Italy, visiting the poet Battista Guarini in Padua. After 1592 he lived at Lincoln in the service of Sir Edward Dymoke, at Wilton as tutor to William Herbert, later earl of Pembroke, and at Skipton Castle, Yorkshire, as tutor to Lady Anne Clifford. In 1604 Queen Anne chose him to write a masque, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, in which she danced. She awarded him the right to license plays for the boy actors at the Blackfriars Theatre and a position as a groom, and later gentleman, of her privy chamber.

Early life, education, and relationship with John Florio

Little is known about Samuel Daniel's early life. Biographer Thomas Fuller in Histories of the Worthies of England (1662) states that he "was born not far from Taunton" in Somerset. The earliest evidence providing definitive details of his life is an entry in the signature book of Oxford University documenting his matriculation at Magdalen Hall (now Hertford College) on "17 Nov., 1581, aged 19". Daniel did not complete his degree at Oxford; Anthony à Wood in Athenae Oxonienses (1691) states that he "was more prone to easier and smoother studies, than in pecking and hewing at logic".

While at Oxford, Daniel met the author and translator John Florio, who was an Italian tutor at the university at the time. In 1582, Daniel contributed a Latin verse to Florio's Giardino di Recreatione. Daniel maintained a relationship with Florio for years thereafter. He wrote a dedicatory poem that was included in Florio's translation of Michel de Montaigne's Essays in 1603. The second edition of Florio's Montaigne, published in 1613, included a revised version of Daniel's dedication in which the poet referred to Florio as "my dear friend and brother". This has led to the inference that either Florio had married Daniel's sister or Daniel had married Florio's sister, an inference that has never been proven.

1585–1591: First published work and patronage of Sir Edward Dymoke

Daniel's first published work was The Worthy Tract of Paulus Jovius, a translation of an Italian treatise on impresa or emblems by historian Paolo Giovio. This emblem book was published in 1585 by Simon Waterson, who would remain Daniel's friend and principal publisher for the rest of his life. The Worthy Tract of Paulus Jovius was dedicated to Sir Edward Dymoke, the Queen's Champion. Daniel's association with Dymoke was the first of a series of close relationships with noble patrons that came to characterise the author's literary career.

Dymoke wrote a letter of introduction on Daniel's behalf which allowed the young student to live in the English embassy in France between 1585 and 1586 as he advanced his studies. Between 1590 and 1591, he returned to the continent, travelling part of the time accompanied by Dymoke. Daniel and Dymoke met the poet Giovanni Battista Guarini in Italy and defended English as a language worthy of poetry and great writers.

1591–1593: Patronage of Mary Sidney, Delia, Rosamond, and Cleopatra

Daniel's literary career was effectively launched in late 1591 with the unauthorized inclusion of some of his Delia sonnets in the posthumous first edition of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella. Sidney's sister, Mary Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke, objected to the surreptitious publication of her brother's work, and the edition was recalled by the Stationers Company. In 1592, Daniel published the first authorized edition of his own poetic works, the sonnet cycle Delia, and the historical poem The Complaint of Rosamond. Daniel dedicated Delia to Mary Sidney and begged her forgiveness for the inclusion of his poems in the unauthorized edition of her brother's work, claiming that he had been "betrayed by the indiscretions of a greedy printer." Soon after the publication of Delia and Rosamond, Daniel was invited to join the Pembroke household, serving the family in some capacity, perhaps as tutor to the twelve-year-old William Herbert. He also joined a group of writers encouraged by Mary Sidney that has come to be referred to as the Wilton Circle, a group that included Edmund Spenser, Michael Drayton, Sir John Davies, and Abraham Fraunce.

Immediately upon the publication of Delia and Rosamond, Daniel began receiving praise from English poets and scholars, including Thomas Nashe, Thomas Churchyard, and Gabriel Harvey. Edmund Spenser, at the time England's most highly regarded living author, endorsed Daniel in Colin Clouts Come Home Again (1595), stating that "there is a new shepherd late upsprung, / The which doth all afore him far surpass" and imploring his fellow poet to "rouse thy feathers quickly, Daniel, / And to what course thou please thyself advance".

