DANIEL, GABRIEL (1649-1728), French Jesuit historian, was born at Rouen on the 8th of February 1649. He was educated by the Jesuits, entered the order at the age of eighteen, and became superior at Paris. He is best known by his _Histoire de France depuis l'établissement de la monarchie française_ (first complete edition, 1713), which was republished in 1720, 1721, 1725, 1742, and (the last edition, with notes by Father Griffet) 1755-1760. Daniel published an abridgment in 1724 (English trans., 1726), and another abridgment was published by Dorival in 1751. Though full of prejudices which affect his accuracy, Daniel had the advantage of consulting valuable original sources. His _Histoire de la milice française_, &c. (1721) is superior to his _Histoire de France_, and may still be consulted with advantage. Daniel also wrote a by no means successful reply to Pascal's _Provincial Letters_, entitled _Entretiens de Cléanthe et d'Eudoxe sur les lettres provinciales_ (1694); two treatises on the Cartesian theory as to the intelligence of the lower animals, and other works.
See Sommervogel, _Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus_, t. ii.
DANIEL, SAMUEL (1562-1619), English poet and historian, was the son of a music-master, and was born near Taunton, in Somersetshire, in 1562. Another son, John Daniel, was a musician, who held some offices at court, and was the author of _Songs for the Lute, Viol and Voice_ (1606). In 1579 Samuel was admitted a commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he remained for about three years, and then gave himself up to the unrestrained study of poetry and philosophy. The name of Samuel Daniel is given as the servant of Lord Stafford, ambassador in France, in 1586, and probably refers to the poet. He was first encouraged and, if we may believe him, taught in verse, by the famous countess of Pembroke, whose honour he was never weary of proclaiming. He had entered her household as tutor to her son, William Herbert. His first known work, a translation of Paulus Jovius, to which some original matter is appended, was printed in 1585. His first known volume of verse is dated 1592; it contains the cycle of sonnets to _Delia_ and the romance called _The Complaint of Rosamond_. Twenty-seven of the sonnets had already been printed at the end of Sir Philip Sidney's _Astrophel and Stella_ without the author's consent. Several editions of _Delia_ appeared in 1592, and they were very frequently reprinted during Daniel's lifetime. We learn by internal evidence that Delia lived on the banks of Shakespeare's river, the Avon, and that the sonnets to her were inspired by her memory when the poet was in Italy. To an edition of _Delia_ and _Rosamond_, in 1594, was added the tragedy of _Cleopatra_, a severe study in the manner of the ancients, in alternately rhyming heroic verse, diversified by stiff choral interludes. _The First Four Books of the Civil Wars_, an historical poem in _ottava rima_, appeared in 1595. The bibliography of Daniel's works is attended with great difficulty, but as far as is known it was not until 1599 that there was published a volume entitled _Poetical Essays_, which contained, besides the "Civil Wars," "Musophilus," and "A letter from Octavia to Marcus Antonius," poems in Daniel's finest and most mature manner. About this time he became tutor to Anne Clifford, daughter of the countess of Cumberland. On the death of Spenser, in the same year, Daniel received the somewhat vague office of poet-laureate, which he seems, however, to have shortly resigned in favour of Ben Jonson. Whether it was on this occasion is not known, but about this time, and at the recommendation of his brother-in-law, Giovanni Florio, he was taken into favour at court, and wrote a _Panegyric Congratulatorie offered to the King at Burleigh Harrington in Rutlandshire_, in _ottava rima_. In 1603 this poem was published, and in many cases copies contained in addition his _Poetical Epistles_ to his patrons and an elegant prose essay called _A Defence of Rime_ (originally printed in 1602) in answer to Thomas Campion's _Observations on the Art of English Poesie_, in which it was contended that rhyme was unsuited to the genius of the English language. In 1603, moreover, Daniel was appointed master of the queen's revels. In this capacity he brought out a series of masques and pastoral tragi-comedies,--of which were printed _A Vision of the Twelve Goddesses_, in 1604; _The Queen's Arcadia_, an adaptation of Guarini's _Pastor Fido_, in 1606; _Tethys Festival or the Queenes Wake_, written on the occasion of Prince Henry's becoming a Knight of the Bath, in 1610; and _Hymen's Triumph_, in honour of Lord Roxburgh's marriage in 1615.