4 May 1614. 20. ‘The Melancholie Knight, by S. R., London, printed by R. B., and are to be sold by John Loftus,’ 1615, with woodcut (Bodl.); entered on ‘Stationers' Registers,’ 2 Dec. 1615: a description of ‘discontented Timon,’ including some sonnets and verses, entitled ‘Melancholy Conceits,’ and a travesty of the old ballad of ‘Sir Eglamour.’ 21. ‘A Sacred Memorie of the Miracles wrought by … Iesus Christ; London, by Bernard Alsop,’ 1618, with several woodcuts (Huth Library, Britwell, British Museum, and Bodl.); licensed 16 April 1618. 22. ‘The Night-Rauen. By S. R.
All those whose deeds doe shun the Light
Are my companions in the Night.
London, printed by G. Eld for Iohn Deane and Thomas Baily,’ 1620, 4to, with woodcut (Bodl., Brit. Mus., Britwell, and Ellesmere Library); licensed 18 Sept. 1619: descriptions of nocturnal scenes and characters observed in London. 23. ‘A paire of Spy-Knaues,’ 4to; licensed for publication on 6 Dec. 1619 as the work of Rowlands: a sequel to the tracts on knaves; only a fragment formerly belonging to J. P. Collier, and now at Rowfant, is known to be extant. The sketches of character include a lively account of ‘A Roaring Boy.’ When the copyright was reassigned in the ‘Stationers' Register,’ on 7 Feb. 1622–3 (cf. Arber, Transcript, iv. 91), the author's name was given as ‘Samuel Rowley.’ 24. ‘Good Newes and Bad Newes. By S. R.,’ London, printed for Henry Bell, &c., 1622, 4to (two copies in Bodl.; one each in Ellesmere Library and Rowfant), with woodcut: a jest-book in verse, partly repeating ‘Humors Looking Glass’ (No. 13 above), especially the descriptions of the sights of London. J. P. Collier reprinted it in ‘Miscellaneous Tracts,’ yellow series. 25. ‘Heaven's Glory. Seeke it. Eart's Vanitie. Flye it. Hell's Horrour. Fere it; London, for Michaell Sparke,’ 1628, with well-engraved titlepage; licensed for the press 10 Jan. 1627–8: ‘Samuell Rowland’ signs a pious address to the reader. The book is mainly in prose, but there are four pieces in verse, of which one, ‘A Sigh,’ resembles the opening of Milton's ‘Il Penseroso.’ A curious plate at p. 112 portrays on one side of the leaf Adam and Eve in the flesh, and at the back their skeletons. Separate titlepages introduce ‘godly prayers necessary and useful for Christian families,’ and ‘the common cals, cryes, and sonuds [sic] of the bellman, or diuers verses to put vs in minde of our mortalitie’ (Bodleian Library). The third edition was published in 1639 (Brit. Mus.), and the work was reissued as ‘Time well Improved’ in 1657.
Among modern reprints may be noticed the Percy Society's collections of the three ‘Knave’ tracts (3, 16, and 17), under the title of ‘Four Knaves,’ in 1843; and the issue from the Beldornie press by E. V. Utterson between 1840 and 1844, in editions limited to sixteen copies each, of the seven books numbered above, 3, 7, 16, 17, 20, 22, and 24. The only complete reprint of Rowlands's works is that published by the Hunterian Club of Glasgow between 1872 and 1880, with an appendix of 1886 supplying No. 6. A general introduction by Mr. Edmund Gosse is prefixed.
[Mr. Gosse's introduction to the reprint of Rowlands's Works by the Hunterian Club of Glasgow is reprinted in his Seventeenth-Century Studies (1883). See also Collier's Bibliographical Catalogue; Hunter's manuscript Chorus Vatum in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24487, ff. 338 seq.; Introduction by E. F. Rimbault to the Percy Society's edition of Rowlands's Four Knaves, 1843; Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica; Bibliotheca Heberiana. Much bibliographical information has been kindly given by R. E. Graves, esq., of the British Museum.]
ROWLANDS, WILLIAM (1802–1865), known as Gwylym Lleyn, Welsh bibliographer, son of Thomas and Eleanor Rowlands, was born at Bryn Croes, Carnarvonshire, on 24 Aug. 1802. After a little schooling at Bryn Croes and Botwnog, he engaged in his father's craft of weaving, which he followed at various places in Carnarvonshire. He had been brought up a Calvinistic methodist, but at the age of eighteen he adopted Arminian views, and in consequence joined the Wesleyan body. In March 1821 he began to preach at Bryn Caled; shortly afterwards he and his parents settled at Ty Coch, near Bangor. After some years' experience as a lay preacher, he acted for a short time as substitute in the Cardigan circuit for John Davies, chairman of the Welsh district, in July 1828. He performed his task with such acceptance that he was retained in the circuit on Davies's return, and in August 1829 he was admitted as a probationer to the Wesleyan methodist ministry and appointed to the Cardiff circuit. He afterwards served in succession the following chapels: Merthyr (1831), Amlwch (1834), Pwllheli (1835), Newmarket (1837), Ruthin (1840), Llanidloes (1842), Tredegar (1845), Machynlleth (1848), Bryn Mawr (1850), Llanidloes (1853), Tredegar (1856), Aberystwyth (1858), and Machynlleth (1861). In 1864 he retired from circuit work and settled as a supernumerary at Oswestry, where he died
