# Barnabe Rich
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{{Short description|English author and soldier}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
'''Barnabe Rich''' (also Barnaby Riche, Barnabe Rych (1614), Barnabee Rych (1614)) (c. 1540 – 10 November 1617) was an English writer and soldier, and a distant relative of [Lord Chancellor Rich](/source/Richard_Rich%2C_Lord_Rich).
==Life==
He fought in the [Low Countries](/source/Low_Countries), rising to the rank of captain, and afterwards served in Ireland. He shared in the colonization of [Ulster](/source/Ulster), and spent the latter part of his life near [Dublin](/source/Dublin). In the intervals of his campaigns he produced many pamphlets on political questions and romances. In 1606 he was in receipt of a pension of half a crown a day, and in 1616 he was presented with a gift of £100 as being the oldest captain in the service.
==Works==
His best-known work is ''Riche His Farwell to the Militarie Profession | Riche his Farewell to Militarie Profession conteining verie pleasaunt discourses fit for a peaceable tyme'' (1581). Of the eight stories contained in it, five, he says, are forged only for delight, neither credible to be believed, nor hurtful to be perused. The three others are translations from the Italian. He claims as his own invention the story of Apolonius and Silla, the second in the collection, from which [Shakespeare](/source/William_Shakespeare) took the plot of ''[Twelfth Night](/source/Twelfth_Night)''. It is, however, founded on the tale of Nicuola and Lattantio as told by [Matteo Bandello](/source/Matteo_Bandello). The eighth, Phylotus and Emilia, a complicated story arising from the likeness and disguise of a brother and sister, is identical in plot with the anonymous play, ''Philotus'', printed in [Edinburgh](/source/Edinburgh) in 1603. Both play and story were edited for the [Bannatyne Club](/source/Bannatyne_Club) in 1835, by [David Irving](/source/David_Irving_(librarian)).[{{cite DNB|wstitle=Irving, David|volume=29}}]
In the conclusion to his collection Rich tells a story of a devil named Balthasar, who possesses a king of Scots, prudently changed after the accession of [James I](/source/James_VI_and_I) to the Grand Turk. ''The Strange and Wonderful Adventures of Don Simonides, a Gentleman Spaniard'' (1581), with its sequel ''The Second Tome of the Travels and Adventures of Don Simonides'' (1584), is written in imitation of [Lyly](/source/John_Lyly). Among his other romances should be mentioned ''The Adventures of Brusanus, Prince of Hungaria'' (1592).
His authenticated works number twenty-four, and include works on Ireland, the troubles of which were, according to him, due to the religion of the people and to the lack of consistency and firmness on the part of the English government. Such are: ''Allarme to England'' (1578); ''[A New Description of Ireland](/source/%3AFile%3ARich_Barnabe-A_new_Irish_prognostication_or-Popish_callender.pdf)'' (1610); and ''The Irish Hubbub, or the English Hue and Crie'' (1617), in which he also inveighs against the use of tobacco.
==References==
* ''Barnabe Riche His Farewell to Military Profession''. Edited with Introduction and Notes by Donald Beecher. Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions/ Binghamton, New York: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1992. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110724124123/http://www.crrs.ca/publications/bookseries/br.htm Publications of the Barnabe Riche Society] no. 1 {{ISBN|1-895537-03-7}}; {{ISBN|1-895537-02-9}}
*Introductions to the [Shakespeare Society](/source/Shakespeare_Society)'s reprint of ''Riche his Farewell'' (1846)
*[Peter Cunningham](/source/Peter_Cunningham_(writer%2C_born_1816)), ''Introductions to Rich's Honesty of this Age'' (reprinted for the [Percy Society](/source/Percy_Society), 1844)
*the life by [Sidney Lee](/source/Sidney_Lee) in the ''Dictionary of National Biography''
*[Norbert Kind](/source/Norbert_Kind), ''Barnabe Riche, "Don Simonides", Teil I (1581), Teil II (1584): kritische Edition mit Einleitung, Kommentar und Glossar'', Köln, Phil. Diss., 1989.
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Rich, Barnabe|volume=23|page=291}}
{{Twelfth Night}}
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Category:1540s births
Category:1617 deaths
Category:English short story writers
Category:16th-century English soldiers
Category:17th-century English male writers
Category:16th-century English novelists
Category:16th-century English male writers
Barnabe
Category:English male short story writers
Category:English male novelists
Category:16th-century English non-fiction writers
Category:17th-century English non-fiction writers
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