Barnabe Googe

Barnabe Googe (June 11, 1540 - February 1594) was an English poet and translator.

St Mary's church, North Cockerington, Lincolnshire, UK (left), burial place of Barnabe Googe (1540-1594). Photo by Dennis Wetherley, 2002. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Life

Overview

Googe was born at Lincoln, and studied at both Cambridge and Oxford. He was a kinsman of William Cecil, who gave him employment in Ireland. He translated from the Latin of Manzolli The Zodiac of Life, a satire against the Papacy, and The Popish Kingdome by T. Kirchmayer, a similar work; also The Foure Bookes of Husbandrie of Conrad Heresbach. In 1563 he published a volume of original poems, Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonnettes.

Youth and education

Googe was the son of Robert Googe, recorder of Lincoln, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Walter Mantell. He was born at Alvingham in Lincolnshire on St. Barnaby's day 1540.

He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and at New College, Oxford, but does not appear to have taken a degree.

Career

On leaving the university he moved to Staple Inn, and became a retainer to his kinsman, Sir William Cecil. In 1560 he published The First thre Bokes of the 'most Christian poet, Marcellus Palingenius [Pierre Angelo Manzoli], called the Zodyake of Lyfe, 8vo, with a dedication to his grandmother, Lady Hales, and to William Cromer, Thomas Honywood, and Ralph Heimund, esquires. The 2nd edition, containing the opening 6 books, appeared in 1561, with a dedication to Cecil; and a complete translation of the 12 books was issued in 1565, revised editions following in 1576 and 1588.

In the winter of 1561 Googe went abroad, leaving a copy of his manuscript Eclogues in the hands of his friend Blunderstone. On his return to England at the end of 1562, or early in 1563, he was surprised to learn that his poems had been sent to press. After some persuasion from Blunderstone he allowed the publication, and they appeared under the title Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonnetes, 1563, 12mo, with a dedication to William Lovelace, reader of Gray's Inn. Copies are preserved in the Huth, Capell, and Britwell libraries. The collection comprises 8 eclogues, 4 epitaphs (on Thomas Phaer, Nicholas Grimaold, and others), and numerous so-called sonnets (addressed to Alexander Nowell, Bishop Bale, Richard Edwards, &c.) There were 2 separate impressions.

In 1563 Googe was appointed a gentleman-pensioner to the queen. He betrothed himself in the summer of that year to Mary, daughter of Thomas Darrell of the manorhouse, Scotney, in Lamberhurst parish, Kent. Her parents declared that she was under a previous contract to marry Sampson Lennard, eldest son of a rich landed proprietor, John Lennard of Chevening, near Tunbridge Wells. Cecil interested himself in the matter, and engaged Archbishop Parker's influence in Googe's favor, with the result that the marriage took place 5 February 1563-4. Some interesting correspondence on the subject of Googe's betrothal and the alleged pre-contract was printed in Brydges's Restituta, iv. 307-311.

In 1570 appeared The Popish Kingdome; or, Reigne of Antichrist, written in Latin verse by Thomas Naogeorgus [Kirchmayer], and englyshed by Barnabe Googe, 4to, of which only 1 perfect copy, preserved in the University Library, Cambridge, is known to bibliographers. It consists of 4 books, with a preface and a dedicatory epistle to Cecil. The 4rth book is particularly valuable for its curious notices of popular customs and superstitions, sports, and pastimes. A translation of "The Spirituall Husbandrie of Thomas Naogeorgus," with a dedication to Queen Elizabeth, was appended.

In 1574 Googe was sent by Cecil on service to Ireland, and in 1582 he was appointed provost marshal of the presidency court of Connaught. Some of his letters to Cecil from Ireland are preserved among the state papers, and have been printed in Notes and Queries, 3rd series vol. iii. He resigned his post and returned from Ireland in 1585.

