Richard Barnfield

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Richard Barnfield (* 1574; † 1620) was an English poet of the Elizabethan era .

Life

His largely unsecured life data (baptism June 13, 1574, matriculation 1589 in Oxford) are based on late archival research. The interest in Barnfield that has persisted to this day is primarily due to his close, but largely obscure, relationship with William Shakespeare . He is said to have come to London in 1593.

Works

The Affectionate Shepherd (1594) is considered to be his anonymous, successful first work . Two months later (1595) followed his second work Cynthia, with certain Sonnets, and the legend of Cassandra . This is followed by The Encomion of Lady Pecunia (1598) and The Complaint of Poetry for the Death of Liberality . In 1599 The Passionate Pilgrim was published with the title "By W. Shakespeare" on the title page. Strangely enough, the poem book contains two poems by Richard Barnfield, as well as by other poets (Griffins, Marlowe ).

Cover name?

Richard Barnfield was practically unknown until the 1970s and only with the emergence of Shakespeare research achieved a certain degree of notoriety as an "Elizabethan poet", especially because it was recognized that the poems 8 and 20 in Shakespeare's "The Passionate." Pilgrime ”(1599) should have come from him. Far more logical than this assumption, however, is the thesis that Richard Barnfield was an alias from Marlowe / Shakespeare, which was supposed to conceal the true identity of the surviving poet in anonymity. Conrad justifies the fact that this conclusion is by no means out of thin air on the basis of an analysis of the texts of Barnfield's works.

literature

  • Richard Barnfield, Kenneth Borris, George Klawitter: The Affectionate Shepherd. Celebrating Richard Barnfield. London 2001, ISBN 1-57591-049-7 .
  • Bastian Conrad: The real Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe. To solve the centuries-old authorship problem. 5th edition. Book and Media, 2016, ISBN 978-3-86520-374-8 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Barnfield, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English poet
DATE OF BIRTH baptized June 13, 1574
DATE OF DEATH 1620