Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/147

Peachham bishop there. The book was suggested to him by M. de Ligny of Artois, who called Peacham's attention to the defective equipment of English youths in the matter of accomplishments. It is an interesting endeavour to encourage young men to devote themselves at once to the arts and athletic exercises. A valuable survey is incidentally given of contemporary English efforts in science, art, and literature. A second impression, ‘much inlarged,’ appeared in 1626, and again in 1627, with an attractive chapter on fishing among other additions. This edition was reissued in 1634. A third edition, with additional notes on blazonry by Thomas Blount (1618–1679) [q. v.], is dated 1661; from this volume Dr. Johnson drew all the heraldic definitions in his dictionary. The 1634 edition was reprinted at Oxford in 1906.

In 1624 Peacham lamented the death of his patron, Richard Sackville, earl of Dorset, in ‘An Aprill Shower.’ In 1638 he dedicated to Henry Carey, earl of Dover, a collection of anecdotes, mainly from late classical authors, suggested by a work of Pancirolla. It was entitled ‘The Valley of Varietie, a Discourse for the Times, containing very Learned and Rare Passages out of Antiquitie, Philosophy, and History’ (London, 1638, 4to). There is an engraved frontispiece of an oak encircled by flowers. In chapter xiv. Peacham says he was living in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and describes some incombustible flax given him by an Arab who was residing in that neighbourhood. A gossiping autobiographical tract followed in the same year, ‘The Truth of our Times: revealed out of One Man's Experience by Way of Essay,’ dedicated to Henry Barnwell of Terrington, near King's Lynn (cf. Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. xii. 221–2).

Reduced to poverty in his old age, Peacham became subject to fits of melancholy, but tempted fortune in his last years in a series of pamphlets on politics and social topics. He is also said by the herald John Gibbon to have written children's books at a penny each. His political tracts, which are of a strong royalist tone, included: ‘The Duty of Subjects to their King, and Love of their Native Country in time of Extremity and Danger. In Two Books,’ 4to, London, 1639, dedicated to Sir Paul Pindar; ‘A Merry Discourse of Meum and Tuum, or Mine and Thine,’ 4to, London, 1639; ‘A Dialogue between the Crosse in Cheap and Charing Crosse … by Ryhen Pameach,’ 1641; ‘Paradox in Praise of a Dunce in Smectymnus,’ 1642; and ‘Square Caps turned into Round Heads, or the Bishop's Vindication and the Brownists' Conviction: a Dialogue … showing the Folly of one and the Worthiness of the other;’ 4to, with a curious woodcut, 1642.

Of greater literary interest were: ‘The Art of Living in London, or a Caution how Gentlemen, Countreymen, and Strangers, drawn by Occasion of Businesse, should dispose of themselves in the Thriftiest Way, not onely in the City, but in all other Populous Places,’ 1642, 4to (reprinted in the ‘Harleian Miscellany,’ vol. ix.); and ‘The Worth of a Peny, or a Caution to keep Money, with the Causes of the Scarcity and Misery of the Want thereof in these Hard and Merciless Times.’ The latter, which was first privately issued for presentation to the author's friends, was printed originally, as internal evidence shows, in 1641, and not in 1647—the year which appears, by an error, on the title-page. It was dedicated to Richard, eldest son of Richard Gipps, one of the judges of the Guildhall, London. It discusses, without much plan, the economic condition of the country, but includes many interesting anecdotes illustrating social life. A new edition in 1664 added some biographical observations by a friend of Peacham, who knew him in the Low Countries. To a third edition in 1667 were added the bills of mortality from 1642 to 1676 (cf. Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xii. 84). Another edition is dated 1695, and reprints were issued in 1814, and by Mr. Arber in his ‘English Garner’ (vi. 245 sq.) in 1883.

To Peacham is also doubtfully ascribed ‘History of the Five Wise Philosophers, or a Wonderful Relation of the Life of Jehosophat the Hermit, son of Avenario, King of Barma in India,’ 1672, with an address to the reader by Nicholas Herrick, who found the manuscript by accident (cf. ib. 3rd ser. xi. 217). It is quite possible, too, that Peacham, rather than Henry Parrot [q. v.], is the H. P. who published a volume of epigrams in 1608. They were published by John Helmes of St. Dunstan's Churchyard, who produced for Peacham ‘Henrie revived’ in 1615, and they contain at least one epigram which appears in Peacham's ‘Minerva,’ and is undoubtedly his.

Peacham, who was unmarried, died soon after 1641, when his ‘Worth of a Peny’ was first published.

[Collier's Bibl. Cat.; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, iii. 160; Hawkins's Hist. of Music, iii. 194–5; Brydges's Censura and Restituta Lit.; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xi. 218, 296, 407, 3rd ser. xii. 221; Cat. of Malone's Books in Bodleian Library, where the best collection of Peacham's work is preserved; Hazlitt's Bibliographical Handbook and Notes; information kindly furnished by Dr. Aldis Wright.] 