‘Ballad on the Rebellion in the Year 1641’ (ib. No. clxviii, Llandovery edit.), and contributed liberally to the maintenance of the royalist interest in the district. A letter has, however, been preserved, in which he complains of the excessive taxation, amounting in one year to 200l., imposed upon him by the king's officers. Prichard died before the end of 1644, and was buried in Llandingad church. He had by his wife Gwenllian one child, Samuel.
None of Prichard's poems were published during his lifetime. In 1646 a few were printed from manuscripts then in the possession of Evan Pugh (Pren Teg), one of the vicar's parishioners; a second instalment appeared in 1658. In 1670, Stephen Hughes, a nonconformist preacher, obtained permission to publish a third part, and in 1672 he followed this up by reprinting the three parts already issued, together with a fourth and a verse introduction of his own. Adopting a title which occurred in one of the poems, Hughes entitled the whole book ‘Canwyll y Cymry’ (The Welshmen's Candle). A further edition by Hughes appeared in 1681 (London); this was succeeded by a number of Shrewsbury editions (1714, 1721, 1725, 1740, 1766), some of which contained many spurious additions. In 1770 Rhys Thomas of Llandovery printed an entirely new edition (with the alternative title ‘Y Seren Foreu,’ i.e. The Morning Star), rejecting the Shrewsbury additions and adding a large number of poems from what were believed to be the author's manuscripts. A brief biographical notice was prefixed. Further editions appeared at Carmarthen in 1776, 1798, and 1808; in 1841 a complete edition with explanatory notes and a full biography of Prichard was published at Llandovery by Professor Rees of Lampeter, and subsequently reprinted in 1858 and 1867. Selections of the vicar's verse were also issued by Griffith Jones (1683–1761) [q. v.], Llanddowror, in 1749 and 1758, and a translation into English by William Evans of Llawhaden in 1771 (Carmarthen).
There is a tradition that his granddaughter on his death employed a servant for two days in the task of burning his manuscripts. According to Wood, Prichard translated some books into Welsh, and also wrote upon the Thirty-nine Articles. Some of his sermons survived; an abortive proposal to print them was made by Rhys Thomas in 1770.
[Life in Llandovery editions of Canwyll y Cymry; Wood's Athenæ Oxon.; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Archæologia Cambrensis, 4th ser. 1878, ix. 237; Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry; Nelson's Bull, 1714, p. 475.]
PRICKE, ROBERT (fl. 1669–1698), engraver, was a pupil of Wenceslaus Hollar [q. v.], and kept a shop for prints and maps in Whitecross Street, Cripplegate, London, during the latter half of the seventeenth century. Here he published some important architectural works, mostly translated from the French, and illustrated with engravings by himself. These were: 1. ‘A new Treatise of Architecture according to Vitruvius,’ from the French of Julien Mauclerc, 1669 (other editions in 1670, 1676, and 1699). 2. ‘A new Book on Architecture, wherein is represented Forty Figures of Gates and Arches triumphant, &c. &c., by Alexander Francine, Florentine … set forth by Robert Pricke … 1669’ (with a portrait of Francini). 3. ‘The Art of Fair Building, wherein are Augmentations of the newest Buildings made in France, by the Designs and Ordering of P. le Muet, and others, published by Robert Pricke,’ 1670 (2nd edit. 1675). 4. ‘Perspective Practical, or a plain … method of … representing all things to the eye at a distance, by the exact Rules of Art. … By a Religious Person of the Society of Jesus, a Parisien [J. Dubreuil]. Faithfully translated out of French and illustrated with 150 copper cuts, set forth in English by R. Pricke,’ 1672 (2nd edition, 1698). 5. ‘The Ornaments of Architecture, containing Compartments, Mantlings, Foldings, Festones, &c., &c. … with some Designs for Carving and Painting of eminent Coaches. … Containing Fifty Copperplate Prints; collected out of the Works of several eminent Masters, and set forth by Robert Pricke,’ 1674. A few etchings of shipping, &c., were also executed by Pricke.
[Dict. of Architecture; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
PRICKET, ROBERT (fl. 1603), poet, saw some military service in Elizabeth's reign, and afterwards sought a precarious livelihood as a verse-writer and pamphleteer against the catholics. His earliest production he describes as a ‘Love Song’ on the death of Queen Elizabeth, but it does not appear to have been printed (Times Anatomie). His first extant publication was a prose tract, panegyrising Queen Elizabeth and James I, and denouncing the pope and papists. It was entitled ‘Unto … his Sovereign Lord King James a poor Subject sendeth a Souldier's Resolution,’ London (by John Windet for Walter Barre), 1603. It was dedicated to the king, to whom Pricket presented a copy in person (Brit. Mus. and Bodleian Library). There followed in verse ‘A Souldier's Wish unto
