Barnabe Rich

Barnabe Rich (also Barnaby Riche) (c. 1540 – 10 November 1617), was an English author and soldier, and a distant relative of Lord Chancellor Rich.

Life

He fought in the Low Countries, rising to the rank of captain, and afterward served in Ireland. He shared in the colonization of Ulster, and spent the latter part of his life near 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 took the plot of Twelfth Night. It is, however, founded on the tale of Nicuola and Lattantio as told by 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 in 1603. Both play and story were edited for the Bannatyne Club in 1835, by David Irving.