Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/285

 s. via OCT. 5, 1901.) NOTES AND QUERIES.

277

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1901.

CONTENTS. No. 197.

NOTES : Barnlield, Marlowe, and Shakespeare, 277 Dib- din Bibliography, 27 -Effects of a Curse, 281 Surviving Oilioer of the Old Guard " Booi-batje "=Bed Coat "When Israel, of the Lord beloved "" Scottish Ana- oreon " Ancient Chair Reims Relics Darius and Daniel, 282-Last of a City Custom Skipple-measure, 283.

QUEUIKS: Sir Nicholas Smith Shropshire Families Wonham, 283 "Who is the madman," &c. 'Kinmont Willie ' W. L. Bowles Tragedy by Wordsworth " A bumper of good liquor," &c. Reference in 'Northanger Abbey' English Grammar Silversmith's Signature Thomas Bacon Languedoc " Yorker "=" Tice," 284 Wowerus's 'Shadow' " Le pauvre Diable " Uninten- tional Versification Reginald Heber Devil- Worshippers and White Cattle First American Theatrical Company in England -Blythe "Obelisk "Gad-whip Service, 285.

REPLIES :-Ancient Idyl, 286 -Cartwright -Merlin " In the days when we went gipsying ' ' Portrait of Lord Raglan "Went" The 'Marseillaise,' 287 Quotations Kurd's 1 History of all Religions 'Fox Family of Bristol Pews annexed to Houses Partridge Lore, 288 " Bull and Last " Shakespearian Relic Bishop's Ornaments, 289 -Barlow of Burton Johnson, Sheriff of London, 1617, 290 Shift- ing Pronunciation Authorship of ' British Apollo ' Longbow " Racing," 29L "Week end" Ladle Orna- mented Lace Sticks, 29*2 Napoleon's Library " Shoe-

horned" John Thorpe, Architect " As warm as a bat" William the Conqueror's Half Brothers and Sisters, 293 Shakespeare Queries Hull Saying Apostle Spoons- Hindu Calendar and Festivals Electric Light in the Theatre, 294.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Hallett's 'Cathedral Church of Ripon' Butler's ' Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin ' ' English Catalogue of Books ' Lynn's ' Re- markable Comets' ' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal' Reviews and Magazines.

grits,

RICHARD BARNFIELD, MARLOWE, AND

SHAKESPEARE. (Concluded from p. 219.)

IF it were not for the circumstance that his name has been associated with that of Shakespeare, Barnfield and his work would almost have died out of memory, and only scholars who make a special study of Eliza- bethan literature would be aware that he ever had an existence ; and even to-day it is not a settled question as to whether or not the association of his name with that of the great dramatist is thoroughly warranted. In 1599 there appeared a collection of poems by various writers, which the publisher, for

Purposes of trade, entitled 'The Passionate ilgrim ' and assigned wholly to Shakespeare. The writers of some of these poems have been identified ; and with regard to two other pieces, an ode and a sonnet, it is sur- mised, and I think rightly, that they are from the pen of Barnfield. Hence the coupling of Shakespeare and Barnfield. The asso- ciation cannot but be flattering to Barn- field's memory, for it has given him a dowry of immortality which his work, pleasing and clever as at times it is, could never otherwise have obtained for him. It remains for me to

show that there is yet another reason why Barnfield's name should be linked with Shake- speare's, for I find he was a diligent student of 'Venus and Adonis' and * Lucrece,' and actually copied and imitated the two poems as early as 1594, or within a month or two of the publication of * Lucrece,' which was not passed through the Register's Books until 9 May of the same year. As no earlier imita- tion of Shakespeare's work has been found than that which I shall reveal in Barnfield, we may claim the latter to be the first of his contemporaries to voice the praise of Shake- speare by imitating him. The discovery cannot fail to be of interest to scholars ; and as it serves to strengthen the association between Barnfield and Shakespeare, as well as to throw light on the influences at work in the minor poet's writings, the parallels deserve to be placed on permanent record.

Barnfield not only imitated Shakespeare's poems, but he alludes to them more than once in his work. In a piece entitled 'A Remembrance of some English Poets ' he thus praises them :

And Shakespeare thou, whose hony-flowing Vaine, (Pleasing the World) thy Praises doth obtaine, Whose Venus, and whose Lucrece (sweete and

chaste)

Thy name in fames immortal Booke have plac't. Live ever you, at least in Fame live ever : Well may thy Bodye dye, but Fame dies never.

Arber, p. 120.

It is curious to note how fond Barnfield was of the phrasing and sentiment in the last two lines. They occur again, in almost the same form, in six other places in his work. In ' The Affectionate Snepheard ' is this parallel :

But Fame and Vertue never shall decay ;

For Fame is toombles, Vertue lives for aye.

Arber, p. 18.

And these two lines are repeated word for word at the end of ' The Complaint of Chastitie.'

Although there is ample evidence to prove that 'Lucrece' exerted a very powerful in- fluence over many portions of Barnfield's work, it is nevertheless remarkable that very few expressions from ' Lucrece ' can be found in his poems. He avails himself freely of ideas and similes from ' Lucrece,' but not unseldom he clothes them in words that are manifestly borrowed from the ' Venus.' Take ' The Complaint of Chastitie ' as a case in point. Its theme is that of ' Lucrece,' and the speaker rails at Lust in exactly the same manner as Lucrece rails " at Opportunity, at Time, at Tarquin, and uncheerf ul Night." In ' Cassandra,' too, the leading ideas of ' Lucrece ' are manifest at a glance ; and the description of Cassandra in her bed, and the poetical