Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/252

 tre in Covent Garden.’ Others of his pieces were ‘King Bladud,’ ‘Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay,’ ‘Robin Hood and Little John,’ ‘Mother Shipton,’ and ‘Mother Goose.’ He was largely responsible for the form taken by the drama of Punch and Judy. Magnin, the learned author of the ‘Histoire des Marionnettes en Europe,’ calls the years of Powell's pre-eminence ‘the golden age of marionettes in England.’

Following up the bantering allusions to Powell in the ‘Tatler,’ Steele, in the ‘Spectator’ (No. 14), made the under-sexton of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, write to complain that his congregation took the warning of his bell, morning and evening, to go to a puppet show set forth by one Powell under the piazzas. ‘… I have placed my son at the piazzas to acquaint the ladies that the bell rings for church, and that it stands on the other side of the garden; but they only laugh at the child.’ Another correspondent writes describing Powell's show, which he compares favourably with the opera at the Haymarket; ‘for whereas the living properties at the Haymarket were ill trained, Powell has so well disciplined his pig that in the first scene he and Punch dance a minuet together.’ Powell is described as a deformed cripple, but his powers of satire were considerable. When the fanatics called French prophets were creating disturbances in Moorfields, the ministry ordered Powell to make Punch turn prophet, which he did so well that it soon put an end to the prophets and their prophecies. In 1710, says Lord Chesterfield, the French prophets were totally extinguished by a puppet show (Miscellaneous Works, ed. Maty, ii. 528, 555).

On 20 April 1710 Luttrell mentions that four Indian sachems who were visiting London went to see Powell's entertainment. Defoe, in his ‘Groans of Great Britain,’ 1711, complains of Powell's popularity, and states that his wealth was sufficient to buy up all the poets of England. ‘He seldom goes out without his chair, and thrives on this incredible folly to that degree that, were he a freeman, he might hope that some future puppet show might celebrate his being Lord Mayor as he hath done Dick Whittington.’ Steele, who saw Powell as late as 1729, states that he made a generous use of his money.

In 1715 Thomas Burnet (1694–1753) [q. v.] wrote a brief ‘History of Robert Powell the Puppet Showman.’ The substitution of Robert for Powell's real name, Martin, was made to render the obvious satire upon Robert Harley more effective.

[Tatler, Nos. 44, 50, 115, 142; Spectator, ed. Morley, pp. 25, 26, 163, 398, 545; Magnin's Hist. des Marionnettes, pp. 236–44; Morley's Bartholomew Fair, p. 315; Ashton's Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, passim; Swift's Works, ed. Scott, vii. 143; and authorities given in text.] 

POWELL, NATHANIEL (d. 1622), navigator and colonist, a native of England, was one of the earlier settlers of Virginia, where he arrived in April 1607. In the winter of 1607–8 he explored York River with Captain Newport, and between 24 July and 7 Sept. 1608 further explored Chesapeake Bay in company with Captain John Smith. He was apparently the author of the ‘Diarie of the Second Voyage in discovering the Bay,’ 1608, and of the sixth chapter of Smith's ‘Relation of the Countries and Nations’ (1608?), which bears Powell's signature. He probably compiled the map of the bays and rivers which accompanied this ‘Relation.’ He was for a short time in 1619 deputy-governor of Virginia, and a member of council from 1619 to 1622. He and his wife, a daughter of William Tracy, were murdered by Indians on 22 March 1622. He seems to have left some estate, as his relatives petitioned council for it in 1626.

[Collections of Virginia Historical Society.] 

POWELL, RICHARD, M.D. (1767–1834), physician, son of Joseph Powell of Thame, Oxfordshire, was baptised on 11 May 1767, and in 1781 was elected a scholar at Winchester. He entered Pembroke College, Oxford, on 19 Jan. 1785, but subsequently migrated to Merton College, where he graduated B.A. 23 Oct. 1788, M.A. 31 Oct. 1791, M.B. 12 July 1792, and M.D. 20 Jan. 1795. He studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and was one of the founders of the Literary and Philosophical Society there, which was afterwards named the Abernethian Society, and still exists. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians 30 Sept. 1796, and in 1799 delivered there the Gulstonian lectures. They were published in 1800, under the title of ‘Observations on the Bile and its Diseases, and on the Œconomy of the Liver,’ and show careful observation and sound judgment. The method of clinical examination of the liver which he proposes is excellent; and he is the first English medical writer who demonstrates that gallstones may remain fixed in the neck of the gall-bladder, or even obliterate its cavity, without well-marked symptoms or serious injury to the patient. On the resignation of Dr. Richard Budd, he was, on 14 Aug. 1801, elected physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, an office which he retained till 1824. He was a censor at the College of Physicians