Richard Bower

For the Canadian diplomat, see Richard Plant Bower.

Richard Bower (died 1561) was Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal from 1545 to 1561, serving under four monarchs—Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.^[1]

By 1524 he was singing in the chapel of Thomas Wolsey, becoming a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal by 1538.^[1]

A "tragical comedy" play, Apius and Virginia is attributed to him.^[2][1]

Bower was the father-in-law of Richard Farrant, and an associate of Thomas Tallis who was an overseer of his will.^[3] He was buried in St Alfege Church, Greenwich.^[4]

References

1. Ross W. Duffin (2018). Some Other Note: The Lost Songs of English Renaissance Comedy. Oxford University Press. p. 103. ISBN 9780190856601.
2. Cambridge History of English Literature 6, Part 2: The Drama to 1642. Cambridge University Press. 1969. ISBN 9780521045209.
3. John Harley (2015). Thomas Tallis. Routledge. ISBN 9781472428066.
4. David Hughson (1808). London; Being an Accurate History and Description of the British Metropolis and its Neighbourhood to Thirty Miles Extent from an Actual Perambulation: Volume 5. p. 111.

Further reading

• Charles William Wallace (1912). The evolution of English drama up to Shakespeare. Georg Reimer, Publisher and Printer, Berlin. pp. 69–78. ISBN 9783111651774.

External links

• 1575 edition of Apius and Virginia at archive.org
• Apius and Virginia at WorldCat