John Davies of Hereford, *Microcosmos*, and Henry Neville

Topic: John Davies of Hereford, Microcosmos, and Henry Neville

Source-Control Position

• Rechecked EarlyPrint/TCP A19903: it controls the 1603 Microcosmos title/imprint and the Neville dedication poem, including the closing Ne-vile / denies the vile pun.
• The 1616 too worthie for a counterfeit lane belongs to local TCP A19911, not to A19903. It should be routed through the Davies chronology / Some-body-No-body packet before being used as reception evidence.
• Keep the identity guardrail from francis bacon: Bacon's 1603 letter is to Sir John Davies the lawyer-poet, not John Davies of Hereford.
• BRO sweep found no direct Davies witness.

1. Verified Sourced Facts

• STC 6333, ESTC S109344, TCP A19903 is titled:

“Microcosmos The discovery of the little world, with the government thereof. By Iohn Davies.”

• The same TCP witness gives the imprint:

“At Oxford : Printed by Ioseph Barnes, and are to bee solde in Fleetestreete at the signe of the Turkes head by Iohn Barnes, 1603.”

• The TCP witness contains a poem headed:

“To the Noble, discreete, and wellbeloved Knight Sir Henry Nevill.”

• The same poem opens:

“THere was a Time when, ah that so there was,”

• The next line reads:

“Whie not there is? There is and was a Time,”

• Later in the same poem, Davies writes:

“Th' art Vertue, Valour, Truth, and Honors friend;”

• The poem closes with the pun:

“Because thy noble name Ne-vile. denies the vile.”

• An existing EEBO packet in this corpus already records that TCP A19903 contains the dedication:

“to the noble discreete and wellbeloved knight sir Henry Nevill ...”

• The same thread states:

“Why does Davies of Hereford call Neville “discreet”?”

2. Ken Feinstein Twitter and Blog Information

• A Ken Feinstein tweet dated 1 Jan. 2021 states:

“Shakespeare Authorship Day 8: Many scholars have independently found parallels between the works of John Davies of Hereford and Shakespeare. Here is his Sonnet to Henry Neville from 1603.”

• A Ken Feinstein tweet dated 16 June 2019 states:

“Perhaps I am not making this clear. John Davies of Hereford wrote this epigram to Henry Neville in 1603. In 1616 he wrote this — immediately after Neville’s death.”

Quoted Source Passages

Follow SOURCE QUOTATION STANDARD. The direct witness is the 1603 printed Microcosmos text; the tweets preserve Ken's interpretation and discovery trail.

Printed dedication heading

• Source: John Davies of Hereford, Microcosmos (Oxford, 1603), STC 6333, ESTC S109344, TCP A19903; Archive.org page-image route cited below.
• Quotation:

"To the Noble, discreete, and wellbeloved Knight Sir Henry Nevill."

• What it proves: The 1603 printed book contains a poem directly addressed to Sir Henry Neville.
• Limits: This proves a Davies-to-Neville printed dedication, not a Shakespearean authorship connection by itself.

Neville-name pun

• Source: Same TCP A19903 witness and Archive.org scan route.
• Quotation:

"Ne-vile. denies the vile."

• What it proves: Davies explicitly plays on Neville's name in the closing of the poem.
• Limits: The pun is direct printed evidence, but its broader interpretive meaning remains to be argued from context.

3. Quoted Source Text

TCP A19903

• “To the Noble, discreete, and wellbeloved Knight Sir Henry Nevill.”
• “THere was a Time when, ah that so there was,”
• “Whie not there is? There is and was a Time,”
• “Yet may I say (I hope) and not transgresse,”
• “Th' art Vertue, Valour, Truth, and Honors friend;”
• “Because thy noble name Ne-vile. denies the vile.”

Ken Feinstein tweet, 1 Jan. 2021

• “Shakespeare Authorship Day 8: Many scholars have independently found parallels between the works of John Davies of Hereford and Shakespeare. Here is his Sonnet to Henry Neville from 1603.”

Ken Feinstein tweet, 16 June 2019

• “Perhaps I am not making this clear. John Davies of Hereford wrote this epigram to Henry Neville in 1603. In 1616 he wrote this — immediately after Neville’s death.”
• “Why does Davies of Hereford call Neville “discreet”?”