From 1592 to 1593, under the patronage of Mary Sidney, Daniel completed The Tragedy of Cleopatra, which was published in 1594. The play was written at the request of Sidney as a sequel to Robert Garnier's French tragedy Marc-Antoine, a play she had translated into English as The Tragedy of Antony and published in 1592. Both plays were written in the style of classical closet drama, plays more intended to be read than performed. During the early to mid-twentieth century literary critics postulated that the plays were part of Mary Sidney's effort to reform English theater, returning it to classical standards espoused by her brother, Philip Sidney, in his Defense of Poesy. This view of Mary Sidney's work was advanced by T. S. Eliot in his 1932 essay, "Apology for the Countess of Pembroke". Subsequent literary criticism, however, has suggested that Sidney's literary efforts were not part of a campaign against English drama, but rather were efforts to adapt continental works on history for an English audience and use them for contemporary political commentary.

1594–1601: Mountjoy, Civil Wars, Poetical Essays, and Works

After the publication of Cleopatra, Daniel parted ways with Mary Sidney and experienced financial difficulties. He was taken in by Charles Blount, Baron Mountjoy, as described in the first edition of Daniel's epic poem about the Wars of the Roses, The First Four Books of the Civil Wars Between the Two Houses of Lancaster and York, published in 1595. The poem included complimentary references to Mountjoy and a section praising him and his close friend Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex. Daniel had worked at Essex's estate, Wanstead, as he wrote the initial version of his poem.

Between 1595 and 1599, Daniel added a fifth book to The Civil Wars and included the expanded poem in The Poetical Essays of Samuel Daniel, a collection of his works dedicated to Mountjoy and published in 1599. The collection included revised versions of Delia, Rosamond, and Cleopatra, as well as two new works, Musophilus and A Letter From Octavia to Marcus Antonius. Musophilus was dedicated to Daniel's friend and fellow poet Fulke Greville, whose discussions with Daniel had inspired the dialogue in verse, a debate between a poet and a courtier on the value of writing poetry relative to more worldly pursuits. A Letter from Octavia was dedicated to Margaret Clifford, the Countess of Cumberland, whose relationship with her philandering husband inspired Daniel's sympathetic portrayal of Mark Antony's wife, Octavia. The use of the word "Essays" in the title of the collection may have been inspired by Montaigne's French work that had used the same word in its title. Like Montaigne's writings, Daniel's collection included works that debated topics in a contemplative, self-reflective style.

During the late 1590s to first years of the 1600s, Daniel took on the role of tutor to the young Anne Clifford, daughter of the Countess of Cumberland, the woman to whom he had dedicated A Letter to Octavia. Anne Clifford maintained a sense of gratitude and affection toward Daniel through the rest of her life. She included his portrait and volumes of his works in the family triptych she commissioned that has come to be known as The Great Picture.

In 1601, a new collection of Daniel's writings was published titled The Works of Samuel Daniel, Newly Augmented. Once again, the collection contained revised editions of his earlier works, including an expanded version of The Civil Wars that now extended to a sixth book. The Civil Wars was newly dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, likely reflecting Daniel's elevated stature as one of the leading poets of the day, regarded by some as the successor to Edmund Spenser, who had died in 1599.

1603–1607: Royal patronage, Philotas, and the death of Mountjoy

After Queen Elizabeth's death and King James's accession in 1603, Daniel quickly became associated with the new court. Through the support of Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, he presented his Panegyrick Congratulatory to the King's Most Excellent Majesty to the new king in April of that year.[34] A revised version of the poem was published later in 1603, along with Daniel's Epistles addressed to various members of the nobility and his essay A Defense of Rhyme.

Daniel became closely associated with King James's queen, Anne (or Anna) of Denmark, who commissioned him to write a masque, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, which was performed at Hampton Court in January 1604. In February of that year, Daniel was appointed the licenser of plays for the Children of the Queen's Revels, giving him the responsibility of reviewing the plays presented to the court. This appointment ultimately led to the only known significant difficulty and embarrassment that Daniel encountered in his literary career. Two controversial plays The Dutch Courtesan and Eastward Ho! were both performed by the Children of the Queen's Revels after having been approved by Daniel. More disturbingly for Daniel, his own play, The Tragedy of Philotas, performed before King James in January 1605, was believed to include political commentary on the seditious end of the Earl of Essex, who had been executed in 1601. Daniel was called before the Privy Council to defend himself. Although he was acquitted of any charges, the incident caused him great embarrassment, resulting in written apologies to his longtime friend Charles Blount (formerly Baron Mountjoy, then the Earl of Devonshire), whom he had inadvertently pulled into the affair, and to Robert Cecil, King James's advisor and Secretary of State. In an epistle to Prince Henry, that accompanied the 1605 printed version of Philotas, Daniel reflected his new world-weary perspective, stating that "years hath done this wrong, / To make me write too much, and live too long."

