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Barnabe Googe

(11 June 1540-7 February 1594) was an English poet.

Biography

He was born perhaps in London or Kent, the son of Robert Googe (or Goche), recorder of Lincoln.

He studied at the strongly Reformist Christ's College, Cambridge, and was long thought to have also studied at New College, Oxford, although this appears uncertain. He afterwards resided at Staple's Inn, where his cousin William Lovelace held the position of Reader. Around this time he started to write poetry, and found himself in an exciting creative coterie with other young writers, such as Jasper Heywood and George Turberville. Earlier authorities claim that he became a gentleman pensioner to Queen Elizabeth, in effect, a member of her bodyguard, but this has been disproved. Nonetheless, Googe did have close associations with the court, since he was related to William Cecil. Googe exploited this important connection persistently in the years that followed, and Cecil extended considerable patronage towards his young protege. It may have been due to Cecil's encouragement that Googe accompanied the Elizabethan humanist scholar Sir Thomas Challoner on a diplomatic embassy to Spain in 1562. In his absence, Googe's juvenile poems were sent to the printer by a friend, Laurence Blundeston. On his return, Googe learned of Blundeston's actions and reluctantly gave his consent to their publication when he discovered that the printer had already paid for the paper for the print run and the composition was underway. The book appeared in 1563 as Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonettes. Googe's anxiety over the publication of the work was no gesture of false modesty: prior to the appearance of his book, no writer in England had ever published his own poetry under his own name. In this, Googe was an accidental pioneer.

Barnabe Googe (1540-1594), English poet, son of Robert Googe, recorder of Lincoln, was born on the 11th of June 1540 at Alvingham, Lincolnshire. He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and at New College, Oxford, but does not seem to have taken a degree at either university. He afterwards removed to Staple's Inn, and was attached to the household of his kinsman, Sir William Cecil. In 1563 he became a gentleman pensioner to Queen Elizabeth. He was absent in Spain when his poems were sent to the printer by a friend, L. Blundeston. Googe then gave his consent, and they appeared in 1563 as Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonettes. There is extant a curious correspondence on the subject of his marriage with Mary Darrell, whose father refused. Googe's suit on the ground that she was bound by a previous contract. The matter was decided by the intervention of Sir William Cecil with Archbishop Parker, and the marriage took place in 1564 or 1565. Googe was provost-marshal of the court of Connaught, and some twenty letters of his in this capacity are preserved in the record office. He died in February 1594. He was an ardent Protestant, and his poetry is coloured by his religious and political views. In the third "Eglog," for instance, he laments the decay of the old nobility and the rise of a new aristocracy of wealth, and he gives an indignant account of the sufferings of his co-religionists under Mary. The other eclogues deal with the sorrows of earthly love, leading up to a dialogue between Corydon and Cornix, in which the heavenly love is extolled. The volume includes epitaphs on Nicholas Grimald, John Bale and on Thomas Phaer, whose translation of Virgil Googe is uncritical enough to prefer to the versions of Surrey and of Gavin Douglas. A much more charming pastoral than any of those contained in this volume, "Phyllida was a fayer maid" (Tottel's Miscellany) has been ascribed to Barnabe Googe. He was one of the earliest English pastoral poets, and the first who was inspired by Spanish romance, being considerably indebted to the Diana Enamorada of Montemayor.

His other works include a translation from Marcellus Palingenius (said to be an anagram for Pietro Angelo Manzolli) of a satirical Latin poem, Zodiacus vitae (Venice, 1531?), in twelve books, under the title of The Zodyake of Life (1560); The Popish Kingdome, or reign of Antichrist (1570), translated from Thomas Kirchmayer or Naogeorgus; The Spiritual Husbandrie from the same author, printed with the last; Foure Bookes of Husbandrie (1577), collected by Conradus Heresbachius; and The Proverbes of. .. Lopes de Mendoza (1579).


A poet and translator, Googe is best known for Eclogues, Epitaphs, and Sonnets (1563), which is considered to be among the earliest collections of modern English poetry. This collection is credited as partially responsible for establishing the eclogue as an English poetic genre and for helping to usher in the plain-style lyrics that were a popular feature of poetry in the next century. As a translator, Googe is noted for his English versions of Marcellus Palingenius's Zodiake of Life (1560) and Conrad Heresbach's Four Books of Husbandry (1577). Googe's reputation, which considerably declined following his death in 1594, has been revived by literary historians who recognize in his work transmissions of both ideas and stylistic practices that would influence such better-known English writers as Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, and John Milton.

Googe was born in Kent in 1540. His mother died when he was still an infant. He attended Cambridge university, receiving his degree from Christ's College at Cambridge in 1555, and later at the Inns of Court. Two years later his father died, leaving Googe an inheritance of considerable property on the condition that he use his education to provide free counsel to those in need. Unable to gain full control of his inheritance until the death of his stepmother, Googe began work as a civil servant, traveling to Spain in the party of the ambassador in 1561. After a stormy courtship and the intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he married Mary Darrell in 1564, with whom he would have nine children. In 1574, his relative Sir William Cecil (who had recently been named Lord Burghley) sent Googe to a post in Ireland. During his years in Ireland, Googe became acquainted with authors Edmund Spenser and Barnabe Riche, as well as composing numerous sketches and letters. In 1582, Googe was appointed provost marshal of Connaught and Thomond, providing him some financial stability but separating him from his family. After the death of his stepmother in 1583-84, he began planning his return to England. He returned to his family home in Lincolnshire in 1585, where he remained until his death in 1594.


BARNABE GOOGE (1540-1594), English poet, son of Robert Googe, recorder of Lincoln, was born on the 1th of June 1540 at Alvingham, Lincolnshire. He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and at New College, Oxford, but does not seem to have taken a degree at either university. He afterwards removed to Staple's Inn, and was attached to the household of his kinsman, Sir William Cecil. In 1563 he became a gentleman pensioner to Queen Elizabeth. He was absent in Spain when his poems were sent to the printer by a friend, L. Blundeston. Googe then gave his consent, and they appeared in 1563 as Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Soneltes. There is extant a curious correspondence on the subject of his marriage with Mary Darrell, whose father refused Googe's suit on the ground that she was bound 'by a previous contract. The matter was decided by the intervention of Sir William Cecil with Archbishop Parker, and the marriage took place in 1564 or 1565. Googe was provost-marshal of the court of Connaught, and some twenty letters of his in this capacity are preserved in the record office. He died in February 1594. He was an ardent Protestant, and his poetry is coloured by his religious and political views.


Barnabe Googe is important for his original poetry, for his translations, and for his position as a representative literary figure of his age. Eclogues, Epitaphs, and Sonnets (1563) is the first volume of English personal poetry published in the modern era by a gentleman poet during his lifetime, the eclogues (together with Alexander Barclay's) providing the earliest example of the form in English. The writings for which Googe was most highly praised in his own lifetime, however, and those which doubtless he most valued, were the translations he engaged in for the spiritual and material betterment of his less well educated compatriots. In everything he did he showed himself intensely aware of the duties and responsibilities of his privileged social status.

Googe's parents, Robert Goche (variously spelled Gouche, Gougge, and other ways) and Margaret Mantell, were married at Bekesbourne near Canterbury on 18 June 1539, and Barnabe was born 11 June 1540--Saint Barnabas's Day--probably in Kent.