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GABRIEL DANIEL (1649-1728)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 809 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GABRIEL See also:DANIEL (1649-1728)  , See also:French Jesuit historian, was See also:born at See also:Rouen on the 8th of See also:February 1649 . He was educated by the See also:Jesuits, entered the See also:order at the See also:age of eighteen, andbecame See also:superior at See also:Paris . He is best known by his Histoire de See also:France depuis l'etablissement de la monarchie francaise (first See also:complete edition, 1713), which was republished in 1720, 1721, 1725, 1742, and (the last edition, with notes by See also:Father Griffet) 1755-1760 . See also:Daniel published an abridgment in 1724 (See also:English trans., 1726), and another abridgment was published by Dorival in 1751 . Though full of prejudices which affect his accuracy, Daniel had the See also:advantage of consulting valuable See also:original See also:sources . His Histoire de la milice francaise, &c . (1721) is superior to his Histoire de France, and may still be consulted with advantage . Daniel also wrote a by no means successful reply to See also:Pascal's Provincial Letters, entitled Entretiens de Cleanthe et d'Eudoxe sur See also:les lettres provinciales (1694); two See also:treatises on the Cartesian theory as to the intelligence of the See also:lower animals, and other See also:works . See Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus, t. ii . DANIEL, See also:SAMUEL (1562-1619), English poet and historian, was the son of a See also:music-See also:master, and was born near See also:Taunton, in See also:Somersetshire, in 1562 . Another son, See also:John Daniel, was a musician, who held some offices at See also:court, and was the author of Songs for the See also:Lute, See also:Viol and See also:Voice (16o6) . In 1579 Samuel was admitted a commoner of Magdalen See also:Hall, See also:Oxford, where he remained for about three years, and then gave himself up to the unrestrained study of See also:poetry and See also:philosophy .

The name of Samuel Daniel is given as the servant of See also:

Lord See also:Stafford, See also:ambassador in France, in 1586, and probably refers to the poet . He was first encouraged and, if we may believe him, taught in See also:verse, by the famous countess of See also:Pembroke, whose See also:honour he was never weary of proclaiming . He had entered her See also:household as See also:tutor to her son, See also:William See also:Herbert . His first known See also:work, a See also:translation of See also:Paulus See also:Jovius, to which some original See also:matter is appended, was printed in 1585 . His first known See also:volume of verse is dated 1592; it contains the See also:cycle of sonnets to See also:Delia and the See also:romance called The Complaint of See also:Rosamond . Twenty-seven of the sonnets had already been printed at the end of See also:Sir See also:Philip See also:Sidney's Astrophel and Stella without the author's consent . Several See also:editions of Delia appeared in 1592, and they were very frequently reprinted during Daniel's lifetime . We learn by See also:internal See also:evidence that Delia lived on the See also:banks of See also:Shakespeare's See also:river, the See also:Avon, and that the sonnets to her were inspired by her memory when the poet was in See also:Italy . To an edition of Delia and Rosamond, in 1594, was added the tragedy of See also:Cleopatra, a severe study in the manner of the ancients, in alternately rhyming heroic verse, diversified by stiff choral interludes . The First Four Books of the See also:Civil See also:Wars, an See also:historical poem in ottava rima, appeared in 1595 . The bibliography of Daniel's works is attended with See also:great difficulty, but as far as is known it was not until 1599 that there was published a volume entitled Poetical Essays, which contained, besides the " Civil Wars," " Musophilus, " and " A See also:letter from See also:Octavia to See also:Marcus See also:Antonius," poems in Daniel's finest and most mature manner . About this See also:time he became tutor to See also:Anne See also:Clifford, daughter of the countess of See also:Cumberland, On the See also:death of See also:Spenser, in the same See also:year, Daniel received the somewhat vague See also:office of poet-See also:laureate, which he seems, however to have shortly resigned in favour of See also:Ben See also:Jonson .

Whether it was on this occasion is not known, but about this time, and at the recommendation of his See also:

