Works

Barry is known as the author of one comedy, ‘Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks,’, 1611 and 1636, which was included in the second and subsequent editions of Robert Dodsley

Robert Dodsley

Robert Dodsley was an English bookseller and miscellaneous writer.-Life:He was born near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where his father was master of the free school....

's ‘Old Plays.’ Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...

 says it was acted by the Children of the King's Revels before 1611.

The only performance of which any record exists took place at Drury Lane between 1719 and 1723, probably near the latter date. A manuscript cast, which came into the possession of John Genest

John Genest

-Life:He was the son of John Genest of Dunker's Hill, Devon. He was educated at Westminster School, entered 9 May 1780 as a pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. 1784 and M.A. 1787. He took holy orders, and was for many years curate of a Lincolnshire village...

 assigns the principal characters to Wilks, Cibber, jun., Pinkethman, Mills, Mrs. Booth, and Mrs. Seal.

‘Ram Alley’ is written in blank verse

Blank verse

Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...

, lapsing at times into rhyme. It was long attributed to Philip Massinger

Philip Massinger

Philip Massinger was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including A New Way to Pay Old Debts, The City Madam and The Roman Actor, are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and social themes.-Early life:The son of Arthur Massinger or Messenger, he was baptized at St....

. Barry was of gentle birth and Irish extraction.

Gerard Langbaine

Gerard Langbaine

Gerard Langbaine was an English dramatic biographer and critic, best known for his An Account of the English Dramatic Poets , the earliest work to give biographical and critical information on the playwrights of English Renaissance theatre...

 conjectured that an incident in the play that was subsequently used in Thomas Killigrew

Thomas Killigrew

Thomas Killigrew was an English dramatist and theatre manager. He was a witty, dissolute figure at the court of King Charles II of England.-Life and work:...

's The Parson's Wedding

The Parson's Wedding

The Parson's Wedding is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Thomas Killigrew. Often regarded as the author's best play, the drama has sometimes been considered an anticipation of Restoration comedy, written a generation before the Restoration; "its general tone foreshadows the comedy of...

was borrowed from the same author from whom Francis Kirkman

Francis Kirkman

Francis Kirkman appears in many roles in the English literary world of the second half of the seventeenth century, as a publisher, bookseller, librarian, author and bibliographer...

 took the story; which is to be found in Richard Head

Richard Head

Richard Head was an author, playwright and bookseller. He became famous with his satirical novel The English Rogue – one of the earliest novels in English that found a continental translation.-Life:The most important primary source on Head’s life is William Winstanley's biographical entry...

's The English Rogue, part iv. chap. 19.