In days before, this was him (5)
I believe the answer is:
dante
'him' is the definition.
'in days before this' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'days' could be 'd' (abbreviation for days) and 'd' is located in the answer.
'before' could be 'ante' (I've seen this before) and 'ante' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'was' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dante that I've seen before include "Thirteenth-fourteenth century Italian poet" , "Net Da a poet" , "22 [FT SETTER]" , "La divina commedia poet" , "Italian poet, writer of the Divine Comedy" .)