Anne Prescott wrote:-
> I'll send the Giantvalley reference when I can get at my pile of Drayton
> notes and my Barnfield file.
Thankyou!
>In the meantime, beware of Grosart's
> edition. Ken borris and George Klawitter warned me off it and I think they
> are right--Grosart assumes that one group of writings in an unpublished
> notebook are by Barnfield
I saw it for sale on a web-site for a Beverley Hills book-shop
and had an American friend obtain it for me. At the time, it was
the only edition of the Barnfield works that I found. By "an
unpublished notebook", are you referring to the Isham manuscript?
This had been signed by 'Richard Barnfield' and so was assumed
to be by him. Everybody assumes that Richard Barnfield wrote the
'Barnfield' works -- but he didn't :-). The contents of the Isham
manuscript tie in with what I know of Marlowe's last days -- but they
have nothing to do with Spenser!
I think that the only thing that Grosart did wrong was to assume that
the Lichfield will and the burial in Stone were those of the (alleged)
poet -- they were those of his father, another Richard Barnfield.
George Klawitter got these details from Andrew Worrall, who lives
in the area and has been researching Barnfield for over 12 years.
>(one book on homoeroticism in early modern
> England calls one of the poems "pornographic," which is a stretch, and the
> others "robustly heterosexual," which may be a bit truer).
I wouldn't have used the word pornographic (except for maybe 'The
Shepherd's Confession'); the bulk of the Barnfield poetry appears to
be 'homoerotic'.
>But here is no
> good evidence, I agree, that this commonplace book is by Barnfield. It is
> fun, though. Anne Prescott.
I believe that the Isham manuscript contains the ramblings of a
slightly deranged mind. Marlowe has lost the girl he has been
trying to retrieve for about ten years. Read it in conjunction with
'The Passionate Pilgrim'. The girl was Venetia Stanley and she
was his daughter -- he had lost her to Kenelm Digby.
Have a look at the Van Dyck portrait of Venetia in the NPG. Hiding
behind her skirts is the representation of a shepherd with a mask on
the back of his head -- the shepherd unmasked!
Peter Zenner
+44 (0) 1246 271726
Visit my web site 'Zenigmas' at
http://www.pzenner.freeserve.co.uk
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