RICH, CLAUDIUS JAMES (1787–1821), English traveller and scholar, was born near Dijon on the 28th of March 1787. His youth was spent at Bristol. He early developed a gift for languages, becoming familiar not only with Latin and Greek but also with Hebrew, Syriac, Persian, Turkish and other Eastern tongues. In 1804 Rich went to Constantinople, where, and at Smyrna, he stayed some time, perfecting himself in Turkish. Proceeding, to Alexandria as assistant to the British consul-general there, he devoted himself to Arabic and its various dialects, and made, himself master of Eastern manners and usages. On leaving Egypt he travelled by land to the Persian Gulf, disguised as a Mameluke, visiting Damascus, and entering the great mosque undetected. At Bombay, which he reached in September 1807, he was the guest of Sir James Mackintosh, whose eldest daughter he married in January 1808, proceeding soon after to Bagdad as resident. There he began his investigations into the geography, history and antiquities of the district. He explored the remains of Babylon, and projected a geographical and statistical account of the pashalic of Bagdad. The results of his work at Babylon appeared first in the Vienna serial Mines de l’orient, and in 1815 in England, under the title Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon in 1811. In 1813–14 Rich spent some time in Europe, and on his return to Bagdad devoted himself to the study of the geography of Asia Minor, and collected much information in Syrian and Chaldaean convents concerning the Yezidis. During this period he made a second excursion to Babylon, and in 1820 undertook an extensive tour to Kurdistan—from Bagdad north to Sulimania, eastward to Sinna, then west to Nineveh, and thence down the Tigris to Bagdad. The narrative of this journey, which contained the first accurate knowledge (from scientific observation) regarding the topography and geography of the region, was published by his widow under the title, Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan and on the site of Ancient Nineveh, &c. (London, 1836). In 1821 Rich went to Basora, whence he made an excursion to Shiraz, visiting the ruins of Persepolis and the other remains in the neighbourhood. At Shiraz he died of cholera on the 5th of October 1821. His fine collections of manuscripts and coins was purchased by the British Museum.
RICH, JOHN (1692–1761), English actor, the “father of
English pantomime, ” was the son of Christopher Rich (d. 1714),
the manager of Drury Lane, with whose quarrels and tyrannies
Colley Cibber’s Apology is much occupied. John Rich opened
the new theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields left unfinished”by his
father, and here, in 1716, under the stage name of Lun, he first
appeared as Harlequin in an unnamed entertainment which
developed into an annual pantomime (q.v.). By this departure
he made successful headway in his competition with the stronger
company at Drury Lane, including Cibber, Wilks and Booth.
Rich was less happy in his management of Covent Garden,
which he opened in 1733, until Garrick’s arrival (1746), when
a most prosperous season ensued, followed by a bad one when
Garrick went to Drury Lane. During Rich’s management
occurred the rival performances of Romeo and Juliet—Barry
and Mrs Cibber at Covent Garden, and Garrick and Miss Bellamy
at Drury Lane—and the subsequent competition between the
two rival actors in King Lear. Rich died on the 26th of November
1761. Garrick’s lines show that his acting was pantomime
pure and simple, without words:—
“When Lun appeared, with matchless art and whim,
He gave the power of speech to every limb:
Tho’ masked and mute, conveyed his quick intent,
And told in frolic gesture what he meant.”
RICH, PENELOPE, Lady (c. 1562–1607), the Stella of Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella, was the daughter of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex. She was a child of fourteen when Sir Philip Sidney accompanied the queen on a visit to Lady Essex in 1576, on her way from Kenilworth, and must have been
frequently thrown into the society of Sidney, in consequence of the many ties between the two families. Essex died at Dublin in September 15761 He had sent a message to Philip Sidney from his death-bed expressing his desire that he should
marry his daughter, and later his secretary wrote to the young
man’s father, Sir Henry Sidney, in words which seem to point
to the existence of a very definite understanding. Penelope’s
great-grandmother was a sister of Anne Boleyn, and she and
her brother Robert were therefore distantly connected with
Elizabeth. Perhaps the marriage of Lady Essex with the earl
of Leicester, which destroyed Sidney’s prospects as his uncle’s
heir, had something to do with the breaking off of the proposed
match with Penelope. Her relative and guardian, Henry
Hastings, earl of Huntingdon, secured Burghley’s assent in
March 1581 for her marriage with Robert Rich, 3rd Baron Rich.
