Editing Richard Barnfield

{{short description|English poet (1574–1620)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2012}}

{{Infobox person
| name               = Richard Barnfield
| birth_place        = [[Norbury, Staffordshire]]
| baptised           = 29 June 1574
| death_date         = {{death year and age|1620|1574}}
| nationality        = [[England|English]]
| occupation         = Poet
}}

'''Richard Barnfield''' (baptized 29 June 1574 – 1620) was an [[England|English]] [[poet]]. His relationship with [[William Shakespeare]] has long made him interesting to scholars. It has been suggested that he was the "[[Rival Poet|rival poet]]" mentioned in Shakespeare's sonnets.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140610085803/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-241135539.html William Shakespeare, Richard Barnfield, and the sixth Earl of Derby]. (Brief article) (Book review). " Reference & Research Book News. Book News Inc. 2010. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020331041952/http://highbeam.com/ |date=31 March 2002 }}.</ref>

== Early life ==
Barnfield was born at the home of his maternal grandparents in [[Norbury, Staffordshire]],<ref name=dickens>{{cite book|last=Dickens|first=Gordon|title=An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire|year=1987|publisher=Shropshire Libraries|page=3|isbn=0-903802-37-6}}</ref> where he was baptized on 29 June 1574. He was the son of Richard Barnfield, gentleman, and Mary Skrymsher (1552–1581).

He was brought up in [[Shropshire]] at The Manor House in [[Edgmond]], his upbringing supervised by his aunt Elizabeth Skrymsher after his mother died when Barnfield was six years old.<ref name=dickens/>

In November 1589, Barnfield matriculated at [[Brasenose College, Oxford]], and took his degree in February 1592. He performed the exercise for his master's gown, but seems to have left the university abruptly, without proceeding to the M.A. It is conjectured that he came up to [[London]] in 1593, and became acquainted with [[Thomas Watson (poet)|Watson]], [[Michael Drayton|Drayton]], and perhaps with [[Edmund Spenser]]. The death of Sir [[Philip Sidney]] had occurred while Barnfield was still a school-boy, but it seems to have strongly affected his imagination and to have inspired some of his earliest verses.{{sfn|Gosse|1911}}

==Publications==
In November 1594, in his twenty-first year, Barnfield published anonymously his first work, ''The Affectionate Shepherd'', dedicated with familiar devotion to [[Penelope Rich, Lady Rich]]. This was a sort of florid romance, in two books of six-line stanzas, in the manner of [[Thomas Lodge|Lodge]] and Shakespeare, dealing at large with the complaint of [[Daphnis]] for the love of [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]]. As the author expressly admitted later, it was an expansion or paraphrase of [[Virgil|Virgil's]] second [[Eclogues|eclogue]] ''Formosum pastor Corydon ardebat Alexin''.{{sfn|Gosse|1911}}

Although the poem was successful, it did not pass without censure from the moral point of view because of its openly homosexual content. Two months later, in January 1595, Barnfield published his second volume, ''Cynthia, with certain Sonnets, and the legend of Cassandra'', and this time signed the preface, which was dedicated, in terms which imply close personal relations, to [[William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby]]. In the preface Barnfield distances himself from the homoeroticism of his previous work, writing that some readers "did interpret The Affectionate Shepherd otherwise than in truth I meant, touching the subject thereof, to wit, the love of a shepherd to a boy". He excuses himself by saying he was imitating Virgil. The new collection, however, also contained poems which were "explicitly and unashamedly homoerotic, full of physical desire", in the words of critics [[Stanley Wells]] and Paul Edmondson.<ref>Paul Edmondson & Stanley Wells, ''Shakespeare's Sonnets'', Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 18</ref> The book exemplifies the earliest study both of Spenser and Shakespeare. ''Cynthia'' itself, a [[panegyric]] on [[Elizabeth I|Queen Elizabeth]], is written in the [[Spenserian stanza]], of which it is probably the earliest example extant outside ''[[The Faerie Queene]]''.{{sfn|Gosse|1911}}

In 1598, Barnfield published his third volume, ''The Encomion of Lady Pecunia'', a poem in praise of 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 (Shakespeare poem)|Venus and Adonis]]'' is celebrated by the side of Spenser, [[Samuel Daniel|Daniel]] and Drayton. Here also are the sonnet, ''If Music and sweet Poetrie agree'', and the ode beginning ''As it fell upon a day'', which were once attributed to Shakespeare himself.{{sfn|Gosse|1885}}

In 1599, ''[[The Passionate Pilgrim]]'' was published, with the words "By W. Shakespeare" on the title-page. It was long supposed that this attribution was correct, but Barnfield claimed one of the two pieces just mentioned, not only in 1598, but again in 1605. It is certain that both are his, and possibly other things in ''The Passionate Pilgrim'' also; Shakespeare's share in the twenty poems of that miscellany being doubtless confined to the five short pieces which have been definitely identified as his.{{sfn|Gosse|1911}}

