Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/West, Richard (fl.1606-1619)
WEST, RICHARD (fl. 1606–1619), poet, was the author of several volumes of verse. In 1606 appeared ‘News from Bartolomew Fayre’ (London, 4to), of which a fragment is preserved at the Bodleian. The poem, though without much merit, is a lively description of the scenes at the fair and of the buyers and sellers who resorted to it. It was followed in 1607 by ‘The Court of Conscience, or Dick Whippers Sessions’ (London, 4to), a satire on the manners of the time. In 1619 a new edition of Francis Segar's ‘School of Vertue’ appeared with a second part by West; the second part was chiefly a summary recapitulation of Segar's precepts, and, like them, was in verse. It was frequently known as the ‘Booke of Demeanour.’ It was reprinted in 1677, and in 1817 in facsimile for the Roxburghe Club. In 1868 it was edited for the Early English Text Society by F. J. Furnivall together with ‘The Babees Book’ and other similar treatises. To West has also been attributed ‘The Wyttes A.B.C., or a Centurie of Epigrams by R.W., Bachelor of Arts in Oxon.,’ of which there is a copy in the Malone collection at the Bodleian, but the author of this work was undoubtedly a distinct person.
[Corser's Collectanea, v. 377–82; Gray's Index to Hazlitt's Collections; Collier's Bibliogr. Account of Early English Lit. i. 50, ii. 502; Arber's Transcript of the Stationers' Register, iii. 326, 358; Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 24488, f. 363.]