ABSTRACT
Rich presented to James in 1615 a manuscript ‘Anothomy of Irelande’; but the suggestion that this dialogue ‘both in form and in content models itself, in part at any rate,’ upon Spenser’s Vewe, then unpublished (Hinton 1940:81), is not convincing. Spenser proposes reforms in civil government, customs, and religion; Rich puts first of all ‘the rootynge out of popery, and the plantynge of the worde of God’ (Hinton 1940:84), blaming bishops and corrupt officials who tolerate popery for their profit. Unlike Spenser, he had no use for books written by Catholics or in Irish, in which he found nothing but ‘lies, fables, and popish fantasies’ (New Description 1610:33). His opinions ‘upon Irish affairs were those of an ardent combatant…an ultra-Protestant’ (Falkiner 1906:126).
