filled out, Field contributed six stanzas in praise of Fletcher's ‘Faithful Shepherdess,’ prefixed to the first edition of that play. Before his own first play appear ten lines by George Chapman, addressed ‘To his loved son, Nat. Field, and his Weathercock Woman.’ A joke concerning ‘Master Field, the player,’ preserved in subsequent jest-books, appears in the ‘Wit and Mirth’ of Taylor, the Water Poet. A punning epigram entitled ‘Field, the Player, on his Mistress, the Lady May,’ is found in a manuscript in the Ashmolean Museum, and in other commonplace books of the reign of James I and Charles I (Collier, Annals of the Stage, iii. 434).
[The chief information concerning Field is derived from Payne Collier's researches in Dulwich College, embodied in his Life of Field, contained in his History of English Dramatic Poetry and Annals of the Stage, his prefaces to his reprints of Field's plays (Dodsley's Old Plays), his Memoirs of Alleyn, and his Alleyn Papers, contributed to the Shakspere Society. It is, of course, subject to the reservations always to be made in the case of his labours. For his conclusions concerning Field see Mr. Warner's Catalogue of Manuscripts &c. at Dulwich College, pp. 37, 241, and Joseph Hunter's Chorus Vatum Anglicanorum, Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24490, f. 56. Other sources of information are Genest's Account of the English Stage; Baker, Reed, and Jones's Biographia Dramatica; Langbaine's English Dramatic Poets; Malone's Supplement; Cunningham's Handbook to London; Massinger, by Gifford, ed. 1813; Ben Jonson, by Gifford, 1816, &c.]
FIELD or DE LA FIELD, RICHARD (1554?–1606), jesuit, son of the Lord of Corduff, born about 1554 in the county of Dublin, studied at Douay, entered the Society of Jesus about 1582, and became a professed father. In April 1599 he was sent from Flanders to Fathers Fitzsimon and Archer in his native country, and he was superior of the Irish jesuit mission till 1640, displaying remarkable prudence and mildness in his office. There are still extant several of his letters which abound with interesting details of the catholic affairs of Ireland. He died in Dublin on 21 Feb. 1605–6.
[Hogan's Ibernia Ignatiana, i. 202; Hogan's Cat. of the Irish Province S. J., p. 7; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 244; Foley's Records, vii. 252.]
FIELD, RICHARD, D.D. (1561–1616), divine, was born 15 Oct. 1561, at Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, of an old and reputable family. 'His ancestors,' says his son and biographer, 'were blessed with length of days.' The estate which he inherited from his father and grandfather had been in the hands of only three owners in 160 years. He was educated at Berkhampstead school and matriculated at the age of sixteen (1577) as of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he remained till he took his B.A. degree, 18 Nov. 1581, when he removed to Magdalen Hall. Here he took his master's degree, 2 June 1584, and was appointed to the 'Catechism Lecture,' which, though in reality a private lecture for that house, was made by him so interesting that it drew hearers from the whole university, among whom, it is said, was Dr. Rainolds (or Reynolds), the well-known president of Corpus Christi College. He was now famous, esteemed for his knowledge of school divinity, and esteemed one of the best disputants in the university. His father, it would appear, had at this time provided a match for him as his eldest son, but his not taking orders was made an his indispensable condition; upon which he returned to Oxford, and after a residence of seven years, till he took his degree of B.D. 14 Jan. 1592, he was made divinity reader of Winchester Cathedral. He appears then to have left Oxford, but his character as an indefatigable student lived in the university long after his departure, and 'Dr. Field's rooms were shown as an object of interest.' In 1594 he was chosen divinity lecturer to the Hon. Society of Lincoln's Inn, and soon after presented by Mr. Richard Kingsmill, a bencher of the inn, to the rectory of Burghclere, Hampshire. Mr. Kingsmill resided at Highclere, close by, and his brother, Sir William Kingsmill, at Sydmonton Court, not far off, and both families were constant attendants ar Burghclere church. Field was offered the more valuable living of St. Andrews, Holborn, which he declined, preferring the leisure and quiet of Burghclere, where he passed the greater part of his time till his death. On 9 April 1594 he married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Richard Harris, sometime fellow of New College and rector of Hardwick, Buckinghamshire. On 7 Dec. 1596 he proceeded to the degree of D.D., being at that time of Queen's' College, and described as 'sometimes of Magdalen Hall.' In September 1598 he received a latter from Lord Hunsdon, dated 'from the court at Greenwich, desiring him to come and preach before the queen (Elizabeth) on the 23rd of that month a probationary sermon, upon which he was appointed one of her majesty's chaplains in ordinary, and received a grant of the next vacant prebend at Windsor. This grant is dated 30 March 1602, and he succeeded to the vacancy, and was installed 3 Aug. 1604. He was joined in a special commission with William, marquis of Winchester, Thomas Bilson, bishop of Winton,
