Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/225

 viii. SEPT. 14, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

217

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER lit, 1901.

CONTENTS. No. 194.

NOTES : Barnfield, Marlowe, and Shakespeare, 217- Danteiana, 219-Bath Abbey Arms, 221 " Brit"=Brill- Late Mr. Samuel Neil, 2^2 Late Mr. John Taylor -Marie Antoinette, 223.

QUERIES : " Your petitioners will ever pray " Clancarty Peerage Ashfield of Shad well Alfred Noble Bird Farnily-Capt. R. H. Barclay, R.N., 223 London Coffee- houses and Taverns ' The Modest Critick ' Sir Ignatius White -Raphael's Cartoons Frederick, Prince of Wales- Stafford Arms - Castor - Oil Plant Ancestry of Dean Tucker, 224 -John Sturgeon, Chamberlain of London- Portland Vase Uses of Grindstones " Grin through" Horse-ribbon Day Newcastle (Staffs) Families Bristol and Glasgow, 225 Pineapple at the New Year, 226.

REPLIES : Roger Racket, 226 St. Edmund MS. Plays by W. Percy Bonaparte Queries National Peculiarit es Little Gidding : Stourbridge Fair, 227 Barras De Morgan on Description of Books " There were giants in the land" Earl of Kinnoul Dublin Booksellers Song Wanted -Breslaw, 228 Needle Pedlnrs Hull Saying " Atte" Dr. Gentianus Harvet, 229 Whitgift's Hospital " Cultivation " " Garage " ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' 230 ' Eros' and ' Anteros ' Painted and En- graved Portraits Manx Words " Glorious uncertainty of tbe game," 231 Flower Game Books on Manners, &c. "V?esac Mihm" Surnames fmm Single Letters Lock- tons of Leicestershire "Going out with the tide" Peche Family, 232 Lamb and the Royal Academy Phillippo " Turn" Smoking a Cobbler Chain-mail, 233 " Alehouse Lettice" Merlin Lavington, 234.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-Dver and Hassall's 'History of Modern Europe ' Kirby's ' Familiar Butterflies and Moths ' Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

RICHARD BARNFIELD, MARLOWE, AND

SHAKESPEARE.

IN his address "To the curteous Gentle- men Readers," prefixed to his 'Cynthia,' which appeared in 1595, Barnfield informs us that the poem was his " second f ruites," his first being 'The Affectionate Shepheard,' printed in November, 1594, when he was only about twenty years of age. He is care- ful to lay stress on these facts, because two other "books" had appeared anonymously and had been ascribed to him. These "books" were, according to his statement, too well known to need naming ; and he disowned them, not because they were "dislik't," but because he did not wish to have his name used in connexion with the work of other writers. Some have thought that the books alluded to are ' Greenes Funeralls,' 1594, and as has been pointed out, the latter poem could hardly have been in Barnfield's mind at the time he published his ' Cynthia,' for it was not registered in the Stationers' books till 26 August, 1595, or more than six months after ' Cynthia,' which was registered in January of the same year. However, it seems quite certain that, whatever books are referred to, they contained matter resembling
 * Orpheus his Journey to Hell,' 1595. But,

Barnfield's ' Affectionate Shepheard,' and that the coincidences of phrasing and other like- nesses in the three "books " caused critics of the time to believe that Barnfield was respon- sible for each of them. It is also certain from Barnfield's preface that he had produced no writing of any kind previous to the pub- lication of his 'Affectionate Shepheard.' What book or books, then, did Barnfield refer to, and what ground had contem- porary critics for believing him to be their author?

It is a remarkable fact that whole passages of ' The Affectionate Shepheard ' are written in seeming imitation of isolated passages of Marlowe's tragedy of 'Dido'; and that it repeats, except for a small verbal change, a whole line of the same author's ' Edward II.' The passages in 'Dido' and 'Edward II.' exhibit a very peculiar and dainty style, and this style is precisely that of Marlowe's beautiful song " Come live with me and be my love." If one were content to limit the inquiry to 'Dido,' or did not know that Barnfield's poem repeats the language and sentiments of other pieces known to have been written by Marlowe, it would naturally be supposed that Barnfield had seen and been impressed by what he had read of the unfinished tragedy ; but a wider view of the subject would, I think, inevitably lead to one of two conclusions : (1) Either Marlowe and Barnfield borrowed from a common source, or (2) Marlowe wrote a poem in elaboration of his song " Come live with me," &c., and Barnfield imitated it.

I elect to believe that the latter is the correct conclusion ; for I have yet to learn that the style of Marlowe's song is borrowed from another writer. Its popularity with contem- poraries is an argument in favour of the freshness of its vein at the time it appeared ; and it is well known that it had a host of imitators, amongst them being Donne and Herrick. It is said, too, that the poem attracted the attention of no less a personage than Sir Walter Raleigh, who is credited with writing the reply to it which appeared in 'England's Helicon,' 1600.

Briefly, then, I believe that Marlowe wrote a poem in elaboration of his song ; that he utilized its materials in his plays, especially in ' Dido ' ; and that Barnfield copied from this poem, which has been lost or remains unidentified.

Barnfield, like all, or nearly all, other writers of his time, was very imitative, and he was not only an ardent disciple of Edmund Spenser, to whom he admits his obligations, but he pilfered rather freely from Shake-