What we know about Lording Barry, playwright and pirate, suggests a somewhat unreliable, roguish character, rather like the protagonist of his only certainly attributable play,
Ram Alley: a bit of a lad, willing to take financial risks under inauspicious circumstances, leave other people to deal with the consequences and, when up against the wall, prepared to resort to his “well-drawn blade” (
Ram Alley, 5.1.150).
Cecil L’Estrange Ewen (1938) tells us that Barry was baptised in London on the 17th of April 1580. He was the fourth child of Nicholas Barry (a citizen fishmonger of some substance who had his own coat of arms) by his second wife Alice, née Lording, the daughter of a merchant-taylor. Nothing definite is known of his education. His younger brother John is recorded as having
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Citation: Fraser, Duncan. "Lording Barry". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 November 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13387, accessed 21 November 2024.]