If the controversy surrounding Philotas damaged Daniel's reputation with King James, the damage was short-lived. In 1605, the play was included in the published collection of his works, Certain Small Poems, and in August his pastoral tragicomedy The Queen's Arcadia was performed before Queen Anne and Prince Henry at Christ Church in Oxford.

In April 1606, Daniel's friend and patron, Charles Blount, died. Daniel wrote a funeral poem to his longtime supporter that was printed as A Funeral Poem Upon the Death of the Noble Earl of Devonshire and included in the 1607 edition of Daniel's Certain Small Works. The title page of that collection of Daniel's works was the first to refer to him as "one of the Grooms of the Queen's Majesty's Privy Chamber", an elevated status that he shared with his friend John Florio. Certain Small Works included a substantially revised edition of The Tragedy of Cleopatra, one that has been thought to be more performable on stage than the original closet drama version. Recent scholarship has identified a painting of a noblewoman dressed as Cleopatra as being a portrait of Anne Clifford dressed as the Egyptian queen, perhaps associated with a staged performance of the 1607 version of Daniel's play.

1609–1619: Final version of Civil Wars, country life, prose History, and death

In 1609, Daniel published his final version of The Civil Wars, a work that now extended to eight books. Daniel dedicated the work to Mary Sidney, the patron who had helped first bring him to prominence. In the dedication to the epic poem, he stated that he had intended to continue the work "unto the glorious union of Henry VII", meaning the marriage of Henry Tudor (Queen Elizabeth's grandfather) to Elizabeth of York in 1486. The final version of the poem, however, only extended through Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. In the dedication, Daniel also stated that he intended to write a prose "History of England, from the Conquest", introducing the principal project that was to occupy the rest of his literary career and life.

Daniel spent most of the final decade of his life in semi-retirement, living at a country house in the small hamlet of Ridge (now Rudge) in the village of Beckington in Somerset. In 1610, he wrote the masque Tethys' Festival, which was performed at Whitehall to celebrate the investiture of King James's son, Henry, as Prince of Wales. During the next few years, Daniel conducted research on English history, relying in part on the expertise and collections of his friends, the antiquarians William Camden and Robert Cotton. In 1612, he published the first instalment of his prose history, The First Part of the History of England, an edition covering the early years of England's history, from the Norman Conquest (1066) through the end of the reign of King Stephen (1154). In 1614, he wrote the pastoral play, Hymen's Triumph, which was performed to celebrate the wedding of Jean Drummond to Robert Ker, 1st Earl of Roxburghe at Queen Anne's new palace, Somerset House.

Daniel was said to have lost his place as a groom of the privy chamber to Anne of Denmark in 1618 for visiting a disgraced courtier, Robert Lloyd alias Flood.

The final version of Daniel's prose history, The Collection of the History of England was published in 1618. It included material from The First Part of the History and continued from the point where that work had left off through the end of the reign of Edward III (1377).

The final work that Daniel wrote was a poem addressed to James Montague, Bishop of Winchester, in 1618. It was intended to console the Bishop who was suffering from jaundice. The work suggests that Daniel may have been suffering from the same illness; he says of "this close vanquishing / And secret wasting sickness" that he had "struggled with it too".

It is unclear if Daniel was ever married. The burial of a "Mrs. Daniell" is recorded in the Beckington register in March 1619, seven months before Daniel's death; however, it is unknown if this was the author's wife. Daniel executed his will on 4 September 1619 and died the following month; he was buried on 14 October 1619 at St George's Church in Beckington. In the 1650s, Daniel's old student, Anne Clifford, had a memorial monument erected to honour him at the church.