Notes and Queries, Number 66, February 1, 1851 | Page 3

private, lived in Oxon in the condition of a sojourner, and follow'd his studies, tho' he wore a cloak. However, among his serious thoughts, making reflections upon his own condition, which sometimes was an affliction to him, he composed that excellent philosophical and divine poem called Nosce Teipsum."
It is not a little singular that this very Richard Martin, whose chastisement is thus recorded, had {83} been on terms of strict friendship with our "high-spirited" young lawyer. In 1596, Davies had published his poem on dancing, entitled Orchestra, the title-page of which is followed by a dedicatory sonnet "To his very friend, Ma. Richard Martin." This sonnet is written in extravagant terms of friendship and admiration; and as it is only to be found in the rare first edition, and in the almost equally rare Bibliographical Catalogue of the Ellesmere Collection, some of your readers may not be displeased to see it on the present occasion:--
"TO HIS VERY FRIEND MA. RICH. MARTIN.
"To whom shall I this dauncing Poeme send, This suddaine, rash, halfe-capreol of my wit? To you, first mover and sole cause of it, Mine-owne-selves better halve, my deerest frend. O, would you yet my Muse some Honny lend From your mellifluous tongue, whereon doth sit Suada in majestie, that I may fit These harsh beginnings with a sweeter end. You know the modest sunne full fifteene times Blushing did rise, and blushing did descend, While I in making of these ill made rimes, My golden bowers unthriftily did spend. Yet, if in friendship you these numbers prayse, I will mispend another fifteene dayes."
The cause of quarrel between the two young lawyers is not known, but the "offence," whatever it was, was not slight. In the year 1622, when Davies reprinted his poetical works, we find that his feelings of resentment against his once "very friend" had not abated, for in place of the dedicatory sonnet to Richard Martin, is substituted a sonnet addressed to Prince Charles; and at the conclusion of the poem, he left a hiatus after the one hundred and twenty-sixth stanza, on account of the same quarrel.
Sir John Davies's celebrated poem, Nosce Teipsum (mentioned by Wood in the previous extract), is said to have gained the author the favour of James I., even before he came to the crown. Wood gives the precise period of its composition, and, I think, with every appearance of truth, although it does not accord with the statement of modern biographers, that it was written at twenty-five years of age. (See Campbell's Essay on Poetry, &c., ed. 1848, p. 184.) The first edition of this poem was printed in 4to. in the year 1599, and has for its title the following:--
"Nosce Teipsum. This Oracle expounded in Two Elegies. 1. Of Humane Knowledge. 2. Of the Soule of Man, and the Immortalitie thereof. London, Printed by Richard Field, for John Standish. 43 leaves."
As I am deeply interested in all that relates to the subject of this note, I have compiled a list of editions of the above poem, which shows its popularity for more than a century and a half:--
1. 1599. London, 4to. First edition. 2. 1602. ib. 4to. Second ed. 3. 1608. ib. 4to. Third ed. 4. 1619. ib. 8vo. Fourth ed. 5. 1622. ib. 8vo. The last edition printed during the Author's lifetime. 6. 1653. ib. 4to. Published by T. Jenner with curious plates, and prose paraphrase. 7. 1688. ib. folio. With prose dissertation. 8. 1697. Dublin, 8vo. With Life of the Author, by Nahum Tate. 9. 1714. ib. 12mo. Second edition by Tate. 10. 1733. ib. 8vo. With Essay by Dr. Sheridan. 11. 1749. London, 12mo. 12. 1759. Glasgow, 12mo. With Life of the Author. 13. 1760. London, 8vo. In Capel's Prolusions. 14. 1773. ib. 12mo. In Davies's Poetical Works, edited by Thompson.
Sir John Davies left behind him a large number of MSS. upon various subjects, none of which have since been printed. It would be very desirable that a list, as far as can now be made out, should be put on record. Anthony Wood says, several of Davies's MSS. were formerly in the library of Sir James Ware of Ireland and since that in the possession of Edward, Earl of Clarendon. The most interesting of these MSS. were a Collection of Epigrams, and a Metaphrase of David's Psalms. The Harleian MSS., Nos. 1578. and 4261., contain two law treatises of this learned writer, and in Thorpe's Catalogue for 1823, I find A Treatise of Tenures touchinge his Majesties Prerogative Royal, by John Davies, folio, MS.
Granger does not record any engraved portrait of this writer, and all my enquiries have failed in discovering one. In Mr. Soame Jenyn's Hall, at Botesham, in Cambridgeshire (in 1770), was a full-length portrait of an elderly gentleman in a gown, with a