Richard Braithwaite or Brathwait (1588 – 4 May 1673) was an English poet.
He was born at Burnishead, near Kendal, and educated at Oxford. He is believed to have served with the Royalist army in the Civil War. He was the author of many works of very unequal merit, of which the best known is Drunken Barnaby's Four Journeys, which records his pilgrimages through England in rhymed Latin (said by Southey to be the best of modern times), and doggerel English verse. The English Gentleman (1631) and English Gentlewoman are in a much more decorous strain. Other works are The Golden Fleece (1611) (poems), The Poet's Willow, A Strappado for the Devil (a satire), and Art Asleepe, Husband?
An extract from both “Drunken Barnaby” and his “epitaph to Frances, (his wife)” appears in “The Bishoprick Garland” by (Sir) Cuthbert Sharp.
Richard Braithwaite was married at Hurworth, 4 May 1617, to Frances, daughter of James Lawson, of Nesham Abbey. His wife pre-deceased him and on her death he wrote her epitaph.
Famous quotes containing the word richard:
“Awop-bop-a-loo-mop alop-bam-boom!”
—Little Richard (b. 1932)