{{other people||Richard Edwards (disambiguation)}} {{short description|16th-century English writer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}} {{Use British English|date=August 2015}}
'''Richard Edwardes''' (also '''Edwards''', circa 1523 – 31 October 1566) was an English [[poet]], [[playwright]], and composer; he was made a Gentleman of the [[Chapel Royal]], and was master of the singing boys. He was known for his comedies and interludes.
==Life== Richard Edwardes was born around 1523 in [[Somerset]].<ref name=":0">{{cite DNB |wstitle= Edwards, Richard |volume= 17 |last= Bullen |first= Arthur Henry |author-link= Arthur Henry Bullen |page= 125 |short= 1}}</ref>
Edwardes began his studies at [[Corpus Christi College, Oxford]] in May 1540 and joined [[Christ Church, Oxford]] as it opened in 1546. He joined [[Lincoln's Inn]] but did not take up law as a career.<ref name=":0" /> He joined the [[Chapel Royal]] by 1557 and was appointed [[Master of the Children]] in 1561. He married Helene Griffith in 1563.<ref name=":1">{{cite book|title=The Mistresses of Henry VIII |first=Kelly| last=Hart |edition=First |date=1 June 2009 |page=[https://archive.org/details/mistressesofhenr0000hart/page/23 23] |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0-7524-4835-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/mistressesofhenr0000hart|url-access=registration }}</ref> After he died in 1566, he was succeeded by [[William Hunnis]].<ref name="Grove">{{Cite Grove1900 |wstitle= Edwards, Richard |volume= 1:16 | page= 483 |last= Husk |first= William Henry |author-link= William Henry Husk |year=1900 |short=1}}</ref>
==Works==
===Plays=== In 1566, Edwardes' ''[[Palamon and Arcite (Edwardes)|Palamon and Arcite]]'' was performed before [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]] at [[Oxford]] when the stage fell — three people died and five were injured as a result. Despite the tragic accident, the show continued to play that night.
''The excellent Comedie of two the moste faithfullest Freendes,'' ''[[Damon and Pythias (play)|Damon and Pithias]]'' (written in 1564, published in 1571), a comedy, is his only extant play.<ref name=":0" />
===Poems=== Ten of Edwardes' poems appear in the first edition of the ''Paradise of Dainty Devices,'' though publisher Henry Disle says the poems are "written for the most part by M. [Master] Edwards." Edwardes possibly compiled the manuscript on which the ''Paradise of Dainty Devices'' is based.
===Verses on the court of Mary I=== Verses by Edwardes around the year 1555 describe eight ladies in waiting to [[Mary I of England]], and particularly praise the beauty of [[Jane Dormer]], "of lively hue", and Frances Bayneham, "as beautiful as nature can devise".<ref>Ros King, ''The Collected Works of Richard Edwards: Politics, Poetry and Performance in Sixteenth-Century England'' (Manchester, 2001), pp. 19, 187–188: David Loades, ''Mary Tudor'' (Blackwell, 1989), p. 140: David Loades, ''The Tudor Court'' (Headstart, 1992), pp. 210–214.</ref> The ladies were named as Howard, [[Magdalen Dacre|Dacres]], Baynam, Arundel, Dormer, [[Rice Mansel|Mansell]], Margaret Cooke, and Bridges.<ref>Gemma Allen, ''The Cooke Sisters: Education, piety and politics in early modern England'' (Manchester, 2013), p. 205: Ros King, ''The Collected Works of Richard Edwards: Politics, Poetry and Performance in Sixteenth-Century England'' (Manchester, 2001), pp. 231–232.</ref> The verses are found in a [[British Library]] manuscript, (Cotton MS Titus A XIV), and were not included in the ''Paradise''.<ref>Hannah Leah Crummé, "Jane Dormer's Recipe for Politics", [[Nadine Akkerman]] & Birgit Houben, ''The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe'' (Brill, 2014), p. 54.</ref><ref>Thomas Park, ''Nugae Antiquae'', 2 (London, 1804), 392–94 citing BL Cotton Titus A. xxiv.</ref>
===Music=== Edwardes was less well known as a composer, but several of his compositions survive, including three pieces in the [[Mulliner Book]]: "O the syllye man," ascribed to him by the book, and two anonymous pieces usually attributed to him, "In goinge to my naked bedde" and "When grypinge griefes." Other pieces include a song from ''Damon and Pithias,'' "Awake, ye woeful wights," and a setting of the Lord's Prayer in [[Richard Day (printer)|Richard Day]]'s Psalter of 1563.<ref name="Grove"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== * {{SBDEL |wstitle= Edwards, Richard |volume= | page= 128 |last= Cousin |first= John William |author-link= John William Cousin |year=1910|short=1}} *''Paradise of Dainty Devices'' (linked below)
==External links== {{wikiquote}} *[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9014 Literary Encyclopedia - ''Damon and Pythias''] *[http://www.elizabethanauthors.com/damon101.htm ''Damon and Pythias'' online] dead link *[https://archive.org/details/paradiseofdainty027377mbp ''Paradise of Dainty Devices'' online]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwardes, Richard}} [[Category:1525 births]] [[Category:1566 deaths]] [[Category:16th-century English composers]] [[Category:16th-century English dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:16th-century English male writers]] [[Category:16th-century English poets]] [[Category:English male poets]] [[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:English Renaissance dramatists]] [[Category:Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal]]
[[Category:Masters of the Children of the Chapel Royal]]