Barnes 2

BARNABE BARNES (1569 - 1609)

A younger son of Richard Barnes, Bishop of Durham, Barnes fought under the Earl of Essex in France in 1591. The collection of love poems on which his fame rests was printed two years later; entitled Parthenophil and Parthenope, only one copy is known to exist. Barnes was attacked by Thomas Nashe, who accused him, among other things, of cowardice in the face of the enemy and of making himself a laughing-stock by wearing 'Babilonian britches'. Barnes is also mentioned by Thomas Campion under the name of Barnzy, in 1602; he had previously written bluntly of Barnes as a braggart and a coward. Barnes' second book, A Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets appeared in 1595. It includes some ringing sentiments:

'And if any man feel in himselfe, by the secret fire of immortall enthusiasme, the learned motions of strange and divine passions of spirite; let him refine and illuminate his numerous Muses with the most sacred splendour of the Holy Ghost: and then he shall finde, that as human furie make a man lesse than a man, and the very same with wild, unreasonable beastes; so divine rage and sacred instinct of a man maketh more than a man, and leadeth him from his base terrestriall estate to walke above the starres with angells immortally.'

Two years later he tried to murder the Recorder of Berwick using poisoned claret, but seems to have escaped punishment by fleeing to Durham. His last work, a tragedy called The Divil's Charter (1607) has been decried as unpleasant, even nauseous reading for the most part, but not without some powerful passages. Shakespeare knew Barnes and is said to have borrowed some business from this play. It includes the murder of Lucrezia Borgia with poisoned face-wash. Another play, The Battle of Hexham, is now lost.

Barnes is believed to be the prototype of the cowardly braggart Parolles, who dominates a good deal of the action in Shakespeare's All's Well the Ends Well, and he has even been put forward as the 'rival poet' mentioned in Shakespeare's sonnets. According to the registers of St Mary-le-Bow in Durham, Barnes was buried there in December 1609.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
BARNABE BARNES (1569 - 1609) A younger son of Richard Barnes, Bishop of Durham, Barnes fought under the Earl of Essex in France in 1591. The collection of love poems on which his fame rests was printed two years later; entitled Parthenophil and Parthenope, only one copy is known to exist. Barnes was attacked by Thomas Nashe, who accused him, among other things, of cowardice in the face of the enemy and of making himself a laughing-stock by wearing 'Babilonian britches'. Barnes is also mentioned by Thomas Campion under the name of Barnzy, in 1602; he had previously written bluntly of Barnes as a braggart and a coward. Barnes' second book, A Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets appeared in 1595. It includes some ringing sentiments: 'And if any man feel in himselfe, by the secret fire of immortall enthusiasme, the learned motions of strange and divine passions of spirite; let him refine and illuminate his numerous Muses with the most sacred splendour of the Holy Ghost: and then he shall finde, that as human furie make a man lesse than a man, and the very same with wild, unreasonable beastes; so divine rage and sacred instinct of a man maketh more than a man, and leadeth him from his base terrestriall estate to walke above the starres with angells immortally.' Two years later he tried to murder the Recorder of Berwick using poisoned claret, but seems to have escaped punishment by fleeing to Durham. His last work, a tragedy called The Divil's Charter (1607) has been decried as unpleasant, even nauseous reading for the most part, but not without some powerful passages. Shakespeare knew Barnes and is said to have borrowed some business from this play. It includes the murder of Lucrezia Borgia with poisoned face-wash. Another play, The Battle of Hexham, is now lost. Barnes is believed to be the prototype of the cowardly braggart Parolles, who dominates a good deal of the action in Shakespeare's All's Well the Ends Well, and he has even been put forward as the 'rival poet' mentioned in Shakespeare's sonnets. According to the registers of St Mary-le-Bow in Durham, Barnes was buried there in December 1609.
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