Sir William Davenant, the Senses, and Royalism in the Seventeenth Century

Within the last decade, there has been a renewed level of interest in civil war general, writer and theatre proprietor, Sir William Davenant (1606-1668). The field of sensory studies has also flourished in recent years and, over the past two to three decades especially, research into royalism and royalist literature has produced numerous extensive studies. However, scholarship dealing with royalism only provides vague allusions to the place of the senses and sensuality within royalism and royalist literature. Davenant’s work is striking in that it engages both overtly and more subtly with the relationship between the senses, sensuality, royalist identities, and the values accommodated by royalist ideologies. This thesis offers a thorough re-evaluation of Davenant’s writing in relation to the senses, contributing towards a better understanding of the way in which royalists conceptualise their own sensory experiences, and those of others. In turn, this is vital in understanding royalism as a whole and the way in which such concepts contribute towards its varied nature and accommodating ideologies. It also enables a deeper appreciation of the impact of Davenant’s own forms of royalism upon his literary output. My approach builds upon the critical field of sensory studies by considering the way in which royalist identities may influence writers’ approaches to the sensory experience during the seventeenth century.