He was for a long time neglected, but a less homophobic age has been kinder to his reputation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rictornorton.co.uk/pastor03.htm |title=The Homosexual Pastoral Tradition, part 3 |website=rictornorton.co.uk |access-date=5 July 2020}}</ref> The sonnet sequence, in particular, can be read as one of the more obviously homoerotic sequences of the period. His work once passed for that of Shakespeare, albeit for only one ode. The ''Affectionate Shepheard'' and the ''Sonnets'' appeared as limited-edition artist's books in 1998 and 2001, illustrated by [[Clive Hicks-Jenkins]] and produced by the Old Stile Press.<ref>Richard Barnfield, Clive Hicks-Jenkins and Peter Wakelin, ''The Affectionate Shepheard'' (Llandogo: Old Stile Press, 1998</ref><ref>Richard Barnfield and Clive Hicks-Jenkins, ''Richard Barnfield's Sonnets'' (Llandogo: Old Stile Press, 2001)</ref>

Barnfield's ''Lady Pecunia'' and ''The Complaint of Poetry'' were used as sample texts by the early 17th-century phonetician [[Robert Robinson (phonetician)|Robert Robinson]] for his invented phonetic script.

==Later life==
In 1605, his ''Lady Pecunia'' was reprinted, and this was his last appearance as a man of letters. Some sources have claimed that Barnfield married and withdrew to his estate of [[Dorlestone]] (a locality in Staffordshire now known as Darlaston), where he thenceforth resided as a country gentleman. This is allegedly supported by records of a will for a Richard Barnfield, resident at Darlaston who was buried in the parish church of St Michaels, [[Stone, Staffordshire|Stone]], on 6 March 1627. However, it now appears that the Barnfield in question was in fact the poet's father, the poet having died in 1620 in Shropshire.{{sfn|Massai|2004}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{EB1911|first=Edmund William |last=Gosse|wstitle=Barnfield, Richard|volume=3| pages = 414&ndash;415 }}
*{{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature|wstitle=Barnfield, Richard}}
*{{DNB|wstitle=Barnfield, Richard|first=Edmund|last= Gosse|authorlink=Edmund Gosse|volume=3}}
*{{cite ODNB|first=Sonia|last= Massai|title=Barnfield, Richard (bap. 1574, d. 1620)|id= 1487|date=2004}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Barnfield |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Barnfield |editor-last=Klawitter |editor-first=George |title=The Complete Poems |date=1990 |publisher=Susquehanna University Press |location=Selinsgrove |isbn=978-0-945636-15-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/completepoems1990barn |url-access=registration |oclc=330237714}}
* {{cite book |editor-last2=Klawitter |editor-first2=George |editor-last1=Borris |editor-first1=Kenneth |title=The Affectionate Shepherd: Celebrating Richard Barnfield |date=2001 |publisher=Susquehanna University Press |location=Selinsgrove |isbn=9780585438658 |oclc=1297707709}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Summers |editor-first=Claude J. |editor-link=Claude J. Summers |last=Bredbeck |first=Gregory W. |chapter=Tradition and the Individual Sodomite: Barnfield, Shakespeare, and Subjective Desire |title=Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment England: Literary Representations in Historical Context |date=1992 |pages=41–68 |publisher=Harrington Park Press |location=New York |isbn=978-1-56023-019-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/homosexualityinr0000unse |url-access=registration |oclc=864743259}}
* {{cite journal |last=Morris |first=Harry |title=Richard Barnfield, "Amyntas," and the Sidney Circle |journal=PMLA |date=1959 |volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=318–324 |doi=10.2307/460441 |jstor=460441 |issn=0030-8129}}
* {{cite book |last=Morris |first=Harry |title=Richard Barnfield, Colin's Child |date=1963 |location=Tampa |publisher=Florida State University |oclc=318445529}}
* {{cite journal |last=Yearling |first=Rebecca |title=Homoerotic Desire and Renaissance Lyric Verse |journal=SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 |date=2013 |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=53–71 |jstor=41818883 |issn=0039-3657}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=8950| name=Richard Barnfield}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Richard Barnfield}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1647}}
* Songs with lyrics by Richard Barnfield on [https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Barnfield,_Richard IMSLP].

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnfield, Richard}}
[[Category:1574 births]]
[[Category:1627 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford]]

[[Category:People from Newport, Shropshire]]
[[Category:Writers from Shropshire]]
[[Category:Writers from Staffordshire]]
[[Category:16th-century English poets]]
[[Category:16th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English poets]]
[[Category:17th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English writers]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:English LGBTQ poets]]