If Davenant Read the Ithaka Report

If William Davenant read the Ithaka report, here's what he might say: Why do they build us colleges and allow us pensions? To "scribble for no end..."? Ouch, William! Good to know these complaints date back at least four hundred years. (And, yes, I'm sure medievalists could trot out many earlier examples, and they too would surely then be topped by the classicists. But we're blogging the Renaissance here.) This passage is from William Davenant, The Platonic Lovers (London, 1636), sig. F3r.