Nathanael Richards

Nathanael Richards (fl. 1630–1654) was an English dramatist and poet, perhaps from Kent. He is not Nathaniel Richards (1611–1660), a cleric.[1]

Nathanael Richards, 1640 engraving

Works

Richards issued in 1630 The Celestiall Publican, a religious poem.[2] At the end are epitaphs on James I, Sir Francis Carew, and others, with an anagram on Sir Julius Cæsar and verses on the author's friend, Sir Henry Hart, K.B. These poems were reprinted, with some additions, in 1641, as Poems Sacred and Satyricall, London, for H. Blunden, 1641.[3]

Richards's major work was the tragedy Messallina (1640), a historical play based on Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the younger, and the sixth satire of Juvenal.[4] There are anachronisms, such as firearms, and a hundred vestal virgins are gratuitously introduced. The work is dedicated to John Cary, Viscount Rochford, and there are complimentary verses by Robert Davenport, Thomas Jordan, Thomas Rawlins, and others. It is one of the few plays of the period that have a cast list: it includes William Cartwright senior (Claudius), John Robinson (Saufellus), Christopher Goad (Silius), John Barret (Messalina), and Thomas Jordan (Lepida).[3]

Some verses by Richards were prefixed to Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women.[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ Sanders, Julie. "Richards, Nathanael". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23537. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ↑ ‘The Celestiall Pvblican, a Sacred Poem: lively describing the Birth, Progresse, Bloudy Passion, and glorious Resurection of our Saviovr, The Spiritvall Sea-Fight, The Mischievous Deceites of the World, the Flesh, The Vicious Courtier, The Jesuite, The Divell,’ &c., London, for Roger Michell. Issued with a new title and some unimportant omissions in 1632 (for James Boler) as Poems, Divine, Morall, and Satyricall.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Richards, Nathaniel". Dictionary of National Biography 48. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  4. ↑ Printed as The Tragedy of Messallina, the Roman Emperesse. As it has been acted with generall applause divers times, by the company of his Maiesties Revells, London, for Daniel Frere.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Richards, Nathaniel". Dictionary of National Biography 48. London: Smith, Elder & Co.