Penelope is said to have protested in vain against the alliance
with Rich, who is represented as a rough and overbearing
husband. The evidence against him is, however, chiefly derived
from sources as interested as Sir Philip Sidney’s violent denunciation
in the twenty-fourth sonnet of Astrophel and Stella, “Rich
fooles there be whose base and filthy hart.” Sidney’s serious
love for Penelope appears to date from her marriage with Rich.
The earlier sonnets are in praise of her beauty, or treat of the
conventional topic of the struggle between reason and love,
while the later ones are marked by unmistakable passion. The
eighth song of Astrophel and Stella narrates Stella’s refusal to
accept Sidney as a lover. Lady Rich was the mother of six
children by her husband when she contracted in 1595 an open
liaison with Charles Blount, 8th Lord Mountjoy, a brilliant
courtier and favourite of Elizabeth, to whom she had long been
attached. Rich took no steps against his wife during her
brother’s lifetime, and she nursed him through an illness in 1600, but they obtained a legal separation in 1601, and Mountjoy acknowledged her five children born after 1595. Mountjoy was created earl of Devonshire on the accession of James I., and Lady Rich was in high favour at court. In 1605, however,
they legitimized their connexion by a marriage celebrated by William Laud, the earl’s chaplain. This proceeding, carried out in defiance of canon law, was followed by the disgrace of both parties, who were banished from court. Devonshire died
on the 3rd of April 1606, and his wife within a year of that date. Her eldest son by Lord Rich, who became earl of Warwick in 1618, was Robert Rich, 2nd earl of Warwick (1587–1658). The second, Henry Rich, earl of Holland, was beheaded in 1649 for his share in the second Civil War. Her eldest son by Mountjoy, Mountjoy Blount, Baron Mountjoy and earl of Newport (c. 1597–1665) also figured in the Civil War.
See the editions of Astrophel and Stella by Dr A. B. Grosart, E. Arber and A. W. Pollard; also the various lives of Sir Philip Sidney, and Mrs Aubrey Richardson’s Famous Ladies of the English Court (London, 1899). John Ford’s Broken Heart has been alleged to have been founded on the history of Lady Rich. Richard Barnfield dedicated his Affectionate Shepherd (1594) to her; Bartholomew Yonge his Diana of George of Montemayor (1598); and sonnets are addressed to her by John Davies of Hereford and by Henry Constable.
RICH, RICHARD (fl. 1610), English soldier and adventurer, the author of Newes from Virginia, sailed from England on the 2nd of June 1609 for Virginia, with Captain Christopher Newport and the three commissioners entrusted with the foundation of the new colony. In his verse pamphlet he relates the adventures undergone by the expedition, and describes the resources of the new country, with the advantages offered to colonists. The title runs: Newes from Virginia. The lost Flocke Triumphant. With the happy Arrivall of that famous and worthy Knight Sr. Thomas Gates: and the well reputed and valiant Captaine Mr Christopher Newport, and others, into England. With the maner of their distresse in the Iland of Devils (otherwise called Bermoothawes), where they remayned 42 weeks, and builded two Pynaces, in which they returned into Virginia. By R. Rich, Gent., one of the Voyage (1610).” The only known copy of this tract is in the Huth Library. A reprint edited by J. O. Halliwell-Phillips appeared in 1865 (another ed., 1874). The adventures related by Rich are supposed to have been in Shakespeare's mind when he wrote The Tempest. Another tract by Rich mentioned in the Stationers’ Register, Good Speed to Virginia, is unknown.
