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 to rebel, and sometimes merry, that they might not think of it’ (Account of the English Stage, ii. 314). Against these opinions may be placed the less trustworthy testimony of authors who dedicated to him plays he had produced, or was expected to produce. The anonymous author of the ‘Stage Beaux tossed in a Blanket,’ 1704 (?Tom Brown), praises his management of the theatre, speaks of his private acts of charity, and says that, did he not know he should offend rather than please him, he would panegyrise him. [q. v.] dedicated, in 1706, his ‘Fair Example’ to ‘the Serene Christopher Rich, Esq., chief Patentee, Governour, and Manager of His Majesty's Theatre Royal,’ addresses him as ‘Dreadless Sir,’ and declares: ‘You have a genius extraordinary, great natural gifts, a wit just and fruitful, an understanding clear and distinct, a strength of judgment, and sweetness of temper.’ Estcourt further credits Rich with a ‘noble idea of poetry,’ judgment in the matter of plays, and generosity in the conduct of his theatre.



RICH, CLAUDIUS JAMES (1787–1820), traveller, was born on 28 March 1787, ‘of a good family,’ at Dijon in Burgundy, but passed his childhood at Bristol. As early as the age of nine his curiosity was aroused by some Arabic manuscripts, and he applied himself with eagerness to various oriental languages. In 1803, by the influence of friends, he was appointed a cadet in the East India Company's service. At the time he was described by (1764–1831) [q. v.], in a letter to Sir James Mackintosh (‘Notice of Mr. Rich’ prefixed to Koordistan, vol. i. p. xviii), as ‘a most extraordinary young man. With little or no assistance he has made himself acquainted with many languages, particularly with the languages of the East. Besides Latin, Greek, and many of the modern languages, he has made himself master of the Hebrew, Chaldee, Persian, Arabic, and is not without some knowledge of the Chinese, which he began to decipher when he was but fourteen. … He is a young man of good family, and of most engaging person and address.’

The directors were so much impressed by Rich's linguistic attainments that they presented him with a writership on the Bombay establishment, and thus changed his career from the military to the civil side. At the same time he was provisionally attached as secretary to Mr. Lock, who was proceeding to Egypt as consul-general, in order that he might improve his Arabic and Turkish under the consul's direction. Rich embarked early in 1804 in the Hindostan, which was burnt in the Bay of Rosas, when Rich escaped to the Catalonian coast. Thence he made his way to Malta, after some stay in Italy, where he learnt to speak Italian, and devoted himself to music, of which he was passionately fond. Mr. Lock died before Rich could reach Egypt, and Rich, by permission of the directors, prosecuted his oriental studies at Constantinople and Smyrna.

After several journeys into the interior of Asia Minor he was appointed assistant to Colonel Missett, the new consul-general in Egypt, and in this post perfected himself in Arabic, and amused himself by acquiring the skill in horsemanship and the use of the lance and scimitar in which the Mamlûks were past masters. From Egypt he travelled in Mamlûk disguise over a great part of Syria and Palestine, visited Damascus in the pilgrimage time, and even ventured to enter the great mosque, undetected. Thence by Mardîn and Baghdad, he journeyed to Basra, where he took ship for Bombay, arriving on 1 Sept. 1807. Here he resided with the governor, Sir James Mackintosh, who fully endorsed Hall's eulogy (‘Notice,’ p. xxiii). Soon afterwards, on 22 Jan. 1808, Rich married Sir James's eldest daughter, and before he was twenty-four was appointed the East India Company's resident at Baghdad, ‘by mere merit.’

In his new and responsible position Rich's high character and knowledge of the native mind enabled him to exercise a very beneficial influence in times of disturbance and revolution. He frequently gave asylum to those whose lives were endangered by political changes, and his uniform justice and good faith exerted a powerful influence. For six years he lived at Baghdad, collecting materials in his leisure time for a history and statistical account of the Pashalik. Some of his researches may be traced in papers contributed to the ‘Mines d'Orient’,