and most probably the personal friend of Shakespeare. He was the printer of the first (1593), the second (1594), and the third (1596) editions of Shakespeare's ‘Venus and Adonis,’ as well as of the first (1594) edition of his ‘Lucrece,’ all for John Harrison. Not one of the quarto plays, however, came from Field's press. ‘In the production of “Venus and Adonis,”’ says Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, ‘it is only reasonable to infer that the author had a control over the typographical arrangements. The purity of the text and the nature of the dedication may be thought to strengthen this opinion, and, although poems were not then generally introduced to the public in the same glowing terms usually accorded to dramatic pieces, the singularly brief and anonymous title-page does not bear the appearance of a publisher's handiwork’ (Outlines of Life of Shakespeare, 7th ed. 1887, i. 101–4). Mr. Blades suggests that when Shakespeare first came to London he visited his friend Field and was introduced to Vautrollier, in whose employment as press-reader or shopman he may have acquired that practical knowledge of the art of printing shown in his writings (Shakspere and Typography, 1872, p. 26, &c.). Collier was unable to trace ‘any relationship between Nathan Field, the actor, and Richard Field, the printer, but they were neighbours, living in the same liberty of the Black Friars’ (Memoirs of Actors, 1846, p. 223).
[Cat. of Books in Brit. Mus. printed in England before 1640, 1884, 3 vols.; Shakespeare Soc. Papers, iv. 36–8; Bibliographer, i. 173; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xii. 243, 411; Fleay's Chronicle Hist. of Shakespeare, 1886, pp. 112, 116.]
FIELD, THEOPHILUS (1574–1636), bishop of Hereford, eldest son of the Rev. John Field (1519?–1588), was born in the parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, London, and baptised there 22 Jan. 1574. He was brother of Nathaniel Field, the actor [q. v.] He was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, of which he was elected a fellow on 9 Oct. 1598. In 1599 he proceeded M.A., and was incorporated at Oxford 16 July 1600 (Wood, Athenæ Oxon., ed. Bliss, i. 536, ii. 882; Fasti Oxon. i. 288). He subsequently became B.D. and D.D. In 1610 he was ‘vicar of Mashfield, Sussex’ (Mayfield vicarage or Maresfield rectory may be meant); he was also rector of Cotton, Suffolk, and became vicar of Lydd, Kent, in 1611 (Hasted, Kent, fol. edit. iii. 517). The king appointed him one of his chaplains, and he acted in the same capacity to Bacon when lord chancellor (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1619–23, p. 238). John Chamberlain, in a letter to Carleton, dated 2 June 1619, describes Field as ‘a sort of broker’ for the chancellor in his peculations (ib. Dom. 1619–23, p. 260). It is evident that he took no very exalted view of his profession, nor ever troubled himself much about its duties. By the interest of the Duke of Buckingham he was consecrated bishop of Llandaff on 10 Oct. 1619 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 253), but being dissatisfied with the smallness of the revenue he pestered the duke with letters, urging his poverty, his having a wife and six children to maintain, and vowing to spend his blood for him if he would get him a better bishopric, such as Hereford (Willis, Survey of Cathedrals, ii. 526–7). In 1621 Field was impeached by the commons for brocage and bribery before his promotion, on the accusation of one Edward Egerton. His defence as regards the charge of bribery was deemed satisfactory by the lords, ‘but as it was not a fitting thing for a clergyman to be concerned in a brocage of such a nature, the house,’ says Carte, ‘required the Archbishop of Canterbury to give him an admonition as doctor Field, not as bishop of Llandaff, in the Convocation house, which was done accordingly’ (Hist. of England, iv. 77–8). Despite this check Field still persevered in his suit to Buckingham, and as the result of a letter written in August 1627 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1627–8, p. 326) he was translated to the see of St. David's in the following September (Le Neve, i. 302–3). Though his income was thus quadrupled, he found the air of his new diocese to disagree with him. When asked by the king why he lingered on at Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, he gave as the reasons ‘want of health and means of recovery in that desolate place, his diocese, where there is not so much as a leech to cure a sick horse’ (Letter to Endymion Porter, dated 31 Oct. 1629, in Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1629–31, p. 84). However, in 1630 he managed to hold a visitation of the chapter, in which he solemnly confirmed the acts and statutes of his predecessors, and then, in due form, by and with the consent of the chapter, decreed that his cathedral should be whitewashed (Jones and Freeman, History of St. David's, p. 171). On 15 Dec. 1635 Field reached the summit of his ambition by being elected bishop of Hereford (Le Neve, i. 471). He died on 2 June 1636, and was buried at the east end of the north aisle in Hereford Cathedral. Against the north wall, under a canopy lined with ermine, and supported by two angels, is a bust of him in his pontificals, and in the attitude of preaching (Duncumb, Herefordshire, i. 574–5). His will, bearing date
