the wife of Sir Oliver St. John, lord-deputy of Ireland; an attack on catholics, largely repeating No. 14 (Bridgewater House, Bodleian, and Huth Libraries, and British Museum). 24. ‘The Irish Hubbub, or the English Hue and Crie. London, for John Marriot,’ 1617; dedicated to Sir Oliver St. John, lord-deputy of Ireland, from ‘Dublin, the 14 of May, 1617’ (British Museum, Bodleian, Huth, and Britwell Libraries). Other editions are dated 1619 and 1622. Rich here denounces tobacco-smoking with especial vigour.
In British Museum Lansdowne MS. 156, among the papers of Sir Julius Cæsar, are two autograph unprinted discourses on Ireland by Rich—the one endorsed by Cæsar ‘A Discourse of Capten Barnaby Riche, touching Ireland,’ dated 28 July 1612; the other, dated 15 Dec. 1615, is entitled by Rich ‘The Anothomy of Ireland, in the manr of a dyalogue, truly dyscoverynge the State of the Cuntrye, for His Mates especyall Servyce.’
To Rich has been doubtfully assigned ‘Greenes Funeralls (London, by John Danter, 1594);’ this is a collection of fourteen sonnets, signed by R. B., initials which Collier treated as Rich's reversed (Bibl. Cat. vol. i. p. xvii *). Rich has also been claimed as the translator of ‘The Famous Hystory of Herodotus, deuided into nine bookes. London, by Thomas Marshe,’ 1584, 4to, b. l. (entered at Stationers' Hall on 13 June 1581) (British Museum and Britwell). The dedication, which is addressed to Robert, son of Sir William Dormer, is signed B. R., but it is in all probability by some other author. The English is very colloquial and the rendering inaccurate, but the translator apparently claimed to know his original, while Rich made no pretence to be a Greek scholar. Only two books of Herodotus—Clio and Euterpe—are translated. The second—‘Euterpe’—was reprinted in 1888 with a preface by Mr. Andrew Lang.
[Cunningham's Introduction to Honesty of this Age (Percy Soc.), 1844; preface to Shakespeare Society's Reprint of Rich's Farewell; Collier's Bibl. Account, ii. 42 seq. and Bibl. Decameron, ii. 134 seq.; Jusserand's Novel in the Time of Shakespeare, English translation, pp. 81, 145–7; Rich's Works in British Museum; information kindly supplied by R. E. Graves, esq., of the British Museum.]
RICH, CHRISTOPHER (d. 1714), theatrical manager, originally an attorney, purchased, on 24 March 1688, from Alexander D'Avenant, who was co-patentee with Charles Killigrew, a share in the management of the Theatre Royal (subsequently known as Drury Lane). Alexander D'Avenant thereupon retired, while Killigrew allowed Rich to become the predominant and responsible partner in the conduct of theatrical affairs. With the management of Drury Lane was combined that of the subordinate house in Dorset Garden. From the first Rich was involved in continual lawsuits and difficulties with the actors, the proprietors, and the lord chamberlain, but his legal training fitted him to cope with all.
His difficulties arrived at a climax in 1695, when Betterton obtained a patent for a new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and successfully opened it on 30 April with Congreve's ‘Love for Love.’ Rich would not listen to any suggestion of accommodation between the rival companies. He busied himself, according to Cibber, in making unimportant structural alterations at Drury Lane, and prophesied failure for the other house at the ‘fag end of the town.’ The success of the new house was not sustained, and in 1705 Betterton transferred his company to the new theatre in the Haymarket, which had been planned by Vanbrugh for opera in the previous year, but of which the projector had wearied. This arrangement was equally unsuccessful, and in October 1706 Vanbrugh leased the Haymarket Theatre at a rental of 5l. for every acting day to Rich's agent, Owen Swiney. The latter took with him a small detachment of actors from Drury Lane. The three London playhouses (Drury Lane, Dorset Garden, and Haymarket) were thus alike for a short while under Rich's dominion. But his avarice and oppression of the actors seem to have alienated all who came into contact with him. As sole manager of Drury Lane for several years, he could never be persuaded or coerced into rendering to the other proprietors any account of his trust; and one of the chief proprietors, Sir Thomas Skipwith, parted with his share in disgust to Colonel Brett. The machinations of the latter seem to have influenced the lord chamberlain to issue, on 31 Dec. 1707, an arbitrary edict restricting the Haymarket to opera under Swiney's directorship, and ordering Rich's actors back to Drury Lane. About the same time Swiney became completely estranged from Rich, who thenceforth lost his control over the Haymarket. Rich's Haymarket and Drury Lane companies appeared together in ‘Hamlet’ at Drury Lane on 15 Jan. 1708. But the reunion satisfied no one. On 31 March 1708 Brett assigned his share in the patent to Wilks, Estcourt, and Cibber, and these actors, who had long been dissatisfied with Rich, began to prepare for a secession.
Rich now recommenced his oppressive
