Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/561

 10 s. XL JUNE 12, i909.j NOTES AND QUERIES.

461

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1909.

CONTENTS. No. 285.

NOTES : Nabhanael Richards, Dramatist, 461 Margaret

of Richmond Dr. Johnson's Ancestors and Connexions,

Oarum and Punch Fanny Murray's Death, 466 First Elephant e_xhibittd in America Archbishop Whately and Religious Persecution " The Napier Tavern," Holborn, 467.

QU ERIES : Johnson Bicentenary Celebration at Lich- fleld Sacred Place- Names in Foreign Lands Swedish Painters in England, 467 Squib and Pepys Authors of Quotations Wanted Hangmen who have been Hanged Oapt. Bettesworth's Statue : Gorst and Odey " The Evils," Field-Name, 468 Lyster Leigh John Abbot Words and Phrases in Old American Newspapers J. Willme Servington Savery and Thistlethwayte Families Fielding Brothers, 469 Arms Wanted Royal Independent Hanoverian Lodge William Guild M. Goadby, Publisher Covenanters' Motto Gulix Hollands, 470.

REPLIES: The Farmers of Aylesbury and Straits ot Malacca, 470 The Treaty of Tilsit : Colin A. Mackenzie- Earl of Westmorland's Elopement with Miss Child Leg growing after Death, 471 The Mystery of Hannah Light- foot " Kempishawe" Duke of Wellington: a Strange Epitaph Hanging Alive in Chains, 472 Copernicus : its Etymology Sir Thomas Browne : Anne Townshend, 473 Richard Meredith, Dean of Wells Dew-Ponds Recusants' Marriages, 474 Hough Family Beezely Chrisom, 475 Gower, a Kentish Name London Shop Fronts : " Chapzagar cheese " " Leaguer," 476" One shoe off and one shoe on " Edouard or Edouart : Sil- houette Portraits St David: " Taffy -on -a -Stick " Harbours Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' The History of the Second Dragoons.'

Reviews and Magazines. Booksellers' Catalogues.

NATHANAEL RICHARDS, DRAMATIST.

NATHANAEL RICHARDS, whose ' Tragedy of Messallina ' was printed in 1640, has been long identified with a Nathaniel Richards who graduated LL.B. from Caius College, Cambridge, in 1634. The latter was the fifth son of Richard Richards, Rector of Kentisbury, Devon ; he was there baptized on 31 Jan., 1610/11, and before his admission to Caius (28 Feb., 1628/9) had been for four years at school at Torrington, Devon. Richard Richards died at Kentisbury in March, 1632/3, and was succeeded as rector by his second son John (instituted 16 April, 1633), who was already rector of the neigh- bouring village of Trentishoe. John was apparently only keeping Kentisbury half -brother) Nathaniel, and in 1637/8 he resigned the living, and " Nathaniel Richards, clerk, LL.B.," was instituted on the pre- sentation of [the eldest brother] William Richards of Kentisbury, Esq. That he came into residence is shown by the fact that his only son Francis was baptized at
 * ' warm " for his youngest brother (probably

Kentisbury on 23 July following. Nathaniel Richards remained Rector of Kentisbury, and, for all we know, continued to reside there till his death in December, 1660.*

Now for the author of ' Messallina.' The play was published in 1640 as " by Nathanael Richards," with a portrait, coat of arms, and eulogistic verses by friends of the author, including some of the actors of his play. There can be no doubt of the fact that the same man was the author of the collection of poems called " The Celestiall Publican,

&c by Nathanael Richards, Gent.

London, F. Kyngston, 1630," as well as of ' Poems Sacred and Satyricall ' (many of them reprinted from the former collection), 1641.

Our earlier dramatic biographers seem to have known nothing about the identity or history of this Nathanael Richards. Neither Langbaine (1691), nor Oldys in his notes on Langbaine, nor Gildon (1698), nor Jacob (1723), nor Whincop (1747), has anything to say about him.

D. E. Baker in his ' Companion to the Playhouse,' 1764, writes :

" Of this author I find nothing farther on Record than that he lived in the Reign of K. Charles I., and about the beginning of the Civil War published one dramatic Piece, entitled Messalina.' "

It is in a new edition of this work, called ' Biographia Dramatica : or, A Companion,' &c. (1782), that we first have the author of ' Messallina ' identified with the LL.B. of Caius. Baker now writes :

" Of this author I find nothing farther on record than that he was of Caius College, Cam- bridge, where in 1634 he took the degree of LL.B. . . . .and about the beginning of the civil war published," &c.

Some one by this time had noticed the name " Nathaniel Richards " among the " graduati lantabrigienses," and had naturally identified lim with the author of ' Messallina.'

Is the identification confirmed by the internal evidence afforded by ' Messallina ' and the two collections of poems ? I think one may say it is not only not con- firmed, but refuted.

In all the three works the author's Chris-

ian name is spelt " Nathanael " the two

jollections of poems begin with an acrostic

on the name so spelt. The Caius man's

name is spelt in all our records " Nathaniel."

The volume of 1630 contains poems

Tom the records in the Diocesan Registry, Exeter. They were supplied to Mr. Sidney Lee 'or his revised edition of the ' D.N.B.' before the conclusion given in this paper had been arrived at.
 * Many cf the above facts have been derived