Richard Vennar or Vennard (died October 1615)[1] was an English poet and miscellaneous writer.
Richard Vennar (died 1615), England's Joy, [1601?]. Courtesy Bridgeman Images.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Vennar was the younger son of John Vennar of Salisbury, a commissioner of the peace.[2]
He was educated by Adam Hill, prebendary and succentor of Salisbury Cathedral.[2]
About 1572 he enrolled at Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied for 2 years as a fellow commoner.[2]
He crossed to France towards the close of 1574, visited the court of Henri III, and procured letters of commendation to the emperor, Maximilian II. After some stay in Germany he returned home, and became a member of Barnard's Inn. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 10 June 1581, receiving the privileges of a special admission on 25 July 1587.[2]
Legal troubles[]
On the death of his father Vennar found himself involved in a lawsuit with the husband of his elder brother's widow for the possession of his patrimonial estates, and was ultimately compelled to take a younger brother's portion.[2]
In 1600 he visited Scotland, and injudiciously solicited the intervention of James VI with the lords of the council. He had a favourable reception, and composed a thanksgiving for the delivery of James from the Gowrie conspiracy, which was presented to the king. His good reception aroused Elizabeth's anger, and on his return to England he was promptly arrested and imprisoned for a short time "as a dangerous member to the state."[2]
Right Way to Heaven[]
In 1601 appeared The Right Way to Heaven: and The true testimonie of a faithfull and loyall subject. Compiled by Richard Vennard of Lincolnes Inne. Printed by Thomas Este, London, 4to, a work of a religious character, but abounding in adulation of Queen Elizabeth. The 1st part was reprinted in the following year with several alterations and additions, with the title, The Right Way to Heauen, and a good presedent for Lawyers and all other good Christians. It was reprinted in Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth (iii. 532-543).[2]
An undated reprint of the 2nd part, The True Testimonie, is preserved in the Bridgwater Library. It is prefaced by a dedication to James I, and contains a thanksgiving for the deliverance of the kingdom from the gunpowder plot.[2]
England's Joy[]
Not realising much by the sale, Vennar, who had in contemplation a 2nd journey to Scotland, proclaimed his intention of representing England's triumphs over Spain in a masque entitled Englands Ioy. The broadside of the plot is in possession of the Society of Antiquaries, and has been reprinted in their Miscellanies (x. 196). He announced that it would be represented at the Swan on 6 November 1602, and a large company, including many noblemen, assembled to witness it. After taking the entrance money, however, Vennar disappeared, and the audience revenged themselves by breaking up the furniture.[2]
Vennar himself states that he was arrested by bailiffs when the masque was about to begin, but Chamberlain relates that he fled on horseback, was pursued, captured, and brought before Sir John Popham, who treated the affair as a jest, and bound him over in five pounds to appear at the sessions (Chamberlain, Letters, Camden Soc. p. 163; Hazlitt, Shakespeare Jest Books, 1864, i. 145). The episode caused much amusement. Vennar was universally regarded as an impostor and dubbed "England's Joy," a name which gave him peculiar annoyance.[2]
In 1614 he wrote a vehement protest, entitled An Apology: written by Richard Vennar of Lincolnes Inne, abusively called Englands Joy. To represse the contagious ruptures of the infected multitude. … London. Printed by Nicholas Okes. The work is divided into 2 parts, of which the 1st is autobiographical, and the 2nd relates Vennar's exertions to obtain the abolition of imprisonment for debt in England. The only perfect copy extant is in the British Museum Library, but it has been reprinted in Collier's Illustrations of Old English Literature, vol. iii.[2]
A poem entitled "Englands Joy," commemorating the defeat of the Irish in 1600 under Hugh O'Neill, 2nd earl of Tyrone, by R.V., published without date, place, or printer's name, is sometimes attributed to Vennar, but may quite as well be the work of Richard Rowlands alias Verstegen.[2]
Final years[]
In 1606 Vennar was arrested on suspicion of an intention to defraud Sir John Spencer of £500 on pretence of preparing a masque under the patronage of Sir John Watts, the lord mayor. After that he avoided London, and lived chiefly in Essex and Kent.[2]
In spite of the exertions on behalf of debtors of which he speaks in his Apology, Vennar himself perished in the "black hole" of Wood Street counter debtors' prison, in the most abject misery, the victim of his keeper's resentment (Fennor, Compters Commonwealth, 1617, p. 64).[2]
Recognition[]
Several allusions to England's Joy occur in contemporary literature, particularly in Ben Jonson's Love Restored (1610–11) and Masque of Augures (1622), and in Sir John Suckling's comedy, The Goblins (1646).[2]
Poet and pamphleteer William Fennor staged and acted England's Joy in 1615. John Taylor the Water Poet insulted Fennor's performance by writing in his Cast over the Water: Given gratis to William Fennor, the rimer, 1615:
- Thou brag’st what fame thou got’st vpon the stage
- Indeed, thou set’st the people in a rage
- In playing Englands Ioy, that euery Man
- Did iudge it worse then that was done at Swan.[1] .
In the same poem, Taylor accused Fennor of passing off as his own some manuscripts in reality written by
- Poor old Vennor, that plaine dealing man,
- Who acted Englands Ioy first at the Swan.[2]
Fennor's theft was probably committed while Vennar was confined in Wood Street counter.[2]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- The Right Way to Heaven. London: Este, 1602.
Non-fiction[]
- The True Testimonie of a Faithfull Subject. London: 1602.
- An Apology, written by Richard Vennar, of Lincolnes Inne, Abusiuely Called Englands Joy: To Represse the Contagious Ruptures of the Infected Multitude, Who, Hauing Diseased Stomackes of Their Owne, Make the World Beleeue They Cast Vp Others Poyson.. London: printed by Nicholas Oakes, 1614; London: privately published, 1866.
Collected editions[]
- The Right Way to Heaven; and The true testimonie of a faithfull subject. London: Este, 1601.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[3]
See also[]
References[]
Carlyle, Edward Irving (1899) "Vennar, Richard" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 58 London: Smith, Elder, p. 210 . Wikisource, Web, Dec. 26, 2016.
Notes[]
External links[]
- Poems
- About
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Vennar, Richard
|