Denham, Sir John (1615-1669), Poet and Spy
Sir John Denham was born in Dublin, but was brought to England in 1617 by his father, also Sir John Denham, to be educated in London and at Trinity College, Oxford. He spent his childhood in Egham on an estate called Denham Place which was situated in Vicarage Road where the Police Station is now. The house was demolished in the middle of the 19th century. After Oxford, Denham studied law in Lincoln's Inn where he was "given more to dice and cards than to study". However he was called to the Bar in 1639. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined King Charles I and was appointed Governor of Farnham Castle, being imprisoned when it was captured by Roundhead forces. On his release, he went to Oxford, where he produced in 1641 a tragedy called "The Sophy" which was well received. In 1641 he published the first version of "Cooper's Hill", the poem for which he is best remembered. He worked secretly for Charles I and had to escape to Holland in 1648, later collecting money in Poland to support Charles II and coming back to England on several occasions to spy on the King's behalf. At the Restoration he was appointed Surveyor-General of Works with Christopher Wren as his deputy. He was created a Knight of the Bath in 1661. He is buried in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey.
The poem "Cooper's-Hill" was the first influential English poem in the topographical genre and Samuel Johnson wrote in a biographical introduction to Denham's poems1, "Coopers' Hill is the work that confers upon him the rank and dignity of an original author. To trace a new scheme of poetry has in itself a very high claim to praise". John Dryden wrote, "Coopers-Hill; a poem, which for majesty of style, is, and ever will be, the standard of good writing". Alexander Pope celebrated "Cooper's Hill" by imitating it in his poem "Windsor Castle"
The poem was published at least seven times in the 17th century, and there are two distinct versions. The early editions are radically different from the 1655 edition. In an article2 in 1957, Professor Rufus Putney puts a different interpretation on the whole poem, describing it not as a series of reflections on the view, but as a view of England's "political turmoil and imminent peril" In conclusion, he states "The political position Denham sought to persuade his countrymen to accept was intelligent and reasonable. That he reached it painfully and stated it honestly the poem testifies. No argument could transmute Cooper's Hill into a masterpiece, but to read it in the political context that provoked it is to gain new respect for the poet and admiration for the poem".
Various editions of Denham's poems, and articles and biographical details about the poet can be found in the Oliver Collection which is housed in the University of London Library Depository. Items displayed in this exhibition are listed below.
Notes
1 This biographical introduction is contained in "The works of the English poets, from Chaucer to Cowper", edited by... Dr Samuel Johnson, vol. 7, 1810.
2 "The view from Cooper's Hill", by Rufus Putney in University of Colorado Studies, 1957.
Items Displayed
Expans'd Hieroglyphicks: a critical edition of Sir John Denham's Coopers Hill by Brendan O Hehir. 1969.
The poetical works of Sir John Denham, with the life of the author. 1780
Coopers-Hill. A poem...by Sir John Denham, Knight of the Bath. 1709
View of "The Place", Egham, built by the poet's father, Sir John Denham, a judge, where the poet spent his early years
"Lost," "authorized," and "pirated" editions of John Denham's Coopers Hill. A photocopy of the first page of an article by Brendan O Hehir, published in the Publications of the Modern Language Association, LXXIX, 1964.
A photocopy of a likeness of the poet taken from the Apollo Press edition of "The poetical works of Sir John Denham, 1780
A copy of a letter from the poet to Charles II after his father Charles I had been imprisoned by Cromwell's army, contained in "Coopers hill. A poem", 1709
Joan Wintour
October 2007
​