Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/112

 his fluency injured a style that was by nature ‘masculine and sinewy’ (cf. Surfeit, 1656;  Collections, ed. Bliss, iii. 248). His admirers in his own day were numerous, but were chiefly drawn from the less cultivated classes. Nashe represents his works as the favourite reading of Lichfield, the Cambridge barber (Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596). To Lodge's ‘Alarum against Usurers’ (1584) Rich contributed commendatory verses.

Rich published (the titles are abbreviated): 1. ‘A right exelent and pleasaunt Dialogue betwene Mercury and an English Souldier, contayning his Supplication to Mars,’ 8vo, 1574, b.l., dedicated to Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick, master of the ordnance. It opens with some curious dialogue in verse between the author and his book (Bodleian and British Museum). The first part is an exposure of the ill-usage of the English soldier, with a defence of archery. The second part supplies, quite inappropriately, a fanciful account of the court of Venus, and rehearses the story of the lady of Chabry, which, Rich says, he derived from Bandello. Geoffrey Fenton had already translated the story in his ‘Tragical Discourses,’ 1567. 2. ‘Allarme to England, foreshewing what perilles are procured where the people liue without regarde of Martiall Lawe,’ 1578 (London, by Henrie Middleton, for C. B.), written in Ireland, the wretched state of which is described; dedicated to Sir Christopher Hatton, with verses by Googe, Churchyard, and the author (two editions in the British Museum, one in the Bodleian, and one each in the Huth and Britwell Libraries, ‘imprinted by Christopher Barker’). 3. ‘Riche his Farewell to Militarie profession, conteining verie pleasaunt discourses fit for a peaceable tyme. … London, by Robert Walley,’ 1581, 4to (Bodleian; an imperfect copy at Britwell). There are two dedications, one addressed to ‘the right courteous gentlewomen, both of England and Ireland,’ and the other ‘to the noble souldiers both of England and Ireland,’ besides an interesting address ‘to the readers in general.’ The book was written in Ireland, ‘before the coming over of James FitzMaurice’ Fitzgerald [q. v.] in 1579. Of the eight stories, in some of which verse is interspersed, Rich appears to claim, as of his own invention, the first (‘Sappho, Duke of Mantona’), the plot of which was dramatised in ‘The weakest goeth to the wall,’ 1600; the second (‘Apolonius and Silla’), whence Shakespeare drew the plot of ‘Twelfth Night’ (reprinted in Collier's and Hazlitt's ‘Shakespeare's Library,’ pt. i. vol. i.); the fifth (‘Two brethren and their wives’); the seventh (‘Aramanthus, borne a leper’); and the eighth (‘Phylotus and Emilia,’ reprinted with ‘Phylotus,’ 1603, a Scottish comedy with cognate plot, by the Bannatyne Club in 1835). Rich's third story (‘Nicander and Lucilla’), his fourth (‘Fileo and Fiamma’), and the sixth (‘Gonsales and his vertuous wife Agatha’) are drawn, he says, from the Italian of ‘Maister L. B.,’ possibly an inaccurate reference to Matteo Bandello. In a concluding section Rich tilts against the extravagance of English women's dress, and incidentally tells a story of a king of Scotland somewhat resembling Macchiavelli's ‘Belphegor;’ this appendix caused James VI, when he read the book in 1595, so much displeasure that the attention of Bowes, the English agent, was called to the matter (Cal. State Papers, Scotl. ii. 683). An edition, newly augmented, appeared in 1606 (Bodleian and Britwell). A reprint from the Bodleian Library copy of the 1581 edition was published in 1846 by the Shakespeare Society. 4. ‘The straunge and wonderfull aduentures of Don Simonides, a gentilman Spaniarde. London, by Robert Walley,’ 1581, b.l., 4to (entered in ‘Stationers' Register,’ 23 Oct. 1581); dedicated to Sir Christopher Hatton; a prose romance, corrected by Lodge, with poetry interspersed. It is obviously inspired by Lyly's ‘Euphues.’ Warton believed he had seen an Italian original (copies in Bodleian, Britwell, and Bridgewater House Libraries). 5. ‘The true Report of a late Practice enterprised by a Papist with a yong Maiden in Wales [Eliz. Orton]. London, by Robert Walley,’ 1582, 4to, dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham (British Museum and Lambeth). 6. ‘The Second Tome of the Trauailes and aduentures of Don Simonides. London, for Robert Walley,’ 1584, b.l., 4to, dedicated to Sir Christopher Hatton. One of the metrical pieces is in 170 lines of very monotonous blank verse. A chapter detailing the hero's visit to Philautus in London mainly consists of a panegyric on Queen Elizabeth (Bodleian, British Museum, Britwell, and Bridgewater House Libraries). 7. ‘A Pathway to Military Practise …, whereunto is annexed a Kalender of the Imbattelinge of Men. London, by John Charlewood,’ 1587, 4to. There are three dedications, one to Queen Elizabeth, another to ‘the most noble Captaines and renowned Souldiers of England,’ and the third—a long address—to ‘the friendly Readers in generall’ (Britwell, Lambeth, and British Museum). 8. ‘The Adventures of Brusanus, prince of Hungaria, pleasant for all to read, and profitable for some to follow. Written by Barnabe Rich seaven or eight yeares sithence, and now published by the