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BARNFIELD, RICHARD (1574-1627)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 415 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BARNFIELD, See also:RICHARD (1574-1627) , See also:English poet, was See also:born at Norbury, See also:Staffordshire, and baptized on the 13th of See also:June 1574. His obscure though See also:close relationship with See also:Shakespeare has See also:long made him interesting to students and has attracted of See also:late years further See also:attention from the circumstance that important discoveries regarding his See also:life have been made. Until recently nothing whatever was known about the facts of Barnfield's career, whose very existence had been doubted. It was, however, discovered by the late Dr A. B. See also:Grosart that the poet was the son of Richard Barnfield (or Barnefield) and Maria Skrymsher, his wife, who we=e married in See also:April 1572. They resided in the See also:parish of Norbury, in Staffordshire, on the See also:borders of Salop, where the poet was baptized on the 13th of June 1574. The See also:mother died in giving See also:birth to a daughter See also:early in 1581, and her unmarried See also:sister, See also:Elizabeth Skrymsher, seems to have devoted herself to the care of the See also:children. In See also:November 1589 Barnfield matriculated at Brasenose See also:College, See also:Oxford, and took his degree in See also:February 1592. He " performed the exercise for his See also:master's See also:gown," but seems to have See also:left the university abruptly, without proceeding to the M.A. It is conjectured that he came up to See also:London in 1593, and became acquainted with See also:Watson, See also:Drayton, and perhaps with See also:Spenser. The See also:death of See also:Sir See also:Philip See also:Sidney had occurred while Barnfield was still a school-boy, but it seems to have strongly affected his See also:imagination and to have inspired some of his earliest verses.

In November 1594, in his twenty-first See also:

year, Barnfield published anonymously his first See also:work, The .Affectionate Shepherd, dedicated with See also:familiar devotion to See also:Penelope, See also:Lady See also:Rich. This was a sort of florid See also:romance, in two books of six-See also:line See also:stanza, in the manner of See also:Lodge and Shakespeare, dealing at large with " the complaint of See also:Daphnis for the love of See also:Ganymede." As the author expressly admitted later, it was an expansion or See also:paraphrase of See also:Virgil's second See also:eclogue " Formosum pastor See also:Corydon ardebat Alexia." This poem of Barnfield's was the most extraordinary specimen hitherto produced in See also:England of the See also:licence introduced from See also:Italy at the See also:Renaissance. Although the poem was successful, it did not pass without censure from the moral point of view. Into the conventional outlines of The Affectionate Shepherd the See also:young poet has poured all his See also:fancy, all his epithets, and all his coloured touches of nature. If we are not repelled by the absurd subject, we have to admit that none of the immediate imitators of See also:Venus and See also:Adonis has equalled the juvenile Barnfield in the picturesqueness of his " See also:fine See also:ruff-footed doves," his " speckled See also:flower See also:call'd sops-in-See also:wine," or his See also:desire " by the See also:bright glimmering of the starry See also:light, to catch the long-See also:bill'd See also:woodcock." Two months later, in See also:January 1595, Barnfield published his second See also:volume, Cynthia, with certain Sonnets, and this See also:time signed the See also:preface, which was.dedicated, in terms which imply close See also:personal relations, to See also:William See also:Stanley, the new See also:earl of See also:Derby. This is a See also:book of extreme See also:interest; it exemplifies the earliest study both of Spenser and Shakespeare. " Cynthia " itself, a See also:panegyric on See also:Queen Elizabeth, is written in the Spenserian stanza, of which it is probably the earliest example extant outside The Faerie Queene. This is followed by a sequence of twenty sonnets, which have the extraordinary interest that, while preceding the publication of Shakespeare's sonnets by fourteen years, they are closer to them hi manner than are any others of the Elizabethan See also:age. They celebrate, with extravagant ardour, the charms of a young See also:man whose See also:initials seem to have been J. U. or J. V., and of whom nothing else seems known. These sonnets, which preceded even the Amoretti of Spenser, are of unusual merit as See also:poetry, and would See also:rank as high in quality as in date of publication if their subject-See also:matter were not so preposterous.

