Feversham, sent up to town, and put into the custody of a sergeant at
arms[2]. In the month of July following, our author was bailed, and
not long after finding it necessary, on account of the violence of the
times, to withdraw to France, he had the misfortune to be seized again
in Kent by the Mayor of Canterbury; how he escaped the present danger,
none of his biographers have related, but it appears that he did not,
upon this occasion, suffer long confinement; he at last retired beyond
sea, where he continued for some time, but the Queen sending over a
considerable quantity of military stores, for the use of the earl of
Newcastle's army, Mr. Davenant returned again to England, offered his
service to that noble peer, who was his old friend and patron, and by
him made lieutenant-general of his ordnance: this promotion gave
offence to many, who were his rivals in his lordship's esteem: they
remonstrated, that Sir William Davenant, being a poet, was, for that
very reason, unqualified for a place of so much trust, and which
demanded one of a solid, and less volatile turn of mind, than the sons
of Parnassus generally are. In this complaint they paid but an
indifferent compliment to the General himself, who was a poet, and had
written, and published several plays. That Davenant behaved well in
his military capacity is very probable, since, in the month of
September, 1643, he received the honour of knighthood from the King,
at the siege of Gloucester, an acknowledgment of his bravery, and
signal services, which bestowed at a time when a strict scrutiny was
made concerning the merit of officers, puts it beyond doubt, that
Davenant, in his martial character, was as deserving as in his
poetical. During these severe contentions, and notwithstanding his
public character, our author's muse sometimes raised her voice, in the
composition of several plays, of which we shall give some account when
we enumerate his dramatic performances. History is silent as to the
means which induced Davenant to quit the Northern army, but as soon as