The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Volume 2 of 2

In Short

This second volume collects the shorter poetic works of Sir John Davies, showcasing his versatility as a Jacobean lawyer, courtier, and poet. The book opens with sharp, satirical epigrams skewering the absurdities and vices of London society, transitions into playful courtly allegories and love sonnets, and concludes with a series of devotional verse paraphrases of the Biblical Psalms. Davies endures because his verse captures both the stinging, observational wit of the Elizabethan street and the deeply pious, structured spiritual reflection of his era's higher art.

The Story

The volume traces a dramatic arc from worldly cynicism to spiritual devotion. It opens in the bustling, chaotic streets of Renaissance London, where Davies turns a scathing eye on the social types of his day. Through dozens of compact epigrams, he exposes the foolishness, vanity, and moral failings of court gallants, cowardly knights, hypocritical lovers, and posturing swaggerers. These poems offer no overarching narrative plot; instead, their narrative momentum comes from a relentless parade of human absurdity. Figures like Faustus ride tirelessly across town to brothels, taverns, and theaters only to lose their physical stamina, while cowardly bravos like Sylla boast of their courage yet make excuses to avoid any real duel.

As the collection moves past these sharp urban satires, the setting shifts from the tavern and the street into the refined spaces of the Elizabethan court and noble households. Davies presents dramatic entertainments, allegorical debates, and occasion-bound verse designed for elite audiences. A highlight of this middle section is a lively poetic debate between a wife, a widow, and a maiden, each vigorously defending the superiority of her social and marital status. Alongside these pageants are lighter lyrical works: verse lotteries written for the Queen, glowing hymns celebrating the divine utility of music, and delicate sonnets addressed to a mistress. Here, Davies presents love as a courtly game filled with legal metaphors, playful flattery, and romantic angst.

In its final movement, the volume sheds both its urban cynicism and its courtly playfulness to turn entirely toward the divine. Davies provides a lengthy, metric paraphrase of the Psalms, adapting sacred scripture into structured English verse. The narrative progression reaches its culmination as the speaker abandons human vanity to plead for God’s mercy, celebrate divine justice, and seek refuge from worldly enemies. The book closes with a handful of miscellaneous poems and a moving contemporary elegy written upon Davies' death, framing the poet as a man who ultimately rose above the corrupt tribunals of his age to seek an uncorrupted heavenly court.

How It Unfolds

Scathing urban satire The collection begins with a series of biting epigrams that mock the gallants, coxcombs, and hypocrites roaming Elizabethan London. Davies exposes their posturing, from knights who boast of bravery while avoiding fights to vanity-driven courtiers who waste their lives in brothels and taverns.

Debating womanhood and virtue The focus shifts to courtly entertainments, featuring a structured poetic dialogue between a Wife, a Widow, and a Maid. Each figure argues the merits of her station, contrasting domestic duty, past memories, and angelic purity in a battle of wits.

Courtly games and romantic longing Davies introduces verse written for elite gatherings, including a lottery pageant performed before the Queen and sonnets celebrating music and love. The poems deploy intricate legal terms and clever analogies to portray the agony and absurdity of romantic devotion.

Devotional turning to the Psalms The volume pivots decisively to sacred art through a extensive verse metaphrase of the Biblical Psalms. The tone becomes earnest and penitent as the speaker prays for deliverance from wicked enemies and sings praises to divine justice.

A poet's final elevation The book concludes with miscellaneous verses and an elegiac poem written upon Sir John Davies' death. The closing memorial celebrates the poet for scorning corrupt earthly honors and soaring toward a higher, unbribed heavenly tribunal.

The People

• Sir John Davies (The Poet) — The central perspective throughout the volume. He begins as a keen, sarcastic observer of human folly in London, transforms into a polished courtly entertainer, and ultimately ends as a humble, pious psalmist seeking divine grace.
• The London Gallants (Faustus, Sylla, Marcus, and others) — A collective rogue's gallery of Elizabethan social types. They desire status, pleasure, and a reputation for bravery, but their cowardice, lust, and superficiality continuously humiliate them.
• The Wife, the Widow, and the Maid — Three allegorical figures in a courtly debate. The Wife defends the joy and status of marriage, the Widow championing her mature independence, and the Maid asserting her spotless, angelic purity; each claims her state offers the highest virtue.
• The Psalmist Speaker — The devotional persona of the latter half of the book. Beset by persecutors and conscious of human frailty, he seeks spiritual protection, trusting entirely in God's righteousness to deliver him from his foes.

In Its Own Voice

"Who dares affirme that Silla dares not fight? / When I dare sweare he dares adventure more / Than the most braue and all-daring wight"

In this sharp line from his epigrams, Davies satirizes a boastful coward by listing all the foolish, shameful risks he takes in London while studiously avoiding actual combat.

"The maide, like Paradice, vndrest, vntil'd, / Beares crops of natiue vertue in her breast."

Spoken during the formal poetic debate, the Maid defends her unmarried state by comparing her unblemished soul to an untouched, fruitful paradise.

"The Lord from heauen did send His thunder lowd / With fire and haile from out the broken cloud"

In his poetic paraphrase of the Psalms, Davies captures the awe and majesty of divine power descending to protect the righteous from their enemies.

What It's Really About

Beneath its varied poetic forms, the book is fundamentally an investigation into human vanity and the search for true order. In the early epigrams, Davies illustrates how easily people deceive themselves, chasing false notions of honor, courtly prestige, and physical pleasure while degenerating into folly. The middle entertainments examine social roles, testing whether happiness is best found in marital duty, independent reflection, or pure devotion. When the volume shifts to the Psalms, Davies provides his ultimate answer: earthly honors and human cleverness are fleeting and corruptible. True security and beauty exist only in aligning the human spirit with divine law and heavenly harmony.

Why Read It Today

Modern readers interested in the Early Modern era will find this volume a captivating slice of Elizabethan life and literature. It offers a fascinating dual perspective, combining the gritty, cynical humor of early London satire with the high-minded rhetoric of court entertainments and Protestant devotion. Reading Davies feels like stepping directly into the Jacobean world—one moment you are overhearing gossip and insults in the aisles of St. Paul's Cathedral, and the next you are watching a private pageant written for Queen Elizabeth I.

The book does present genuine difficulties for the contemporary reader. The satire relies heavily on 16th-century legal jargon, arch idioms, and archaic spelling, while the marginal notes and footnoted scholarly debates require patience. Furthermore, the period attitudes toward gender, class, and religion reflect the strict hierarchies of the early 17th century. Yet for those who enjoy poetic craft, Davies' crisp meter, inventive rhymes, and transition from earthly wit to sacred reverence make this collection a remarkably rewarding journey through the Renaissance mind.