author of an ode on ‘Winter,’ in fifty-eight lines, which first appeared in Savage's ‘Miscellany’ in 1726, when it was attributed to David Mallet [q. v.] The latter seems at first to have countenanced the illusion, but omitted it from his collected works. In 1740 the ode reappeared in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ its author being given as ‘a Scots clergyman.’ In 1853 it again appeared in the same publication, with remarks by Peter Cunningham, who found no difficulty in assigning its authorship to Riccaltoun. When James Thomson was engaged in 1725 on his own poem on ‘Winter,’ he fully acknowledged his indebtedness to his early friend, whose ode on the same topic, as he states, ‘first put the design into my head. In it are some masterly strokes that awakened me.’
Two years previous to his settlement at Hopekirk, Riccaltoun published anonymously one of the earliest works on the ‘Marrow controversy,’ entitled ‘A Sober Inquiry into the Grounds of the present Differences in the Church of Scotland’ (1723). Riccaltoun's ‘Works’ appeared posthumously in 3 vols. 8vo, Edinburgh, 1771–2, and ‘Letters to a Friend’ in the ‘Edinburgh Christian Instructor,’ vol. vi. There has been erroneously attributed to him a work by the Rev. Duncan Shaw of Aberdeen, entitled ‘Dissertation on the Conduct of the Jewish Sanhedrim, and Advice offered by Gamaliel,’ 1769.
[Hew Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scot.; Memoirs of Thomson, by Murdoch and Nicolas; Parish Registers; Rich. Savage's Miscellany, 1726; Gent. Mag. 1740, new ser. 1853.]
RICCIO or RIZZIO, DAVID (1533?–1566), secretary of Mary Queen of Scots, was the son of a musician at Pancalieri, near Turin, where he was born about 1533. He obtained a good musical education from his father, and began life in the service of the archbishop of Turin, whence he went to Nice to the court of the Duke of Savoy. In the autumn of 1561 he accompanied—it is said as secretary (‘Mémoire’ addressed to Cosmo, first grand duke of Tuscany, in Labanoff's Lettres de Marie Stuart, vii. 65)—the Marquis of Moretto, ambassador of the Duke of Savoy, to Scotland. The queen being at this time in need of a bass singer to complete the quartette in her private chapel, Riccio was recommended to her by the marquis, and, giving special satisfaction, was retained in the queen's service as ‘valet de chambre.’ His salary in this capacity gradually rose from 65l. to 80l., and he also received other occasional sums (‘Treasurer's Accounts,’ quoted by Laing in Knox's Works, ii. 596). For some years he remained at the Scottish court in this obscure position, until, on the dismissal of Mary's French secretary, Raulet, in December 1564, he was chosen to succeed him. The office was not necessarily an important one, and the selection of Riccio for it seems to have caused no remark. It is now known, however, to have been coincident with the beginnings of an important change in the queen's policy. She had now apparently taken the resolution to be the pilot of her own political destiny—uncontrolled by the Scottish lords, and even unadvised by her uncle of Lorraine. She was embarking on designs the secrets of which could not be safely confided to a secretary of French nationality; and that it was his trustworthiness rather than his knowledge of French that commended Riccio to her notice seems evident from the statement of Sir James Melville that he ‘was not very skilful in dyting of French letters’ (Memoirs, p. 109). It has even been supposed that from the beginning Riccio was the secret agent of the pope, and that his employment as ‘valet de chambre’ and musician was a mere blind to conceal the real nature of his duties. Of this there is, however, no proof; and the supposition is irreconcileable with the fact that, while the pope was averse from the queen's marriage, Riccio, apparently at the instance of Mary, was the main negotiator of the marriage and on terms of special friendship with Darnley. According to one account, Riccio, shortly after Darnley's illness at Stirling, arranged for a clandestine marriage by introducing a priest into his own chamber, where the ceremony took place (‘Mémoire’ addressed to the Duke of Tuscany in Labanoff, vii. 67); and, although the statement is insufficiently corroborated, it is not impossible that some kind of betrothal or engagement was then entered into, since Mary from about this time began to treat Darnley as at least her accepted lover.
After the queen's public marriage to Darnley on 29 July 1565, the influence of Riccio in her counsels became more marked than ever, and he practically superseded William Maitland (1528?–1573) [q. v.] of Lethington as secretary of state. Neither by Riccio nor by Mary was any attempt now made to conceal the high position he occupied, or the authority he wielded. His power, on the contrary, became more manifest after the sudden fall of Darnley from favour. He seemed virtually to have attained to the position in her counsels which her husband, had he not been morally and intellectually unfit, could alone have claimed: she publicly sought his advice on all high matters of state in the presence of her no-
