D'Avenant, Sir William

D'Avenant, Sir William (1606–68), was rumoured to be the natural son of Shakespeare. In 1630–2 he was gravely ill with syphilis, a subject referred to in his own works and in the jests of others; his first play on his recovery was probably his comic masterpiece The Wits, performed 1633, printed 1636. In 1638 he succeeded to Jonson's pension as unofficial poet laureate, then actively supported Charles I in the Civil War and was knighted by him in 1643 at the siege of Gloucester. In 1645 he visited Paris, where he met Hobbes, to whom he addressed his Preface (1650) to Gondibert (1651). He was imprisoned in the Tower, 1650–2, and is said to have been saved by Milton. With The Siege of Rhodes (1656) he simultaneously evaded the ban on stage- plays and produced one of the earliest English operas (but see also Flecknoe). After the Restoration he and T. Killigrew the elder obtained patents from Charles II giving them the monopoly of acting in London. Among the innovations of the period were movable scenery and the use of actresses. In conjunction with Dryden, D'Avenant adapted various of Shakespeare's plays including The Tempest (1667); he is satirized with Dryden in Buckingham's The Rehearsal.