They show the See also:

influence of Drayton's See also:Idea, which had appeared a few months before; in that collection also, it is to be observed, there had appeared amatory sonnets addressed to a young man. If editors would courageously alter the gender of the pronouns, several of Barnfield's glowing sonnets might take their See also:place at once in our anthologies. Before the publication of his volume, however, he had repented of his heresies, and had become enamoured of a "lass" named Eliza (or Elizabeth), whom he celebrates with effusion in an " See also:Ode." This is probably the lady whom he presently married, and as we find him a grandfather in 1626 it is unlikely that the See also:wedding was long delayed. In 1598 Barnfield published his third volume, The Encomion of Lady Pecunia, a poem in praise of See also:money, followed by a sort of continuation, in the same six-line stanza, called " The Complaint of Poetry for the Death of Liberality." In this volume there is already a decline in poetic quality. But an appendix of " Poems in diverse Humours " to this volume of 1598 presents some very interesting features. Here appears what seems to be the absolutely earliest praise of Shakespeare in a piece entitled " A Remembrance of some English Poets," in which the still unrecognized author of Venus and Adonis is celebrated by the See also:side of Spenser, See also:Daniel and Drayton. Here also are the See also:sonnet, " If See also:Music and sweet Poetry agree," and the beautiful ode beginning " As it See also:fell upon a See also:day," which were until recently attributed to Shakespeare himself. In the next year, 1599, The Passionate See also:Pilgrim was published, with the words " By W. Shakespeare " on the See also:title-See also:page. It was long supposed that this attribution was 415 correct, but Barnfield claimed one of the two pieces just mentioned, not only in 1598, but again in 16os. It is certain that both are his, and possibly other things in The Passionate Pilgrim also; Shakespeare's See also:share in the twenty poems of that See also:miscellany being doubtless confined to the five See also:short pieces which have been definitely identified as his. In the See also:opinion of the See also:present writer the sonnet beginning " Sweet Cytherea " has unmistakably the See also:stamp of Barnfield, and is probably a See also:gloss on the first rapturous perusal of Venus and Adonis; the same is to be said of " Scarce had the See also:sun," which is See also:aut Barnfield, aut diabolus.

One or two other contributions to The Passionate Pilgrim may be conjectured, with less confidence, to be Barnfield's. It has been stated that the poet was now studying the See also:

law at See also:Gray's See also:Inn, but for this the writer is unable to discover the authority, except that several members of that society are mentioned in the course of the volume of 1598. In all See also:probability Barnfield now married and withdrew to his See also:estate of Dorlestone (or Darlaston), in the See also:county of See also:Stafford, a See also:house romantically situated on the See also:river See also:Trent, where he hence-forth resided as a See also:country See also:gentleman. In 16o5 he reprinted his Lady Pecunia, and this was his latest See also:appearance as a man of letters. His son See also:Robert Barnfield and his See also:cousin Elinor Skrymsher were his executors when his will was proved at See also:Lichfield; his wife, therefore, doubtless predeceased him. Barnfield died at Dorlestone See also:Hall, and was buried in the neighbouring parish See also:church of St See also:Michael's, See also:Stone, on the 6th of See also:March 1627. The labours of Dr Grosart and of See also:Professor See also:Arber have thrown much light on the circumstances of Barnfield's career. He has taken of late years a far more prominent place than ever before in the See also:history of English literature. This is due partly to the remarkable merit of his graceful, melodious and highly-coloured See also:verse, which was practically unknown until it was privately printed in 1876 (ed. Grosart, See also:Roxburghe See also:Club), and at length given to the public in 1882 (ed. Arber, English Scholars' Library). It is also due to the mysterious personal relation of Barnfield to Shakespeare, a relation not easy to prove in detail, as it is built up on a See also:great variety of small indications.

It is, however, obvious that Barnfield warmly admired Shakespeare, whose earliest imitator he may be said to have been, and that between 1595 and Iboo the younger poet was so close to the See also:

elder that the compositions of the former could be confused with those of the latter. Barnfield died, as a poet, in his twenty-fifth year. Up to that time he had displayed a See also:talent which, if he had pursued it, might have placed him very high among the English poets. As it is, he will always interest a certain number of readers as being, in his languid "Italianate " way, a sort of ineffectual See also:Meleager in the rich Elizabethan See also:anthology. Besides the See also:editions already cited, The Affectionate Shepherd was edited by Mr J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps for the See also:Percy Society (Early English Poetry, vol. xx.) ; The Encomion of Pecunia and some other poems by J. See also:Boswell (Roxburghe Club, 1816) ; and by J. P. See also:Collier in Illustrations of Old English Literature (vol. i.,'1866).

End of Article: BARNFIELD, RICHARD (1574-1627)

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