Foure Bookes of Husbandrie, collected by Conradus Heresbachius.… Newely Englished, and increased by Barnabe Googe, Esquire, 4to, appeared in 1577, with a dedication dated from Kingston (Ireland), 1 Feb. 1577, to Sir William Fitzwilliam, knight; reprinted in 1578, 1586, 1594, &c. Googe apologizes for any faults in his translation on the ground that he "neither had leysure nor quietnesse at the dooing of it, neither after the dooing had euer any tyme to ouerlooke it." In 1578 he prefixed a prose-epistle to Barnabe Riche's Allarme to England, and in 1579 published a translation of The Proverbes of the noble & woorthy Souldier Sir James Lopes de Mendoza, marques of Santillana, with the Paraphrase of D. Peter Diaz of Toledo, 8vo.

He died in February 1593-4 (and was buried in Cokering Church), leaving a widow and 8 children. A son, Robert, was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and another, Barnabe, became master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Writing

Googe was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. Turberville has laudatory notices of him; Robinson, in the Reward of Wickednesse, 1574, places him on Helicon with Lydgate, Skelton, and others; he is commended in the metrical preface before Jasper Heywood's translation of Seneca's Thyestes, 1560, and again in T.B.'s Verses to the Reader before Studley's translation of Seneca's Agamemnon. Webbe aptly describes him as "a painfull furtherer of learning," specially commending the translations (in the 'Foure Bookes of Husbandry') from Virgil's 'Eclogues.'

The charming pastoral verses, "Phyllida was a fair maid," printed in Tottell's Miscellany, and reprinted in Englands Helicon, have been ascribed to Googe; they are of far higher merit than any of his authentic Eglogs. Ritson attributes to Googe A Newyeares Gifte, dedicated to the Pope's Holiness … by B.G., Citizen of London, 1579, 4to; but this belongs to Bernard Garter. A Newe Booke called the Shippe of Safegarde written by G.B. anno 1569, 8vo, and The Overthrow of the Goute … translated by B.G., 1577, 8vo, have also been doubtfully assigned to Googe. Warton (following Coxeter) mentions among Googe's works a translation, Aristotle's Tables of the Ten Categories. In 1672 appeared A Prophecie lately transcribed from an Old Manuscript of Doctor Barnaby Googe that lived in the Reign of Qu. Elizabeth, predicting the Rising, Meridian, and Falling Condition of the States of the United Provinces.… Now published and explained, 4to.

A reprint of the Popish Kingdome was edited by Mr. Robert Charles Hope in 1880; the Eglogs are included in Mr. Edward Arber's English Reprints (1871).

Publications

Poetry

• Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonettes. London: Thomas Colwell, for Raffe Newbery, 1563; Gainesville, FL: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1968
  • (edited by Edward Arber). London: A. Murray, 1871; Westminster, UK: Constable, 1910
  • Ecologues, Epitaphs and Sonnets(edited by Judith M. Kennedy). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989.
• A newe booke called The Shippe of Safegarde. London: W. Seres, 1569.
• Selected Poems. Denver, CO: Allen Swallow, 1961.

Non-fiction

• A Prophecie Lately Transcribed from an Old Manuscript of Doctor Barnaby Googe. London: J.C., for R. Robinson, 1672.

Translated

• Thomas Naogeorg, The Popish Kingdom; or, Reign of Antichrist, written in Latin verse. London : By Henrie Denham, for Richarde Watkins, 1570; New York: Johnson Reprint, 1902.
• Foure Bookes of Husbandrie, collected by M. Conradus Heresbachius. London: Richard Watkins, 1577.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

At Bonneval (Barnabe Googe Poem)

See also

• List of British poets
• Timeline of British poetry

References

•  Bullen, Arthur Henry (1890) "Googe, Barnabe" in Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 22 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 151-152  Wikisource, Web, Jan. 18, 2018.

External links

Poems

• "Of Money"
• Barnabe Googe at PoemHunter (11 poems)
• Barnabe Googe at AllPoetry (11 poems)

About

• Googe, Barnabe in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Googe, Barnabe at History of Parliament Online

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Googe, Barnabe