Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Radcliffe, Ralph
RADCLIFFE, RALPH (1519?–1559), schoolmaster and playwright, born in Lancashire about 1519, was younger son of Thomas Radcliffe, who belonged to a younger branch of the Radcliffe family of Ordsall, Lancashire (see Berry, County Genealogies, ‘Hertfordshire,’ p. 109; Foster, Lancashire Pedigrees). He was one of the earliest undergraduates of the newly founded Brasenose College, Oxford, but soon migrated to Cambridge (possibly to Jesus College), where he graduated B.A. in 1536–7. He proceeded M.A. in 1539, and in the same year made a disturbance while John Cheke was delivering his elaborate plea for abandoning at Cambridge the continental mode of pronouncing Greek. Radcliffe, who argued that the continental mode was correct, was subsequently supported by the chancellor, Bishop Gardiner (Strype, Life of Sir Thomas Smith, p. 22). On 22 July 1546 the grantees of the priory of White Friars or Carmelites of Hitchin conveyed it to Ralph Radcliffe (see Cussans, Hertfordshire, ii. 43). He opened a school in the Carmelites' house, and erected in a lower room a stage for his scholars, whereon to act Latin and English comedies. Bale, bishop of Ossory, stayed at Hitchin with Radcliffe, and speaks in terms of high praise of his ‘theatrum longe pulcherrimum.’ Pits says he exhibited plays ‘populo concurrente atque spectante.’ He grew rich, and was held in much veneration in the neighbourhood (Wood). He died in 1559, aged 40. He was buried in Hitchin church, where there is a monumental inscription to him and to several of his descendants (Chauncy, Hist. Antiq. of Hertfordshire, p. 390).
Radcliffe married Elizabeth Marshall of Mitcham, who afterwards became wife to Thomas Norton, and was ancestress of the Nortons of Iffley. By her he had four children: Ralph (1543–1621), a bencher of the Inner Temple and double reader of that society (cf. Ascham, Epistolæ Familiares, lib. iii. ep. xxvii.); Jeremie; Edward (1553–1631) (afterwards Sir Edward Radcliffe), physician to James I; and a daughter Elizabeth.
In a volume belonging to J. R. Ormesby-Gore there are three dialogues dedicated to Henry VIII, and signed ‘your grace's humble subject, Robert Radclif, professor of artes and schoolmaster of Jesus College, Cambridge’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 85). The signature is probably a misreading for Ralph Radcliffe. Radcliffe's other works are not extant. An account of them, collected by Bale when on a visit to Radcliffe, appears in Bale's ‘Scriptores.’ They consist of ten comedies and tragedies, written in Latin, primarily for his pupils. Six of the ten subjects are biblical, and their object was to present ‘pictures of Christian heroism.’ Among them were: ‘De patientia Griselidis;’ ‘De Melibœo Chauceriano,’ ‘De Titi et Gisippi Amicitia,’ ‘De Sodomæ Incendio,’ ‘De Jo. Hussi Damnatione,’ ‘De Jonæ Defectione,’ ‘De Lazaro ac Divite,’ ‘De Jobi Afflictionibus,’ and ‘De Susannæ Liberatione.’
Radcliffe also wrote on educational topics. Bale mentions works: ‘De Nominis et Verbi potentissimorum regum in regno grammatico exitiali Pugna,’ ‘De Puerorum Institutione,’ lib. i.; ‘Epistolæ ad Tirones,’ lib. i.; ‘Loci Communes a Philosophis in Studiosorum usum selecti,’ lib. i.
[Authorities quoted; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 215; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 203, 552; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 613; Pits, De Illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 707; Bale's Scriptorum Britanniæ, p. 700; Lansd. MS. 979, fol. 141; Dugdale's Monast. Angl. i. 1041; Baker's Biogr. Dram. ii. 588; Warton's Hist. Engl. Poetry, iii. 309; C. H. Herford's Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 74, 109–13.]