Page:Complete Poems of Richard Barnfield.djvu/37



I.. From apparently a confused recollection of the great historic name of Barnevelt—to whom Author:John Lothrop Motley has given such splendid resurrection in our day—the latest editor of 's "History of English Poetry" has hazarded the guess that was of "Dutch or Flemish" origin; and he tacks to it another guess, that, as the initials "B. B." occur at the end of some encomiastic verses prefixed to Verstegan's Restitution of Decayed Intelligence (1605), they must belong to Barnfield; and then succeeds still a third guess, as follows: " himself came from Flanders; possibly the two were brought into acquaintance in that way. But in Barnfield's case the change of residence must have been less immediate, for surely no author whom we could name has fairer pretensions to be regarded as a writer of genuine, untainted, vernacular English." All this is without the shadow of authority. Barnevelt and Barnfield sound (to a bad ear) somewhat alike, but are not synonymous. As will appear, Barnfield is a very old and 'gentle' English name. The "encomiastic verses" to it is an outrage to attribute to the poet of "Nights