brother-in-See also:law, Giovanni See also:Florio, he was taken into favour at court, and wrote a See also:Panegyric Congratulatorie offered to the See also:King at Burleigh See also:Harrington in Rutlandshire, in ottava rima . In 1603 this poem was published, and in many cases copies contained in addition his Poetical Epistles to his patrons and an elegant See also:prose See also:essay called A See also:Defence of Rime (originally printed in 16o2) in See also:answer to See also:Thomas See also:Campion's Observations on the See also:Art of English Poesie, in which it was contended that See also:rhyme was unsuited to the See also:genius of the English See also:language . In 1603, moreover, Daniel was appointed master of the See also:queen's See also:revels . In this capacity he brought out a See also:series of masques and See also:pastoral tragi-comedies,—of which were printed A See also:Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, in 1604; The Queen's See also:Arcadia, an See also:adaptation of See also:Guarini's Pastor Fido, in 16o6; Tethys Festival or the Queenes See also:Wake, written on the occasion of See also:Prince See also:Henry's becoming a See also:Knight of the See also:Bath, in 161o; and See also:Hymen's See also:Triumph, in honour of Lord Roxburgh's See also:marriage in 1615 . Meanwhile had appeared, in 16o5, Certain Small Poems, with the tragedy of Philotas; the latter was a study, in the same See also:style as Cleopatra, written some five years earlier . This See also:drama brought its author into difficulties, as Philotas, with whom he expressed some sympathy, was taken to represent See also:Essex . In 1607, under the See also:title of Certaine small I4'orkes heretofore divulged by Samuel Daniel, the poet issued a revised version of all his works except Delia and the Civil Wars . In 1609 the Civil Wars had been completed in eight books . In 1612 Daniel published a prose See also:History of See also:England, from the earliest times down to the end of the reign of See also:Edward III . This work afterwards continued, and published in 1617, was very popular with See also:Drayton's contemporaries . The See also:section dealing with William the Conqueror was published in 1692 as being the work of Sir See also:Walter See also:Raleigh, apparently without sufficient grounds . Daniel was made a See also:gentleman-extraordinary and See also:groom of the chamber to Queen Anne, See also:sinecure offices which offered no hindrance to an active See also:literary career .

Phoenix-squares

He was now acknowledged as one of the first writers of the time . Shakespeare, See also:

Selden and See also:Chapman are named among the few intimates who were permitted to intrude upon the seclusion of a See also:garden-See also:house in Old See also:Street, St See also:Luke's, where, See also:Fuller tells us, he would " See also:lie hid for some months together, the more retiredly to enjoy the See also:company of the See also:Muses, and then would appear in public to See also:con-verse with his See also:friends." See also:Late in See also:life Daniel threw up his titular posts at court and retired to a See also:farm called " The See also:Ridge," which he rented at See also:Beckington, near See also:Devizes in See also:Wiltshire . Here he died on the 14th of See also:October 1619 . The poetical writings of Daniel are very numerous, but in spite of the eulogies of all the best critics, they were See also:long neglected . This is the more singular since, during the 18th See also:century, when so little Elizabethan literature was read, Daniel retained his poetical See also:prestige . In later times See also:Coleridge, See also:Charles See also:Lamb and others expended some of their most genial criticisms on this poet . Of his multifarious works the sonnets are now, perhaps, most read . They depart from the See also:Italian See also:sonnet See also:form in closing with a See also:couplet, as is the See also:case with most of the sonnets of See also:Surrey and See also:Wyat, but they have a See also:grace and tenderness all their own . Of a higher order is The Complaint of Rosamond, a soliloquy in which the See also:ghost of the murdered woman appears and bewails her See also:fate in stanzas of exquisite pathos . Among the Epistles to Distinguished Persons will be found some of Daniel's noblest stanzas and most polished verse . The See also:epistle to See also:Lucy, countess of See also:Bedford, is remarkable among those as being composed in genuine terza rima, till then not used in English . Daniel was particularly fond of a four-lined See also:stanza of See also:solemn alternately rhyming iambics, a form of verse distinctly misplaced in his dramas .

These, inspired it would seem by like attempts of the countess of Pembroke's, are hard and frigid; his pastorals are far more pleasing; and Hymen's Triumph is perhaps the best of all his dramatic See also:

writing . An See also:extract from this masque is given in Lamb's Dramatic Poets, and it was highly praised by Coleridge . In elegiac verse he always excelled, but most of all in his touching address To the See also:Angel Spirit of the Most Excellent Sir Philip Sidney . We must not neglect to quote Musophilus among the most characteristic writings of Daniel . It is a See also:dialogue between a courtier and a See also:man of letters, and is a See also:general defence of learning, and in particular of poetic learning as an See also:instrument in the See also:education of the perfect courtier or man of See also:action . It is addressed to See also:Fulke Greville, and written, with much sententious See also:melody, in a sort of terza rima, or, more properly, ottava rima with the couplet omitted . Daniel was a great reformer in verse, and the introducer of several valuable novelties . It may be broadly said of his style that it is full, easy and stately, without being very animated or splendid . It attains a high See also:average of general excellence, and is content with level flights . As a gnomic writer Daniel approaches Chapman, but is far more musical and coherent . He is wanting in See also:fire and See also:passion, but he is pre-eminent in scholarly grace and See also:tender, mournful See also:reverie . Daniel's works were edited by A .

B . See also:

Grosart in 1885–1896 . (E .

End of Article: GABRIEL DANIEL (1649-1728)
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