Barnabe Googe (1540–1594)

Barnaby Googe (1540 - 1594) did not move in the same exalted circles as Lord Vaux, he had connections to the court of Queen Elizabeth rather than being a courtier himself. He seems to have been in the service of William Cecil contracting dysentery on a military expedition to Ireland. Later he was appointed provost-marshall of the court of Connaught, he also served as an MP in London for Aldborough, Yorkshire. His book Eglogs, Epytaphes & Sonettes was published in 1563 and I read a reprint edited by Edward Arber in 1871. This was the first collection of poems published by an English writer under his own name.

Googe is mainly remembered for his eclogs or eclogues of which their are eight in this volume. An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Alexander Barclay was the first English poet to use the form in 1514 and so Googe had a tradition to work from. Barclays poems were based on Virgil’s Eclogues which immediately denote a poem with a pastoral theme. Googe takes us into the world of shepherds, located probably somewhere in Arcadia and they discuss their quiet pastoral existence, sometimes comparing it with the pressures of living in the cities. In the first eclogue Amyntas describes to Daphne the pains of sensual love. Eclogue 3 reflects something of the life and feeling of Tudor England. The evils of the towns are rehearsed along with the decay of feudal customs in the country and the rise of the new aristocracy. Eclogue 4 takes us back to a lovers lament and in this case Damaetas who commits suicide for unrequited love and winds up in hell. Eclogue 5 is a good story told well; Claudia falls in love with Valerius who has been sent by his master to press his suite to the lady - a tragedy all round for all involved. Eclogue 6: Faustus bewails his unrequited passion to his friend Felix, who advises him to find an occupation and to do some sport to take his mind off his love. Eclogue 7 features a women’s retort to two men who accuse the fair sex of fickleness and finally Eclogue 8 describes the idyllic world of shepherds in heaven who have left behind the world of Cupid and Venus.

I have to say that I found little inspiration in the Eclogues, which perhaps are mainly admired for being one of the first of their kind. The epitaphs are a curious set of poems with the Epitaph to Lord Sheffield being a good example. Googe seems more intent on describing the manner of his subjects death, rather than celebrating his life. The poems described as sonettes are not sonnets at all, but a collection of various poems. The book ends with the long Cupido conquered which is an allegorical poem in which the poet falls asleep under a tree in the bucolic sunshine and dreams he is transported to a castle.

The poetry has been left in the original english and so it takes a little practice to read. Some of it is of interest, but really there is little here to hold the modern reader.… (more)