Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rightwise, John
RIGHTWISE or RITWYSE, JOHN (d. 1532?), grammarian, was a native of Sall, a village near Deepham, Norfolk. After being educated at Eton, he was admitted of King's College, Cambridge, in 1508, and graduated B.A. in 1513. In 1517 he was appointed surmaster (second master) of the newly founded St. Paul's School under William Lily. In 1522, on the death of Lily, Rightwise succeeded him as high master. He appears to have been in holy orders. On 18 Dec. 1517 (?) Colet wrote on his behalf to Wolsey asking for some ecclesiastical benefice for him (Ellis, Original Letters, 3rd ser. i. 190). Although, according to Colet, Rightwise was a man of good learning and high character, no preferment reached him. He became unsettled, and in 1531 was removed from the high mastership for neglect of duty (Gardiner, Admission Registers of St. Paul's School, p. 20). He is said to have died in 1532 (Tanner, Bibliotheca Brit.-Hib.) There are some verses upon him by Leland (Poemata Varia, p. 18).
He married Dionysia, daughter of William Lily, who survived him and afterwards married James Jacob, surmaster from 1532 to 1560.
Rightwise made some additions to Lily's Grammar under the title of ‘De nominum et verborum interpretamentis.’ But he is chiefly remembered as a composer of plays and interludes. One of them, the ‘Tragedy of Dido, out of Virgil,’ was acted by the boys of St. Paul's School under his superintendence, on 10 Nov. 1527, before Henry VIII and his court at Greenwich (Brewer, Letters and Papers, iv. pt. ii. 1604; Collier, English Dramatic Poetry, 1831, i. 105; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ii. 24, 78).
[Stow's Survey, ed. Strype, i. 167; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. 1858, i. 46, 529; Cole MSS. vol. xiii. f. 150; Harwood's Alumni Etonenses, 1797, p. 132.]