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.