Life

He was born in London. He may have been the son of Richard Niccols who entered the Inner Temple

Inner Temple

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

 in 1575, and who wrote ‘A Treatise setting forth the Mystery of our Salvation,’ and ‘A Day Star for Dark Wandring Souls; showing the light by a Christian Controversy’ (posthumous, 1613).

The younger Richard Niccols accompanied Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham

Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham

Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham , known as Howard of Effingham, was an English statesman and Lord High Admiral under Elizabeth I and James I...

's 1596 expedition against Cadiz

Cádiz

Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....

, and was on board the admiral's ship Ark at the taking of the city. He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

, on 20 November 1602, but then migrated to Magdalen Hall, where he graduated B.A. on 20 May 1606.

Coming to London, he studied Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

's works, and wrote poetry somewhat in Spenser's manner. The families of the Earl of Nottingham, Sir Thomas Wroth

Thomas Wroth (politician, 17th century)

Sir Thomas Wroth was an English parliamentarian and author.-Life:The eldest son of Thomas Wroth and grandson of Sir Thomas Wroth , he was born in London, and baptised at St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, on 5 May 1584. He matriculated as a commoner at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, on 1 July 1600, but was...

, and James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle

James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle

James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle was a Scottish aristocrat.-Life:He was the son of Sir James Hay of Fingask , and of Margaret Murray, cousin of George Hay, afterwards 1st Earl of Kinnoull.He was knighted and taken into favor by James VI of Scotland, brought into England in 1603, treated as a "prime...

, were his major literary patrons.

Works

His earliest publication, which appeared while he was an undergraduate, was on the death of Elizabeth I. ‘ In 1607 appeared a narrative poem called ‘The Cuckow,’ with the motto ‘At etiam cubat cuculus, surge amator, i domum’. The volume, which is dedicated to Master Thomas Wroth, and was printed by F[elix] K[ingston], has no author's name, but in his later ‘Winter Nights Vision’ Niccols describes himself as having ‘Cuckow-like’ sung ‘in rustick tunes of Castaes wrongs.’ It tells the story of a contest between the cuckoo

Cuckoo

The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos . Some zoologists and taxonomists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, but its taxonomy remains in dispute...

 and nightingale

Nightingale

The Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae...

 for supremacy in song; it imitates Spenser, who is eulogised. The work may have been suggested by Drayton's ‘Owl,’ 1604.

Niccols's undertook a revised edition of the Mirror for Magistrates

Mirror for Magistrates

Mirror for Magistrates is a collection of English poems from the Tudor period by various authors which retell the lives and the tragic ends of various historical figures.-Background:...

, which had originally been issued in 1559. Since its first appearance (William Baldwin

William Baldwin (author)

-Life:From the West Country, England, Baldwin studied logic and philosophy at Oxford. On leaving Oxford, he became a corrector of the press to the printer Edward Whitchurch. During the reigns of Edward VI and Queen Mary, it appears that Baldwin was employed in preparing theatrical exhibitions for...

), nine editions had appeared with continuations by Thomas Blenerhasset, John Higgins, and others. The previous edition under Higgins was dated 1587. In 1610 Niccols's version was printed by Felix Kingston. His main additions were inserted towards the close of the volume, and were introduced by a new title-page: ‘A Winter Nights Vision. Being an addition of such princes especially famous who were exempted in the former historie.’ The princes dealt with by Niccols include King Arthur, Edmund Ironside, Richard I, King John, Edward II, Edward V, Richard, duke of York, and Richard III. Niccols dedicated his own contribution to the Earl of Nottingham, and prefaced it with a ‘poeticall Induction.’ There followed, with another title-page and separately numbered pages, Niccols's ‘England's Eliza, or the victorious and triumphant Reigne of that Virgin Empresse of sacred memorie, Elizabeth, Queene of England, France, and Ireland, &c.’ The dedication was addressed to Elizabeth, wife of Sir Francis Clere. Another poetical induction precedes the poem on Elizabeth, which, Niccols states, he wrote at Greenwich, apparently in August 1603, when the plague raged in London. Niccols's edition of the ‘Mirror’ was reissued in 1619 and 1628. All Niccols's continuations are reprinted in Joseph Haslewood

Joseph Haslewood

Joseph Haslewood , was an English writer and antiquary. He was a founder of the Roxburghe Club.Haslewood was born in London, the son of Richard Haslewood and his wife Mary Dewsbery. He was an author and editor of many books, and assisted the bibliographer Sir Egerton Brydges...

's edition of 1815.

On 15 February 1612 a play by Niccols, entitled ‘The Twynnes Tragedie,’ was entered on the Stationers' Registers It is not otherwise known. But in 1655 William Rider published a tragi-comedy called ‘The Twins,’ which Frederick Gard Fleay

Frederick Gard Fleay

Frederick Gard Fleay was an influential and prolific nineteenth-century Shakespeare scholar.Fleay, the son of a linen draper, graduated from King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge , where he received mathematical training that was key to his later achievements...

 suggested may be a printed copy of Niccols's piece.

Niccols also issued:

• ‘Three precious teares of blood, flowing … in memory of the vertues … of … Henry the Great,’ a translation from the French, printed with the French original, London (by John Budge);
• ‘The Three Sisters Teares: shed at the late solemne funerals of the royall deceased Henry, Prince of Wales,’ London, 1613, dedicated to Lady Honor Hay;
• ‘The Furies with Vertues Encomium, or the Image of Honour in two bookes of Epigrammes satyricall and encomiasticke,’ London (by William Stansby), 1614, dedicated to Sir Timothy Thornhill (reprinted in ‘Harleian Miscellany,’ x. 1 seq.);
• ‘Monodia, or Waltham's Complaint upon the death of the Lady Honor Hay,’ London (by W. S. for Richard Meighen and Thomas Jones), 1615, dedicated to Edward, Lord Denny
  Edward Denny, 1st Earl of Norwich
  Edward Denny, 1st Earl of Norwich , known as The Lord Denny between 1604 and 1627, was an English courtier, Member of Parliament and peer.-Life:...
  
  , Lady Honor's father (reprinted in ‘Harleian Miscellany,’ x. 11 seq.);
• ‘London's Artillery, briefly containing the noble practise of that worthie Societie: with the moderne and ancient martiall exercises, natures of armes, vertue of magistrates, antiquitie, glory, and chronography of this honourable cittie,’ London, 1616, dedicated to Sir John Jolles;
• ‘Sir Thomas Overbvrie's Vision with the ghoasts of Weston, Mris Turner, the late Lieftenant of the Tower, and Franklin, by R. N., Oxon. … Printed for R. M. & T. I. 1616’—a poetical narrative of Sir Thomas Overbury's murder. It was reprinted in the ‘Harleian Miscellany’ (vii. 178 seq.) and by the Hunterian Club, Glasgow, in 1873, with an introduction by James Maidment
  James Maidment
  James Maidment was a British antiquary and collector.He passed through Edinburgh University to the Scottish bar, and was chief authority on genealogical cases.Maidment's hobby was the collection of literary rarities...
  
  .

An anonymous work, ‘The Begger's Ape, a poem,’ London, 1627, was published posthumously. Niccols seems to claim it for himself in the induction to ‘Winter Nights Vision.’ In it the author apparently imitated ‘Spenser's Mother Hubberds Tale.’