4. Citations

• Davies, John. Microcosmos The discovery of the little world, with the government thereof. By Iohn Davies. At Oxford, printed by Ioseph Barnes, and are to bee solde in Fleetestreete at the signe of the Turkes head by Iohn Barnes, 1603. STC 6333. ESTC S109344. Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership, TCP A19903.
• Davies, John. Microcosmos The discovery of the little world, with the government thereof. Archive.org witness, https://archive.org/details/microcosmosdisco00davi/page/n291/mode/1up.
• Feinstein, Ken. “Shakespeare Authorship Day 8: Many scholars have independently found parallels between the works of John Davies of Hereford and Shakespeare. Here is his Sonnet to Henry Neville from 1603.” X, 1 Jan. 2021, https://twitter.com/user/status/1344910344292978688. Local archive: twitter Books Read.
• Feinstein, Ken. “This is one of the most important texts for solving the Shakepeare Authorship Question. It was written by John Davies of Hereford in 1616. Compare to Scourge of Folly.” X, 16 June 2019, https://twitter.com/user/status/1140319266924687360. Local archive: twitter John Davies.
• eebo texts mentioning or dedicating henry neville, existing packet that already records A19903 as a Henry Neville dedication witness.
• francis bacon, related packet for Bacon’s 28 Mar. 1603 letter to Sir John Davies, with an identity guardrail separating him from John Davies of Hereford.

5. image witnesses Witnesses

6. Notes on Access

• This packet is built on a direct EEBO/TCP witness plus the Archive.org scan you supplied.
• The Ken Feinstein tweets are preserved here as a separate source class and not rewritten as anonymous factual narration.
• The larger interpretive link between the 1603 sonnet and Davies’s later 1611 and 1616 writings belongs partly in this packet but also connects directly to:
• francis bacon
• thomas vicars
• the John Davies materials in [local source path removed]

Additional Fact-Source Notes

• The direct controls remain EEBO/TCP A19903, the supplied Archive.org scan route, and Ken Feinstein's tweet-image/source trail. General web search did not add a superior public witness in this pass.
• Treat the 1603 Davies/Neville item as a direct printed witness first. The later links to Davies's 1611/1616 writings are interpretive extensions and should be source-tiered separately.
• Book use: keep Ken's tweet images as original project research preserving source access, not as anonymous web evidence.

2026-07-13 Deep Research Update: Complete Page-Image Collation

The open page-image task is complete. Archive.org leaf n291 was inspected directly at full-page resolution. The image confirms the heading:

To the Noble, discreet, and wellbeloued

Knight Sir Henry Neuill.

It also controls the entire fourteen-line poem:

THere was a Time when, ah that so there was,

Whie not there is? There is and was a Time,

When Men might cal Gold, Gold; & Brasse, but Brasse;

And saie it, without check, in Prose or Rime.

Yet should I call thee Gold, some (Brasse perchance)

Would saie I err'd because I nere touch'd thee,

And so did cal thee through meere ignorance,

Or (which is worse) through abiect Flatteree.

I am too ignorant (I doe confesse)

To iudge thy worth, which worthiest Men commend,

Yet may I say (I hope) and not transgresse,

Th'art Vertue, Valour, Truth, and Honors friend;

All which presume thou art not gilt by guile

Because thy noble name denies the vile.

The printed marginal note divides the name as Ne-vile, and the poem is signed I. D. The image therefore confirms details that OCR flattened: the heading uses Neuill, the poem is a sonnet-length fourteen lines, and the name-pun is explicitly signaled in the margin.

Placement in the commendatory sequence

The Neville poem is not isolated. On the preceding page Davies addresses “the thrice Noble and valorous Knight / Sir Edward Wingfield”; immediately after Neville he addresses “the Right Worshipfull and most worthy / Knight Sir Edward Dyer.” The sequence places Neville among named martial, courtly, and literary figures. That placement is a firmer research question than treating the poem as a generic commendation detached from its book: who organized this sequence, what relations joined its recipients to Davies or Oxford, and why does Neville receive the distinctive claim that “worthiest Men commend” him?

What the rhetoric actually says

Davies expressly says he has never “touch'd” Neville and is too ignorant to judge his worth directly. His praise is therefore represented as reputation received from “worthiest Men,” not as testimony of close personal acquaintance. This does not weaken the printed association; it defines its form. The poem is evidence that Neville's reputation for “Vertue, Valour, Truth, and Honors” circulated in the milieu from which Davies drew his commendatory subjects.

Direct witness: Archive.org leaf n291. Local render: davies_microcosmos-292.png.