English poet, son of Sir Thomas Ros, lord of Hamlake (Helmsley) in Yorkshire and of Belvoir in Leicestershire; born on the 8th of March 1429. In Harl. MS. 372 the poem of La Belle Dame sanz Mercy, first printed in W. Thynnes Chaucer (1532), has the ascription Translatid out of Frenche by Sir Richard Ros. La Belle Dame sanz Mercy is a long and rather dull poem from the French of Alain Chartier, and dates from about the middle of the 15th century. It is written in the Midland dialect, and is surprisingly modern in diction. The opening lines
Half in a dreme, not fully wel awaked, | |
The golden sleep me wrapped under his wing, |
See W. W. Skeat, Chaucerian and Other Pieces (1897); and Dr. H. Gröhler, Ueber Richard Ros mittelenglische Uebersetzung (Breslau, 1886).