John Denham (poet)

Sir John Denham FRS (1614 or 1615 – 19 March 1669) was an Anglo-Irish poet and courtier, who formulated a primary model of the English pastoral epic in his poem Cooper's Hill.

During the Civil War he served the Royalist cause in various capacities, enjoying the trust and favour of Charles I and Henrietta Maria and assisting in their embassies and secret correspondence.

Having lost most of his estates by sequestration for delinquency (in supporting the royal cause) and through a disposition to gambling, at the Restoration he recovered his fortunes, and became Surveyor of the King's Works (between the terms of office of Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren).

The family later settled at Egham in Surrey, where the poet's father rebuilt the rectory, called "The Place", and in 1624 founded almshouses for five poor women.

[7] He progressed to Trinity College, Oxford (where he matriculated in November 1631 as of Little Horkesley),[8] and to Lincoln's Inn in London (admitted 26 April 1631; barrister-at-law in 1638).

Anthony à Wood says that at Oxford he was looked upon as a slow and dreaming young man, given more to cards and dice than his study: he was examined for his B.A., but it is not proved that he was awarded his degree.

[7] At Lincoln's Inn, though he followed his study very close, "yet he would game much, and frequent the company of the unsanctified crew of gamesters, who rook'd him sometimes of all he could wrap or get.

This production, intelligently argued and peppered with Latin lines from classical authors, seems fully sincere despite a certain bravado, and was published long afterwards (1651) for the common good, supposedly without Denham's knowledge.

[18] This model of pastoral epic, in which Denham successfully combined moral reflections (prompted by the distant prospect of Old St Paul's Cathedral) with the proximate scenery of Windsor Forest, the River Thames and Runnymede, freighted with ancient royal associations, was his masterpiece and his lasting example to literary posterity.

[19] Thomas Catesby Paget remarked: "Sir John Denham's Cooper's Hill has met with universal Applause, tho' its Subject seems rather descriptive than instructing; but 'tis not the Hill, the River, nor the Stag Chase, 'tis the good Sense and the fine Reflections so frequently interspers'd, and as it were interwoven with the rest, that gives it the Value, and will make it, as was said of true Wit, everlasting like the Sun.

Farnham quickly fell to Parliamentary forces under Sir William Waller (1 December 1642), and Denham was sent a prisoner to London, but was soon released.

[22] However, his estates in Suffolk and Essex (Horkesley) were sequestrated in December 1643, and in November 1645 his distressed wife Anne brought a petition claiming that the Committees for those counties were attempting to cheat her out of her one-fifth part entitlement.

The King, being in custody when leaving Hampton Court in November 1647, gave to Denham the personal charge of the secret forwarding and receiving of the royal correspondence, instructing him to remain privately in London.

[25] It is said that Denham stayed abroad as much to avoid the consequences of his debts in England and the dissipation of his Egham estate, as from any fear of his personal safety for political reasons.

"In the time of the civill warres, George Withers, the poet, begged Sir John Denham's estate at Egham of the Parliament, in whose cause he was a captaine of horse.

[25] John Webb, who, as Inigo Jones's deputy, was undoubtedly competent for the post, complained that "though Mr. Denham may, as most gentry, have some knowledge of the theory of architecture, he can have none of the practice and must employ another".

Margaret, a beautiful young woman almost thirty years Denham's junior, conducted a very public liaison with the future King James II.

Yet it is observed that his beautiful elegy upon Abraham Cowley, written at this time, shows no loss of his powers poetical nor diminution of his intellectuals.

"[43] He also received extravagant praise from Samuel Johnson, who quoted Denham's verse to exemplify the use of several words;[44] but the place now assigned to him is more humble.